I thought I'd start a thread dedicated to linebackers since they are one of the most talked about topics right now on the game.

I think that linebackers are going in the right direction (literally and figurative). They pursue laterally now and take better pursuit angles to ball carriers.

My next question is are they just too **** slow to be effective in the open field? The average weight of LBs on the game is between 240 and 260, depending on where the LB is in the weight cycle (DEs that are losing weight for instance). I know when I have converted 100 SP 240# TEs to RB that they were almost worthless until their weight dropped below 230 unless they had 100s in Carry and Break Tackle. This makes me wonder if LBs are just too slow to pursue anyone.

I'm considering making SS out of all my LBs and then playing the ones with the best LB skills at LB.

Will that SS gain weight and how much? I like LB's at 225 to 245, we have a backup MLB
that does ok, but at 275 is to heavy.

Average weigh for a SS in the game is 200, so leaving the LBs at SS should keep the weight below 240.

One of the things I am currently planning to change for 0.4.2 is the way player weight is calculated - I plan to implement the idea of a player having a hidden attribute 'frame' that essentially is his natural weight that, the further from his weight he tries to go, the less able he is to do so. In addition, you'll have a way to set a goal weight for each player on your team, instead of being forced to have each position gravitate toward the default. This will enable you to stock your LB corps with heavier or lighter players (or any other position, i.e. if you want a Sebastian Janikowski you can have one)

OMG!! Who DOESN'T want one?!?!?!

A friend of mine went with his wife to a game that the Raiders were playing, his wife didn't follow football much so didn't know anything about the players, but was familiar with the fact that the kickers are usually the smallest players on the team ... when she saw Janikowski she remarked, 'the kicker for the Raiders needs to share some of his sandwiches with the cheerleaders...'

Levan Kirkland is a good example of the max a rare player could gain.

"at Clemson, where he weighed 205 pounds his freshman year. It continued when he arrived in Pittsburgh as a 240-pound outside linebacker. To play inside in the Steelers' 3-4 defense, he had to get bigger. Kirkland gradually increased his weight, without losing much speed or any quickness. His best time in the 40-yard dash in college was 4.6 seconds. Despite the added weight, he ran between 4.7 and 4.8 seconds a few years ago"

He played at 6'1 275-300 pounds, almost a 100 pound gain in less than 10 years. He's a freak, but it should be easier to gain alot of weight and perhaps not so easy to lose the weight.

I love both of these ideas, but I don't think either effectively addresses the speed issue. Right now, speed is a pretty arbitrary skill. We all know 100 is good, and we all know that 80 sucks, and we all know that 50 is virtually unplayable at all positions except OL and DT, but we really don't know what any of those numbers mean. I still think that we need a consistent way of measuring speed that is applicable to the physics of the game as much as it is to the biomechanics: https://mfn19.myfootballnow.com/community/thread/5/2701?page=1

I also have on the docket for 0.4.2 to change the 'speed' and 'acceleration' attributes to mean the same across all players (so 50 accel means the same for all players). It will just be a cosmetic change (i.e. heavier players that now show 100 speed would get adjusted based on their weight, so they would max out at 60 or whatever their weight would limit them to) but it will give you a consistent measure of speed and acceleration.

This is a good first step to ending the speed debates.

Now, someone find Ray's stopwatch and break it.