You're right CJ, but... there have also been some real mess ups on the 1.1 pick also. Another thing thats noticeable in the first round picks is the combination of position, rating:attributes, and results for owners that have winning track records. Have a look at the rest of the first round picks and see if our evaluation is similar, I will list the picks that have had good results.

OK, best picks 13 thru 32, the best were either CB or LB.

13. SLB Strader, Dolphins, 0, much higher rated than the LB picked 12th (Cochran/Cowboys), SLB1, 32 tkls/2 miss (+), 56 CA on 16 TAs, 3 knocks.

14. CB O'Connor, Steelers, (trs mustve been real happy to see him slide), CB2, 30 tkls/5miss, 54.8 CA/42 TAs, 6 knocks, 3 picks, 1 TD ....... very nice.

18, FS Schroeder, Saints, Ai rating 70/trade score 200, ricmoney took a chance on this pick based on good weights. FS1 33.3 CA on 30 TAs (very good), 3 knocks, 1 int.

19. CB Hudson, Bengals, was the highest rated CB in the draft but had 98 Vol, he went +4 in camp to pay off bigtime for Phaldun. Nice roll of the dice. CB2, 68.7 CA, 2 ints.

23. CB Ellis, Jets, CB3/SS2/FS1, has a sick 14.3 CA but only 7 TAs.

26. WR Morales, Raiders, TE2/WR5, -2, 4 catches, low 35 rec%, 27.3 apc! 1 TD

29. SLB **** Ferguson, Pats, SLB1, low Ai rating 69, 200 trade value. My weights have him at 79, so I would have liked him too! lol. 20 tkls/3 miss, 64.7 CA

30. CB Jones, Skins, CB3, +1, 96 speed/84 M2M/77 zone/65 punish. Very nice 1.30 pick

31, C McCann, Dolphins, -4, third first round pick for Miami, good stats so far, C1, no sacks allowed.

32. FB Gregg, 49ers, -4, FB3 LT1, interesting! 170 trade value. 44 pass blocks/1 sack allwd. questionable injury, foot, 5 weeks.

CB Hudson, Bengals

CB O'Connor, Steelers

GREAT STUFF COACH, I never much cared for the weight restrictions nor do I recieve any complaints. This is still a GM driven league just like it was set up to be. I can't possibly keep up with the weight restrictoions. It has to be on the honor system. I have always beeen a proponent of limiting the number or WR's RBG's CB's an so on more like the position distibution. f memory serves the weight restrictions were instituted back when we hade a a couple GM's that were using (overuseing) the exploits we are all fsamiliar with. The restrictions were voted on and passed. I love his league and will do anything I can to help it survive and become stronger, that being said I am not going to be on 24/7 checking weight restrictions. I just don't have the time or desire. I'll say this much. If I recieve a complaint, I will dig into the game and go back through the CSV's. Should the accused be guilty they will be warned, then removed o any other offense. Hope that makes you feel better. I look at it this way coach, EVERYONE KNOWS THE RULES! If a persons self esteem is so low that they feel a need to cheat to win that WORTHLESS digital trophy. Who am I to knock them down another peg in life? They have to live with it. Please don't get me wrong, I want to have rules, and I'd like to see them respected. I can sleep at night and I can look myself in the mirrror (as long as it's chest high) in the morning. It's called integrity and sportsmanship. OK sermon over...................MM

Meatman is the man

There's nothing wrong with converting a player, DB to LB/DE, WR/RB/FB/TE, and FB/TE are pretty much interchangeable. Its debatable whether or not its fair or not to use a RB or WR at the TE position, but I havnt noticed whether or not that is a significant advantage or "exploit" or not. Where an exploit stands out the most is in the stats, other than the most notorious punt block exploit. A WR thats in the top 20 for run yardage is usually in the RB1 or 2 spots. A LB in the top 10 for sacks, in the current game version, may be in one or more of the DL spots, either part time or exclusively. A WR who has one or more picks, has also been used in the secondary. All of them are speed exploits. They are not much of a problem in Paydirt when you look at the stats, which is a plus for the league.

Back on the subject of the draft, I looked at the 2nd and 3rd rounds, and there were quite a few picks that were low on the Ai rating, under 70, but higher on my weights, which are more speed related than most, for all positions other than QB, OL, and K/P. From around 2.10 on down. I rarely get to have a pick near the top of the round, but have been real happy with the Giants 2.4 pick, FS Willis, Ai 74, my weights 82. Weights are an important part of the game, and its worth the time and effort to shape your weights based on both what you see from the players that your have along with looking at the league player stats to see what the common attributes are for players that are leaders in their position categories. For those that have been playing this game for a while, and are not consistently "in the hunt" for division titles and wild cards and you see others who are, that is one of the reasons, their player evaluation and selection, in the draft, trades, and free agency. One of several primary reasons.

rookie FS1 Kevin Willis, Giants

I believe the weight estrictions were based on "primary Position" I asked a couple times what that meant, how do we define primary position? Is it the top position on the player card? is it the position a team has him listed? can you used a player in multple positions. It's not clear? I lost a RB for the season 2 weeks ago, I moved a WR that had some success at RB to that position BUT I changed his position and he is gaining weight, thus will probably lose some speed. I mean where do you draw the line? This is the reason why teams have 3 RBs and (some) have 8-9 WRs it's not cheating it's just how the game works. When I took over the Chiefs Seth had a wr/rb Frank Bell 5' 11" 198 he retired with 7000 yards recieving, 5000 yards rushing 100 or so TDs. Near as I could figure seth was only using him to run he single back big and used him as a WR most of the time. It was no big deal then. Those were the days in the 4.3 4.4 versions.

What I was refering to about the exploits was the punt exploit, then using LB as DEs. Look, Losing sucks, we ALL want to win, I don't see anything wrong with trying to gain an advantage, BUT and here's the ****. Don't run the freaking play 20 times a game! 100 times a season, that's the exploit. It's what drives people from MFN and YES certain leagues.

This is supposed to be FUN, not life and death, its a game, enjoy it! I used to love writing my Meats Beat update. I think the 4 game update was awesome coach. TY.....................................MM

Dont worry about the weight/position "rules" MM, we have an extensive one in the German league and a close eye is kept on it. Does it make a big diff? not really. The worst exploits are known, and if they happen in Paydirt, you hear about them pretty quick. The most important weights are the ones you use to rate and evaluate players. I go with the idea that if you're going to use a WR in the RB1, 2, or 3 spots, you should convert the WR to RB. A WR in the 4. 5, 6, 7 spots is not a big deal if the WR is also used equally or more in the WR rotation, much like it would be in RL with a player like R Bush, which there havnt been many in the NFL. If we want to simulate the NFL, then its better to go by position and not have dual position players.

As far as using a play to much, on offense you get the overuse penalty, similar on defense but not as sensitive, there are defensive plays that are better than others that do not get the overuse penalty. That one is on JDB. I dont know why he doesnt correct the problem unless its a real big deal in the code, which I would not think it would be. I would really like to see the game move more onto the coaches and let them pick the plays based on their tendencies. We would pick the 40 offense and 30 defense active plays, and then leave it to our coaches for the "mix", and then instead of rules, we would have situational tendencies, like going for it on 4th down, etc. Scouting and gameplan would be on the coaches, and managing the team would be on us, thats the game that I would like to see/play and would make it a lot easier to own more teams and be more of an equal playing field. JMO But, as long as there are no constraints on the play useage, there's not much you can do about it other than have league rules for maximum number of play use, 10 times per game? And then you would have to go by complaint (after the fact) and/or monitoring (someone designated to review play logs, which is a lot of time). You can pick 30 defensive plays, but that doesnt mean they will all be used, or that a few wont be used more than others. When you scout you can see that 2 or 3 defensive plays are used more than the others by a good margin, whether intentional (settings) or not.

I'd say being mentioned twice with good players is a positive. If only I can figure out how to fix my swiss cheese secondary.

Ha! I had a work situation that occupied me and I missed that pick. **** Ferguson was an ai pick. I didn't hate the choice, I've seen some other ai picks that were disasters. Still, I wasn't thrilled with it either - hence the name choice (an SNL Jeopardy! skit reference.) If I had been paying attention that day - pretty sure I would've selected the dude that went next at #30.

Yep, CB Jones was a good choice following your 1.29 pick, but **** Ferguson is the top name in the draft, lol. CB James Dunn, 2.5 pick by Washington was also a better pick. Here are the picks from the 2nd round following Dunn at 2.5 that I noticed the most. Im also going by my "special sauce" set of weights to cut down my review time, which is the first number after the player name. The best of the first 6 picks were WR McGraw/Vikings, FS Willis/Giants, and Dunn.

2.9 DE Pace, Falcons 81 LDE4/DT3/RDE4 very good attributes, 2nd DE taken in draft.

2.16 CB Gary Carnegie, Titans 82 CB3 great mid 2nd round pick!

2.29 C Jordan, Pats, 93, C3! biggest boomer (11) of the round.

4 QBs were selected, no boomers, two major busts, none of the four ended up being worth a 2nd round pick based on both Ai and my weights.

2 Other Boomers ( more than +3) in the round. LT Rivenbark, Bengals 6, CB Dunn, Skins, 5

So, there were three players who progressed more than +3 in the round.


3rd round notables .......

3.1 RB Shock, Vikings 88 RB1, as good or better than any RB selected in first 2 rounds.

The Bucs drafted 2 TEs in a row with their 3.5 & 6 picks, was that intentional or Ai? Herron (74) went +5 and Brown +4 (70) in camp. They are TE3 & 4 currently.

3.16 CB J Coulter, Saints, +4 (80), shocker that he lasted to mid 3rd round, "money" pick by ric, along with 1st round pick FS Schroeder, its no wonder the Saints defense is so good. Another very experienced and knowledgeable MFN owner/player.

3.18 WR B Toland, Titans, Ive got him rated 11 pts higher than the Ai, at 79, nice pick dd!

3.21 LDE F Littlefield, Chargers, 88 !! Chargers are 6-0, JGC is one of the most experienced owners playing this game, terrific 3rd round pick. Ai rating is low, 57. currently LDE4, (I'd let this rook play J!, you know DL usually have their best season in their rookie year).

3.25 LB D Smith, Texans, 77, +4, nice late round pick.

Both last picks of the round were Guards and both boomed!! Garrison/Browns +11 and Fitzgerald/49ers +15, I have both rated 80+, nice goin guys! Both picks had vol over 90.


number is accurate!