Special Teams Attributes

[thetwonewguru]

Not sure if this is possible but what do you guys think about these 3 ratings.
Special teams has never really been a game changer in this game. It's like hitting the lottery to block kicks.

Holding- for the guys who hold PAT's and FG's. This should def be a factor. Most teams have a guy that has this job only.

Deep Snapping- Can't say that I have ever seen one.

Kick blocking- There is more to blocking kicks than jumping. It's timing the jump.

And another one I'll mention related to QB's.
Atleticism. See Big Ben or Jared Lorenzen form kentucky. Not a trailblazer but elusive in a different way than a tailback.

[steelerfan]

I most definitely agree that there should be a Long Snapping rating. Bad snaps need to make their way into the series. It would be cool to feel compelled to keep a guy on your roster for the sole purpose of snapping. And it could be devastating if he were injured.

[JeffHCross]

I'd definitely like to see both a Long Snap and Kick Blocking rating. The holder shouldn't need his own rating set, but maybe take Catching or Awareness or a combination thereof into effect? Awareness would work in increasing the likelihood of a bad hold when the game is on the line.

That said ... I wouldn't mind many changes made to kicking that did not involve mistakes by the holder or Long Snapper. I'd love to see bad snaps, but I'd have the same problem with them that I do with errors in baseball video games. They just happen to come exactly when you don't expect, and exactly when you can't afford it. We already have too much we don't have control over (Holding penalties, for instance) ... I'd hate to add more.

But I'm all for anything that increases the actual difficulty of the kick. Maybe a bad snap doesn't actually go horribly bad ... just means the kicker has to wait a split second longer to kick. Something like that could work ... added pressure without making it impossible.

In other words, I'd absolutely hate to see someone's game-winning FG attempt become a bad snap that is completely beyond their control.

[thetwonewguru]

Yeah, Im not sure it work with canned animation. But maybe the euphoria engine. Having no plays like this is about the equivilent of like you said no errors in baseball or in basketball, diving out of bounds to save a ball. It's an entireaspect of the game that has really been untouched since the dawn of football games. The only game that had an impact on special teams was the much beloved Teco Bowl back in the late 80's. How bizarre is that?

[steelerfan]

The problem with having a holding rating tied to catching is that it's mostly done by QBs. With cheesers and the popularity of the Wildcat, I'm not sure a jump in QB CTH would be good.

Something that a Long Snapping rating could do to help all areas of ST become more realistic is to not only factor in accuracy but also power. A fraction of a second on a kicking play can make a ton of difference.