Testing different Pocket Passer builds with DSFL caps
Hey guys! First, I want to give a huge shout out to my main man @Crunk for helping me with this tool! I really wanted to find a way to test different builds to see how they affect stats and as I work on the tool win rate as well. I modified a python script that Crunk hooked me up with after some of our conversations and while I don’t feel super comfortable releasing it yet as it is still missing some key features, win rate %, OL stats, combining with the defensive side of the ball along with some others. I did want to post some things that I have been digging into regarding the DSFL QB cap.
I investigated some different builds for the pocket passer archetype for QBs, due to not being able to exploit the 79-speed cheese. (please ban HO) I wanted to see how they can best be used and what some of the better options are.
My methodology contains two capped WRs and a balanced offense. I used a team with, in my opinion solid CBs in Minnesota against the Tijuana Luchadores because that’s my boys. I simulated 500 games per build and will compile the stats and build below.
The Big Brain
The stats
Strength: 40
Agility: 45
Arm: 71
Intelligence: 94
Accuracy: 71
Tackling: 15
Speed: 40
Hands: 15
Pass Blocking: 1
Run Blocking: 1
Endurance: 50
Ignoring kicking stats.
So, with this one I initially planned on dropping all the points into intelligence here, I then saw that the throwing stats were in the 60s and something about it really bothered me. I bumped those up to 71 because it seems 71 is kind of a breaking point it seems, at least it feels that way in the almighty sim. What I was going for here was an ultra-safe guy who won’t lose you the game with smart reads, but also won’t win you much as he is out there throwing like a forty-two-year-old Shaun Hill. The big brained noodle arm. I looked at his stats and I thought they were interesting.
Over the course of 500 games these were the stats the big brain put up.
Pass Attempts: 13,505 Pass Completions: 8109 Passing Yards: 82,259 Pass TDs: 448 Pass Ints: 327 Rushing Attempts: 542 Rushing Yards: 267 Rushing TDs: 1
Over the course of a 14-game season the stats look a lot more normal
500 games is roughly 35 seasons this will be my rule of division for these stats!
Pass Attempts: 386 Pass Completions: 232 Passing Yards: 2,350 Pass TDs: 13 Pass Ints: 9 Rushing Attemps: 15 Rushing Yards: 8 Ignoring rushing TDs cause 1
So, my theory was pretty much debunked with these stats. I’ve seen my fair share of heart-breaking picks in my lifetime, I am a Vikings fan after all. I just assumed that having Albert Einstein as your QB would solve a lot of issues DSFL QBs have. I think this just goes right back to what I said earlier though, if you have a forty-two-year-old Shuan Hill as your QB, he can read a defense great, but he can’t put the ball on the money due to his noodle arm. I was surprised by this just due to some other testing I did and having this one turns out as one of the worst builds yet. I figured let’s go to the other side of the coin and go for a good old-fashioned Brett Favre, Uncle Rico style build. He doesn’t know what a Nickel defense is but he can still throw farther than the other guy can run brother.
The I can throw over those mountains
Strength: 40
Agility: 45
Arm: 95
Intelligence: 65
Accuracy: 71
Tackling: 15
Speed: 40
Hands: 15
Pass Blocking: 1
Run Blocking: 1
Endurance: 50
So, this one probably turned out how you guessed it would, I really didn’t expect much out of this one given the base intelligence. It performed a lot worse than the Big Brain though in testing, I at least expected more yards or more TDs out of the cannon build but I was wrong. The Uncle Rico build did not even come close to the big brain in terms of statistics, and I assume it’s win rate was much worse than it as well due to the sheer amount of interceptions.
Over the course of 500 games, the I can throw over those mountains build had
Pass Attempts: 12,161 Pass Completions: 6,571 Passing Yards: 67,650 Pass TDs: 432 Pass Ints: 457 Rushing Attempts: 514 Rushing Yards: 485 Rushing TDs: 5
Over the course of a 14-game season that amounts to
Pass Attempts: 347 Pass Completions: 188 Passing Yards: 1,933 Pass TDs: 12 Pass Ints: 13 Rushing Attempts: 15 Rushing Yards: 14
So yeah, a rough build to be sure. It’s funny to just max arm strength but it really hurts your team in the long run. Throwing more interceptions than touchdowns is brutal for any QB but when you aren’t making up for it on the ground or with good yardage that makes it even worse.
Now I want to look at my personal favorite based on build name alone and nothing else. You’ve heard of F*ck it chuck it? Now get ready for Heck it Check it, the perfect system built for the elite of the elite quarterbacks. Blake Bortles, Sam Bradford, Alex Smith the captains of the check down. As much crap as I give them sometimes checking down is the correct play, I went high accuracy and decent intelligence for this build and a pretty wack arm for it.
The heck it check it
Strength: 40
Agility: 45
Arm: 72
Intelligence: 81
Accuracy: 90
Tackling: 15
Speed: 40
Hands: 15
Pass Blocking: 1
Run Blocking: 1
Endurance: 50
The stats after 500 games turned out like this
Pass Attempts: 12,253 Pass Completions: 6,941 Passing Yards: 72,419 Pass TDs: 519 Pass Ints: 308 Rushing Attempts: 519 Rushing Yards: 484 Rushing TDs: 4
Over the course of a 14-game season the stats turn out like so
Pass Attempts: 350 Pass Completions: 198 Passing Yards: 2,069 Pass TDs: 15 Pass Ints: 8
I decided to stop counting rushing stats at this point, unless they become relevant, I don’t think it’s necessary to include the 15 rushes for 14 yards per season stat.
As much smack as I talked earlier about this build trying to make it a joke, I look like a dang fool. Honestly this one makes a lot of sense to me, DSFL you don’t really can throw deep so a great arm might not be the greatest choice. You can have the cannon but as we saw above you don’t have the brains or accuracy to put it to use. In the DSFL you are more than likely not going to have to throw deep due to lack of OL. Having a dude making the right reads and putting it on the money seems to be the wave.
The dead eye
So this one was kind of supposed to be captain check down but I decided to just go all accuracy with 71 arm strength and Intelligence so I could follow my previous trend.
Strength: 40
Agility: 45
Arm: 71
Intelligence: 71
Accuracy: 94
Tackling: 15
Speed: 40
Hands: 15
Pass Blocking: 1
Run Blocking: 1
Endurance: 50
The stats after the 500 game simulations were as followed
Pass Attempts: 12,353 Pass Completions: 7,005 Passing Yards: 72,497 Pass TDs: 514 Pass Ints: 302
Over the course of a 14-game season
Pass Attempts: 353 Pass Completions: 200 Passing Yards: 2,071 Pass TDs: 15 Pass Ints: 8
After this test build, I think I have cemented myself in a certain camp, accuracy is way better than arm strength at the DSFL level. From these tests any time you get a good amount of accuracy you make a lot less mistakes. That’s a pretty obvious statement but through this testing I can see it to be true, the accuracy seems to make more of an impact than intelligence in terms of turnovers. I did want to do one last mixed test and that was intelligence and arm strength, from the two tests above we can clearly see how large of an impact that accuracy has but maybe I am blowing things out of proportion in my new meta shifting article. I want to look at this mixture in the next build.
The I didn’t think of a funny name for this one, but I was kind of thinking Ultimate Gohan because you’re strong and smart? I don’t know.
Strength: 40
Agility: 50
Arm: 86
Intelligence: 85
Accuracy: 71
Tackling: 15
Speed: 40
Hands: 15
Pass Blocking: 1
Run Blocking: 1
Endurance: 50
Side note: I dumped 5 into agility for no real reason other than I didn’t want to go past 71 in accuracy for my own sake and I couldn’t make it otherwise.
The final stats after 500 games are as follows
Pass Attempts: 12,565 Pass Completions: 7,141 Passing Yards: 73,364 Pass TDs: 497 Pass Ints: 329
Over the course of a 14-game season these stats translate to
Pass Attempts: 359 Pass Completions: 204 Passing Yards: 2,096 Pass TDs: 14 Pass Ints: 9
This one isn’t that bad, compared to how I thought it would turn out at least. I really didn’t think it would put up decent numbers on the efficiency that it did. Here I am though, proven wrong and looking like a fool. I still think that accuracy is your better bet, but it seems if you want to play f*ck it chuck it football you can as long as you get some solid intelligence and serviceable accuracy.
I want to move into my favorite build, not for performance but for the memes. When you think of a QB, who is the first player that comes to mind? Franklin Armstrong, Mike Boss, maybe Borkus? I think of the GOAT, Taysom Hill. The man who can do it all, now you might be thinking to yourself. “Kotasa, if you wanted to make a Taysom Hill build why are you going with a pocket passer?” Well my good reader, because I set out to find the best pocket passer build so I must work within my own restrictions.
The Taysom Hill
Strength: 60
Agility: 71
Arm: 71
Intelligence: 71
Accuracy: 71
Tackling: 15
Speed: 72
Hands: 35
Pass Blocking: 1
Run Blocking: 1
Endurance: 71
The final stats after 500 games are as follows
Pass Attempts: 12,618 Pass Completions: 7,174 Passing Yards: 73,652 Pass TDs: 522 Pass Ints: 429 Rushing Attempts: 477 Rushing Yards: 2,629 Rushing TDs: 19
Over the course of a 14-game season these stats translate to
Pass Attempts: 360 Pass Completions: 205 Passing Yards: 2,104 Pass TDs: 15 Pass Ints: 12 Rushing Attempts: 14 Rushing Yards: 75 Rushing TDs: .5
So, this one, wasn’t that bad all things considered. It turned the ball over a good amount, but it had some decent play making on the ground, 75 yards on 14 carries isn’t bad for a dude that should just be chilling in the pocket. When you break it down that means one carry per game for about 5 yards. Better than our other builds but still not all that great.
The final build I want to test is the “meta” build. These are things like hitting the 71/79 break points, (un)fortunately you won’t see the 79-speed bug (pls ban) in this build or else I would’ve for sure ran with it. I see a lot of players with 80 in the main stats for QBs, but I couldn’t hit that with 71 endurance, so I went with 79 for them all as that seems to be a pretty big mark. I will run two sims with this build. 80 in all the stats and 70 endurance and 79 in all stats with 71 endurance. This will also help solve that dilemma.
EDIT: This was actually before I posted it, but I ran the tests and it’s getting late. I can hit 80 in all stats and 71 endurance, but I opted for some speed instead because I am a dummy. Still I went with these tests.
The 71 endurance meta
Strength: 50
Agility: 45
Arm: 79
Intelligence: 79
Accuracy: 79
Tackling: 15
Speed: 60
Hands: 15
Pass Blocking: 1
Run Blocking: 1
Endurance: 71
The final stats after 500 games are as follows
Pass Attempts: 12,419 Pass Completions: 7,118 Passing Yards: 74,345 Pass TDs: 545 Pass Ints: 364 Rushing Attempts: 550 Rushing Yards: 1,684 Rushing TDs: 12
Over the course of a 14-game season these stats translate to
Pass Attempts: 355 Pass Completions: 203 Passing Yards: 2,124 Pass TDs: 16 Pass Ints: 10 Rushing Attempts: 15 Rushing Yards: 48 Rushing TDs: .35
So, here I am writing this article thinking that I’ve found some meta shifting idea. Accuracy is the answer! You don’t need arm strength! Pump up that accuracy and you will perform better! But it really isn’t that big of a difference in them. You throw a few more picks and one additional touchdown, you get some more yards and some mobility. It really isn’t a huge difference from the deadeye or captain check down compared to the 71 endurance meta QB. We still have one more meta to cover though.
The 80’s method
Strength: 50
Agility: 45
Arm: 80
Intelligence: 80
Accuracy: 80
Tackling: 15
Speed: 55
Hands: 15
Pass Blocking: 1
Run Blocking: 1
Endurance: 70
I would like to note that I did cover earlier that you can hit 71 endurance but I screwed up my math and I see a lot of people not doing it in the DSFL anyhow so I may as well rock this one.
The final stats after 500 games are as follows
Pass Attempts: 12,554 Pass Completions: 7,253 Passing Yards: 76,082 Pass TDs: 562 Pass Ints: 334 Rushing Attempts: 516 Rushing Yards: 1,364 Rushing TDs: 6
Over the course of a 14-game season these stats translate to
Pass Attempts: 359 Pass Completions: 207 Passing Yards: 2,173 Pass TDs: 16 Pass Ints: 10 Rushing Attempts: 15 Rushing Yards: 39 Rushing TDs: .17
So, what have we learned from this one? There’s a reason this is the most common meta we see in the sim. It’s efficient and it’s easy. Again, you get a couple more picks than the dead eye, but it does allow you to have more deep balls.
I originally wanted to end it here and run a comparison. It was starting to get late while writing this when I realized I can just run another sim making up for what I forgot, combining the 71 endurance and 80 throwing stats into one super meta build. The build for this one is as follows.
Super-meta
Strength: 41
Agility: 45
Arm: 80
Intelligence: 80
Accuracy: 80
Tackling: 15
Speed: 57
Hands: 15
Pass Blocking: 1
Run Blocking: 1
Endurance: 71
The final stats after 500 games are as follows
Pass Attempts: 12,609 Pass Completions: 7,149 Passing Yards: 72,753 Pass TDs: 537 Pass Ints: 343 Rushing Attempts: 496 Rushing Yards: 1,321 Rushing TDs: 6
Over the course of a 14-game season these stats translate to
Pass Attempts: 360 Pass Completions: 204 Passing Yards: 2,079 Pass TDs: 15 Pass Ints: 10 Rushing Attempts: 14 Rushing Yards: 38 Rushing TDs: .17
Interestingly with this build you perform slightly worse than the other two purposed metas. I believe that this is due to the lack of play making behind the line, but I could be wrong. I was honestly surprised putting in these results. I took the liberty of putting these builds stats into a spread sheet without any rounding with some heat maps so you can see those below.
Some final observations. Despite having the highest intelligence and best yardage and completions the big brain had the second worst TD performance with a pretty rough TD:INT ratio. It also rushed the second most times despite being the worst rushing QB. Side note: something may have gone wonky with the sim, but I don’t think it did just a strange test, I guess. The Taysom Hill build despite having the best rushing numbers per season ran the ball the least of all builds with the worst throwing stats. Uncle Rico build is not good in any way having more interceptions than touchdowns on average with a poor completion percentage and total yardage.
In conclusion you can go for two types of builds, the base eighties is a real solid bet. We’ve seen it win MVPs and we’ve seen it throw more interceptions than touchdowns in some seasons. Truly an enigma in the sim. However, I believe I have found another option for a potential build in the DSFL. The deadeye build performed well throwing the least amount of interceptions with a solid ~15 TDs a season. You probably won’t go air raid with the deadeye, but it would seem it can get you out of tough spots. I hope you guys enjoyed reading this and maybe we will see some changes in the DSFL in the future when it comes to pocket passers.
Notes about the methodology -
Is this perfect? God no it is not, I did all my testing with Tijuana's roster from the final week of the last season. This includes 2 solid OL 2 capped WR with another one close to 200 TPE. All of these games were only played against 1 team the entire time for the sake of simplicity and consistency. I think it has merit or I wouldn't post it but it doesn't promise anything. The other thing that this is missing is, other teams changing defenses week to week and how your offensive system is ran. If you're a run heavy team you won't put up big numbers compared to pass heavy teams. It's an interesting thing to consider though.
Will this truly shift the meta? Honestly probably not, but it may affect some future DSFL QBs and maybe it will shift it. Due to lack of testing and different parameters set I don't think I can truly say this will shift anything. I think it's worth the long read though!
Should I do the Taysom Hill build? I really hope someone does some day! It's not as bad as you think and I think you'd be a DSFL legend like Gimmy if you did it!
If you have any questions I would love to respond to them and see if we can together make a new discovery! Until next time!
I hope you enjoyed reading this essay as much as I enjoyed writing it - Rich Triplet
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