I've been meaning to do a breakdown of individual attributes for each position. I noticed a lot of very weird picks in the draft last night where the OVR of a player had them ranked higher than another player at the same position that would likely perform better. I wasn't too interested in any of this until the second half of the season when I let my personnel better dictate the O and D that I ran.
Big time special thanks to LJ for cluing me in on some of these.
Speed - No explanation needed. The top speed at which a player runs.
Acceleration - How quickly a player will be able to reach their top speed from a dead stop, a change of direction, or a juke/truck. Useful for HBs, WRs, CBs, S, and LB who often have to change direction.
Strength - This is a weird one because it factors in to a lot of positions for many different things. Strength for a ball carrier is part of the tackle breaking equation, for the guys running free without the ball it helps determine how strongly they can block on offense, and how well they get off of blocks on defense. So for an OLineman for example, if a 99 STR tackle went up against a 70 STR end, the tackle has a much better chance of being able to anchor the block. This attribute looks like it's in the process of being phased out considering the other ratings available - Trucking, Runblock Strength, Passblock Strength, Power Moves, Block Shedding, and Hit Power
Agility - How quickly a player can change direction. This effects mostly HBs, WRs running routes (part of the calculation anyway) and CBs covering the receivers. This rating also affects the speed of which spins, jukes, etc are pulled off.
Awareness - I think AWR is fairly useless but from the mouth of Ian:
I think you just made a lot of football fans extremely happy, Donny. OK now that I have the chance I'm going to take it. For the love of Pete, what does Awareness do? Pleasesomeone--explain this mystery attribute to me and if it's important for every position.
Ian: Great question. In order to answer this best, I just did a full search in the code for the rating. Here are the areas in which AWR is used:
-How quickly a defender can realize the ball is in the air to try and make a play
-Chance to jump offsides or false start
-Whether a defender tries to scoop-n-score or falls on a fumble in the correct situations
-How quickly receivers get into get open mode after a route (and where they go)
-Chance the WR recognizes the coverage & picks the correct option on an option route
-How quickly OL can recognize and pick up new blitzing defenders
-Chance for QB to predict a blitz and assign a hot route
-When a QB will choose to tuck and run (scramble) if nothing is open
-Chance a defender will try to strip the ball on a ballcarrier with bad carrying ratings
-Chance a defender will attempt to get his hands up to tip a ball while engaged
There are quite a few more (mostly assigned to penalty chances), but this seemed like enough to give the general example of what it does. As you know, over the last few years weve added more ratings to handle the specific situations that occur most often ratings like man coverage, zone coverage, press, release, etc. We did this so that we wouldnt have one rating (like Awareness) that dictated so many aspects of gameplay.
Source
Seems like it covers a lot of the "intangibles" of the game. I totally ignore it though.
Catching - The ability of a player to catch and hold onto the ball.
Carrying - The ability of a player to *not* fumble.
Throwing Power - How far a QB can throw a deep ball and how much zip can be put on the short line drive passes.
Throwing Accuracy - I think this rating has been over taking by the individual distance ratings.
Throwing Accuracy Short/Med/Deep - I am pretty sure that the breakdown is 1-10, 10-20, 20+ as far as the yardage goes. Obviously how accurate the QB will be at those distances.
Play Action - The ability of the QB to "sell" the play action. This works in conjunction with PRC to determine how hard the defense "bites" on the PA.
Throw on Run - Prevalent while the QB is on the move and it becomes part of the equation with the throwing accuracy ratings. Aside from guys like McNabb, Vick, Little Ben, it's highly recommended not to throw on the run. :lol
Kick Power - The distance that a kicker can achieve with his kicks
Kick Accuracy - Self explanatory
Run Block - Along with Pass Block, this rating looks like it's being replaced by other individual ratings. It likely still factors in on the equation for run blocks.
Pass Block - Same as above, just for pass blocking
Tackle - The ability of a defender to bring down the ball carrier. This rating directly opposes the ball carriers Trucking, Elusiveness, Stiff Arm, Spin Move, and Juke Move.
Jumping - Height of the vertical jump.
Return - I have no fucking clue why this rating is in the game
Injury - The likelihood of your player going down with an injury.
Stamina - How quickly your player will get "winded" and will need to sit out a few plays. Keep in mind that there are multipliers that affect other ratings when a player is tired.
Toughness - Once a player is injured, this rating effects the severity of the injury.
Trucking - The ability of a player to break tackles by running through or over defenders. Tied in with Strength. This is a replacement for last year's Break Tackle (BTK) rating. It also determines the window in which a person controlling the ball carrier has to do the "trucking" move.
Elusiveness - The ability of a player to break tackles by making the defender miss. Tied in with agility. This is a replacement for last year's Break Tackle (BTK) rating. It also determines the window in which a person controlling the ball carrier has to do the "elusive" move.
Ball Carrier Vision - No idea what this does either, as you control the ball carriers.
Stiff Arm - How effective stiff arms are with your ball carrier. Tied in with strength.
Spin Move - How effective the Spin Move is with your ball carrier. Tied in with agility.
Juke Move - How effective the Juke Move is with your ball carrier. Tied in with agility.
Impact Blocking - The potential of a blocker to get a pancake, this includes on returns, turnovers, etc.
Runblock/Passblock Strength - This directly opposes Power Move for defenders. The ability of a blocker to withstand bullrushes and other power moves in running/passing situations. Also affects being able to lockdown a defender with a block.
Runblock/Passblock footwork - This directly opposes Finesse Moves for defenders. It's the ability of a blocker to withstand spins/shoulder dips and other finesse moves of defenders. Also affects "pushing" a defender and making him lose his balance
Power Moves - The ability of a defender to power through a blocker. Tied in with strength.
Finesse Moves - The ability of a defender to work his way around a blocker. Tied in with speed and agility.
Block Shedding - The ability of a defender to get out of a block in the open field. Directly opposed to strength for a blocker.
Pursuit - The angle a defender takes to get to a ball carrier. This INCLUDES how effective a blitzer is.
Play Recognition - Awareness for the defender. Particularly important for LBs and safeties in regards to play action.
Man Coverage - How well a defender can man up on a receiver. This is directly opposed to route running, and why some DBs seem to know the routes better than the receivers.
Zone Coverage - How well a defender reacts to threats running through their zone, and the ball coming their way.
Spectacular Catch - I do not know how this is separate from CIT.
Catch in Traffic - As far as I can tell, the ability to go up and get the ball with a defender in close proximity. Also, it is part of the equation on whether or not a ball is caught when a defender tackles the receiver right after the catch.
Route Running - I've seen weird things that I can attribute to this one - 1) how well a receiver will work through routes with moves/multiple moves. 2) How well a receiver will break out of a route to catch a pass (an in route that you throw hot and it turns into a streak rather than going over the player's head, for example) 3) The ability to "get open" from a defender that has low MCV.
Hit Power - The strength of a tackle. Directly opposed to the injury and carry ratings of the ball carrier.
Press - The ability of a defender to press at the LOS.
Release - The ability of a receiver to break away from a press at the LOS.
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I hope this helps. I can break down what I specifically look for in certain positions if necessary.
