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Front Page Sports Football Pro FAQ

This FAQ is designed to help those people who are running their own private league at home or are sending your plays and profiles in a remote league. Most of these comments are based on the '95 version of the game, but should hold through to at least the 97 version of the game.

Ratings

For quarterbacks, IN and DI are probably the most important ratings he can have. ST is third unless you tend to throw a lot of bombs to your wide receivers. Otherwise, you should still be able to complete short to middle range passes easily even if your strength rating isn't so high. If you control your quarterback during the game, IN isn't needed at all since this is your decision making rating for the quarterback. For people who like to scramble a lot, high SP and AC are needed to avoid the rush. AG, HA, and EN aren't very important to a quarterback. (unless your endurance rating is so low that your quarterback gets hurt a lot.

For halfbacks, SP is by far the most important trait. The manual says hands are also supposed to be a top rating, but I beg to differ. If your back is slow, then he won't be able to get away from the defensive man to catch the ball anyway. AC is also very important if you run a lot up the middle or quick sweeps. For fullbacks, SP and ST are the most important since you need a lead blocker that is fast and can hold his block. HA is next for fullbacks since most people throw a lot of the short passes to fullbacks out of the backfield. AG and EN are useful to people who don't have a lot of depth at the back position or who draw pass routes with a lot of cuts. IN and DI don't do much for the backs at all since most people run the their backs with the "Move To" command anyway.

For wide receivers, SP and HA are about equally important. A receiver must have both of these in order to be effective in a passing offense. The only exception is your kick returner. You need a very fast receiver with high AG, AC, and ST. EN and HA don't matter at all for return men. ST and AC are the second best traits for wide receivers. AC helps with cuts and ST makes your receivers much better blockers. Again with receivers, I don't believe IN and DI are very important. TE require slightly different traits. For them, HA, SP, ST, and EN are all top traits. EN is only trait I haven't discussed. I becomes important for TE because most teams have very few TE and thus, they need to be in for most of the game. Losing your best TE can be devestating to your passing attack if you run a lot of plays with him. In my offense, he always leads my receivers with around 100 catches for 1100 yards. In my last season though, he got hurt and his weak backup had to play for almost the whole season. In the same offense, he only caught 40 passes which means that he can greatly influence the effectiveness of your offense.

For offensive lineman, AC, AG, and ST rate way above the rest. ST always needs to be greater than 80 or your lineman will just get ran over a lot. AC and AG help in pass and run blocking. HA is supposed to help the center snap long snaps but I haven't saw that it is that useful. EN is useful if you don't have any depth so you can keep your lineman fresh. DI and IN are again pretty much useless for lineman. SP is useful if your lineman pull or block upfield a lot.

For defensive lineman, AC and ST rule. A defensive lineman with high numbers in both of these will kill the entire side of that offense. SP also helps lineman chase down running backs if necessary. AG is good for defensive tackles that are stopping the run. EN is also good to prevent the nagging injuries that lineman always get. DI and IN are only important if you use a lot of Read logic for your lineman. (probably not best thing to do) Hands helps lineman pick off passes that flutter in the air after the quarterback is hit. It may also help them knock down passes but I'm not sure.

Linebackers are the most important part of your defense, I think. You really only need 3 good linebackers to survive. Your middle linebacker must have high AC, SP, and ST to stop the run and pound the quarterback on blitzes. A linebacker with high AC and SP can constantly pound the quarterback on outside blitzes. AC, SP, ST, and HA are important for the other linebackers, since they will be stopping the run and covering backs too. Interceptions from linebackers are deadly since he can run for six