The player matrix allows things to be specified, tho there is an issue I've railed about.

My view has always been heavier players ok in a position, lighter players no due to that exploiting the game engine.

Some cite poor player pool as a rationale for that, but a coming change is a doubling in draft pool.

I quite like hurricane's idea, makes a lot of sense, if only from the viewpoint that there are plenty of draftees that a veteran GM can look at and think, "He doesn't fit his original position at all, if only I could move him to..." Like DE to LB, and LB to S, as hurricane states.

But making the draft pool bigger will eliminate a lot of that, because (hopefully) the talent level will be much deeper and (hopefully) we won't have to consider borderline prospects.

Yes, such a change as Hurricane suggested is possible, but yes, as Dang said, at the outset we discussed it and decided against huge player shifts to eliminate "cheap speed" at all positions. You are exactly correct that if you have a weakling LB that is high speed and has some coverage skill, you could move that player to safety. Indeed, I believe I have done that before in the past. And you get even faster as you lose weight. But this fed into the "speed everywhere" type idea, and limiting the positions was done in part to make that harder. You can still have "all speed" defense, but you might wind up with a really crappy safety for example, because there are so few options. So we have competing priorities at issue here. Allowing converting LBs to S will make it easier to have better lineups, but does the league want that? There's less concern about DE to LB because I don't think there are that many high speed DL... but also, under this theory, you could take a junky speed 80 DE you drafted in the 6th round, move him to LB, then move him to S. Don't know if people want that or not. We have had this "restricted" era for a few season now where certain positions are just scarce. I like it because it forces you to try to find the diamonds in the rough or gameplan around slower players, but I understand if people want to go back to easier mode to find players. As hurricane himself admits, if we allow this you could get away with essentially never signing/drafting a safety because in the past he was able to fill all safety slots with converted LBs. That's a philosophical question - are we just going to conclude "safety position doesn't matter"? We had that debate once and went in favor of "it matters" but rules can be changed. If we are sick of "safety position matters" we can change it.

This whole discussion seems to stem from finding ways to fill out positions of need because the default player pool isn't good enough. But the whole point in making these changes was because positions were being devalued. It was too easy to just find a player from another position and increase their speed to fit your needs. These current restrictions now force you make do with what the current player pool is. Now if you're stuck with a slow DB, you can't just go out and find a DL that has amazing coverage skills and increase their speed. Your decision now becomes, do I keep this 70 speed DB with great coverage skills or do I take the risk and sign a 90 speed DB with poor coverage skills? Your draft priority now becomes, I have to go and draft this OL because I can't sign a FB and covert him. The league is now more about roster management/construction than before.

I'm actually in favor of no out of position moves. LG can't play RG, RDE can't play LDE. That would make roster management/construction way more fun as now you would need to specifically target positions of need.

I'm not a fan of "creating" the players you need either. There's more strategy involved in player acquisition and drafting now than there was in the past when owners would draft a tight end, convert him into a wide receiver, and play him as a running back.

I'd push back just slightly on preventing o linemen to bump around - if you had a right guard with 59 short snapping you *could* play him as a center, but it might not work out great for you. Real life NFL teams have o linemen play multiple positions, even if there's one they're best at . Same thing with LBs - a SLB might be OK as a MLB, but it forces you to decide if it's your best option or if you need to use another roster slot with a player at his "true" position.

That's not technically correct.

The matrix runs reciprocally; allow TE to go to WR, then WR to TE is also allowed.

On the general point, people regularly convert / abuse the game engine to exploit speed.

If this was NFL, then you'd find every franchise regularly converting squillions... why it's done here is the supply/demand issue and the speed issue.

The former is being addressed by doubling the draft pool size, something that's been tested in MFN-TEST and well, seems to help - will take a few seasons to cycle through. Put it this way, I'm no longer scratching my head who to pik round 4 onwards.

Other than that, work is going on with the game engine, current engine in MFN-TEST has work aimed at improving passing, along with addressing some issues with Zone D, especially against the run. Longer term, ideally speed becomes less of an issue.

I'd also add my longer term issue is the player matrix serves two purposes.

- change positions.
- allow players to fill depth chart / overrides slots.

So if you select n the matrix allowing a CV to convert to DE, by default it allows CBs to be put in DE spots. That's where the speed exploit kicks in.

My view is that, since players are generally restricted to a +/- 50lb weight swing when switching positions, that weight play a factor (well, more bodyframe).

A 198 lb CB will generally max at 248 lbs. LB range, 32 lbs or so under DE weight -so around 4-5 extra speed points gained by being underweight.

So allow players to change to any position. If however their weight is below a minimum for the position they now play, can;t play. So say the limit was 2% under, then if the converted player is 270lbs or under, can't be selected in that position.