My biggest problem with roster only is the fact that it removes roll players and specialist from the equation.

It's easy to draft in the 1st round and get a potentially elite player but the roster is 53 players and everyone should have a purpose.

Example:

You draft a 88 speed LB in the 4th round and he booms +2 getting a 90 pass rush, 90 tackle, 75 strip but only a 22 M2M & 30 run defense.

In roster only I can put him as depth at WLB and hope for the best.

In a regular league, I can use overrides to make sure he only plays when the WLB is blitzing and bench him when the WLB is covering WR#5 or the worst possible WR#3.

The same goes for RBs who have 90 speed and 100s across the board for running the ball (ball carry/avoid fumble/break tackle) but he has a 12 pass block. Some plays call for the RB to pass block and in RO I'm obviously making him RB1 so he is on the field whiffing on the pass block plus risking injury for no reason.

I can easily name a ½ dozen other scenarios where in RO the depth chart and the plays called don't match the talent on the roster which becomes frustrating.

The A.I. is bad at controlling anything in MFN and it's my job to limit the amount of decisions the A.I. makes to include clock management at the end of the half/game and when/where to go for it on 4th down, not to mention 2 point conversations.

Anyone that has taken over a team that was run by the A.I. during free agency and the draft knows just how bad the decisions the A.I. makes. And RO basically says, let that same A.I. call all your plays.

If you enjoy it then that's great and keep playing it. My XFL league isn't for everyone because we have around a dozen elite owners and it's incredibly hard to compete but those days of empty speed players winning are long gone. You need great all around players to compete in the XFL as so many good owners have pushed each other to dig deeper and deeper into gameplanning and roster construction.

The biggest problem with RO as it stands now is anyone looking to join as an entry level league needs to quickly be made aware that the default player weights are so broken it can set you back several seasons if you build a roster using them. Actually, I think it's one of the biggest hurdles to retaining new owners overall in MFN.

can use formation overrides in RO. but yeah many things are left to the whim of AI in RO.....but we all have to deal with it so it becomes an equalizer and in turn presents an "any given sunday" feel......bad teams can beat good teams on occasion and no one has an overwhelming edge.....i feel that is a rarity in normal leagues when experienced owners are up against newer owners

Here is a prime example why formation overrides are so different in regular versus RO.



These are both 4-3 normal formation defensive plays which are radically different. It doesn't matter what overrides you use in RO since the WLB blitzes in one play then covers the primary target (WR#3) in the other and it's vice versa for the SLB except he covers the WR#4.

So in RO you need both the Sam & Will to have speed, pass rush & cover skills (elite level) plus the MLB is covering the RB in both plays so you need 3 elite level LBs to cover everything.

In regular gameplanning, I can select double WR2 and not use the other so I can put my best cover CB at the WLB and my best pass rusher at the SLB and my defense isn't required to have 3 elite level LBs. I can use my best LB at MLB then use my best DB at WLB then all I need is a fast player with pass rush at the SLB.

Expand this same process for all 10 defensive formations and I'm putting my best 11 players on the field at all times doing what they do best and leaving less to chance.

Don't get me wrong, I originally joined MFN for the roster management aspect but I learned that a good 50% of the plays are severely broken....they never work....ever.

There is 1 outside run...can't remember it off the topnof my head where the RB actually takes the pitch 10 yards behind the LOS because he literally glitches there every single time which results in a 5 to 7 yard lose most of the time, he gets just back to the LOS a few times and once in 50-60 snaps he actually breaks a big one after multiple broken tackles. It's literally a drive killing play but it will get called in RO just like any of the other many broken plays.

And don't get me started on long pass plays which always end up in a 7 to 10 yard sack for a lose. Anyone consistently winning in MFN never uses long passes but I'm assuming it's part of the gameplan in RO.

passing is broken as a whole in MFN. it used to be the way but counter measures snuffed it

in RO we try to run the ball like its the year 1919 and we wearing leather helmets .....ever since new game engine. teams that win pass as little as possible

fine with me..... its a level playing field.....would be nice to have more effective passing tho

a lot of plays are broken, but passing is not really broken unless you try to long pass. Play selection is everything when it comes to passing or rushing.

But that is also a different play style.

I will play RO when JDB releases the curse. But I won’t have fun, maybe….


For now, it would feel like sitting on the couch staring at a wall if my one league was RO

I’m actually working on my game plan now since all my cuts were done before last pre season game, not trading for anyone garbage and there ain’t a lick of talent in FA. Mine as well fine tune this years adjustments, tweak some rules, assign some overrides.

Passing is far from dead...it's thriving in the XFL & USFL!!!

Passing isn’t dead, but I wouldn’t say it’s thriving. The fact that long pass plays simply don’t work, and cherry picking the effective plays that are left and overriding the depth charts to maximize the biggest playmakers in the primary target (usually a wr at te these days) are the flaws that necessitated most of the prior complaints in this thread. I haven’t tried RO because I’m too competitive personally to be that hands off, but I can see where not customizing and altering the roster and playbook to juice passing would really handicap the kind of stats generated.

Considering the fact in the Ultimate Legends RO league, they had (1) 3,000 yard passer and just (3) 300 yard passing games last season, we are doing fine in our leagues.

Nah, I'm good

yeah, but you could be better. Sun Valley Scorchers are a promising team