RIP2001 ROSTERS

April 14th, 2001


Introduction

The RIP2001 roster set has been built to work as a VPNFL-compliant database. All attributes have been scaled to fit the VPNFL ranges set by Jim Henley. When someone ranks football players (or anything else for that matter), not everyone agrees with the rankings. The RIP2001 ratings will be no different. I have rated players using several sources and some of my own personal knowledge. You may disagree with a few or even several ratings in these rosters. That's the beauty of FBPRO 98! You can change the ratings of each and every player. So, I encourage you to tweak them as you see fit.

The RIP2001 rosters are the end of season rosters for this most recent year. The depth charts and source for the rosters was Yahoo's NFL webpage. So, if you find Troy Aikman on the bench or Tim Couch absent from the Browns roster...........this is most likely because he was on the bench during the last week of the season or already placed on IR. You may change the depth charts to start whomever you wish. I have also included a pretty extensive free agent group (it includes Tim Couch, Joey Galloway, and others who went on IR or were cut early in the year). So, you can add players back to their original teams if you like.

I have not edited the schedule in any way for this roster file. I would suggest EA Gelats utility if you wish to do this.

I made the choice to include Cleveland in this roster set and I have eliminated Pittsburgh (sorry Steeler fans!). This was just a personal choice. However, I have included almost every one of the Steelers (with updated ratings) in the free agent file. So, you can put the Steelers together again if you so wish.

I raised the lower limit for Kicker strength to 86. The purpose of this is to raise FG %’s. It has helped but they still may be a bit low as Jim Henley had also found out.

I lowered HB speed a bit to try and get yards per rush as close as possible to normal values without upsetting the overall running game. So, the top HB will have a SP rating of 77 instead of 80.

I bumped all players up one year of experience to reflect the completion of this last season. So, there are no rookies in the RIP2001 rosters. (Actually, there are 4 rookies in the roster set.) I found out that the game crashes at the end of the season unless you have one offensive and one defensive rookie in both the NFC and AFC. Please keep this in mind. Also, I found discrepancies in years experience between several of my sources. So, you may find a few players with one year more or one year less experience than they should have..............but for the most part they’re accurate.


All potentials are set to 99. I generally play one season and then re-rate all the players again. So, I was lazy and did not take the time to change each potential for each player. However, with VPNFL-weighted rosters there is not a lot of need for potentials since the ratings are much closer together. Anyway, if you use the RIP2001 rosters for career leagues you may want to change the potentials --- your choice.


Profiles and Plans

Since these rosters are made to work within the VPNFL framework, I recommend to use the VPNFL profiles and plans. However, since a few years have gone by since the VPNFL plans and profiles were created, I would suggest a few changes. I will outline them below:

Use the Pass-heavy profile for:
Carolina, St. Louis, Kansas City and San Diego

Use the Run-heavy profile for:
Tampa Bay, Dallas, Baltimore, Cincinnati, Miami and Oakland

Use the Balanced profile for everyone else.

I chose the above profiles for the respective teams based on the % of yards rushing and yards passing this past season. Hopefully, this should help mimic the way these teams moved the ball in real life this last year.

I also did some research on VPNFL gameplans versus the real teams usage of players. I then tried to match up the closest gameplan to each team. For example, the Cardinals VPNFL gameplan threw rather heavily to the FB. A few years back when Larry Centers was the FB this was fine. However, this past year the Cardinals rarely threw to the FB. So, I suggest changing the Cardinals to a new gameplan that better fits what they did this most recent season. I have done this as a quick and dirty way to reflect changes in the teams the past few years. The alternative would be to totally redesign new game plans for each team (ouch!). I’m not sure I have the energy or time for that project!!! I haven’t given up on it, but I have tabled it for now. Anyway..........here are the teams I recommend changing and to what offensive gameplan:

Vikings - use 49ers gameplan
Bears - use Seahawks gameplan
Cardinals - use Lions gameplan
Cowboys - use Falcons gameplan
Eagles - use Chiefs gameplan
Redskins - use Cardinals gameplan
Panthers - use 49ers gameplan
Bills - use Cardinals gameplan
Colts - use Rams gameplan
Dolphins - use Bengals gameplan
Patriots - use Seahawks gameplan
Jets - use Cardinals gameplan
Ravens - use Eagles gameplan
Browns - use Dolphins gameplan
Jaguars - use Vikings gameplan
Titans - use Chargers gameplan
Seahawks - use Saints gameplan

all other teams - unchanged

Defensive gameplans are the same except you’ll want to change Carolina to a 4-3 defense (and any other team that used to be a 3-4 but has now switched to a 4-3). You'll need to pick a defense for Cleveland as well.

You will have to choose the appropriate kick and punt return plays for each team. This may involve changing all 30 gameplans in order to get the correct people to return the ball for you.

The gameplans aren’t perfect for each team but they are the best match I could find. If you don’t agree, please by all means change them to what you feel is a better gameplan.



Performance of RIP2001 rosters

Overall, I’m quite pleased with the way the new rosters with appropriate gameplans function. Because of the fantastic work of the VPNFL crew (providing ideal attribute ranges), the stats are usually pretty close to where you want them. Jim Henley outlined a few discrepancies in his VPNFL documentation and provided the reasons why as well. So, you’ll see some of those same discrepancies with my rosters.

I have simmed several seasons and have noticed a few trends with certain teams. The Ravens, Eagles and Saints haven’t seemed to be quite as successful as their real life NFL counterparts. The Jaguars, Seahawks and 49ers have seemed to do better than their real life NFL counterparts. So, maybe it’s the “On Paper Theory.” Some teams look good on paper but don’t have good seasons. And vice versa. The “Any Given Sunday” theory also applies. You still never know who will win. That’s what makes FBPRO (and the real NFL!) such a blast!

ENJOY! Please let me know what you think of the rosters used in conjunction with the appropriate profile and gameplan. The main goal is to have fun. Play around with the depth charts, plays, profiles, etc. to suit your taste. It’s your game!!! I hope that over the course of a season it provides a realistic and fun experience.


Thanks a million to:

***Jim Henley, Isamu Maruhashi, Charlie Rogers, Ken Parker, Jim Hansen, Nick Cowie, John Frisby and anyone else associated with VPNFL. They started the whole thing and put hundreds of hours of work into converting a good game to a great game. These guys are the heros of the FBPRO world. Thanks!

***EA Gelat for his editing utility that allowed me to do things a heck of a lot faster and easier.

***http://www.nfl.com/
***http://sports.yahoo.com/nfl/
***http://football.espn.go.com/nfl/index
***http://www.sportingnews.com/nfl/
***http://www.cnnsi.com/football/nfl/stats/
***http://galaxy.interstat.net/ourlads/
***http://www.footballinsider.com/newsdigest.htm
***http://cbs.sportsline.com/superstats/data/nfl/
***http://laker09.tripod.com/univ/index.html
***http://boards.eesite.com/board.cgi?boardset=FBPRO
***http://www.sportplanet.com/catchthefever/index.shtml
***http://digilander.libero.it/walterde14/vpnfl/

***Thanks to anyone who posted on the VPNFL forum and answered any of my questions, offered input or posted important info about the game.

***Thanks to Isamu for continuing to provide a site for this aging but still great game. He is always there to be helpful and answer questions and for several years now he has graciously provided a site for the download of files and exchange of information. Thanks Isamu!

***Thanks to anyone who tries out the RIP2001 rosters!


Dale Ripley
RIP2001 rosters
marillion@wekz.net