A Method for Testing Defenses

# Roster Setup

- 4 DLs, 3 LBs, 4 DBs

- 5-star defensive coordinator (trait optional)

- All players 5 stars

- Keep ages as close as possible (ideally 25–27)

- Similar XP levels across all players

- You’re going to need a lot of CCs to refresh free agents and build this roster. And I mean a lot.

# Before testing:

- Conditioning: 100%

- Morale: Exceptional

# Test Setup

- Bench your entire offense (if you have one left 🤣)

- Choose the defensive alignment you want to test

- Example: testing DBs → only start the 4 DBs

- Bench the rest of the defense

# Testing Procedure

- Choose the defensive alignment you want to test

- Sim the game

- Record the result (at minimum: score)

- Swipe to reset before exiting the postgame screen **This lets you replay the exact same matchup**

- Repeat the same game ~40-50 times for that alignment

- Change the alignment (e.g. 0-1-3)

- Repeat the process using the same exact game

- Run this at least ~50 times per alignment.

The RNG is noisy—small samples will lie to you.

# What to Track

- Points Allowed (PA)

- Point Differential (PD)

PA measures how well the defense prevents scoring.

PD captures total game impact, including short fields created by turnovers.

# ⚠️ Important Limitation:

- Recording sacks or turnovers from the post-game screen is unreliable. The game will sometimes credit events to the defense as a whole, and those won’t show up in the individual stat lines.

- If you want accurate counts for things like sacks or interceptions, you’ll need to read through the in-game defensive pop-up text during each sim.

- This doesn't open up the black box that is defense but maybe it opens a little window.