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