Retro Bowl is taking the world by storm, and a large part of that is the surprisingly deep simulation elements of the game. If you’ve ever dreamed of running your own football team, thought that you could run your favorite team better than your general manager, or simply wanted to do your best imitation of the Kevin Costner classic “Draft Day”, Retro Bowl’s franchise provides a great way to live out those ambitions.
While you’re building your dynasty, you need to take care of the building blocks of your dynasty: the players themselves. If you don’t have good players, you don’t have a good team. This article will go over the five most important things to look out for while selecting your players, what their most important and least important stats are, and how you can build your dynasty.
Quarterback:
As in real life, your quarterback is going to be the beating heart of your offense. Football has become a game of passing, for better or for worse, and you need a good quarterback to dominate the game.
When looking for a quarterback, the most important statistic is going to be arm strength. The biggest weakness of the default, non-star quarterback is his pathetic arm strength, which severely limits your options of what routes your receivers will be productive running. Following this, stamina is the second most important. You will be throwing the ball a lot with your quarterback, and you’ll want to be able to hit receivers on deep routes in the late game just as much as you did in the early game. The third most important statistic to look out for will be speed. Quarterbacks have a comparatively low speed cap, so you will never find the second coming of Mike Vick or Lamar Jackson. However, it can be a major help when plays start to break down, or even for goal line sneaks.
The least important statistic for a quarterback is throwing accuracy. It’s not unimportant, but as long as the quarterback has at least middling accuracy, you reach a point of diminishing returns rather quickly. Accuracy is entirely in your control, and it’s easier to learn how to throw with an inaccurate quarterback with a strong arm than it is to learn to throw with an accurate quarterback with a weak arm.
Tips:
- Make sure that your arm strength is high
- Your accuracy isn’t that important - you are the quarterback after all
- Your speed will never be that high - that doesn’t mean that you should ignore it
- Your stamina is important - you want to be able to be as good at the beginning as the end
- This is the most important position on the field - you can give him a big contract and it will be worthwhile.
Running back:
Some Retro Bowl players ignore the running back position. After all, why should you even focus on the ground game when the passing game is so much more explosive? There are many answers to this question, such as the benefit of controlling the clock, the fact that running back checkdown routes are always a great safety valve, and the fact that their high strength is extremely useful on returns. The most important reason to have a running back is that they allow you to balance your attack and break off big chunk yardage at low risk of turnovers. Plus, it’s very satisfying to stiff arm someone out of their shoes.
The two most important statistics to look out for in a running back are speed and strength. Speed is important for obvious reasons, and strength is important because of the running back’s propensity to pull off successful stiff arms. A running back with a maxed out strength statistic is practically guaranteed one stiff arm per run, which is great for moving defenders out of the way and opening up running lanes.
Stamina is also important for a running back, as it’s always important to be able to maintain speed down the field on long runs. However, the least important statistic is catching - the routes that running backs run out of the outfield are easy catches, so they don’t need excellent hands. As long as they can catch the dump off passes, they’ll be perfectly fine.
Tips:
- Your running back’s most important stat is strength - getting that guaranteed stiff arm on every play is a major game changer.
- Speed is also important - burn them up the field!
- Stamina is important for preventing fumbles and keeping momentum downfield
- Catching is comparatively unimportant - the routes they run are all easy
- Try to get a good one in the second or third round!
Wide Receiver:
Receivers are a must have in Retro Bowl. Although the default, non-star receivers are not as useless as they were in early updates of the game, you’re going to want receivers to burn the opposing defensive backs up the field and move the chains.
The most important statistic for a wide receiver is speed. This is because they need to be able to beat defensive backs to catch passes, and it’s also going to be the only thing that lets you stretch medium gains into large chunk plays. The second most important statistic is a tie between catching and stamina. Both are important, because you can’t have your receivers dropping passes, and you can’t have them slowing down and getting shoestring tackled just as they’re limping into the endzone.
The least important statistic for a wideout is strength. It’s not that having a maxed out strength receiver is bad - it’s simply that the stat cap on that is so low that you won’t notice any real difference between a receiver who is maxed out and a receiver at the minimum strength level.
Tips:
- Speed is the most important statistic - make sure you have burners running down the field
- Catching is also important - wide receivers get punished hard for having a low catching stat
- Stamina is important for preventing fumbles, as well as a necessity if you want a good kick returner
- Strength isn’t that important - receivers just don’t stiff arm that frequently
- Double up on wide receivers, it’s important to have two of them
Tight End:
Tight ends are an underrated offensive weapon in Retro Bowl. Many players will initially overlook them simply because they do not run a route every play. However, a quality tight end will allow you a third or even fourth receiving option on a play, and the go routes that tight ends run are a very powerful option to use against blitzes.
Tight ends are similar to receivers in that speed is their most important statistic, as it allows them to beat defenders. However, I’d argue that their second most important statistic is strength. The strength cap on tight ends is significantly higher than on receivers, and it allows them to shrug off defenders and occasionally stiff arm them, though not at the same rate that running backs can stiff arm defenders.
The two least important statistics for tight ends are catching and stamina. Neither of these are unimportant, as both will noticeably impact your players style of play. However, as long as your tight end is at least competent in both categories, you should have no problems with either.
Tips:
- Make sure your speed is high!
- Your catching should be at least decent
- Your strength should be strong - tight ends regularly shrug people off and run further down the field
- Stamina is also useful, but don’t feel bad if it’s a bit lower
- Tight ends are all around players - the best ones will be very well rounded
Kicker:
Kickers are people too! Kickers are often neglected, and it’s understandable why. It’s not a sexy position, and many would rather have another exciting receiver with high potential.
When it comes to winning close games though, the kicker becomes invaluable. Driving down the field in the fourth quarter when the game is tied, a very common scenario especially on higher difficulty settings, it’s useful to be able to kick a 50 yard field goal to win instead of having to drive down for a touchdown.
A kicker is fundamentally unlike every other position in Retro Bowl and football more generally - that’s why they call it “Special Teams”. You won’t be able to use your kicker on every play, and if you’re playing the game well you shouldn’t be using him more than once or twice a game. That’s perfectly alright. He’s a utility option, and you have him on your roster because he’s going to be there for you in high leverage situations.
The two most important statistics to look out for in a kicker are kick accuracy and kick power. Stamina will not matter as much because, as mentioned, you shouldn’t be needing your kicker more than once or twice. If his stamina matters to your game, you’ve already lost. Speed, as far as the Retro Bowl community has been able to discern, does not have any impact on kicker performance.
Tips:
- Range is the most important statistic by far
- Accuracy is also very useful, although you can overcome it with skill at the game
- Stamina is nice to have, but if you’re playing the game well it shouldn’t matter
- Speed is literally irrelevant
- This is a utility player, and treat him as such - don’t give him a big contract
I hope this article has helped you be your own Sonny Weaver Jr. and build your own unbeatable juggernaut! May your players always make the difficult throws,
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