Edge Protector

I’ve seen it talked about on here several times. Everyone says it only works against Edge Threat or ETE. Is this just an assumption because the description says “elite pass rushers”?

Has anyone actually done some testing to find out for themselves?

The reason I ask is because a while back I was using the Pink (juggernaut) version of Von Miller at LE. His pass rush abilities are:

-Double Or Nothing

-El Toro

-Edge Threat Elite

Two games in a row he was up against a RT with only Edge Protector, one was Legends 93 Willie Anderson and the other was Zero Chill 93 Lane Johnson. Both of these RT absolutely handled Von Miller and they lit up almost every single defensive down. I even tried usering Von to see if I could get a shed and it was damn near impossible, they still lit up against bull rush attempts with full pass rush points. Sometimes they would hold their blocks for a crazy amount of time and several pass rush move attempts as well. 

Anyways, I wish I had a good way to test this more to see if it actually works against DoN as well.

Bump

Anyone have some insight on this?

It helps against it but doesn't completely cancel it. Very inconsistent I belive secure protector helps more

SlowAndSteady said:

I’ve seen it talked about on here several times. Everyone says it only works against Edge Threat or ETE. Is this just an assumption because the description says “elite pass rushers”?

Has anyone actually done some testing to find out for themselves?

The reason I ask is because a while back I was using the Pink (juggernaut) version of Von Miller at LE. His pass rush abilities are:

-Double Or Nothing

-El Toro

-Edge Threat Elite

Two games in a row he was up against a RT with only Edge Protector, one was Legends 93 Willie Anderson and the other was Zero Chill 93 Lane Johnson. Both of these RT absolutely handled Von Miller and they lit up almost every single defensive down. I even tried usering Von to see if I could get a shed and it was damn near impossible, they still lit up against bull rush attempts with full pass rush points. Sometimes they would hold their blocks for a crazy amount of time and several pass rush move attempts as well. 

Anyways, I wish I had a good way to test this more to see if it actually works against DoN as well.

Edge Protector SUCKS.  Don't use it, not this late in the year.  Pass Protector, Secure Protector (ideally paired with All Day) are the priorities.  I used to think it was decent (and ran it on Forrest Gregg for quite a while, before i realized how it's mediocre, at best).  I would definitely avoid Edge Protector, unless you simply have no other options (and it's 0AP).

For anyone who might not be aware, Secure Protector = Pass Protector + Run Protector, which will counter the insta-wins (superwins?) immediately after the ball is snapped, however we'll also want (or need) the All Day ability, which helps to counter the frequent shed attempts.  This is the only way to reliably and consistently attempt to counter all the Colossus and Unstoppable Force abilities coming for us.

peatrick said:

Edge Protector SUCKS.  Don't use it, not this late in the year.  Pass Protector, Secure Protector (ideally paired with All Day) are the priorities.  I used to think it was decent (and ran it on Forrest Gregg for quite a while, before i realized how it's mediocre, at best).  I would definitely avoid Edge Protector, unless you simply have no other options (and it's 0AP).

For anyone who might not be aware, Secure Protector = Pass Protector + Run Protector, which will counter the insta-wins (superwins?) immediately after the ball is snapped, however we'll also want (or need) the All Day ability, which helps to counter the frequent shed attempts.  This is the only way to reliably and consistently attempt to counter all the Colossus and Unstoppable Force abilities coming for us.

I appreciate you taking the time to present some options/suggestions. However you are pretty much restating what the community typically says about the abilities which I do have a pretty good understanding of already.

I am more so looking for someone who has challenged these common beliefs/assumptions by doing their own testing to see if the results actually match up with what the community believes to be true.

I suppose it would be easy for me to just slap Secure or Pass Pro +All Day on my entire o-line and move on with my life. Unfortunately it is in my nature to challenge most things instead of blindly following the masses.

In the end I imagine I will have Secure or Pass+Run Pro on the entire o-line soon anyways as it helps with run blocking but this is more of a curiosity thing than anything else.

SlowAndSteady said:

I appreciate you taking the time to present some options/suggestions. However you are pretty much restating what the community typically says about the abilities which I do have a pretty good understanding of already.

I am more so looking for someone who has challenged these common beliefs/assumptions by doing their own testing to see if the results actually match up with what the community believes to be true.

I suppose it would be easy for me to just slap Secure or Pass Pro +All Day on my entire o-line and move on with my life. Unfortunately it is in my nature to challenge most things instead of blindly following the masses.

In the end I imagine I will have Secure or Pass+Run Pro on the entire o-line soon anyways as it helps with run blocking but this is more of a curiosity thing than anything else.

Seems like a majority of the offensive abilities don’t work or do barely anything against the OP defensive abilities. 
 

I as well wish there was more information out there.

To me, abilities are just another way to manipulate the customer. Nothing more. Especially with the understanding that a majority of them do nothing.

I mean, it’s been a quite a few years now. Still so many abilities that people just don’t even use. So many. So so many. Most of them don’t even work. just another way to manipulate things.

SlowAndSteady said:

I appreciate you taking the time to present some options/suggestions. However you are pretty much restating what the community typically says about the abilities which I do have a pretty good understanding of already.

I am more so looking for someone who has challenged these common beliefs/assumptions by doing their own testing to see if the results actually match up with what the community believes to be true.

I suppose it would be easy for me to just slap Secure or Pass Pro +All Day on my entire o-line and move on with my life. Unfortunately it is in my nature to challenge most things instead of blindly following the masses.

In the end I imagine I will have Secure or Pass+Run Pro on the entire o-line soon anyways as it helps with run blocking but this is more of a curiosity thing than anything else.

You have no idea how much i respect that you are putting forth the effort to not just blindly trust what some random asshole (me) on the internet says.  +1 +1 +1

PLEASE, don't just take my word for it, perhaps this video will help enlighten you: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=161Lf_Y2zhg

You are very wise to not follow the masses.  I've used Edge Protector, it wasn't that long ago that i thought of it as poor man's Pass Pro, but it's not good.  Edge Protector was from a time prior to things liek Pass Pro even existing.  Maybe it worked on last-gen (PS4 era) consoles/game, but from my meager understanding, it hasn't been good, nor relevant in a hot minute.

Let us know how the testing goes, i'd be eager to learn from whatever it is that you discover.  Including the testing methodologies used.  For me, personally, i need my O-line to block Unstoppable Force and Colossus.  The only thing that seems to achieve that is the combination of Pass Pro (or run) + All Day.  Nothing else will have that impact.  Normally i would qualify my statement by suggesting that "YMMV" but i'm confident it will not.  However, I'm open to being corrected if you think i got something wrong.  Certainly would not be the first time.

dphins said:

To me, abilities are just another way to manipulate the customer. Nothing more. Especially with the understanding that a majority of them do nothing.

I mean, it’s been a quite a few years now. Still so many abilities that people just don’t even use. So many. So so many. Most of them don’t even work. just another way to manipulate things.

You're not wrong (about the majority of these abilities being broken or from prior generation of the game, back in the PS4 era)... however, there is MASSIVE skill gap / knowledge type stuff for figuring out which abilities do actually work and using the fixed ability points we have wisely and efficiently.

Abilities are EVERYTHING in this game, without them, your squad is going to be at a massive disadvantage, especially this late in the year.  Stats barely matter, the way we review new content/cards is to poke through the ability stack, finding out which 0AP are potentially available, versus the other discounted abilities.  Defense is already difficult enough, but this is the first time all year we've actually had a legit chance to get stops (and organic pressure) without having to rely on the various disengage or loop style blitzes.

Here are some random ability combinations that are well worth the price of admission, in no particular order:

• Mid Zone KO (everywhere, any and all pass coverage players); corners, safeties and linebackers
• Edge Threat (or Interior Threat) + Double or Nothing
• Unstoppable Force
• Colossus
• Universal Coverage

The best / beefiest options are going to be those X-factors as passive abilities, which we're just now starting to see more of... before long, it'll become a requirement to make any high end squads.  Without the appropriate Zone KOs (i.e. MZKO) our defenders simply will not react in time to make a play on the ball.  WITH these Zone KOs, it essentially grants our DBs eyes in the back of the helmets, which is probably even more impactful than the actual knock-out component.

Hope that helps.  Please let us know if you have questions or concerns about any specific ability -- can probably save you a bunch of time filtering through the list of terrible ones.  This Ability Tier List doesn't always get updated, but broadly speaking, it's got some decent suggestions.

peatrick said:

You have no idea how much i respect that you are putting forth the effort to not just blindly trust what some random asshole (me) on the internet says.  +1 +1 +1

PLEASE, don't just take my word for it, perhaps this video will help enlighten you: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=161Lf_Y2zhg

You are very wise to not follow the masses.  I've used Edge Protector, it wasn't that long ago that i thought of it as poor man's Pass Pro, but it's not good.  Edge Protector was from a time prior to things liek Pass Pro even existing.  Maybe it worked on last-gen (PS4 era) consoles/game, but from my meager understanding, it hasn't been good, nor relevant in a hot minute.

Let us know how the testing goes, i'd be eager to learn from whatever it is that you discover.  Including the testing methodologies used.  For me, personally, i need my O-line to block Unstoppable Force and Colossus.  The only thing that seems to achieve that is the combination of Pass Pro (or run) + All Day.  Nothing else will have that impact.  Normally i would qualify my statement by suggesting that "YMMV" but i'm confident it will not.  However, I'm open to being corrected if you think i got something wrong.  Certainly would not be the first time.

I definitely don’t see you as some asshole on the internet. I value and respect your insight on these forums.

I took a few minutes to watch the video you suggested, even though I normally don’t watch any YouTube about playing video games. (Yes I’m stubborn and old-ish)

The video certainly looks to be helpful for most players that would otherwise struggle figuring out how to setup their o-line abilities. It’s pretty much how I would expect a video like this to go. He says that Edge Protector is trash and then proceeds to explain which abilities to use, why and where to use them.

The video would be great if he included the exact same players and offense/defense play calls with the only difference being Edge Protector on the 2 Offensive Tackles. Then we could see why Edge Protector is trash.

Also, I haven’t spent a ton of time in the Practice mode (especially this year) but the game has never felt like it played the same in practice mode for me so I’m not sure it’s the best example for demonstrating how long the o-line holds up blocks. I feel like there are shed timers in H2H modes that would’ve allowed the d-line to get pressure even with his o-line ability setup. Obviously that’s just my own opinion/speculation.

SlowAndSteady said:

I definitely don’t see you as some asshole on the internet. I value and respect your insight on these forums.

I took a few minutes to watch the video you suggested, even though I normally don’t watch any YouTube about playing video games. (Yes I’m stubborn and old-ish)

The video certainly looks to be helpful for most players that would otherwise struggle figuring out how to setup their o-line abilities. It’s pretty much how I would expect a video like this to go. He says that Edge Protector is trash and then proceeds to explain which abilities to use, why and where to use them.

The video would be great if he included the exact same players and offense/defense play calls with the only difference being Edge Protector on the 2 Offensive Tackles. Then we could see why Edge Protector is trash.

Also, I haven’t spent a ton of time in the Practice mode (especially this year) but the game has never felt like it played the same in practice mode for me so I’m not sure it’s the best example for demonstrating how long the o-line holds up blocks. I feel like there are shed timers in H2H modes that would’ve allowed the d-line to get pressure even with his o-line ability setup. Obviously that’s just my own opinion/speculation.

“I haven’t spent a ton of time in the Practice mode (especially this year) but the game has never felt like it played the same in practice mode”

there are a lot of people that feel that way. You’re not the only one. I think it’s a terrible way to test abilities.

SlowAndSteady said:

I definitely don’t see you as some asshole on the internet. I value and respect your insight on these forums.

I took a few minutes to watch the video you suggested, even though I normally don’t watch any YouTube about playing video games. (Yes I’m stubborn and old-ish)

The video certainly looks to be helpful for most players that would otherwise struggle figuring out how to setup their o-line abilities. It’s pretty much how I would expect a video like this to go. He says that Edge Protector is trash and then proceeds to explain which abilities to use, why and where to use them.

The video would be great if he included the exact same players and offense/defense play calls with the only difference being Edge Protector on the 2 Offensive Tackles. Then we could see why Edge Protector is trash.

Also, I haven’t spent a ton of time in the Practice mode (especially this year) but the game has never felt like it played the same in practice mode for me so I’m not sure it’s the best example for demonstrating how long the o-line holds up blocks. I feel like there are shed timers in H2H modes that would’ve allowed the d-line to get pressure even with his o-line ability setup. Obviously that’s just my own opinion/speculation.

You're absolutely correct, Practice mode is not indicative of how the game truly plays, but it's a necessary evil, to use primarily for demonstration (or testing) purposes. 

I'm sorry I can't give a better explanation of exactly how or why Edge Protector is inadequate. Was only within the past ~month that I discovered this myself. 

TRUST NO ONE, or nothing... however, I've read (or watched) enough to know Edge Protector isn't where I want to be, even at 0AP. I watched Forrest Gregg get dominated before all the UF & Colossus were introduced. He's definitely not holding up these days, but I can confirm Pass Protector + All Day is effective, even (or especially) against the end-game pass rush. 

Does it work? No. Why? Who knows.

Apologies I do not have better, or factual, information.

ive literally had andrew wylie 94 card with just edge protector on my right side since he came out even now and i can count on my hand how many times he's given up a sack in 3 months.

peatrick said:

You're absolutely correct, Practice mode is not indicative of how the game truly plays, but it's a necessary evil, to use primarily for demonstration (or testing) purposes. 

I'm sorry I can't give a better explanation of exactly how or why Edge Protector is inadequate. Was only within the past ~month that I discovered this myself. 

TRUST NO ONE, or nothing... however, I've read (or watched) enough to know Edge Protector isn't where I want to be, even at 0AP. I watched Forrest Gregg get dominated before all the UF & Colossus were introduced. He's definitely not holding up these days, but I can confirm Pass Protector + All Day is effective, even (or especially) against the end-game pass rush. 

Does it work? No. Why? Who knows.

Apologies I do not have better, or factual, information.

All good man, I appreciate you!