Why are there so few sam linebackers?

The bucs don't even have a sam LB or a fb

It’s crazy the difference between the amounts of SAM backers vs. WILL backers…

twitchtaxpro said:

The bucs don't even have a sam LB or a fb

On my count there were only 17 unique SAMs in the entire catalog!!!

jsmiller2003 said:

On my count there were only 17 unique SAMs in the entire catalog!!!

That sounds right. At least EA gave it enough thought to not give any sort of OVR drop for SAM/WILL playing OOP.

Ea should have just let things be the way they were ..a RE ,LE ,a LOLB and ROLB. Shirt aint broke ,dont fix it !!

EA was so close by redefining positions but by still requiring  left and right "edge" vs just "edge" and "will/mike/sam" rather than "olb/ilb or mlb" they missed the mark

Also, requiring two FBs when the vast majority of NFL teams don't deploy a traditional FB is something else than can be changed

Since this really only impacts theme team "purists"  (like myself) trying to get to 50/50 Patriots using only current and past Patriots players it isn't high on the dev team priority list

PaulieV said:

EA was so close by redefining positions but by still requiring  left and right "edge" vs just "edge" and "will/mike/sam" rather than "olb/ilb or mlb" they missed the mark

Also, requiring two FBs when the vast majority of NFL teams don't deploy a traditional FB is something else than can be changed

Since this really only impacts theme team "purists"  (like myself) trying to get to 50/50 Patriots using only current and past Patriots players it isn't high on the dev team priority list

This right here. When I saw them say they were finally updating the positions, I assumed it would just be EDGE and MLB/OLB. But nope. Another half ass attempt by EA, unsurprisingly.

The reason why SAM backers are so rare: Nobody uses them anymore. SAM backers are only used in true 4-3 sets and many teams prefer to use nickel over true 4-3. SAM backers play on TE side, MIKE is middle, and WILL is opposite the TE. In nickel sets, there are only MIKE and WILL backers, with the MIKE covering TE side and WILL having the same duties. Many teams do not have a true fullback but it is a specialized position evolving into a kind of RB/OL hybrid. If they changed FB to a specialist position like NT, it would be much more well recieved.