Shutdown OR Zone Hawk

Shutdown or Zone Hawk? The Ultimate X Factor is unstoppable and activates after only one Pass Breakup. I run Zone 90% of the time, but I currently have Shutdown as all 3 of my X Factors.

I run primarily man and ultimate shutdown has been noticeable. It’s spared me from spending AP on abilities that only activate here and there this year. Only one breakup to activate unstoppable means it’s a lock to turn on.

DisturbedinAB said:

Shutdown or Zone Hawk? The Ultimate X Factor is unstoppable and activates after only one Pass Breakup. I run Zone 90% of the time, but I currently have Shutdown as all 3 of my X Factors.

Why not ZH if you’re running zone? I’m assuming you maybe have zone kos covered with abilities?

Khoale37 said:

Why not ZH if you’re running zone? I’m assuming you maybe have zone kos covered with abilities?

I run dzkos and flats on my corners already so yeah the ultimate shutdown is a nice add on.

Hhtmarks said:

I run dzkos and flats on my corners already so yeah the ultimate shutdown is a nice add on.

That’s my approach with my sub lbs. I’m primarily in a base that more or less keeps specific guys in zone or man so I build abilities around that, knowing most of my adjustments won’t change this. LBs and safeties will “go both ways” so I’ll leverage some of the AP freed up from shutdown on my dbs to do the same as you.

 Ironically, Woolens got the most basic setup and he’s been my current CB1 by with over 40 picks and counting. Odd phase of the game since abilities have always trumped everything else in prior years regardless of where we are in the product lifecycle. 

I noticed abilities don’t even seem to activate the advertised 50% rate on offense and defense this year but the always-on XF have been very effective. Playing cat and mouse to guess run in order to try and knock the ones on marshawn and k9 have been a new challenge this last week to where I even considered adding momentum shift this early to preserve my coverage setups.

Khoale37 said:

That’s my approach with my sub lbs. I’m primarily in a base that more or less keeps specific guys in zone or man so I build abilities around that, knowing most of my adjustments won’t change this. LBs and safeties will “go both ways” so I’ll leverage some of the AP freed up from shutdown on my dbs to do the same as you.

 Ironically, Woolens got the most basic setup and he’s been my current CB1 by with over 40 picks and counting. Odd phase of the game since abilities have always trumped everything else in prior years regardless of where we are in the product lifecycle. 

I noticed abilities don’t even seem to activate the advertised 50% rate on offense and defense this year but the always-on XF have been very effective. Playing cat and mouse to guess run in order to try and knock the ones on marshawn and k9 have been a new challenge this last week to where I even considered adding momentum shift this early to preserve my coverage setups.

I personally love flats on my corners specifically The dzkos are crucial for the reaction speed for the cat and mouse just like you said. Cover 4 midblitz brings so much heat that when I switch to a prevent, it can really confuse the offense

Khoale37 said:

Why not ZH if you’re running zone? I’m assuming you maybe have zone kos covered with abilities?

All of my Corners have Pick Artist, not using a lot of KO abilities at the moment as most of my AP is being used on Double or Nothing at the Line.

DisturbedinAB said:

All of my Corners have Pick Artist, not using a lot of KO abilities at the moment as most of my AP is being used on Double or Nothing at the Line.

Who is your DL? You should have a bunch of DL with at most 2 AP for DoN, so that leaves you with a ton of AP left for DBs and zone kos or pa

WendyPefferkorn said:

Who is your DL? You should have a bunch of DL with at most 2 AP for DoN, so that leaves you with a ton of AP left for DBs and zone kos or pa

I have not fully committed to upgrading my Team yet, but it seems like DB’s really need the Pick Artist this year. For now, I’m sticking with Shutdown X factors. I plan on adding KO abilities soon.