Madden Hidden Tricks - Defensive Position Switches

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It's common knowledge that the overall ratings for players change if you play them out of position.  Within the defensive front seven especially, a player's rating can improve drastically by moving them from linebacker to defensive end or from end to defensive tackle.  This flexibility can be an obvious benefit to your team if all you do is adjust your depth chart, especially if you run a 4-3 base defense.  That said, there are two situations where you can truly maximize the advantage of position switches, using defensive substitutions with a 3-4 playbook and when drafting a team in online franchise mode.

Let's say you're playing with the Washington Redskins, a team with a 3-4 playbook and three players that benefit from position changes (Haynesworth, Orakpo and Carter).  If all you do is adjust your depth chart to switch Haynesworth to DT and Orakpo and Carter to DEs, then yes, you have improved your line, but you've done so at the expense of your linebacking core, which now has two bench players starting at your OLB spots.  Instead, it's better to leave your depth chart alone, letting Haynesworth stay at DE and team with strong, incumbent linemen Kemoeatu (76 OVR, 97 STR) and Carriker (74 OVR, 86 STR) to eat up blockers and free up your top four LBs to make tackles and blitz through gaps.

The real advantage comes when you call nickel and dime defenses with four man lines.  In this case, since you're taking linebackers off the field anyway you're free to use the defensive substitution menu in the playcalling screen to move Orakpo and Carter to end, Haynesworth to tackle and your starting middle linebackers into the linebacker spots.  In this scenario, your five or six best players are always on the field and in positions where they can do the most damage.

Picking players that improve via position switches in a full-team fantasy draft may be even more powerful way to game the system.  The reason is straightforward.  Because these players are rated by their given position, they are listed further down the draft board.  You can take, say, Shawne Merriman in the 12th round as an 84 rated linebacker with the intention of starting him as a 98 rated defensive end.  If you go into the draft planning to take three or four players like this, you can spend the early rounds loading up on offense and still come away with a powerful defense. 

One word of caution, always remember to check each player's secondary ratings to make sure that they match your defensive scheme.  A speed rusher like Manny Lawson (79 OVR at OLB, 92 OVR at DE) is a fine fit for a 4-man front but will be swallowed up by double teams in a 3-4.