[Cross posting this from Rivals. I'm moving most of these posts to the Rivals forums though.]

Alright, there are a handful of us that know this, but I'm not sure if the entire league does. And, unfortunately, it's an important thing to know for 0.4.4 game planning. So it's time for the ripping tale of route distances and QB throwing.

What the heck man?

QBs determine who to throw on based on a number of factors:

1) Receivers in their field of vision
2) QB intelligence
3) The route of the play call
4) The route that the receiver is running
5) Whether the receiver is open
6) QB passing release
7) QB arm

Basically, a given calculation takes all of these things to determine the probability if a receiver will catch the ball. If the calculation is high enough, the QB throws to receiver. The time from the decision to release is determined by Passing Release. And the distance and velocity is determined by QB Arm.

[Note this does not take into account accuracy and ball placement which are other things entirely.]

Play distance vs receiver route distance

Where things get complicated is when the play distance is different from the receiver route distance. In that case, when receiver route distances differ from the play distance, a penalty is applied to the calculation. This ensure that the QB looks at the players running routes that are the play distance first.

[MAYBE INSERT AN EXAMPLE SOME DAY BUT PROBABLY NOT.]

The Exception: The Short Route

There is one key exception to the probability calculation: the short route.

In order to make check downs work -- and I mean work at all -- a receiver running a short route NEVER has a penalty applied to the probability calculation of his route. This means that QB will almost always choose him if the probability of him catching the ball is high enough (and it usually is for an RB check down).

TRUST ME YOU WANT IT THIS WAY!

This is absolutely not a bug, and works the way that it should. QBs should always go to their check downs and outlets when nothing is open downfield.

What you have to remember is that short routes are going to end before medium and long routes. So if you don't want your QB turning into a check down machine, you have be very careful about your play calling.

What's next???

I have some idea how to balance out check down passing that I've passed along to JDB. We'll see what happens next.

I guess if you went 0/1/4 you wouldn't have to worry about check-down machines. :\