In 85 I set my weights and let the AI do everything else. One aspect was depth chart. I set no one....it is blank for every position . Most of the players played fit either their assigned position on thier card or best rated for the position , but for some reason the WLB has done all the kicking despite a kicker being active and being better rated.

I know in preseason this is normal if you don't set your roster a certain way, but it is clear to me where the bug is coming from. The game should be playing my highest rated kicker, but for some reason the engine is not looking at kickers at all. Unless you manually put them there.

Perhaps a CPU run team this works correctly , but I assumed the same would happen if I let my A I make every decision also.

The AI won't set your depth chart unless you are below the minimum or above the maximum of active players or roster count. What happens is that the AI takes your depth chart, then has a backup depth chart in case your depth chart fails. If your depth chart is empty, then it will fail - so the AI will make decisions as to who will play, but it won't be as intelligent as it would have been if you had loaded the recommended depth chart.

It sounds more like the Ai is making a random choice instead of a decision if they ever choose a position player to kick FGs when there is an active kicker available.

That's sounds correct, but I assumed the backup depth chart would have chosen a kicker in that place as the kicker was still available to choose from. As I only sets my weights before the allocation and the rest of the AI choices for positions seem to have accuracy and merit, but a WLB to kick seems like a bug or at least 2534 on the list of to dos.

So if you do not set a kicker as a reserve kicker for preseason the back up/ default depth chart will be played across all formations? Again I am assuming this fires again as starters are being pulled because it is preseason and also under the pull starters option for regular season blow out games?

Basically, think of an empty depth chart as 'undefined.' I'll have to look and see why your kicker was not chosen in that situation, WarEagle is right he should have at least scored best. Ideally, though, you should at least load the recommended depth chart so you have some measure of predictability. The AI will never actually fill your depth chart like it will your game plan.