Admin Notes
I thought this was a fairly major concern, despite multiple attempts to make it less so. I'd be interested in some comments about this - the concern, which I don't believe was ever fully resolved, was 4WR sets spreading out the defense so much that sweeps (I think especially weak sweeps) were unrealistically effective.
Just adding to the above - perhaps a solution is to always require a tight end when there is a single-back set?
Or, is there only a problem with unbalanced four-WR sets?

Comments
John Henry (Sep 9 15:22:11 2025 )
I would love to balance this out. Part of the reason I left the Pro sims was because of the exploit run over and over by human coaches in that league.

Keith Copeland DDD (Sep 13 22:39:35 2025 )
I voted against this issue because to every offense, there is a defense. In the NFL, people want to ban the Tush Push. I say get a defense to take it away. Anyways in one of my leagues, there is a team that has taken away my 4 wr run game. I think this human owner is a defensive guru and i have to play them twice a season. My advice is come up with a defense. Read the play by plays, study the opponents game plan. Alot people choose man. Go with another type of man or a different defense. I have faith in you.

Gregor Ellis (Sep 14 00:07:14 2025 )
Not sure why the nickel D's (4-2-5 or 3-3-5) aren't very good against the run but would love to see that get adjusted.
For me this is as much about the effectiveness of 2-Man compared to all other D sets especially zone defenses. Most zone D in real football are pretty effective with Cover 3 shell sets and Cover 4 used to manage the 3 and 4-wide O sets against teams that like to run out of them. They rely on the zones being variable - so that in the example of a 3WR set unbalanced to the strong side (with a TE) the zones don't start out with the 2 strongside WRs already overloading the outside zone and if the Rcvrs flood a zone you get an adaptive response, which either doesn't happen or isn't effective enough in DEL.

Coach Proto (Sep 14 08:12:06 2025 )
It's possible to defend these offenses runs with the right combination of game plan AND personnel. Perhaps the zone/man balancing change could contribute positively towards this issue?

There is the "loose" option but it's a little unclear to me how running this type of defense affects the pass rush game.

Somewhat related these teams like to run TB IN routes a lot and with a high-speed TB they are very effective.

I don't know how often I see tailbacks catching 10-15 yard in routes over the middle of the field. That's usually a 6'5" tight end territory as many tailbacks are shorter and would be harder to hit on a middle of the field pass.

Plus if they are constantly running long routes like that I'd think it would have an effect on how gassed they are when handed the ball on the next play.

Pythagoras A (Sep 15 16:07:48 2025 )
It would be nice to be able to have 4 WRs. But, if that makes it too difficult to fix the issue, having a TE could be a work around. Those who prefer to 4 WR sets could just start to recruit/move guys to TE who are really more like WRs anyway.