Last year Adalius Thomas was a DE-LB 10, this year he's an LB-7. Is he any lesser a player now than he was then? Of course not, he was just used
differently by the Ravens and Patriots. The Ravens basically played him everywhere, even lined him up as a corner a couple times and used him as a rush DT. It
isn't that he was particularly good in these roles, rather the unpredictable way he was used made him a more lethal OLB ... you never knew what to expect
from him. The Patriots, on the other hand, forced him inside, where he was a lunchbucket ILB. The 7 rating from DK is fair considering his role. It does make
me wonder, however, just how applicable DK ratings are in draft leagues. Thomas is a perfect example of why you CAN have too many 10s on a defense. In a
different scheme with different roles, there's no way for Thomas to display his full talents. Action FB ratings are designed with the stock teams in mind
... even a great defense with no weaknesses tends to shine a bright line on the two or three best performers, which leads those players to get the recognition
while the second tier talent is unsung. Going back to Thomas, it took injuries to Ray Lewis and Ed Reed in late 2005 and again in 2006 for people to start
appreciating just how good he is. Just pointing this out because I think a lot of the "issues" that players have with Action FB is due to the
unrealistic way our draft leagues use the game engine. Personally, I think star players tend to skew the game, especially in smaller leagues. But that's
not really the game's fault because it wasn't build for the kind of 16 to 24 team leagues using full NFL talent that we're running. In real life,
it's impossible to have a full team of All Pro defenders. It's the Observer Effect in action ... once you put those 11 stars together on the field at
the same time, you immediately start discriminating and choosing the best of the best.

