In case you haven’t noticed already, the College Football 26 community is full of nerds, ourselves included. We love our sliders, talking about situational positions, and even doing some light gatekeeping against those who don’t understand college football as a sport and want its video game representation to resemble other games. That said, we are also the first in line to offer criticisms when they’re warranted.
And you know what’s very deserving of said criticism? Archetypes in College Football 26.
I’m not anti-archetype or anything — it’s simply used as a way to apply certain skillsets to players who excel within certain areas of football. What I am against, however, is those archetypes being broken and locked behind a progression system that seemingly doesn’t work, and there being no means of fixing it.
Archetype Progression Is Broken In College Football 26
Over on the EA Forums, user Psckervaf (who we’ll refer to as “Packer” for the remainder of the article for simplicity’s sake) posted some of their findings regarding archetypes, or rather compiled a list of findings from others in the CFB community. Before we get into Archetypes that can’t be achieved, here are the positions that are unaffected by these issues:
- QB
- HB
- FB
- CB
- Kicker
- Punter
Now that we’ve addressed what positions are seemingly unaffected, let’s get into the reason you came here: Archetypes that either can’t be achieved or are next to impossible to achieve. This is pretty much verbatim what Packer divulged, just formatted to be a bit more reader-friendly.
Wide Receiver (WR)
Bizarrely, wide receivers are the ones who take the biggest hit when it comes to Archetypes. Which is crazy, considering they’re typically among the more dynamic and talented players on the field at any given time.
-
Gritty Possession WRs
- Can’t unlock Outside Shield – No access to RB Finesse
- Can’t unlock Second Level – No access to Impact Blocking
- Can’t unlock Sure Hands – No access to Catch in Traffic
-
Gadget WRs
- Can’t unlock Dot – No Deep Accuracy (or any accuracy stats at all)
-
Physical Route Runner WRs
- Can’t unlock Sure Hands – No Catch in Traffic
- Can’t unlock 50/50 – No Spec Catch
Fun fact: this same archetype at Tight End can unlock all their abilities. So, yes, a TE Physical Route Runner is better than a WR one, for reasons unknown. So yeah, make sense of that, why don’t you?
On the upside, Speedsters, Contested Specialists, Route Artists, and Elusive Route Runners are fully functional and can reach their abilities.
Tight End (TE)
-
Pure Blocker TEs
- Can’t unlock Second Level – No Impact Blocking
-
Gritty Possession TEs
- Can’t unlock Outside Shield – No RB Finesse
Yes, you’ve read that right. When it comes to receiver Archetypes, tight ends have their pick of the litter. But blocking Archetypes? You know, the things tight ends are supposed to be good at? EA is selling them short there.
Offensive Line (OL)
-
Raw Strength OL
- You can technically unlock all abilities, but the cost to upgrade attributes is absurdly high compared to other O-Line archetypes. Like, “go play another position” high.
- All other OL archetypes — Agile, Pass Protector, and Well-Rounded — work just fine.
Edge Rushers (EDGE)
-
Pure Power (which seems to have replaced “Physical Freak”)
- Can’t unlock Pocket Disruptor – No Finesse Moves
-
Edge Setter
- Can’t unlock Workhorse – No Toughness
-
Power Rusher
- Can’t unlock Workhorse – No Toughness
Only Speed Rusher archetypes can access all their abilities. Cool.
Defensive Tackle (DT)
-
Pure Power DTs
- Can’t unlock Pocket Disruptor – No Finesse Moves
-
Power Rusher DTs
- Can’t unlock Workhorse – No Toughness
Gap Specialists and Speed Rushers are safe.
Linebacker (LB)
-
Signal Caller LBs
- Can’t unlock Workhorse – No Toughness
Other linebacker archetypes — Thumpers and Lurkers — don’t have this issue.
Safety (S)
-
Box Specialist
- Can’t unlock Workhorse – No Toughness
Coverage Specialists and Hybrids are fine.
Is There A Fix For These Issues?
Unfortunately, there doesn’t seem to be a fix for this. At least, there isn’t anything the player can do in the meantime. Maybe, just maybe, EA can find a way to patch these issues out. But from the looks of it, this seems to be a design flaw on EA’s part and something that may need to be rebuilt from the ground up. The only “workaround” (if you can even call it that) is for players to have these abilities pre-loaded when they’re recruited out of high school. If they don’t have them, then getting them will be either impossible or extremely difficult.
Now, I know what you’re thinking: “But Christian, these kinds of archetypes aren’t exactly common, and most players shouldn’t have access to them ever.” And to that, I agree! However, there should be a pathway for at least some players — especially those who are incredibly gifted generational athletes — to at least work towards achieving them.
Also, look at how some of these Archetypes are distributed! You can’t tell me with a straight face that tight ends should have access to more catch-based Archetypes than wide receivers do. That just can’t happen.
