The plays are designed with a primary target, secondary target , and so on. Yes, the play description does have an effect on qb progressions .

It works by using the designated play label like short, medium and long. As well as description in the play name , like you said slant , drag, out or whatever , but it uses them in unison like a medium pass and TE flag at 8 to 10 yards should be the primary target on that play . As long as no others are running meduim.

I am also pretty sure those progressions have a bit of randomness in them as well. If the post and corner are both on the same play and there is no designation in the description. They will be more or less random in who's the #1 target.

Also, like Seth said certain plays just go predominantly to a select reciever . Not only cause of the code described above but because of how tight coverage is, pressure , really just the play matchups almost make certain reads automatic . It may be the 3rd read/option, but in 4.5 and on some of these plays function this way.

Man coverage is way tighter in recent releases and that has lead to better defenses but these auto reads have came alone with it, and they change from code release to code release because of all the working pieces having some effect on reads

My take on pass rec courage, is that the player will be more likely to make and hold on to the catch when he knows he's about to get mashed - vital for a good slot receiver/tight end.

I did see someone wondering what the difference was between ball carrying and avoid fumble? In my opinion, ball carrying is used when catching the ball, whilst avoid fumble is more significant when running the ball - have I got that right, or am I just imagining it?

Ball carrying occurs immediately when the running back retrieves the ball. It's his dexterity abilities. Maneuverability. How can he slice and dice through the holes?

For a receiver it's once he catches the ball how can he move with it. I believe low ball carry slows up the receiver as he takes off with the ball. Longer he goes more he'll putt-putt. Higher rated receivers will diagonally move along the field once they catch the ball and take off....doing their best to avoid a defender angling to cut them off.

Avoid fumble = not giving the ball up. You want this attribute as close to 100 as possible so not to fumble; halting drives or turning the ball over.

here's a good quote on how courage plays a part on passing plays

Re: Dropped Passes
By jdavidbakr - Site Admin
2/26/2014 8:57 pm
When the ball is thrown from the quarterback, the optimal launch vector is determined, and then error is added to it based on the QB's accuracy. The ball is then launched, and the receiver adjusts to get to the optimal receiving location based on the flight path of the ball. Once the receiver reaches his closest point to the ball, if the ball is outside of his arm's length or too high then he is unable to catch it, so he does not get a drop stat. If the ball is within his arm's length, he gets a probability factor of whether or not the catch is made. This takes into consideration his pass catching ability, the distance away from him that the ball is, the altitude of the ball, whether the ball is behind him vs. in front of him (behind him reduces his probability of making the catch), and also the proximity of the defenders and their velocity vectors (if he's about to get a head-on collision, he is more likely to drop the ball, driven by his courage bar and the defender's Punish Receiver bar). If the defender has a strong enough influence in the drop, then instead of a drop stat the defender gets a knock-down stat

100 avoid fumble RB's still fumble, just not as much as lesser RB's.

My 100 Avoid Fumble RB's seem to be worse than lesser RB's. :'(

I get real scared at 40 rating for aNY back, but a 10 avoid fumble guy will fumble every 10 touches or so. With a 100 you will be lucky to get 20 touches a game without a fumble. Theres a balance found by rotational back fields or just pure luck of the draw. Strip really does not matter either . ..at least on the "elite" end...but in clutch senerios I want 100 in those two categories .

250 touches in one season for this zero avoid fumble guy. He fumbled 17 times . ..not bad

https://mfn1.myfootballnow.com/player/14528

This 100 avoid fumble guy gets like 15 touches a game and does pretty good...about 3 to 5 fumbles a season

https://mfn1.myfootballnow.com/player/14874

Basically, the goal is to get as close to 100 as possible or spot on 100. The goal is to avoid a fumble as much as possible. Therefore, the further away you get from 100 avoid fumble the worse off you are.

Also, maybe you get some good karma by not showing daylight on avoid fumble and being pinned at 100. Whereas the 40 avoid fumble RB will cough it up frequently but perhaps also he won't pick up his own fumbles. Fumbles lost. The concept is to try and avoid a fumble as much as possible, therefore, all you can really do is a) pin to 100 and b) don't over-use a run as the sim will notify you when you do. I believe I've seen 'that's what happens when you run the same play' on an RB fumble before.

A lot of it is feel and it's not scientific but my worry would be using a lesser ranked fumble guy would be more apt for the sim to have your guy turn the ball over to the other team. High strip ball vs. low avoid fumble so he doesn't hop back on it but gets overpowered.

Ball carry in the simplest explanation is how fast your player will run when he has the ball. If he has 90 speed and 10 ball carry, he won’t come close to 90 speed after he possesses the ball. That’s it.