Admin Notes
It's been a while since this discussion, but I think the specific request was to make the advantages and disadvantages of man vs. zone defense be more realistic. Taking data from the help pages:
http://www.dolphinsim.com/help/coach/details.shtml
A 2-man defense is better almost across the board than a 2-zone defense. Two-zone is slightly better against the run (0.11 yard/play), with zone giving up fewer long gains but man getting more tackles for loss. Against the pass, 2-man got far more pressure on the passer, likely from linebackers rushing when their man stays in protection; they get roughly equivalent defense on passes thrown (zone slightly lower completion percentage offset by more yards per catch).
Overall, I think teams play more zone in real-life. Perhaps a couple tweaks could be in order. First, man defense should be more likely to have defenders out of position if their assigned receiver is running a route. Second, it probably isn't realistic for zone to give up more yards per catch.
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Comments would be appreciated.

Comments
Gregor Ellis (Sep 14 00:13:44 2025 )
Yes Yes Yes this would be great. I think that also goes beyond to 1-Man sets that I don't think are effective enough at getting pressure on the QB in passing situations to balance out the lack of the 2nd deep SF.

Jim Caruso (Sep 14 19:00:37 2025 )
The more variety for successful defensive strategies, the better. I imagine the cumulative defense for top teams is 75-80% 2-man. It would also be more interesting to adjust gameplans depending on if facing man/zone defense. I think most of us use the same offensive gameplan every week (or perhaps for many seasons).