How to switch players on defense during play?

Question

Can someone please explain how to switch players on defense during the play? I'm playing on PC using my Keyboard only. In the settings, the button F is foreseen for switching players (although I have no idea why F is foreseen for both "Switch Players" and "Speed Rush"...?? see screenshot below).
In previous Madden versions I could press F and I switched to the player closest to the ball (or the DB closest to the intended target during passes). In Madden 26 it seems to be completely random. For instance, I play the defender covering the HB in MC and blitz if the HB is assigned to pass blocking. When I want to switch to another player (pressing F) I often end up anywhere at a random DB although no pass is thrown. Sometimes I switch to the defender closest to the QB (who still has the ball). I've also tried to see if it's because I'm pressing the arrow keys, which I use to set the direction, incorrectly. But that makes no difference (if I got it right, a mechanism has been introduced that makes it easier to switch between DBs, but I'd guess you need a controller to do this?).
I'm not sure if I should even try switching players, because if I don't know where I'm going to end up, I constantly make mistakes and take out the defender I'm switching to. I don't even want to know how many TDs I've received just because I reacted completely wrong again, because I didn't switch to the player I expected.
What am I not understanding here?

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neo_novalis · Answer

Ok, I think I've found the issue why I see very weird patterns when playing defense. The key assignment for "Defensive Engaged" and "Defensive Pursuit" is completely broken when using your keyboard (playing on PC).
The assignment of each of the keys F, A, S, D and W is mixed up for playing defense. In the menu "Settings\Game Controls" (screenshots below), for "Defensive Engaged" F has even a dual assignment, while for the others what is listed there as "Advanced Defensive Engaged" seems to be just wrong.
What I've observerd:

F is for switching players along positions (using F combined with the arrow keys, you can also specify the direction in which you want to switch players). That's how I would expect it and how it is listed both in "Defensive Engaged" and "Defensive Pursuit".
The second assignment for F as listed in "Defensive Engaged" seems to not working. I've never managed to do a Speed Rush yet (apart from the fact that, in my opinion, it makes no sense at all to do a speed rush and switch to another player at the same time). Therefore I'd say that (i) the description is wrong and (ii) I have no idea how to do a speed rush.
All buttons listed under the heading "Advanced Defensive Engaged" (except R) are not doing what is described there. I've never managed to do any of these pass rush moves, nor swat the ball.
Instead, W, S, A and D switch players upwards, downwards, left and right respectively. This is not included in the description of Game Controls at all.
In "Defensive Pursuit", W and S do "Hit Stick" and "Cut Stick" (as described in Game Controls), but at the same time they switch players upwards or downwards respectively. The fact that you switch players too / in parallel makes it virtually impossible, at least for me, to react appropriately when the tackle attempt is unsuccessful, because the cursor moves somewhere else.

Summarising, most of the key assignments for playing Defense (Engaged and Pursuit) are just wrong (and wrongly described) and makes it very difficult to (enjoy to) play defense...

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How to switch players on defense during play?

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