Oh man, so much information that I'd love to share with you guys on this game..
KillerNerd said:
I've been playing a bunch of Madden lately, and had a bunch of questions. Most of the time I sim out the playoffs and regular season, and then either play the playoff games or use the 'total control simulation'. Here are some questions:
1. What's the best way to get the young players to actually develop?
Seems like my QBs and CBs never get better, and most of the time get worse.
a) How important are position ratings for the coaches?
b) Does practicing plays before games help?
1. a) My advice: Figure out the players that you want to develop the most, and sign a position coach that best suits the positions of the players you want to develop. For instance, let's say you wanted to develop a quarterback, really badly- you could hire Vinny Testaverde to be your OC, and while Vinny Greenballs sucks at basically every other offensive position, your QB's attribute points will go up at a better rate. Your OC should have positional coaching ratings which best apply to the offensive players you want to develop, your DC should have positional coaching ratings "" "" "" defensive players you want to develop, and your Head Coach should just be someone who rates out really highly overall, such as Parcells or Belichick (NE Coach, I think?), someone who ideally is a great motivator. But as someone else said, actual experience and production are way more important in a player's development.
b) no.
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2. How do I get my blockers to actually do something during the punt returns?
I would say about 95% of my punt returns are fair-catches.
There's really not much at all you can do to get off a good return that I know of.. Even on the punt-block audible to a punt return, the computer usually kicks it really high so that it's virtually impossible to return it for a TD. I'd rather compile the yards for my offensive players anyways.
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3. What's the best way to evaluate talent for the rookie drafts?
Doesn't seem like I get many players above a 77 rating in the draft
*breathes deep*
Okay. In my experience with this game, the vast majority of my draft selections have been Wide Receivers. As someone else said, speed is absolutely the most precious attribute in this game; players can't develop speed, but they can develop everywhere else. I like to have the highest possible speed at every position on the field; my QB is Vick, and my TEs are Antonio Gates and Matt Jones (87 and 93 speed, respectively), my Defensive Ends are Boss Bailey and Derrick Johnson (88 and 89 speed at DE!!), my OLBs are a couple of converted SSs, both with 93 speed, and my MLB is Al Wilson. I'll add on a bit later about the value of converting players, but right now I'll try to stay focused on evaluating talent in the draft.
Since I don't know what you want the make-up of your team to look like, I'll describe how you should evaluate each isolated position.
QB: Throw Power and Throw Accuracy are the most important, but I'd recommend just trading for Vick. He's easily worth whatever you give up for him, and he gives you the option of bailing on a play whenever it goes badly. Some people will say that using Vick is cheesy, but it's nice to not ever have to punt. But if you're looking to develop your own guy, the first keys are definitely TP and TA; you want your guy to have "Amazing" evaluations in those two categories, but if I had to select one over the other, Throw Power is definitely the more important of the two. Accuracy comes with experience, and within 3 years, a QB with 99 TP will likely be serviceable enough with his Accuracy that he can start for your team.
RB: Speed, speed, speed. Absolutely without a doubt, the best way to make for a productive running game is to use a player who has the highest Speed rating, followed by Break Tackle. In my experience, the most fun guys to use at RB are the badasses with 99 Break Tackle. I have a RB whom I drafted named Anthony Mansfield; dude's a beast, but he only has 89 speed, and while he only averages somewhere in the neighborhood of 6 yards a carry during the games (I've run the ball 62 times with him in a game before, so teams stack up against him, preventing high YPC averages), he also usually averages about 15 Broken Tackles per game. It's awesome to bowl over DBs. But, if you're after simply a productive running game, your best bet is to trade for the fastest WR you can find and then convert him to RB. Not only are most receivers faster than RBs, they also have a higher inherent Catch rating. I used Bethel Johnson (98 speed) as a RB for about 3 years, and with the mammoth offensive line I had blocking for him, he was a freaking BEAST. When he got to the 2nd level, he was gone, and on 3rd downs he could catch the ball out of the backfield better than just about any other RB in the game. Don't be scared to draft a strong WR with good speed as your starting RB; keep in mind that Anthony Mansfield ran a 4.23 forty before I drafted him, but for whatever reason he only rated out with 89 speed after I signed him. The speed ratings translate the most accurately for WRs, and there's nothing more frustrating than blowing your load over a RB with sub-4.3 speed and him rating out with sub-90 speed after you sign him.
WR: Again- speed. I look first at the forty they run, followed by Height and then Strength. If I have two players who have the exact same attributes, I look at how they Interviewed with the team. I don't know if you've ever played MVP Baseball, but they have a system of Player Ratings where certain players have 5-stars; I have a hunch that Electronic Arts did the same thing in this game, and they did it with their Interview ratings. Most of the guys I have drafted had at least an Average rating in the Interview process, and my team is pretty much 99s across the board. This Interview principle is a tiebreaker for all the positions you evaluate as far as I'm concerned. The guys who post up good Interviews are also less likely to hold out for a better contract, I believe. The Height of the receiver seems to matter as well, because I have a much easier time throwing hard passes to tall receivers on slant routes than the short guys. I dunno.
TE: This one really depends on what type of offense you like to run. I like to utilize my TE position dependent upon what I'm doing on offense. For example, in my 2-TE single-back set, which I pass out of 100% of the time, I have Antonio Gates and Matt Jones set at TE. But in my Strong-I formation, which I run out of 99% of the time, I have simply subbed in my best back-up offensive lineman as the TE to run-block for my badass RBs. I generally ignore this position in the draft, unless a guy with sub-4.4 speed falls to like the 3rd/4th round or something. Converted WRs are much more productive here for passing offenses, and most TEs that you can draft max out at like 84 speed. This is another position where I feel converted WRs are the best value.
Tackle, Guard, Center: The first attribute I look at here is Strength, without question. The second I evaluate is their rating in the run-blocking and pass-blocking categories, which again are dependent on what type of offense you like to run. But you really can't miss here if you just draft for Strength, Run/Pass Blocking rating, 40-time, and finally character (the Interview rating). Pretty much anybody that has 90+ strength will develop into a 90+ offensive lineman after just 2 or 3 years on the bench. Even the young guys you sign off waivers develop into solid starting linemen, assuming you have a quality OC. Another tidbit to add here: Centers are by far the best value you can get on the offensive line. Those 99 guys at Center like Olin Kreutz and Kevin Mawae (just as an example) convert into excellent Tackles as well, and they usually cost less and are much easier to trade for. Conversely, trading for a guy like Jonathan Ogden will not only cost you $6 million plus, but it will also cost you a fortune to trade for him since he plays Tackle (for some reason this game forces you to pay more for Tackles than Centers). I hate drafting linemen though, it's too easy to just trade for guys on other teams, and since I started with the Bengals, I didn't need very much on the offensive line anyway.
DE: DO NOT EVER DRAFT DEFENSIVE LINEMEN. EVER. EVER EVER EVER. They are a piss-poor value, they're slow, and even if they run a fast 40-yard dash, their speed will inevitably reduce to somewhere in the 75-84 range after you sign them. I just convert LBs to DEs, because my defense is largely based on speed and sacking the quarterback/forcing interceptions. Hell, you can sign a fast LB like Roanall Smith off waivers, and he'll be a 90+ DE with 83 speed in just a year's time. I also have yet to notice any deficiencies by my converted DEs in stopping the run. I think Jonathan Vilma is a 99 at DE the moment you convert him, but I can't remember.
DT: Another position I generally avoid in the draft. I actually like to convert MLBs to be my DTs, because for some reason, out of all the players in the defensive front seven, MLBs rate out higher at every position you can switch them to. You'll notice if you've fooled around with this before that, in terms of difficulty, MLB seems to be the toughest position to get a good player at. Every defensive player from the front seven will suffer in attributes when you convert them to MLB, but every MLB will improve when shifted to OLB, DT, or DE. But yeah, in terms of evaluating DTs in the draft, I've never really even cared enough to sort them out by anything other than Strength and 40-time.
OLB: This is one of my favorite positions; if you're looking for speed at OLB, my advice to you is to draft a bunch of Strong Safeties, and then convert them to OLB. Strong Safeties have better Speed and better Catch ratings, and their overall rating actually increases most of the time when you convert them to OLB. I like this type of player at OLB, because I can call the same goal-line defense every down, and I'll have 90+ speed matched up with whoever the WRs on the other team are, even though my Linebackers are the ones who are matched up with the WRs. Evaluating OLBs in the draft though, I really just look at Speed, Hands, and Character.
MLB: Not much different here than OLB.
CB: This position is the only other position besides WR where their 40-time in the draft translates to their actual time after you sign them. There's no guaranteed way of knowing what their Speed ratings are before you sign them, but generally if a WR or CB runs a sub-4.3 forty, he will have 95+ speed. The problem I have with drafting Cornerbacks is that, while they tend to be fast, their Catch ratings usually suck. What I've done on several of my franchises is convert fast WRs (sometimes even guys I signed off the waiver wire; case in point: Carlos Francis, a 76ish WR with 95+ speed, who after a couple of years developed into a 95+ overall FS) into defensive backs. I'm all about the INT, so the ability to catch the ball is a must. At the very least, if I'm going to draft a CB, they better be fast as ####, because otherwise I could just draft a scrubbish WR and get better value anyways. This WR Conversion principle applies to every position in the secondary.
FS: Meh. Same as CB.
SS: Also pretty much the same as CB. I notice though that here the computer seems to value players that have high Tackle ratings. You'll be just as well to convert a WR to be your SS though. Draft all the SSs with good speed and convert them to OLB.
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4. What happens if you ignore players that are holding out?
I thought there were more questions, but I'll probably think of them later....
I'm somewhat of a cut-throat when it comes to these bastards. What I usually like to do is re-sign them to an absurd contract with zero signing bonus, and then trade them for draft picks. I hate when players hold out, but what you can also do, which is a pretty cheesy but effective method, is to edit them to a position where they rate poorly, re-sign them to a 7-year deal, and then convert them back. If you edit them and they're still demanding a lot of money inspite of a severe drop in overall rating, just cut them loose onto the waiver wire, and then re-sign them to a cheap 7-year deal.
And as a side, here are the strategies I use on offense and defense, the defensive one in particular I think you'll find fun to play around with.
OFFENSE
Playbook: TB-J. Gruden
Favorite Passing Play: Single-back Normal formation -> Dual Drag
Favorite Running Play: Strong I-Normal formation -> HB Off Tackle
On the running play listed there, choose the direction you want to run it based on which ever side the defense is giving you. If you're running it towards the side with the TE, shift the WR on the side of the TE to move to the opposite side, than snap the ball and run the play as soon as the WR crosses behind the QB. If you're running towards the weak side, just shift your fullback to block for you in that direction. I've had a lot of success using this running play.
DEFENSE
I use the Jam Cover 1 play out of the Goal Line formation every. single. down. As soon as you call this play, push Triangle + Right (aligns your defensive players with their assigned man), push Triangle + Down (bumps the opposing WRs at the line of scrimmage), and shift your defensive linemen away from the TE on the offensive side. This frees up the guy off the edge to run free at the QB on passing plays, resulting in an absurd number of sacks. Even if the opposing offense is running towards the weak-side, you can just control the SS who's covering deep and keep him hovering over the side with the TE, and then force the play towards your defensive linemen.
UBER-CHEESY MOVE YOU CAN DO ON DEFENSE
Hold on to R2 to look at the buttons for the players on the opposing offense. If the HB's button shows up as L1, it's virtually guaranteed that it will be a passing play. If it is R1, there's roughly a 90% chance that it will be a running play, unless it is in the Single-back 3-WR set or the Weak I-formation. Sadly, this works online as well.
Ok, I'm going to bed.
No way...
