Efficient Scouting

[Drtro]

I've been reading through a few draft guides and can't really learn anything. It's just basically everybody telling the ratings of prospects.

How can I efficiently use my scouting points? I save them up until the Off-Season and scout then. I know what attributes and stuff to scout and all though after I scout my first 1-3 round picks, I don't know what to do with the remaining points.

How do I scout for all of my picks? How do I find that 6th round Alfred Morris clone? How do I decide on what position I need THIS year without just drafting the lowest ovr position I have?

I'm not really looking to scout for highest ovr players, just need help on if my MLB position should be filled with a first round pick or fourth. If you understand what I'm saying. How do I evaluate the draft board to my roster.

[RogueHominid]

Quote: Originally Posted by Drtro

I've been reading through a few draft guides and can't really learn anything. It's just basically everybody telling the ratings of prospects. How can I efficiently use my scouting points? I save them up until the Off-Season and scout then. I know what attributes and stuff to scout and all though after I scout my first 1-3 round picks, I don't know what to do with the remaining points. How do I scout for all of my picks? How do I find that 6th round Alfred Morris clone? How do I decide on what position I need THIS year without just drafting the lowest ovr position I have? I'm not really looking to scout for highest ovr players, just need help on if my MLB position should be filled with a first round pick or fourth. If you understand what I'm saying. How do I evaluate the draft board to my roster.

Here's what I did, though I'm sure there are better ways.

I identified top picks by finding players at positions of importance on my team who not only had decent physical ratings, but also good awareness and play recognition. If these guys are predicted to go in the first 3 rounds, I make sure not to see if I can get one to slip.

In the middle rounds, I look to players with decent physical ratings who might lack ideal ratings in play recognition, awareness, or one positional rating like block shedding or strength or whatever. These players are backups, special teams players, and projects for me.

In the late rounds, I look for guys who have a single, defined skill that I can use, like kick returning or a back who can catch or a 3rd string LB who can hit and play ST.

To determine how many points I want to spend, I look first at the most important ratings for me and my team (like speed and man coverage for corners). If a player passes those tests (200-300 points), then I scout awareness and play recognition.

For the promising picks, I scout them thoroughly so I can rank them relative to other potential picks at their position. For the roster fillers, I just scout a few things and let the rest be.

I know that's not a point by point breakdown, but that's the idea I use.

[heime2003]

if my specific position needs upgrade, i pick the best player in that draft( i see dev and ovr vs scheme) lotusfather's guide in this forum helps me a lot

but if i need a solid back up in case my starter get injured i tend to use FA market (rookies dont have good awareness to perform better than veterans)

or u can still draft lower round players if hes rating falls into mid-70s

[Drtro]

What I've been doing is if say I need a better MLB, I'll go through MLB and scout every prospect's intangible and physical ratings whether projected round 1 or 7. If both are at least C?, I then scout the attributes that relate to my player schemes.

This has gone good for finding my starters. But past round 4 or so when they all become F? and D?, I don't know what to scout to spot out the gems. Do I scout awareness?

[heime2003]

imo development ratings and ovr are the most important things when drafting guys.

if he has good ovr but has poor dev (1 or 2) he is not likely to develop into good player

plz refer to lotusfather's draft guide

scouting other ratings besides ovr and dev is not neccesary ( i often find players with high in key stats is very low in ovr)

[KBLover]

Quote: Originally Posted by Drtro

How do I scout for all of my picks? How do I find that 6th round Alfred Morris clone? How do I decide on what position I need THIS year without just drafting the lowest ovr position I have?

I always, always spend a significant amount of point scouting the 4th to 7th rounds. Of course, I scout the higher prospects, but once I identify a target or two for my need positions, I start scouting everywhere on lower projected kids, need positions or not. You can never have too much depth in the NFL, imo.

I make sure to scout their key attributes and maybe speed if it's a position like WR or DB where usage can matter a lot based on speed. (I do LB too mostly because I MUST have solidly fast LBs for how I use them).

Usually, this doesn't cost many points. Coverage abilities are just 100 (MCV and ZCV), PRC is 50 I believe. You know have a strong idea how well he can cover folks. Run blocking and catching and THA's are similar. I stay with the grades on these kids since they are flyers. If they don't pan out quite as good as I though or are a bit more of a project, that's fine. It's worth the risk.

As far as determining need positions, I look at my team's production, the scheme I want to run, and of course the personnel I have now.

Quote: Originally Posted by Drtro

I'm not really looking to scout for highest ovr players, just need help on if my MLB position should be filled with a first round pick or fourth. If you understand what I'm saying. How do I evaluate the draft board to my roster.

Mostly, I go by production and depth of talent.

For example, I identify QB on my Raiders team as a higher need. Pryor isn't terrible, but I could use an upgrade to help the offense. Because of this, I'll scout the top round kids pretty highly. If Pryor got hurt...I don't even want to think about it. Josh Johnson is worse. So, I lack depth and need an upgrade at starter. That makes QB a high priority.

I'll scout the higher projected prospects relatively deeply. I'll open up SAC, MAC, DAC on high and low round prospects. On guys I like, I'll investigate further with THP, AWR, and SPD (SPD is the mobility checker - is he closer to Marino or Manning, a 'true' mobile QB like RG III or Vick, or a pocket guy who can move well if need be like Aaron Rodgers - prefer at least the "move and gain yards running if needed).

Now let's say I had someone like Philip Rivers - I might would make QB a medium priority. I would likely bypass the 1st and maybe 2nd round prospects. I'd want to use those on different need areas. So, I would focus from mid-round on down.

If I had someone like Aaron Rodgers or Andrew Luck, QB would be a depth-only priority. That's where I'd focus on 5th and lower and look for kids to take a flyer on when it's the 5th round and it's like "what do I want to do with this pick?" I can take one of those "if and maybe" prospects.

[KBLover]

Quote: Originally Posted by heime2003

scouting other ratings besides ovr and dev is not neccesary ( i often find players with high in key stats is very low in ovr)

I go the opposite, but I don't care at all about OVR.

If he has B or better grades in that position's key areas, he's either weak in one (to where I can devote his XP, especially if it's a technique type rating like PRC or AWR), or he's good where he needs to be in order to produce and the weaker areas can be worked around, effectively "increasing" his OVR in terms of his production.

Given how OVR is weighted, a guy could have a solid OVR but be weaker in a key area or two. That could effectively "lower" his OVR in terms of what production he'd produce.

Just as in M12, there are players I start that have lower OVR. It's how they play that matters, not EA's formula for coming up with that rating.

[Maxil]

I also avoid OVR, OVR is generally a worthless stat because OVR does nothing itself. I much rather look AWR-PRC-XYZ on defense and AWR-XYZ on offense, xyz being the core attributes I will be using that player for. i.e. I am a run heavy team, so I always look to str, rbk, agi on my olinemen. One might only be a 72 overall but have 80+ stats in those catagories, and will perform better than a 90 ovr with those stats.

Also helps on cap as they usually don't want as much money, and easier to trade for players you need when they aren't held up on a pedestal by the CPU for having high ovr.

My teams play has improved significantly since last year when I stoped caring about OVR. (being AI stuff)

I do the same thing in MUT mode.. My team only has a skill level of like 72 but they play just balls to the walls awesome against 90+ cpu and human teams