While i get what your saying, the thing is , those guys actually had a higher dev trait when they came out of college. The only thing is the scouts overlooked them.They didnt just all the sudden , get a bunch of stats then they started being good players.They were already good. Russell , as a matter of fact, was already so much better than they thought, he started his rookie season, when it wasnt even the play originally. That dont mean , after 4 preseason games, he just all the sudden became a fast devolping guy.He already was, because of his skill,study , and work ethic.Had 0 to do with stats.
In madden, if you get a guy , you like his basic skill sets that you can use, you can force him the ball and try to win player of week award ( which may give increase in dev) or shoot for a yearly award , or just give him enough stats to make probowl , and bam increase in dev is a higher chance. My point here is , this is not a real mimic of real life.Good stats dont = quicker dev in real life. They actually already had higher dev in real life, and that is why they ended up with good stats, not the other way around.