Undrafted Free Agents Change the Game, But Not As Much in Madden

[Hassan Darkside]

Man, I'd be happy if newly drafted players weren't in the FA pool. CPU teams treat rookies and young players like everyone else, if they have a low rating according to the scheme fit, they get cut.

[Mauer4MVP]

I agree with the no ratings or at least give letter grades and base it off your teams' scouting.

[grushcow]

Madden has need a player rater for a while. For example what they have in FIFA. Some means to measure how well a player is performing across a season. Without that the franchise mode is stale. You're not touching your OL because you have no means of measuring them, all you have to work with is their overall rating.

[Godgers12]

Madden needs an UDFA signing period after the draft. Since draft size is only about 280, my suggestion would be to have the UDFA pool be separate from the draft pool, so each team can sign 10+ guys. Also the pool it self would vary for each team. In the weeks leading up to the draft your scouts will discover certain players and give non ratings based feedback on them. Certain players will be the same for everyone, but you might get "Unique" players that your scouts discovered based on the skill of said scout.

Now most of these players will suck as is the case in real life, but it would be possible to find that 80 ovr CB, or HB. Also, just because you place a bid, doesn't mean they will sign, there are 31 other teams. I'd also like to see ATH players added to the draft and UDFA. For instance a 65 OVR WR with blazing speed may be an 80 OVR at CB ex. Sam Shields, or a 60 OVR QB may be a 75 at WR or HB.

I'd absolutely love a system like this, and wouldn't be all that hard to implement.

[Ampking101]

Another thing I would also like to add to the discussion about hiding true ratings of players is that it makes preseason matter again.

I don't even bother playing preseason games because I can just look at ratings and traits and immediately know the players I want to keep and the ones I will never use.

With this type of a system implemented you would now have a reason to play preseason because the way to judge players would be to....play with them. What a novel idea. I know I'm being facetious but I'm tired of being able to tell if a player will be good just by looking at their ratings.

This would also make franchise much more interactive because instead of ratings, now you have to look at production to gauge a players ability, now if you have a player you took in the 1st round but he had very little production but you have a free agent who put up a ton of production, you might think about starting that player instead. It would also make trading more interesting, now instead of looking at their ratings, you are looking at what they have been able to do, what if they are a bad player who that particular player was able to make look good because of the scheme he ran.

It does so much more to remove ratings that we can see and that can make us biased. Increase the amount of UDFA's each year and make some of them true stars but the only way to ever find out is through actually playing with them and even adding in the ability to have like prodays, or tryouts held before drafting or signing players especially with a large pool of UDFA's to try and gauge their ability would be amazing. It would definitely make me want to play preseason again to see what these guys can do and it only adds more value to the game.

[HenryClay1844]

Does any game represent this well? Does any game represent the draft bust well either? Look at the Leicester City team and Riyad Mahrez and Jamie Vardy. I guarantee you if you went to FIFA 13 and signed Mahrez from Le Harve you couldn't make him a superstar. Do your first round draft picks ever bust in Madden? I've haven't played it in years.

[Kwarren3]

I always check free agency after the draft for several things: really fast WR's/HB's, fast LB's, Tall WR with decent catch, and strong DT's. It's always fun to have 1 or 2 developmental guys on the roster. I wish I would have grabbed a screenshot of transactions to prove it, but somehow an 84 overall OLB went undrafted in my Vikings franchise. It was in my 5th season so I already had Barr into high 90's, Kendricks in high 80's and had drafted a guy the year before. But of course I signed him anyway.

[MAGboyswifT27]

I never thought about this concept while playing Madden. It'd be very interesting for EA to get deep into the NFL world. It could be possible in the future...