FOF2K7: Fewer late-round steals?

[Ben E Lou]

It appears that a side effect of better drafting AI is that fewer players in SP will be late-round/undrafted steals. That being said, it's good to see that they still do exist. I'm looking right now at a QB who was an undrafted, but became a starter in his fourth season in the league. He had four seasons with QB ratings >100, and has a career QB rating of 92.3, 33,929 yards passing, 221 TD passes, one MVP, 2 rings, and was a 5-time All Pro.

I'm also seeing...

• a WR, drafted 4(5), who just had a 1,200 yard season,
• a DE, drafted 7(3) who had >9 sacks 5 times in his career
• another DE, undrafted, woh had >14 sacks three times in his career, and is a 3-time All-Pro
• Lots of guys among the tackles leaders who were drafted in rounds 2-5

Pretty good stuff. I was worried that we'd be seeing no late/undrafted impact players.

[Axxon]

I have an undrafted WR who is getting me around 900-1k yards per season and is rated 45/45. Nothing huge granted but I've let two drafted receivers who basically busted go and he keeps making the roster.

My backup C is also an undrafted rookie who will most likely start if/when my starter retires. These are my two examples that they exist.

Both of them were picked up near the beginning of the career and I haven't hit paydirt since though I haven't really had to look for them.

I did pick up a 6th round QB last season who played well last season when my starter went down going 4-2 on a team that eventually lost in the conference finals. He doesn't look like a star but I'm betting he starts somewhere and plays pretty well. He's one I'm going to follow if I don't start him myself. Reminds me of Gradkowski.

[PSUColonel]

Here is the big question....when you have players like this who seem to outperform scouting ratings, do they ask for more money when renegotiating? I would think they should, otherwise booms, busts and steals seems just like a random effect.

[Axxon]

Originally Posted by PSUColonel

Here is the big question....when you have players like this who seem to outperform scouting ratings, do they ask for more money when renegotiating? I would think they should, otherwise booms, busts and steals seems just like a random effect.

I've noticed that guys who start do ask for more money and the better they do, the more they ask for but they seem to take their ratings into account too so two guys with the same stats come up for renegotiation the guy who is higher rated wants more.

At least that's what I've noticed. I used to search out higher rated guys in 2k4 who hadn't started in free agency to build around and it seems to work still though there aren't as many guys like that to choose from.

[dbd1963]

Not only are the late round steals (apparently) fewer in number, but in my fictional league, the top ten QBs were all picked 1-5 in round one, with most of them picked first. Going down the list of QBs you do start to see the odd 5th or 6th round guy, but nobody in 2nd or 3rd. These guys are rated Avg. though, as you'd expect. Seems it's hard to get a break out
QB, from the impression I'm getting in my game, now 22 years on.

[CraigSca]

In my test league, the top 8 of the top 10 QBs were first-round picks. However, not all of them were early first-rounders. Also, the 4th and 8th best QBs in the league this year were 7th and 4th round picks, respectively.

Looks pretty spot-on to me.