Need some help from GM only players

[DerkontheOS]

I have a single player career, 10 seasons deep, and I can't seem to get past the divisional round.

I have built the best team, consistently in the top of the power rankings.

Have some of the best coaches

However I've only made the playoffs twice and my best season is 9-7. I go 8-8 most seasons, it seems my team gets beat up on early in the season and then comes on late. What am I doing wrong?

[A-Husker-4-Life]

How does your QB look?

[garion333]

Yeah, QB is def the top question.

Are you handline anything related to depth? The AI can be less than great about that. Sometimes you need to make sure you are getting your best players on the field more often, despite their endurance.

[Squirrel]

Quick way if you haven't played FOF much: Trade everything away for draft picks. Then be bad for three years, and during those three drafts pick a QB with the 1.1 pick if there's a good one, a WR if there isn't. Use the raw score on the draft board to help you see who's the best at each position. You'll end up with >60 QB-WR-WR. Use the 2nd pick each time on the best OL guy on the board. You'll end up with a good OL and a passing game, and then you'll start winning. Use the lower round picks on defense. Re-sign everyone good when you have to. Eventually the championships will flow. If they don't, either (1) go back to square one and do it all again with a different QB or (2) start getting into trading for future 1st round picks, which is the most obvious way to dominate the AI in SP. You can build silly rosters that way if you're inclined to.

Longer way to getting better at FOF: Read everything Ben has posted on here in the past 10 years and reflect on it. It takes a while

[rush_27]

Quick way if you haven't played FOF much: Trade everything away for draft picks. Then be bad for three years, and during those three drafts pick a QB with the 1.1 pick if there's a good one, a WR if there isn't. Use the raw score on the draft board to help you see who's the best at each position. You'll end up with >60 QB-WR-WR. Use the 2nd pick each time on the best OL guy on the board. You'll end up with a good OL and a passing game, and then you'll start winning. Use the lower round picks on defense. Re-sign everyone good when you have to. Eventually the championships will flow. If they don't, either (1) go back to square one and do it all again with a different QB or (2) start getting into trading for future 1st round picks, which is the most obvious way to dominate the AI in SP. You can build silly rosters that way if you're inclined to.

Longer way to getting better at FOF: Read everything Ben has posted on here in the past 10 years and reflect on it. It takes a while

My god. That sounds horrible. How would you ever have fun playing the game that way?

This is how I play SP mode;

Rex depth charts
Rex playbooks and game plans
No trading whatsoever
Only sign free agents who are a current or potential affinity (coloured green)

Usually ends up with being the best team within after several seasons. SP is easy easy enough without having to trade for the best picks every year. It's not what's about talent either. Keeping the core of your roster together year in, year out with good cohesion. Every off season, I have about 45 players retained from the previous season

[Squirrel]

Oh sure, I wouldn't play SP like that for fun. But that wasn't the question

[wustin]

If I rex the depth chart I'm going to get QBs that start 14-15 games every season and my top WR is going to have 900 rec yards with 7 TDs

[DerkontheOS]

My QB is 73/73
RB is 75/75
No receivers over 58
OL range from 88 to 62

3-4 defense
DEs 55 and 58
NT 88
MLBs 86 and 68
OLBs 72 and 70
CBs 59, 55, 52
SS 43
FS 75

I dont have a problem drafting, its just that my best players are never getting the most snaps. My back up Rb consistently has more carries then my starter and my QB throws 15 INTs to 12 TDs every year.

[wustin]

take control of the depth chart and start all your top players in every/most formations

make sure rex doesn't stick a linebacker in a DB or DE position.

[Squirrel]

My QB is 73/73
RB is 75/75
No receivers over 58
OL range from 88 to 62

3-4 defense
DEs 55 and 58
NT 88
MLBs 86 and 68
OLBs 72 and 70
CBs 59, 55, 52
SS 43
FS 75

I dont have a problem drafting, its just that my best players are never getting the most snaps. My back up Rb consistently has more carries then my starter and my QB throws 15 INTs to 12 TDs every year.

Cool. Thanks for posting this. I'll have a go at responding and would love to see what others say. But before I do I should say you should listen to garion over me, he does this in SP (http://www.operationsports.com/fofc/showpost.php?p=3145726&postcount=2) which I was getting close to before switching to MP, but never quite that good. And you should also listen first to numerous others, many of whom have something like 10 years of experience over garion, so 15 years total (!).

But anyway if you gave that roster to me I would

- downgrade the starting RB because if you've got a QB like that you want to encourage the coaches to pass it more (addition by subtraction)
- Use your 1st round picks to upgrade WRs and TE
- stop picking linebackers towards the top of the draft, besides making sure you have a WLB with good pass rush technique and strength bars. Use the picks in the secondary instead
- re-sign everyone other than the LBs and RB every year if you can to build cohesion. So preserve cap and don't pay serious $ to anyone in free agency that isn't an improvement at WR or TE

[zsteelers]

I assume you are playing FOF8 -- if so, could you post your coach attributes?

from 100+ seasons of FOF8 SP, it seems to me that coaches have a higher impact now than in FOF7. I've had stretches like yours in SP (excellent roster but poor playoff performances), and in this limited sample, I would think that it was either due to poor QB performances in the playoffs or poor team performances (meaning bad coaches). worth going through the logs and see how you are losing those playoff games. my feeling is that a good coach can be the difference between 5-11 and 11-5 in a season, or one and done vs deep postseason run.

as for roster building, this is what I love in FOF8: there's several ways of building a championship roster, and I'd say it's heavily intertwined with game plans. you could follow Squirrel's approach and it has worked nicely for me in SP (strong QB and receivers, strong secondary) as long as you have the appropriate game plan. I.e. in that scenario, if you're rexing and the AI is running the ball too much, you're probably not making use of your best offensive weapons as Squirrel mentioned. regarding D, if your gameplan is to bring pressure and you don't have the players to do that (DE/DT/LB), it's likely not gonna work. you could also building an O around a stud O line and a game manager QB and win, or the D around a strong DL/LB corp and make sure your DBs do not surrender a big play and can play well in the redzone.