FOF 4.0c Drafting

[Tex Schramm]

Just curious, does anyone have any sort of strategy or advice for drafting with the most recent patch? This has probably already been talked about ad nauseum, but it seems like it's only possible to get superstars in the first round of the draft. When I do a search for the best players among current rosters, almost all of them are former first-round picks.

[Godzilla Blitz]

Actually, I think there hasn't been much discussion about FOF4. I've been playing quite a bit lately, and have a truckload of things I'm curious about.

I don't know if I can offer much in the way of strategy, but I do have some observations:

1. The AI is, on the whole, extremely sharp when it comes to drafting the best talent on the board. I haven't been paying too much attention to how smartly it drafts in terms of its particular needs, but by and large the AI is picking the better players fairly quickly.

2. It does have its weakspots. Punters, especially, but kickers as well, tend to get ignored until quite late in the draft (often the 6th or 7th round). I made the mistake early of blowing a fourth round pick on a punter that I am certain now that I could have gotten 8 times out of 10 in the 6th or 7th round. Sometimes outstanding talent is just sitting around in round six. The strategy here seems to be: Don't draft punters and kickers until very late, if at all.

3. I haven't played enough yet to know for sure, but players with good ratings across the board, except for an extremely low rating in a particular category, often go much later than I sometimes think they should. For example, the AI seems to devalue players with little to no endurance. I've seen quite a few good players with crappy endurance ratings basically get ignored by the AI. Also, I'm not sure on this yet, but DB's with a horrible rating in either man-to-man or zone defense might de getting devalued by the AI as well.

4. The drafts I have seen so far vary quite a bit from year to year. I have seen quite good talent in the later rounds in a couple years, and pretty crappy talent by round four in other years. This would seem to dictate towards trading later picks away when the draft is weak, and trading for picks when the draft pool is stacked. Whether this would be taking advantage of the AI too much is a personal call.

5. I've found that my 5th, 6th and 7th round picks, much like real life, often don't make the team. I've been trying now to pick players in these rounds that clearly fill a weak spot on my roster, so as to get as much as possible out of these late picks.

6. I haven't looked too much, but breakouts and busts are much more difficult to spot, and feel much more realistic than I remember them being in previous versions of FOF. What usually happens is that a player comes in to camp slightly down or up from his pre-draft level, then gradually drops or gains more rating points over the first couple of years. Often, the player seems to level out within 10-20% of his initial ratings, which is often enough to turn a top prospect into merely a "good" player, or turn a mediocre player into a "good" one. The whole system just feels much more realistic than before (although I am not sure if it is just me).

[Peregrine]

Actually, I have noticed that most of the great talent goes in round one, but since the patch I have found more "steals" in the 4th or 5th rounds, solid picks with good talent who turn out to be very solid players. Also, I know it was this way pre-patch, but what's with all the centers? It seems like there's 10 times as many of them available in most drafts than guards or tackles, even in later rounds. I've just started drafting them and changing their position to other OL spots, they're still better even after the hit than the Gs or Ts I could draft at the same position.

[strait8]

I have noticed that drafting has become considerably more difficult in FOF4.c.

The computer is better at drafting obvious talent now.

What has changed are some nuggets of lower draft and mid range players which develop after 4-6 years. This seems like the real NFL where the light goes on after a few years. Shelton Quarles of the Bucs in real life was one of these. I like this as it make you want to be patient for this effect to show up.

My new strategy (I call the Belichek Factor) is as follows. I look for the these nugget guys 4-6 vets that teams have discarded into free agency. I set my filter on future potential up to 7 years experience and low-mid to mid range salary demands.

I usually find great guys in this group DT's in the 70's OL lineman who can start or are solid backups. Most of all I find QBs who are underrated. I sign them for 3-4 years at low mid $. The worst case scenario is I trade off a second string QB for a 2nd round choice in the last year of his contract. Sometimes I get a a budding superstar who has been on the bench for another team for 4 years behind a more experienced QB. Sometimes I get a solid guy who I can trade for a 1st round pick.

I try to sign 3 QB's of this type and one raw rookie. I try to give the 2nd and 3rd QB's playing time in exhibitions by stating them in 2 games each. I usually sit my 1st stringer so not to get him injured. My raw rookie I just keep on the inactive and move him up for injury. I do not draft QB's unless it is a 88+ potential guy. I just don't bother.

The Belichek factors works at all positions. I find WR & RB the hardest to find this. I think this is that they are position that rely on athletic ability which diminishes over time. Lineman and QB's rely on skill more which increase over time till its diminished by Injury and advanced age.

Hope this helps buil you teams. I know it made a lot of difference to me.