Clawback "feature"?

[thf2]

In each of my last two seasons, a young high first-rounder fell off the table in his ratings: a third-year left-tackle dropped from over 80 to 21, and a second-year cornerback dropped from over 80 to 50. Is there an artificial limit to the number of top players I can have on a team to keep me from dominating the league more than I do? Or is this just an unfortunate coincidence, and I was just lucky that it hadn't happened to me once in my first dozen seasons of play?

[Hammer]

80 to 21? Without injury?

[Ben E Lou]

Bad luck.

[thf2]

His worst injury was a broken nose that he played through without incident. He was a star LT from his rookie season, a top-twenty pick (it was a tackle-heavy draft, and he was "very underrated") who had started all 34 games and almost every down in his career with stats of 45 KRB/110 KRO and only 8 sacks allowed. I had a change in coach, but everything else (including the scout) was the same. I kept him in the starting lineup to see if there was some weird disconnect between him and the scout, but, no, he had lost his mojo.

I chalked that to just a fluke (I remembered having something similar happen to a star rookie in an earlier version of FOF), but the same thing happened the very next season: a #1 overall LCB pick who was at the top of the Green Pages went from 71/88 to 50/50, even though he was just 24 years old. He had missed Week 4 and Week 5 of his rookie season with a knee injury, but returned to make 5 interceptions and 14 defenses and anchor the defense in a FO Bowl run.

[Hammer]

Total fluke I'd say. Would be nice to have some explanation, off the field accident or whatever...

[M GO BLUE!!!]

Total fluke I'd say. Would be nice to have some explanation, off the field accident or whatever...

Matt Millen.

[Galaril]

Two words:

Joumana Kid:D

[Narcizo]

Hmmmm... "Very underrated" you say?

No, I think it was just very bad luck.

[thf2]

I'm not sure this is bad luck. It happened for the third time in four seasons after not happening at all my first dozen seasons. My #2 overall pick, had a wonderful rookie season where he started all 19 games and 4 exhibition games at LT and had 36 KRB with only 5 sacks allowed, was 61/77 or so before training camp and ranked third on the Green Pages, and 34/40 after training camp--and he's not even 23 yet.

I didn't send him to Summer League. Is that a mistake? I still haven't figured out what the good of summer league is.

(This one, I did have him lose weight, because he was heavy for his height -- if I have him gain weight, will he come back for me?)

Is the game punishing me for being able to trade up in the draft in advance by correctly predicting who is going to have a bad year?

Perhaps I shouldn't complain: I've won my third straight Front Office Bowl despite the first two clawbacks, but it's annoying as all get out because I feel like the game isn't playing fair. I now have 12% of my salary cap tied up in two young backup players, and I'm worried my rookie RB first-round pick is going to burn out after one season. I'd prefer a more realistic clawback where my players demand too much money and I have to break up the team.