Draft or FA or let 'em play, oh my!

[ZootMurph]

I'm sorry to say I really don't know the best way to categorize this question. After I wrote it, it sorta went around a bit... sorry about that!

Do mentors have any effect on 'creeping'? For example, I have a 3rd year, first round draft choice RT (the 32nd pick), who is at 44/44. He has been a backup to a guy who has been slowly drifting backwards and is now in his 11th season. The vet is also 44/44 and a Mentor. This year, the 3rd year player will be starting. Should I keep the Mentor around even though he will probably get unhappy because he isn't playing, should I try to find a later round draft 'steal' and let the mentor go, or should I find a better free agent and assume that the 3rd year player is not going to get any better? I drafted him as a 24/56, and he has started 3 games in 3 years. He has 63 pass blocking and 59 endurance, which are the only two bars I am REALLY concerned with for my tackles.

My preference is to resign the mentor and hope he helps my younger first round pick get better. If that ain't gonna happen, then my first choice would likely be to resign the mentor and look for a tackle in the first round (I pick 28th this year). There's also a decent free agent in the 60s with decent blocking bars and real high endurance who is in his 7th season that I could likely grab... but my general strategy is to NOT play in the free agent market except to fill in backup spots with young players for 1 year and hope they sprout nicely :) Doesn't happen much, but it's nice to take a rookie free agent and get a solid starter out of him.

Any advice or information would be great!

[Ben E Lou]

Do mentors have any effect on 'creeping'?They speed up the process. In FOF2K4, they helped through the third year. Some parts of the mentoring system changed for FOF2K7, and I know of no tests that have verified that it's still years 1-3.

For example, I have a 3rd year, first round draft choice RT (the 32nd pick), who is at 44/44. He has been a backup to a guy who has been slowly drifting backwards and is now in his 11th season. The vet is also 44/44 and a Mentor. This year, the 3rd year player will be starting. Should I keep the Mentor around even though he will probably get unhappy because he isn't playing, should I try to find a later round draft 'steal' and let the mentor go, or should I find a better free agent and assume that the 3rd year player is not going to get any better? I drafted him as a 24/56, and he has started 3 games in 3 years. He has 63 pass blocking and 59 endurance, which are the only two bars I am REALLY concerned with for my tackles.He's probably not going to get much better than that. Still, your veteran will help with cohesion, so it's a tough call. I'd tend to want to keep the vet, and draft another tackle for him to mentor.

[Narcizo]

44 is good enough for a starter tackle, particularly if you really are only interested in his pass blocking so I'd let him start, keep the mentor and draft a new tackle to develop if you've got room on your roster. Like SkyDog said, barring a random boom it's unlikely your third year guy is going to improve.

[ZootMurph]

I found out you guys are right. The 3 year player started and went to 45/45 over the year. I drafted a 4th round tackle with 20/57 and kept the mentor another year to see if he helped both (made him inactive much of the year). The draft pick is going to be the starter this year at 48/52. I think it helped that he has affinity with the mentor. So I'm getting rid of the 45/45, and keeping the draft pick and mentor for a year to see how things roll.

Thanks for the replies and advice, I really appreciate you all taking the time to help a n00b out!