Player aging
 

Is there a way to get a good idea on how much a players abilities are going to drop the next season? I'm getting tired of getting players during free agency, or keeping a player on my roster with the plan to have him be a starter, and then having his score drop 20+ after training camp.

no

So basically, I should just not obtain veterans (8+ years) in FA, or count on a veteran to be my starter in the next year.

around 8, he is probably in his prime. I usually stay away from vets in Free Agency who are 10+, unless you want to roll the dice and not offer a long term deal and hope he remains around the level that you are bidding on for 1-2 years.

it varies by position as well

Is there information anywhere that shows when players generally start to decline? I'm assuming RB's decline faster than most other positions.

It would be cool if the players gradually decreased over the season versus a drastic drop over the offseason. So, I have Ladanian Tomlinson and he's in his 8th season, maybe he starts the season at 65 and gradually decreasing so at the end of the year he is a 55 and then drops down to 45 during the offseason, versus now where he ends the season at 65 and then starts the next at 45.

I think it's perfect how players ratings drop off. RB's almost always fall off a cliff after age 30 so what your seeing I think is realistic.

Well, what's realistic about what we see in FOF is that the deterioration takes place during training camp. So - if you have a star RB in his 9th or 10th season, you have to go through the bulk of free agency and the rookie draft *before* you get to see whether your old guy is coming through okay for the coming year. So, in a sense it happens all at once, but training camp really is the first time we get all those guys out there again, in pads, and in game situations after a few months off. It kinda does make sense that the scouts and staff are bringing pencils with erasers for their clipboards at that point for the veterans.

Yes, in the help file.

Well, there's a table in the help file, but I wouldn't base anything on that. I've verified that the numbers in the table in FOF6 are identical to the ones in FOF3, FOF4 and FOF5, and I strongly suspect it's the same table that was there in FOF1. We know for a fact (Jim himself posted to this effect) that development and aging changed significantly from FOF5 to FOF6, and I wouldn't be surprised if that's not the only time it has changed since that table was drawn up.

http://www.operationsports.com/fofc/...career+decline

great posting here ...

Silly me for relying on the help file. :)