Front Office Football Central

Very long time sports sim player here…

I wanted to through out my thoughts to Jim and the rest of the sim gang.
Interface - Spreadsheet vs consol
I think an update to the interface could serve the game well, for example:
More polish on the player sheets to separate vitals and ratings
A better window management scheme – love the ability to build my own desktop
More league windows – like a leader board, and a top player board
A probowl awards – not a 1^st team and 2^nd team
League news – this could add some real life to the game – give it more of a immersion effect

Scouting
Wow – sometimes I wonder why I even have them! I think this is one aspect of the game that separates the hard core from the casual player. Sometimes the scouts opinion is so off when compared to the players stats I wonder how that person could even be a scout. All NFL teams have scouting departments which makes it hard to believe they could be off by so much.
That said, some teams IRL have horrible track records – but is that scouting or bad management?

Coaches
Most team employ a Off/Def style, they do not change season to season, this also dramatically affects the way they draft and the FA they sign. Teams generally only change schemes after bringing in a new head coach. Perhaps a preference “rating” for each coach. I think coaches have almost as much effect on the game as the players do overall.

IMO there should be some type of window to view coaches stats as well – lets see their stats in relation to league averages each year – historically. Give them a player sheet instead of a generic window view.

A football universe?
Some type of college environment or a potential view of upcoming draft classes would be nice – maybe the next two senior classes (gives us an idea of the jr that may declare for the draft).

See their college numbers – this coupled with the combine numbers would be a much better view of what we have to draft. This way we can get rid of some of the silly combine skill links – like the broad jump…great combine measuring tool, not sure it should have ANY relative effect on how a QB plays the game, at least until alligators are introduced into the game.

Player ratings
Some positions, like QB, are great scouting report ratings – makes sense 100%, but many player scouting reports are lacking in information or have strange ratings.
QB – missing a running rating, is he a good scrambler? I can see this in real life – and I don’t want to look at a season of stats to see the player I drafted is not a good runner despite his high scrambling frequency.
Speed…how do I know who plays fast? Speed is such a critical part of the game of football and is one of the biggest factors for a player at almost every position – but outside of RB’s and WR’s (who have a two part rating that I have to decipher) I can not tell who is slow or fast.
Or is man to man coverage rating an indicator of speed? What about lineman?
There have been man discussions about pass coverage – that clearly needs an fix. I think (IMO) the rating categories for players are right – but their implementation and engine utilization are off.
Jamming ability – check
Coverage ability – check
Zone pickup – check
Speed - ? ahh not there
I ask the following questions about a coverage (LB/CB/S) person:
Can he jam them at the line?
Can he pick up a receiver in a zone defense?
Can he stick to a receiver in coverage?
Doe he have the speed to maintain his coverage?
Can he catch the ball if in position, or does he just knock it down, or does he often find himself out of position for the knockdown/interception despite great coverage?
Can he tackle?
Penalties…some players commit more than others…why can’t I see this? Is this star rated G a false start machine? Is the star CB a killer to my defense by all of his pass interference calls?
Can I get a spreadsheet with a better view of my future salary cap numbers? Like a spreadsheet view of future salaries by player – show me a year by year breakdown for the next 3-5 years.
How about a easier OFF/DEF game plan option? A generic slider option for different styles of OFF and DEF? This would give the AI a starting point as well to work from for their base style – a % of deviation from a particular style of OFF or DEF based on the players they have on the roster – which is how it is done in real life.
Just my 2 cents…have many more but this has gotten really long.