At what stage are the yearly combine updates made?
 

Has anyone teased this out yet?

My understanding is immediate prior to free agency. I thought it said it in a few places, but it definitely says it on the most athletic players page of the help file:


Also, in the game, the League's Fastest, Strongest, and Most Athletic Man screens all say at the bottom that players are tested immediately before free agency begins. That's where I remembered seeing it.


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btw odd that the League's Most Athletic Man screen and the help file entry for it describe it as a combo of the league's best broad jump and *high jump* scores. Didn't know players were tested in the high jump. Not sure what to make of it, typo or hidden combine test.

Probably a small typo or regional distinction of which I'm not aware. Players are measured for vertical jump, but high jump is the track and field event normally.

By the way, while it seems fairly obvious that the combine numbers are an output of some process that starts with the player's root skills... the year to year variance is a little odd to watch. I think once there are tracking tools this is going to be bright lighted.

Nowhere more obvious than the move from rookie to non-rookie status. This is, presumably, because the game has a special combine-generation routine for rookie players that has its own "masking" routine. Anyhow, I've been fiddling with a run-the-QB offense and have been reliably drafting lots of QB who ran sub-4.4 dashes in their rookie combine, and they all revert back to 4.6+ the following year and beyond. Have yet to find any freaks who stay freaks, they all regress dramatically toward a collective mean.

I am working with the assumption, unproven, that this is fully cosmetic...but I did notice with interest one rookie QB (4.36 dash) who ran for about 8 yards per carry his first season, and then only about 6 yards per carry afterward (~4.65 dash).

I strongly suspect FOF 7 worked in the same manner. I drafted a rookie QB (in FOF 7) with a 4.34 40 time. He was the fastest man in the league in his rookie year, but fell completely off the list in the following season. The league has converted to FOF 8 and I now know his 40 combine is 4.50.

There is no vertical jump in FOF, only broad jump.

It is logic under my point of view as QBs learn how to use their arms to shred defense while reduce their scrambling instincts to avoid injuries...

I suspect it has always been this way too, but it has been very close to invisible for all non-rookie players. Now that it's visible and trackable, this is going to be a source of confusion for many of us, I suspect. It's fine that the computer game works this way, of course, but to a lot of gamers it will be disconcerting, at minimum.

Football logic doesn't always apply to FOF. Also, the QB in question had 95 rushes in his rookie season, 86 rushes per season since. The 40 combine dropped, but performance did not.

Luck, Wilson or Newton are running less and throwing better, but when they run they run for good. Probably their 40 yard dash dropped a bit since they were drafted too.

There was a 31 year old WR who ran a 4.25 in my game.