Madden 25 Franchise - Highlander Challenge Rules
 

Madden 25 – Franchise Mode – Highlander Challenge

Some time back, I launched into a solo FOF challenge, as usual under some odd set of rules designed to handicap my own style of play in ways that feel too advantageous. I tried one style that I labeled as the “Highlander Challenge” where the central tenet was to identify things I do in-game that are too powerful, and limit them to a single use… aka “there can be only ONE…”

FOF 2007 - The Highlander Challenge - Front Office Football Central

Anyway, the last several years, abetted by fatherhood and a football-curious son, I have taken to fiddling around with Madden on XBox. I won’t rehearse the long version here, but I have found the Ultimate Team (primarily a pay-to-win model, in which I refuse to pay a cent) to be mindlessly engaging. And their front office “Franchise” model to be disappointingly shallow, but still affords some basic elements of roster-building and such that I do confess to liking. And the ability to play the game on-screen in button-mashing mode is, I confess, somewhat entertaining.

I have an appetite to try the Franchise mode in a more earnest way. Writing up a thread to detail the dynasty has always been a way for me to slow down, document/explain stuff, and so forth…and I think all my most rewarding text sim engagements (save one, playing FM for a few years with the aforementioned son from his ages 6 to 8 or so) have been when I used this forum to show my work, and explain my thinking.

So… plan here is to do just that. I will think though the areas where my M25 Franchise experience has been less rewarding that it feels like it could/should be, work up a set of rules based on the Highlander principles, and then launch a new career in that game. Not yet sure what is the best means to post details here of a console-based game, but… will work toward that as best I can.

The problems I’m going after:

Unrealistically cheap/long contracts – this is such an easy exploit, in this game and many others, it seems. A 26 y/o free agent thinks he’s worth a 2y/$30m contract, half in bonus. Nobody bites, for whatever reason. Late in the FA process, I move in with something like 5y/$40m with zero bonus, and the guy eventually takes it. It’s just sitting there for the taking, and without a firm rule (and maybe a whole construct like a thread). So, I will drop a few new rules related to player contracts:

THERE CAN BE ONLY ONE player signed each offseason to a contract longer than his requested duration

THERE CAN BE ONLY ONE player signed each offseason to a low-bonus contract, materially below his requests

So, I’m trying to strike a balance here (the central concept of this rule set)… I will continue to use these exploits, but only in a specifically limited way. I confess that I really like grabbing that 25y/o player at FS who can come play for 7 cheap-ish years and develop into a key affordable guy for us. So, I want to keep that, just make it a tactical/scarce part of the game.
And also, I do want to promote grow-your-own here, so I won’t apply these limits to my own players who approach free agency and seek a new contract. If I can convince one of those guys to take a longer term deal, I’ll do it as a benefit for having drafted that player myself.


Unrealistic position switches – okay, I’m quite guilty here, too. I love scouting the piss out of wide receivers, and using draft picks there to populate my RB, TE, and FB positions as well. So, we’ll stop it, mostly. Going to still allow unlimited movement within logical position groups (interior OL, off-ball LB, edge LB/DE, FS/SS) but no more free CB-to-MLB and the like.

THERE CAN BE ONLY ONE player position switch each season outside tightly associated positions


Free agency too easy – I’m not sure if this is sufficiently covered with my contract rules above, but I want to make the open free agency process more challenging and tactical than it currently is for me (where I typically just decide where to pursue aggressively enough to defat rivals, and then sit back and pick up the late values at the back end of the 9-stage process). So, I think the Highlander concept makes for an interesting rule here:

THERE CAN BE ONLY ONE contract offer to a free agent officially offered at any point in the free agency process

What I mean here is that in the very first stage, much like FA 1:2 in FOF, lots of the very top players accept deals. I may only put in one offer to a player in that stage, and as long as that offer is out there (and not accepted or rejected) that’s all I’m able to pursue… just one guy at a time. I know from experience that lowball offers tend to sit untouched for a while, so I think this will make my typical FA haul more likely to be 3-5 players per offseason rather than twice that.


Player acquisition outside formal channels too easy – Not a super powerful angle-shooting thing here, but the game sometimes ends up with player imbalances (e.g. too many guys at RE but not enough at LE) and the free agent pool can be unrealistically profitable. So, another once-a-year cap… I want to still spelunk around for young guys I can add, but I don’t want this to become a team-defining strategy, either:

THERE CAN BE ONLY ONE free agent per season signed from the veteran “not practice squad eligible” list

THERE CAN BE ONLY ONE free agent per season signed during the preseason, from the “practice squad eligible” list

THERE CAN BE ONLY ONE free agent per season signed from another team’s practice squad

That leaves me some ability to sign still-young free agent players once the season has started, rather than being completely at the mercy of my own practice squad. I do not have a lot of recollections of landing such guys and getting real treasure, they tend to just be gap-fillers for injuries.


Trading too easy – Duh. Problem in every game. Up to us to solve it. I will surely set my sliders to “Very Hard” here when the time comes, but even that doesn’t sound great. So, I will drop a couple more Highlander style limitations here:

THERE CAN BE ONLY ONE trade during any season to send away players for draft picks

THERE CAN BE ONLY ONE trade-down or trade-out during a draft, built solely on offering a current pick and accepting an offer from another team, but never involving another team’s future 1st

THERE CAN BE ONLY ONE trade-up during a draft (I don’t do this a lot, on the hard settings, it’s awful, but want to leave the door open)

My plan is to use these rules as a foundation. Then go through the in-game settings, think through and settle some matters of gameplay (mainly what will be hands-on and what hands-off), and then get started.

Okay some notes here about setting up the league.

I have played out maybe 10 careers in the Franchise mode, and they generally play out the same way -- my team stinks (by design), we slowly build up, and then get good (as good as my house rules allow). The underlying flaw in this game is that the stock players (current NFL rosters) are far better than anything you could expect to build through the game-generated draft classes. So, we start out with 10 QBs rated 90 or better in-game, and, say, 75 similarly top-tier OL scattered across the league. But drafting and developing players takes a LONG time to get anyone that highly rated. So when I go empty cupboard or even just "I don't want to play with familiar real life players" I end up at a deep disadvantage in talent, that takes nearly a decade (of a 30 year cap) to mostly resolve.

So, here, I am taking a chance. It may not be great. I found an online roster called "nukednfl" and it seems like that guy (the creator) went through and edited down every star player to a level of 70 or worse. For context (more later on this) but that's a barely-playable guy in this game. So, my Ravens will have players named Lamar Jackson and Kyle Hamilton, but they will be cadavers/placeholders, not anything representing real life.

So... the benefits of doing this, to me, are:

-less dependance on familiar names (a worthy goal, for me)

-less likely that my team is awful and built around multiple top-5 draft picks each year

-put my stamp quickly onto the team, after maybe 3-4 seasons most everyone important should be my own acquisition, rather than playing out the entire careers of guys like Hamilton and Linderbaum, frex

And the downside is:

-fluky outcomes in the first few years, both in records (a team hitting on a good QB early might have a HUGE edge for a while) but also in markets (the game seems to adjust contract demands around the universe for a given position, which could get really weird (like a lack of good RTs, meaning a mediocre free agent RT suddenly asks for $30m/yr because he sees himself as the #3 guy in the whole league)

-TBA, we'll see

I didn't document my league sliders decisions in full, but the essentials are:

-All-Madden highest skill level for games that I play, and for whatever that amounts to with simmed games

-Trades at "Very Hard" coupled with my Highlander rules above should make this a minor, but not invisible, part of the career

-I'll use a 4-play "cool down" on offensive plays to avoid overusing one effective play, and cap any play at 4 uses per game

-I turned off the whole segment of "player breakouts" which is a part of the game I really dislike (especially since I want to sim most of the games)... lots of times some young WR asks for the ball and if he gets a target goal then he gains something valuable for his development... I don't want to F with that stuff, so I just turned it off here

Other stuff is pretty basic and logical, but not interesting to lay out here, I don't think.

Okay, initial stages of the team setup…

This is gonna be a rocky start. Looks like the “nukednfl” really meant that the superstar players are all neutered, but that leaves the middle tear of guys not quite good enough to get nuked as the new league superstars. For the Ravens, a great example – our highest rated player is WR Nelson Agholor, at 78/100. Silly.

Anyway, I fly through the first season, we commit to scouting the DE position heavily, and create a game-generated rookie class for 2025. BAL ends up 9-9 in the playoffs but we lose our opener. So, no easy pick at 1.3 or anything, we’ll earn it the harder way.

The market is going to be messed up. In free agency for the offseason leading into 2025, lots of 70-something rated guys are asking for, and will likely receive, HUGE money as they grade out right now as top-tier players. In five seasons they will look way less attractive as proper good young players start to populate the league, but alas.

Rocky start, but we will soon get to roster-building…

Franchise-starting decisions:

Scheme and Staff – I don’t confess to fully knowing how this all works, but as nearly as I can tell, my schemes determine the default training focus for each position group, and for guys that fit that style ideally, they get an experience bump. Since I am not always arsed to click my way through 40 player upgrades every half season (to select the set of skills to focus on improving a click here and there) I want these schemes to match what I want in my ideal players.

OFFENSE: Zone Run Vertical will push agile OL, speedy deep threat receivers, and vertical threat TEs, all of them my preferences


DEFENSE: 4-3 Under will push my DEs to be the main pass rushers, DT run stoppers, man corners, zone safeties
I hire staff that seem to fit these reasonably well enough, and start applying training points to their skills. Over time, my staff will become assets and give bonuses for players in certain abilities or gathering experience.

As we start the open free agent process (after having exactly zero players worth extending), we have 28 players signed (including several nuked players on fat contracts too expensive to escape from now), and only $10m in cap space after some pruning of my own. I reckon this offseason will be an abridged one where we mostly just run the draft, grab our one free agent, and then let the game “fill roster” where I just don’t have enough guys.

While the Highlander rules are generally intended to make the game challenging, I don’t think they will be enough. So, I will make one extra rule – I will pay some non-critical player (backup QB, punter, some guy from a collage I root for) a $60m contract each year as a cap penalty.

My last Franchise career was played out under just two rules: this $60m cap penalty, and I traded away my 1st round draft pick every year for two late picks. But that was too easy (courtesy of a variety of angle-shooting moves, stuff my Highlander rules should curtail), so I’m trying this set of rules on for size.

And my intention is to play out each season in basically these stages:
-Re-sign players before free agency starts

-Free agency (9 stages) … pursuing only one guy at a time

-Rookie draft

-Preseason including picking up one free agent available after the draft (1y deal)

-Sim through Week 7, potentially make one trade-off of veteran player

-Sim through Week 18

-If our team makes the playoffs, play postseason games on “Play the Moments”

Anyway, I reckon season one will be a quick run, but after a couple of offseasons, I should have the team feeling more or less like it’s mine, and can bear down more. This startup is a bit messy, but it’s not necessarily much worse than putting my young team rated 77 overall up against a CPU team rated 87 overall and running four straight seasons of 2-5 wins and super early draft picks.

Free agency is just an aberration. Here’s an illustrative example: MLB Devin Bush is 27 and rated 77 overall, which would make him a decent but unexciting player in a normal setting. He wants $10m/yr and he’s got no other offers, so in theory I could try to sign him cheaper, maybe like $6m/yr. Some positions are totally absurd… WR Agholor is gonna make $40m, QB Mac Jones will break the bank, this guy at $10m is a relative deal.

But, there is no reason at all to extend this contract beyond the duration he’s asking for… Or really, even to give him the four years he seeks. In four seasons, an 82-rated LB won’t be a huge difference maker, I don’t think. So, why even pursue him? But even if MLB is less distorted than most positions, it’s still not attractive long term. Young guys rated in the 50-65 range will soon be lapped by even later-round rookies. So, not much I love here.

Okay, the free safety market looks promising. FS Andre Cisco is pretty fast and decent, and it’s not has one other offer around his $3.1m/yr ask. That feels like maybe it’s a good spot to target here and land a multi-year decent (if unexciting) starter. Not the ONE extendecontract, but 2y/4m likely locks him up quickly. 25yo, rated 70 overall, solid speed, and the “silver” he indicator that he’ll develop more quickly than most.

I’m frustrated as I pursue a CB on a cheap deal but after several stages he signs with the hated Stillers. Unexciting run through FA here, to be candid.

So, we end up picking up only three guys, two of whom are maybe replacement level players for a team that figures to be signing multiple hoboes for this year and next. And one guy who, for me, is a decent enough fit – Tindall true to life is rated as super fast but fully incapable of knowing what to do once he arrives somewhere.

Into the draft, we need… literally everything. Makes it easy. I skip a great looking OL at 22 to add picks…

ONE trade-down: 1.22 for 1.32, 2.32, future 4th, 6th

The two guys I had hoped to still land at 32 are gone, so it’s just BPA from here on out.

(I failed to grab a pic of the actual results, will do better next time)

Bottom line: got several pieces we can build around, hopefully a QB1, and some tools for the offense… not a smash but solid, despite the minor whiff in round 1 (guy looks ok, but not the anchor I thought I had there… the trade-down looking poor in retrospect already)

On through the vacuous preseason. Ready for real games.

A few notes I’ll use to start each season:

Roster: 73/73/73

Overall/offense/defense… for context, this is well below average I think. Opening day foe LAC are at 77.

Season goal: 7 wins

An in-game option, I’m rewarded w staff dev points if we reach our own goal (4, 7, playoffs, title)

I quik sim to after week 7. We’re 2-5 about as feared, I’m going to try to trade off a couple players but we’re only at 45 guys, so likely won’t work. Nope, won’t fly.

A 4-13 final record. Pick 2 in the draft. We appear aimless.

I'll tally it up, in large part, to an awful cap situation that should resolve in just one season - so we should have the arrow pointed upward now.

2026 Offseason – Preliminaries

I'm not going to really dwell on details here. In the future, maybe this is the spot to mull over what is and isn’t working, but with this weird setup and our singular cap problems, the season was just a total loss.

We start the new season with a chance to re-sign our own players. My only move here is to tag DE David Ojabo, we’ll keep him for one year mostly because the position is absurdly overpriced and we don’t have much else on hand.


Nobody else is a candidate for an extension.

In free agency, I make an early push to land


So, we add some useful pieces, and won’t be stuck with well below 53 players this season, at least. In the draft we will try to beef up the DL, and then add depth anywhere we can – especially LB, IOL, TE, DB.

Plan is probably to trade out from 1.2 and amass picks, but I’m open to being swept off my feet, especially by an uberEdge. We are scouting DE still, so hopefully this year we will uncover some gems in the middle rounds that can boost our talent up front.

Some context for overall ratings

My rule of thumb, in a setting dominated by game-generated players, is 75 by 25. At age 25, a player ought to have an overall rating of 75 to be of any meaningful value. You can’t build a good team on 75s, but it’s ok to have a guy rated in that range on the field.

On a 100 point scale, the game does generate players that get into the 90s, but not all that many. And these guys tend to get PAID.

The game develops players incrementally, if you set this to manual you can control it. For example, my rookie WR Stockton from last years draft. He showed up as a physical style receiver, like 6’2” 225, so he shapes up as an X outside guy. He lacks burner speed (90 iirc) but his initial overall of 73 at age 22 is pretty encouraging. So when he earns an upgrade, I decide whether to focus on an archetype from a list… for a WR it’s physical, playmaker, possession, and deep threat. For this already big guy I’m trying to use him as a WR1 for now… so I focus on Playmaker. Then dice are rolled and I see he gets +1-3 points in a handful of ratings like agility, catch in traffic, release. Had I chosen deep threat he’d have a better chance of gaining speed/acceleration, that goes with that style.

Players also have a rating related to their development. A solid majority of players are bronze = normal development. From there it rises to silver = faster (that guy might get 4-6 bumps in an early development year rather than 2-3), then gold (even faster plus some special add-on abilities), then red (rare superstar with fast development plus an extra tier of serious abilities). Upon drafting a player, you immediately reveal him to either be merely bronze/normal or blue, meaning hidden but something silver or better.

So, a deeper dive into an early success story.

OLB Kevin Roman looked to me like a strong candidate to be a breakout player, so we too him in round 2, despite OLB not being a major impact position in a 4-3 defense. He immediately rewarded my faith by showing up as a blue development - meaning he's better than the basic bronze/normal, and would reveal fully after 500 snaps. After the draft was complete, he showed up with a 71 rating - coupled with the blue, that's about all I can ask for from a late 2nd round pick.

He started all year at LOLB, the team was bad so I didn't dig into stats much, but he developed rapidly, and revealed he's actually a gold-tier guy, excellent. So in my snapshot as we start his second season, he's now rated 81 overall... fantastic! That makes him already among our very top rated players on the whole team.

Into the details, he has very solid speed for the LB position - he's got 87 speed and 88 acceleration, the basics of "get to the ball." Very solid, most starters at LB are down in the low to mid 80s. Now, his best skills are coverage - he's an 80 in zone, which is also really good for a LB. I put a lot of time into his training to develop him as a run stopper, and his suite of skills there are advancing toward good, too-- 85 awareness, 82 play recognition are solid, but only 73 block shedding means he will have trouble escaping a solid blocker who gets onto him, particularly in the run game. He's not a pass rusher, no serious skills there, so his jam will be as a 3-down 'backer who can cover a TE and hold his own on the left side even against a running play.

For a guy like this, ratings rapidly rising, he could turn red at some point, but regardless has a bright future. After a 4y rookie deal he will likely want a HUGE extension, and under my cap challenges, that will be a tough call. If his asking prices gets to $20m a year is that where I want to spend that money? (This is the stuff i look forward to being challenged by in this career)

Just a quick general observation, basically to applaud doing whatever you need to do to find fun in a game (any game).

That's an underrated / underutilized approach imo.

I get my money's worth out of MLB the Show by grinding like hell to completely the live series card set. I'm on my ... 4th? year of playing 90% Diamond Dynasty mode, have yet to ever play a single game against a human ... and enjoy my time quite well.

I'm still playing a lot of HOI4 - basically the only game right now that DLCs are pretty much automatic purchases for me - and enjoy no single aspect of the game quite as much as the incremental naval re-designs. (one of the most unliked parts of the game according to the internet)

At the end of the day it's about getting value for money and time spent. So I say good on you for finding something that works so you can do that.

The boy helps with scouting this class – he finds a CB we really like, but the right trade-down doesn’t materialize there, so we stay at pick 3 and take a sure-thing speed rushing DE. We trade out of our early 4th and pick up a future 3+7, fairly realistic.


My best guess is the true takeaway is: two long term assets along the DL, as we wanted, the two TEs likely can be TE1/2 through their rookie contracts, and the kicker is a long term keeper.

Solid but not smashing – no surprise blues among the mid round picks is disappointing.

Thinking: we remain evaluated lower than average, and with this much youth I suspect we will play to hat level. QB Justice Cobb is tagged as gold btu hasn’t developed rapidly – he doesn’t look like a talent elevator, and that feels like what we need here.

I think it will be a building year but that’s okay I reckon.

2026 Regular season

We QuikSim through week 7, we’re again 2-4 and overmatched. I line up three good real world players and ship them to Raiderstan for future 2,3,4 picks. Ought to help in the building but likely sunk what hope we might have harbored for this year.

I grab two additions, one veteran and one youngster:
26yo OLB Nick Hampton 70
24yo FS Luke Porter 67

Final record is: 3-14 ouch

I poach one practice squad player in 22yo T Ty Pritchard, a possible long term project for us

Expected little, got even less. Maybe in future years we will dive into the team stats, but here we are #31 or #32 in everything except gross passing yards. Awful.

Thoughts about the QB position.

We were bad enough to earn pick 1.1 in the draft. That’s typically a “time to reboot” situation where a QB makes the most sense. Does it, for us?

Justice Cobb showed up as a 2nd round pick at age 22 with a 69 overall rating but a blue/hidden dev trait. Not bad.


Our other 2nd rounder from the same draft, another full time starter these two years was LB Roman, who has advanced to 84 overall. Cobb sits at 78, despite earning the gold label and being eligible for bonus skills.

A star QB in this game gets paid something like 50-70m/yr. Cobb is halfway through his 4y rookie deal, what do we think we do once he’s out of contract years?

Ratings for scrambling are good – 90 speed, 89 acceleration, 86 agility. Formidable rush game weapon. But I sim my regular season games and there doesn’t seem to be a way to make that a real part of the offense, as it can be when I control the playcalling and execution. So, how does he far as a pocket passer under Ai control? Mediocre. He looked okay as an “accuracy” guy but his ratings now are okay (89/84/81) but not compelling.

If I knew for sure that he’d get to 86 by four years deep, then ask for huge money, and I’d just walk away, at least I could plan around that now. But with the gold rating (which can vanish), he seems like a guy I might be able to lock up on a 7r extension for under-market and maybe make that a long term angle for building this team. Hos remaining gold and cheap-ish through age 32 sounds pretty good to me.

So… my inclination right now is to keep him in at QB1, look to draft BPA elsewhere, and hope that the rest of the team coalesces around him in time for a long term deal where he gets to shine for less than he’s worth.

Into early 2027 stages…

My ploy w young OT Pritchard fell flat, I thought he might be a nice super cheap swing tackle option, but he’s seeking $6m/yr so no thanks.

We have a ton of cap space now and I want to play like we’re trying all out, rather than just holding our nose “til we get really good. So, we launch free agency… but it’s basically a waste land. Top available players are rated 80, at lane positions. In a league, we not many players are higher than 80, all the teams are just re-signing everybody of that caliber. There’s really nothing out here to move the needle. I’ve got Jonathan Mingo at age 26 rated 80 as maybe the most desirable free agent available, that’s where we are.

Nothing impressive here, just filling in depth, but will be hoping to launch young players ahead of these guys as soon as possible.

We come to the draft holding the top pick, nominally “all set” at QB, and looking to add impact players to replace decent fill-ins in multiple spots. We have 6 picks in the first 3 rounds, so we have chances for useful additions, but would like something more impressive than just holding serve.
Need positions: HB, EDGE, S, CB, LB

I’m not a “draft RB early” guy in real life, but in Madden it seems clear that RB talent is a major factor in offensive success. So, if there’s a clear star, positioning ourselves to land him early could really accelerate our path out of these doldrums.

The draft class features a pretty good QB, but a top tier Wr prospect, who looks like the more perfected version of our current WR1 Travis Stockton – 6’2” and 230 lbs, good hands, solid phsyicals. We look for a great trade-down offers but they all involve future 1sts, so… I just take the BPA receiver:


So yes, I do tend toward pure speed when filling in through the late rounds. It’s easy. Top three guys all show early signs of being fast fits.

It feels like things should take a turn in the right direction here. I know the rest of the league is improving too, but I will set sights and 7 wins and really want/expect to be around there now.

Time for this young QB to show he’s the man. And my muttering about a discount at that position now feels foolish as hell… complete bums are still out there asking for $50m since the pool is so dry, he’ll want and get a fortune.

2027 season goes pretty much according to plan, and that's okay.

At midseason stop, we are 3-4 and I need to decide whether to sell off veterans - I decide to do so (I always dislike carrying real world players, i can't help it) and ship out three solid players for a 2+3 next year, in my one trade-away deal. I fill in with a practice squad and veteran free agent who won't be consequential going forward, just fillers.

We wrap up 7-10. Right on target, I guess. Stats show that our passing offense is okay, but we remain near the bottom in everything else. Dire need for a true RB1 is screaming out now.

So, we'll head into the next offseason feeling some hope, but also trepidation, as 2028 will be the fourth year for all our initial draft rookie additions - and these guys have all been playing so they should be quality guys asking for premium prices. Will be challenging to decide to double down on all the guys who brought us 4-13 then 3-14.

Fill-ins here, with the young WR just a bingo for my rules – he’s got the silver development trait, so 7y cheap seems great, and with 3x receives seeking new contracts, he could easily be WR3 next season for us.

The boy is doing the scouting for the rookie draft, we really covet a difference maker at RB, but have needs everywhere in part based on who gets priced out by the weird player market. 2027 might be the last we see of many of these decent guys who suddenly think they should be paid like rockstars.

Okay, we head into the draft feeling anxious about the wave of guys approaching the end of their first contract, but overall liking out position.

Sending the scouts to find OLBs worked out, we have 3-4 mid-round targets who look very promising.

The boy likes a mid-round RB a lot, but I feel like that’s a top need position, and there’s a stud who figured to go a bit before our pick at 11. We have the ammo, and move up to pick 1.7, sending a 2+4+5 to get there.


Very happy here, the RB looks transformational and the 4th round guy likely slots right in as the power backup guy. Thought we likely had some high-risers with the QB and C in round two – both look good but don’t have the marker for unknown improved development, so minor Ls there. QB Graddy may be good enough to give us a decent plan if we are unable to extend our your QB after this season, though.

The giant leap forward at RB should pay off right away, though.

Having a lightning and thunder combo at RB,. with two guys named Sherrod and Sherwood feels like a nickname waiting to happen...

2028 Season

Okay, it feels like it has to happen here.

We skip to the mid-season weigh station, and here we hope to see a first true dividend of all this roster building. With the huge improvement at RB, it feels inevitable.

And... we are 6-1. Yup.

So, we check the list of players seeking contract extensions, and it's more or less as feared. LB Roman (25yo/88rating/RedDev't) wants $33m/yr (for a 7y deal), that's a ton for a non-premium position. QB Cobb (25/84/gold) is seeking $54m/yr, a top-tier contract for a guy who's likely close to being the top rated QB in the league, despite my misgivings.

I go ahead and do deals with two guys who make sense: LT Pleasant (23m/yr) and CB Springs (4.5m/yr) who were rounds 3 and 4 from our initial draft. Just important to lock down a few positions at affordable prices while we can.

I make a short term offer to LB Roman, he scoffs at it. I am now thinking that tagging QB Cobb might be the right play for us.


Anyway, not looking to offload any talent now as we are definitely in the hunt. So, we train up our guys, and sim ahead... to an 11-6 finish and a division title.

2028 Playoffs

We play host to Pittsburgh, who had won our division the last two years. They started quickly with a good QB/RB combo and were a very strong team in the early going.

I play in a mode called "Play the Moments" and it sometimes is very frustrating - where the game finds too few "moments" for me to feel properly connected. Here, I get to play only 2 offensive plays in the first half, and don't really get a serious drive until the 4th quarter down 10-0. We take a 10-7 loss and pack up from our first, short-lived, postseason appearance.

2039 Preseason

We train up our offensive staff. Last year we vaulted to #1 in points scored but we’ll now rack up some bonuses in the running game on top of that.

Into free agency, we have our $60m penalty contract (now on our young kicker) and still have $120m in space. But even after I write off the real NFL players (most notably starting CBs Wiggins and Taylor) we still have challenges.

I offer QB Cobb a 3/56 deal, he scoffs. LB Roman wants 7/31 but nearly all guaranteed in bonus (I’m not used to that) and he too laughs at a shorter deal. My overall instinct here is that linebacker Roman is the real thing, while quarterback Cobb is not… But the difference in position value moves me to put the franchise tag on Cobb… 1y 66m we’ll see.

so, my plan is now to head into open free agency with 55 million in cap space, hoping that many teams are similarly situated and letting quality players walk… And this year‘s free agency could be a true bonanza.

Leaving into free agency, I always do a run through of my roster…in the salary view that helps refresh how committed we are and for how long.

WR is interesting. All-world Jonathan Dyson is the X and WR1 rated 89 and locked up for 2y. Beneath him, I have 26 year-old bacon, and 24-year-old Ryan’s, each locked up to fairly long-term deals, totaling only 10 million across the both of them. So, even after letting our nominal number one player walk into free agency, this position group is not in bad shape.

Tight end, however, looks different. Parks and Gordon are both into the last year of their rookie deals, rated 79 and 71, respectively. That is a perfectly adequate combo for right now… But after this year parks will probably want real money, which I will be unwilling to pay. Gordon might become a long-term asset for 2 million or so, but I probably need to add somebody this year or next to make sure I’m two deep at quality receivers there.

And then we have an urgent situation at cornerback. Springs just signed a new, pretty affordable deal, but he’s only rated 78… He is a long-term usable asset, but probably will never be a star. I’m OK with that at that position. But, beneath him I have a 29 year-old NFL veteran Bennett, for only one more year, and rated only 75… Then to a young player Maynard 23 years old rated 73. I will follow my usual urges to avoid NFL players, and will try to find somebody young and free agency, but as a contending team, I don’t think we can put a player rated 75 into a starting role.

Anyway, my needs assessment in order is something like:
EDGE, CB, G, LB, TE

So, at the risk of this thread, becoming increasingly specific to the quirky startup that I selected… It looks like my strategy is going to pay some dividends.

In general, when I look at the free agent class, I’m thinking at two levels… Are there one or two priority players who are perfect fits and I’m willing to pay whatever it takes to get them? After that, my focus is mostly on who is going to slide through unclaimed and be willing to take less than what they perceive as market value. Here, it is painfully evident that many teams are cap strapped, probably from signing multi year deals at ridiculous contract levels, based on artificial shortages, and now can’t afford quality players who are truly on the market.

Easiest example is my own linebacker Roman. He is listed as the eighth highest rated player in the entire free agent class, he is still asking for a $31 million contract over six years, and has zero teams interested at that level. I don’t know how this plays out, but it is conceivable. We could re-sign him for something like 15 million per season, instead. Actually, I now regret putting the franchise tag on my quarterback, because having all that cash might have been better for us immediately.

Wide receiver, Travis Stockton is also similarly situated, he is asking for 30 million per year, but has zero interest… It’s possible that several stages into this process. I decide that it makes sense to try to lock him up at, say, 22 million per year?

But, there are easily 15 or 20 high-quality guys with no offers at the moment. I probably will skip making an early effort to outbid anyone and instead jump to the value portion of the program, hoping to land 3-4 impact players.

My Highlander rules are designed to keep me from taking too big of advantage of spots like this, and they work well here. I target a middle linebacker, who looks like a perfect fit, he is asking for 18 million per year, my offer is 10 for his requested four years. I like that a lot, nobody else expressed interest, but it still takes him until the sixth of nine stages to settle for my offer. With my rules that I may only have one offer outstanding at any time, I now need to get my offers taken immediately to pick up 4 free agents here.

LB Roman and WR Stockton are both still unclaimed this late. I think I want to leave my final stage offer as a long-term, no bonus jackpot. So, my decision is whom to target with a more legitimate offer at their desired duration?

I decide I just like the home grown narrative, and I offer Roman a 7y deal (his duration, not mine) worth $18m/y half in bonus. He jumps in it.

DE Mike Owens is a former Stiller, and seems like a nice complement to our smaller speed guys I place by the LT. I offer 3y at $16 and tie down another high quality guy there.

In the very last stage of free agency, I have a bit of a quandary. In a perfect world, I wanna set up, smart rules, and then play as aggressively and all out as possible, within those rules… That’s really the way I want to play games like this. I feel like this free agency window is a fluke, and I don’t want that to undercut the whole concept. There is a 25 year-old, 88 rated, gold development quarterback sitting out here unclaimed. He is asking for $64 million per year, it seems like I could come in with way less, and lock him up for seven years, and have quarterback being a non-factor for a long time. But, that just feels like it’s a little too much. So, I won’t do that, and I will try to make another of my usual targets for a long-term deal… A useful player at a very manageable salary, but not a superstar at an absurdly low one.

I try to work a contract for a wide receiver, Stockton, but I just can’t make it within the cap space we have remaining. 85 rated RT Morgan Melvin fits in, he’s 26/silver and we’ll lock him up through his most useful years.

This leaves us looking at a somewhat rearranged position map for the draft:
CB, G, EDGE, TE

Heading into draft day, I see guys at DE, G, and WR who could all make sense for our first pick in the back half of the first round.

Okay, mock drafts didn’t hold up that well, and my targets for 1.23 weren’t there…so I take my best trade-down offer, which isn’t saying much – we deal to 1.28 and pick up a future 3+6.
Lacking sexy picks, we “eat our vegetables” and grab two blue-development (that’s good, hidden but not the basic bronze) guards on the first two rounds.

The rest of the draft is fairly unexciting. I do manage to reject the WRs I looked at during virtually every stage, and now feel like I really want to add someone useful – so expect that our veteran addition might come pre-season this year, if we can wedge in one of these guys we missed in free agency (that’s a packaged one-year take it or leave it proposition, so strictly short term gain).

2028 season setup

I do pursue a fill-in WR, getting JC Tulloch (25, 85, bronze) on a 1y &8m deal, he will be a hands-first guy at WR2 for us, with speedy Bacon playing in 3Wr sets, and slotty Teddy Ryans (newly gold!) still seeing the field in the slot a fair bit, I expect.


I figure we have arrived, but I don't sense a big step forward. Possible we even backslide a bit. But 10-12 wins and hopefully a home playoff game is where we want to be, and maybe we can saddle up our superstars and make a deep run this year.

2038 season notes from the console

We launch the the break and we’re only 3-4, the running games not really clicking, at only 3 ypc. I look at extension candidates, have some sticker shock at my DL but do lock up young LB Chris Coleman (24, 70, silver) to a long term cheap deal for decent depth there.

I’m convinced that quarterback Cobb does not deserve the 60 million per year that he wants, so I will let that position fold over into next off-season. DT Crisp wants $17/y and… I just don’t feel that’s a high-end impact position, I’ve had so much luck using second and third round picks with high strength to play adequately there, I don’t think I can afford to spend top dollar. DE Robertson seeks $15/yr but he has yet to have a serious impact season yet. I expect I’ll just carry $70-80m into free agency next offseason, needing a QB and seeing what else falls together.

RT Bobby Bost, our first ever draft pick, is riding the bench now, and we ship him for a future 2nd. That’s fine but we’re thin at OL now.

We do some player upgrades, and QuikSim to the playoffs. From 3-4 can we rally and get in???

Nope. 9-8 but on the outside looking in. Disappointing.

We end up #1 in rushing yards per game and rushing yards allowed - that’s typically a big winning team. Alas our pass defense was a seive. Awful.

Ugh

2029 Preseason

Our team is too young to be worried about retirements, it’s just a matter of who has a contract, who wants one. There is an arguable case to line up one or both of our expiring defensive lineman contracts with an extension, I’m going to choose not to, and cast my lot in open free agency. We have 71 million in cap space, but only a young unproven player at quarterback, and depth issues at CB, DE, DT, and TE.

So… the top of the QB market is three guys in their 20s, all better than Cobb, all red, and all sitting idly by asking for $70m but getting no nibbles. Imma stay in the shallow end of the FA pool in hopes of luring a star here on a discount.

CB Dom Mincey steps in as CB1 here for $6m, great addition even if we turn up some rookie value. That takes 3 stages, the top QBs continue to pace the floors. I grab a cheap deal with my faster TE just to maintain options there.

DE Robertson only wants 2y but I think I’m going long with him. He’s not great but it’s a difficult position to fill with quality, he may feel like a bargain later. We get him for $11m/y, but it’s not til stage 8. One shot to land a QB in this game of chicken.

QB Devin Spellman comes off a 4200/37/10 season with Atlanta and remains lonely awaiting a call for his desired 7y deal. He is looking for a contract that’s roughly 2/3 guaranteed, but I really want to keep options open here. We offer 7y at $25m/yr, and hold our breath.

Deal.

Might ruin the dynasty thread. We might win a ton of games. If so, I’ll tally it up to bad setup decisions creating too many windows for me to outfox the AI teams. Anyway, we’ve got our man now.

Yeah I’m possibly just done here. It’s not different enough to feel novel, and getting the stud QB undercuts the whole “I suffered” vibe.

I think my central takeaway here is that the game’s free agency process is just so wide open to be taken advantage of, I either need to sit out completely, or put even tighter rules on its use.

glad to have had a QS fix... even just for bit :)

appreciate that


kicking off another M25 franchise, learning from this, with similar rules:

-my 1st rd pick gets traded to the Saints for their 6th+7th every year
-no signing players other than rookie free agents and my draft picks
-$60m penalty contract on non-impact player every season
-only one consequential position switch per season
-only one extended contract per season
-only one trade-down per season (no future 1sts)
-only one trade-out during season if team is non-competitive

Did you successfully create a more difficult challenge with the harsher house rules?

Definitely more difficult. Pretty much every ONLY ONE rule here was targeting an area where I feel I gain an (unfair) advantage against the AI teams. I just felt like the dam broke at the end there, locking up a star QB on a 7y cheap contract felt like the seesaw just tilted, and I immediately lost interest/motivation.

I started a pure "misfit toys" career only adding players as undrafted rookies. Played through about 8 seasons, many of these bums turned into solid players with a fat load of playing time, but again... uninteresting, and it felt unwinnable. Abandoned.

Latest is just playing with a $60m salcap penalty, and NONE of the b.s. stuff that I had limited to one use in the career from this thread. Most important being no extended durations on contract offers, just what the player seeks. SO far, it's fine, the real test is once the roster gets pretty good, will I remain interested? Unlikely. Building >>>>>>> Maintaining.

This latest set of rules has been really good. Limiting myself to the request duration sought by the player really cuts down on nonsense. I can still fill in with a few cheap vets, but they’re strictly short term value. If the game had a cohesion factor like FOF I’d really think this was close to the bullseye.

My team started basically in 2030, it’s now 2045 and after a ~5y buildup my team is now at least a fringe contender most years, I’ve made the AFC championship game 4x and am 1-1 in the Superbowl. Basically I’ve reached the level of success of, say, the Aaron Rodgers Packers era, which feels rewarding without feeling silly.

Nice... I've never been able to get "into" Madden... the joystick jockeying just doesn't do it for me. How much do you play v. sim?

I have fallen into a rhythm that's also, in effect, a house rule with these careers.

I sim the whole regular season, so I need a roster that can win when under automated control. That seems to require good hands receivers, good talent at pass rusher, and usually a high quality RB1. I generally just sim from opening day until the "mid-season" mark after week 7 (where we select the position to focus our lead scouting on, and also around the trade deadline to do a dump-off if we are flailing). Then I sim the rest of the season in one shot.

Then, I play the postseason games in "play the moments" mode, where I supposedly play out all the key situations on both sides of the ball. I do not think that I add real value, but this does get me closer to the team/roster. And when I play, I do have certain things that I really like to have on-field... a TE who can run away from LB coverage, a WR who can escape bump coverage and make a game-breaking play, and a RB fast enough to sprit to the outside and make the turn. On defense, I am surely a liability overall.