[Ben E Lou]

TRAINING CAMP

• Weight training is most important for guys you're wanting to position switch.
• If you are set in terms of formation knowledge at QB, consider dropping the time spent on film study. There's a dice roll there. When I had a veteran QB who was pretty much maxed out on formations, I dropped it all the way down to one minute in IHOF for several seasons, and one of those years he actually gained one more. He never lost one, and he had some great years late in his career, I believe partly because I dumped all that time from film study into passing.
• If you're in a higher-injury league, increase time on the training table. If you're in a low-injury league, decrease it.
• Beware of skimping on special teams time.
• If you already have high cohesion, there appears to be little negative from skimping on the touchy-feely stuff (team functions). I've done this in IHOF and WOOF when I had veteran teams.
• There's no great way to test it, but I'm fairly convinced that finding places to cut back and dumping extra time into running/passing/defense has helped my MP teams significantly.
  

MISC. OFFSEASON NOTES

• Every player who has a valid offer will sign with someone in FA1:10 and later, and FA2:3 and later.
• When I say “valid offer,” I mean that some players will not accept offers that are absurdly less than what they have requested. They will accept offers that are a lot less than what they have requested. Experiment.
• If you're wanting to build strong chemistry, go after guys with high personality ratings as your position-group leaders.
• Also on chemistry, be willing to cut bait on your failing former draftees in favor of chemistry-helping backups. In other words, if you've got a guy you drafted as a 23/56 player, he went to 25/51 in TC and is now in year 3 and 28/46, he's heading for 35/35 or so. Unless he's an affinity match, there's no reason to keep that guy around. Pick up a 35/35 veteran for three years at minimum salary who also helps you in chemistry. You get a better player to be your backup, he's cheaper, and he helps everyone at his position group play better.
• Acquire mentors for your undeveloped players in year 3 or less. The mentor does not have to be active (but the young player does) for the mentorship to have an effect.