Is "UNK" the player's potential?

[Hostile_17]

Hey guys, I've been going berserk this week. 2K5 is back with a ferocity for me, as my lust for more football drove me back to my Xbox and my love of good sim football drove me away from purchasing Madden 2006!

It's been amazing starting my franchise over again with my beloved Fins. I have been testing sliders and reading through scores of threads on this forum. I've really been intrigued by the various debates and my own experiences with this 'new' game.

Anyway, one of the mysteries of the 2K series was always the question of how VC determined player progression - all other variables being equal. Remember how there were always those premade rookies in the draft who kinda progressed the same, regardless of how many times you played in franchise? There was always a WR named so-and-so who would shoot way up in his stats after you drafted him. (Gamers would say in forums "draft so-and-so, he becomes a GREAT QB", etc.)

So I'm looking over the various players in the Finn roster and checking their 'UNK' ratings. As you know, these range from 0 to 3. Rookies seem to have UNK 0, great rookies like Shawn Merriman appear to be a 1. Most veterans are either UNK 1 or 2. Pro Bowlers all seem to be UNK 3. The only exception so far: Roethlesberger is UNK 0.

Then I thought it was age, but further reading discounts that. My theory is that it might be the elusive 'player progression' gene, the variable by which a recorded player may advance.

Perhaps it is a multiplier. Like, let's say a position player will progress based on his accomplishments on the field. Perhaps sacks for a DE, receiving yards (or YPC) for a WR, etc. His attributes will go up or down based on the degree of his performance changes from the prior season.

Let's say a LB is awarded 8 points for 2005 achievements. If that LB has an UNK of 3, then he will go up by 24 points (however the game distributes them among his attributes). If he has an UNK of 1, he'd get just the 3. (And, no, I don't know how this equates to an UNK of 0.)

I'm just guessing for fun, of course. I'm sure I could be totally wrong here. Does this make any sense to anyone else? It might even be an interesting thing to test.

[dan77733]

I dont think anyone knows what that "unk" thing does, if anything. Even Finn doesnt know. And when you referred to Merriman, you cant really use him as an example because he could have been created over someone else. For example, when I created my roster file, I edited all the old retired guys like Rice, Woodson, Couch, etc. to become last year's rookies and other missing players. So, for example, if Couch had unk 1 and I edited him into say Alex Smith, he's still going to have unk 1 listed. I personally dont think it does anything. If it did, I think Finn what have figured it out by now.

[stretch45]

the only thing i noticed for that stat is that people in the crowd where ur jersey #.

and if u open a franchise file now look at a guy
thats a 0 then sim for 2 years he has to do well for it to go up
i bet in 2 or years it will be a 2 at least
i really don't know how to get it to 3