Guide: The Season 2 Expansion – A New Approach to Expansion Franchise

[tubaSimulator]

Re: Guide: The Season 2 Expansion – A New Approach to Expansion Franchise

Awesome guide. I've been struggling this year to figure out who to use in my offline CFM. I always do 2. One online one with my cousin and then my own. But since the Chargers left SD and I really can't stand to play with them having the LA name I just haven't found the motivation. But this is it right here. Not sure if I can move a team to SD so soon but if not it is still my team and I'll have a vested interest. Again, just wanted to say great guide and idea in general.

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Appreciate the kind words! Feel free to keep us updated on your SD franchise

[navygoat1998]

Re: Guide: The Season 2 Expansion – A New Approach to Expansion Franchise

Yes!!! That's exactly what I wanted to hear. It'll be like when Cleveland came back. Even more excited for this now.

TDAWG how is San Diego? I was stationed at 32nd street Naval Station for years. My daughter lives in Temecula.

[tdawg3782]

Re: Guide: The Season 2 Expansion – A New Approach to Expansion Franchise

TDAWG how is San Diego? I was stationed at 32nd street Naval Station for years. My daughter lives in Temecula.

Nice man. It's beautiful as ever. But still expensive as hell lol. Americans Finest City without a doubt though.

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[tdawg3782]

Re: Guide: The Season 2 Expansion – A New Approach to Expansion Franchise

Also I finished my expansion draft and first college draft. Fun experience. Will post some details soon.

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[NCAAFBall00]

Re: Guide: The Season 2 Expansion – A New Approach to Expansion Franchise

Well, I too completed my expansion team and am now in year 1 preseason (I did this on Madden 18).
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Two quick technical notes about the experience on M18....

After the Super Bowl but prior to offseason, there is a final re-signing period (allowing you one last chance to re-sign your guys). If your entire team (aside from expansion draft picks) has an expiring contract, too many guys are available to be re-signed, causing a crash. Workaround is to cut any remaining guys from the first simmed season immediately after executing the expansion draft (using the clear cap penalties for your team).

In that annoying final re-signing period, I was prompted to re-sign several of my expansion draft picks (even though they were still under contract for the next season according to the salary screen in week 17). I believe they were guys who were extended by their original teams during the regular season....like moving them negated the extension or something (I did not go through to verify). I just went ahead and extended the contracts and let it go....not really a big deal....but a slight difference.
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OK, the fun stuff....so, I knew I needed to find a logo/uniform that I would like (and many of them are just awful). So, I settled on the Sacramento Miners as my franchise....the gold helmets in-game are very nice (the uniform selection screen does not do them justice). I kicked-out the Cardinals (I liked the idea of playing in the NFC West to have a rivalry with the Niners....). Hired a power-run HC to take-on the program

The expansion list process was long, but actually quite a bit of fun. We selected 18 players and cleared the 38% salary cap threshold. Not a lot of decent upside youngsters on list, so loaded on higher-salaried vets. There were a lot of 'big names' on the list, but I bypassed most of them.

The picks were as follows:

1. Brooks Reed (LE) - best 43 D-end available, which isn't saying much.
2. Maxx WIlliams (TE) - I have liked his talent since he was a Gopher.
3. Kurt Coleman (SS) - veteran leader, ex-Buckeye, which means I had to have him
4. Kevin Minter (MLB) - he was displaced by Vincent Rey as the starter in Cincy and was making too much for a backup. He's an excellent 2-down MLB who will need some help on passing downs.
5. Desmond Bryant (DT) - meh, but he's strong and takes-up space
6. Bradley Roby (CB) - still a 77 overall and making close to $5 million (plus I love my Buckeyes)
7. Khari Lee (TE) - receiving skill, could be OK as a number 2/3
8. Quinten Rollins (CB) - Not great, but, he isn't old, slow, or expensive.
9. Jaelen Strong (WR) - love his size/tools but he has been buried in Houston
10. Lamarcus Joyner (FS) - expensive and about to be overtaken by younger player
11. Jamil Douglas (LG) - youngish, ok talent, rough around edges
12. Stephone Anthony (LOLB) - I love his physical tools...he needs a chance to be a starter
13. Bryce Petty (QB) - decent short accuracy guy and cheap. Most QBs were expensive graybeards, so Petty made sense (though I did ponder grabbing a guy like Glennon to get pummeled for the first year).
14. Austin Howard (RT) - mediocre guy making $8 million. That's a starter on this team.
15. Vinny Curry (RE) - good player buried as backup, I will need his pass rush skills.
16. Jason Kelce (C) - smart, but fading player...need him to anchor my line
17. Eli Rogers (WR) - young guy, but with Smith-Schuster pushing him, made sense for Steelers to leave unprotected as he would've been making close to $4 million as a number 4 wideout.
18. Desean Jackson (WR) - had horrible 2017, scheduled to make $11.2 million, and hitting that 30 yr old threshold. He's the "big name" on the roster....hopefully big production comes with it.

I grabbed a few lower-end guys in free agency, no big splashes...made zero sense to me. I was excited to see young DT Caleb Brantley (75 overall) on the market, so I grabbed him. Also nabbed Christine Michael and Lorenzo Taliaferro to fill the RB slots.

The draft..well, had the top pick of course. There were 4 first round QBs and I managed to grab the 79 overall pocket guy with SuperStar potential number 1. Ironically, he's actually quite similar to David Carr skill-wise, who the Texans nabbed with their first ever pick. I nabbed a startng FB, a 78 overall WR in round 4 and the rest were 65-70ish overall guys. Post-draft free agency just focused on filling roster holes with cheap roster filler (and younger undrafted guys).

I wound up with a 73 overall team as a result of this whole process (though that really doesn't mean anything). The intrigue for me is that I was looking to run a power-run team. I got a team with a high-ceiling QB, 4 solid WRs, 2 good pass catching TEs, and not a whole heckuva lot for the run game. Defensively, I just don't know what I have...I'm not awful anywhere but not good anywhere either. This was overall a really fun process and yielded a team that really just feels like an expansion franchise (and has some history for the players).

Hey Josh... Just wondering if u mind if i use your list for my NFL madden 18 expansion team... Gonna move NYJ north to a town 45 mins from myself in TO and just thought i would use your list of expansion players if you dont mind since I will be having my own draft of rookies

[JoshC1977]

Re: Guide: The Season 2 Expansion – A New Approach to Expansion Franchise

Hey Josh... Just wondering if u mind if i use your list for my NFL madden 18 expansion team... Gonna move NYJ north to a town 45 mins from myself in TO and just thought i would use your list of expansion players if you dont mind since I will be having my own draft of rookies

Sure, you could. But half the fun is in putting together your own draft list based on contextual circumstances from the year 1 simulation. Maybe some of the guys on the list kicked-butt and it would make less sense for their teams to drop them. Say Petty went to the Pro Bowl in year 1, would the Jets really make him eligible for the expansion draft?

[NCAAFBall00]

Re: Guide: The Season 2 Expansion – A New Approach to Expansion Franchise

Sure, you could. But half the fun is in putting together your own draft list based on contextual circumstances from the year 1 simulation. Maybe some of the guys on the list kicked-butt and it would make less sense for their teams to drop them. Say Petty went to the Pro Bowl in year 1, would the Jets really make him eligible for the expansion draft?

well everyone is using chargers are their team to replace aka expansion as I am going a different route... Like i said im moving the Jets so i have a few questions that I just want to clarify a few things

a) Taking all of the top players and moving them to FA in main menu roster management

b) filling the rest of the players with 72-75 overall players who we don't plan on keeping past season 1 or using those players as free agents

c) taking the players that we dont want to keep like i mentioned on B using them as trade bate or cutting them at the end of season 1 aka in Madden 18

D) the players that i trade for will be my expansion picks also filling the other 12+ picks through draft or free agency

e) here is something i have not heard from anyone mention in this guide.. Is there a rule about signing players from other practice squads say 72 overall and under or would that be too unrealistic if we sign players from other teams practice squad besides using free agents and draft picks

f) something i thought of when reading this guide if i just trade players from my team to get my expansion picks and only having what 7-8 draft picks in the draft without acquiring any when i trade for my expansion picks, never followed the texas expansion draft... possible to trade down and acquire more picks

[TMJOHNS18]

Re: Guide: The Season 2 Expansion – A New Approach to Expansion Franchise

It's a great time to start an expansion draft in M18, now that the Super Bowl is over. You have a better idea which players would be eligible after season performances and how teams finished. Plus can force W/L to get Eagles a championship.

Again, great guide.

For the actual draft (2018 for guys starting year 2), do you go by original picks only to start or do you add additional picks?

In mine I followed what Texans had in 2002, which was the first pick and a midround pick in rounds 2-7, so 13 total picks to start. Doing it for 2017 draft wasn't bad since I could make changes from main menu, but doing so for CFM draft would add pain of reordering plus who loses pick each round?

[NCAAFBall00]

Re: Guide: The Season 2 Expansion – A New Approach to Expansion Franchise

As far as using Houstons draft for the NFL draft would you suggest going the same picks that houston had back in 2002 or just use the same amount of picks from each round that Houston had in 2002 draft..

As far as my expansion team goes im going to make it interesting.. I know some people showed taking 18-19 players, I am going to go 20 players 10 offense and 10 defense to make it even. Also as far as getting players I will be using what the previous person said and the 1 1st 2 2nds 2 3rds 2 4ths 2 5th 2 6th and 2 7ths 1st and mid round draft picks in the rookie draft which will give me 33 players.

I will then limit myself to 10 more players from practice squads. Here is the catch. If they make my squad they must remain on my main squad for all of the 1st season they can not go back to practice squad. That will give me 43 players.

I will then fill out my roster 10-15 Free agents.

One other thing that i thought off as far as practice squad goes. I can only sign players who are under 70 overall so i will say 65 to 68 overall no higher

Free agents will be the same 65 to 68 overall thats it no higher. This will give me some hard work out.

My roster will come down to a) stats if players stats are high I wont use them. I will only be picking

a) back up QBs only
b) HB/FB if they are back ups
c) WR if they are 3rd maybe 4th string and lower on the depth chart
etc

so I will be limited as to what players i can choose from. There is 3 people who have given me ideas for which players to look at which I will be doing tomorrow but i thought i would see what people thought of my practice squad and free agent idea.

As far as Madden 18 goes got a question

So i auto sim season 1 at what point am i able to trade my former players away for my new players like after superbowl?

I know you can start scouting week 4 correct all the way up to superbowl? also as far as more scouting points go how do u get more and more scouting pts each week. I know ncaa you could unlock stuff beyond your tree but i know thats not in madden

[SethMurphy]

Re: Guide: The Season 2 Expansion – A New Approach to Expansion Franchise

I love reading all of this. I didn't exactly do an expansion draft when I started my dynasty, which I have posted in the Dynasty section (Portland Lumberjacks) but this guide is amazing work, and really in depth.

Good luck to everyone trying to build a new franchise