finding good free agents?

[GlennN]

I guess this is one of those subjective things - I love that FA is not full of highly rated players. I like the old fashioned way of building by draft and trades, and just filling a hole here and there with FA. For me, the types of players hitting FA is perfect. A few studs here and there, but not too many.

[BB_Dynasty]

I've seen Halio Ngata hit the market. He's old but rated 90+ overall. That's pretty realistic. Usually really good FA's have some sort of negative rep with them. Injuries, age etc.

[ggsimmonds]

Quote: Originally Posted by BleedGreen710

thats really a whole different thing then what I was getting at. im not just disappointed by the lack of big name free agents cause I cant build my team properly. its more so the unrealisticness of it.

It is odd because for me and others there is a realistic number of top tier players entering free agency.

[rugernator]

I've had to reload my CFM for one reason or another, and it seems the FA list changes every time. There's very little consistency on who the CPU resigns or doesn't.

I think if you reloaded, you might have quite a few different FA's to choose from.

[ggsimmonds]

A longshot, but it may be a matter of schemes.
After the first season I converted the Ravens to a 4-3 defense and updated the player types.

The free agent list had two DEs rated above 93. Now had I stayed 3-4 those two would have been much lower, giving the illusion that there was fewer elite players.

Granted, for many positions player type will not have that drastic of an effect, but it could play some kind of role.

[jhigginsluckow]

Quote: Originally Posted by BleedGreen710

thats so weird you guys have had such a different experience then me I have done 4-5 1 year sims and I never see any good free agents I think the best I've seen was like an 85 OVR OLB and 87 WR as for "how often do you see elite players on the FA list in real life?" every year. this past year we had Suh, Demarco Murray, Julius Thomas, Revis, to name a few.

Each of those players had a specific reason they were let go. It's difficult to simulate leverage in a video game, I'd imagine. Suh couldn't realistically be franchised because his cap hit from the year before made it so franchising him would cost like $30M. Miami offered a 27 year old a 6 year contract that would pay him more than JJ Watt. Murray plays a position that is not valued highly and is coming off a 400 touch season that historically has shown to be a bad sign of things to come. Thomas is an injury-prone tight end who, while being a size/speed matchup threat, is not on the level of someone like Jimmy Graham who can run the entire route tree. Yet, he got paid as such. That also doesn't take into consideration that he wouldn't have made it to free agency had Denver not had to tag Demarius Thomas. Darrelle Revis was cut because he had a massive cap hit if New England kept him, and the Jets offered a ton of money.

To your credit, I do think there should be a couple big names every year, but most of the time, the only elite players to hit the market are ones with attitude problems, or weren't able to be signed due to cap concerns. People cried and cried the past few years in Madden because all the young superstars always hit the market.

[jhigginsluckow]

Also, the reason it's so easy to manage the salary cap in Madden is because no one signs mid or low-tier veterans. Everyone fills their depth chart out with young, cheap players. Think about the veterans your real life favorite football team signed in free agency this year. For me, it's San Francisco. Blaine Gabbert, Reggie Bush, Jerome Simpson, Erik Pears, Darnell Docket, and Shareece Wright would never have been signed in Madden. They are all old and don't have the physical attributes Madden players look for (speed, strength, etc). However, real life NFL teams value players with experience. They value certainty. If they lose games, they lose their jobs. If you lose games in Madden, you start over lol.

This is another reason why ratings should be hidden. If they were hidden, you wouldn't immediately know if your 6th round draft pick is good enough to immediately be your backup running back. You are more likely to sign Bush in that case, and wait and see if your rookie ends up being good enough.

[Sheba2011]

For me it has varied from CFM to CFM and from year to year. A few times I see guys like Andrew Luck available, other times there is no one above a high 80's. The main problem is the salary cap system in Madden is so incredibly simplistic compared to real life and there really is no GM AI Logic, each of the star players listed above were let go for a specific reason. Houston wanted to go younger so they released Andre Johnson, Detroit was worried about the salary cap long term so they released Suh.