CFM free agency question

[GOBLUE_08]

So I reached year 4 in my Niners rebuild. After yr 1 i drafted a pretty good qb, and after a few seasons he's now an 89 ovr, and his contract was up. I offered him 5 yrs $111 mil total and he flat out turned it down and says he wants to test FA. Since he didn't want to stay I decided not to Franchise tag him, and let him go. FA signing rolls around, and after a couple weeks, he gets 0 offers from other teams. So i look through the league and most teams have good QB's, but there are definitely some teams out there that could use him. I start to look through teams budgets, and no issues there, so i sim to the end of FA signing and still, 0 offers for him. All of the other highly rated FA's have all been signed. After the draft, he ends up signing a 1 yr $800k deal with the Titans, who still have Mariotta. Pre Season starts and Mariotta is still the starter, even though my old qb has a higher ovr rating. So my question is, could it be possible that this qb may have been overrated, didn't fit other teams scheme, or is it an issue with AI free agent signing like in the past?

[SpyPirates]

Unfortunately this is very much indicative of current AI logic on free agents. I haven't seen it quite to this extent--a young 89 OVR QB is an extremely valuable asset so I'm surprised the AIs didn't bid on him at all--but I've seen similar cases every year in my CFM.

Typically it's with the mid-tier free agents, like 82-85 OVR--guys that are really helpful to have but not top tier-- that the AI completely ignores. I don't have any other explanation for it other than that the logic is flawed. If the AI doesn't think a player is worth his asking price, there isnt any mechanic that will have the AIs offer him less than he is asking for, in recognition of the fact that the player could be valuable on a lower value contract. They will sometimes offer free agents who hadn't previously received any offers a deal in week 2 or 3 of free agency which is nice, but Madden doesn't currently do a good job of simulating bidding wars for all useful talent in free agency, something they should look to fix for '18.

Also, @ the first part of your post, this is also an issue. Players aren't nearly patient enough with the negotiation process, and you can get locked out of signing them even if you're offering a predictable player a deal above "fair value". At the very least they should just keep stringing you along if you're close.

[timhere1970]

I would think there is an error in the cpu reading what the player is. What makes me think this is that he was signed as a free agent after the draft for 800k. The cpu assigns prices to what those free agents cost and is non negotiabe, an 89 qb does not go for that price. That leaves me to believe that the cpu is reading that qb as being somewhere around a 68 overall qb.