Basically just going to copy and paste my post from Deuce's "Rebuild" thread:
A couple ideas I've had just based on what I do manually in my CFMs are:
1. Adding some sort of League History hub that would include:
- Past award winners, stats leaders, etc.
- Super Bowl matchup, who won, Super Bowl MVP, etc.
- Standings (I personally make a note of all the playoff teams each season in an Excel spreadsheet so that I know that ______ has basically turned into the new-age Patriots or ______ has made the playoffs for the first time in 5+ years)
2. Something to add a little more detail to commentary. I'm envisioning something like the old Madden's Player Icons system. So for example:
Fan Favorite: This player has been with the team for at least ____ years. When he scores, the commentator might say "Listen to that crowd! This guy has been around for awhile now and the fans have really fallen in love with him!" Or if a fan favorite is cut/traded, it could pop up as a slightly more specific News item saying "Fan Favorite ______ has been cut after spending the past ___ seasons with the team."
Injury Prone: If this player gets hurt, it could pop up with a more specific news item like "______ has battled with injury issues his whole career, and now he is hurt once again."
Draft Disappointment: This would apply to first round picks that are below an 80 overall or something after 3 or 4 seasons. If they get a starting job with a new team, the commentator could make a note of it, saying something along the lines of "_____ just didn't work out with his previous team. He's hoping to get a fresh start here."
Displaying the player icons on the field was really lame back in the old Madden's,
but I think the idea that, for example, an 80 overall player with "Injury Prone" has less value on the free agent market than an 80 overall player who is healthy was a great idea on EA's part, and I think bringing it back to some degree, even if it's just to add some more specifics to news items/commentary, would be a good re-addition to the game.
For reference, I found this old guide to the old Player Icons:
http://www.neoseeker.com/madden-nfl-...6836-role.html
3. Bringing more life to the offseason
Contract negotiations/free agency is so much more dynamic in real life than it's portrayed in really any sports video game. Madden needs to bring this period of the offseason to life. Make it feel like you really need to recruit free agents to join your team. Make it so contract negotiations actually involves going back and forth with agents and eventually reaching a compromise. Even if it's as simple as taking some of the recruiting features from NCAA's Dynasty Mode or taking the contract negotiations from NFL Head Coach 09, these kinds of things would go such a long way towards bringing more life and fun back to the Franchise mode.
I think the draft itself is fine for the most part. Including mock drafts, draft grades, etc. would be nice, but it's okay.
Scouting could use a drastic overhaul in my opinion. I simply despise the current format where you get three rating grades and that's it. Even if there was a lot of repetition, the scouting reports from old Madden games at least made you feel like they were a real draft prospect.
ex:
There's just so little information that we can glean from scouting in the current game, and I think the previous iteration where you'd unlock specific attributes was weak as well. I think we should have the basic gist of at least the 1st and 2nd round picks, and then be given the ability to select prospects to reveal information for (ex: scouting those 1st and 2nd round guys might give us more specific/accurate info while scouting later round guys might unlock info that was a complete blank before).
And as touched on in the OP, customizable/downloadable draft classes is pretty much a must in my opinion.