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

[JoshC1977]

Quote: Originally Posted by tubaSimulator

I found a solution based on your idea that works really well. The only thing I changed was in regards to any players you want to move to different teams. Doing trades in franchise mode is a bit of a time consuming method when you have to take control of other teams to do so and I've experienced not being able to take control of other teams as their owner if I've already done so once in the past (the option is greyed out with a padlock on it...?) That could potentially be problematic in the offseason when I need to take control over several teams. Anyway, it was very quick and easy to go to Roster Management in the main menu and only release the players you want to move to different teams and no one else (in my case that was only 2). You shouldn't run into any roster minimum requirements when you only release a few players and you can then go to free agency and sign those players for their new teams immediately. Then for the rest of the initial roster, I followed your method although I put in a small change where I instead of releasing every player, kept any player rated 70 OVR or lower with only 1 year left on their contract. That way I didn't have to release or sign as many players which saved a bit of time. Thanks again for the feedback! Setting up the initial roster is a lot quicker and easier now

One thing here....

You don't have to take control of an owner for the CPU teams to make trades happen, you can take control of the coach instead. By doing so, you can control them, do whatever you need to, retire them and then do it all over again later on in your CFM.

Either way you do it, it should work just fine. Good stuff

[SuperSeahawks]

Cool post man. I did an expansion franchise this year by moving the Jaguars to Houston and bringing the Oilers back into the NFL. How I did was different and less involved than the process you went through.

What I did was:

Move the Jaguars to the Oilers Week 1 and handle all the uniforms, stadiums, etc throughout the season.

I simulated the 1st season, but ensured that we went 0-16 for the #1 pick. I also set scouting and xp training to auto. Once I got to the off-season, I cut everybody and cleared the cap penalty. I simulated past the 1st stage of free agency so the best players got signed first and was now left with the draft and the remaining free agents to fill out the team.

It was a lot of fun and the 2nd season (1st season actually playing) we went 4-12 and had the lowest overall team in the league.

[tubaSimulator]

So, I spent quite some time since posting this guide starting up a new franchise (for real this time, no more testing!) and simulating through the 2016 season. Took my time with it and enjoyed the process, creating some storylines etc and did feel a lot more immersed than I have in years I had a very fun and interesting expansion draft and finally got to the re-sign stage of the offseason. I wanted to check out some of the transactions, got to Players Released and all my immersion seemed to just melt away...

First of all, a lot of players who were NOT on expiring contracts had been released. I know they weren't on expiring contracts because I had several of them on my expansion draft list so it was not a case of them not being re-signed, they had actively been cut. So, I gave the game the benefit of the doubt thinking that if I had deemed them worthy to be on my expansion draft list, I can understand why they've been released. So, I can look past that.

What I struggle to look past though, even if I'm going to, simply because I've spent so much time on this I'm not gonna abandon this now, is some of the cuts that didn't just fail to make any sense from any perspective but was actually hurting the team.

One example in particular; The Jets cut both Bilal Powel and Matt Forte. Combined, these two running backs had a cap hit of under $6M (a little over $3M for Forte, a little under for Powel). Matt Forte is still a stud and had just finished a season with over 1,100 rushing yards. The only HB left on the Jets roster now is a 24 year old 66 OVR from their practice squad.

So, I thought it was a salary cap issue. Nope, turns out they had $60M in cap space with them on the roster and now they have about $66M...

I can always make up some story about Forte wanting to leave, kicking up a stink and being released (the Jets finished 6-10 despite Forte's excellent season) and Bilal Powel was on the expansion draft list so maybe he was unhappy about that, but I'm just worried this kind of thing is going to happen often.

Anyway, decided to ignore it for now and got to free agency. Went in to have a look and on top of the list of QB's sits Case Keenum. That's not the interesting part. The interesting part is that the only team with a bid for said QB was the Bears. So, I thought, they had to have gotten rid of Jay Cutler or Bryan Hoyer. Nope, they're still on the Chicago roster, Cutler with a cap hit of $15M and Bryan Hoyer with a $6M cap hit in 2017. And now they were trying to sign Keenum for roughly $6M a year. That's a $27M cap hit for three QB's, none of them particularly good (at least not for the amount of money they're being paid).

So, my question to those of you who have gotten deep into franchise mode before is, does this stuff happen a lot? Or is this more like a one off?

And is 32 team control the only way you're gonna get a realistic – or at least close to realistic as I've given up on finding much realism in franchise mode already – franchise mode where the AI makes logical decisions in the offseason?

I'm on Madden 17 btw.

[Cory Levy]

Gonna start doing this today but going to make a slight change: instead of acting like the NFL only has 31 teams for the year prior to the Expansion Draft, why not just keep the players on the team you want to replace but edit everyone's contract so it only lasts for one year? That way everyone will be released into Free Agency as if the replaced Franchise had been dissolved player-contract wise and you don't have to pretend the team didn't exist for that year. Seems more realistic too than having the top flight players on the replaced team being somewhere else in season 1.

The only problem could come with your draft picks. Obviously if you keep the replaced team exactly the same depending on which team it is could end up winning more games than needed and you would not have the first overall draft pick as the expansion team. To combat this I'm probably going to force lose each of their games, though that might skew some stats if they are blowouts. I still think I'd rather that than a team of nobodies having stats for a year.

[tubaSimulator]

Quote: Originally Posted by Cory Levy

Gonna start doing this today but going to make a slight change: instead of acting like the NFL only has 31 teams for the year prior to the Expansion Draft, why not just keep the players on the team you want to replace but edit everyone's contract so it only lasts for one year? That way everyone will be released into Free Agency as if the replaced Franchise had been dissolved player-contract wise and you don't have to pretend the team didn't exist for that year. Seems more realistic too than having the top flight players on the replaced team being somewhere else in season 1. The only problem could come with your draft picks. Obviously if you keep the replaced team exactly the same depending on which team it is could end up winning more games than needed and you would not have the first overall draft pick as the expansion team. To combat this I'm probably going to force lose each of their games, though that might skew some stats if they are blowouts. I still think I'd rather that than a team of nobodies having stats for a year.

Hi! So cool you want to test this out! And I'm all for people using what they want from my guide and changing what they don't like or what's not working for them, so go for it, mate!

I encourage you to try it out your way, but I'm gonna address the points you raise;

First of all, releasing every player from the roster of the team you're replacing after season 1 gives you a much larger number of free agents than normal (I don't know how that would affect AI decision making if at all) and an unrealistic amount of good to great free agents depending on the team you're replacing (but even the lowest rated teams in Madden have several 80-99 OVR players). Although I haven't tested this, I think it's reasonable to assume that with the salary cap which limits teams ability to sign high rated players will leave a lot of great free agents either unsigned for the next season or give you an unrealistic amount of good free agents to sign with no competition (which depends on your house rules for free agents). In my personal opinion the core of my expansion franchise, even though it's not gonna be very good, should come from the expansion draft, not the first free agency. If my best players all come from free agency, it sort of defeats the purpose of the expansion draft in the first place. But even if you only limit yourself to lower rated free agents, it's likely that the other NFL teams are focused on the influx of higher rated players leaving no competition for you to sign who you want.

Secondly, what’s the story behind your expansion franchise? I’m not saying you have to put a lot of thought into a backstory or anything, but as I said in the guide itself, letting the team you’re replacing play out the first season and then move to a new city sounds like a relocation, not an expansion, which is exactly what I didn’t like about my old method and why I came up with this guide in the first place.

Additionally, if the NFL were to introduce a brand new franchise, that’s usually a process that takes a couple of years (like with the Texans who were awarded a franchise in October, 1999 and didn't join the league until 2002) so I know I’m already pushing the boundaries for what’s realistic by having an NFL team fold right after the 2015 NFL playoffs and have a new expansion franchise ready to play at the start of the 2017 season, just 18 months later. By using your method, you’re basically having a team dissolve after the 2016 season and expect a brand new franchise to be ready to go in a new city with a stadium that’s up to NFL standards in just 6 months. Personally, I don’t find that option more realistic than what I’ve laid out in the guide. The NFL functioned fine with only 31 teams before the Texans joined so I'm sure they would manage 1 season

Now I’m not saying there’s anything wrong with your method and you should do what’s best for you, I’m just pointing out that one of my main goals of this guide is to come as close to an actual expansion of the NFL as I could which in my opinion requires a league of 31 teams to expand to 32

Regarding your top ranked players playing for other teams in season 1, I don't see that as a problem or unrealistic but I think it depends on your point of view and which story you're telling. In my mind – and dynasty – a team folding after the 2015 playoffs would have to release their players from their contracts. These players would find new teams during free agency and through preseason/training camp before the start of the 2016 season – or the first season in franchise mode – and play for those teams. I don't see how that's more unrealistic than basically doing exactly the same thing only a year later? And by releasing them in preseason in season 1 (except for the players I manually move before starting the franchise), teams have a chance to improve and these players will have stats for teams that are actually competing in the NFL and not a franchise that is basically "dead" (since they're folding at the end of the season anyway) and forced to lose every game (to get the #1 draft pick).

All that being said though, remember something else I wrote in the guide; «As long as YOU’RE having fun, my opinion on what’s realistic and fun and what’s not shouldn’t matter at all. So do your own thing!»

Hope you have fun with it and please feel free to update us on how it's working out for you

[Cory Levy]

Technically the 'story' for my new Franchise is that the league decides as a whole that the Los Angeles experiment only half worked due to the Los Angeles Chargers putting forth a dreadful season compacted by dismal attendance which results in the Spanos selling the team during the 2017 season. The new owner (myself) abolished the existing franchise and starts a new one in its place, hence why I like having the LAC play out an awful season Year 1.

The new owner than establishes an entirely new Franchise (went with the Portland River Hogs which works for me geographically) which begins play in Year 2.

It's not realistic at all that much could happen in such a short span of time but I'm taking liberties with the dissatisfaction and failures of the real life LAC situation and using it a shell of a backstory to explain away being able to start fresh with a new franchise entirely.

So that's why I went the everyone on 1 year contracts route over having a team of nobodies.

I also agree that my new Franchise should most definitely have its core made up via the Expansion Draft. I may or may not have a backstory element in which the league decides the new franchise gets an exclusive first look window at the now abolished Chargers' players contracts for fairness sake or something (almost entirely just in case I want to sign someone like Joey Bosa or Melvin Gordon on the new team). I guess I'll see what effect letting a small mass of higher rated players that were formerly Chargers has on FA.

I'm personally not going to be super aggressive in Free Agency the first go 'round because I don't really want my new team to go into it's first ever game with a stocked or even above average roster. To me that defeats the fun of building the franchise from the ground up. If I wanted a team of superstars in a different uniform I'd just relocate an existing franchise after a fantasy draft.

Just my approach to the Expansion! I'm having a blast with it so far. Just about a third of the way through making the Expansion Draft Pool and it looks like I could create a decent core that's realistic enough. I had to throw some probably unrealistic guys into the pool from certain teams (Jabaal Sheard of the Colts and Carlos Dunlap of the Bengals were stretches I put in just to fill the five per team and they fit the criteria when I couldn't find others on those teams - and I'm probably going to avoid them just to stay realistic) and most of the players with good OVRs are super veterans in their 30's.

[tubaSimulator]

Quote: Originally Posted by Cory Levy

Technically the 'story' for my new Franchise is that the league decides as a whole that the Los Angeles experiment only half worked due to the Los Angeles Chargers putting forth a dreadful season compacted by dismal attendance which results in the Spanos selling the team during the 2017 season. The new owner (myself) abolished the existing franchise and starts a new one in its place, hence why I like having the LAC play out an awful season Year 1. The new owner than establishes an entirely new Franchise (went with the Portland River Hogs which works for me geographically) which begins play in Year 2. It's not realistic at all that much could happen in such a short span of time but I'm taking liberties with the dissatisfaction and failures of the real life LAC situation and using it a shell of a backstory to explain away being able to start fresh with a new franchise entirely. So that's why I went the everyone on 1 year contracts route over having a team of nobodies. I also agree that my new Franchise should most definitely have its core made up via the Expansion Draft. I may or may not have a backstory element in which the league decides the new franchise gets an exclusive first look window at the now abolished Chargers' players contracts for fairness sake or something (almost entirely just in case I want to sign someone like Joey Bosa or Melvin Gordon on the new team). I guess I'll see what effect letting a small mass of higher rated players that were formerly Chargers has on FA. I'm personally not going to be super aggressive in Free Agency the first go 'round because I don't really want my new team to go into it's first ever game with a stocked or even above average roster. To me that defeats the fun of building the franchise from the ground up. If I wanted a team of superstars in a different uniform I'd just relocate an existing franchise after a fantasy draft. Just my approach to the Expansion! I'm having a blast with it so far. Just about a third of the way through making the Expansion Draft Pool and it looks like I could create a decent core that's realistic enough. I had to throw some probably unrealistic guys into the pool from certain teams (Jabaal Sheard of the Colts and Carlos Dunlap of the Bengals were stretches I put in just to fill the five per team and they fit the criteria when I couldn't find others on those teams - and I'm probably going to avoid them just to stay realistic) and most of the players with good OVRs are super veterans in their 30's.

That's exactly why I think it's so important to fit the method to the story you're telling As for realism, when it comes to gaming, my rule is always "realism within the limits of the game". That's all you can do really.

Definitely let me know what the 'side effects' (if I can call them that) you see from releasing all the Chargers players into free agency. It may not be a big deal at all, but it's always good to test.

As for putting a few unrealistic players on the expansion draft list, I either just pick as many as I can an leave it at that, or I do exactly what you do; list some unrealistic targets and just don't pick them. The important thing is that you end up with a roster that looks like an expansion team and provides a fun starting point for some serious rebuilding! That's what I love about this too

[Cory Levy]

It'd be really nice if they could actually implement putting an Expansion team into your franchise, even if it was just replacing a current franchise Year 1. Getting to do each step would be fun if it was implemented well. They actually had it in the game the year the Texans came into the league IIRC.

It'd just be nice to see more ability to make our franchise world our own and in unique ways.