Draft busts and late round gems.

[ParaAut]

Don't really get the idea of extremely low XP sliders. Meaning initial rosters are stacked and it starts to get interested if they are retired? Seems really a specific for 15year sim and then start playing.


There are no real draft busts as players under approx. 28 don't regress at all (unfortunately). So whatever OVR they are drafted, they won't regress. If you want to call it a bust if a player is not used that much and only goes from like 70 OVR to 80 OVR in his rookie contract, then yes. But otherwise no.


Late round gems exist, but very different if you play solo CFM or with others. In a 32-man CFM many know the late round gems and draft them earlier. In solo CFM it's easy to wait for them and draft the safe steal later then they should (that's a bit boring). Still in 32-man CFM the late round gems exist - sometimes you get the low 60 OVR superstar development guy, who develops into a very good starter in 1-2 seasons. But there it's mostly luck, not that much different to real draft probably.

[timhere1970]

This is a great conversation. Draft grades are based on overall compared to all other players. Some positions are given higher initial ratings than others. That is why you have a lot of gems late at certain positions such as wr, hb, dt. In reality a 71 drafted lg is more valuable than a 74 drafted wr but the wr will have a higher draft grade while the lg will possibly be rated with a red diamond.

If you want busts you have to do it yourself using a random number generator and a spreadsheet as the do system makes sure everyone gets better for years after being drafted. This is how I keep my franchise interesting. In Madden you are going to have the same dominant half backs for a decade at a time. That is just not how football works.

[Cory Levy]

Yeah, it's a big bummer that draft 'busts' are extremely hard to replicate once they're in the league in Madden due to how the XP progression system works. You might draft a guy that's lower rated for the spot taken and compared to those surrounding him but if you play him and hammer him as a Focus player and he puts up just marginally good stats, he'll get better and better until he's one of the best in the league.



You'll never have that bust that just outright 'can't play' in Madden unless you purposefully draft un-ranked players really highly.


That's why I like TDawg's progression tool much better in theory. Being totally random as to how a player will grow and what their potential is makes a lot more sense than everyone in the league being able to get better the more they're used.