I would love to see unique storylines incorporated into offline franchise in the coming years (most notably next year in hopes that Madden 12 puts a major focus into the offline franchise mode). Some things that would be cool to see, just to name a few:
- Positional battles such as QB controversies a la Matt Leinart vs Derek Anderson as we saw this year
- Players threatening and attempting to holdout over contractual disputes
- Players demanding trades
- Player suspensions (I know this can get nuts but would be interesting to talk about, "Hey who got suspended in your 'chise for such and such..")
- Having sleepers (guys that don't have an elite rating) sometimes emerge to have a great season or even an out-of-nowhere great career
- Players coming out of retirement and going to another team (think Brett Favre)
Again these are just a few ideas off the top that I thought might make franchise more intriguing. Perhaps some of them like player suspensions might be hard to implement, but if we're pushing for realism (What's the motto: If it's in the game, it's in the game?) then I don't think it would be unreasonable to hope for such things.
Feel free to add your thoughts and ideas on how franchise can become more realistic and can keep you coming back.