Detroit Lions Madden Franchise

[The Police]

Why not pick the Lions to start a franchise? They went 0-16 last year, they only can go up. In my franchise, I played every game and I already played through the first season so I'll give a quick recap:

Key Transactions (Before the Season 1)

Traded QB Matthew Stafford and a 1st round pick to the Miami Dolphins for QB Pat White and 1st, 3rd and 6th round picks (I love a QB who can run).

Signed WR Plaxico Burress to a 2-year contract

Traded WR Plaxico Burress and a 5th rounder to the New York Giants for WR Steve Smith (one of my favorite players)

The Season

The first things I noticed were that Pat White threw a lot of interceptions, Calvin Johnson was a beast, the Lions O-Line sucks and their defense is just as bad as real life. Anyways, the Lions ended up going 13-3, winning 11 of their last 12 games. Here are some key stats from the regular season:

Passing
Pat White: 3,731 YDS, 34 TD, 17 INT

Rushing
Kevin Smith: 979 YDS, 10 TD, 5.7 YPC
Pat White: 656 YDs, 9 TD, 9.2 YPC

Recieving
Calvin Johnson: 74 REC, 1491 YDS, 11 TD, 20.1 YPR
Brandon Pettigrew: 66 REC, 929 YDS, 9 TD, 14 YPR
Steve Smith: 48 REC, 733 YDS, 5 TD, 15.9 YPR

Key Defensive Stats
Dewayne White: 27 TACK, 12 SACK
Jared Devries: 33 TACK, 9 SACK
Larry Foote: 57 TACK, 1 SACK
Ernie Sims: 43 TACK, 5 SACK
Louis Delmas: 19 TACK, 5 INT
Anthony Henry: 14 TACK, 4 INT

As you can see, some of the defensive tackles stats are pretty low. I only played 5 min quarters so that's why. Pat White made the Pro Bowl, won the Offensive Player of the Year and Rookie of the Year awards and finished third in MVP voting. Adding to that, Brandon Pettigrew finished second in Rookie of the Year voting, Louis Delmas finished fifth in defensive rookie of the Year and Jim Schwartz finished second in coach of the year voting.

Pro Bowlers: Pat White, Calvin Johnson, Brandon Pettigrew, Dominic Riola, Dewayne White, Anthony Henry, Louis Delmas

In the first round of the playoffs, I had a bye. So in the Divisional round, I was facing the 9-8 Chicago Bears. Not too worried and took care of them, 20-14.

In the Conference Championship, I faced the Washington Redskins. Funnily enough, the Redskins and Bears were my first two losses of the season. I took care of the Redkins 31-10 although Pat White threw 3 INT.

In the Super Bowl, It was the Patriots who came out of the AFC. I bumped the level up to All-Madden (after playing All-Pro) so the Super Bowl could be as challenging as real life. Well, the Patriots are probably the best team on the game and after losing 14-0 and 21-7 through the first quarter in two tries, I decided to change the level to All-Pro again. The jet flyover was pretty cool after seeing it for the first time, the Lions play in a dome so when they had the jets, the players just stared at the dome ceiling. Pat White's interception problems continued (2 INT) but the Lions took care of the Patriots, 24-21, icing things with :2 seconds to go in the game with a field goal.

The next post will be the off-season

[J Don x]

very realistic LOL

[rws591]

Quote: Originally Posted by J Don x

very realistic LOL

Hahaha to ^

The Police, I think you might be suited for a tougher playing level than All-Pro.

[The Police]

I think I'm a bigger fan of my virtual Lions than the real Lions lol.

[The Police]

Off-Season

Retirements

Jason Hanson retired. In real life, this would be a tragedy for the Lions but I actually didn't really use Hanson that much. Grady Jackson also retired but he was just an average player and overpaid.

Resigning Period

I resigned pretty much all of my starters. The only key departure was Anthony Henry who was asking for an average salary over $5 million. I get that he made the Pro Bowl but his overrall rating was in the 70's, he had C potential and was on the wrong side of 30. Pretty easy decision to make when asking whether to sign or not to sign.

[The Police]

Free Agency

I didn't really make any big splashes signing free agents. I signed K Kris Brown, the highest rated kicker in the market, to fill my void left by Jason Hanson retiring. I also signed a few young guys (LT Kyle Williams, LG Travis Bright, C Dylan Glandy and LOLB Keith Ellison) to small contracts in hopes of high potential. No such luck. All of them were C potential. I did make some big splashes trading during this period though. Here are some of them:

Traded DE Dewayne White, C Dominic Riola and a 4h round pick to the Pittsburgh Steelers for DE Evander Hood, C A.Q. Shipley nd a 3rd round pick.

Traded LT Jeff Backus, LOLB Julian Peterson and C Damion Cook to the Cincinatti Bengals for MLB Rey Mauluga, C Kyle Cook and a 5th round pick.

Traded DT Chuck Darby, RB Maurice Morris and 2nd round pick for CB Vontae Davis and a 4th round pick.

And as you probably already notice, I make a lot of trades that would never happen in real life. Draft is the next post.

[The Police]

Draft

I entered the draft with a 10 picks, a 1st, three 3rds, a 4th, two 5ths, two 6ths and a 7th. I traded down and up a lot so I ended up getting different picks. I won't go through all the trades but I didn't give up an actual player in any of them. Here are my picks. I signed all of them so I'll tell you their overrall rating, potential:

1st round, 16th overrall - LT Connor Bailey, 76 OVR, C potential, projected top 10 (bust! expecially with his $29+ million contract!)

3rd round, 80th overrall - LG Blake Burns, 75 OVR, B potential

3rd round, 90th overrall - HB Nino Jackson, 74 OVR, A potential

3rd round, 96thth overrall - CB Quinton Ives, 45 OVR, F potential (another bust!)

4th round, 111th overrall - WR Donald Freeman, 62 OVR, C potential (projected 2nd-3rd round)

4th round, 112th overrall - CB Earlzo Thornton, 44 OVR, F potential (later on released, I must be really bad at scouting CBs)

5th round, 150th overrall - DT Connor Zorn, 65 OVR, C potential

5th round, 160th overrall - RG Adam Harvey, 71 OVR, A potential (absolute steal!)

7th round, 224th overrall - DT Zach Mullins, 54 OVR, B potential (steal for the last pick in the draft)



Although most of you know this, what helped me in the draft is I scouted only the prospects with lots of potential during the regular season. So when I look at the players I scouted during the draft, I know that I can pick one of them and they'll be at least B potential usually.

[DustinT]

Ummm....sure.

Anyways if you're going to keep updating this you should get it moved the the Dynasty HQ forum.