Scouting Question?

[Steeler99]

Just starting my first real franchise so I haven't really messed with scouting yet. So I'm perusing the list of players trying to decide which "19" to scout and I see several players at various positons that have very good speed, with very good strength (good bench reps anyway), however their potential bar isn't anywhere near full?

My question for those of you that have been through the process a few times with these new Madden classes ... is strength a good predicter of overall ability when matched with a good speed rating?

For example I scouted a couple running backs that had 4.3-4.4 ish speed, with 20+ bench reps which seems like a very good combination. However neither of these guys showed an extremely high potential bar. Most of the other RB's had a bench press rep of closer to 12-14. .... so i'm thinking a possible late-round gem here?

Thanks for any input!

[maademperor]

to my knowledge the potential bar has yet to be fully disected/vetted but the potential bar is supposedly just to give you an idea of his A) ovr rating coming out of school and/or B) his true potential.

that said, probably a decent back but with that potential rating he might not improve much over what he already can do. I say if you like his stats, try and get him as late as possible like any other character.

scouting can be pretty useful, check guys out and make sure there isnt some glaring weakness being discovered, cause you can just stop scouting them right then and move on to some other guys (a WR with a catch rating of 53 is pretty useless IMO)...

[bigjake62505]

from what i have seen the scouting is varied. If you scout some guy for 6 weeks and see nice numbers and his potiental looks good then most likely you will have a good player. I have also seen the opposite so there is no rhyme or reason to it just like RL I have started over and seen the same draft classes with guys going in different rounds each time. I think it was meant to be a crap shoot. Also if you watch the list of guys they will move up and down the board during the season. I have seen players start out with a full potiental bar, then at the end of the season they have fallen to a decent potiental. My last restart I had the same draft class come up. There was a OLB that I drafted in the 4th round who I knew was good, then in my restart franchise he was predicted to go in the top 10 when the season was over.

[Richieh]

Think of potential as "potential to improve"
There are lots of players with high potential, who's initial rating will be in the 60s. It will take 3-5 years before they become good players. Likewise, there are players with low potentials who will be rated in the mid 80s as rookies. Useful for immediate help, but they won't get any better.
Both kinds of players will be useful to you, as long as pick right for your needs.

So don't draft solely on potential, but look at the combine numbers, scouting reports, and draft "wheel" before picking.

[Steeler99]

Thanks for the input guys ... so overall are you happy with Madden classes versus ncaa classes? I really like the idea of gems and busts, and those simply don't occur in ncaa classes.