Thoughts on the 75 man roster and preseason stuff.....

[mjhyankees]

I'm on record as saying I'm not interested in the 75 man roster...I appreciate the realism and I'm glad it made alot of people happy but I've had a problem with it all along and think I can put my finger on it now.....
1. That's a lot of cuts to make
2. I usually start off Madden with a 32 team chise and control every team and play all 32 teams games. That's now a SH%^$t load of cuts to make.

Yeah you may say, "that's your problem" or "too bad, deal with it"...and you'd be right. But....here is the biggest issue:

No training camp. It is in practice and training camp that you truly evaluate individual players. Games dont' tell you nearly what you see in practice. It would have made SO much sense to be able to use training camp to unlock ratings of players instead of having to play through games. Here's why:

Let's say you put in that extra strong safety....and no balls get thrown to him...and lets say you are controlling the MLB...or whatever...are you really going to be able to evaluate whether this guy is any good? so you play the game, see the guy do something and the ovr system says he's a 75 and has 81 speed etc.....well are you going to base your cut on what Madden told you his ratings were? If so why make you play the game? Give me the ratings right away and i'll decide if I like his numbers. Or perhaps you'll base your decision on how he played (good luck). Unless you've got game film and can run through every play and iso on him I'm not sure you're really going to see much.

I coached HS football...and this is true on any level.....you see in practice what you need to know. The only thing that comes out in a game is maybe the ability to play underpressure, game presence etc. The skills are far more visible in practice because you are drilling your players 100 times a week on various drills. In 15+ years of coaching I can't remember having some kid that looked lost in practice go into the game and look great and win a spot based on that. Drills tell you how well: he jumps, runs, is agile, hits hard etc. If anything most players look worse in the game then they do in practice (probably pressure, distractions of 11 guys around you instead of you by yourself or with a few other guys in a drill simulation). Dont' take my word for it..ask anyone you know that coaches...you almost never get the "surprise"....the guy that's horrible in practice and then plays the game like a superstar.

Let me put my madden player through the preseason drills and I'll get a real good idea of how he plays and probably won't need to look at numbers. When we used to be able to drill the college draftees in old gen You could see right away who was slow, or didn't react, or quick or powerful etc.
I think they missed the boat here....ok give us the 75 man roster but give us a way to truly evaluate. Im' really curious as to how people will feel going into their 3rd or 4th year of their chise and having to play preseason games and then basically basing their cuts on the ovr. You're not really evaluating then. The game is making you play meaningless preseason games (yes some people love this and they are not wrong but the games still don't count) just to give you a bunch of numbers that you used to get anyway. If cuts are going to be made because a guy is 57 ovr with D potential...why do I have to play a preason game (or all 4) to find this out. Give us training camp or drills or both.

[Daywalker3]

You can't get EVERY realistic thing about the NFL into the game in one year. I think it's great they've added the 75 man rosters as it worked amazingly well in Head Coach 09, if you haven't ever played that. Also, you can now take your team mid-franchise directly into practice mode so you can test out those guys in a non-game scenario if you'd like. I realize it's not a full-on training camp but it's better than nothing for what you're suggesting.

I love it because it allows you to see what the guys are doing with your own eyes and make judgments that way just like in the NFL during roster cuts. You get some of their individual ratings as the weeks go on but it may not be relevant ones, so you have to pay close attention and there's some risk-reward involved. It's personally one of my favorite additions to franchise this year.

[mjhyankees]

Quote: Originally Posted by Daywalker3

You can't get EVERY realistic thing about the NFL into the game in one year. I think it's great they've added the 75 man rosters as it worked amazingly well in Head Coach 09, if you haven't ever played that. Also, you can now take your team mid-franchise directly into practice mode so you can test out those guys in a non-game scenario if you'd like. I realize it's not a full-on training camp but it's better than nothing for what you're suggesting. I love it because it allows you to see what the guys are doing with your own eyes and make judgments that way just like in the NFL during roster cuts. You get some of their individual ratings as the weeks go on but it may not be relevant ones, so you have to pay close attention and there's some risk-reward involved. It's personally one of my favorite additions to franchise this year.

The practice mode sounds great...glad they have that in there...that'll help alot. I didn't realize you could do that preseason.

[Broncos86]

I don't think they missed the boat so much as ran out of time on building the boat. I know for a fact that Adembroski has mentioned really wanting to get training camp back into the game. So I think we're going to see it next year.

[For The Win]

Quote: Originally Posted by mjhyankees

The practice mode sounds great...glad they have that in there...that'll help alot. I didn't realize you could do that preseason.

The practice mode is in Franchise Mode or do you have to export your team to the out of dynasty practice mode? Personally though, games tell me more on what a player can do because there are always players they wow you in workouts but when it comes to the games they struggle. And there are always those headcases that don't give it their all in practice but do in games imo.

[bucky60]

Quote: Originally Posted by Broncos86

I don't think they missed the boat so much as ran out of time on building the boat. I know for a fact that Adembroski has mentioned really wanting to get training camp back into the game. So I think we're going to see it next year.

This guy is talking about it taking to much time to actually play preseason games to evaluate all the players. How is having to take all the players through drills any less time consuming?

I like the idea of a training camp, if you don't have to run each and every player through a bunch of drills. I think a simulated training camp, where a coach decides what areas to emphasize, you hit a button, and you get the training camp results.

Otherwise, having to run through a bunch of drills to evaluate players and help them progress would be FAR to time consuming.

[Daywalker3]

Quote: Originally Posted by For The Win

The practice mode is in Franchise Mode or do you have to export your team to the out of dynasty practice mode? Personally though, games tell me more on what a player can do because there are always players they wow you in workouts but when it comes to the games they struggle. And there are always those headcases that don't give it their all in practice but do in games imo.

The practice mode is actually in franchise this year, no exporting of team required. I'm happy about that. I may not use it often but it can't hurt to have it in there, especially if you're working on a custom playbook or something like that.

[DeuceDouglas]

I really like the addition of 75 man rosters. I think it will add a lot to franchise atleast in the sense of preseason. It gives me an incentive to play the preseason and maybe use different guys that otherwise would just be buried in the depth chart.

I think it could also play a role in the regular season where maybe a few guys get injured at the same position and rather than just signing the best overall, you go with a guy you cut in preseason because you know what you're getting rather than an unknown but I don't think that's what most will do.