Draft Scouting Strategy

[Juce734]

Depends on the positions. I only check scheme for certain positions too like QB, and WR.

HB, WR, CB, S, LB - I check speed, accel, agility, awareness, and then the position skills (carry, catch, catch in traffic, release, tackle, man, zone, press)

OL, DL, TE - I check Strength, and then position skills.

This has proven to help the most. I go for the letter grades though and not the number grades. The only reasons players have been upsetting is because of a low overness grade due to awareness for me so far.

[Falconfreak]

One thing I have noticed in the draft is if you see a potential diamond in the rough and it is estimated that players goes mid to late rounds don't rely on it. The cpu will almost always draft those guys a round to three rounds early. If you have a guy you really want then I suggest drafting him early. You'd rather have the guys you want versus watching them go off the draft board and scrambling to fill holes on guys you didn't have the points to scout before the draft.

[oldman]

Quote: Originally Posted by Juce734

Depends on the positions. I only check scheme for certain positions too like QB, and WR. HB, WR, CB, S, LB - I check speed, accel, agility, awareness, and then the position skills (carry, catch, catch in traffic, release, tackle, man, zone, press) OL, DL, TE - I check Strength, and then position skills. This has proven to help the most. I go for the letter grades though and not the number grades. The only reasons players have been upsetting is because of a low overness grade due to awareness for me so far.

I understand not checking the schemes on some of those positions. Defense I definitely start with scheme on defense. On offense I am thinking of starting with specific position skills.

[mhodgson89]

Quote: Originally Posted by oldman

Why do you put a lot of points into injury and stamina? Wouldn't some of the position specific attributes be better?

Guys with low injury ratings aren't able to stay healthy enough to stay on the field to gain the exp needed to increase it. Better to find guys that there isn't an injury concern.

Stamina I always scout on defensive players and offensive skill players so I'll have guys I know aren't coming off the field after 3-4 plays. Offensive linemen, kickers, punters and Pocket QB's aren't worth scouting the stamina most of the time. They tend not to be a concern.

[jmik58]

Nice thread. I think it really matters on how you scout and develop your team based on whether you are simming or playing.

If you are playing the games then just focus on specific attributes. If you are siming, you need to focus on the OVR rating.

If you're simming games then check awareness as that has a lot to do with OVR.

I also wait until "stage 7" of the offseason to scout. Then I can go in with my 60,000 SP and do the work all at once. There's no reason to go week-by-week in my opinion. That way it's fresh before "stage 8" -- the NFL Draft.

[oldman]

Quote: Originally Posted by mhodgson89

Guys with low injury ratings aren't able to stay healthy enough to stay on the field to gain the exp needed to increase it. Better to find guys that there isn't an injury concern. Stamina I always scout on defensive players and offensive skill players so I'll have guys I know aren't coming off the field after 3-4 plays. Offensive linemen, kickers, punters and Pocket QB's aren't worth scouting the stamina most of the time. They tend not to be a concern.

How many minute quarters do you play? I play 11 minutes with a 15 second accelerated clock and injuries don't happen often enough that I would not draft someone because of a low injury rating.

I'm not saying your method is wrong, I just don't want to waste points in an area that I think will have a lower impact on my decision than others.

[StayPlation82]

yeah i always scout the injury rating first. position dependent, anything under a B i don't scout anything else about them. then it's position specific grades, then physical grades(spd, str, acc, agi), then awr, sta, etc. i rarely bother with scheme on offense but on D, lineman and linebackers i'll check.

[Staalker]

I am about to reveal a small way to cheat for the draft, if you don't want to know what this is, then please don't read it. it's not a HUGE issue, but looking through the menus, I found a way to see the OVR and scheme of upcoming draft picks without ever spending a scout point on them.

This works all the time, and it appears to actually be an oversight in the game that the developers missed. I put the actual method of doing this in spoiler tags for those who don't want to know.

What I recently discovered, is that you can actually see more than just the OVR and scheme of the player, You can also see their actual intangible and physical stats too.

The method is no longer included in this post.



I want to make it clear that I am bringing this to players attention hoping to get this fixed by EA. Especially if this works in online CC. People who know this trick will have a huge advantage over those who don't. It's not my intentions to harm anything, but I assume that the more who know and complain to EA the better chance it can be fixed. Assumptions can be wrong though...