Official M25 Trade Thread

[BrianM207]

I just finally got to starting my ccm after testing rosters and sliders...

in my last game of the pre season...

I had to cut 6 guys to get down to 53...figured why not try and get something instead of just flat out cutting them....

I(Dallas) traded Kyle Orton(3rd stringer Alex Tanney has progressed well thus far and I like him for when Romo is done)to Minnesota for their 2014 3rd round pick(they had 2)

I traded Phillip Tanner(he had dropped to my 4th rb)and Ryan Cook(didnt need 3 centers)to Chicago for their 2014 rd 4

To be honest I was suprised when they both accepted

[Robrain]

Quote: Originally Posted by Hokie200proof

Long Story about Trading, specifically in the Draft... Starting to figure out M25 trading mechanic and I'll say that playing the NFL Draft Pick Futures Market is almost a game breaker. In previous Madden games I was always a big trader, trying to always max out my value for picks and players, usually to the point of exploit. I've been playing around with trades a lot this year and I thought the AI was much improved, removing some of the cheap moves I was able to make in previous iterations... but my conning of 2014 Draft has me thinking a little differently now. As you can see from my previous posts, I struck gold as my 1st round pick from AZ (for Fred Davis and my 5th rounder) became the #1 overall as they ended up going 2-14. Amazingly my pick from GB ended up being #6 overall as they sucked on ice as well, going 5-12 in 2013 (looks like Rodgers had a season ending injury and the team just folded after that). So, at the start of the 2014 Draft I had the #1 overall and the #6 overall and my original pick (#32 as RGIII and the Skins returned to SB glory). By the end of the 2014 Draft I had made three 1st round selections (all from VT - James Gayle, DE, 6th overall; Kyle Fuller, CB, 9th overall and Logan Thomas, QB, 22nd overall) two 2nd round selections (Andrew Miller, C, 34th overall and David Wang, OG, 39th overall). More importantly (and perhaps more impressively considering my draft haul) I also had three 1st rounders, three 2nd rounders and four 3rd rounders for the 2015 Draft. It wasn't all popcorn and HJ's in the beginning. When I fired up the draft I was immediately furious as I had ZERO offers for my 1st overall pick. The draft starts, I hear Trey say "The Redskins are on the clock..." and then... nothing. Just two options - "Make a Selection" and "Advance Draft". WTF? NO ONE WANTED THE #1 OVERALL? I couldn't believe it. I paused the draft and tried to figure out what I wanted to do next. I didn't want to use the pick as I was fine at QB and LT, positions that all of the top-5 picks projected to be (imported from 2014 NCAA, Clowney stayed in school). While I was paused I realized I could navigate to "Improve Roster" and get into the "Trade Players" screen (I skipped Madden for a long time, so I am a CFM noob, so this was a big revelation for me, if not for you). With the draft paused I was able to scout the upcoming draft picks and select my target team (San Diego picking 5th, right around where I predicted James Gayle to go). I went into the “Manual Trade” screen and offered my pick for what I considered to be a max deal (given that M25 only has three available slots for trades) - SD's 5th overall, their 2014 2nd and their 2015 1st. Boom. Accepted, no discussion or "need a little bit more..." message or anything. WTF? So why didn't I get an offer like this in the beginning? Why didn't I have a bunch of teams offering me packages through a "Trade Down" option as soon as I started the draft? My only guess is the math just didn't add up for the CPU and the #1 overall pick is almost untouchable in terms of value. I'm assuming the AI did a calculation when the draft began and determined that no other team could offer me enough value to take the overall #1 pick, so it didn't even offer the option. Why else would I get no offers, then have my manual offer accepted without argument? This changed everything for me, and I immediately wondered what would've happened if I had traded down to the 2nd overall pick. Could I have done the same thing with the 2nd overall? Trade down, get that one, that team's 2nd and their 2015 1st? I might go back and run some tests to see if that would've produced similar results. With SD's pick in hand I progressed the draft until Trey told me I was on the clock. With the 5th pick I got the "Trade Down" option and checked out the offers. 3 of the 12 teams that offered, offered me their 2014 1st, their 2014 2nd and their 2015 1st. I chose the one that was closest to the 6th pick and who didn’t need an LE (James Gayle’s position). Ended up being the 8th pick from Houston. Houston made their choice and I got another tempting set of “Trade Down” offers, but decided not to tempt fate again and took Gayle 6th overall. I got my last 2015 1st rounder when I moved down one spot from 8th to 9th and ended up taking Kyle Fuller as was my draft plan. I kept the deals going throughout the draft, moving up when I needed to, but always exploring the “Trade Down” offers when they were there. After the 4th round I didn’t get too many good ones and I didn’t get any for my 5th round or 6th round picks. I got a really strange offer for my 7th round pick (two teams offered 2015 5th rounders) which I took gladly. So… could be exploitive, could just be shrewd moves, but I would highly recommend scouting the NFL standings just before the trade deadline and trying to trade for what looks like the future #1 overall. Luck has plenty to do with it (especially if you’re shipping off a difference maker in order to make the deal go through in the first place), but it looks like I might have found an old weakness in this year’s trading AI. Anyone have similar results?

You figured out what unfortunately took me a few drafts to figure out. You can indeed trade your picks outside of the draft screen if you don't like the offers you receive.

I now tend to trade away all of my 1st Rounders because I don't like drafting a player "just because", and then take the cap hit that comes with guaranteeing money to a player I didn't want anyway.

The 1st overall pick is worth a ton if you're trading it away, but also very very hard to trade for usually if you're on the other side of the negotiating table. This is the reason I stockpile 1st Rounders.

If you don't want to draft a player with the #1 overall pick, it's extreme trade value is an Ace/Joker card in negotiations if you take a moment to trade it for a high-valued player you've been looking to acquire. Keep in mind, the week of the draft is when the pick''s value will be at it's highest. You want to wait until that week to trade it for something.

And yes, you can chain together the "trade down" system to acquire a half dozen or more first round picks in the following year's draft if you do it smartly.

1st Rounders are the ultimate trade tool in Madden 25.

[Hokie200proof]

I might redo my draft as I really want Kam Chancellor on my team and Seattle, perhaps justifiably, wouldn't trade him for my 3 2015 1st round picks when I offered right after the draft. I know Kam the man is a 94-96 overall SS and all, but the Seahawks not letting him go for for Three 1st rounders?

I bet they'd do it and maybe give me a late pick or two if I offered right before or right at the start of the draft.

[Hokie200proof]

Quote: Originally Posted by CK1981

I've not tried that this year, and don't really understand why you would want to find the exploits again. Fred Davis for a 1st round pick? C'mon man. It's your franchise, so do what you will. I will share that I imported a NCAA class and could not trade up to get Clowney. He was projected #1, but didn't go until #3. Still couldn't trade for him even giving up 2 firsts and a second. He was only rated a 78. So maybe the game logic does value players over picks this year.

CK I hear you, and I have two franchises going... one where I play as sim as I can or just try to coach and I don't try to use exploits like what I described above. I also use the storyline draft classes and I've avoided those spoiler threads as much as possible so I'm on even footing with the other AI GMs.

In the franchise I did all of the wheeling and dealing above, I do whatever I can to get whatever I want. I try to break all NFL records, win the SB each year, etc, etc. For the folks who want to do the same, as I've heard an equal amount of complaints for nearly as many commendations regarding the "tougher" trade AI, I'll do some more testing to put an estimated value scale on the pre-draft/beginning-of-draft picks.

Even so, and as you point out, that #1 overall is really pricey. Even in AFK NFL, teams pay a crazy price for that #1 overall... not so much for #2, #3 or thereafter, which it seems they might in M25. Still, this "exploit" only works if you get a little bit lucky and you land that #1 overall as you need to bag it earlier in the year by playing the Who-will-suck-major-arse NFL Futures Market. Otherwise, the value scales shift and you get shutout of the top-3 or top-5 picks like you did.

[icycoldshane]

As the Jaguars in my CFM, I saw Kamerion Wimbley was on the trade block, So I offered Blaine Gabbert and Justin Forsett and they accepted it. I was surprised to say the least.

[Robrain]

Quote: Originally Posted by Hokie200proof

CK I hear you, and I have two franchises going... one where I play as sim as I can or just try to coach and I don't try to use exploits like what I described above. I also use the storyline draft classes and I've avoided those spoiler threads as much as possible so I'm on even footing with the other AI GMs. In the franchise I did all of the wheeling and dealing above, I do whatever I can to get whatever I want. I try to break all NFL records, win the SB each year, etc, etc. For the folks who want to do the same, as I've heard an equal amount of complaints for nearly as many commendations regarding the "tougher" trade AI, I'll do some more testing to put an estimated value scale on the pre-draft/beginning-of-draft picks. Even so, and as you point out, that #1 overall is really pricey. Even in AFK NFL, teams pay a crazy price for that #1 overall... not so much for #2, #3 or thereafter, which it seems they might in M25. Still, this "exploit" only works if you get a little bit lucky and you land that #1 overall as you need to bag it earlier in the year by playing the Who-will-suck-major-arse NFL Futures Market. Otherwise, the value scales shift and you get shutout of the top-3 or top-5 picks like you did.

When rebuilding a franchise in Madden 25, I usually start by trading away all of their top talent for multiple first round draft picks (Fitzgerald, MJD, whatever).

Then unless there's a star player that I absolutely must have, I trade those picks away for future picks.

If you get about 6-8 first round picks in the first season by trading away all your talent, you can swap those 6-8 picks for the 1st Round picks of the 6-8 worst teams during Week 8 (last week to make trades).

That gives you a pretty large chance of landing the #1 pick, at worst you tend to end up with at least 2-3 Top-5 picks which are still usually quite valuable.

[Robrain]

Quote: Originally Posted by icycoldshane

As the Jaguars in my CFM, I saw Kamerion Wimbley was on the trade block, So I offered Blaine Gabbert and Justin Forsett and they accepted it. I was surprised to say the least.

Seems teams will take just about anything for players on the trade block. It's pretty funny.

[Robrain]

After fine-tuning some things, I figured I'd document what it took to make some headline trades:

In my franchise where I take over the New York Jets and make them into the Celtic Tigers:

Acquiring RE Dion Jordan from the Miami Dolphins:

I gave:
LT Dabrickashaw Ferguson (99 OVR on the Trade Screen)
WR Santonio Holmes (90 OVR on the Trade Screen)
2015 3rd Round Draft Pick (82)

I got:
RE Dion Jordan (65 OVR on the Trade Screen)
2015 6th Round Draft Pick (162)

Miami's primary needs were: LT, HB, LG, QB, WR

To pull off that deal, I had to release Santonio Holmes and then resign him to lower his 2013 cap number. I also had to make the following trade prior to the D. Jordan trade, in order to clear cap space on Miami's side for LT Ferguson's large contract:

I gave:
2014 5th Round Pick (146)
2015 5th Round Pick (146)

I got:
DT Vaughn Martin
CB Dimitri Patterson (both of these players had OVRs in the 60's I believe)

Acquiring DT Dontari Poe from the Kansas City Chiefs:

First, I had to "restructure" (release/resign) MLB David Harris' contract, to reduce his 2013 cap number from $10M down to $2.21M. This was because at his original 2013 cap number, he'd have put the Chiefs over the salary cap by almost $6M - which would cause the trade offer to get declined.

I gave:
MLB David Harris (84 OVR)
WR Clyde Gates (76 OVR)

I got:
DT Dontari Poe (78 OVR)

I didn't really fine-tune that trade too much. I offered MLB D. Harris for D. Poe + picks, but those all got declined, so then I offered D. Harris straight up for D. Poe, but that got declined, then I tried throwing in WR Clyde Gates and it got instantaneously accepted. I probably could have asked for a low pick back as well. Oh well.

Acquiring RE Michael Johnson from the Cincinnati Bengals:

I gave:
FB Vonta Leach (99 OVR)
2014 2nd Round Pick (50)
2015 4th Round Pick (114)

I got:
RE Michael Johnson (72 OVR)

I fine-tuned that one pretty well. I might have been able to get back a 2015 late round pick as well, but it didn't really matter much.