exactly i've been on message boards following this game for a while now. Ive seen how they market and release information with their games. Its not like they just throw stuff out randomly, its done in a tactical way. They came out early and showed some improved zones, DL interaction and diving catches but after that we were constantly being reminded of custom playbooks. Then everything after was non gameplay related stuff but they went big with it so everyone is all focused about what conferences they'll make and what coaching decisions they'll make that people are no longer asking or as focused on the gameplay.
Now its more like "well last year was good so we'll give them the benefit of the doubt that they made improvements to gameplay because they gave us all these new(old) features." But if they made big improvements to the gameplay they wouldn't be holding it back, they would be flaunting it. Madden with their DPP is flaunting how it will change the games. When Pro Tak first came out or other gameplay features came out they didn't wait until the release for us to find out. If dramatic fixes were made to special teams like blocking, blocking kicks they wouldn't just let us figure it out ourselves, they'd be flaunting "HEY LOOK AT WHAT WE DID!"
Its sleight of hand. Look at coaching carousel/custom conferences and don't focus on the lack of gameplay improvements. I mean just look at how they wasted Teambuilder. Great innovative feature that has hardly been touched since its inception. So much potential being wasted.
That being said i'm not trying to make this into a bash EA's efforts or something like that because i'm very much looking forward to the game but i'm just expressing what i am seeing from experience and sort of, i guess, lowering my expectations for gameplay improvements this year.