Approval rating in the toilet

[DJ]

After choosing to not go with 2 Defining Moments (they made no sense), my approval rating is now under 20 at Oakland, lol.

Any tips on how to get that bad boy up to a respectable number? I'm in my first year, btw.

Anyone else have a terrible approval rating right now?

[Sanchez_Mareno]

Win.
Plain and simple

[meanness]

Winning cures everything.

If you can't win in your first year, then you have to game the Defining Moments. Otherwise, you will not have enough approval to keep your job.

[Burntoatmeal]

As the others said: Win, win, and win. It cures all.

Negotiate with your players that you know you are not going to re-sign anyway. Depending on how many contracts you have up for renewal, that's usually good for a 2-3 point bump during the week. When my rating is north of 80, I usually save time and ignore their request to negotiate and take a slight ratings hit. When my rating is low, I'll take 30 seconds to open negotations and quit before I make an offer. You still get a positive approval for just showing up at the negotating table sans an offer.

Get the Charisma talent for your HC. Increases the positives, decreases the negatives.

If you are super simming, jump into game mode the play before something critical.
EX: 3rd down and 5 and you call an inside run. Chances are good you'll A) get a first down or B) end up with 4th and short. That will give you a chance at a Defining Moment that you can hopefully convert.

Jump in during the 4th quarter of close games and give yourself more chances for those Moments.

Clean up your roster and trade block before the GM assigns pre-season goals. That way you don't get stuck with goals like "Trade player X" or "Get player X to 25% playbook knowledge". If you leave a few superstars on the trade block that you were using as bait for other teams, your GM can make trading him one of your goals. Same goes for your new free agents or draft picks. If you grab free agents seven days before the pre-season camp to use as trade bait, trade them before the pre-season goals are set or you will get knocked when you GM says "Get player X to 25% playbook knowledge". If you trade them, you'll take a ratings hit.

Hope that helps.

[BrnwsBucksFanNC]

I have been lucky with the Approval rating...during pre-season I do whatever is most popular on defining moments. I was able to jump my approval from a 53 to an 88 by agreeing to go for it on a 4th and 12...yea...it dropped to 83 when I didnt make it...but it was pre-season and I still had a 30 point increase. I agree about talking to the players even if you dont want to sign them...just be careful to hit the right key and not accept the outrageous contract they want!!

One question though...I supersim all of the regular season games but when I "stop simming" I dont get the option to steal plays or anything like that...I cant even look at the personnel on the field or their fatigue levels...all it allows me to do is call the play. How can i get to that other stuff?

[DJ]

Quote: Originally Posted by Burntoatmeal

As the others said: Win, win, and win. It cures all. Negotiate with your players that you know you are not going to re-sign anyway. Depending on how many contracts you have up for renewal, that's usually good for a 2-3 point bump during the week. When my rating is north of 80, I usually save time and ignore their request to negotiate and take a slight ratings hit. When my rating is low, I'll take 30 seconds to open negotations and quit before I make an offer. You still get a positive approval for just showing up at the negotating table sans an offer. Get the Charisma talent for your HC. Increases the positives, decreases the negatives. If you are super simming, jump into game mode the play before something critical. EX: 3rd down and 5 and you call an inside run. Chances are good you'll A) get a first down or B) end up with 4th and short. That will give you a chance at a Defining Moment that you can hopefully convert. Jump in during the 4th quarter of close games and give yourself more chances for those Moments. Clean up your roster and trade block before the GM assigns pre-season goals. That way you don't get stuck with goals like "Trade player X" or "Get player X to 25% playbook knowledge". If you leave a few superstars on the trade block that you were using as bait for other teams, your GM can make trading him one of your goals. Same goes for your new free agents or draft picks. If you grab free agents seven days before the pre-season camp to use as trade bait, trade them before the pre-season goals are set or you will get knocked when you GM says "Get player X to 25% playbook knowledge". If you trade them, you'll take a ratings hit. Hope that helps.

That does help, thanks.

Those goals you're given can be a pain. One of mine was to train a rookie to 25% and I didn't get anywhere close to that, lol.

[cutter73]

See if you can't work some of the other goals you get in your favor as well. If you have a goal to resign a certain player, for example, there are a couple ways you can play it.

If you do want to res-sign the player, don't do it too early in the season. If you get the approval boost from signing him around week 8 for example, if you continue losing games you'll negate that boost pretty quickly. If you wait until the last week or so, if possible, it will work out better for you. That approval boost will not have time to be whittled down in remaining games.

Likewise, if you don;t want to re-sign the player at all, trade him immediately at the beginning of the regular season. You take the approval hit for not re-signing him as soon as he leaves your roster. Yes, you do take a hit, but in the long run it just won't matter.

Approval points are stacked in favor of the end of the year. If you start the year, and after 3 games your aproval rating is down to zero, with your owner, it can't get any lower no matter what you do. Take all the big approval hits as soon as possible, then try to gain a few at the end of the year. Fullfilling a gaol that gives you a 25 point boost early doesn't do you much good. That 25 points can be gone with a couple losses and you're right back where you started. It would have been better if they had held off applying those boosts until the end of the year evaluation, but it isn't that way. As people have already said, just swallow the stupidity and do the defining moments, especially in the last month or so of the season.

Also, cancel some practices to boost your players approval ratings.

[DocBean]

Not going for Defining Moments can actually help you in the long run.

I just figured this out, but if you don't go for it, and win the game, then after the game your approval will go up and if you look to see why it's because you get players and coaches approvals going up 10pts or so because of the outcome of a defining moment.

However, If you go for them, and succeed you'll get a tripple bump.
Bottom line, like others said you have to win. If you losing your best bet is to go for all of them. I once went from the 50s to the 80s after a loss just because I had a few defining moments that I succeeded at.

ALWAYS BLITZ when you get the defining moment to blitz or not on defense. Blitzes are usually your best option anyway.