Doesn't matter who I pick up from FA or Draft

[joejccva71]

In my first year I always start from offseason (Redskins), and it doesn't matter if I pick up Haynesworth at DT or even Asante Samuel at CB. Nor does it matter if I grab an elite 95+ potential rookie at RB, they don't seem to play well at all. I don't know if it's playbook knowledge or if I'm just cursed.

For instance, I know that Asante Samuel would always get picks when the CPU plays with him as he led in picks the last career I played. So I started over and wanted to try picking him up to see how he would do, and he just sucks on my team.

Even if I get a good running back that has 90 OVR and 96 POT, he never runs well. My OL is halfway decent and good enough to run through a few holes, not expecting big gains every run of course but atleast 1 out of 10 runs. Nope. He gets stuffed every time.

But then I see backs like Marshawn Lynch getting 7-10 yards per carry usually almost every game it seems. Gimme a break.

What am I doing wrong?

[BrnwsBucksFanNC]

Re: Doesn't matter who I pick up from FA or Draft

Are you using new playbooks? Also...check the player's knowledge on the plays. if the rb''s dont know the plays they will run parallel to the line of scrimmage and not run up field. Also check the skill of your coaches. A bad position coach can make a good player awful. Finally...make sure you check the "learning skill" on a player. If it is below 50 you will have a hard time getting them to learn the playbook.

[joejccva71]

Re: Doesn't matter who I pick up from FA or Draft

Are you using new playbooks? Also...check the player's knowledge on the plays. if the rb''s dont know the plays they will run parallel to the line of scrimmage and not run up field. Also check the skill of your coaches. A bad position coach can make a good player awful. Finally...make sure you check the "learning skill" on a player. If it is below 50 you will have a hard time getting them to learn the playbook.

Yea I am using the Patriots defensive playbook, and one of the "very strong" offensive playbooks. I'm not using the default redskin playbooks, but the thing is...I figured that I could just have the players learn the playbooks and practice the plays enough to the point of where they will get better.

I guess it just takes time. The redskins playbook kinda sucks so I was just trying to use some better ones was all.

Am I stuck with using the default playbooks in order to have some decent yardage gains? As far as the coaches, even when starting in the offseason it doesn't allow me to pick up better coaches until the following offseason so I'm kinda stuck there.

Another thing I wanted to ask is, do you put points into your coaches during the season whenever they get enough or do you wait until the season is over and have accumulated a ton of points for everyone, then you put the points into the coaches that you PLAN on keeping, and just fire the ones you plan on replacing?

Thanks for your help.

[BrnwsBucksFanNC]

Re: Doesn't matter who I pick up from FA or Draft

The players will get better with the plays...it just takes some time. Use the pre-season training and games to learn the new playbook. I usually just "train rookie"s during pre-season since it lets them learn 5 plays at a time. Then during the games I will run the same play over and over until it is at least learned. Sometimes I will only do that on 1st and 2nd down and run a learned play on 3rd down to keep a drive going. I have even drawn up a list of about 30 plays that I will concentrate on...but I only do that when I plan on playing every game so I can control what is called.

That is one thing that stinks about the coaches. You are stuck with the ones the team has. I have started some seasons with coaches with a skill level of "1" and it is a real struggle to do anything with them. There are some good threads on here about how to hire new coaches.

As far as adding points...you will see good arguements on both sides of this. I personally add them. I figure that if it can help me now...great!!! On the off chance that by adding that 2nd level of Intangibles my DB might pick that pass off instead of just knocking it down...or something to that effect.

No problem on the help. I remember when I started...I had enough questions to write a book...the people on here are great though to help.

[cutter73]

Re: Doesn't matter who I pick up from FA or Draft

On the bright side though, even if you had kept the Skins playbooks, any FA pick-ups you made would have had to learn the playbook from scratch anyway. So it really doesn't hurt their performance if you start with an all new playbook.

It also doesn't take as long as you might think to get playbook knowledge up, provided you have player with high learning skills and put some points in your coaches abilities to teach certain positions. I personally value playbook learning over physical progression skills for my coach when starting out. So long as the players perfrom well, their skills will improve. The best way, for me at least, to improve player skills is to get them to the point where they know the playbook well and let that translate to better performance on the field.

Also, use the pre-season games to your advantage. It doesn't matter if you win or lose these games, just focus on calling the plays you want to improve on most during the game. If you're implementing a new playbook, keep your starters on the field during preseason games longer to give them some extra work. Just make sure to be aware of health and fatigue levels while you do so.

If you need to, work this strategy into the first half of your regular season as well. Most coaches don't truly open up their playbooks until a couple years into the system. Play it like you're a new coach installing a new system. Work on getting playbook knowledge up. Introduce new plays (Unlearned plays) slowly and a couple at a time rather than trying to just use the entire playbook every game until you have a large pool pof leanred and mastered plays in the bag.

Also, make sure you get the coaching skills that limit play knowledge loss both during the season and over the off season.

As far as the Redskin go, I love playing as the Skins, but their division and first season schedule make it very difficult. The Giants, Cowboys, and Eagles are all tough to deal with, and they don't have the same problems with playbook knowledge that you do since they haven't switched anything.

Just work at it, and before to long you'll start to get on an equal footing with everyone else. Like I said, at first it seems damn near impossible, but it really doesn't take all that long to start to see improvement. usually by the second half of the season, you can start to see better results.

one last thing about running with the Skins. You have some nicely rated O-linemen already on the team. That can fool you. Those linemen are old, and fatigue and health issues impact performance. If Samuels is playing at 70 fatigue, it will impact how he plays and he will play less effectively than his ratings might lead you to believe. Even though the ratings for the O-linemen look pretty good, I usually make getting younger players at those positions a high priority.

Sorry for the long post, but I hope some of the info helps you out.

[goonertaff]

Re: Doesn't matter who I pick up from FA or Draft

well if your playing with the skins no one knows any of the plays anyway as they start with Zorn's Playbooks in 2008

Plus other than RB and DB the coaches on the skins truely suck

im in year two of my Skins career and ive got Portis and Leron James plus Barone (FB)
Ive replaced Kendell with Shaun Andrews in FA Randy Thomas with Patrik Boma in the Draft and Heyer starting at RT so a solid good line and im getting 150 yards at least per game on the ground

I tend to use 2 TE sets against 3-4 teams and run up the gut
and have a few Toss plays for 4-3 teams I even got 2 counter plays that work quite well

[joejccva71]

Re: Doesn't matter who I pick up from FA or Draft

Cool thanks for all the advice guys. The problem I'm facing now is I'm broke as the FA acquisition of Albert Haynesworth pretty much put a huge dent in my cap room. (I started 2008 in the offseason)

I picked up a LG through FA (forgot his name but he's an 86 OVR/ 87 POT), and I took a chance with him because he had a 85 durability. He gobbled up almost the rest of my cap room, and now he's been injured twice now. He's currently out for 4-6 weeks. Ugh.

Also I notice alot that teams keep trying to lowball me on trades. I mean some of them are so far fetched thats its ridiculous. How do you guys go about dealing with trades?

[BrnwsBucksFanNC]

Re: Doesn't matter who I pick up from FA or Draft

Be careful of FA...as you found out it is a cap killer. Check to see what your philosophy is on your gm for trade negotiations and look at his "trading" skill.

As a rule, I never sing anyone to a 1st string position unless they have at least a 90 durability and somewhere close to that on health.

[jamy2008]

Re: Doesn't matter who I pick up from FA or Draft

Howdy Joe,

As BrnwsBucksFanNC stated, there are some good peeps on this site who are great to help.

For myself, I am not a fan of free agency in this game. When I first started I would sign a few free agents. I never had any luck.

It's just my opinion, but FAs were just never worth it when you compare the dollars they want to the fact that they are learning your playbook from scratch. I will take a decent to average rookie with a solid learning rating any day.

Good luck, and

Peace=)

[claystone]

Re: Doesn't matter who I pick up from FA or Draft

Howdy Joe,

As BrnwsBucksFanNC stated, there are some good peeps on this site who are great to help.

For myself, I am not a fan of free agency in this game. When I first started I would sign a few free agents. I never had any luck.

It's just my opinion, but FAs were just never worth it when you compare the dollars they want to the fact that they are learning your playbook from scratch. I will take a decent to average rookie with a solid learning rating any day.

Good luck, and

Peace=)

I'm actually having luck with my LB: B. James i picked up in FA. So far he's been a machine for my Rams team playing LOLB.

[jamy2008]

Re: Doesn't matter who I pick up from FA or Draft

Cool Clay gratz.=)

I know alot of peeps have good luck signing free agents.

It just have never worked out for me. Not that all free agents turn into busts, I am saying in my personal experience, the higher priced free agents seldom outperform 2-5th round draft picks.

When I factor in free agents usually want good money to sign, I personally feel more comfortable giving that money to younger players with less years on the body. That and the draft picks take far less money to sign. Originally anyway=p.

Peace=)