New franchise ideas; Let's keep the game interesting!

[twl221]

I'm looking for new or unusual ways to play through a franchise. Some I've considered are letting the GM be a GM, giving roster control to him, or keeping staff that did well regardless of their potential.

One of the ideas I look forward to trying (and have failed before) is being "Don Miraldi", using his play book and style, all while making sure he is my qbc/oc no matter what, all while making sure I draft Chad Gunn for my Qb and getting as many Tech players as I can through the draft. (I've also considered doing this with other college coaches, such as Staymatea with his style and Florida, or Duncan and West Virginia)

Any other ideas that could add even
More replay ability to this awesome game?

[twl221]

On that note, would anyone happen to know Duncan's playbook? I think it is a kind of Cover 2, but I'm not sure.

[Shaka23]

If I am not mistaken Chipper Duncan runs the 3-3-5 Mustang defense from West Virginia.

I've done a lot of this stuff to make things interesting. I've let the GM do his thing. I've only played GM(Simmed all games). I've done the Colts system(never sign a single free agent, never trade up) and I have done the Cowboys way(Spend, Spend, Spend).

what I have found that works for me is to pick a team that I want to reinvent something... Rams passing attack, Chiefs smashmouth, Bills west coast. Then I create an idea of what I want to build and build it.

The game needs a lot of self imposed rules to really have lasting power in my opinion. For instance I never do Individual Workouts(What team knows for sure the potental of a player?) or have a GM who can scout 100%(no comparisons) to make it interesting.

[Byron Yatch]

Here's an idea aurabolt and I co-created. You pick the colts and use a new head coach. Trade Peyton manning to the broncos for cutler and brandon marshall(might have to use a pick you get from trading peyton for cutler to get marshall next). Then trade cutler and brandon marshall to the bears for grossman or orton(both are terrible) and somme good picks(hopefully stripping the bears of their picks in the first 3 rounds for that first created draft.)

Once you've done all that, force the jack english draft path and pick Jack english #1. How more life like can it get than that? Peyton on the broncos, cutler and marshall on the bears and you just got the #1 qb in the draft FROM STANFORD just like the colts did this year. This will also force the afc west and the nfc north to start getting more talent to compete(as they're usually weak conferences).

You can also try and get some other players on the teams they play for now, or use a different team and do something similar.

Other things I like to do is only draft after pick 20 in each round and scout smaller schools only during the pro days to expose teams to more talent later in the draft. Makes the league a little more competitive as well when you arent always getting the best talent in each round by picking early...

[Mike3207]

I'm on my 10th year and I haven't seen any HC's focus on anything much but passing. No HB tree, no OL, no defense. It might be worth pursuing to start with Ambition and focus on of those trees first next time, maybe defense.

[Byron Yatch]

Also, to keep games interesting, Ive formulated a way to play call.

If the score is even or Im up, I call plays in this order
1st down unlearned
2nd down unlearned
3rd down learned
4th down mastered or punt depending on situation.
Usually punt if Im on my 49 or less just to keep myself honest. If its an inch or a yard and Im out of fg range still, its prolly a sneak or fb dive from goaline

If Im down(or its an important game/season goal to win)
1st down unlearned or learned depending on time left in the game. If there isnt much time I go learned, if its early in the 4th even I'll stick with unlearned
If there's 6 mins left or Im down a lot, I go to learned to try and get back in the game
2nd down learned
3rd down mastered
4th down mastered or punt/fg. I usually will still punt at my 49 unless Im down double digits, then I might play more aggressive with a mastered play.

This allows you to learn your whole playbook and find out what plays work and dont. It also allows you to be more unpredictable as the cpu will have never really seen you use these plays instead of letting the cpu pick the same plays all the time every game.

If you want to not have to do this too long, just play every preseason game like this and your coordinator will start to call plays that you have in certain situations(1st down on the left side you usually do this so the cpu starts calling it as well if its successful, etc)

[twl221]

I've found that a bowling ball type back has some success in simmed games. Hammermills play book and AJ Jr have him breaking the touchdown record in his first season. (he also just ran for 5 tds in a game) A good run game goes a long way.

[Aurabolt127]

Still loving this game, and always looking for new challenges to keep it fresh. The big ones now are going to be with major roster moves. Play as the Colts and cut Manning, use the Chargers without LDT and Rivers, Cut Romo/TO, etc.

(I love playing madden and cutting the whole team and trying to build a new one from only free agents. Esp with a created team. You can't do that in Head Coach (though you can come close with the Falcons and Dolphins...I've actually had it warn my coach I was going to get fired if I cut anyone else. Not sure if they would really do that to me!) I've got a couple things in madden I do to challenge my self. My '50s team is always a challenge too.)

Anyway, I digress. The first one I tried like that (cutting the superstars) I used the Eagles - and cut McNabb and Westbrook. So, I cut those two, and decided to rebuild the team in a wing-t/3-4 team. It was a lot of fun trying to reshape the team into a completely new mold (doing a 180 on Off and Def).

I haven't tried ditching Manning or Brady yet... I just keep going over scenarios in my head to see if there's one I'll want to stick with. That would be a massive challenge on the cap side of the game. Maybe the Rams.. hm.. I know I'll be starting a new one this weekend for sure...

I like the idea of making up a coach based on a college guy and then using his system and trying to get his players - be fun to see an all (or mostly all) 1 college team, you'd have to make some sacrifices to be sure though, and it'd prob take till your second offseason.
Trying to think of a school where you could make that work... Ohio State maybe, Arkansas...hmm, no QB... USC that'd work....