02-10-2013, 02:36 AM
|
#5
|
|
Rookie
OVR: 5
Join Date: Aug 2011
Location: Dallas, TX
|
Re: Off season check list
Most of it is self explanatory.
Personally, I think the staffing process is broken. I dislike "save and reload" in a sim, but this is an exception for me.
The most difficult thing for me is knowing how much I can spend on free agents. You need to estimate how much it will cost to sign your draft class and how much it will take to resign your star players during the next season. Then you can use the salary cap data to ballpark your free agent budget.
Ideally you would like to use all your cap by year end. I think of cap space at year end like timeouts leftover at the end of a game. But, if you spend too much you may be unable to resign your star and usually it's more difficult to get him back!
You can get in a jam spending too much on free agents. I once didn't have enough cap space to take 50 players to camp!
To get an idea of what's going on with the cap I copied the numbers from the cap screen into a notebook every time something significant occurred. That exercise was the only way I came to sort of understand it all.
I do very little with the draft until two days before. Then I stack my draft board by value. First I stack every player rated 75 and up in order. Then I look for players whose potential is known and move them as appropriate. If I had the patience, at his point I would move all OL down 5 points, all FB, K & P down 10 points. I do this mentally on the fly.
Now I look for comparison name data. Bad names move down 10 rating points. Great names move up. Great names below 75 all move somewhere in the 75 and up range. For example, grab a TE Kellen Winslow, a QB Drew Brees, a LE Tamba Hali, a WR Terry Glenn no matter what their scouted rating. The nice thing about these guys is that the computer teams don't seem to use comparison data so you can get them in late rounds if their scouted value is low.
That all takes maybe an hour or two but impacts my next 50 hours of game time.
Negotiations.
I only give incentives that I don't think the player can achieve. Starting 16 games for your third CB isn't a problem but for your star left tackle, count it as money spent.
A bonus for a player that plays out that contract costs nothing, it's taken out of the total contract value and "guaranteed".
Playing hard ball with draftees has never cost me a player. It has cost me a Free Agent, but, like a bus, there will be another.
With your own players, pay attention to personality. Repeatedly offering the minimum will cause some to stop coming around and therefore, not sign. My experience is they are more expensive to get back or replace during the off season. YMMV.
PS. I think durability, and by extension health, is the most important factor for any player. Even Tom Brady won't do you any good if he can't play. When a player comes up for bids or trade you have time to look at him on the roster screen first.
__________________
I play on the PS3, I suspect everything doesn't work the same on all platforms.
I never learned anything while I was talking.
Last edited by Wheeler Dealer; 02-10-2013 at 12:13 PM.
|
|
|
