Which football game has the most in depth draft?

[redsrulenc]

Between all the Madden games, the Head Coach games, APF, ESPN 2k, Blitz..any football video game you can think of. Which has the most in depth, realistic off-season draft?

[RedZoneD25]

Head Coach 09, though that is for a different forum.

[RGmoney]

Moved to appropriate forum, as this is a comparison thread covering several football games.

[Malignant]

I can only speak about NFL 2K4 and 2K5 but both of them work flawlessly with the NFL Draft Pick Value Chart. I use it whenever I want to move up or down the draft whilst keeping the trades realistic at the same time.

In regards to the draft logic AI, I think it goes without saying how annoying the 1st Round bug is on 2K5 (when the AI only picks HB, QB, T or DE). However, the draft logic AI is really good on 2K4, as teams will choose players based on their needs etc. Plus the CPU teams don't automatically suck up all the best players by default, so it's still possible to pick up some good players in the later rounds.

In terms of immersion, 2K5 has a Mel Kiper analysis of the draft before it all begins (players to look out for as well as his sleeper picks) and a draft wrap-up show, which has Mel Kiper giving us his opinions on who had a good and bad draft as well as players who slipped etc.

In 2006 I read a fantastic draft article on NFL.com by Pat Kirwan (which disappeared when they re-designed the website....booooo) and he said that when he used to work for the Jets he used to add up every player's score from their Bench Press, Vertical Jump and Broad Jump combine results. Any player who scored a 70+ he would note down whilst any player that scored 80+ he would get very excited about (his article was written before the 2006 draft and he was telling anyone who would listen to draft Mario Williams, as he scored an 85).

Now, bearing in mind that the 2K series never gives you the Broad Jump score you have to alter those score limits to 60+ and 70+ respectively instead. Using this system on 2K4 and 2K5 does actually give you some good results (obviously it doesn't work all the time) but I've picked up some great players from time to time. My best pick using this system was a DT in the 3rd round who started with an overall rating of 83, which kept increasing with each passing season.

Finally it's also possible to manipulate the financial market in 2K5 (I've not tried this in 2K4) but if, for example, you draft a QB using the 1st overall pick and you give him a huge contract it directly dictates how much money the other QB's who get drafted in the 1st round will ask for. I wrote an article about it over two years ago.

[BestServedCold]

I would say Front Office Football is the best. The logic is pretty good and it's realistic. I've had first round picks bust and seventh round picks boom.

[haroldsHHS2011]

Quote: Originally Posted by redsrulenc

Between all the Madden games, the Head Coach games, APF, ESPN 2k, Blitz..any football video game you can think of. Which has the most in depth, realistic off-season draft?

Espn games have the better graphics in my opinion. However, I haven't played many football games other than Madden, NCaa, blitz and 2K. So, I'm dwelling on that fact and I'm going to say that Madden wins out. However, it'd be better if it could have timers and division 2 and 3 players on there. Also, the supplemental draft would be a much needed improvement has well.

[haroldsHHS2011]

In my Madden drafts, my opposing AI usually end up drafting TEs in the first round and no matter how bad I think a quarterback will be they usually end up getting drafted in the top five rounds. RBs go between the 2nd and 3rd. However, defensive players go based on their importance, which usually tends to irritate me. I want certain players, and I never end up getting them.

[cusefan74]

Quote: Originally Posted by haroldsHHS2011

Espn games have the better graphics in my opinion. However, I haven't played many football games other than Madden, NCaa, blitz and 2K. So, I'm dwelling on that fact and I'm going to say that Madden wins out. However, it'd be better if it could have timers and division 2 and 3 players on there. Also, the supplemental draft would be a much needed improvement has well.

Madden does have a timer on it during the draft.