Deuce Douglas’ blog results 2 years later

[Btj98]

This is a retrospective of Deuce Douglas’ madden mockup blog from a Few years ago to see how much had changed in madden franchise mode since this was created in back august 2020 during the absolute peak of the #Fixmaddenfranchise movement. Each of the categories below are in order of how the blog was created by what features deuce wanted added to madden and i gave a grade for each section to rate how much has changed over the years since deuce has been at EA to really show his influence on the game. Things that have been added will be checked off. While things that have not been added will have an X emoji. You will also see a few opinions on certain ideas. This can also be a possible preview of what features come be coming in the future for madden 24 and beyond as well. Thank you for reading!

Here a link to deuce’s mockup if you want to follow along or have never read it https://medium.com/@deucedouglas/mad...c-490154cb4749


PRESEASON
Grade: D
Random preseason opponents is nice to have back but should have never been taken out in the first place other than that nothing new really.


Choose Your Preseason Opponents
Randomized preseason schedule is back but you cannot choose (m23)

Position Battle Scenarios:❌ NEEDED

Fog of War: Player Ratings ✅ just during the draft

90-Man Rosters ❌

Multi-Team Depth Charts❌



REGULAR SEASON
Grade: B
There is Much more to do in the season with weekly training and coordinators finally came back after 10 years but there is still much to improve on as these features are pretty simple

Full Coaching Staffs ✅ coordinators (m22)

Coach Tiers❌

Schemes & Archetype Prioritization Teams are better at getting players for their scheme but Roquan smith still averages 12 sacks on the bears with terrible pass rushing ratings

Coach Perks/Skill Tree ✅ needs more skill trees but added (m22)

Coach Salary Cap❌

Players Become Coaches: there are former players as scouts but players who retire dont get added

“The Weekly Loop”

Game Prep/Weekly Training✅ new weekly training (m22) the stats are a very nice touch but idk if they are correct lol

Re-Signing Negotiations and Scenarios❌

Injuries/Wear & Tear: fatigue system and practice injuries added but needs more work with mainly bringing back injuries that actually matter to your team. (M22)




ROOKIE SCOUTING
Grade: B+
All of the scouting things were added or closely replicated in madden 22 and improved on in madden 23. EA essentially just copied the mockup. Still needs a little more though and needs to be easier to understand

Regional Scouts✅

Scouting Board✅

Scouting Report✅

Mock Drafts✅




PLAYER MORALE
Grade D+
Morale matters when your team is losing or winning a lot but still needs a lot more (m22)



ROSTER RESTRUCTURE
Grade D+
Rookies play over aging veterans thanks to player tags but positions still need overhaul (m23)



NEWS AND TWITTER FEED
Grade F
Re-done twitter and news menu but its not good at all and it might actually be worse than what we previously had (m22)

Franchise Ticker❌

Twitter Feed: Changed in madden 22 but needs to be completely re-done again (m22)



OFFSEASON
Grade C+
overall way better free agency period but the overall offseason period feels kinda incomplete and scouting needs more to do in the offseason

Compensatory Picks: ❌ NEEDED

Restricted Free Agency : ❌ NEEDED

Free Agency✅ much much better (m23)

Upcoming Free Agents: ❌ NEEDED

Free Agency Menu✅ much much better (m23)

Player Interests✅ love it but probably needs a few more (m23)

Contract Offers✅ really nice (m23)

Contract Structure: ❌ NEEDED

Incentive Packages : ❌not needed but would be nice

Round Based Visit System✅ LOVE IT (m23)

Restructure Contracts: ❌ NEEDED



THE DRAFT
Grade D
none of the things deuce wanted for the draft have been added EXCEPT the fog of war aspect which is why this gets a D instead of an F

Crowd Reactions❌

Draft Grades: ❌ would be nice

Undrafted Free Agents race❌

Fog of War: Player Ratings ✅ just during the draft (m22)



SCENARIOS
Grade D:
If scenarios are here to stay then it still needs A LOT of work

CPU Scenarios: ❌ NEEDED

Holdouts: ❌ NEEDED

Waiver Wire✅ was in (m22) sort of

Cap Casualty❌

Position Change: ❌ NEEDED

Nemesis✅ coach press conference (m22)

Revenge✅ coach press conference (m22)




BUT WAIT…THERES MORE! SECTION
Grade F
This is the section that needs the most work. Besides the two most easiest and basic features that we had to beg for to come back with League History and Enhanced Player Card, EA has not changed a single thing

Authentic Broadcast Presentation❌

Throwback Presentation❌

League History✅ (m21)

Enhanced Player Card✅ (m21)

NFL Honors❌

The NFL Top 100❌

Relocation Customization❌

Team Rebrand Without Relocating❌

Field Customization❌

New Starting Points❌

Custom Draft Class Templates❌


Overall i definitely feel like Madden has improved since deuce has started working there and his ideas have clearly been implemented but they still have a long way to go. The game still needs way more immersive features to make season feel alive. Right now it just feels like we are playing 17 exhibition games with stats tracked. Also things like position terminology and contract things are probably the biggest core things that still needed to be added to the game as of right now. Im interested on anyone’s thought on this topic! Once again thank you for reading!

[SkeeLo15]

Re: Deuce Douglas’ blog results 2 years later

A more flushed out yearly history and better interface/ logic to end of year awards (aka one OPOTY/DPOTY, etc instead of each conference getting one)

Also, instead of pro bowl voting (or in addition to) how about All-Pro Teams? That’s a much better indicator of the best players in the league at each position

[gr18]

Re: Deuce Douglas’ blog results 2 years later

I wish there were better tools for classic rosters.Look at what NBA2k did with Eras and 80 years of draft classes.The Show is much easier to work with as well.

Give something better even if it isn't anywhere close to these games.It really makes it a difficult and discouraging task.

[jmch1990]

Re: Deuce Douglas’ blog results 2 years later

Thanks for putting this together, it's cool to see how it's come along since he came on. One thing is I would give rookie scouting less than a B+ and it's not all checkmarks, definitely missing some stuff. Deuce's rookie scouting page had a LOT more information than what we get now. The good to elite explanations (not athleticism), comparisons to existing players, current/future projections, medical evaluation, Sparq score, college stats, etc. The grades are nice and I would guess they're a compromise. But there's way less immersion now in scouting / the draft than Deuce's original post.

[Funkycorm]

Re: Deuce Douglas’ blog results 2 years later

Thanks for putting this together, it's cool to see how it's come along since he came on. One thing is I would give rookie scouting less than a B+ and it's not all checkmarks, definitely missing some stuff. Deuce's rookie scouting page had a LOT more information than what we get now. The good to elite explanations (not athleticism), comparisons to existing players, current/future projections, medical evaluation, Sparq score, college stats, etc. The grades are nice and I would guess they're a compromise. But there's way less immersion now in scouting / the draft than Deuce's original post.

I agree. I would grade scouting as a C at most. It is still bare bones and lackluster as a whole. Yeah, we have regional and national scouts but other than setting them, they do nothing. Honestly the old system is still better.

Madden has improved in some areas. Tried to improve. The scenarios need to be for CPU teams as well.

And honestly, preseason position battles are unnecessary. They were just mini games in the past that did nothing besides extend the time between games. Having scenarios would be nice for this but I think first before adding new scenarios, they need to give CPU scenarios first.

Overall though, the issues with franchise stability make any improvement a moot point.

[roadman]

Re: Deuce Douglas’ blog results 2 years later

I think this should show that Deuce has a great vision, but what it will take

to get that great vision into the game.

[oneamongthefence]

Re: Deuce Douglas’ Franchise mode blog results 2 years later

We have 90 man rosters. There's just not much reason to. Maybe better preseason fog of war for drafted prospects? And a better salary cap management so we could actually fill a full 90 man preseason roster. Hiding dev traits for rookies would be an amazing addition.

Presentation is never coming back to the forefront. It sucks for franchise players or people who want that immersion but it's fallen more and more by the wayside as MUT is getting bigger and bigger.

Sent from my Pixel 6 Pro using Tapatalk

[Btj98]

Re: Deuce Douglas’ blog results 2 years later

I agree. I would grade scouting as a C at most. It is still bare bones and lackluster as a whole. Yeah, we have regional and national scouts but other than setting them, they do nothing. Honestly the old system is still better.

Madden has improved in some areas. Tried to improve. The scenarios need to be for CPU teams as well.

And honestly, preseason position battles are unnecessary. They were just mini games in the past that did nothing besides extend the time between games. Having scenarios would be nice for this but I think first before adding new scenarios, they need to give CPU scenarios first.

Overall though, the issues with franchise stability make any improvement a moot point.

Yea i may have put too high of a grade for scouting feature. It definitely was more around the C range for sure. The mockup was way more detailed and had a better layout than what we got in madden 23. This also made me wonder why don't we have a stories tab for prospects who actually get one as they are pretty easy forget if you don’t pay attention to the news tab. Deuce’s mockup also had college stats and awards but i didn't count that against the grade because i had remembered swami telling me that they didn't add that because the sim engine already had issues with regular players stats so they still needed to improve on that first before thinking of adding college stats which i thought made sense.