How the potential rating can work very well
 

Instead of placing an overall potential on a player, why not put potential on certain stat categories?

Lets say we have a quarterback drafted 1st overall.

80 Overall, 95 throw power, 90 throw accuracy

Because he is a quarterback, he would have a potential rating for both, his throw power and throw accuracy. This way, players have a much higher ceiling, rather than how the current players are capped.

Re: How the potential rating can work very well
 

I like what you're suggesting, but a QB with 95 THP and 90THA must have an AWR of like, 20, to have such a low OVR

Re: How the potential rating can work very well
 

I like this too, I think this makes a lot more sense than how they do potential right now, which is...?

This idea can be expanded to every rating a player has. If players are playing well they can have their ratings increased up to their Potential Ceiling. Obviously, for like a good QB like Peyton Manning if he's not playing well his accuracy isn't going to drop down to a 50, rather his Potential Bottom for Accuracy should be around 90.

For worse players, or younger, less experienced players they would have more room to improve or get worse. Especially at key positions like QB, RB and WR players could really boom if they are playing well or really struggle if they aren't.

Taking this one step further if a certain player is playing consistently well for say 4 games or so he could permanently gain a higher ceiling and have a lower bottom. This is the active and smart potential and progression that EA is missing, I'm not saying this is a solution but maybe this is about how they should do it.

Re: How the potential rating can work very well
 

You could also have it where after two (or so) consistent years of productivity, a player would be very unlikely to negatively progress barring injury. Like you were saying, Peyton Manning isn't going to wake up on Sunday and start throwing the ball around like Jamarcus.

You could also have a system in place similar to what they do in NCAA's Superstar/Road To Glory whatever it is, where week to week, certain attributes are either raised or lowered a couple points based on decisions made during the week.

I still don't know why they removed Practice mode from Franchise... It's impossible to test out rookie QBs before the preseason games. Which means there is a lot less ability to gauge players early.

Re: How the potential rating can work very well
 

I think players should have career curves where their ability changes regardless of their performance or at least performance should just be a "modifier" instead of the sole determination. Just because someone has a good or bad year (or game) doesn't mean their actual skills have increased/decreased.

I think the growth/decline of skills should be governed mostly by age and potential, but have different aging curves. Some guys peak early and drop as fast, some are "sleepers" and take long, but break out big when they "wake up", etc.

Also, I'd like to see skill by skill potential/progression. I'm guessing there's some things a young QB develops faster in (like throwing arm) while other things come more with experience (like AWR).

Throw in things like needing playing time to develop fully (make progression occur once a year for everyone, but then also once every X downs played as well).

Things like this would really help flesh out player development, imo.