Player Development

[Mike3207]

Ok, I'm going to make a new thread about player development. It's something I've been working on say the last 2-3 years in my dynasty. Keep in mind I'm basing all this on a number of precepts:

1. You want all sub coaches to be 5 in development if possible, 4 minimum

This can be especially hard with the STC, but do your best to get all sub coaches to this level.

2. You keep all/most coaches who are good at player development

It's not too hard to replace position coaches who are good at player development, but think twice about firing coordinators who go to 4 or 5. There are a lot of coordinators with subpar player development out there.

3. You buy both Superb Strategist and Leadership to bring all subcoaches to max player development.

Do keep in mind Leadership only improves player development while they're on your team, otherwise it has no impact. As for Superb Strategist, why would you not want to improve all coaches player development. It's the only special skill in the game that will improve development potential for your very sub coaches.





I'll go into first a breakdown of the 3 player development groups-then breakdown all positions and add how my players did in a sim. For the record, my HC has 4 in almost all Intangibles, 4 in Physical with defense, 4 at TE, 3 in all other offense. I'm currently working to get HB/WR/OL to 4 in Physical Development.

[Mike3207]

Re: Player Development

Learning development

Ratings:

Learning

I've changed my mind on learning development a bit. I now think it not only progresses the Learning rating, but has a impact on play knowledge as well. I'm not entirely sure at this point if Lrn Dev 5 would allow you to do a play in 1 rep, but I have seen at 2 you will learn a play in 4-5 reps. I now think the priority has to be-Intangibles, Learning, Physical.

[Mike3207]

Re: Player Development

Physical Development

Ratings:

Speed
Strength
Agility
Acceleration
Jump
Run Block Strength
Pass Block Strength
Kick Power
Throw Power

It's more of a priority to put points in the positions that rely on speed attributes, because they decline as your players get older. You might put points in RB/WR/DB first because they are your speed positions. I will say the physical ratings are very slow to progress at certain positions, even if all coaches have Speed and Strength Training.I'll go into that a little more later.

[Mike3207]

Re: Player Development

Intangible Development

Ratings:

All other Ratings

Just about all the other ratings are Intangible. You'll definitely do best at player development if you focus on getting all Intangible ratings to 4 first. I'd say 75% of the player ratings are intangible.

I'll add with Intangibles that there are 2 types of Intangible ratings in my opinion-General and Situational. The General Ratings are the ratings that progress all the time-say for a receiver Awareness, Route Running, Catch as an example.

The Situational Ratings only progress when you do a action in game/sim. Keeping with the above example-the Situational ratings for a receiver are Release/Spectacular Catch/ Catch in Traffic. The Situational rating will progress much slower than the General ones.If you want a player to max out the Situational ratings, most likely you'll need to get your HC to 5 at that position.I'll identify each position with the General/Situational ratings later.

[algoody421]

Re: Player Development

The reason you put learning to 5 is because at that position, in one rep, everyone will master the play. That will allow them to excel because of the huge ratings boost. If you cant reason going to 5, at least to 4 is my advice.

Also, while special skills are nice, Ive been playing a career without them and its been much more entertaining and challenging. To each their own though, I used to buy all the special skills, now I develop every position. Either way can lead to championships though.

Finally, to add difficulty, do the opposite of keeping coordinators. I try to have a revolving door every 1-3 years at both. This will allow them to become hcs and o/dc somewhere else and improve your competition. I already have 2 coaches as hc who were my dcs the 2 years before(Ron rivera and ted cotrell) Im only in the 4th season(2011-12). Food for thought...

Otherwise, great info here.

[Mike3207]

Re: Player Development

Quarterbacks

Quarterbacks are one of the positions that don't need a lot of help to reach max progression very fast. Start a QB every game, get them to learn the playbook, and they should reach max progression before a RFA contract ends.

The only problem I've seen with developing QB's is the speed ratings-Speed, Agility, Acceleration. I've never seen any of these progress, but I don't use a Option Playbook. The only way you might see these ratings progress is if you were to use a lot of option plays in your playbook.

[algoody421]

Re: Player Development

Just so you know, there's one more athletic rating, Throw Power(arm strength). I Just saw a screen between loading a career and it said that is under athletic with speed agility and strength.

[Mike3207]

Re: Player Development

Fullbacks

The one thing I'll be sure to mention on developing fullbacks-put some points in RB development with your HC! If you can believe it, Carl Stewart never maxed out learning for me in 6 years. It's one of the positions I would invest in putting points in learning development. I really haven't seen any progress in developing fullbacks until this last year-when I finally got RB skills up with my HC.

All ratings progressed are to the end of the playoffs.

Truck-79-39-0
Awareness-71-66, 74-234
Carry-70-0, 71-334
Catch-60-592, 61-253
IMB-77-774, 84-808
Run Block- 63-614, 66-750
RBF- 66-614, 67-150
PBF-65-614, 67-750
Lrn-77-150, 85-415

[Mike3207]

Re: Player Development

Running Backs

I really seemed to have trouble developing running backs up until the point I got RB development up to around 4 for my HC. I used a rookie RB for this example, one who hadn't had much previous development.

Truck-89-1232, 91-1555
Elusiveness- 66-266, 70-611
Awa- 54-661, 71-226
Carry- 84-538, 88-433
Catch- 58-73, 73-750
BCV-70-247, 75-968
Stiffarm-86-522, 87-602
Spinmove-67-548, 70-422
Jukemove- 69-455, 72-8
Learn-92-1297, 97-3000

Speed-87-95, 87-1423
Acceleration-85-583, 86-774
Agility-83-662, 85-668
Strength- 80-853, 83-24

[Mike3207]

Re: Player Development

Wide receivers

The basic ratings for wide receivers-Awareness, Catch, Route Running, Jump-will all develop very quickly-maybe during the length of a RFA contract.

The situational stats for wide receivers are very slow to develop, at least in comparison with the general ones. it's a shame you can't scout those ratings unless you do a IW. I'll admit I'm not sure if players develop faster in sim than in game.

SPC-78-396, 78-498
CIT-77, 206, 78-113
Release-89-139, 89-1110
Elusiveness-91-954, 91-1608
Spinmove- 89-1418, 90-20
Jukemove- 97-2947, 98-143

[algoody421]

Re: Player Development

Sim is NEVER better for player or staff development. The only possible way it could be better is if you just refuse to use them(ie a rb) when during a simulation more run plays were called, something like that. But you playing will always reap more points than sim or supersim(unless you totally get destroyed).

[Mike3207]

Re: Player Development

Sim is NEVER better for player or staff development. The only possible way it could be better is if you just refuse to use them(ie a rb) when during a simulation more run plays were called, something like that. But you playing will always reap more points than sim or supersim(unless you totally get destroyed).

A lot depends on your playbook and playcalling. For example, I run the ball more and throw to my receivers more than the CPU would running the Michigan Spread. You might have noticed that the RB really developed the Catch rating in the sim-that's usually not going to happen when I play the games.

Still, I think it's useful listing the sim stats-just to give you an idea on how the player developments works once you get it to the higher levels and compare to your present level.

[Mike3207]

Re: Player Development

Tight Ends

Thinks about TE development, throws rock at screen!

Yes, it really is that bad. I'll concede I don't utilize the TE as much as maybe I should, although both TEs combined usually do manage in the neighborhood of 70 catches and 700 yds for the year.

The big problem really is the physical development, especially the speed ratings. I saw negligible physical development for the speed ratings, even at Physical Development 4.

Things are a little better with intangibles, but I still think it's best to max it out. I got about 4 points increase in awareness, way behind the receivers who already have maxed it out.

Speed-83-757, 83-783
Acceleration-82-954, 82-986
Agility-83-61, 83-201

Aware-79-344, 83-76
Catch-85-9, 85-620
Route R- 86-1192, 88-1294
SPC-78-189, 78-945
CIT-83-723, 83-844
Release- 75-465, 76-594
Run block- 53-632, 54-391
RBF-78-165, 78-571

[algoody421]

Re: Player Development

Jason witten just got 110, antonio gates and tony gonzalez frequently average over 80 catches a year. You are SEVERELY under utilizing the te if you have only 70 for 700 combined by your tes.

I never charted it but when gates was getting me 80 catches 10 tds and like 1200 yards/year, he reached his full potential if not better(in most ratings and in general).

Of course as you've articulated the situational ones didnt improve fast at all, but the general ones were quickly developed with production.

[Mike3207]

Re: Player Development

Offensive linemen

Offensive linemen is one of the few positions where a high Production score has little to no impact on player development. Most of the ratings that progress are pretty rapid-athletic rating, Pass and Run Block, Learning-I only have a few that have left to develop.

Right tackles-they seem to lag a bit on run block-most of the rest are already developed. Most likely because I don't run that way as much on my running plays.

The other ratings that are a bit slow-Run Block Strength, Run Block footwork, and Impact block. This might be because I don't use a zone blocking system. Most of my players remain 1-2 points below potential-I expect I'll need out max out OL development to reach potential.

LT

RBF-96-2755, 97-2852
IMB-87-475, 88-371

LG

RBS-92-1422, 93-614
RBF-91-1304, 92-1554
IMB-87-418, 87-890

C

RBS-80-7, 82-448
IMB-87-286, 87-1158
RBF-80-627, 83-22

RG

RBS-84-226, 85-307
RBF-78-959, 80-772
IMB-77-655, 78-265

RT

RBS-78-81, 78-972
RBF-89-454, 90-169
IMB-79-911, 79-568