?'s about Player Development

[MidasMagoo]

I'm hoping someone can shed some light on things that effect player development, other than the obvious Learning Grade, Potential Grade and playing time (which I assume is necessary to develop all of the underlying skills that effect OVR).

I'm frustrated by how long it can take some players to develop. I've come to accept that the OVR in the draft, even after 100% scouting, is not the actual OVR that you will get once you draft that person and put him on your roster. It is usually quite a bit lower...but playing time seems to get that Production Grade up, which in turn is enough to bring OVR back up during that first season. Usually

Some, never seem to make their potential. Case in point: I have a DT (name withheld for now...not a spoiler thread) that I drafted in 2010. 85 OVR, 96 Potential, 97 Learning. He has been starting for me for 8 seasons now. He still has an 85 OVR. I have no idea why. He starts every game, never is injured. He must be playing a lot, as he is one of only three players that has Low Fatigue after a game. (All three "low fatigues" are, consistently, the LE, RE and DT in my 3-4 defense). His play knowledge is Mastered in every category.

FYI, Philosophy for this position is set at "Run Stopper", something most around here seem to use for the 3-4 scheme.

So, something else must be preventing his development. I have no idea what it is, and am hoping someone has some insight. Thanks!

[Mike3207]

Re: ?'s about Player Development

What level are you coaches at with player development at DT?- a poor rating could be limiting his player development. Check position coaches, then OC, then head coach.

[slacker2]

Re: ?'s about Player Development

Get your intangible and physical devlopement all the way up for your coaches. If there already at their max then you probably need new coaches with a higher max at physical or intangible devolpement

[MidasMagoo]

Re: ?'s about Player Development

What level are you coaches at with player development at DT?- a poor rating could be limiting his player development. Check position coaches, then OC, then head coach.

Get your intangible and physical devlopement all the way up for your coaches. If there already at their max then you probably need new coaches with a higher max at physical or intangible devolpement

DC is 4/4 in Physical Dev, 4/4 Intangible and 4/4 Learning
DLC is 4/4 Physical, 4/4 Intangible and 5/5 Learning
HC (me) is only at level 2 so far in each of these.

I purposely developed Special Skills in the head coach because the other skills already existed in the other coaches. I admit, I don't know how each of these come in to play with development. Are they cumulative? Does the highest rated relevant coach take over, making the other coaches irrelevant? At any rate, I would think these coach scores are high enough to not be the source of this player not developing. I've had the same coaches the whole career.

Maybe I am discounting the effect of the Head Coach ratings on development. Do they count for more than all of the other coaches?

Thanks for replying.

[ebongreen]

Re: ?'s about Player Development

In my limited experience, lots of factors play into how quickly a player develops (or doesn't): playing time, productivity/performance, head coach/coordinator/position coach development skills, and head coach/coordinator development special skills.

It's hard to tease them apart and tell you which matters more than the others. I will say that in my current franchise, development seemed to speed up after my HC got both Leadership & Innovator as special skills. (My coordinators do not yet have Innovator.) I don't think that the HC counts for more than any other coach, but there are HC-specific skills like Leadership that affects how well other coaches develop players.

What are the annual stats for your DT? Tackles, TFL, sacks? You realize that the DT in a 3-4 scheme isn't really a playmaker position - his is the thankless task of allowing the MLBs to blitz and/or tackle RBs for loss as he occupies multiple blockers. If his annual stats are negligible and/or his Productivity rating is low, he may never develop.

[MidasMagoo]

Re: ?'s about Player Development

What are the annual stats for your DT? Tackles, TFL, sacks? You realize that the DT in a 3-4 scheme isn't really a playmaker position - his is the thankless task of allowing the MLBs to blitz and/or tackle RBs for loss as he occupies multiple blockers. If his annual stats are negligible and/or his Productivity rating is low, he may never develop.

I think this might be where the problem is coming from. If player development in the game engine is tied to certain stats, then that poor DT will never get any. This strikes me as a flaw in the game, though, if only certain stats count as "development". There's no official stat for consistently tying up two Offensive Lineman---yet clearly development is taking place in a player that can do that.

I think I'll try moving him to an opportunistic position for a few games. If the game engine requires sacks or tackles to get the Progression Sliders moving, then that's what I'll have to do.

Thanks for the insight.

[ebongreen]

Re: ?'s about Player Development

I sympathize, and I really don't know how PD happens. AJ Hawk starts at, I believe, an 85 OVR - two seasons past, and I believe he's up to an 87, and that includes a season where he had close to twenty sacks. Go figure.

I've got a pretty dominant defense built - I hold teams scoreless more often than not - but development isn't as rapid as I would expect, especially on the defensive side. QBs develop rapidly (Green Bay coaches see to that), but others seem to lag.

[TheDMG]

Re: ?'s about Player Development

I admit, I don't know how each of these come in to play with development. Are they cumulative?

They are cumulative, i.e. coaching skills stack. This has been confirmed by the developers and it also becomes quite apparent when you really dedicate to development. My last franchise was dedicated to the idea of O-line development with a HC and OL coach at 5 on both (int and phys) developments and an OC at 4 on one and 5 on the other. My great rookies were often with a point or two of their max by the end of their first training camp. It's nice to open the season with rookies at 94 or 95

Other important factors are: Player Personality (if they have the "Driven" trait, they are much more likely to develop rapidly), playing time and stats. I believe being on a dominant unit (offense or defense) and winning might also play a factor - if not they certainly allow your coaches to develop which leads to more player development.

[MidasMagoo]

Re: ?'s about Player Development

They are cumulative, i.e. coaching skills stack. This has been confirmed by the developers and it also becomes quite apparent when you really dedicate to development. My last franchise was dedicated to the idea of O-line development with a HC and OL coach at 5 on both (int and phys) developments and an OC at 4 on one and 5 on the other. My great rookies were often with a point or two of their max by the end of their first training camp. It's nice to open the season with rookies at 94 or 95

My first career I concentrated on Special Skills for the Head Coach and regular skills for the coordinators and position coaches. For the next career, I'm going to put more emphasis on adding to the Head Coach's regular skills (except for Charisma and play knowledge retention). I'll see how the overall faster development of players compares to the game-day boosts those players get from special skills.

[TheDMG]

Re: ?'s about Player Development

My first career I concentrated on Special Skills for the Head Coach and regular skills for the coordinators and position coaches. For the next career, I'm going to put more emphasis on adding to the Head Coach's regular skills (except for Charisma and play knowledge retention). I'll see how the overall faster development of players compares to the game-day boosts those players get from special skills.

My first career was similar. My second career I focused even more on Special Skills, but I had some players that didn't need a lot of development. In that career, one of my other focuses was on trying to get the super-expensive ones like Motivator and Educator, so I really couldn't spend on much else.

After that I've been shifting to more of a targeted, 50/50 approach. Last career was the one I put an emphasis on O-line that I mentioned because I wanted my HC to have a specific personality/background, but I also tried to build every position's intangible development to 2 or 3, while spending special skills to build up strengths (O-line) and shore up some weaknesses. This year.

My current franchise is a run-and-shoot, so I molded a coach identity around a bunch of passing game special skills to start. After building up playbook special skills, I've mostly went with developing intangible rates and, to a lesser degree, physical for positions that are young or weak (or both). I'm just now going back to the special skills to build up the innovator tree to further accelerate growth.

In general, I'm pretty rigid about building up position coaches' developments before special skills, but I've become pretty flexible with the OC/DC/HC in trying to address short term needs while still having long-term vision of where I want to go with them over the next few years.