they were not in Madden11, there were no contracts nor logical trades. you could disable Player-CPU trades to prevent lopsided trades, Free-agents were just magically signed.
the only way you lost players in M11 was to retirement.
from the mouth of EA,
Having avoided addressing the topic since EA Sports today finally admitted that Online Franchise has gotten absolutely no additions in Madden NFL 12.
"When it comes to the tight schedule of an annual development cycle, we have to make tough decisions, and it became apparent as we continued to work through our campaign that there was no way to deliver a deep, fully connected Online Franchise experience that you deserve this year. Therefore, there will be no additions to Online Franchise mode in Madden NFL 12."