[APD0290]

With all this talk about the franchise mode being broken I decided to try and test a logical explanation to all this by just turning off salary cap, and I really like what I am seeing. Granted, you still will be seeing a decent amount of UDFA's in the league, but nothing that will directly impact the games or take a veterens back up position. The CPU logic as far as resigning and signing free agents seems MUCH better, and teams actually have a decent amount of depth as some positions.

As far as free agents goes, yes there are still a decent amount of players between 70-79 overall. But nothing that I can't actually believe happening. I'm occasionally seeing a couple players 80+ but they're all fullbacks which is by all means still a little ridiculous, but let's be honest...they're fullbacks. You aren't going to win a super bowl through simmed games just from a 80 overall fullback.

One thing I did still notice that is out of whack is the abundance of DT's in the FA pool. For whatever reason DT's evolve into a VERY deep position leading to a surplus of them in the FA pool. So you'll be seeing a decent amount of teams with 3 or more 75+ DT's, which is a great sign. Now as far as other positions go, you will not be seeing above average players in the FA pool. It's simply not possible to find a a good postion player in the FA pool after the actual off season FA signings, which is a great sign. Yes, some do still slip, but they do eventually get signed. So as far as house rules, some may need to be set, but nothing to major.

The league seems to be evolving which is a great thing to see. Some teams have 80+ QB's as their back ups, which is an excellent sign to see. And it made me real excited when I saw that. Granted again, some teams still do have less than 70 overall backups at QB AND RB, but that's just something we're going to have to swallow and accept as that team using a 1RB system or something, who knows. I've seen weirder things happen in my day. I'm sure Tom Brady was a 62 overall backup...you just never know.

Personally, I think this is a decent fix. Please try it out and let me know what you think. You may not be 100% satisfied with the UDFA's, which I expect, but it certainly seems a lot better. Hopefully this helps out a little, as I'm a huge realism junkie when it comes to franchise, so I know how you guys feel.

Try it out...