[rootofalleli]

Three progression and scouting issues bug me:

1) Age is too important for progression. Stories like Tom Brady's and Arian Foster's are actually pretty well-represented in Madden. Late round gems and quality UDFAs exist. But what about Laurent Robinson? Fred Jackson? Brandon Lloyd? Aaron Maybin? Mike Vick?

Players who enter the NFL a bit late from other leagues (CFL, Arena, etc) tend not to progress in Madden. Guys who take 4 or 5 years in real life to start producing are not represented at all. Guys who drop off for a few years or spend some time locked up are pretty much done in this game. After 2-4 years in the league, Madden progression is pretty much over. But there should be multiple progression paths, just like in real life.

Also, an unrelated age issue is the ridiculous retirement age in Madden - guys often stay in the league 5 or more years longer than they should in this game, so there are way too many talented vets hanging around.

2) Coaches and schemes hardly matter in Madden. Again, look at Brandon Lloyd. This guy wants to be where Josh McDaniels is, since that always boosts his production. Plenty of coaches have players who excel in their scheme and flopped in other ones, or who just aren't motivated by other coaches. But never in Madden!

Technique and conditioning ratings should be based on X from the player + Y from the coach/coordinator, and Y should be a much bigger number than the trivial bonuses in the game now. Some players might deserve a high value of X because they're great in any scheme. But that should be rarer than it is.

3) There is way too much certainty in Madden. I absolutely agree that we should not see potential, and we shouldn't even see definite ratings. I'd be much happier with just a few letter grades per player based on scouting. And scouting should extend to your own team and other teams.

For example, I'd be happy seeing for my 3rd-year CB something like "Athleticism: B+, Technique: B, Effort: A." And I'd be happiest if those last two grades depended on coach/scheme AND had some potential for error that diminished over time. For your own team, practice should bring increased certainty, but for other teams, only game time would tell you much about a player.

This last issue would probably take the most work and the most testing, but the other stuff would probably be a lot easier to do. Instead of giving everyone the same progression curve, give the game 3 or 4 different models, with the current model perhaps as the most common. And it should be relatively simple to expand the role of coaches by diminishing player abilities and adding to the bonuses coaches give.