JRT2006's Madden Scouting Tool

[JRT2006]

A special shout out and BIG thank you goes out to: Rollo, tdawg3782, and BeantowneS. Your countless effort in finding errors, researching data, and making suggestions made these two tools what they are. I did all the typing, these guys did all the research and thinking.

Updates in Spoiler Box

Spoiler

UPDATE 1: Added the ability to cross prospects off your big board after they are drafted. Allows you to track prospects better.

UPDATE 2: Added the True Value of a prospect(before need multiplier is added) to the column right next to Final Grade to compare how much the prospect really fits your scheme against how big of a reach you are about to take for a position of need.

UPDATE 3: Adjusted the Grade Values of A, B, C, D, F to separate prospects better so you don't get too many prospects with the same draft grade.

UPDATE 4: Removed the Late Round Depth need from the Team needs chart. If you are looking to draft depth in the late rounds, pay attention to the listed Projected Round of the prospect.

UPDATE 5: Changed Position Not Needed to Best Value Pick. If you don't need to draft a position, do not scout it. Best Value Pick drops the value of a prospect slightly. This allows the prospect to be slightly lower on your Big Board, but not dropped to the bottom, especially if he is a good fit and talented.

UPDATE 6: Adjusted the numbers in Team Needs to not separate prospects too far from their true value.

UPDATE 7: Changed a Scouting Tool Rule below(highlighted in red). Removed the weight counter and adjusted the Position tabs to reflect new rule with "Even Weights" notifier.

UPDATE 8: Fixed a few minor problems with columns not being voided

UPDATE 9: Adjusted the Grade value to average projected grade value range.

UPDATE 10: Added is the Round modifier. The round modifier slightly reduces the overall value per the projected round. It keeps the 5th round projections from being on the board at #1 (although they may be the highest valued player scouted-See UPDATE 11). High value targets will still be in the mix with prospects 1, possibly 2, rounds ahead of projections, but not 3 or 4 rounds.

UPDATE 11: Added Positional Rank to the big board. The rank of the player against other players at his position you scouted is necessary on the big board with the round modified rankings. This allows you to view the rankings of a prospect projected to go in the earlier rounds compared to the later rounds.

UPDATE 12:The counter under the weights has been removed. It wasn't working properly, will be fixed and replaced soon. Remember to keep your weight ratios accurate, even amounts.

UPDATE 13:A VERY Super Beta version of the roster evaluation tool has been uploaded. The only working (possibly) tabs are the QB through TE tabs. The Big Board needs the code overhauled and I'm slowly upgrading all the tabs to finish, but won't be tonight. My biggest focus right now is for everyone to test the Raw and Max values to help me determine if thats a pretty good balance in separating future talent from current slow progressing players.
Please report back any suggestions or findings.

UPDATE 14:A Beta Version of the Roster Evaluation Tool has been uploaded. I haven't figured the consistency into the averages yet as I ran out of time before the Chiefs game. Each tab is working besides that one rating, Even the Roster Board Generator. Clear buttons only work for the board and the QB tab.

UPDATE 15: Adden a Team Need label to the Big Board and Team need tab. You can designate how much of a need the position is (High, Medium, Low) on the team need tab, when you generate your big board, it will appear, allowing you to make a better decision on drafting a player

Each and Every year us Madden fans want the most realistic experience possible, and while some years we get improvements in that aspect, usually there are things in the game that are so far from reality, they are not even fun to use. The Madden NFL Draft is one of those things. Scouting a player with a designated amount of scouting points to reveal grade averages for skill and even further, the complete rating is just unnecessary. We struggle to manage our scouting points, but find ways to decipher the potential of each player scouted, most likely avoiding a bust each draft.
We want to see college stats, combine times, wonderlic scores, and/or even having the chance to run a few practices with a scouted player. We should be given HOURS, not points, and scouting a player or a team of players entering the draft should cost hours. We shouldnt base our judgement off grades, we should base it off scouting notes provided to us by our scouts, and times ran in the combine or stats through their college careers. This gives us, the player, the managers, the opportunity to draft gems in the later rounds and busts in the earlier rounds. The reward, or lack of, would be tremendously greater.
WE WANT TO SCOUT!


SCOUTING TOOL:

Spoiler

What you need to know about this tool:
1) It is designed to find best fit, not highest overall.
2) It still provides a 'bust factor' in drafting
3)It is designed to be used a certain way, if you choose to or not to use it as designed is up to you.


1)*Try not to stray too far from your Scheme and Player Type, in most cases, scouting each player that fits that criteria will still allow you to scout further (depending on your total SP). Use your leftover Scouting Points to scout players out of system that you think will fit your team and be available at your pick

2)*When designating your attribute priority (weight), be sure to designate an equal amount of weight (5, 3, 2) for the skills. You must have an equal amount of 5 weighted skills, 3 weighted skills, and 2 weighted skills. If you scouted 12 skills for a cornerback, 4 of those skills must have a 5 weight, 4 must have a 3 weight, and 4 must have a 2 weight.

3)*You DO NOT have to scout the same amount of skills for each position, if you want to evaluate a QB with 9 scouted skills, you may evaluate a linebacker with 6 or a cornerback with 12. Just be sure that you keep the weights even among each position (SEE ABOVE).

4)*Scout*ONLY*to the letter grade result(B?, A?, F? etc), anything passed that is a waste of points.

5)*Highly suggested to save your scouting points until after free agency. You may scout as you wish, but you can better judge your team needs after Free Agency signings, adjust your Team Needs in the tool, and scout accordingly.

6)*Generate your Big Board and use it wisely. The Big Board is initially sorted by 'BEST VALUE' which values the players by which round they are projected to be draft. Sorting boxes are provided for each category (grey square with triangle) to allow you to sort by position, true value, positional rank, Name.

Instructions(After Free Agency is complete):
1) Set your Team Scheme in game to your desired preference (Do this at the beginning of the season).

2) Go to the last tab labeled "Team Needs" and fill out your position needs. You fill this out to your liking. Some may want to strictly draft BPA at each pick, ignoring needs, seeking talent at any position. Some may have glaring holes they need to fill immediately with a starter. The team needs board is user preference, just stick with the number identifiers when completing it. Also, you may label the level of need that position is (High, Medium, Low) and it will appear on your big board to help make tough decisions a little more easy.

3) Go to each position tab and scroll right until you see the skill/weight blue box. Rank the skills from most important(5) to least important (1).*Do not use '4' as a rank*as the tool doesn't calculate it. Make sure you follow the tool rules. Only scout the attributes labeled with a 5, 3, or 2. Any skill designated with a number less than '2' will completely black out the entire column to deter you from scouting and entering a grade. NOTE:*The team scheme area of Madden lets you decide what type of player you want at that position. It also gives you an idea of what to look for on that type of player. But you can chose to scout what you like.

4) Begin scouting. Search for players that fit your scheme and Player Type, those are the players that will give you best results. players that are our of your scheme/type can still give you good value and ratings, they just may be slightly less than they would be if they were familiar with your scheme. Scout to the letter grade only. Scout only the attributes you designated with a 5, 3, or 2. Record the scouting results in the tool. Do this for each position you want to scout until you have run out of points. If you have extra points,*do not OVER SCOUT a player.*Even if you accidentally scout the wrong attribute, it can not be used. Fill in the grades on the tool, along with the projected round and Name.

5) Go to the first tab on the tool labeled "Big Board". Click the 'Generate Big Board' button. The list of players scouted will appear with best value on top and lowest on bottom. The projected round*IS NOT*sorted, so pay close attention to their projected draft round unless you are reaching for a position of need. Best Value however is modified with projected round in mind, it will suggest drafting players when the value is right, or if you should reach them because the value is outstanding. Pay close attention the the position rank also, it ranks the scouted prospects for that position from best(lowest number) to worst (highest number). This will help you decide a pick, because you may grab your #3 WR at a valuable position in the draft of round 3, but your #1 WR may be able to get picked in round 5. On the Column labels is a small grey box with a triangle, you can use these to sort the categories. If each column label does not have the sort box/triangle attached to it, and you sort one of the columns, you WILL mix up the names/round/grade. Place a lowercase x next to the players information underneath the generate button to mark that player off your list.

6) At the top right of each position sheet is a button labeled "Clear". Clicking this button will erase all the inputted data you entered (except the weights). Be sure not to click the button until you are ready to move on to the next season. On the "Big Board" tab is a GIANT button labeled "Clear". This button will erase your big board.

Roster Evaluation Tool:

Spoiler

The Roster Evaluation Tool was created to evaluate your roster the same way you evaluated prospects when scouting.

Some things to know about this tool:
1) It will not follow Maddens overall ratings.
2) It will suggest players by three different categories
-Raw Talent (The players skills only, not including their awareness and/or play recognition)
-Actual Talent (The players skills averaged in with their awareness and/or play recognition)
-Future Value (The predicted value based on how many years the player has before you believe his attributes will decrease dramatically and his development trait. This gives you a small value which is added to his actual value)
3) It organizes your roster by value, and helps you decide who is valuable to your team now and in the future, supplies you with the user inputted cap penalty, and gives you the option to make cuts.
4) Free Agent names can be added to the sheet to determine their value on the team as well.

Instructions:

1) Go to the Team Needs page. Here you will place the amount of personnel you want at each position. You are looking to hit the total of 53 for your final rosters. Don't go over a total of 53, because these team will later suggest how many you should cut at each position

2) Just as you did in the Scouting Tool, go to the weight and enter your weights for each skill. Following the same rules as the Scouting tool, select the amount of attributes you want to grade (multiples of 3) evenly distributing the weights.

3) Input the age at which you believe the players at that position will decline, this will only affect their future value from increasing passed their actual value.

4) You can change the development trait points if you like, but 10, 20, 30, 40 is a very good base to start on.

5) Enter your players data for all available columns not filled in with black.

6) Once complete, go to the Roster Board tab at the beginning and Generate your Evaluated Roster. The roster will be sorted from least to greatest on Actual Value. The information provided is their too help you. Cap Penalty, all three values, and Amount to Cut (negative numbers mean you need to fill a roster spot to meet your requirements)

7) Use this Roster Board to your advantage in help determining who you should cut based on their value to your team in the future, their current value, and their raw value.

Feedback is welcome, I am no excel expert, everything I've learn has been from online research. If you find a problem, or want to suggest a change to better enhance the scouting process, PLEASE let me know. I want to make this tool as helpful and awesome as possible

****I am not responsible for the outcome of your draft or your team. You've read the description. You've read the rules. This tool does not guarantee you a perfect draft or a perfect roster, there are cheat guides and OS cheese blogs for that. These tools are only here for you to use at your own risk to give managing a football team a more interesting approach****

[BeantowneS]

Re: JRT2006's Madden Scouting Tool

Grabbed the update and will try tonight. Thanks for the great work.

Playing with this sheet at work a little and this is much better than the first version. I wanted to share with you this sheet that I created. it allows me to keep track of what I am doing and also shows me all the good dev people for free agency or trading. Hope this helps a little with you and thanks again for your sheet

Sent from my GT-I9295 using Tapatalk

[JRT2006]

Re: JRT2006's Madden Scouting Tool

ive already found a problem, quick fix i believe. taking care of it now.
The code for the draft board is pulling the wrong grades, its pulling the grades before the needs multiplier is applied. just have to switch around and will upload the repaired tool.

[Sreister]

Re: JRT2006's Madden Scouting Tool

Can't wait to try this out, though this may be a bit much for me as the thrill of a bust might be minimized. Still, thanks for sharing your work with us all!

[andybill]

Re: JRT2006's Madden Scouting Tool

4) Scout ONLY to the letter grade result, anything passed that is a waste of points.

Does this mean scout just to the letter with a question mark? (e.g. "B?")
Or, if you scout past that do you get a firm letter (e.g. "B"). I have never scouted past the question mark, so was unsure. thanks for the scouting tool!

[JRT2006]

Re: JRT2006's Madden Scouting Tool

Grabbed the update and will try tonight. Thanks for the great work.

Playing with this sheet at work a little and this is much better than the first version. I wanted to share with you this sheet that I created. it allows me to keep track of what I am doing and also shows me all the good dev people for free agency or trading. Hope this helps a little with you and thanks again for your sheet

Sent from my GT-I9295 using Tapatalk

Awesome, I will have a look at your sheet as soon as i finish repairing the one i uploaded. The Big Board is pulling the wrong draft grade, so pretty much what you get on the big board each time is a rank of value, without the needs adjustment.

I thought about creating a free agency/team player evaluation tool.
Player/Team evaluation: you type in the "important" ratings of your players and it grades their fit on your team.
Free Agency Hunt: You type in the "important" ratings of free agents youre interested in, type in your Position Grade (found in the Team Needs area of Madden) and it ranks the most important Free Agents to seek.

[JRT2006]

Re: JRT2006's Madden Scouting Tool

Does this mean scout just to the letter with a question mark? (e.g. "B?")
Or, if you scout past that do you get a firm letter (e.g. "B"). I have never scouted past the question mark, so was unsure. thanks for the scouting tool!

Yes, just scout to the letter with the question mark, anything after that (which costs a bunch of points) is just a firm overall grade. But I've given each letter an average point value that is pretty close to what the game reflects for an overall (within 10 points I believe)

Also, if you are using the tool now, there is an error with team needs. The tool still works, but the big board that you generate will only rank players by their value, the need multiplier isnt applied.

Currently working on that fix now and will have it updated shortly

[JRT2006]

Re: JRT2006's Madden Scouting Tool

Can't wait to try this out, though this may be a bit much for me as the thrill of a bust might be minimized. Still, thanks for sharing your work with us all!

You still gets your busts, or what you think is a bust. This tool is grading players that fit your team, not their overall. Now their overall may be higher than normal because they fit your scheme well, but on any other team it would likely be much lower.

I've drafted 78 overall LT's in the 5th-6th round, 70 overall corners in the 6th round, 64 overall QB's in the 3rd, 55 overall DT's in the 7th. Passed on talent because my big board says I should go for another player, to later find out that the player I passed on was 5 points higher.

It keeps drafting interesting and mysterious still.

[JRT2006]

Re: JRT2006's Madden Scouting Tool

Couple of suggestions for those of you who have or will use this tool.

1. Do you or do you not like the multiplier for projected draft round? It lowers the value of players projected to go in the lower rounds so they don't appear at the top of your big board. You will see now, players that are valuable listed at the #1-10 rank, with their projected round next to them saying 4 or 5.

2. Would you like to see the players value before and after the needs multiplier is applied? On the current sheets, you see "Final Grade", this is the value of the player after his grade is adjusted due to the team need. I can put a "Value" column next to it, showing the players actual value before the needs adjustment.

3. On the big board, would you like the option to put an 'x' next to a players info to cross him off your board?

[Sphinx]

Re: JRT2006's Madden Scouting Tool

What a great tool. I will give this a look today. Thanks for the hard work.

[BeantowneS]

Re: JRT2006's Madden Scouting Tool

Couple of suggestions for those of you who have or will use this tool.

1. Do you or do you not like the multiplier for projected draft round? It lowers the value of players projected to go in the lower rounds so they don't appear at the top of your big board. You will see now, players that are valuable listed at the #1-10 rank, with their projected round next to them saying 4 or 5.

2. Would you like to see the players value before and after the needs multiplier is applied? On the current sheets, you see "Final Grade", this is the value of the player after his grade is adjusted due to the team need. I can put a "Value" column next to it, showing the players actual value before the needs adjustment.

3. On the big board, would you like the option to put an 'x' next to a players info to cross him off your board?

i dont think the projected rounds is needed.
I do like the comparison of with and without though and the x would be great. Maybe if you check x it would grey out player for easier skimming upon draft day as well. Just a suggestion.

[burth179]

Re: JRT2006's Madden Scouting Tool

I sort of draft similarly as far as weighing certain attributes for my scheme and that type of thing, but it's nice to have a tool to bring everything together like this and have it quantifiable, this is great work.

I will have to use it for my upcoming draft (I have already done some of the scouting but not all of it yet).

I have a question, if you don't scout 9 attributes for each position what would you suggest doing? (Like O-lineman I wouldn't scout 9 attributes normally). Can you make some of those columns 1 instead of 2's and would it still work? So like you would only have 3 at '5', 3 at '3' , and the rest at '1' (instead of 3 at '2')? Would that still work? Or would that break your equations?

As for your questions.

1. If I understand correctly, I would say no I don't like that because as long as you know the projected round of the guy, you know you can maybe wait a bit on that guy. I don't think there is a need to lower his OVR grade on the big board just because his projected round is lower (again if I am understanding what you are saying correctly).

2. I would think that would be useful, yes.

3. Not too important, but it couldn't hurt I guess.

Anyway, looking forward to the final version of the tool. Any idea when it will be finalized? And thanks a lot man, great stuff.

[JRT2006]

Re: JRT2006's Madden Scouting Tool

If you don't want to scout 9 total attributes for a player, that is fine. but if you scout 6 for quarterbacks, you have to scout 6 for every other position you want to draft too. If you scout 7 skills for MLB, you have to scout 7 for every other position you want to draft too.

If one positions is being scouted more than the other, and you have more input on that position/player, he will either be at an advantage or disadvantage on the draft board, because he has more data to average. Scouting the same amount of skills per positions gives each prospect you scouted a fair value compared to the others.

All you have to do is mark the weight of that attribute a '1'. Putting a '1' on the attributes weight will black out that column to let you know not to use it. There should be no problem with the formulas doing this as the final grade averages everything with a value only, marking the attribute with '1' blacks out the column and you shouldnt put any grade there, meaning the final grade skips it in the average.
My rules for scouting 9 each was just to put emphasis on keeping everything EQUAL.
With my coach having the 'expert scout' unlocked, I think I earn around 5100 points at the end of the season, when scouting 9 attributes, I usually get about 65 players scouted. I will likely start scouting less attributes as well, to give myself more options on draft day.

The final tool should be complete in a few hours, depending on if i get sidetracked or not. The most time consuming process is the big board.

-I will be putting the players value next to the final grade for comparison.
This will let you compare the difference with the team need modifier, its not huge unless you want to reach for a position of need. This also allows you to glance at a players true value when drafting, sometimes on draft day when I'm stuck between players to draft, I look at their true value and make my decision based on that.

-I will be putting the option to cross out drafted players on your big board.
Placing an 'x' next to the players information will turn his name red and cross it out for easier tracking of who is available.

-I'm thinking about adjusting the grade values with more precise numbers.
Having a whole number as a grade value leads to a lot players having equal value. Extending the number with a decimal should separate these equal values a little more.

[JRT2006]

Re: JRT2006's Madden Scouting Tool

What do you think about team needs?

currently I have:
Position Not important------ ----- 0.5
Late Round Depth Only----- ----- 0.8
Best Player Available--------------1
Slight Reach------------------------1.02
Immediate Need (Large Reach)---1.05

Do you think those are all necessary?
Was thinking late round depth wasn't useful, if you are looking for late round players to fill depth at a position, you just pick the best value player in later rounds.
Not important is good, because it drops the value of the player, if you don't need that position, you dont want your big board saying PICK HIM NOW!
Best Player Available is good because a lot of teams draft this way, they ignore needs for the most part and want to draft players who fit their team, regardless if he starts now or in 4 years.
Slight Reach is useful because you may want to upgrade a certain position, but dont want to draft him 2 rounds ahead of projection
Immediate Need helps for those teams that have an empty position they couldnt fill through Free Agency, therefor they are willing to jump on the best prospect at that position so they can throw him in the starting lineup immediately.

[burth179]

Re: JRT2006's Madden Scouting Tool

Ok thanks for the feedback.

I am not exactly sure how you are doing your calculations, but it sounds like you might be able to get away with either scouting 9 attributes or 6 attributes. So you could scout 9 attributes for TEs and 6 for QB's (for example) and everything could still be "even".

If you want to scout 9, you would do 3 5s, 3 3's, and 3 2's. If you scout 6 attributes, you would do 2 5s, 2 3s, and 2 2s. In theory, that sounds like it would keep everything even. Would you agree or no?

Anyway, good stuff my man.