This post is so long I've made an index!
1. Introduction
1.1 The Lack of Immersion
1.2 Ignoring the OVR
2. Training Camp Report - Example from my Brooklyn Bulls Franchise
3. Setting Up Training Camp
3.1 The 1's, the 2's and the 3's
3.2 Roster Breakdown
3.3 Training Camp Drills
3.4 Planning the Training Camp
4. Side Note: Rookie / Free Agent Mini-Camp
5. Preseason Evaluation - Replays and Cut Days
6. Closing Words - The Immersion of Training Camp
1. Introduction
First of all, I'm the kind of player who spends a lot - and I mean A LOT - of time on every aspect of franchise mode. I.e. I divide the draft into three days (not real life days) with breaks between the 1st and 2nd and the 3rd and 4th round to evaluate what's happened so far and find a strategy for the rest of the draft. Everything I do in franchise mode I do to make the game experience as realistic as possible which helps immersion. Sadly, the game sure finds a lot of ways to break the immersion so in particular I like to spend a lot of time doing the things that don't. Guarded by house rules of course. If you are a similar player to me, someone who likes to take his time with every part of the game, from preseason to draft, then my Training Camp might be for you.
Training camp doesn't exist in Madden 16 and I don't think it'll be implemented in Madden 17 either. I've complained and moaned a lot about this (not on this forum though) because I think it's a great and fun part of the NFL, something I always look forward to and would love to see in Madden again. Anyway, complaining doesn't help - it only makes me want to stop playing, which of course is no fun - so instead I've tried to come up with my own version of Training Camp that I can implement in Madden 16, and hopefully Madden 17 as well as it's right around the corner and I hope all my work isn't for nothing... Heck, it's a lot better than complaining, amirite?!
1.1 The Lack of Immersion
The main reason I've stopped playing Madden in recent years is not due to the lack of training camp, but it may be a part of the reason. The problem I have is that the game doesn't immerse me in my chosen franchise and career. It's hard to put my finger on why exactly but I feel like when I play I just field a bunch of names with numbers attached to them and we play games that all seem the same with none feeling more or less important. Got a good free agent to upgrade a position? Ok, cool, but I don't really care about the player. He's just a name with a number. Same goes with rookies in the draft. Got a steal in the 6th round? Ok, fine. I can barely remember his name after the draft is over but he'll probably help us out. But ultimately I don't care about my players which means I don't care about my team and as a consequence, I usually stop playing within the first or second season. The franchise mode just doesn't feel very realistic to me which breaks the immersion as well.
This training camp idea is an attempt at making the preseason a lot more realistic as a way of getting me more immersed with the players and my team.
1.2 Ignoring the OVR
One important aspect to my training camp idea is to ignore the OVR altogether. It's not a typo, IGNORE THE OVR. This serves two purposes:
1. OVR's aren't realistic.
2. OVR makes me judge a player without having seen him play. Also unrealistic for a coach.
Maybe you already ignore the OVR but I more often than not prefer keeping a higher OVR over what a player has actually done in games when it comes to cut days. I hate the fact that the OVR for a rookie shows up immediately after you make your pick, so I ignore it. It's just another thing that breaks the immersion in my opinion. Knowing exactly how good a rookie is the second you've drafted him but not the second before you drafted him? (enough complaining, more problem solving, I know!
)
In other words, if you like to judge players on performance rather than OVR this idea might be for you.
Note: If you don't want to immerse yourself with my brilliant writing skills (joking), you can skip point 2.Training Camp Report. But I wanted to give you a taste of what preseason looks like in my franchises now and if you're intrigued, read on. If not, maybe this isn't for you at all. Which is also fine btw
2. Training Camp Report - Example from my Brooklyn Bulls Franchise
Just FYI, in training camp EJ Manuel was rated 77OVR and Blake 82OVR. Normally I would've just run with Blake, the obvious franchise QB, but instead, because of training camp battles, this happened:
Day 1: First look at the QB battle
It was a rough first day of training camp for EJ Manuel. The free agent acquisition ran with the 1's today but struggled to get anything going against the Bulls' revamped front 7. He did complete a few nice throws, but was highly inaccurate for most of the day and had to endure quite a few sacks. But the Bulls fans did have something to cheer about as rookie QB Philip Blake impressed his new coaches on day 1. He was running with the 2's today with Mike Glennon running with the 3's, and the rookie started an early race for the starting position in Brooklyn. His deep balls were particularly impressive completing over 60% of his long passes. The Bulls offense also ran a number of bootleg plays, which is thought to be an important part of their offense this year, and the mobile Blake was both accurate on the run and made good decisions.
Preseason Game 1 Report: Rookie QB struggles against Pittsburgh; Manuel seizes the opportunity
It was a rough welcome to the NFL for rookie QB Philip Blake as he got the start ahead of EJ Manuel tonight against Pittsburgh. An INT, a completion % in the low 30's and several sacks was all the rookie had to show for his one quarter of play tonight and he looks to be some way away from being an NFL starter at this point.
Luckily for the Bulls fans they look to have a solid alternative. EJ Manuel have struggled in training camp so far, which eventually lead to Blake being given the nod ahead of the veteran, but after initial struggles against the Steelers, Manuel started commanding the offense and moving the ball effectively. He was completing passes left, right and center and when he didn't find an open receiver, he was able to get the job done with his feet. It'll be interesting to see how this battle plays out as the team heads back to the training field on Tuesday.
Training Camp Day 15
After rookie Blake struggled against a stout Steelers defense and EJ Manuel seized on the opportunity, the two switched places in training camp today. EJ Manuel ran with the 1's and continued to show fine form ahead of the 2nd preseason game, making a strong claim for the starting job come September. Blake ran with the 2's but the rookie continued to look like... well, a rookie. Right now it looks like EJ Manuel will win the starting job with Blake getting at least a season on the bench. But there's still days left in this training camp and 3 more preseason games to go before we will know for sure.
Ultimately, EJ Manuel won the battle and got the start in Week 1. Now it's up to Blake to develop and hope Manuel starts to struggle. Otherwise we'll have a very interesting QB battle next year as well!
This story wouldn't have taken place if it wasn't for my own version of Training Camp, so let's see how I set everything up (if you're still interested that is).
3. Setting Up Training Camp
You'll need:
1. Pen and paper or if you're the high-tech kind of dude, a laptop
2. Plenty of time and patience
3. A desire to test and evaluate your players rather than letting OVR or individual attributes decide.
4. More time and patience. It's time consuming, but you can definitely choose yourself how much time you want to invest in this.
I've tried to simulate what's done in the real NFL, but of course I can't run drills with no pads or 7-on-7's and the likes, so this is as realistic as I could make it
within the limits of the game. If you have suggestions to how this can be improved, let me know. But realism is the ultimate aim here.
3.1 The 1's, the 2's and the 3's
Just like in the NFL, I divide my preseason roster into three teams of offense and three teams on defense; the 1's (starters), the 2's (backups, rookies) and the 3's (fringe players trying to make the roster). Since M12 you've been able to carry 75 players on your preseason roster through the first preseason game, although in M17 that's reduced to 74 for some reason, but I only carry 72 and here's why:
In the NFL you have a much greater consistency through training camp and preseason because you don't have to make any cuts until after the 3rd preseason game. The CFM in Madden forces you to cut down to 72 even before you sim to preseason week 2. To get a more real life feeling of consistency by holding on to the same group of players through multiple preseason weeks and games, I just found it better to set my training camp roster at 72 from the start.
My preseason schedule then looks as follow:
Preseason Week 1
0. Preparations; build the roster to 72 players and plan the training camp days
1. The Majority of Training Camp Days - How many is up to you
2. Preseason Game #1
3. Week 2 Training Camp Days: 2 or 3
No cuts to be made here as your roster is already at 72.
Preseason Week 2
1. Preseason Game #2
2. Week 3 Training Camp Days: 2 or 3
3. Cut down to 68
Preseason Week 3
1. Preseason Game #3
2. Week 4 Training Camp Days: 2-3
3. Cut down to 63
Preseason Week 4
1. Preseason Game #4
2. Cut down to 53 + 10 (practice squad)
With this schedule, since you do training camp days after the preseason games and before you cut and simulate, you can keep a roster of 72 players right up to the 3rd preseason game, which is as close to realism I can get with the current setup in Madden.
3.2 Roster Breakdown
So, here is how I set up my preseason roster to coincide with having three teams as explained above.
Note:
- Spots listed with two positions (i.e. TE/WR) means a spot that can be filled by either a TE or WR. I.e. if you only have 1 FB on your entire roster (which is often likely) he can fill the FB spot for your 1's, while a HB fills the FB/HB for the 2's and 3's.
- The number of DL men and LB's depends on your front seven (3-4 or 4-3 defense)
Last thing: Leaving 2 spots for a kicker and a punter, gives you a total of 70 roster spots for your offense and defense. 70 is not easily divided by 3 (or 6 - 3 offensive and 3 defensive teams) so to make things easier and more flexible, I've reduced the three teams to 22 players each, 11 on offense and 11 on defense and introduced the Flex player. The Flex player can be pretty much anything; a return man, a long snapper, an extra WR, TE, HB, CB, or maybe you'd like to bring in a kicker or punter to get some competition?
So, my 72-man roster consists of:
3 teams of 22 players (total of 66), 1 kicker, 1 punter and 4 flex players.
Right, finally, the roster breakdown:
Offense: QB x1, HB x1, FB/HB x1, WR x2, TE x1, OL x5 = 11
Defense: DE x2, DT x1-2, OLB x2, ILB x1-2, CB x2, S x2 = 11
Special Teams: K x1, Px1
Following my suggestion, your preseason roster need the following players acquired in the offseason or at the beginning of preseason:
3 x QB
3 x HB
3 x FB
6 x WR
3 x TE
15 x OL
9-12 x DL (depending on 3-4 or 4-3 front)
9-12 x LB (depending on 3-4 or 4-3 front)
6 x CB
6 x S
1-2 x K
1-2 x P
+ 4 Flex players
Of course, exactly how many players you want to bring in to training camp and how many you want in each position is entirely up to you. I find it easier to switch between the different teams when they all have the same amount of players in the different positions, but that's just me. Find what works for you!
3.2 Training Camp Drills
The idea is that during the 4 weeks of preseason you'll have training camp days with the majority of TC taking place before the first preseason game and with a few TC days in between games. How many training camp days you want is up to you. You can have 1 or 21 and what 1 day actually is, is also up to you. So you can spend hours and hours on this or you can do a more compressed version if you'd like to get to the regular season quicker (more on the latter under
3.3).
Before we look at what a Training Camp Day may look like, let's look at some drills that will be the content of your TC Days.
All the drills take place in the Free Training when you're in CFM. You can choose between Offense Only (self-explanatory) or Normal, which is Offense vs Defense. You can also choose whether you want to play offense or defense, but for these drills I've only controlled the offense (although I've included some drills for the defense as well).
A. Offense Only mode to test QB's and Receivers
QB Throw Power
Set the ball at around your own 5-yard line and run a hail mary. Snap the ball, move your QB into his own end zone so that when he throws, he trows from the 0-yard line. Once your receivers have gotten way past midfield, throw it to one of the receivers and take note on how far the QB was able to throw it.
This was more useful in Madden 12 when you didn't know exact attributes but had to unlock them, but it's still a fun mini-competition between your QB's.
WR/HB Speed
Another little mini-competition and with almost the same setup. Choose a hail mary play that lines up at least 2 WR's on the line of scrimmage. Set the ball at the 10-yard line and snap it. Once your receivers get across the 50-yard line, just throw the ball away. Now go into Replay and see who was the fastest 40-yard runner (from the 10 to the 50). Again, more useful in Madden 12 to see how quick your receivers were without unlocking attributes, but it's still a good drill.
Kicking drill
Brought some competition for your kicker into training camp? This drill is a pure kicking competition that should give you a good idea about who to keep and who to cut. I usually break it down into 4 different kicks, let each kicker have as many attempts at each as you feel is necessary, and take notes on their accuracy and power.
1. Ball spotted at the 13, which gives a 30-yard FG attempt.
2. Ball spotted at the 23, which gives a 40-yard FG attempt.
3. Ball spotted at the 33, which gives a 50-yard FG attempt.
4. Finding your kickers' limit: Start with something both Kickers should make easily (i.e. 40-yard attempt). If they make it, move the ball back 2-3 yards. Give them 2 or 3 attempts at each distance and as long as they make it, move the ball backwards. Whoever kicks the longest FG wins.
B. Normal Mode - Offense vs Defense
Testing Offensive Linemen
This is, in my opinion, a big deal and I always use a lot of time on this drill. It's one thing to have a nice looking overall or individual attributes, but how does he look on the field? That's what this drills attempts to answer.
I divide this drill into Pass plays and Run plays to test both types of blocking. If a lineman makes a great block, I give him a mark under the category "Good". If he's humiliated by a DLineman, I give him a "Bad". And if he makes a decent block he gets an "OK+" or "OK-" depending on how decent it was. After I've run 15-20 plays I start to get a good idea of how's doing Good or Bad by the number of marks under each column.
It's fairly easy to set up and run as well:
1. Select play - choose a run play that will test your OLineman (inside zone for example) or a pass play that requires your QB to hold the ball for several seconds (deep pass, 7-step drop). Don't pick bootleg plays as the goal is to see how your OLinemen protect the pocket. For the defense, I usually go with Random play to give my OLine different looks and fronts, but you can also choose a 5-man rush so that each OLineman has a defender to block on every play.
2. Run the play - completing the pass is not the most important thing so I'd rather hold on to the ball and take a sack than throw to early. The goal is to test my OLinemen so I want them to hold their blocks as long as possible.
3. When the play is over, go into Replay and play it multiple times, watching your linemen and taking notes on how they did.
After I've run this drill 15-20 times with the 1's, I sub the 1's for the 2's
but I don't change the defense. This is because I want all my OLinemen to be up against my best defenders (and I'm not testing my defense in this drill anyway). If you feel like this breaks with realism - and I admit, it does, it's just more convenient - then feel free to sub in the 2's on defense as well.
Addon: QB throwing/WR catching/RB running/FB blocking
Since you're running all these drills already, you can of course take notes on how your RB is running, your FB is running/catching and WR's are catching/dropping the ball. So, to get more out of every play, take more notes!
C. Situational drills
(I don't have good names for these drills so you can name them yourself. I usually just go with Dave for some reason...)
Standard Dave - 1st & 10
Ball at: 50-yard line - allows for all kinds of plays and makes it easy to see yards gained.
Here I try a number of different plays vs random defensive plays (so that I never know what the defense is up to and see a lot of different fronts). I get a good mix of different pass and run plays. I also practice changing the play at the line of scrimmage to adjust for the defense. You can select Random Play, simulating the O.Cord giving plays for the QB to test out, but it's also a nice time to test specific plays in your playbook.
Red Zone Dave 1
Ball at: Opposing 20-yard line
Drills you can run:
- 1st and 10 from the 20. Try to score a TD, respotting the ball depending on yards gained or lost.
- 4 points down with time running out: Score a TD from the 20 on 1 play.
Red Zone Dave 2
Ball at: Opposing 2-yard line
Offensive Drills you can run:
- 1 play to score a TD
- 1st & 10 - score a TD
Defensive Drills you can run:
- Goal line stand, either 1 or 3 plays.
Late Game Dave's
Ball at: 40-45-yard line
- 2 points down with time running out: run one play to set up a field goal inside the 35-yard line.
- 4 points down with time running out: score TD in 2 plays.
Dave in Trouble
Ball at: Own 2-yard line
Offensive drills you can run:
- Get a first down at the 12-yard line in 1 or 3 downs
Defensive drills you can run:
- Force a punt from inside the 10-yard line (offense gets 3 plays)
- Force a safety (Offense gets 3 plays)
Scrimmage
Ball at: Own 20-yard line
Usually I only run this once during training camp and usually before the first preseason game for two reasons:
- After the first preseason game you have to cut players - I like to have all three teams for this drill.
- Based on performance in the TC so far, I move players between teams. The teams that run as 1's, 2's and 3's in Scrimmage will also be the 1's, 2's and 3's in the first preseason game.
The drill: You are all probably familiar with this but basically it's 1 drive with the goal of scoring a TD. 1's on 1's, 2's on 2's and 3's on 3's, but you can mix it up if you want. You can decide yourself if you want to give the offense 3 or 4 downs per 10 yards and you decide how many drives you want to run. My rule is: you can't hit the showers until you've scored a TD.
You can also switch to defense for this drill if you prefer.
You can move the ball around the field and set up any scenarios you want, and if you'd like to add to my short and incomplete list feel free to do so!
Pro Tip: Run all the drills with your 1's before switching over to the 2's, and let the 3's close out the day. Switching is done in the Free Training menu depth chart and takes a bit of time. I once started switching teams after each drill which took forever... So, be smarter than me!
3.3 Planning the Training Camp
Now that you know what sort of drills you can run, you can plan your own TC. This probably takes a bit of experimenting; some people might want to do multiple days ahead of the first preseason while others might want to skip straight to the scrimmage. It's all up to you.
If you want to have multiple days of Training Camp, here are a few suggestions:
1. Just like in real life I like to get my 1's the most amount of reps. I don't know what the NFL standard is (if there is one) but maybe something like the 1's getting 50% of the reps, the 2's 30% and the 3's 20%? Again, it's up to you. One thing I do though is if my QB can't complete a pass or the WR drops it, I force him to run it again until he has a completion. That means that the number of reps each team gets fluctuates but I try to be aware of it when I plan my Training Camp Days.
This serves two purposes: Your assumed starters get the most amount of reps to prepare for the season (and you get to know your starters better) and the 2's and 3's really have to step it up in less reps to impress you. I like that
2. It's a good idea to plan how many reps you want to run in one Day. What that limit should be is up to you but I like to have a limit because...
3... I evaluate the players' performance after each day (more on evaluation below). Then if a player stood out or was poor, I move them between teams. I.e. I had a veteran WR with the 1's drop everything one day while a young WR among the 2's made one-handed grabs down the sideline so on day 2 the young WR got a well-deserved chance to run with the 1's while the veteran had to run with the 2's trying to get his act together!
4. Side Note: Rookie / Free Agent Mini-Camp
I have wanted to implement a Rookie Mini-Camp as well that will take place before the main Training Camp. This is just to get a feel for my newly drafted rookies and create a relationship with each of them before the starters return. Again, it helps with the immersion and it helps to not overlook that FB you got in the 7th round who you probably wouldn't have noticed until you cut him.
The problem is that the only training you can do in Madden is Free Training and for that you need 11 offensive and defensive players to test them all. And even then some starters might sneak into some of the plays. I usually don't draft 22 players, so I thought a possibility could be to have a joint practice session with the new free agent signings acquired in the offseason together with the rookies. That way I get a feel for all the new faces in my roster and get to know them a little bit better
This is still just an idea at this stage and I haven't tested it out yet, but if you would like to test it out, please do and report back on your findings.
5. Preseason Evaluation - Replays and Cut Days
So, this is what it's all about. When you ignore the OVR and let the players speak for themselves on the field, you need to evaluate. Having three teams (1's, 2's and 3's) set up helps this process so again, I suggest you do that when you prepare your Training Camp.
Coaches in real life use tape to evaluate a day's worth of training. We don't have that option in Madden so you have to evaluate immediately after the play using the Replay (unless you can evaluate in real time as the play happens. I'm not THAT good so I have to use replays). I usually look at all positions, from OL to QB to HB to the WR vs CB battles and take note if anything is very good or very poor. Note: I don't necessarily do this on every single play; sometimes I let a few plays run before something sticks out that I want to take notes on. But it helps to be consistent and take a lot of notes. It helps the evaluation later on.
So, I take notes and at the end of the TC day, I have a thorough look at my notes and decide whether anyone deserves to move up or down among the three teams. That's why it's a good idea to divide your TC into multiple days and have a limit on how many reps you have time for each day.
Moving players up or down among the teams also help when cut days arrive as players who have stood out should find themselves among the 1's or 2's and you can cut players from the 3's who haven't done anything useful in camp so far.
This is another reason why I have multiple days of TC so that I can evaluate and move players between the teams before I arrive at the first cut day.
6. Closing Words - The Immersion of Training Camp
My Training Camp is an attempt to up the immersion I feel when playing Madden. When I look beyond the OVR or individual stats and look at performance I get a much closer connection with my players. If a player makes the 53-man roster it's because he's deserved it, not because he has a high OVR. If a 55OVR LB has more tackles, sacks, better performances than a veteran, he's deserved his spot. The veteran has not.
Obviously, as you might have realized already, this way of evaluating players and determining who gets a spot and who's cut can lead to you cutting some players with high overalls for much lower rated. But again, ignore the OVR. Let the play on the field dictate the roster. And I think we can all agree that building a monster team of studs is a bit too easy on Madden. This way you might at least get a few players who pull the OVR down a bit
It makes for a more realistic roster in my opinion. Whether you like that or not is up to you of course.
But, just to put your mind at ease a bit, players with high OVR are usually starters from the previous season, they're among the 1's, which means they get the most reps, and usually they perform well. It takes a lot for a young low draft pick among the 3's to take his spot.
What you can end up having though are fights for every position. A backup trying to win a starting position. A low draft pick trying to get that 6th CB spot or win a contract as a kick returner. The underachiver getting cut for an up-and-coming youngster. And when you spend this much time looking at each player, you start caring about them. You start to look for them in the preseason games to see if they can deliver in games as well. That 55OVR WR isn't an easy cut anymore because he made some great catches in TC and you've moved him up among the 2's. Or that LB who flew through the OL and got a sack - it may not be enough to win a roster spot, but he sure got your attention!
It's like your own version of Hard Knocks. You've got the struggling starting QB, the guy no one had heard of who impressed you and so on. There are no training camp stories in Madden, but this is a way of creating them yourself!
Sorry about the wall of text but I hope at least some of you find it interesting and might want to test it out yourselves. I find that Madden is only as good as you make it yourself and this has helped me get back to playing CFM.
Any comments, suggestions or ideas are welcome!