Now, I'm not that much on the whole passing game "issue" so I'm going to leave that to people who know a bit more, but just to say that any improvements is something at least. I said it privately in our league, but if this thread and the updates mentioned come through and are positive for the future of the game and in turn, our league, and people like me who have struggled for a while with not only game planning but the lack of ability to make changes via mobile devices (iPhone, iPad, etc...), make it better to use; then I see that there can be a long-term future for the game.
As for something that has been brought up, and that is the draft. The league I'm in, we are just starting our new season, so the draft class has been up for a little bit and we have 362 players in that class (for 224 picks, which is not my concern here), but for me personally; I can already wipe out 202 of those players who will never appear on my team's roster, nor would I ever consider drafting them. That's 55.80% of the draft class gone in an instant. No league honestly needs a 40 rated CB who has no speed, and little to no genuine CB stats that make him even worth consideration as a third stringer, let alone even a roster spot. That honestly should not be the case.
We've had drafts were by Round 4, we already have owners who basically have no more interest and will either just let the AI make the pick for them, and hope for the best
(or they will just void their rookie contract once the draft has finished) or will trade the remainder of their picks away to someone else in exchange for picks next season in the hope they can find what they are looking for there, and will just go rummaging through Late Free Agency for someone to fill the spot. It shouldn't be like that. Now, I'm not saying that the whole draft needs to be filled with stars from Pick 1 to Pick 224, but there needs to be an increase in the quality of players generated by the draft for the league. Give the league admin that ability to pick a minimum default rating that all rookies within the draft need to have, and to add to that, give them the ability to say "OK, we don't need any more kickers or punters, we have enough floating around in free agency, so limit the generation of kickers and punters to the bare minimum" or "there seems to be a large number of DTs who are getting to the higher probability of retirement, so the next draft will have a few more DTs". You give league admins that sort of ability, I think that can work.
Of course, there are going to be people who will say that an admin can manipulate that to their advantage, which is why I suggest that they only have that ability accessible in the postseason
(which does mean you would likely have to move the generation and publishing of the draft class to the end of season sim stage, but that would give that 24 hour window something worth while for people to do instead of twiddling their thumbs) but also sends out an automated notice to all owners in the league what the minimum rating will be and what changes to the draft class have been made from the previous ones, so if you have a league admin who plays it for themselves, you'll likely see owners leave in droves, where an admin who looks after everyone will see owners want to stay long-term.
Waitwut wrote:
Player progression after first TC. Sure they can boom or bust at TC, but if a percentage of players continue playing and being coached shouldn’t they become at least modestly better over time? Tie it to volatility so a player can be a late bloomer. It seems odd that a player who busts only gets worse if they are continually playing or signed to a team.
This is something that should be looked at. Rookie TC is always going to be a roll of the dice, same with real life. But what is to say that over the season, they have that time with their coach and become better. Why should a player bust in rookie TC and be set on that path. I've had first rounders who have been great on paper and they bust hard (and I mean hard) and I'm stuck with them on my roster for 3-4 years because cutting them would be too much dead cap, where I'd like to see that if they bust a little bit, they could bounce back next season. Maybe tie that into their performance in the games. You don't play them, they can still improve, but slowly, where if you give them game time, they might see better improvements. Something like that.
raidergreg69 wrote:
I'd like to see play results that accurately reflect the skill attributes, like why does a 100 avoid fumble RB have 3 fumbles in a game? Speed guys with no other discernable skills should mostly stink.
This too 100%. It really does frustrate me. Last season, my starting QB has a pass accuracy of 92/96, so really should be hitting more than 64.4% of his passes, yet another QB in the league who has roughly the same sort of stats as my QB was up at almost 70% last season. I'm not saying that a QB like mine needs to be completing 9 out of every 10 passes, but it should be higher than a career 64% thrower.