Madden 15 Free Agency Impressions

[Rudy]

Free agency in Madden can be fun but it’s not realistic or difficult. The salaries demanded are too low, especially for low end starters and top backups, and the bonus money is also incredibly low leading to small cap hits if you decide to trade or cut a FA signing later. Clearly this mode caters to the casual fan rather than trying to reflect the NFL.


New Bidding Screen

The mode got a slight tweak this year with the addition of a bidding screen for each player. It shows the top three teams in the bidding war along with their demands and interests.


In my franchise Suh hit the market along with Percy Harvin. There were 16 bids at one point for one of the players but cpu teams will withdraw their offers and move on if they sign someone cheaper. This three week process of bidding and seeing the results unfold is fun. I know I had decided to move on from a RT where I was #2 and had decided I didn’t want to spend any more. But the #1 team withdrew their bid and I discovered I won this player in the end. So you do have to be careful not to bid on too many guys. But managing your money isn’t that difficult.


Players are Too Cheap

What’s the number one motto of free agency in sports? You always overpay to get your man. But not in Madden where players are cheap. The vast majority of players are too easy to sign and the cpu teams are often too conservative in their bidding. Madden only offers a simple linear contract where every year has the same salary and bonus hit against the cap.

Percy Harvin was given a 6 year, $67M contract in real life last year. He’s a 91 rated, 27 year old WR in my franchise that was on the market (there is a new transaction log to check what happens) and was only demanding $7M a year. What’s far worse is the very low amount of guaranteed money. He was only asking for a $7M bonus! His real contract got him a $12M signing bonus PLUS another $13.5M in guaranteed base salaries for a total of $25.5M guaranteed. That is a massive difference.

Players in the 77-82 range can be had for under $2M a year with little in the way of bonuses. I saw a 79 rated CB in his twenties sign for under $2M a year. With those types of bargains you can sign a lot of players and never worry about the quality of your backups. Check out the average contracts by position and salary generator from an earlier discussion: http://www.thegamingtailgate.com/for...ary-Calculator



Conclusion

In the end the free agency model is fun but it’s too easy, the guaranteed money far too low and the overall salaries demanded far too low. NFL teams OVERPAY in free agency but it doesn’t feel like that at all in Madden where great deals can be found. It makes for a casual fan friendly system where anyone can quickly build up a franchise but the realism is sacrificed in a big way.

[Rudy]

To be fair I do recognize that super realism may not be fun. I will also credit EA for doing some nice things. The cpu used the franchise tag 10 times in my first year and some of those players did get extensions.

Here you can see the franchise tags applied (not all 10 shown).



AJ Green gets extended still


My Browns signings. Note that my DE was rated 87 overall and I snagged him for $4M a year. RT Chris Clark was an 83 as was Connor Barth. AJ Hawk was an 84 and Cobb an 88. I do think the DE and Cobb signing were too cheap but the biggest problem is the low guaranteed money.


Harvin released by Seahawks


Harvin signed by Lions (they failed to sign Suh but franchised Fairley at $10M for some reason. Does Madden have 20% bonus franchise rule?)

[jaymo76]

Rudy you are foregetting about the "broken" free agency in OWNER MODE. It is extremely difficult to sign players in owner mode because of the limited funds owners make. I need to upgrade the stadium but cannot afford it as I have some free agents who need to be signed this offseason. The F/A system in owner mode is totally borked because of this issue.

[Rudy]

EA didn't patch that issue which surprised me. A lot of people complained about it and it didn't get fixed. So what is EA's agenda with franchise mode? Do they want to make it easier for the casual fan or do they want ultra realism? Because free agency is set up to be easy but that owner mode financial issue is set up to be a harsh penalty for the gamer.

I'm going to do an report on the draft and scouting next. I'm using a scouting tips blog from EA and other ideas to help me spend the points wisely since they changed the points this year.