OK. I've done a lot of testing on the game. I've played it for a month now. I've created plays, schedules, etc. and I've become very good and beating the AI, even with the improved setting. So much so, in fact, that I'm bored. Once you learn to create your own playbook, and fine tune your strategy settings, it's hard to lose. Less than 12-4 becomes a very bad season.

So, I've tried to find a way to handicap myself, and I will document it here, mostly for my own knowledge, but also for others that might be bored. The idea is pretty simple. Start out by not having control of the staff. You let the computer hire staff. Don't look at them, don't bother with them. Front office picks whomever they want. Second, and this is the fun part, you can only hire rookies for your team. So, you can't sign free agents, unless they are rookies. And you can only sign them once free agency is over... so before the first preseason sim is when you can sign rookie free agents. Third, you can only sign players YOU drafted to extensions. So all those rookie free agents.. gone after 1 year, never to return. In 8 years, you'll have a team full of drafted players. Until then... sucks to be you. Finally, i will be setting my own strategy settings, creating my own playbook, etc. Game will be set on advanced AI.

My team is the Las Vegas Gamblers. I will run a gambling style defense... lots and lots and LOTS of blitzing on defense. 50/50 run/pass offense with long passing being preferred. I have run the first season with the preselected team and the coaches running the show. The team was 4-12. At the end of the season, i released every player with more than 1 year contract.

https://ibb.co/n6nR4Gr

Also, no trading allowed. Forgot that rule. Seven picks a season, every season. 7 players a season who will can be on your team long term.

My first draft:

NAME POS OVR STR SPD AGI ARM ACC INT HND RBL PBL TKL END KDI KAC
Assign Pace, C. CB 93 49 92 90 1 1 60 66 1 1 56 86 1 1
Assign Drake, J. RB 83 74 89 54 27 12 63 61 16 21 35 54 1 1
Assign Stine, A. QB 78 52 52 63 88 65 81 18 1 1 23 68 1 1
Assign William, W. FB 67 75 82 67 28 22 49 48 39 26 20 77 1 1
Assign Hawkins, N. WR 75 32 78 67 1 1 50 78 26 21 10 91 1 1
Assign Pendleton, P. LB 71 72 83 45 1 1 37 46 2 1 58 81 1 1
Assign Milton, A. FS 70 31 85 53 1 1 38 63 1 1 49 58 1 1

Here's my roster before training camp... 51 rookies, all ready to kick some ass.

https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/ ... L5cjspKaPM

First season complete. We came in 1st place in the entire league... in sacks. Blitzing every time has its advantages

5-11 for the first season. Some stat lines:

Name Team G GS Pos Cmp Att Yds Pct Lng TD Int Rate Y/A Y/C TD% Int% Sck%
Stine, A. LV 14 14 QB 236 435 2910 54.3 76 20 6 84.7 6.7 12.3 4.6 1.4 8.6

QB Stine was hurt for two games. And he doesn't have much in the way of receivers to throw to... but only 6 INT (1.4% Int rate) is pretty good start for a guy with average stats. I was just trying to find a guy with good INT and he's working out OK.

Name Team G GS Pos Att Yds TD Avg Fum FumLost Lng Drp
Drake, J. LV 16 16 RB 233 879 6 3.8 3 1 14 13
William, W. LV 11 7 FB 48 180 2 3.8 0 0 15 6

RB Drake and former RB turned FB William didn't do too badly. With a makeshift offensive line of rookies, 3.8 YPC ain't too bad. William was hurt in preseason which is why he was only in 11 games.

Name Team G GS Pos Catches Yds Avg TD Lng Drp Fum FumLost
Hawkins, N. LV 16 16 WR 68 782 11.5 0 63 25 1 0
Drake, J. LV 16 16 RB 25 225 9 4 32 13 3 1
William, W. LV 11 7 FB 14 132 9.4 1 38 6 0 0

Hawkins isn't fast (78 speed), and also 78 hands. Concerns me that he dropped 25 passes and had ZERO TDs. Lot of work to be done to get some speedy receivers for Stine to throw to.

Name Team G GS Pos Int Tck TFL Sck FF DTD PD Tar CtA MT Sft BP BXP BFG
Pace, C. LV 16 16 CB 2 110 0 0 3 0 18 137 87 5 0 0 0 0
Milton, A. LV 16 16 FS 1 103 7 1 2 0 7 112 73 12 0 0 0 0
Pendleton, P. LV 14 14 LB 1 101 9 4 5 0 4 94 65 15 0 0 0 0

Pendleton played MLB and was hurt two games, or he would have led the team in tackles. The worst two things about these numbers are the catch rate and missed tackles. Pace is rated 93 at CB, but 87 catches allowed on 137 targets is brutally poor. All three had an INT, multiple forced fumbles, and good passes defended numbers.

Blitzing every play, basically, we had 57 sacks to lead the league. Second place was 52, so the pressure was there, just not very good coverage. When the coverage gets better, doesn't matter who is rushing the QB, it should work out pretty well. On offense, without a lot of speed, I can't expect many big plays (which is shown by Hawkins ZERO TDs). My draft scouting will focus next season on DBs and speedy TE or WR.

Team W L T Pct PF PA Home Road Conf Div Str
Las Vegas Gambers 5 11 0 .312 306 378 3-5-0 2-6-0 4-8-0 2-4-0 L2

Team Stats:
Offense Defense
Points 19.1 (25) 23.6 (21)
Yards 316.8 (31) 397.7 (31)
Rush 98.8 (15) 137.7 (32)
Pass 218.0 (30) 260.0 (17)

Finally, here are my basic strategy settings which I will keep throughout this dynasty.
Offense:
Attitude: Aggressive
Focus: Balanced
Tempo: Normal
Passing: Long
Pass To: Balanced
Primary Receiver: None
Running Focus: Balanced
Running Backs: Running
Backfield: Bell Cow
Tight Ends: Catching

Defense:
Attitude: Aggressive
Focus: Rush
Primary Coverage: Man
Defensive Line: PassRush
Linebackers: Coverage
Player Radio: Whomever is the MLB.
Match CBs to WRs: Checked

Finally, I signed all my draft picks so they will be back next season. Looking forward to having a few more players of choice on the team. In 4 years, I can have a full starting lineup based on my draft picks. Then I can start to try upgrading the starters. In 9 years, unless many guys retire, I'll get to start CUTTING players instead of signing rookie free agents for one season. I'm playing 53 man roster with 7 man practice squad.

See ya soon.

Picking 7th in the 2020 draft.

# Name Hgt Wgt Ovr Pos Age Exp Str Agi Arm Spe Hnd Int Acc RBl PBl Tck End KPw KAc Yrs Sal
88 Ramirez, Theodore 6' 0" 215 81 WR 23 0 61 90 20 93 37 52 27 40 19 28 78 1 3 4 $2,958,000.00
22 Carter, Edward 6' 2" 229 64 CB 23 0 55 58 1 87 41 53 1 1 1 20 60 1 1 3 $300,000.00
87 Abel, Garry 5' 11" 215 69 TE 20 0 57 60 30 93 52 55 30 18 29 32 72 1 1 4 $255,000.00
44 Kelley, Charles 6' 2" 220 64 SS 24 0 30 68 1 83 32 35 1 1 1 41 86 1 3 1 $300,000.00
77 Burke, Fletcher 6' 1" 298 66 T 23 0 63 56 1 32 12 60 1 83 50 36 48 1 1 2 $240,000.00
66 Kramer, Merrill 6' 3" 273 68 T 24 0 63 43 1 37 1 51 1 80 61 43 47 1 1 1 $300,000.00
86 Lara, Willie 6' 1" 186 70 WR 20 0 38 68 1 84 58 39 1 19 1 43 64 2 1 1 $300,000.00

Ramirez and Abel were RBs that I converted to WR and TE. Kelley is a converted CB. Kramer is a converted C.

Obviously, I'm not a very good drafter in this game.

Here's the 2020 Roster:

https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/ ... HgKkciO0r0

I've decided to make one change to my rules. I will sign coaching staff to help my players develop. I see little to no development in all my players, so I think if I'm going to only play drafted players, I should have a staff that can help them develop.

2020: 5-11 again. Some of the numbers look a little better this time around.

QB Stine only played 13 games this season... seems he is either injury prone or would like an offensive line
Almost had three 1000 yard receivers... a few less drops and that was happening.

10th in the league in passing yardage (4102)
2nd in the league in sacks (59)
t-2nd in the league in interceptions (20)

Individual leaders:
LB Pendleton was 9th in the league in tackles with 103
CB Pace was 1st in the league in interceptions with 10

Offense Defense
Points 18.6 (26) 21.1 (14)
Yards 345.0 (15) 360.0 (27)
Rush 88.6 (22) 126.9 (32)
Pass 256.4 (10) 233.1 (8)

Time to get some linemen for Stine and Drake, and some linemen and linebackers to stop the run and pressure the QB. Plus I'll get kicker and punter out of the way.

Here are the individual stat lines for this season:

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Name   Team   G   GS   Pos   Cmp   Att   Yds   Pct   Lng   TD   Int   Rate   Y/A   Y/C   TD%   Int%   Sck%   
Stine, A.   LV   13   13   QB   213   369   3079   57.7   63   15   7   90.6   8.3   14.5   4.1   1.9   11.1   
                                                      
Name   Team   G   GS   Pos   Att   Yds   TD   Avg   Fum   FumLost   Lng   Drp                  
Drake, J.   LV   16   16   RB   234   801   3   3.4   1   0   14   9                  
William, W.   LV   16   7   FB   58   178   0   3.1   1   1   7   4                  
                                                      
Name   Team   G   GS   Pos   Catches   Yds   Avg   TD   Lng   Drp   Fum   FumLost                  
Ramirez, T.   LV   16   16   WR   53   1063   20.1   8   63   33   5   4                  
Lara, W.   LV   15   15   WR   56   981   17.5   7   58   22   5   2                  
Abel, G.   LV   16   16   TE   76   966   12.7   4   59   28   1   0                  
Hawkins, N.   LV   16   8   WR   27   364   13.5   4   34   11   0   0                  
Drake, J.   LV   16   16   RB   26   361   13.9   1   50   9   1   0                  
William, W.   LV   16   7   FB   11   93   8.5   1   41   4   1   1                  
                                                      
Name   Team   G   GS   Pos   Int   Tck   TFL   Sck   FF   DTD   PD   Tar   CtA   MT   Sft   BP   BXP   BFG
Pendleton, P.   LV   16   16   LB   4   103   4   4   3   2   10   89   59   6   0   0   0   0
Carter, E.   LV   16   16   CB   2   92   0   0   3   0   18   158   95   13   0   0   0   0
Pace, C.   LV   16   16   CB   10   91   0   0   3   1   23   153   86   1   0   1   0   0
Milton, A.   LV   16   16   FS   3   88   5   9   5   1   9   93   56   24   0   0   0   0
Kelley, C.   LV   16   16   SS   1   77   3   6   1   0   3   102   73   16   0   0   0   0


If anyone knows a better way to post a spreadsheet so it looks neat and organized, let me know. Thanks!

2021 Draft and more position changes.

Code: Select all

#   Name   Hgt   Wgt   Ovr   Pos   Age   Exp   Str   Agi   Arm   Spe   Hnd   Int   Acc   RBl   PBl   Tck   End   KPw   KAc   Yrs   Sal
75   Wallace, George   6' 2"   251   81   DE   21   0   83   37   1   71   27   50   1   1   1   70   76   1   1   6   $4,836,500.00
54   Bui, Edward   6' 1"   284   82   C   23   0   93   40   1   63   1   54   2   70   74   29   50   1   1   2   $240,000.00
7   Jones, Kurt   5' 9"   217   89   K   20   0   27   22   25   58   13   76   1   1   1   19   93   93   88   4   $255,000.00
34   Centeno, Thad   6' 3"   217   71   SS   23   0   35   59   1   86   42   64   1   1   1   59   71   1   1   3   $255,000.00
70   Cromer, Guy   6' 3"   292   62   G   21   0   72   42   1   61   7   45   1   50   65   49   42   1   1   1   $300,000.00
15   Watson, Hong   5' 9"   217   67   P   20   0   36   41   12   47   1   56   3   1   1   22   79   83   50   1   $300,000.00
79   Partin, John   6' 3"   298   61   DT   23   0   68   39   1   68   14   41   1   1   1   45   57   1   1   1   $300,000.00


With the drafting of a SS, I move former SS Kelley to LB. My goal, with the 4th pick in the draft, was to draft one of the two top LBers in the draft. Unfortunately, they went 1 and 2, so i got nothing. Centeno is a better SS than Kelley, so I moved Kelley to LB.

I like Wallace but his agility is a big problem if I want good pass rushing. Bui is not a great blocker, but he has great strength for a lot of pancakes, and good speed for pulling on sweeps (which I like to do a lot). Jones, my 3rd round pick, was too good to wait for the 4th round... didn't want to take a chance to let him get away. As I said earlier, I wanted to get some linemen. I got a DE, DT and LB on defense (moving Kelley to LB and leaving Centeno as our SS is a net LB). I got a center and guard on offense, and a kicker and punter. Hoping the kicker wins some games for us, and the punter is below average but I don't care so much. The guard was by far my worst pick... still annoyed by it Partin not much better, but at least I have someone to train up at DT. I'm focusing a LOT on Physical for him in training.

Unique and interesting set up and approach for this dynasty. Enjoying the read.