Operation Sports is proud to present our interview with Jonathan Durr, Assistant Producer, of NFL Head Coach. We'd also like to thank our community for submitting some great questions!

Operation Sports: How current are the coaches going to be? Will guys like Herm Edwards be on the Chiefs and Art Shell on the Raiders or is it based off of the 2005 season?

Jonathan Durr: We will be starting after Super Bowl XL in Career Mode and with the exception of the team you take control of, all the new coaches will be on their new teams, so when you coach against the Chiefs, you will be facing Herm Edwards. In Coach Now mode, you can control these coaches directly.

Operation Sports: Can we edit coaches, players, assistants, etc.? If so, what options will we have available?

Jonathan Durr: You can edit your character’s appearance, with lots of options from clothing choices for different types of work days (office, practice, game, etc.) and physical appearance. Your ratings are dynamically moving during the game and change based on your choices. You can not edit other coaches – part of the game is hiring the best staff. You can change players’ positions, but not edit their attributes – again the game is largely about scouting, being able to edit attributes wouldn’t fit with that.

Operation Sports: Will the players in this year’s upcoming draft be in the game and on the correct teams?

Jonathan Durr: The real players will be in the game and in Coach Now and Online you can get an updated roster to have them on real teams. In Career Mode – the starting point is before the draft so you get to go through the 2006 draft, with real players and they may end up on different teams depending on how the draft breaks down.

Operation Sports: How realistic are the playbooks for each team? Can we develop our own plays, formations and schemes?

Jonathan Durr: The playbooks are very realistic for each team (each coach actually) and based on real NFL game film from the NFL. Yes you can develop your own plays, formations, play groups and game plans.

Operation Sports: Will we be able to make our own substitutions being specific to certain plays on certain downs?

Jonathan Durr: Playbooks are organized differently in NFL Head Coach – so what you would want to do is setup a play group for a situation, such as 3rd and long and put certain plays (from a variety of formations) in that playgroup. Within those plays and formations you can set certain personnel. I have a couple of different versions of the same play in my playbook for this reason.

Operation Sports: If the owner wants something done, will there be some sort of conflict between the coach and owner? Will some owners have more say-so in the trading aspect or will the coach have the last word?

Jonathan Durr: Owners have different personality types, and are very clear with their goals and their demands. You as the coach/GM do have final say on moves, but you are also responsible for them as well.

Operation Sports: Can a coach be offered a position on another team? What happens when the coaches contract expires, is it up to the owner to decide to keep or release you? If they happen to release you, are there options available for you to coach elsewhere?

Jonathan Durr: We made it so that you can always find another job if you get fired or don’t want to renew your contract, but the job offers will be based on your career and ratings. You only get job offers when unemployed, as in the NFL. Your assistant coaches may get job offers (promotions) while under contract though.

Operation Sports: Will we be able to print any reports on rosters, maybe a scouting report, etc?

Jonathan Durr: Not this year, no – this is something we will look into for PC and future online support.

Operation Sports: How detailed will college scouting reports be?

Jonathan Durr: By default you don’t see players’ ability ratings. When you scout NFL players or players coming into the NFL from college you are narrowing down their attribute ranges so you know how well they perform. After the Combine you are also presented with a report based on the college players you elected to scout. This report details feedback on the player’s strengths and weaknesses.

Operation Sports: How deep will the weekly game planning be?

Jonathan Durr: Your coordinators will present you with several reports on how to prepare against your opponent. There is a report that breaks down the strengths and weaknesses of key players on the team you are facing and details the “Keys to victory”, which is a list of goals you should complete in preparation for game day. They create your Game Plan, which makes up the plays in your play call sheet. You select plays from your full playbook which you can edit and add to as needed. You’ll then need to practice to meet your “Keys to Victory”. At the end of the week, your staff will give you feedback on how well prepared they feel the team is for the game.

Operation Sports: Will the AI be strong with regards to drafting, free agents and trades?

Jonathan Durr: Yes, each GM has a philosophy that impacts what they are looking for in a player. When the AI drafts players, signs free agents or accept trades, there will be variation between each team and GM.

Operation Sports: Will there be player discipline measures?

Jonathan Durr: Other than releasing or trading players, no.

Operation Sports: How will the game improve on the GM aspects of an NFL franchise, such as player contracts, salary cap management, player agent interactions, etc?

Jonathan Durr: When dealing with contracts, everything goes through conversations with the player’s agent. When agents dislike a deal they’ll tell you. When they think that the deal is close, they might come down on their asking price. There’s a lot more negotiating now.

Operation Sports: Will you have a practice squad roster?

Jonathan Durr: No, this is an aspect of the game we don’t yet have.

Operation Sports: Will there be an ESPN license, if so, how will it be implemented?

Jonathan Durr: Yes, we have two aspects of ESPN in the game. First, Trey Wingo “hosts” your career mode beginning on NFL Live. The bigger portion is the NFL Draft and presentation including analysis from Mel Kiper Jr.

Operation Sports: Will this game be backwards compatible with the Xbox 360? If not, are there plans on releasing a 360 version down the road?

Jonathan Durr: NFL Head Coach is available on Xbox, PS2 and PC. As for the Xbox 360 playing the Xbox version, that is actually up to Microsoft – we would hope it does and would support making it possible.

Operation Sports: How do the stats look after a completed season? Are they fairly realistic?

Jonathan Durr: Yes, they are being tuned to be as realistic as possible.

Operation Sports: Will records be kept in any regard during the season or career?

Jonathan Durr: Yes, they will be kept for both players and coaches for both season and career.

Operation Sports: Can you tell us a little bit about the off-season?

Jonathan Durr: The off-season is comprised of a series of time periods and goals for completing each period. First you build your coaching staff. After that you re-sign your players and hire new ones. Along the way you meet with the owner of the team and the coaching staff to see how well you are doing with your goals. You have to rigorously scout players for the draft. Then face the pressure of the Draft War Room, as Mel Kiper Jr. comments on all of the picks being made. You can perform other actions as well during these periods, but we try to pre-populate your calendar with the tasks that make sense for a given time frame.

Operation Sports: We would like to thank you for your time with this interview, is there anything else you would like to add?

Jonathan Durr: Just that we’re really excited to be making this game and seeing it come to life. To be able to make the role of being an NFL Head Coach come to life, we’re hoping that all the arm-chair coaches, franchise players and fantasy football fanatics will find a game that is interesting, deep and challenging.