Madden NFL 15 Connected Franchise Details, Trailer and Screenshots

[evanreyes]

They should add old jerseys for when you move cities.
THEY NEED TO LET US CHANGE POSITIONS IN FRANCHISE. WHY IS THAT NOT ALLOWED? IT IS SO SIMPLE. I WANT TO BE ABLE TO CHANGE FROM A 4-3 TO A 3-4 IN THE FIRST YEAR.

[Mr.Smif]

I have a bad feeling that they are trying to make MUT their main mode much like NBA 2K has made MyPlayer (or whatever its called now) their main mode.
We will need to wait for the MUT reveal but from what Ive read, seems like they are putting more effort/resources towards MUT than CFM or any other mode.

[HozAndMoose]

Quote: Originally Posted by Mr.Smif

I have a bad feeling that they are trying to make MUT their main mode much like NBA 2K has made MyPlayer (or whatever its called now) their main mode. We will need to wait for the MUT reveal but from what Ive read, seems like they are putting more effort/resources towards MUT than CFM or any other mode.

They will make more money off of MUT than they will actually selling the games. Its a good business strategy.

[Nza]

So EA have finally moved away from the ridiculous pre-generated draft classes entirely? Or by random, is it random collections of pre-generated players?

[Sheba2011]

Quote: Originally Posted by DCEBB2001

I have a few issues with this post. 1. The phrase "Underwear Olympics" goes back to its use in media vernacular, not coaching/scouting vernacular. Brad Sham, the play-by-play commentator for the Cowboys Radio Broadcasts, was one of the original commentators to use it, circa 2008. Mike Florio made it even more popular with an article in 2010. I know several scouts that started their careers out as interns with NFLDS, and I have never ONCE heard any of them use that term to describe the combines/pro days. So your assumption that "scouts/coaches" refer to it in this way is erroneous. 6. You make it seem as though the combine is useless for quantifying the results of the tests. One thing you did not mention was how important the injury testing and physicals are for the teams. These are critical, even more so than the interviews according to many coaches and scouts. However, consider the fact that 30 of the 32 teams pay Pro Scouting/BLESTO in excess of $80,000 for the official results presented to the teams each year for all of the drill data. This data is released a full week after the combine's conclusion. The times you see on NFL Network and NFL.com are not the official times. Believe it or not, there are several instances during the combine where the timing mechanisms break. This is recorded each time it occurs for any player during a test, especially the 40. In fact, all players that run twice actually have 6 times; 3 from each run. Two are hand timed and one is electronically timed. All of the times are complied, reviewed, and altered should a break be found. Some teams use the average of all 6, some throw out the best and worst and average the rest, while others only use the best time. It all depends on your scouting department.

So because you know a few scouts that means that no coach has ever used that term? I found a quote from Cleveland's new HC Mike Pettine on Fox Sports: "When it comes to the (NFL Scouting) Combine, there's a reason people call it The Underwear Olympics." Here's one from Chip Kelly: "The fact that people would watch the combine, there's times at the combine where I actually fall asleep," Kelly joked. Then there is the infamous image of Belichick actually falling asleep during the combine.

Here's what National Football Scouting Director Jeff Foster said about the combine: "The on-the-field stuff, which is the sexy component of the combine and what gets the interest for media and the broadcast, that's a very small part of the evaluation for the clubs," he said. "I would say 90 percent of the evaluation of a person as a football player is done before he arrives here."

6. I specifically said the Combine is useful for the interview process. The physicals, psychological tests etc. are all part of that process. The money paid to services like Blesto/National goes far beyond the combine. The combine is a very small part of the service they offer. They actually start scouting players as Juniors and spend the whole year scouting everything about them as explained here by the Panthers when they switched to BLESTO this year:

"Since the official declaration of the juniors eligible for the draft was January 18th, those guys (BLESTO) have been working on those juniors since the 18th hit," Whaley said, during an appearance Wednesday night on The John Murphy Show live at the Senior Bowl. "What they (BLESTO) do is give us a breakdown on what each of those juniors is about, and how they categorize those guys draft wise. And that will help us narrow our focus." "The BLESTO scouts will give us his information, here’s his lineage, here’s how he played , here’s what we thought about him when he played. Obviously, we had some scouts in on him, but we like to use that information resource as well, to get as much information on the players."

The combine is one tool for scouting but it is not the be all end all everyone makes it out to be. By the time the Combine is actually conducted NFL teams already have their big board set up and know which players they are targeting. Like I said the combine is useful because its the first chance teams have to see their entire big board in one place. As far as the game goes I would prefer actual scouting reports on players as opposed to seeing a 40 time or how many reps a guy did in a bench press. I would rather know if a WR has a tendency to run the wrong routes or if a QB has the arm strength of a 13 year old girl. That tell's me a lot more than knowing that my WR did 12 reps on the bench press.

[DCEBB2001]

Quote: Originally Posted by Sheba2011

So because you know a few scouts that means that no coach has ever used that term? I found a quote from Cleveland's new HC Mike Pettine on Fox Sports: "When it comes to the (NFL Scouting) Combine, there's a reason people call it The Underwear Olympics." Here's one from Chip Kelly: "The fact that people would watch the combine, there's times at the combine where I actually fall asleep," Kelly joked. Then there is the infamous image of Belichick actually falling asleep during the combine. Here's what National Football Scouting Director Jeff Foster said about the combine: "The on-the-field stuff, which is the sexy component of the combine and what gets the interest for media and the broadcast, that's a very small part of the evaluation for the clubs," he said. "I would say 90 percent of the evaluation of a person as a football player is done before he arrives here." 6. I specifically said the Combine is useful for the interview process. The physicals, psychological tests etc. are all part of that process. The money paid to services like Blesto/National goes far beyond the combine. The combine is a very small part of the service they offer. They actually start scouting players as Juniors and spend the whole year scouting everything about them as explained here by the Panthers when they switched to BLESTO this year: "Since the official declaration of the juniors eligible for the draft was January 18th, those guys (BLESTO) have been working on those juniors since the 18th hit," Whaley said, during an appearance Wednesday night on The John Murphy Show live at the Senior Bowl. "What they (BLESTO) do is give us a breakdown on what each of those juniors is about, and how they categorize those guys draft wise. And that will help us narrow our focus." "The BLESTO scouts will give us his information, here’s his lineage, here’s how he played , here’s what we thought about him when he played. Obviously, we had some scouts in on him, but we like to use that information resource as well, to get as much information on the players." The combine is one tool for scouting but it is not the be all end all everyone makes it out to be. By the time the Combine is actually conducted NFL teams already have their big board set up and know which players they are targeting. Like I said the combine is useful because its the first chance teams have to see their entire big board in one place. As far as the game goes I would prefer actual scouting reports on players as opposed to seeing a 40 time or how many reps a guy did in a bench press. I would rather know if a WR has a tendency to run the wrong routes or if a QB has the arm strength of a 13 year old girl. That tell's me a lot more than knowing that my WR did 12 reps on the bench press.

What you say here is not incorrect. However, the combine tests are very useful for adding/verifying what you see on tape. Maybe a guy isn't as fast/agile/strong as he looks on tape. Maybe he is the opposite, and you have to go back to the tape to review. My point is that the term underwear olympics did not originate in scouting/coaching circles. And of course a guy like Belichick would fall asleep....he will get all of the data from BLESTO anyway a week after the combine concludes and his scouts will be doing their own work in the way that he wants. Most of the work was already done by the time the combine is run anyway - nothing new here.

The big thing to me is that if the numbers didn't matter, then why would teams pay $80k a pop to get them? You can use that data to measure the physical attributes of a player in a static environment, which many scouts do. They compare players and like to verify what they see on tape. So why can we not do this in Madden? Those numbers are set in stone. Why aren't Madden's? We should be able to do the same stuff in the game that the scouts do in real life - verify physical and technical skills. I can watch an OG pass-block all day, but that doesn't tell me how fast he is. Madden uses traits to measure players and speed (maximum velocity, rather) is one of them. Scouts do the same thing. They try to evaluate and measure what they can. Why else would they turn technical skills grades into numeric ratings?

[Sheba2011]

Quote: Originally Posted by DCEBB2001

What you say here is not incorrect. However, the combine tests are very useful for adding/verifying what you see on tape. Maybe a guy isn't as fast/agile/strong as he looks on tape. Maybe he is the opposite, and you have to go back to the tape to review. My point is that the term underwear olympics did not originate in scouting/coaching circles. And of course a guy like Belichick would fall asleep....he will get all of the data from BLESTO anyway a week after the combine concludes and his scouts will be doing their own work in the way that he wants. Most of the work was already done by the time the combine is run anyway - nothing new here. The big thing to me is that if the numbers didn't matter, then why would teams pay $80k a pop to get them? You can use that data to measure the physical attributes of a player in a static environment, which many scouts do. They compare players and like to verify what they see on tape. So why can we not do this in Madden? Those numbers are set in stone. Why aren't Madden's? We should be able to do the same stuff in the game that the scouts do in real life - verify physical and technical skills. I can watch an OG pass-block all day, but that doesn't tell me how fast he is. Madden uses traits to measure players and speed (maximum velocity, rather) is one of them. Scouts do the same thing. They try to evaluate and measure what they can. Why else would they turn technical skills grades into numeric ratings?

Actually Belichick doesn't use BLESTO or National, he has his own in house scouting service as do a few other teams. You can watch an OG run a 40 yard dash in perfect conditions but it's not going to tell you how good of an OG is, it's going to tell you fast he can run in a straight line without pads on while no one is hitting him. How often in the real NFL is an OG going to be in that scenario? Some of the drills do provide a purpose but most of them have no barring on how good of a player he will be. Jerry Rice the greatest WR in NFL history ran a 4.71 40yd dash. At the 2014 combine that would have been 4th worst among WR's. Does that tell us anything about the player Jerry Rice was? How often do you remember Jerry Rice being caught from behind? He played a lot faster than 4.71.

As I already pointed out teams are paying services like BLESTO for a whole lot more than just combine numbers. You seem to think the combine is the only reason these services exist. The combine is a very small part of what they do. The days following the current draft every BLESTO or National scout will meet and go over every prospect for the coming year, they assign draft grades on number scales based on where they think they will be drafted. It provides a starting point for how teams set up their draft board. BLESTO was only used by 8 teams in 2014 (Carolina, Pittsburgh, Buffalo, Jacksonville, Washington, Detroit, Minnesota and the New York Giants). The rest either use National or have their own in house scouting service (Patriots, Baltimore, Atlanta - all GM's who are part of the Belichick tree).

At the end of the day though you think the combine tests are useful (as do some real NFL coaches), i think they are highly overrated (as do some other NFL coaches). We can just agree to disagree on that.

[DCEBB2001]

Quote: Originally Posted by Sheba2011

Actually Belichick doesn't use BLESTO or National, he has his own in house scouting service as do a few other teams. You can watch an OG run a 40 yard dash in perfect conditions but it's not going to tell you how good of an OG is, it's going to tell you fast he can run in a straight line without pads on while no one is hitting him. How often in the real NFL is an OG going to be in that scenario? Some of the drills do provide a purpose but most of them have no barring on how good of a player he will be. Jerry Rice the greatest WR in NFL history ran a 4.71 40yd dash. At the 2014 combine that would have been 4th worst among WR's. Does that tell us anything about the player Jerry Rice was? How often do you remember Jerry Rice being caught from behind? He played a lot faster than 4.71. As I already pointed out teams are paying services like BLESTO for a whole lot more than just combine numbers. You seem to think the combine is the only reason these services exist. The combine is a very small part of what they do. The days following the current draft every BLESTO or National scout will meet and go over every prospect for the coming year, they assign draft grades on number scales based on where they think they will be drafted. It provides a starting point for how teams set up their draft board. BLESTO was only used by 8 teams in 2014 (Carolina, Pittsburgh, Buffalo, Jacksonville, Washington, Detroit, Minnesota and the New York Giants). The rest either use National or have their own in house scouting service (Patriots, Baltimore, Atlanta - all GM's who are part of the Belichick tree). At the end of the day though you think the combine tests are useful (as do some real NFL coaches), i think they are highly overrated (as do some other NFL coaches). We can just agree to disagree on that.

That is interesting because I show that only 2 teams did not pay for the official times this year. Also, I believe that Walsh said Rice ran a 4.59, not 4.71. I think you are missing my point in that this data is relevant to quantifying a player'a physical traits. I never said anything about it saying how good a player will be. However, Chad Reuter had a great article circa 2008 about how faster players are typically drafted higher and will typically make more pro bowls and all pro rosters. I will see if I can dig that up.