From Worst to First: Turning Around the Oakland Raiders in Madden

[therizing02]

This is great! I got fired from Dallas and took over the Raiders in the free agency period. The CPU landed Cobb, Amukamara, McKelvin, Robert Ayers, Sidney Rice and Hussain Abdullah! Throw in Sio Moore, Branch, Mack, and Posluszny (1 year deal) and the defensive foundation was set. I signed Devin Hester to a 1 year deal after Rice broke his arm in a pre-season game.

The draft was great. In seven rounds I took 5 offensive lineman and 4 of them are starting. They're rated from 77-81.

The problems are going to be the confidence ratings. Mack-5, Branch-0, Moore-5

First game of the year is at Green Bay

[canes21]

In my 5 seasons as the Raiders I went 6-10, 5-11, 12-4, 11-5, and am now 3-4.

My posts can be seen in the franchise thread, but I did switch to 3-4, brought in Amukamara and drafted stud CB's to have a 4 deep of 83-92 starters at the position. The LB corp is already solid for Oakland. My DL has been inconsistent, but good enough with LB help in rushing the passer.

On offense I got rid of car. I got a falling RGIII and turned him form a 70 to an 88. I had guys like Hester, Royal, Spiller, CJ2k ony my offense to bring in speed and focused on my linemen one whole season go get their ratings all where they needed to be. That led to my year 3 and 4 records where it all came together. In year 5 that age on the defense is catching up to me and that is why I am back to being 3-4.

But from my experience they have a solid foundation defensively to build from.

[CBAT]

Carr is great in this game. Latavius Murray is a great RB to build around. Use the versatile Marcel Reece and then try and get a top flight WR and you will be in good shape.

[therizing02]

1-4 in my Raider CFM. Got drilled by Baltimore and Denver and lost a tight one to Minnesota because of two 2nd half turnovers. Knocked Rodgers out of the GB game in the first quarter and hung around until late in the game and then finally lose. The only win came at home against the Texans.

Randall Cobb went down in the Baltimore game and I'll get him back after the bye week. Also had to sign Tavaris Jackson after Carr went down with a 5 week injury.

Next up at KC and then a bye week.

[JBH3]

Quote: Originally Posted by btvs

Raiders are actually a good team to start a CFM with. If look past all the old free agents they signed there is a ton of young talent on the team.

I agree. Khalil Mack has ascended to super stardom for me in only his 2nd year and is already a 99 OVR!!! I simmed season 1, went 3-13, and have played every game of season 2 thus far and am 3-4 with a lot of close games.


Latavius Murray is a good back to build around if you get his consistency rating up so he starts earning more XP, and I was able to re-sign C Stefen Wisniewski long-term.


I found a stud WR (Daryn Shipley) early in the 2nd Rd and traded down from the 4th pick to the Browns and got an impact TE in the late 1st round.


Its imperative that when taking on the Raiders you cut Tuck, Woodley, and don't re-sign a lot of players in year 1. You can then build through the draft and sign some stop-gap guys in the pre-season on 1 yr deals that don't eat up your owner/bonus funds.

[JBH3]

Quote: Originally Posted by Gilley

I hate trying to work with the Raiders offense. With no weapons, it's a real challenge, but Carr is pretty good.

It's challenging but I got 2 80+ skill players in my first draft:


WR Daryn Shipley 81 Ovr
TE Rodriguez McClam 83 Ovr


Carr has got a rocket arm but his touch is not there, but I look forward to working with this team.

[Smythers51]

The Raiders have been really fun to build up in my CFM. Just won the Super Bowl with them. Concentrated on improving the DL (3/4 have been drafted and are beasts). Also was able to draft starters at HB, S, and RT. FA and Trade additions of Frank Gore, Clay Matthews, Brandon Flowers, Andre Johnson, Jermichael Finley, Wes Welker and Greg Jennings were added for the Super Bowl team (moved Sio to MLB) this was year 3 of the CFM so even though the WRs were slow they can still be effective. For year 4 I let Darnell Dockett and Justin Tuck go but was able to sign Mario Williams and I traded for WR Jordy Nelson. Probably one of the most fun cycles I have had in Madden with building a team.

[2w0]

Oakland has to be the easiest franchise to build up. Khalil Mack starts as a 92 OVR with every single trait unlocked -- this makes him a nasty pass rusher right out the gate and you don't even need to waste any Game Prep on him for him to be a 99 OVR by Week 10. So you can focus all your Game Prep on Derek Carr and have him in the low 90s by the time the post season comes around. All you need is to pick up one decent over-the-hill WR from Free Agency to help out Streeter, and to move Latavius Murray to the top of the Depth Chart to take advantage of his rookie XP.

In the first off-season, you'll probably be signing a lot of older Free Agency talent to 1-year contracts to fill in any holes you couldn't take care of in the draft, but after that, you oughta have a nearly entire team full of young highly rated players with long contracts.