I have finished my 2024 season roster update for NFL Head Coach 09 on the PS3. Before I get into more of the information for this year's release, I wanted to address the future of this project. This is my fifth roster update that I have released for this game and am thankful for all of the support that this project has received over the years.
Unlike last year, this one will actually be my last roster update that I will be releasing. With my new position at work, it is becoming increasingly difficult to find the time to work on this project. This roster update easily takes hundreds of hours to do each year, so I just don't think I will have the time to devote to this project in future seasons without neglecting responsibilities for my family or my job. As you can see, it took until week 18 of this season for me to get this year's roster update done, so I barely got it done in time!
With that being said, I am so happy that I have gotten to do this project for 5 separate seasons now. As a kid, I remember constantly searching to try to find roster updates for this incredible game. I am very happy and proud of these rosters and that I have gotten to work on these to help this game live on for even longer and hopefully bring some joy to other people's lives through this incredible game.
Now that I have gotten that out of the way, let's get into the information about the roster. I have gone through and found the closest 2008 player (portrait and skill wise) and replaced them with the current player that most resembles them. I have done this for every team’s starters (offense and defense), every team's draft picks through round 3 this season (impact players and starters after round 3 are also included), and all players 75 overall and up according to Madden 25 ratings. I have gone through and edited ratings so that they are as close as possible to Madden 25 ratings. Some players will have a slightly higher rating compared to their Madden 25 rating while others will be slightly lower. This is due to the two games having different skills that go into overall ratings. Overall though, it should average out to about the same across the NFL.
Each team should have between 41-64 players on the team as I have included some players from the respective practice squads. There are also 180+ unsigned free agents that have been a part of the previous roster editions that are free agents in this roster update. If you are wanting any of these players on your team in your career, you will need to sign them to your team before starting your career. Once you start your career, these players get automatically assigned to teams in the preseason.
I have gone through and changed all the Head Coaches, coordinators, and position coaches to be accurate for every team. New to this year, I have used the closest 2008 Head Coach model for each Head Coach. Due to how the approval ratings are compiled, a head coach cannot have an approval rating above 21 without using a model of a 2008 head coach. The only ones that do not have a 2008 head coach model for their head coaches are the three teams with interims (Bears, Jets, Saints) and the Falcons due to the lack of 2008 African American head coach options. I have changed HC defensive playbooks to match the base defense and made all coaches have an offensive playbook and offensive scheme so that the results match as closely to actual yards/game averages and distribution to players from this year. I have updated defensive schemes to be accurate (4-3 vs 3-4). I have also updated offensive schemes for every team in order to give an accurate run/pass ratio and stats for every offensive team. I have probably done over 100 test sims to try to get the most accurate stats as possible compared to real life 2024 stats for each team. While there are limitations of comparing stats from 2008 to 2024 in the NFL, I have gotten each team as close as possible to the actual 2024 stats of the team. Additionally, I have gone through and updated every assistant coach's skills so that they are more accurate for their position they are coaching and real life results. There are also coaches like Marcus Freeman (Notre Dame), Pete Carroll, Jon Gruden, Rex Ryan, etc. who are free agents and will potentially sign with teams after the first season.
Make sure to follow the instructions laid out later on in this post for how to transfer to your PS3. However, please let me know if you have any issues playing with the roster and I can try to help troubleshoot it. I have gone through and simmed 100+ seasons previously and had no issues, but you never know what could happen when transferring consoles. Also, I have already reordered the depth charts, but I would still consider reordering the depth chart before starting to avoid any potential freezing issues from transferring and unzipping the file.
Overall, I hope that you enjoy this roster. I have been working on this project since free agency started in March of 2020 as I wanted to have Tom Brady throw to Mike Evans and Chris Godwin (Diehard Bucs fan here). From there I kept adding more and more players and eventually decided to do the entire NFL. I have edited thousands and thousands of players and spent countless hours working on this project over the last almost 5 years and am very proud of the result. I can guarantee that this is the most accurate and complete roster to date as well and I am having a blast playing it!
As another note, I have changed Washington back to the "Redskins" as if they are named anything besides the "Redskins" the game will freeze if you try to play a game at Washington. The background of the city also does not show up if the team name is anything else and is just a black screen so I wanted anyone to be able to play a game as/against Washington.
Note: You MUST have a base NFL HC 09 roster loaded on the main menu (or one that you know will work in career) when you start the career. Choose existing/new HC (whichever you’re are wanting to do) and load the 2024 roster when you start from the preseason. If you have the 2024 roster loaded from the main menu before starting your career, the career will freeze and not start. You WILL NOT be able to use this roster in play now.
*New to this year* - Since all except 4 coaches use a 2008 Head Coach model this year, you can actually start a career or use play now with the 2024 roster loaded. HOWEVER, you must move quickly past the Bears, Falcons, Jets, and Saints as if you stop on any of these teams, the game will freeze since they don't have a 2008 head coach as HC. If you want to use any of these teams, or if you want to ensure that there will be no freezes before starting your career, you will need to make sure to follow the above steps of loading a 2008 base roster first.
Steps to load onto PS3:
1. Create a folder on your flash drive called “PS3”
2. Create a subfolder called “SAVEDATA”
3. Unzip the roster file into the “SAVEDATA” folder
4. Plug the flash drive into your PS3
5. Go to the save data and copy the roster from your flash drive
6. Enjoy
For a YouTube tutorial of how to do the PS3 portion of these steps, I have created a video at the following link:
https://youtu.be/nkxjrXp3vaM?si=gK5JGOfoOPKGRqjV
I am charging $15 for the roster. I have easily put hundreds of hours of work in as well as hundreds of hours of wear and tear on my PS3 and laptop (both of which are getting up there in age) to edit and perform test sims on these to get the most accurate and realistic rosters possible. I even fried my laptop battery to make these and my laptop is so old that they don't even make replacement batteries for it anymore!
For the $15, you get the 2024 roster with updated players and portraits.
If you are interested in the roster, please message me here and email me and send money via PayPal to
[email protected] and I will get you the roster. Most of the times the emails I get for this project go to my spam folder, so if you could also message me on here or leave a comment when you send an email, it will help me to respond faster to all requests. I appreciate the support!
Here are the rosters and the final test sim results:
Rosters:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=is9NlvE-28s&t=985s
Final Test Sim Results
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wRSR_2d20so&t=3s
