Off season check list

[pandapower]

I am relatively new to the game and am finishing up my first season with the Dolphins...
As I have been searching the forums, and I have found information about the off season here and there, could you tell me what is your check list of things to do in the off season, after the Superbowl is done. For example: change coaches, resign players, or cut players. What are the important things to do and is there a strategy to being 'successful' in the off season?

Thanks for the help...

[bblack1207]

Ebongren's Threads Will Help You Immensely

[Skarecrow]

I agree that ebongreen's thread is the place to go.

here's soemthing to get you started. (working from memory here, things may be slightly off)

the week after the superbowl your owner will decide if he wants you to stay with the team. if he does, the two of you will go through all the coordinators, coaches, gm, trainer, etc and decide who else to keep. you can override any suggestions you don't like. at this point, make sure you -already- know who you do and do not want to keep. generally speaking, I won't keep any coach with less than a 3-skill potential in any skills I consider important for their role (it would take quite awhile to go over all of these), and nobody should have less than a 3-skill potential in 'performance'.

after this, you'll start going through college all-star game and combine interviews and overviews, preparing you for the upcoming draft. from your in-season scouting you may have an idea who you want to look at. there are too many strategies here to mention, just come up with a system of your own and start refining it. your GM's abilities will matter tremendously here.

you'll get a free agent preview near the end of the combine/all star process. it's up to you who you want to hire, just remember that free agents are generally very very expensive compared to finding an equivalent player in the draft and training them up.

after that you do the draft, which a whole book could be written on.

then you kill time till the season starts.

[browns_nation]

building my draft board is something I normally do through out the season. I make a list on paper of the guys I want the most, if they're gone, whos my next best option, etc.

but my first off season was definitely focused on upgrading my coaching staff, the only problem with this is that you dont know who gets fired from their team until the regular season ends, then after each week in the post season. You can view your coaching staff in the staff status on your clipboard. when replacing a coordinator its imperative to find a guy that fits what you're trying to do scheme wise. You can view what kind of systems your potential coordinators prefer by entering the bid to sign them, if you dont like them and/or they differ from your philosophies, just exit the bidding window.

definitely dont be afraid to ask for help, we'd all be more than happy to get the answer you're looking for. good luck with your franchise, this game is amazing and theres no limit to how deep you want your career to be : )

[Wheeler Dealer]

Most of it is self explanatory.

Personally, I think the staffing process is broken. I dislike "save and reload" in a sim, but this is an exception for me.

The most difficult thing for me is knowing how much I can spend on free agents. You need to estimate how much it will cost to sign your draft class and how much it will take to resign your star players during the next season. Then you can use the salary cap data to ballpark your free agent budget.

Ideally you would like to use all your cap by year end. I think of cap space at year end like timeouts leftover at the end of a game. But, if you spend too much you may be unable to resign your star and usually it's more difficult to get him back!

You can get in a jam spending too much on free agents. I once didn't have enough cap space to take 50 players to camp!

To get an idea of what's going on with the cap I copied the numbers from the cap screen into a notebook every time something significant occurred. That exercise was the only way I came to sort of understand it all.

I do very little with the draft until two days before. Then I stack my draft board by value. First I stack every player rated 75 and up in order. Then I look for players whose potential is known and move them as appropriate. If I had the patience, at his point I would move all OL down 5 points, all FB, K & P down 10 points. I do this mentally on the fly.

Now I look for comparison name data. Bad names move down 10 rating points. Great names move up. Great names below 75 all move somewhere in the 75 and up range. For example, grab a TE Kellen Winslow, a QB Drew Brees, a LE Tamba Hali, a WR Terry Glenn no matter what their scouted rating. The nice thing about these guys is that the computer teams don't seem to use comparison data so you can get them in late rounds if their scouted value is low.

That all takes maybe an hour or two but impacts my next 50 hours of game time.

Negotiations.

I only give incentives that I don't think the player can achieve. Starting 16 games for your third CB isn't a problem but for your star left tackle, count it as money spent.

A bonus for a player that plays out that contract costs nothing, it's taken out of the total contract value and "guaranteed".

Playing hard ball with draftees has never cost me a player. It has cost me a Free Agent, but, like a bus, there will be another.

With your own players, pay attention to personality. Repeatedly offering the minimum will cause some to stop coming around and therefore, not sign. My experience is they are more expensive to get back or replace during the off season. YMMV.

PS. I think durability, and by extension health, is the most important factor for any player. Even Tom Brady won't do you any good if he can't play. When a player comes up for bids or trade you have time to look at him on the roster screen first.

[pandapower]

thanks for all the input.

ebongren's post thread is so long... and he/everyone covers everything under the sun... so much good stuff there.

Yes, I do not like some of my coaches and I will try and fire them in the off-season, but now I am still fighting through the play-offs.

Thank you again for all the help.

[Mike N]

This is good stuff. Thank you.