Background
A little bit about where I'm coming from here...
I'm more of a college football fan these days and this is the first Madden title I've purchased in 4-5 years. I would much rather be playing NCAA Football in the fall, but...obviously.
Anyway, in thinking about it, some of the main reasons why I really enjoy[ed] NCAA Football (and college football in general) are about variety and "building a program" where you have total control of the guys on your team. In past Madden titles, I probably would've done a fantasy draft to get all "my own players" to fit "my scheme," which tends to be an unforgiving smash mouth/road-grating style, but I wanted to take it even further. Meaning, new team, new stadium, new coaches, custom playbook and so on. Also, the issue with a straight fantasy draft is you tend to outsmart the cpu (getting young talent with low cap hits) and that makes me feel cheesy. One way to accomplish having "your own program" and also being challenged would be to start from scratch with a weak expansion team. But there is only a relocation option, not expansion...Or is there?
I originally got the idea for a DIY-type of Expansion Mode this from this thread:
http://www.operationsports.com/forum...eam-guide.html which is from last year. So I give a lot of credit to a couple of guys who were active in that thread for providing food for thought. My own process is derived from that. Just to be clear, the league will stay at 32-teams so this isn't a true expansion, but it's the next best thing which is a hybrid of expansion/relocation with strict house rules to give you a true project.
The Process
As I was going through my process and ironing out house rules for doing this, I kept a list of the steps so that you can follow the blueprint if you like it. Or you can keep what you like and omit what you don't.
1. Choose a team you're willing to replace. I chose the Jaguars because: (a) they have become something of a perennial loser; (b) they don't have a ton of NFL history and have never won a SB (I don't feel that the league is missing much w/o them aside from fond memories of Mark Brunell, Jimmy Smith, Fred Taylor, and Keenan McCardell); and (c) I knew I wanted my expansion team to be the Memphis Hounds so it made sense geographically to replace a team in the AFC South and to create an in-state rivalry with the Titans. There are other ways you could go. London, Mexico City, and LA are other options. Bringing back the Houston Oilers might be your thing--you could replace either the Texans or the Titans if you went that route. The main thing here is to build your Expansion Mode around a concept that will keep you invested in the CFM.
2. After choosing your team, do your own "Expansion Draft" in the roster menu before starting your CFM (see below for The List of players I made available to draft). How I did this was I traded the best players at each position on the Jags for the guys that I "drafted." For example, I decided to scoop up Andre Johnson as a WR and was very kind to TEN by trading them Allen Robinson to make it happen. Due to cap restrictions on some teams (like Washington), you may have to deal a lower salaried player instead.
This expansion draft brings in 30 fresh players of your very own using a combination of historical guidelines and house rules. Here are my guidelines:
- Selected players should not be essential to their current team. The easiest way to ensure this balance is trading an even better player away from your original team's roster for each player you select.
- Selected players should be 25 or older.
- Selected players should not be on a rookie contract (excepting draft busts with high cap numbers).
- Selected players should be 75 OVR or less (up to 80 OVR if player has an albatross contract).
- Selected players should have at least 2 years left on their current contract. This ensures that every player taken in the Expansion Draft will get to play on your Expansion Team after simming out the first season before relocating. It also ensures that you are cap-conscious from the get-go and not just drafting a bunch of expiring contracts and trying to enter free agency with ALL THE MONEY. You will still probably have a ton of cap room depending on who you pick.
- Each NFL team leaves 5 players unprotected according to the above age/OVR/contract status guidelines above. Note that a few exceptions can be made if a team does not have enough players that fulfill all criteria above. I make it a point to not draft those exceptions even though they are technically 'on the list.'
- Up to two players maximum can be selected from a given team.
- After selecting the one player from a given team, that team can pull another player off the list. Use your best judgment to pull the most valuable player remaining.
- No more than one 10-year NFL veteran can be chosen from a given team.
- The Expansion Draft results in 30 players chosen.
3. Before starting your CFM, fill out the rest of your roster by releasing any other players from your team's original roster and signing all UDFA rookies to meet positional quotas. Note that you will not be able to get rid of players on IR until you start the CFM. Also probably a good idea to save your roster at this point!
4. Start your Owner Mode CFM (note how pathetic your team looks on paper). Make sure to set options to "everyone can relocate" and pre-existing injuries "off." Also come up with an appropriate name for your new tycoon/owner. I prefer Montgomery Burns.
5. Release any of the original players on your team's roster that were on IR. Go to Options-->User Teams to clear cap penalties from doing that. Going for a fresh start.
6. Set up all sliders/XP sliders/options/and auto-subs to your liking. You are on your own here!
7. Select "Relocate" from Owner-->Stadium
8. Start simming (or playing if you prefer) through the season 1 week at a time. You'll keep busy by simming the weekly training (or you can play it, your choice) and most importantly by carefully scouting for the draft as there are numerous holes in your roster. Also watch in abject horror as your "Expansion Team" gets absolutely pulverized 63-7 or 42-0, etc. week-in/week-out. You can also fill out your practice squad with interesting prospects.
9. When Week 5 rolls around, you will be prompted in 'Things To Do' to pick your relocation city.
10. Week 6, pick your new team nickname (or keep the current one). Pro tip: if you don't like any of the 3 preset nicknames, but are set on a specific city
you can actually relocate twice. Example: you can turn the Jacksonville Jaguars into the Memphis Hounds and then into the Chicago Hounds by keeping the nickname from after your first relocation for your second one. You wouldn't have access to the Chicago Hounds (my example) until year 3 of the CFM though.
11. Week 7 means it's time to choose a jersey.
12. Week 8 means it's time to choose a stadium. Some interesting options there.
13. Once your 0-16 expansion team (and it
will be 0-16 if you follow the house rules) limps to the end of the season, you will probably want to fire your staff and install a coach that runs a system that you like. You can set all of the coaching schemes to match player archetypes you prefer.
14. A week or two after cleaning house with the staff, you will be prompted to Hire Staff. Make some offers.
15. Here's where it starts to get interesting again with free agency. I allowed myself to sign up to 5 "premium players." I define "premium player" to mean any free agents whatsoever so long as the free agent period is open for both USER and CPU. There are no OVR restrictions. To make it a bit more realistic, I also required that my offer beat the 2nd best offer by 5+ points to simulate an "overpay" and entice a quality player to play for a bad team. If a player has no offers at the time, the offer should at least register at 50 points (which may still be rejected as other teams enter the bidding so offer wisely).
At this point you now have 35 players on your Expansion Team that are "yours" give or take a couple of UDFA rookies that you used as filler and may want to keep.
16. Another highlight of year 1 is the draft. I decided to go with a rule that I could not trade picks or trade for more picks to limit draft cheesing and hording billions of picks. Since you will start with the top overall pick, that could serve as a starting point for endless wheeling and dealing. No thanks.
After the draft, you have 42 players that are "yours."
17. After the main free agency period and the draft, I allowed myself to sign up to 5 "non-premium players." I defined "non-premium" as any free agents left over that the cpu passed on during the open FA signing period. This is helpful to fill some more holes in the roster.
At this point you have 47 players that are "yours."
18. Finally, the last step in the process! Fill out your depth chart as needed with UDFA rookies.
If you made it this far, you are probably pretty invested in your team and excited for some of your rookies/FAs and terrified of how bad your team still is overall. lol
The List
Here is a list I made that essentially gives you which guys might be available in the Expansion Draft. This list conforms to the above guidelines with some exceptions:
Code:
Team Player POS AGE NFL OVR YRL TOT ($M) CAP ($M)
CHI S. McManis CB 28 6 67 2 1.75 0.86
CHI Mitch Unrein RE 29 6 69 2 1.75 0.86
CHI Tracy Porter CB 30 8 73 3 12.00 3.92
CHI Eddie Royal WR 30 8 78* 2 9.50 4.75
CHI Bobby Massie RT 27 4 75 3 18.00 5.86
CIN Clark Harris TE 32 8 56 2 2.00 1.00
CIN Pat Sims DT 31 8 74 2 1.80 0.90
CIN Vincent Rey ROLB 28 6 79* 3 6.75 2.19
CIN Shawn Williams SS 25 3 77* 5 14.00 2.58
CIN Ryan Hewitt FB 25 3 76* 4 5.50 1.28
BUF Marcus Easley WR 28 6 67 3 5.35 1.63
BUF Patrick Lewis C 25 3 70 2 2.00 0.99
BUF Jerel Worthy RE 26 4 66 2 2.04 1.02
BUF Aaron Williams FS 26 5 80* 2 14.92 6.53
BUF G. Sanborn C 31 7 54 2 1.75 0.77
DEN Jared Crick RE 27 4 71 2 3.60 1.76
DEN D. Stephenson RT 27 4 73 3 14.00 4.46
DEN Virgil Green TE 28 5 79* 2 5.72 2.68
DEN M. Schofield RG 25 2 71 2* 1.06 0.47
DEN Corey Nelson MILB 24* 2 61 2* 1.03 0.48
CLE Josh McCown QB 37 14 74 2 9.49 4.49
CLE Andrew Hawkins WR 30 5 72 2 6.50 2.85
CLE Alvin Bailey RG 25 3 71 3 5.00 1.59
CLE John Greco RG 31 8 75 2 2.22 1.10
CLE Demario Davis MILB 27 4 76* 2 6.80 3.33
TB Louis Murphy WR 29 7 71 2 3.12 1.52
TB Luke Stocker TE 28 5 72 2 3.80 1.90
TB Evan Smith C 30 7 72 2 7.33 3.45
TB Keith Tandy FS 27 4 74 2 1.55 0.75
TB C. McDonald DT 29 7 78* 2 6.21 2.89
ARI Drew Stanton QB 32 9 68 2 6.50 3.18
ARI D. Washington MILB 29 6 70 2 16.50 7.74
ARI Justin Bethel CB 26 4 73 3 11.85 3.63
ARI Tyvon Branch CB 29 8 76* 2 8.00 3.83
ARI Corey Peters DT 28 6 75 2 6.91 3.22
SD Travis Benjamin WR 26 4 79* 4 23.00 5.36
SD O. Franklin LG 29 5 73 4 33.13 7.37
SD Chris Hairston RT 27 5 72 2 1.70 0.83
SD Brandon Flowers CB 30 8 80* 3 28.68 8.72
SD Darrell Stuckey FS 29 6 72 2 4.06 1.77
KC Charc. West HB 25 2 75 3 4.20 1.33
KC D. Harris TE 25 3 67 3 4.90 1.58
KC Jah Reid RT 28 5 72 3 6.23 1.92
KC Frank Zombo ROLB 29 6 69 3 2.20 0.69
KC Allen Bailey RE 27 5 78* 3 16.67 4.83
IND Scott Tolzien QB 29 5 67 2 2.70 1.32
IND Frank Gore HB 33 11 79* 2 7.00 3.44
IND Matt Overton TE 31 5 43 3 3.00 1.00
IND Joe Reitz RT 30 7 77* 2 3.40 1.59
IND Arthur Jones RE 30 6 71 3 22.07 6.46
DAL Kyle Wilber LOLB 27 4 73 2 2.55 1.25
DAL James Hanna TE 27 4 73 3 6.75 2.16
DAL L.P. LaDouceur TE 35 12 48 2 2.37 1.04
DAL Joe Looney C 26 4 64 2 1.30 0.64
DAL Benson Mayowa RE 25 3 69 3 8.25 2.65
MIA Matt Moore QB 32 9 69 2 2.75 1.34
MIA Branden Albert LT 31 8 77* 3 31.00 8.99
MIA I. Abdul-Quddus FS 27 5 79* 3 9.00 2.87
MIA Byron Maxwell CB 28 5 76* 5 47.31 8.68
MIA Zach Vigil MILB 25 1 59 2* 1.05 0.52
PHI Chase Daniel QB 29 7 71 3 15.00 4.83
PHI Leodis McKelvin CB 31 8 73 2 4.60 2.27
PHI Vinny Curry LE 28 4 79* 5 36.00 6.61
PHI Jason Kelce C 28 5 78* 5 25.85 4.32
PHI Steven Means RE 26 3 65 2 1.20 0.60
ATL Josh Harris TE 27 4 54 3 2.40 0.75
ATL Mike Person LG 28 5 71 2 2.26 1.06
ATL Tyson Jackson LE 30 7 73 3 15.77 4.61
ATL Derrick Shelby LE 27 4 74 4 18.00 4.22
ATL Brooks Reid RE 29 5 76* 4 17.99 4.00
SF C. Kaepernick QB 28 5 74 5 85.47 13.26
SF Garrett Celek TE 28 4 76* 4 6.70 1.58
SF Kyle Nelson TE 29 3 43 3 3.12 0.96
SF Zane Beadles LG 29 6 73 3 7.90 2.51
SF Ahmad Brooks LOLB 32 10 74 2 16.20 5.95
NYG Dwayne Harris WR 28 5 73 4 14.31 3.19
NYG Tavarres King WR 26 3 64 2 1.30 0.65
NYG J. Casillas ROLB 29 7 74 2 5.44 2.54
NYG Brett Jones C 25 2 62 3 1.58 0.52
NYG Nat Behre SS 25 2 66 2* 1.24 0.57
JAC Chad Henne QB 31 8 69 2 6.50 3.22
JAC Carson Tinker TE 26 3 44 4 3.20 0.80
JAC Jeremy Parnell RT 30 7 76* 4 17.16 3.83
JAC Davon House CB 27 5 78* 3 15.38 5.12
JAC Dan Skuta LOLB 30 7 79* 4 14.00 3.50
NYJ Bilal Powell HB 27 5 78* 3 8.50 2.72
NYJ Breno Giacomini RT 30 8 69 2 10.98 5.00
NYJ Jarvis Jenkins DT 28 5 71 2 4.90 2.40
NYJ Erin Henderson MILB 30 8 75 2 2.80 1.40
NYJ Buster Skrine CB 27 5 77* 3 17.91 5.58
DET B. Pettigrew TE 31 7 74 2 8.52 3.74
DET J. Bademosi CB 26 4 69 2 4.50 2.21
DET T. Wilson Sr. SS 26 4 75 2 1.65 0.81
DET Khyri Thornton DT 26 2 65 2 1.14 0.57
DET Glover Quin FS 30 7 83* 2 16.00 7.87
GB Lane Taylor LG 26 3 72 2 2.85 1.39
GB Bryan Bulaga RT 27 6 79* 4 27.58 6.16
GB Letroy Guion DT 29 8 73 3 7.50 2.45
GB James Starks HB 30 6 79* 2 5.10 2.50
GB Demetri Goodson CB 27 2 68 2* 0.99 0.46
CAR Derek Anderson QB 33 11 70 2 4.70 2.30
CAR Joe Webb QB 29 6 65 2 1.45 0.71
CAR Ed Dickson TE 29 6 71 2 5.10 2.50
CAR J.J. Jansen TE 30 9 44 5 5.50 1.03
CAR Gino Gradkowski C 27 4 70 3 2.65 0.85
NE Matthew Slater WR 30 2 69 2 1.80 0.89
NE Jonathan Freeny ROLB 27 5 74 3 5.50 1.75
NE LaAdrian Waddle LG 25 2 68 2 1.75 0.85
NE Shea McClellin ROLB 27 4 77* 3 7.70 2.46
NE Nate Ebner FS 27 4 63 2 1.65 0.80
OAK Taiwan Jones HB 28 5 73 2 5.80 1.45
OAK Lee Smith TE 28 5 75 2 6.35 2.98
OAK Austin Howard RT 29 6 74 3 19.04 5.48
OAK Bruce Irvin LOLB 28 4 81* 4 38.00 8.95
OAK Jon Feliciano LG 25 1 64 3* 1.84 0.56
LA Jake McQuade TE 28 5 43 2 1.81 0.82
LA Tim Barnes C 28 5 68 2 4.40 2.15
LA Eugene Sims RE 30 6 69 3 7.30 2.33
LA Coty Sensabaugh CB 27 4 72 3 11.00 3.67
LA Cody Davis FS 27 3 68 2 2.20 1.08
BAL Morgan Cox TE 30 7 40 5 3.40 0.62
BAL A. McClellan MILB 30 6 71 3 2.85 0.91
BAL Shareece Wright CB 29 5 74 3 7.90 2.56
BAL Kendrick Lewis FS 28 6 79* 2 3.68 1.71
BAL Lardarius Webb FS 30 7 81* 2 13.25 6.50
WAS Colt McCoy QB 29 6 68 3 3.20 1.04
WAS Niles Paul TE 27 5 72 2 4.08 1.91
WAS Derek Carrier TE 26 4 72 2 2.03 0.95
WAS Mason Foster MILB 27 5 74 2 1.75 0.85
WAS R.Jean-Francois LE 29 7 71 2 6.12 2.88
NO Luke McCown QB 35 13 71 2 2.10 1.03
NO Senio Kelemente RG 26 4 71 2 1.75 0.86
NO Nathan Stupar LOLB 28 4 74 3 3.80 1.22
NO Dannell Ellerbe ROLB 30 7 77* 2 4.80 2.35
NO Craig Robertson ROLB 28 5 78* 3 4.10 1.31
SEA J'Marcus Webb RT 28 6 70 2 4.30 2.10
SEA Ahtyba Rubin DT 30 8 74 3 7.80 2.54
SEA Jeremy Lane CB 26 4 78* 4 19.50 4.56
SEA Jermaine Kearse WR 26 4 80* 3 11.50 3.71
SEA Garrison Smith DT 24* 3 64 2 0.99 0.50
PIT D. Heyward-Bey WR 29 7 71 3 2.20 0.70
PIT Ryan Harris RT 31 9 75 2 3.10 1.51
PIT Arthur Moats LOLB 28 6 78* 2 5.10 2.38
PIT Vince Williams MILB 26 3 73 3 4.68 1.50
PIT Robert Golden SS 25 4 74 3 3.20 1.02
TEX Brandon Weeden QB 32 4 70 2 2.60 1.30
TEX Jon Weeks TE 30 6 41 4 3.63 0.87
TEX Chris Clark LT 31 7 74 2 4.30 2.10
TEX Tony Bergstrom C 30 4 68 2 4.60 2.25
TEX Eddie Pleasant SS 27 4 70 2 1.85 0.90
TEN Andre Johnson WR 35 13 75 2 2.90 1.45
TEN Harry Douglas WR 30 8 73 2 7.66 3.57
TEN Beau Brinkley TE 26 4 46 4 4.69 1.06
TEN Ben Jones C 27 4 74 4 12.00 2.81
TEN Dennis Kelly RT 26 4 71 2 1.07 0.53
MIN Marcus Sherels CB 28 6 69 2 2.75 1.38
MIN Kevin McDermott TE 26 3 50 5 3.96 0.79
MIN Brandon Fusco RG 26 5 73 4 19.77 4.31
MIN Tom Johnson DT 32 6 72 2 4.67 2.33
MIN Emmanuel Lamur ROLB 27 4 72 2 4.10 2.01
* For an extra challenge, try selecting players not marked with an asterisk. The asterisk denotes that a player doesn't meet all of the desired Expansion Draft criteria mentioned above (over 75 OVR, on rookie contract, and/or younger than 25 years old). Essentially, I would have replaced these players on the list with worse players had there been any others available that met the criteria. Some of these players have horrible contracts, too, which makes their OVR being a bit higher not necessarily a deal-breaker.
Happy expanding!
10-07-2016, 03:10 PM
