These are tied to your coach and are set whether you play in a 4-3 defense, power run offense, etc. This year you can edit all your players in franchise mode, so you can always make all your players invincible, but whether you want to engage in that kind of re-engineering is up to you.įinally, you should check your team's schemes (accessible in the My Coach menu). You can use this to eyeball not only which players may be viable for different positions. For instance, on the Vikings, third/fourth corner Captain Munnerlyn has better zone and man coverage ratings than starting strong safety Andrew Sendejo (on the default roster), and is also comparable to Sendejo in other areas, so I put Munnerlyn as my starting SS.ĮA Sports itself has released this handy chart detailing the important ratings that make up a player's OVR. And sometimes the game simply gets the depth chart for your team wrong, so it's worth a look to make sure everything is in order.īeyond personal preferences here and there, there are also occasionally times when you can get a better OVR-rated player to be a starter at a different position. I like my primary receiver to be on the left-hand side of the screen (it's more natural for me to read that side of the field first for some reason), so I make sure that happens on the depth chart.
Want your third-down back to catch the ball out of the backfield? Then make sure you put your best-catching back in the 3DRB slot. First of all, re-organize your depth chart. Kind of like Jeff Fisher.įootball's all about putting players in positions to succeed, and there are a few ways to do this in CFM. This way you can reap the rewards if you actually do what you say you're going to do, but still not ultimately be held responsible if it all falls through. There is a way around this, if you so choose, and that's to turn off the Coach Firing option in the settings menu. Get it wrong and, depending on how bold your prediction is, you may be fired. Do you wager you'll get seven wins? Make the playoffs? Get it right and you get bonus XP at the end of the year. However, this Big Decision asks you to predict how the season will go. It's a long season, and who knows if your masterplan to the Super Bowl will be derailed by an injury to your QB. One of the new ones – setting expectations for the season – hits you right off the bat. Some of these choices you have to make are new (like bringing guys back from injury early) while some merely re-skins of those previously available. One of the main additions to franchise mode in Madden 17 is the Big Decisions. Madden 17 released recently ( check out my review), and we've got plenty of tips for all you would-be general managers playing the title's Connected Franchise mode (CFM), from managing your roster successfully to nailing the draft. There are only 16 weeks in the regular season, but there are 52 weeks in a year to make your franchise better.