Madden NFL 2000 Player's Guide Based on the PC Version Patch 4 (I know nothing about any other version) Leif Powers Stock e-mail address: LEPmf@yahoo.com Version 1.01 May 11, 2003 The copyright and allowable usage of this document is described by the legal statement at http://www.leifpowers.com/ Among other things, it says that this document may be distributed freely, but in a WHOLE (not excerpted) form. Go to the website if you want to do something else with this document. 1234567890 .......... If the numbers and periods aren't lined up, you'd better look at this in a monospace font or something, man. ----------------------------------------------------------------------- TABLE OF CONTENTS 1. What this is and why 2. Controls and whatnot 3. How to run various offensive plays 4. How to run various defensive plays 5. Custom plays that can kill an offense 6. Custom plays that can kill a defense 7. Special teams 8. Madden Challenge 9. Franchise Mode 10. Miscellaneous 11. Links/Greets/Credits 12. How To Get/How To Use (only thing new added) ----------------------------------------------------------------------- 1. What this is and why This is a Madden 2000 FAQ/guide. This exists because I want to write down all of this garbage that I was wondering about and had researched. This is what I think I might forget. I haven't thoroughly scrutinized some parts of this, so don't take everything as canon. **NOTE** I will try to use "ratings" to describe a player's abilities, and "stats" to describe his INTs, tackles, etc. The usage may not always be consistent, though. ----------------------------------------------------------------------- 2. Controls and whatnot Some of the controls for this game can be gotten out of tutorial mode, but some can't. What follows here is the use of some controls that are not immediately obvious, or which need the right touch to get the best effect. The rest are included for completeness. These are just what I think the buttons are labelled on my controller. They're only there for grouping. I'm sure they're different on everybody else's controller. Also, the DirectX labeling is screwed up on Madden 2000. It says one thing in one place and another in another place. *NOTE* You can check out EA's FTP site to download a PSX manual with all of the commands in it. Also, they have updated rosters there. But the PSX manual is not where the rosters is. Don't ask me where it is, because I don't remember. :) ---------- Menu Screens Button 2/4 Accept/Cancel - obvious. Button 3 Shift from one part of a menu to the next - not so obvious. One thing that can be done in the menu screens is to move the mouse from one menu to the next and then to manipulate that menu with the controller/keyboard/whatever. You can replicate this by using the Select Button. This key is merely for switching within the current menu. Start Button Start - be careful with whatever button is Start. It can have pretty unpredictable effects. If you use Button 1 to pull up the in-game help for you, anything that has "Spacebar" by it will be the function of the Start Button in that particular context. Button 5 and 6: These adjust ratings by big chunks, instead of one unit at a time. They can be used in the player creation menu. Also, they adjust penalty levels as a whole to the left (on the slider bar) or right. **NOTE** When trying to select a stadium, if you don't press Start to go right to the controller selection screen, you need to go back to the main stadium select portion of the dialog box. Don't cancel the box when you're in the weather selection part of it. Press the accept button when you're in the normal selection. You can also press Button 5 and 6 to flip backwards and forwards through the list of available stadiums. **NOTE** In the stats/depth chart screens, you can use the directional pad or stick to move over and see more stuff. *NOTE* When you pick a team, you can randomly select a team from either the current 31 teams or all the teams. To do this, hit Button 5 to get the current teams for the first team, and hit Button 6 for all the teams for the first team. Button 7 and 8 do the same thing for the second team. *NOTE* To edit a player on the roster, simply go to the Roster menu, then start viewing the roster you like, and press the Start Button to get an editing window for the player on which the highlighted bar currently rests (the player's vitals and photograph are shown at the top of the menu). Using this feature, you can give any team you want any ratings you want. This is quite useful for the "Madden Challenge: Franchise Mode - 4 Super Bowl wins" task. *NOTES* If you want to play a particular game in a current week, hit Button 2 when you have it highlighted. It should add a "check" mark next to it. If you DON'T want to play a game in the current week, hit Button 2 over the highlighted game (it should have a "check" mark next to it). If you want to skip through a series of games, change the Week number by pressing Right or Left in the "Play Week" screen and then paging through the schedule to the week at which you want the final games to be simulated, then press the Start Button. Simulate an entire season by moving to Week 17 and pressing the Start Button, then move to each individual playoff week by pressing right after each playoff week is played. If you want to see your stats in a particular game already played in a current season, or see those of other games, hit Button 2 on the game you want to see in "Play Week" and it will bring up the end-of-game stats. ---------- Create Play Mode D-Pad/Stick: Change assignments for each player. Button 2/3 : Switch back and forth between players. In Save Screen: You can switch between all your plays for choosing which ones to keep and which ones to save over. To do this, use Button 3 and then use Button 2 to either change the name of the play or to grab the play and move it around. ---------- Practice Mode When a play isn't running, one button will respot the ball and another will go right into the play selection screen. On my controller, these are Button 7 and 8 respectively. Button 5 and 6 adjust all of a player's rating scales by 1 increment when you are in the "Rate Player" menu. ---------- Normal Game These are for other than throwing the ball manually with the QB. When throwing the ball, you can't use any other command except the ones for passing the ball to a receiver, and for throwing the ball away. With directional passing, you point at the receiver you would like to throw to, and with the normal passing, you hit the receiver's button. Note that the offensive commands for running like speed bursts and jumps make you more susceptible to fumbling. Remember that in order to change personnel (from I-Form to I-3WR for example) use directional left and right at the play selection box. Start Button: Brings up in-game menu/can select some options and accept some menus. Select Button: Call a time-out. Button 1 Dive - dive. On offense, dive for extra yardage. On defense, kill the guy you're trying to tackle. Better than power tackling. You can also catch balls by diving. Sit down - When you're the quarterback, and you don't have control over the passing (you've let the computer pass for you) then you can sit down with this if you can't find any receivers open. But you rarely fumble when you get sacked so it doesn't really matter. It usually turns out that the pass rush actually seems to slow down when you sit. Audible - Before the play, either the offense or the defense can audible. The audibles will be set up beforehand, so you just hit the button for whatever play you want to call. Hit Button 4 to revert to the play that was last run or was called in the huddle. Button 2 Snap Ball - This button doesn't give you control over the passing. You have to hit the button again to do that. Take Control - Pass to your receivers like normal. Speed Burst - This keeps you from doing any other move. Can make you harder to tackle. Change Defenders - This doesn't seem to work too well. It tends to get the guy one away from the one who's closest to the ball. Rush To The Line: If you want to run back to the line straight after the play is over (to run a no-huddle offense), hold this button after the whistle to rally the players back to the line. This is an offensive button - you can't run a "no-huddle" defense. Button 3 Speed Burst - on defense. This seems to be a pretty powerful move. It doesn't freeze you and keep you from doing other things like the offensive burst does. It can grind into guys and throw them down and keep you upright when you're getting blocked. You need to do this on the kick returns and the FG/punt blocks. Spin - on offense only. Only really works when you're all alone with some other sap, and you are both shooting for the pylon or something. Then, you can do this, and cut back behind the guy, thereby making it into the end zone or whatever. If you're not parallel with the line of scrimmage, this is very useless. Hard Count: You can say "HUUT" or "SEEHT" when you use this button as the quarterback under center or in the shotgun. Supposedly, this makes false starts and encroachments more likely. I don't know so much about that. Stop Clock: When you are running the no huddle offense, you can use this for the QB spike play to burn a down and stop the clock. Button 4 Jump - catch passes, tip passes, block punts, jump over people on the ground, whatever. Cancel Formation Selection - explanatory. Throw Ball Away - You must be outside the "tight end box" in order to do this without a penalty. That is, get outside where the tight end lines up to do this. Call For Fair Catch: When you are getting a kick or punt, call for a fair catch with this so you don't fumble the ball when you won't get many yards. I don't use this that much, but it works well on plays like Punt Return Safe, when the gunners may be too close for you to get an effective return. Hot Route Selection - Hit this button on offense before the play begins and you can hold your receiver's button and a direction to change his route: Up+Button=Streak (PSX manual says Fly...) Down+Button=Curl Left+Button=Out/In (depending on which side your receiver is on) Right+Button=see L+Button Button 5 Juke Left - great move. This is what you use to get around corners and guys on special teams. It moves you slightly left or right, so get close to the guy who's trying to tackle you and make them miss. Line Shift - moves your line over (on top of the tight end), under (back over the left tackle) or just in the middle. A move you need to use if you are going to stuff inside runs or use the dirty tactics I will describe later. Scouting Report: In the Franchise or Season modes (and possibly elsewhere) use this button when the play week screen is being displayed to bring up a scouting report window, the same one as in Exhibition mode. Button 6 Juke Right - on offense. Swim Move - on defense, if a blocker tries to get you stuffed, use this to put your hands on the guy and shove his shoulder behind you, thus using the guy to "swim". This doesn't work often, and often you will be thrown way off course (but sometimes that's what you want on special teams and while rushing around the tackles). Flip Play: When you are calling plays, you may want to flip the play so you can screw up and get an interception. ^^ Alternatively, you may want to flip the play to take advantage of the wide side of the field. Use this button to flip the plays when you are calling them. This does not work on defensive plays or special teams plays. Bump 'N' Run Coverage: You can hit this button before the snap to bring one of your safeties in closer to the line of scrimmage and pull the other into the middle of the field, on some plays. However, it does not change any of the assignments (blitz, zone, etc.) so it's just cosmetic mostly, and can often be harmful. Button 7 Instant Replay - Press this after the play has been blown dead to bring up the instant replay screen. You can also hold the button if you know the play will end soon. Refer to the directions on the instant replay screen for what to do there. Route-Based Passing - This is just a bunch of hogwash that purports to "throw the ball according to the receiver's route". It doesn't. Trust me. You have much better ways of getting the ball to your receiver than this. You must hold the button and press the button for your receiver at the same time. Lateral - You can lateral the ball to your backs if you are the QB and you haven't yet taken control of the passing game. Also, you can lateral it behind you if you're the ballcarrier and you've got someone in the vicinity. Great for fumbling, but it does have its uses. You can also lateral the ball forwards in some cases. I have seen offensive linemen get the ball from a HB who's right behind them. Button 8 Quiet Down/Rile Up The Crowd - The crowd noise doesn't have much of an effect on the game, so why you would want to do this...it's just for show. You can only influence the crowd if you're in your home stadium though. You can do it on the offense at any pre-snap time and you can do it on defense, but you can't be down - you must be standing up to make the home crowd get noisy. Pump Fake - This is useless. All it does is get you sacked. You must hold the button and press the button of the receiver to which you wish to fake. Stiff Arm - Stiff arm a guy. You won't escape every tackle with this. **NOTE** If you have a play where a man can be moved into motion, you must move the stick/pad left or right to move him. Sometimes you can repeatedly move the same guy back and forth. Use this to split guys out away from the line, or to overload a side. Note that the route of the receiver will not change, so a post will become a cornerish route, and such. **NOTE** Fake out your opponent by pressing Button 7 + one of the playcalling buttons while in the play selection screen to choose the play in the row after the current one, and Button 5 + a playcalling button to choose the play in the row before the current one (assuming you press Down to cycle through the rows). **NOTE** You can break various kinds of tackles (especially arm tackles at your legs) by hitting a button on the same side to where the defender is (and possibly hitting the pad/stick wildly), relative to your player's torso. **NOTE** On plays where "PA" appears in the name, or where routes go through the middle, you can often lateral the ball to your backs to run the football. ---------- Kicking Game D-Pad/Stick: Aim the kick one way or the other in the horizontal direction once the kicking power meter has been activated. Button 2: Set the kicking meter in motion. Another press of this button will set the meters in place (including the horizontal meter), and your player will make the kick. Don't wait too long to kick it or you'll get a shank. Button 3: Make a squib kick/driving punt that goes horizontally. Button 4. Make a high, arching pooch kick/punt. *NOTE* On field goals, you can only go a normal field goal kick. You can make it go to the left or right, however. ----------- Replays/Cameras The instructions in the game are sufficient. ----------------------------------------------------------------------- 3. How to run various offensive plays This section will talk about some of my bread-and-butter plays from the basic playbook. I have a custom playbook, so don't think that I got all this from one of the individual teams' playbooks. Before I get nitty-gritty, let me tell you about some of the funny things you want to do when you get under center. 1. If the play is a pass, look at the defensive front. If someone is in front of your tight end, you're going to have to read him later in the play because he's going to get chipped. If the defense has extra defensive backs in the game, then if you have a third or fourth receiver in the game, you need to make sure that those receivers are is really open before you throw to him. The extra defensive backs can oftentimes pick up the slot receivers or the running backs and and shut him down. If they've brought a safety into the middle and the other safety is pulled up to the line, look to go deep against single coverage on the outside. Don't look at the line after you snap the ball and are looking to throw because your linemen will usually protect you. Just try and find an open guy. If you have guys all stacked up on the line, don't expect your slot receiver or your tight end to break free of them. You always want to look to the outside against heavy concentrations in the middle. If the play is a run, also look at the defensive front. See which linemen and linebackers are going to get blocked by which of your guys. You can find the places where holes are going to open up this way, by seeing who has the inside edge on a certain guy. If you don't see much of anything inside, try to bounce it outside if you're near the outside. Try to be patient with the inside run because guys can shut you down if you go outside too much. When you see this: LB RE DT DT LE LT LG C RG RT you want to take it up the middle, whereas here: RE DT LB DT LE LT LG C RG RT you want to punch it between the left tackle and left guard. Also, when you want to put a running play in your playbook, or learn how to use a particular play you already have, let the CPU run the play about 50 times in different situations. It can give you tips about what to look for from different fronts, and also about how to deal with certain types of situations. Against the 3-4, you want to go through and run some of your plays against the various fronts you see in there. Just go into Practice mode and try to beat every play in the 3-4 book (you will need to choose a 3-4 team's playbook, the Global one won't work. The teams that run the 3-4 in Madden 2000 are Cincinnati, the New York Jets, and the Steelers). When you see the linebackers compressed, you can complete things in the slots more. Also, try to wait a little bit once everyone is set in their positions on the line (watch the play clock if you do this, so you don't lose 5 yards. Also, be aware that guys on both sides of the line will draw penalties more often) and see if the safeties or corners cheat. Sometimes they will run up to the line and show their blitz. You can REALLY burn them if they show you their blitz (for an example, send people deep against 3-4 Crash Blitz). Don't try to force something in the middle against the 3-4, just wait and keep running at the guards. The 3-4 in Madden 2000 is weak against runs through the gaps at guard, unless the inside linebackers blitz, and then you know what to do...throw over the open middle. 2. When you are looking to beat a zone, try and send guys on slants and crossing routes across the middle. Alternatively, use some outs and curls inside to get either inside or outside of the zone on the outside. When you try to throw the crossing route, you MUST read the entire line of coverage across the route your receiver is taking: you WILL get picked off by a guy you never saw coming if you don't. This is how you want to do this most of the time. FS SS <-----------TE RCB ROLB LILB | LOLB LCB | | | If you're working against a look like this (one play that can work like this is Nickel Under 2 Deep) you need to throw the ball right when the TE clears the LILB, because if you throw it in the middle, the ROLB can come over and pick off the ball. Alternatively, if that FS is moving up a little, he can pick off the ball too. Go to another receiver if you see your guy getting squeezed by the coverage. The crossing routes and the ins and those things can work real well against these 2-deep zones, but you MUST have a lane and you MUST have timing to throw these. If you're looking to throw a curl or a hook or something, you need to have run the play beforehand. The timing in Madden 2000 is not quite right, and the play diagrams don't have too much to do with what the play is. Throw the ball right as your receiver begins the final motion to curl or hook. One thing that you really need to watch out for with the 2-deep zones is the linebacker or nickel or dime back. He can get himself in the lane you need to throw in. Don't try to throw one of those fastballs at a curl when a guy is in the way. Another way to toast people when they use zones is to go very deep. Sending your best receiver out on a bomb and throwing the ball up to him is a great way to work against the safety if your best receiver is above 85 OVR. These really kill the 2-deep stuff the computer likes to use. Watch out for your shallow receivers with zones. Oftentimes, a corner will match up against your fullback if you wait too long. I don't need to tell you how that turns out, do I? 3. When you try to beat man coverage, throw it up to your best receiver, over the head of his coverage. When the receiver is in single and he's beaten the corner, just tap that receiver's button and hold the stick/pad all the way forward. Most of the time, it won't be picked off. If you can't quite do that, either because you don't have time or because you have none of those deep routes, try to dump it off to one of your backs. Madden 2000's man coverage locks guys in pretty tight to their targets, so an entire side of the field can clear out if you have two guys on that side. Then you can get it to your fullback and pick up 8-10 yards easy. Just watch for a linebacker moving over to cover your guy. Another point to remember is that sometimes, you will have your target over to the side of his coverage. Try not to throw a bullet over that way, because the safety or the corner can step in front of it. Try to give it a lob and hold the stick/pad all the way to the side that your receiver's on. These can be risky throws, but you don't get tackled as often as with some others. If none of your receivers are open, then look for passes you can make where you take control of the receiver and pull him off his route in order to catch the ball. For example, if your WR is moving in to a situation like this: ^ FS CB| | WR | | | | | QB then throw the ball to him, but take control of the receiver and get the ball before the coverage can, like so: FS CB /--WR | | * (ball) | \ | \ | QB In this way, you can get your WR the ball deep and the defense can't do anything about it. 4. Remember that Brett Favre gets picked off if the defense is aware of where he wants to put the ball. Don't always use a bullet. They get tipped at the line of scrimmage and they can get stuck in traffic. Use the lobs (soft taps) and medium shots when you need to make it over linebackers or some other layer of coverage. Also, try to put a little ease-up on the ball if you're throwing a pass of less than 6 yards. Those things get tipped very easily and there aren't a lot of real OL lanes in Madden 2000, due to the way in which the line is programmed to block. But that having been said, some passes, like when your receiver is on the inside of the corner and the safety has drifted over, need a bullet. Use discretion with your pass selection. 5. Remember who your guys are, and I'm not talking about your guys are in white and theirs are in black. Don't throw it up to your running back and tight end and expect them to make miracle catches. You want to lay the ball on those guys - get them matched up against a guy and then throw the ball so that it hits them. The best kind of matchup like this is your tight end against the safety. Just hurl that ball against your tight end and he'll catch it. Throw those desperation bombs to your wide receivers and only throw to your other guys when they're open or you have the lane to lay it on them. 6. Don't give up just because the ball got tipped. You can catch that tipped ball and start running with it. Just take control of the closest guy and run for the ball. Even if you got the ball knocked out of your grasp, you can still have the ball fall on you, and your receiver can catch it. 7. It's not really possible to focus on what's happening in the pocket, but keep that in your peripheral vision and try to move to green areas if things get colorful behind you ("stepping up in the pocket"). If you don't have anyone open, just move outside where your tight end lined up (or would line up) and throw it away. Don't be a fool. But right before you do that, check to make sure your receivers on that side you're rolling out to really are all covered. Sometimes, they'll come back to help you and you can drill it into them. 8. When you're running on the inside, you may or may not have success with hitting the hole using the Speed Burst. Some people say that the best way is to just move into it and then dodge or stiff arm the guy who comes in to tackle you. However, I've had better luck aiming myself at the hole I want, and then hitting the Speed Burst right before I enter the hole. 9. Make sure to read that front. If you run to the outside, practice juking at an angle. You can beat the cornerback so many times by just running up to him and then juking to the inside. It almost looks like a swim move when done properly and it can get you 15-99 extra yards on a play. You should try to juke in any situation where you and the defender are on a collision course because it changes the whole situation: | | | X \ \ \ becomes: Home free!! | | | \ | / | \ | \ Drat. Running the football in this game is really about finesse, since you can get tackled by touching somebody's hand. The more finesse you have, the easier it is to break big ones. 10. If you want to be able to rip apart defenses, run certain plays 200 times or more. Make notes of the line stunts and the coverages the CPU or a human would run against you and use to stop you. Then, you can note down "keys" with which to first read the defense and figure out what the defensive play is, then throw to the appropriate receiver. ---------- I-Form Flats This play sends your two wide receivers on streaks, your tight end on a deep post/slant, your fullback into the flat, and your running back out into nowhere. The reason you want to to use this play is because it sets up the CPU defense for a fall, and it moves guys into good places to punish people for bringing up guys to help stop the run. The first thing you want to read is your tight end, if the defense is in a 4-3. If he is open, throw it to him. Usually something bad is happening to your line if your tight end gets open early on this play against a 4-3. The next thing you want to read are the safeties. If one of them moves over, bullet it to the wide receiver which the safety is moving away from, you'll usually have a guy open inside. Against the 4-3 Pinch, you won't, but your tight end tips you off to the fact that it's a zone by moving right alongside the linebacker. Then look to see whether you can throw it to your fullback. Against man coverage, you can make big gains with him after the catch. If your wide receivers have beaten the corners yet, or if they are only matched up against the safety, throw it to them. Otherwise, sling the ball to your halfback to avoid getting sacked, or throw it away. Against a nickel or dime defense, you want to read the safeties first, then go back to your tight end (since he will get hit by the line or a blitz and he won't get out as quickly). Also, watch for the extra defensive backs in man coverage. Sometimes you think the safety will move over and you can throw to your first wide receiver, but he's gotten smothered by the nickel back in the meantime. Don't try to get it to him through that, it usually doesn't work. Against some kinds of 4-3 defenses (Sweet Blitz, Double X, and one other, I think) your tight end is going to get open very quickly. If you don't throw it to him, you're probably going to get sacked. You can move your tight end to either side of the line by pressing left or right. ---------- I-Form HB Option Pass This is a nice play. The trick you need to remember here is how you deal with a streaking receiver. If he's behind the guy, lob. If he's beside the guy, hold to your right. If he's in front of the guy, well, just run for your life. I don't recommend throwing to the tight end here because he's way too far away to read with any consistency. Throw the ball away if you can't run it. This is a good way to pick up 10 yards for your halfback and save your yards-per-rush average if the play goes wrong. You can also throw the ball away if you want to. ---------- I-3WR WR Streaks This is like I-Form Flats in many ways, but instead of having that tight end in the middle, you have a WR in the right slot, and your HB stays home to help with pass protection. You're also going to be seeing mostly nickel and dime packages against this one. Read it mostly as you do Flats, but with that slot receiver, he can get open in a hurry, so read him first and try to throw it in the opposite direction from the safety, because he tends to bang up against your guy. ---------- I-3WR QB Sneak This is the play you get a one-yard shove with. If you can, try to get your center uncovered by audibling to change your opponent's play. You just want to piggyback your center mostly, but sometimes you can try reading the opposing front and moving to where you think a hole is going to be. ---------- Pro Form Quick Toss This play can get you big yards. The first thing you want to do, unless the defense is in that tight 3-4 where you can just outrun the linebackers, is to move your fullback into motion with left or right to put him outside of your halfback. Then read the linebacker or nickel back to see whether you need to stop and let the guy run, or you need to just burn rubber to the outside. When you get close to the cornerback, juking him usually gets him out of the way. ---------- Single Back 4WR Free Middle First read to the left (deeper route) slot receiver. Throw it to him quickly if he's open, because he won't be for long most of the time. Then read back to the right slot receiver. Then read outside to your second wide receiver on the curl. He should be open most of the time. If all else fails, check your first wide receiver (the one on the deep in). You can sometimes get him across the middle. If the safety on the first wide receiver's side breaks inside (if he's in man or he's blitzing basically) throw a lob to that first wide receiver because he should be able to beat the cornerback. ---------- Single Back HB Dive I'm mentioning this play because this is probably the easiest to run and the best of all the plays that go between the tackles. What you need to do for this is just to hit the hole that your center is going to make when he goes up and tries to block the linebacker. That only works if the linebacker is right over the center though. And it won't work if that linebacker is really good compared to your center. Welcome to inside running. You do need to make those reads elsewhere to see where holes can open up. Try to audible to place the linebacker over your center. ---------- Single Back TE Middle Your first read on this play is inside to the slot receiver. If he gets the edge on the nickel back, throw it to him. Next is the tight end. He's going to go over the middle, so watch out all along that line. Your next read is to the outside and your receivers. If none of these guys have done anything, go back to the tight end and roll out to his side (which should be the left if you're not using it flipped) and wait and see if you can get it to him. If not, throw it away. ---------- Special - Field Goal - Fake Field Goal Pass On this play, the holder (your backup quarterback) takes the snap and stands up. Your three receivers are a corner on the out to the left, a WR on the out to the right, and your kicker on a route into the flat on the left. Read the out routes first. If the corner doesn't get the edge on the outside, then look back to your WR on the right, because he tends to break open later. That wide receiver also tends to get more separation. Your final option is that darned kicker, who really is darned. He can hardly catch the ball. Use him only as a last resort when he gets to the goal line, because most kickers can't run worth shlackey. This play is pretty consistent, but you won't succeed with it all the time due to the fact that the kicker drops balls and the out routes are problematic for quarterbacks in Madden 2000 to complete. ----------------------------------------------------------------------- 4. How to run various defensive plays Again, a not-so-brief introduction. 1. Guys will kill you on the outside if you have all your players on the inside. Make sure that if you opponent wants to run outside and inside, you have some guys in zones in the flat. Try 4-3 Thunder and 4-3 Safe (but BEWARE of the deep pass against 4-3 Safe). 2. Lots of the nickel and dime plays will get you murdered on the outside run. Don't think you're immune to a run outside on 3rd and 7. 3. At the end of the half, don't get cocky. Make sure to defend against the pass as well as the run. 4. If you blitz guys, know that you can give up a lot of passes over the middle. 5. In man coverage, you MUST give the corners help. They cannot keep up with good wide receivers. If you put your safeties in zones, make sure that you don't leave the middle unprotected. A medium slant can go for 50 yards if you don't pay attention to this. 6. If you play zone, GET A PASS RUSH. If you give the opposing quarterback time, all of the deep curls and hooks and things will develop, and no matter what you try, you will get beaten for a 15 yard pass. 7. Don't worry about containing the quarterback. Most of the time, the quarterback won't escape your linemen. 8. The CPU wants to throw deep and to the inside if it feels the heat. Make sure you can stop those passes. 9. Make sure to run defensive plays before a game and know what they do to the line. In many cases, plays have funny stunt blitzes (like 4-3 Fire Man) that really neutralize the effectiveness of your defense. In other cases, they put your defense on crack (4-3 Double Zone, 4-3 Sweet Blitz). None of these, of course, are documented if they're only rushes. 10. Anything with corner blitzes, safety blitzes, things like this - you will be torn apart if you use them against a good quarterback. You can get in very bad isolation situations where a safety is matched up against a wide receiver and the wide receiver gets a pass to the outside. Moreover, the safety blitzes make you vulnerable to the bomb. You can't count on these plays to get you anywhere most of the time, especially with the safety blitz. Sometimes with the corner blitz, the corner will bump the WR, but usually, the WR runs free. 11. Try not to have linemen stunting on run defense. It really kills you inside to have those holes open up. 12. You better have that middle covered if your opponent goes out of the shotgun. The quarterback can go so deep that he's almost untouchable. Then he can throw so deep that you can't stop it. Also, try to blitz a defensive back against the shotgun, to give the QB less time than with a linebacker. 13. On passing downs, try to come up with an unconventional rush. For example, try moving your DT over the OT, and move your DE on that side to the outside, then run around the edge. This works well against quarterbacks that like to drop deep and make long passes. Another formula is to stunt the end and rush him between the DTs. This can open up big holes in the offensive line. A third is to blitz a nickel back off the edge and get the passer with speed. When you use these sorts of rushes, you can often make the CPU quarterback get rid of the ball quickly (and foolishly). 14. If you blitz a defensive back, try to move him close to the line of scrimmage, if at all possible. These guys don't get much of a rush unless they get closer than they usually are. 15. DO NOT control the same player every time on a given play, unless that player is absolutely essential for the success of the play. Tipping off your opponent to what the play is gives him the ability to learn from previous reads and mistakes, and use that information to find the open receiver and burn you, or to run a certain way to get you blocked. The least that can happen is that the quarterback will audible out of the play. Don't do it to yourself. 16. Scout the other team's plays before and during play. Sometimes, the CPU will only run two or three plays out of a certain formation. Then, you can use that information to figure out what routes the CPU will run, or where the RB will go, and thus shut down the play in question. A good tactic is to look at the CPU's use of motion. Oftentimes, you will recognize a play that you run, or you will recognize a play that the CPU has run before in the game, and you can shut it down. ---------- 4-3 Safe This play...you must never call it when you have a realistic threat of a deep pass. It is easy to get toasted on this. You are NOT safe when using this play. It kills runs though, better than some goal line plays. The secondary coverage on this play is just broken beyond repair. ---------- 4-3 Sweet Blitz This is a MONSTER play. You can absolutely cream a short passing and inside running offense with this play. Your ends stunt and your tackles rush outside to create HUGE holes in the line. Moreover, the linebacker blitz covers up for a lot of the deficiencies in the inside running game. Watch out for the deep pass, though. The quarterback has man coverage on the outside. If you want to screw up some of the inside passes, take control of one of the linebackers and back up into coverage instead of blitzing. ---------- 4-3 Thunder This play is like the 4-3 Safe, but it tends to leave the slots very open. However, it jams up the tight ends like a dose of sugar in a gas tank. If your opponent likes to run, this is actually a relatively safe play. Watch out for the extreme edges of the field, though. With enough blocking, the opposing team can pound something out in there. This tends to match up well against the big sets with two tight ends. If you want to move the guy farthest back up onto the line to stop your opponent's favorite outside run play, that's often a good idea. ---------- 4-3 Double Zone I'm not overly familiar with this play, but this is another example of funny line stunts enhancing your defense. You need to be very careful about the outside run, because good blocking will leave your front seven behind. Also, make sure your opponent isn't the kind of guy to throw it up when a wide receiver is matched up against a safety. ---------- 4-3 Fire Man Despite its cool-sounding name, this play only burns you even more than you were before. The only thing this play can do is contain the offtackle and tackle-guard runs, and also the QB rollout. It's very weak up the middle and it doesn't do an awful lot for your passing defense. ---------- 4-3 Double TE / 4-3 Double X You can be very vulnerable with these plays against the outside run. You can't get burned deep as much as you normally do with the 4-3 Thunder, however. ---------- 3-4 Man Under This play is vulnerable deep to a bullet going to the first WR if he's on a streak or something like this. If your opponent likes to throw those kinds of passes, you are in deep trouble with this play. Otherwise, it's okay. One way to mitigate the effects of this play is to control the safety who moves into the middle yourself and move him back to cover the WR. ---------- 3-4 Safe This play will screw most Madden players because the zones trap and suffocate a lot of the easy-to-throw routes. But, it is a predictable, two-deep zone that can get nailed by a quarterback who has good timing and touch to put the ball in the gaps. A VERY BAD drawback of this play is that running up the gut between the defensive linemen will get 5-7 yards per rush. You can't use this play in running situations. ---------- 3-4 Crash Blitz Another play with a cool name, but an awful defense. The reason for this is that BOTH the corner and the safety on ONE side blitz. Worse, sometimes, they'll show their blitz, signaling that the WR on that side is totally uncovered. If he goes deep, that's 6 points you've just given up. The linebacker and safety on the other side simply cannot catch up to the WR if he goes deep. You could try controlling the corner, but why? Just don't use this play. ---------- 3-4 Stud / 3-4 Fox These plays draw the linebackers close together, making you vulnerable against the outside run in a big way. You're also weak against the offtackle run. These plays are not really very good, but you can pull a few tricks to make them better. One is to splay the linebackers more to the outside, and another is to pull up the safety (who may already be programmed to blitz) and have him cover the outside run. ---------- 3-4 Strong 3 This play doesn't do as much as you think it might from the diagram. That linebacker who comes really doesn't do much; he gets picked up pretty easily. You might try controlling him to see if you can't do better. It is a good change of pace from full-backward drops like 3-4 Safe. ---------- 3-4 Quarters Man The blitzing linebacker on this play just doesn't do much. He takes a roundabout way of getting to the quarterback and the hole left in coverage is nasty because that's the slot receiver's playground. Since the guy in the slot tends to end up in that hole fairly quickly, you'd best watch it. This is not an overly good play compared to some of the others out of the 3-4 like 3-4 Cover 2. ---------- Nickel Quarters Man / Nickel Cover 4 In contrast to 3-4 Quarters Man, Nickel Quarters Man and its near-twin, Nickel Cover 4, are actually decent plays. They are weak against deep curls and hooks and things, and you aren't going to be well protected against outside and offtackle runs. Other than that, the coverage is actually somewhat solid. ---------- Nickel Inside Blitz This tends mainly to be an inside run stopper. It leaves a guy in the right slot open, and that can be a deal killer because the entire defense is in man coverage. You might try moving the middle linebacker outside to get kind of a "Silver"-type blitz. ---------- Nickel Silver / Dime Strike These plays shut down most any inside run that you might see in the nickel/dime situations. But you are very weak in the slots, and you might or might not have luck against the outside run. Try pulling up a safety or two like you're going to blitz, then drop into coverage if it's a pass. ---------- Nickel Under 2 Deep This play is all right, but it can be beat if you don't get to the quarterback. If you are near the goal line in a passing situation, this play is almost money, because you can't get beaten deep as you could be in the open field. ---------- Nickel Under 2 Man This play can get suckered big time by a back moving out into the flat. Otherwise, it can work well if your opponent is trying to go deep. One tip here is to have somebody make a zone in the middle, because that's where guys who beat their coverage tend to end up. ---------- Nickel Over Weak This is another shifting zone that seems to do ok against runs. One thing to try is to move the coverage back against the grain of the play, i.e. take your safety and move him backwards to where the corner was before. That can break up a lot of the routes that can beat this play. ---------- Nickel Weak Zone This zone doesn't seem to do anything well. It's not good against the run, and it's not wonderful against the pass either. Pretty mediocre. You can spice it up by taking a safety and erecting a quarters-type coverage against a receiver going deep. ---------- Nickel Man Zone / Nickel Man Under These plays are schizophrenic: they're good against some types of runs, but not others. It almost seems to depend on luck as to what happens to a run on these plays. As for passing, one of your safeties is in man, and what he does tends to be random as well. Try taking that safety and moving him around. ---------- Nickel Strong Zone Ah, yes, the combination man/zone plays. This one is good if you have just one primary receiver you need to contain. If your defensive backs can take the others, then putting up this zone to screw up the first wide receiver is a good bet. One thing that you might want to do is to double-cover the slot receiver, or set up a zone on the right side of the field. Just watch out for a back sneaking out into the flat on the man side. ---------- Dime Prevent This play KILLS runs, for some reason. Lots of runs get eaten up by this play. Outside runs aren't nailed very often, but this is a good play. The main problem with this play is that the flats are unprotected against a back moving into them. The middle is also soft. But this is a pretty good play. One thing to try is making a "spy" out of one of the defensive backs with no receiver to cover, and have him patrol the flats. Or, you can drop an end and let him cover a side. ---------- Dime Man Zone 2 You probably want to bring your nickel back up to the line for this play. He can do some damage against the outside run from here as well. Try to rush him around the end and use his speed to back the quarterback into one of the other linemen. ---------- Dime Zone Blitz This play doesn't work awfully well because guys are open deep and the blitzing dime back takes a long time to get to the quarterback. Try controlling the dime back and move him closer to the offensive tackle. ---------- Dime Double Wide Good play. Just watch out for the flats and for the middle, they are pretty open in man coverages. ---------- Dime Man Press The key to this play is getting your nickel back an unblocked path to the quarterback. Do this by rushing your end on his side straight into the tackle and guard. This will open up a hole that the blitzer can run into. He can get to the quarterback pretty quickly if you do it properly. Be aware of the fact that you are leaving the middle quite open and you can get toasted on this play. One trick to confuse your opponent is to bring up a safety as though it were Dime Monster Blitz and then lock him on the slot receiver. ---------- Dime Monster Blitz For this play, you need to pull the safety down into the gap where he needs to rush. Don't stick him right in it, just leave him standing outside it. Then you can rush the end outside to open a hole for him. ---------- Goal Line Blitz B This is a great play. It kills nearly all runs and it forces the quarterback to throw very quickly. The main problem with this play, however, is the left slot. A receiver can come out of there and score a touchdown with little difficulty. You may want to move somebody over to cover that guy and have him cover the outside run as a bonus. Goal Line Take or even 4-3 Thunder is better for covering the extreme outside run, though. ----------------------------------------------------------------------- 5. Custom plays that can kill an offense There are two basic series that I will cover here. You can change the coverage for these and the personnel involved as you please. ---------- 4-man series: These plays have the line do this: RE=Stunt L RDT=Slant/Rush R LDT=Slant/Rush L LE=Stunt R This opens up holes in the middle of the offensive line between the guards and the center. If you rush one of the defensive tackles manually by moving them to the outside of the line, then you can get even bigger holes. You can drop the tackles after the ends have gotten penetration. Don't worry if one of them doesn't get inside, it happens from time to time. Usually, however, you will get inside and go after the quarterback. You can also control the ends after they get inside and run after the QB yourself. Be warned though, this is pretty weak against the run. You can move the line over and under with this as you please, and you SHOULD. When the gap between the defensive tackles is directly over one of the guards, then you will get more room to run between the guard and center. This greatly increases the effectiveness of this play. However, you may need to start faking out people, leaving your opponent expecting something like Dime Man Press, and this play can work that way. If you use that sort of tactic, you should use all of the line tactics that you would use with the normal play, such as aligning the safety in the gap between the tackle and guard, choosing to control a certain defensive lineman, etc. and then let the play develop. Make sure to drop back players from the stunting defensive linemen so that you don't end up blocking your own guys. ---------- 5-man series: These plays have the line do this: RE=Drop Zone/Stunt L RDT=Slant/Rush R LDT=Slant/Rush L LE=Drop Zone/Stunt R Somebody blitz between the tackles In order to use this play, you must shift the line so that the gap between the defensive tackles coincides with the gap between one of the guards and the center. If you don't do this, this play will fail. This opens up a hole in the line between the defensive tackles and drops the ends into coverage to stymie dump passes. Most of the time, people blitz linebackers into the hole that opens up, because it's usually run out of the dime package, but you can bring a safety (or a corner!) into the hole too, if you want more speed, or you need to boost somebody's stats. The blitzer should run for the quarterback when this hole opens up. It's often a good idea to leave your linebacker/safety standing, just to put some suspense into the play, and also to avoid getting offsides penalties by shoving yourself or one of the linemen too far. This is not an overly powerful play against the run, but it isn't atrocious. Now and then you can make a tackle on the line, but don't expect great things out of this alignment. It's usually a good idea to use the Speed Burst to enter the hole. Also, you can have the ends stunt as in the four man series for more power in the middle, but you will lose power on the containment on the sides if the quarterback runs from your blitz (he usually won't escape if you don't slide tackle, but then you lose some of your effectiveness). **IMPORTANT** If you want to block field goals and punts, use this type of play. You may want to substitute a corner or safety blitz for the linebacker blitz. For a field goal, you want to put the gap of the defensive tackles on a straightish line with the holder, and line up your blitzer STANDING UP as close to a straight line as you can get it in the time you have. If your blitzer goes down into a three-point stance, you're not going to get the hole to open up. Make sure to hit the gas (Speed Burst) once the ball is snapped. For a punt, you MUST move the line to the LEFT (under) side, not the right (over) side. If you move the line to the right center-guard gap, the guy sitting in the backfield (personal protector I think is his name) will stick you and you won't get near the punter. It's difficult and risky to block a punt this way, so try to do it only when your opponent is back behind their five-yard line, when the distance between the punter and the center is shorter. Make sure to use the Speed Burst to enter the hole. It takes practice to do either block and you should jump when you try to block the kicks if you want to recover the ball. ---------- Notes on the rest of the team assignments When doing man coverages, there isn't much difference between them. Just choose Lock Inside Front or Inside Front, those seem to work well unless you want a softer coverage. Other kinds might work well 20 yards out and inside, but usually on the outside you want tighter coverage. When making up zone assignments, try all of the zones that are close to the direction you want. They seem to have different depths and properties for each position in each formation. For example, if you want your nickel back to go to his right a little bit, try not only Deep 1/3 R but also Deep 1/3 Middle. Deep 1/4 MR and Deep 1/4 ML, if you assign them to the safeties, give you a deep zone similar to that for Nickel Under 2 Man and Dime Prevent. There doesn't seem to be much difference whether or not you hide your blitz on the inside, but on the other blitzes, it can be a big deal. Try out your play against some typical offensive plays. Have deep, medium, and shallow routes. Sometimes, plays look good on paper, but they have awful weaknesses that can be exploited by many offensive attacks. ----------------------------------------------------------------------- 6. Custom plays that can kill an defense There are four general types of offensive plays that I have experimented with. ---------- Formation Strengthening Sometimes a formation has certain strengths in terms of personnel that can be exploited for good effect. For example, the Strong-I formation can be used to give your fullback a quick outside or offtackle run because of his position near the outside. Near and Far and Weak-I can also do these sorts of things pretty easily. There can also be personnel matchups against certain formations (like the 3-4) that you want to create. ---------- Route Combinations These plays use symmetric or complementary routes to create openings for your players. One such classic is a pick, where you cross your players on their routes and the coverage may not be able to adjust. Another is a streak/curl combination, where one goes deep and the other curls medium or deep, in case deep zones are stopping the deep receiver. ---------- Play Improvement Sometimes a play is nice, but it could be better, like the halfback's route in I-Formation Flats. Why not change it with a Custom Play? ---------- CPU Tricks These plays use computer failings to work their magic. One such trick is a wide/slot receiver combo (example: WR1 and WR3 on Single Back 4 WR) where WR1 has a Flare In and WR 3 has a Flare Out. WR3 is usually open, and if he's not open, WR1 is often open. Another is the RB escape, where, from 5WR, the RB runs out into the flat, WR2 runs a Sprint or a Flare In, and WR4 occupies the defense somehow, such as with a Quick Screen or a Streak. The RB then runs free near the sideline. These plays tend to be short to medium guaranteed gains, effective near the goal line. ----------------------------------------------------------------------- 7. Special teams ---------- Kick Returns Your best bet for a play is probably Sidelines. When your returner catches the ball, move to the sideline you're closest to, since that's where your blocking is. Juking people is usually the best way to do the run upfield. Middle Wedge and Jumbo don't really seem to do too much in terms of effective blocking. ---------- Kickoffs Press Button 2 to kick off normally. Use Button 4 to make a high, short kick. Use Button 3 to make a kick that's low to the ground. Use the arrows to change the direction of the kick, but don't kick it out of bounds, unless the ball will touch the end zone, because that will get you a big fat penalty. Onside kicking is pretty much impossible in this game. It's too difficult to get the right amount of air and distance. After you kick off, you should take your kicker and pursue the returner. It doesn't really matter what play you choose. Double Cross is nice, but it doesn't help much at all. ---------- Punt Returns It's tough to say what to do on punt returns. Usually, when you have two unblocked guys, choose a side and juke the one guy on that side. If you have something else, don't expect your blockers to hold those guys. Try to go for the sidelines if possible. Which return you use, again, can be pretty academic. Use the Safe if you expect the punting team to pass or run the ball to try to pick up a first down. However, the Safe will leave guys unblocked. If you want to try to block the punt, use the tactics described in the "Custom plays that can kill an offense" section. ---------- Punting Punting is like kicking, with the same buttons involved. If you're relatively close to the end zone, don't kick it out of the end zone, kick it out of bounds behind the 20-yard line to put your opponent in bad field position. Watch out when you're backed up deep in your own territory. You need to be at least on your own five to have a full deep snap. Otherwise, you are much closer to the line and a linebacker or someone else can come in and block your kick. ---------- Field Goals / Field Goal Defense Rule No. 1: Don't actually try any of the field goal plays in the book. Instead, use one of the blocking tactics described in the "Custom plays that can kill an offense" section, or use a pass defense. When kicking a field goal, you don't have to aim it to the right or left if you are in a dome. Otherwise, be careful with the aim. It's easy to overadjust for a light wind. If the wind sock is down, aim just a tad. If it's a little ways up, aim a little more. If it's at full blow, adjust a chunk or two if you're on the opposite side of the field. Now, if the wind will blow the ball in the direction you want it to go in, don't aim. If you're in the middle of the field, it's a tough call. Go with your instincts, but if it's obviously blowing strong, don't just let it fly. You can't change the kind of kick, so just kick with whatever kicking button you like best. ---------- Extra Points Don't try to block it unless you are going for the custom play blocks. Just defend against the fake field goal pass, since that's your biggest enemy. It features two guys on out routes and the kicker on a route swinging slowly into the end zone. 2-deep zones should do decently against this play. If you're kicking the extra point, just blast it up there. Don't try to aim or anything, just hit it high. ----------------------------------------------------------------------- 8. Madden Challenge The trick to this is just doing well on passing and running. Also, you should create a gimp team with all 0s, 145 lbs, 5'0'', like that, so that you can just pound on them and get all-time records easily. You might also create a great team, but that's overkill. You need to go for the all-time records first, then go for the other records, since you will often break all-time records trying to meet Madden Challenges. In order to create the gimp team, you will need to change around the positions to get the lowest stats possible (some positions can't zero out certain stats). For example, you should change to K to lower QB-type stats (THP, THA, etc.) and change to SS to lower AWR, etc. Once you have the awful stats you want, change the player's position to what you need, and voila! Pathetic team. Also, when you are going through and winning Super Bowls, you don't need to play each game and go undefeated. Just skip through some games. If you're not undefeated after 5 games or so, reload the franchise and try again. You only need to play the Super Bowls, and I'm not even sure that's required. Tip: Try 85 Miami (if you have them) to go for all-time records. They have Reggie Roby, a great punter, and that passing machine led by future Hall of Famer Dan Marino. **NOTE** If you just want the teams and codes and whatnot, just use the Code Entry screen. Enter each code in succession and they will be available for use thereafter. A list of the codes is in the Miscellaneous section. ----------------------------------------------------------------------- 9. Franchise Mode Ah, yes, Franchise Mode. Some tips to help you get the most out of your team: ---------- General Hints Make sure you have either enough players on your roster to cover an injury (so you don't have too few active players) or have enough room under the cap to sign a player from the list of free agents if someone gets injured. Nothing hurts worse than having to trade a great player because you have to make the roster requirements. Check in the Roster Breakdown and see where you need more people if you go the extra backup route (I do early on, and it works great for defensive backs). Those "cap backups" only need to cost very little. You don't have to get good stats for them, since you should never have to play them. If you do, just sign someone else if they aren't pro caliber players. The thing that you should remember about the injury/depth situation is that you can only have four players injured at once. So, you only need to have enough cap room to sign the four players you need to your roster. The most expensive players are usually quarterbacks, and their salaries are high. You can usually skimp on the cap room you need by two or three million dollars, but don't get cute, because you will end up cutting or trading players if your gambles don't pay off. In order to see if your guys will improve, you need to play them and get them good stats. For QBs, passer rating is the biggie, but yards passed for also counts a lot. For HBs, yards and yards per carry (and touchdowns to a certain extent). For WRs, touchdowns and total yards are what you look for, but yards per pass is also nice, and # of receptions certainly won't hurt at all. Same for TEs. Play your offensive linemen so they will improve. Defensive linemen need sacks and tackles. Same for linebackers (and a pick or two won't hurt). Try to get everything for your defensive backs. Kickers need field goals and punters need punts and punting yardage. I'm not sure what exactly is great for returners. If you can't play a player you will be wanting to acquire, make sure that either they are good values or that they have high potential and can later start (or be traded for a better draft pick or player down the road - i.e. don't trade for guys who won't get you anything more in the future than what you have now). When you have an older player (29-40 and beyond), oftentimes you can release them, then re-sign them, then cut them, and so on, to decrease their salaries. Each time you sign them back, you lower their salary by giving them 7 year contracts, then paying them less than they demand. This can lower the pay the player receives by a million dollars or more if applied repeatedly. Be warned that it won't always work. You won't get big gains on young guys. It won't work well on great players, either. It works best when you have average to poor older players who are somewhat overvalued. Be prepared to reload your franchise if something goes wrong. Also, if you have younger players or great players who are overvalued, release them in the beginning of the season if they are REALLY overvalued, or later in the season, if you want to shave off $100K more. Remember, if you release a player late in the season, the salary that player will ask for will be lower. In some cases, it can be $500K lower than what it would be at the beginning of the season. Week 9-10 seems to be about the time that the players will reach their minimum salary demands. Check and see what the free agents at the position can be signed for as a gauge of what your player's price will be. When it comes time to sign players to contracts, here are some rules of thumb: 1. Don't waste your time trying to sign people to short contracts. The players in this game seem to like being with a team for five years or more. 2. The first thing you want to do when signing a player is first to choose the length of the contract you think will get you the lowest salary (usually 5-7 years). Then, lower the salary offered to far below the requested salary (at _least_ $300K for a sizeable contract, and $200K for a bare-bones contract; as a percentage, take 10%-20% off the requested salary). Then make successive offers until the player accepts the contract. As the franchise years go by, you may save literally millions of dollars with this strategy on one signing alone. Don't be lazy about your offers. 3. For draft picks, six years is a good length. For free agents, choose five years if they are young, six years if they are 26-27ish, and seven years for anything beyond that. With the right contract length, you can save yourself $100K or more, and that adds up very quickly over 45 players. At the very least, you will get the player for longer for almost the same salary. 4. If the CPU agent says things like "Small salary wrapped in a long contract - no deal.", it means that you need to lower the years. Sometimes you are going for too much for players in the 26-28 range, and you need to back down some. The agents will say uncharacteristic things if you go too high, or two low in the number of years. You do need to sign your draft picks and other young guys to five or six year contracts. It's much too expensive in the short run to try to tie the good guys up for longer (about $1 million dollars more for seven years in many cases). Once your players are 27 or 28 years old, however, you will usually be best served by signing them to seven-year contracts. Injury is a particularly important rating, especially because you have many players with similar OVR ratings that have different INJ ratings. Do not underestimate the importance of INJ - it can make the difference between a Super Bowl win and a wild-card round loss. Players with 67 INJ will get injured at much higher rates than players with 80 or above, and the injuries they will sustain will be much more serious. I've had special teams players (my backups) miss 12 games a season on two injuries before, with moderately low INJ ratings. You don't want to have to be fooling around with your roster trying to make the roster requirements because your starters or your backups are always getting injured. Don't freak out about INJ if the player you want is young and has a high potential, since INJ ratings will increase when the player improves. However, if you are trading for a player that will not improve significantly, or is getting old, watch out and make sure you don't get someone who is not worth the risk because of an atrocious INJ value. What's more, your player has a greater chance of a career-ending injury, which makes your player useless from that point on in the season, and also means that you can't trade him and thus get some lasting value out of him. In order to quickly see players' INJ ratings in most screens, just flop the sorting method one to the left from OVR to get the sorting according to INJ. When you look for players who have high potential, the ratings you want to watch for are things like SPD, THP, and any other ratings that are so low that even if they improve by a lot (for that particular rating, such as 56 THA) they still won't be very good no matter what happens with the other ratings. If the young WR you want has an 82 SPD, don't bother, because that rating will not go up. On the other hand, if he has a 67 CTH or a 63 AWR, don't worry much, because those things will go up once the player gets experience (if the player really does have high potential) in games. Some ratings that do NOT go up much: SPD ACC THP KPW Some ratings that do go up: AGI AWR CTH CAR THA KAC TAK BTK PBK RBK INJ 4th round picks are your friends if you want to get players who might be depth one day, but for now will remain cap backups. However, using this strategy means that you will need some cap room to sign all of these draft picks you have on your roster, and you will might need to free up some roster spots as well. If you want to trade for other players, 4th round picks are your best friends. You should get some high 4th round picks in other trades. Using these high picks, get some players in the high 60s and 70s who play at valued positions (i.e. not TE, FB, etc.). Then, either sign the players, or just release all the ones you want to trade. After this, take two or three of these draftees and offer them in trades for high draft picks or good players. You will be surprised at how much the CPU values young players. Once your players get to 34 years of age or older, they really start to lose it. They also become bigger retirement risks, especially when they have season-ending injuries. What's more, you can't trade or or release a player who's injured. With the rating decreases and the retirement hazards, try to trade them away (unless they're just there for extra depth or they are really good values - in other words, if they are there to be cheap players and not actual starters, don't do this) to other teams for newly drafted players. Try to get some of the players who were just picked in the recent draft. You might try waiting a year to trade for a player/players from the great draft. Offensive and defensive rookies of the year are usually good choices, although these tend to be skewed towards WRs and OLBs. Do not confuse a player's "Years Pro" with his age. Doug Flutie is quite old for an NFL player (he's so old that he was a player in the USFL), but his "Years Pro" is in the single digits. The age of a player chiefly determines when they retire (and some other factors such as their OVR rating), and the "Years Pro" is not a big factor in the equation. You can see their ages in the "Trade Player" screen. ---------- Trading The computer highly values statistics and awards when it considers trades to be made. If your players have great stats, they can be traded for other, better players, even when the price offered for the better player is only the player you have and a 59 OVR player. Moreover, the CPU likes youth. If your player is young, or if the player you want to trade for is young, the CPU will really freak out over the young player. The CPU also keeps a rating called "IMP" which, amongst other things, determines a large part of your player's value in a trade. If your player has a large IMP, he will be more valuable than another similar player with a small IMP. This is a huge factor when attempting to trade for a team's best players. In many cases, their IMP rating is so high that you stand no chance of acquiring them. See the Miscellaneous section for a list of positions on which the CPU puts value in trading. The CPU does not seem to care about whether or not your player is signed for a long time, or a short time, or whether his contract will be up right after you trade him. Use this to your advantage. Sometimes you can even get a player released into free agency that you traded before, and then you can pick him up again. Also, if you can trade the other team a player at a position for which the other team has no good players, you can get much more out of the trade than you could if you traded it a good player at another position. For example, I was able to acquire Edgerrin James (98 OVR) by trading Dewayne Rudd (88 OVR LB) and Corey Dillon (86 OVR), but I also received Marvin Harrison (87 OVR) and another player in return. The reason for this was because I gave them Rudd at LB, who was 20 OVR points better than their best LB. DO NOT release good players at a position to make trades FOR a player at the same position. The CPU team may sign your good player to replace the player for which you traded. Don't be afraid to make huge package deals and blockbuster trades (like 2 90+ OVR players and a 1st round pick) if you really do need a particular player at a critical position. For example, if your RB is at 75 OVR, and your team is a Super Bowl contender, don't be afraid to trade away some non-starting-QB players in order to get a RB well into the 90s. I made my team into a Super Bowl winner by trading 97 OVR Eric Swann, another good player, and my first round pick for Ricky Williams (100 OVR RB). You may not have as much success trading for QBs because they tend to have high IMP ratings, and the teams who have them just will not let go, no matter what you try to give them. Even if you try to trade a 93 OVR QB and first round picks/other great players, you just cannot get the team that has a 97 OVR QB to let him go most of the time, especially if the QB is relatively young. However, as players get older, you may have more luck. When you trade for a particular position, look at four things in particular (other than OVR): 1. Age 2. Salary/Years left on contract 3. Injury 4. Difficulty of Trade (this is useful because if you have a rookie player who is almost impossible to acquire, he will have a very high potential, and players with good potential will not be a simple .95/1 OVR trade ratio. If you want to find good potential players, try to trade for the players in the position you are looking for, and see how they stack up versus one another in terms of how much the team is asking for those players. However, you may not have much success with them if the players you offer the team wouldn't contribute much to their squad. Make sure to look out for situations where the team who asks the least is the one to which you are effectively giving the most. Every time you trade, make sure that you have gotten everything you can get out of it. If you are making a trade and the game asks you for confirmation of the trade, see if you can get other players from that same team along with the one(s) you want. Oftentimes, you can get additional players (especially FBs and TEs) who are decent enough to provide depth or even start. You can also get cheap players as cap backups in this way. In addition, you should always try to get other teams' draft picks if you do not see any player worth getting out of the trade. You can almost always get the team's 4th round pick, but oftentimes you can also get a team's 3rd round pick if you have decided that you do not care for any of the players you can acquire from the team's squad. Make sure to try and see if you can get higher-round picks from the teams you trade with. Make sure to get these picks as you can get trade bait from the 4th round picks. Oftentimes when you trade, you will need to put in additional players to get the CPU to trade at all, but after that, you can get players back from the CPU in the trade, even though you had to put more people on the block. You can even get players at the same position back in the trade. When you look at players' contracts, don't freak out too much about their potential growth during the next season. Even if a player goes up by 7 OVR or more, you won't have to pay millions more to re-sign the player. If you can keep the player on your squad and not release the player, you will often get a discount of $500K or more off that player's salary if he had entered free agency. If you are wanting to trade for a superb player, and the cap isn't an issue, don't worry too much if that great player's contract only has one more year on it. Unless the player is being grossly underpaid (or overpaid), you won't pay more than $3.000 million dollars for him in most cases (QBs being a very prominent exception). The important thing when it comes to players and their contracts is that if they are on your team, it will usually be cheaper to re-sign them than if you go into free agency and try to fill the void there. However, if you have some cap backups and their salaries will skyrocket (read: quarterbacks), don't even bother re-signing them unless they can be good depth for your team as well. Watch out for trading your good players to teams in your division or conference. You can really get nailed in the playoffs by teams which have some of your star players. If you have a good player who has been recently supplanted by a better player at that position, don't trade them right away if the player is a good value. You can use that player for depth at not only the native position, but in other positions as well. For example, when I made a blockbuster trade for Ricky Williams (100 OVR), I still had Corey Dillon in my backfield at 85 OVR, so I kept him and his $1.700 million cap figure on my team. Later that season, Joel Mackovicka went down with a season-ending injury, and I had Corey Dillon, 88 OVR at fullback, to back him up, and eventually push the team forward to a Super Bowl victory. (Of course, Ricky Williams pitched in too). ---------- Beginning Of Season Remember to leave some room when filling out your roster so that you can make trades later and make other roster moves like signing draft picks. If your basic roster (your starters, your essential depth, and your cap backups) eats up all of your cap space, you won't be able to make trades you want to make, and will have to take undesirable measures - either not trading or cutting someone useful and signing them back at a higher price to make the trade. Watch out for your cap backups. They might play on special teams, so if you have REALLY POOR players, you could have some problems. If you know early on that you can release the player and the other teams won't sign that player, AND the player's salary won't increase by much (if at all), then release the player unless you need him to make the roster requirements. Trade all of your draft picks before the season begins. "Are you crazy, Leif???" I'm dead serious. You can get players in the 90s easily if you trade your first round pick early in the year, while every team's record is 0-0-0. Your picks plunge in value later in the season once you start winning big. When the season starts, your draft picks are relatively valuable. When you win the Super Bowl, your draft picks go way down in value. Just make sure that you get youngish guys, or your team will crash and burn quickly. At the beginning of your franchise, rise to prominence by trading for players like Jonathan Ogden, who start in the 90s, and later in your franchise, trade for high-potential youth that will start at the position you would like to improve or maintain. NOTE: If you will end up losing a lot of games for whatever reason, don't trade your picks early if you cannot get players at 85 or above for a 1st rounder, 75 or above for a 2nd, etc., because you will have good draft position and you can get pretty good guys. At the beginning of the season, if you know you have a dominant team and you are fairly sure you will end up with a good record (or a Super Bowl appearance), then swap your draft picks with less powerful teams early on so that you will be able to move up cheaply in the next year's draft. Do this by trading a crummy player and the draft picks you you still have available to trade (i.e. haven't been able to trade away for somebody with any real additional value) for some mediocre team's picks in the same round. For example, if you still have your first round pick and you won the Super Bowl last year and you have a 100 OVR team in offense, defense, and special teams, then either sign off the free agent list, or, take off your own roster, some crummy players (60s or 50s overall) and trade those players together with your first round pick to some less skilled team. You can see which teams are less skilled by using Button 5 on the Play Week screen to bring up the Scouting Report of each team in a particular game. If you make it to the Super Bowl or end up with a great record almost every year, then you will have poor draft position pretty much every year. But, if you trade your pick to a lesser team early on (especially one in your own conference, as you would beat them before they would have a chance of making it to the Super Bowl, and especially a lesser team in your own division or on your schedule, as you will beat them once or more during the course of the season) then you will get a draft pick that is some 8-10 slots higher for almost nothing in many cases. If you are lucky and you pick a team that gets key players injured (such as at QB) then you might get a pick in the top ten slots of that round. It is thus very helpful to you to trade up BEFORE the season begins to get a great value in the next year's draft (or in the same year, after you have played the season and know who the offensive and defensive rookies of the year are). To sum up the criteria for choosing a team with which to swap draft picks (remember, this only really works if your team is much better than theirs): 1. OVR ratings as determined by the scouting report (obvious reasons) 2. Division opponents (because you play them twice, and are in your conference, for good measure) 3. Quality/depth/INJ ratings at QB position (so they die when the bad QB gives way to an even worse QB) 4. Other opponents on regular season schedule (you play them once (is twice possible?)) 5. Quality/depth/INJ ratings at RB position (no running game equals early playoff exit in many cases) 6. Teams in your conference (AFC or NFC) (you can smash them before they make it to the Super Bowl. If they made it there, it would make the draft position of your picks plummet) One note: you may not want to trade up your 4th round pick because you may be wanting to get a player on the cheap with it. However, you will get better valued players for trades with higher 4th round picks. Scour the list of free agents to sign after the season begins (before you play your first game) to see whether you can sign a draft pick that was never signed, or a good player either statwise or salarywise. You can get some big bargains here. When trading at the beginning of the season, try to trade from good teams that have beaten you or that are on your schedule. You can make them weaker by taking away their best players in trades and giving them draft picks or lesser players in return. Try to get the best players off of the weaker squads in your division or on your schedule so that you can cripple them for the duration of that season. Even though you may have saved some cap room up for use in free agency and for picking up people so that you may have the league minimum number of players at that position, you should always cap out by signing free agents during the season. For one thing, it makes it harder for the computer to sign good free agents when its players get injured, and for another, it will allow you to have better depth and special teams for your own team. Make sure to focus on areas of value and positions where you can severely downgrade the quality of players at the position (for example, if only one good center is available, sign him so that the other teams will have to sign bad centers). However, any good or great players should be snapped up, unless they have high salaries. Also, you can trade the players you signed at the end of the season in many cases. Just don't let any overvalued players you have stay on your roster past the end of the season, and don't forget to release those players you signed before you release starters or depth. If you have players with contracts that expire at the end of the season and you won't want to re-sign them, keep them as long as they are useful. If they will be much better than the player you want to acquire during the current season, then keep them and trade for the other player at the end of the season. However, if you want to use them in a trade now, or if you want to free up some cap room to sign a free agent or make another trade, then trade the player now. Likewise, if you have a player who has a huge salary, but you can hold off on trading until the season is over and the player you want to trade for is much worse than the one you already have, then wait until the Super Bowl is played before you make the trade. During the season, if you start noting aberrant stats (like a high number of fumbles or drops) you may want to take another look at that player's ratings. For example, if your RB is fumbling a lot, check his ratings and see if he has a high enough Carry to be worth starting. Remember that if you have a free agent that you want to sign, but you are just barely away from being able to because of your small cap room, you can wait a few weeks, and, when prices drop enough, you can sign that free agent to your squad. Late in the season, try to get some guys on the cheap as backups. They will often sign for less than they would have at the beginning of the year and in free agency. ---------- Before The Pro Bowl Game Scout the list of free agents at the end of the season to see if you can sign rookies and whatnot to your squad. You can see whether or not they will improve with time (sometimes they have good potential) and then you can keep them on your squad for future use or trade. Kickers and punters are good to sign because they are cheap and you can load up on them by getting the top two or three, then seeing whether or not any improve. If one improves greatly, you've just struck gold. At the end of the season, make the roster moves you plan to make before the Pro Bowl and after the Super Bowl. If you will trade someone and you won't have to wait for their OVR rating to increase (or if their OVR will decrease) then do that. If you are going to trade for an offensive or defensive rookie of the year (a decent idea) then trade for them right now before their ratings go up. If you are going to release someone, do it now so that you will lower your cap figure and raise the number of players you can add to your team. Obviously, don't release anyone you can trade. However, you may want to hold on to some players because you think their OVR rating will increase, or because you want to watch their progress, then trade them if they do not measure up. This is ok. At the end of the season, anyone who is a relatively expensive player for their stats should be traded or released to make room for free agents. This especially applies for backups (though that may not be true for defensive backs, since you often play your nickel and dime backs). When you go to trade at the end of the season, look to trade with good teams that have beaten you in the playoffs, and take their star players so that the air will be taken out of their squad. For instance, I weakened the Cowboys one year with the Cardinals by trading for Larry Allen and their up-and-coming linebacker, and beat them the next year in the playoffs, instead of losing to them yet again. Incidentally, Larry Allen ended up retiring the next year with a PCL tear, along with Cris Dishman, my up-and-coming backup guard. Make sure at the end of the season that, if you want to trade up some of your draft picks early (since there may not be any players on anyone's roster which you would like to acquire), that you do it NOW, before teams become much more stingier. When you do trade picks, always try to swap draft picks with the teams you're trading with. Sometimes in a trade, you can not only get more picks or better picks, but you can also swap other picks that aren't necessary for the trade. You do this by putting up the picks you want to swap along with the picks/players you have already put on the block, and then demand picks in the same draft round of the team with which you are trading. This can easily move you up 15 or more places in the draft. At the end of the season, but before the Pro Bowl game has been played, re-sign players whose contracts will be expiring soon (one or two years) and who will go up a great deal when you enter the Player Progress screen. Also, if your player's OVR isn't going anywhere, and you don't plan on re-signing them, try to trade them now so that you can avoid cap problems when trying to trade them later. Of course, release any players that you want to release now so that you can sign free agents to check and see if they will improve after the season is over. Even though you want to get rid of players you won't be using later on, bring some trade bait players into the next screens so that you can trade them for high-potential players or whatever. ---------- Player Progress Screen Check the Player Progress screen for vastly improved players after each season. If a player is middling or somewhat low in rating, but is improving rapidly, trade for them and re-sign them to a long contract. If the Draft Preview menu does not show very good players, or you do not have a high enough pick to get the player you want, you should trade your draft picks here to the most out of them. One bug in the game: If you have a down year (that is, a lot of your players' ratings are going down), simply close the Player Progress menu, exit Franchise Mode, then re-enter it by selecting "Continue". You will get better ratings and player progress for your team, but so will other squads. You can then save this player progress to lock in the gains. The gains not only keep players from deteriorating, but also boost the improvement of other players. You can do this only once; any more exits will not change the Player Progress ratings from their altered values. You should see rookies go up at least 4 points in a year, if they played a lot. If they do not do this much, and they have started, get rid of them through trades. It's players who go up 6, 8, and more who are really worth the effort. You can have players who had meteoric rises go back down in a couple of years, but it's usually best to grab those superstars early. Remember, stats count. Your players will decline if they do not get the stats or the playing time. Players who have great seasons and are still relatively young should also go up in value a point or two. Watch out when looking at particular players for excessive ratings jumps due to high statistical performance. Sometimes, a young player will have a huge year and will get numerous boosts, but when you get him on your squad, he won't get those stat boosts anymore and will start to decline. Beware. READ the Re-sign Players section too. ---------- Re-sign Players If you know that you won't be able to re-sign some players, don't let it get this far. Trade them BEFORE the re-signing period begins. After you pass this screen, you will be able to tell by the voids on the rosters of several teams which players are free agents. You can use this to your advantage by seeing which players you would sign in free agency before the Player Progress screen, then checking to see if they are still on the roster(s) of the CPU team(s) in question in the Trade Screen. ---------- Trades Screen When you see a trade offered to you at the end of the season, if it's a good trade for rating, make sure to check on age and salary. One way to check on the salary is to revert to an old save (save your game first) then check out the cap figure. You may still want to trade, but if it's a very high salaried player, or if the player is getting old, immediately trade them for someone else. Try trading your player for a new draft pick. Also, watch out for large differences in potential. Sometimes, you will have a high-potential player, and the CPU will offer a low-potential player in exchange. Do not accept such offers. ---------- Formal Free Agency Period Make sure you know coming into free agency how many players you can get (the maximum number of players you can sign without exceeding the maximum allowable number of players on your roster). Don't bid on too many or you will lose all the ones you pick up after the last one joins you. Also know your how much room you have under the cap. It can screw you over too. One strategy for getting cap backups and depth is to create young players with low ratings but with high potential and INJ, etc. Alternatively, you can go short term and make the player totally useless for depth purposes by giving him basically no ratings in several abilities, high age, 5'0'', 145 lbs., etc. It depends on the current status of the player as to whether or not you want the player to be relatively old/worthless or not. If you just want a cap backup, you will probably want an old player who will cost nearly nothing and can't do squat. On the other hand, if you are not seeing anything happening on the free agent or drafting front as far as a particular position is concerned (QBs seem particularly prone to problems with development), and you can't trade for anyone satisfactory, then create a relatively cheap QB with high potential to use when the time comes. Remember, if you are trying to make a player who will be great later on, make sure to put things like SPD, ACC, and THP high, because those will not improve very much. I think that creating cruddy players who play for pocket change is ok, because there are many people in real life who would be chumps on an NFL team just for the money, and they wouldn't have good stats at all. Whether or not it is permissible to create a future franchise QB... See the Miscellaneous section for more details on player creation. NOTE: DO NOT keep these AWFUL players you have created on your squad during the season. They will play on special teams and that means you will have extra points and FGs blocked, etc. Release them on the first week of the season and then sign them back whenever you need them. DON'T release them BEFORE the first week of the season, because the game will drop them from the list of free agents to sign. Keep them until you create the new schedule, then release them. Even QBs may get some playing time, and since your punter and kicker are better at playing the position, you shouldn't let the awful player see the field. In this way, you will save your team from disaster, and also you can poison other teams if they sign your players. Plus, the players will often lower their asking price, so if you had a QB start at $500K at the beginning of the season, he will ask for $400K in the middle of the season when you actually end up signing him. Don't bid on an older free agent with 7 years to begin with in the Free Agency screen. Try to sign them first with a 5 year contract, and when other teams bid on the same player, you can match their salary bid, but increase the years to 6 and 7 for the first two counteroffers. In the "Sign Player" screen, however, start with 7 years as a contract offer for an older player. When you see a great free agent, try to pick them up even if you know you won't keep them. They can be traded for draft picks and players and whatnot. This is why you need to keep some space under the cap and some roster spots. For example, I managed to make a trade for Walter Jones (96 OVR LT), Mack Strong (86 OVR FB), and a 4th round pick by sending the Seahawks Torry Holt (98 OVR), whom I had picked up in free agency for 4 million dollars a year. Holt was not the greatest free agent acquisition in terms of value, but I managed to turn it into a positive for my club, since with Walter Jones, I was able to move Jonathan Ogden (94 OVR LT) inside to relieve a bust I had previously traded for, N.Penn (82 OVR RG). Moreover, with Mack Strong, I had depth at fullback, so I traded RB NO.44 (94 OVR FB) to another team to get a backup QB. Thus, Torry Holt was a great free-agent pickup for me. Don't worry if all of the FAs at a position you think you might need have been snapped up. The CPU will generate rookies to play at the position, even if all of the rookies in the draft are taken. However, if all of the FAs at a position are being signed by other teams during the season, watch out - you may not be able to acquire a player you need. ---------- NFL Draft Players who go first in the draft are the really high rating players, as in the top 6 or 7 non K/P on the player list. After that, WRs, RBs, FBs, and TEs go pretty early, but you will also see some defensive players going too. After that, some quarterbacks will probably move, along with some OTs and centers, and more defensive players. At the end of the draft, the CPU will start going for guards, and finish with QBs and clean out most of the offensive positions. Finally, more defensive players are taken. You usually see most offensive positions totally depleted (except for those on the offensive line) at the end of the draft, and most defensive positions will still have oodles of poor players remaining (although LB can be cleaned out). With kickers and punters, sometimes the CPU will take them, but if they aren't too great, the CPU will pass on them. Don't draft a kicker/punter unless that's the only player you really want, or if they are very good. Typically, these are the ranges for the top player at each position from draft to draft (you may have anomalies): Pos. - OVR Rating QB: 65-80 (a QB in the high 70s is a pretty good pick) HB: 65-83 FB: 65-77 WR: 70-90 T: 60-79 G: 60-79 C: 58-79 DE: 70-90 DT: 65-88 LB: 75-94 CB: 70-92 FS: 75-94 (safeties tend to be the highest rated players) SS: 77-96 K: 77-91 P: 77-91 Keep this in mind as you draft: even though you may have the best player in the draft at a particular position, that player may not have enough juice in the tank to ever be productive for you. Defensive players are great to draft because they usually will improve a ton. The offensive players, especially quarterbacks, may not become effective players. Since the offensive players start pretty low, it is difficult to get them to a point where they can be stars. I recommend drafting for defense, and then trading for offense, except if you can find a pretty good QB in the draft. The great draft. Every few years there can be a great draft, with guys having high potential and good initial stats all over the place. Try to trade for PLAYERS after the draft, before the season starts. Don't try to trade up for a higher pick before the draft unless you need to dump some players for salary-cap or roster-spot purposes. You can use your next year's first round pick or other players you still have on your roster to pick up the guy you want before Week 1. It's too costly to trade up before the draft begins if you are trying to get a draft pick in the top 10 or 15 slots. You may not get a great draft for several years, so don't take it as a given when trying to improve your franchise. You may want to try drafting a player at a particular position if it will seriously deplete the stock of good players at that position. For example, if a 74 OVR FB is in the draft, and the next highest FB is at 58 OVR, then you might want to take the FB if you have no other priorities in order to poison the CPU teams with awful fullbacks. If one of your draftees (or players from the draft that you got by trading players or picks) isn't working out, try to trade him for a new draftee from the next draft (or another guy you like). If you drafted that player because you wanted to take care of a need in your roster, a player that you've started and isn't improving will not get the job done quickly, if at all. If you still have third and fourth-round picks left over, see if you can pick up some cap backups with your draft, should no decent player be available, and you use the cap backup strategy. This doesn't work so well for draftees, but sometimes you can get yourself some pretty cheap guys using this strategy. It is better, however, to pick up the best players at your draft position, then trade them for cheap players. ---------- Other Notes Scout the other team before you play (not SIM) a game. In particular, check the injury list so you know where they will be weaker. Check the secondary if you like to pass, the linebackers (especially the middle linebacker if the team plays a 4-3) if you like to run, and their receivers and running backs/quarterback if you don't know how much to balance the run defense and the pass defense. See Miscellaneous for notes about how 4-3 and 3-4 teams simulate with respect to the RILB and DT #2, and also about the proportion of carries players on your team get. Getting great linebackers, inside or outside, is a heck of a lot easier than getting great DTs. This may be a reason to use a 3-4 team for your franchise. However, you still end up using your second DT a decent amount... If you want to re-order the Trade Screen list of players on your team (since it can get quite messy, as a lot of the players for which you trade will end up at the bottom of your screen, and you can have holes and other incongruities elsewhere), then select "Re-order" on the Depth Chart Screen and all of the players will be put in the CPU's ordering again. The computer seems to take home-field advantage into account when you simulate a season. You will win more games and have less severe losses at home. It seems to me that if you make a lot of moves in the offseason, then your team will suffer the next season, i.e. they will drop games which, ratingswise, they should win. It doesn't seem too much like the Pro Bowl game matters much. The game doesn't keep the stats for it, even. I would advise simulating it until your conference wins, or playing just a short game featuring your players so they can get stats, without getting injured. If you have a league MVP, then you trade him before the Player Progress screen, the game will put another player in his place from another team. I was amazed that the game was this perceptive. As the years go by, the league minimum will increase, the players' salaries will skyrocket, and the cap will increase to an insane number. Each player seems to have a particular agent when you go to sign them. I don't think this makes any difference in the negotiations that you can take advantage of, however. You can cheat by adding additional coaches, then trading players to your team, or by trading a bunch of free agents off the list at the beginning of the season until there are no more free agents left in the 70s. I don't do that (anymore). You can also skip ahead to the end of the season to see which players' OVR ratings increase very quickly. It seems to me that looking at the relative strength of your team versus another in the Game Week screen will jinx you, and you will lose the game at which you compared the two teams. The game seems to determine before the season starts that certain players at certain positions will get career-ending injuries. You may not be able to reload the franchise game and evade such blows. Some of the injuries are effectively random, but sometimes, the CPU will set you up for a fall. Some franchise files seem to be output for your played games and dumped in the Madden 2000 directory for the PC version. They have lists of all the plays that were run and what happened, stats, drives, etc. I don't know how accurate they are, though: I have seen some very strange data in them. ----------------------------------------------------------------------- 10. Miscellaneous ---------- You lose 4 yards for each "QB Kneel" play you run. Don't safety yourself with it. If you are inside your own 12, you need to make sure you don't end up downing the ball in your own end zone. ---------- You can create players that have the statistics of one position, but line up like another position using the Create Player Screen. Good for offenses that like to run outside - create a "WR" that is really an offensive lineman! ---------- To set a starter to back up another position, first remove the starter from the starting job. Then, place the starter at the position on the depth chart that you would like him to occupy. Finally, put the starter back at his starting position. ---------- In the "Create Player" screen in Franchise Mode, you can use positions like the P to lower a player's ratings far below what they are mandated to be, at say, WR (SPD, for example, can go to 0 for the P, so set the player's speed to 0 as a P, then change his position to WR, and voila! 0 SPD WR). You can use this to get super-low salaries or to bulk up a certain ratings without taking a huge salary hit. However, sometimes the game will assign your players a certain default rating which is much better than what you told it to assign, especially for CAR. However, beware of the salary of the player. It can jump to astronomical heights if your player is too awful. Just raise something like ACC to get the player back down to a reasonable price if this happens. ---------- You can create great players, but they will make you bleed money like crazy. One way to alleviate this is to use cheaper positions for your created player, then put your new player at that cheaper position. For example, if you want a WR, then you can use a FB to make him, and once your FB has been signed, you can put him at WR. ---------- Some ratings won't increase the salary of a player when you raise them, such as BTK for defensive players. Raise anything you can raise if you are going to keep the player you create. On the other hand, don't give those advantages in BTK for defensive players to the CPU by trading those players away instantaneously. ---------- To win the coin toss most of the time, pick the opposite of whatever was the last toss. For example, if heads was tossed, pick tails. You won't win every time, though. It seems to be accurate to about 66%-75%, give or take a few percent. You can also win the coin toss by pressing the Start button repeatedly, but it may not work 100%, especially in 2-player mode. Make sure to press it vigorously and you should have success. EBS EBKE (de45515@alltel.net) is the one who submitted this tip to Gamewinners.com, but I had to refine and research it a little bit. ---------- Note that when you trade for a particular position, the CPU may sign players off the free agent list. So, if a CPU team has only one FB, for example, and you'd like to wipe out the CPU's ability to have a good fullback, sign all of the fullbacks on the list of free agents except the one you want the CPU to have. Then, make a trade for that fullback, and voila! The CPU team has an awful fullback. ---------- If you are making a Global playbook, your defenses will be those of the 4-3 teams. If you make a Custom playbook out of a 4-3 team's playbook, you will have the 4-3 centered defensive plays. However, if you use a 3-4 team's playbook to make a Custom playbook, you will get a 3-4 centered defensive playbook. ---------- The teams that play in the 3-4 (as opposed to the 4-3) are the Bengals, the Bills, and the Jets. These teams don't usually play an extra defensive tackle; instead, they play an RILB in their base defense. What this means is that you shouldn't look to get a second great defensive tackle; rather, you should try to find a good RILB, since he will be a factor in how well you simulate in season mode, franchise mode, etc. and he is also better utilized in the playbooks that the 3-4 teams have. You still do need a good second DT, because he will play in nickel, dime, and goal line situations (not to mention he is depth for you). ---------- If you have a 4-3 team, you don't really need another starter to play RILB as he does not get used much in simulation. If you use a 3-4 team's playbook or a Custom playbook, you will use him a lot more than you would if you had the basic 3-4 plays that are provided with the 4-3/Global team playbooks. But if you don't run the 3-4 in games (because you don't play or sim games with the 3-4 plays or teams) you don't need an RILB starter. It is good practice, though, to get an RILB starter, then set him to back up your other LBs. ---------- It seems that when you have two great RBs, you will have most of the carries going to those two players. However, when you have one great featured back, most of the carries will go to him alone. If you have a bunch of average backs, the carries will be spread evenly. The FBs don't seem to get too many carries per game, even if they have good ratings at the position. However, if you place a great RB at that position, then he will get a bunch of carries. So, don't worry about putting your second great RB at FB, because he will get the carries most of the time. ---------- You shouldn't worry about 1 point of difference when it comes to OVR ratings. That 1 point may be based on 1 point of some rating such as ACC, and that's not a big difference compared to things like age and INJ. However, if you are trying to compare players when one or more of those players is at 100 OVR, you need to compare all of the stats in order to get a good idea of whether one player is better than another, since the game won't tell you which player is better over that 100 OVR rating. ---------- The difficulty of trading for players (from hardest to easiest): First Tier: Quarterbacks Running backs Defensive linemen Kickers/Punters (because you can't trade them) Second Tier: Wide Receivers Linebackers Cornerbacks Safeties (may also be in third tier) Third Tier: Offensive Linemen Tight ends Fullbacks ---------- To beat the Great Games, just put the difficulty on Rookie and beat the tar out of the opponents. ---------- Make sure to save early and often. To save your profiles, go into the Madden Challenge screen and save all the entries suffixed with "(NS)". For the settings, just exit the game. These are for the PC version only: console versions may vary. ---------- If you have a play go on too long, the game won't record all of it. It will only contain the last seconds of the play, up to its time limit. I do not know what the time limit is exactly, but I believe it is somewhere around 8-10 seconds. It could be longer. ---------- In the Season mode, you can play again with the same teams you had (in terms of who is on your roster) at the end of the last season, but with a new schedule, and all injuries healed. Seems kind of pointless to me. ---------- Some people say that when a player plays out of position, his ability to play that position drops by a certain amount. For example, if a LB goes down to play DE, his ability to play the position may decrease by more than what his ratings say he is at that position, i.e. he has an invisible "rating penalty" for playing out of position. I don't know whether this is true or not. ---------- I set the CPU adjustments on my game something like this, for more realism. These aren't perfect, as the CPU is flat out retarded when blocking, and other things. I only listed the ones I changed: All-Pro QB Accuracy: +1 Pass Blocking: nothing WR Catching: all the way up (but watch out, because your receivers will catch deep balls a lot more than they would in the real NFL) RB Ability: all the way up Run Blocking: all the way up Kickoff Length: Less Kicking Accuracy: Less Defense: Aggressive Awareness: all the way up (your mileage may vary here - put this one down if you want to run things like I HB Option Pass) Break Blocks: all the way down Tackling: all the way up (you may want to ease up on this too) I tuned down the Face Masking Penalties, raised the return interference calls, raised the pass interference calls, and toned down the roughing the kicker/passer. ---------- Madden NFL 2000 Codes These are the codes you can input on the "Code Entry" screen to get the Super Stiff Arm, Ball Camera, great teams, etc. When you enter a code successfully and you don't already have the code, Madden will say "Boom!" and a short cheer will ensue. If the code is already there, nothing happens, except for the code you entered disappearing. These codes are in the order in which they appear in the Madden 2000 "View Codes" screen, and the Great Teams are listed first. Code Effect Great Teams: Entering codes for all of the teams which played in Games before a particular Great Game will unlock all of the Games in which those teams played. If you disable a team, then all of the Games after the Game in which the team played will disappear from the selection of Great Games. 3000 81 Dolphins DRBENWAY 81 Chargers TONSOFMEAT 76 Raiders 10MOREMIN 76 Patriots HUGECHIKIN 97 Packers NUMINOUS 97 Broncos CTHULHU 85 Dolphins ONELINECHNGE 85 Bears ALTXY 90 Giants CNOTES 90 Bills FUNKENSTEIN 86 Browns MILKBAR 86 Broncos COSMICSLOP 88 Niners GAMMALITE 88 Bengals LEARNTOSWIM 72 Steelers 32767 72 Raiders STILLERS 95 Steelers GREASY 95 Colts BEENLIKETHAT 92 Bills FLUFFY 92 Oilers Madden Challenge: WILDWEST Old West Stadium PAINFUL More injuries COWBOYS Fantasy Team: Marshalls QBINTHECLUB Can't sack the QB (you can sack the RB or WR if they are the passer) MOJO All 60s Team QUARKANDSTAR Home team is bigger in size, visitors are smaller ITSINTHEGAME EA Sports Stadium FIRSTIS20 20 yards for a 1st down NOPICKS No INTs SIDEBURNS All 70s Team REFISBLIND Less penalties (really, more referee tolerance) XMASGIFT Xmas Rush Stadium INTHEFUTURE Fantasy Team: Industrials AIRMADDEN Super Jump TEAMMADDEN All-Madden Team WEPUTITTHERE Tiburon Stadium HANDSOFLARD More fumbles BTHEBALL Ball Camera SIDESHOW Tiburon Bros. Stadium PICKEDOFF More INTs KILLERJOKE Fantasy Team: Clowns EXISTENTIAL Floating Heads (the rest of the players' bodies is invisible) SHARKATTACK Tiburon Team (nearly perfect team) OLDSPARKY Electric Sidelines (you bounce off the sidelines with an electric jolt) FINALBUILD Players fatigue more quickly SAMEASITEVER Tiberium Stadium TRICKLEDOWN All 80s Team PHALANX Fantasy Team: Praetorians PHOTON Super Speed Burst QUANTUM Curved Space-Time PCBS Salvage Field Stadium WEARETHEGAME EA Sports Team (nearly perfect team) CHAOS Weird Scoring Rules (different point system: field goals are better than they were before, and touchdowns are less valuable) FRACORAS Defensive Scoring (defense scores points for sacks and INTs) RUSTNEVER Fantasy Team: Junkyard Dogs HAVETHEROCK Madden Millennium Team (not as broad as the NFL Millennium Team) FIRSTLAW Gridiron Stadium SPIRITOFSHOP Fantasy Team: Toymakers WIMPBALL Players harder to tackle PANCAKES Alpha Blitz Stadium (weather effect: the ground is icy) SNAPTACLEPNT Fantasy Team: Sugar Buzz GONZALES Speedball (ball flies really fast) VALLEYYOKINGS Nile Hi Stadium THOTH Fantasy Team: Mummies TENOCHTITLAN 4th & Incas Stadium 1900 NFL Millennium Team ELMSTREET Maddenstein Stadium CORTEZKILLER Fantasy Team: Vipers BAREFOOT 100 Yard Field Goals SHRIKE Fantasy Team: Monsters RAILGUN 100 Yard Passes MADDEN92 All 90s Team QUITELAME 5 yards for a 1st down YOUTHEMAN Receivers catch better BEATDOWN Super Stiff Arm STRAYLIGHT Cosmodome Stadium (you might get a speed increase in parts of this stadium) TERMINUS Fantasy Team: Comets ----------------------------------------------------------------------- 11. Links/Greets/Credits ---------- Links: http://members.fortunecity.com/slvrthndr7/main/downloads.html This site has some updated rosters, including the Nittany 91 rosters, which are for the 2000-2001 season. ---------- Greets: Myself. Go me! ---------- Credits: EA Sports: For making an ok football game. Still haven't beat Tecmo Super Bowl yet! EA's FTP site: ftp://ftp.ea.com/pub/ Don't only look in the Madden 2000/sports directories. Look around, they have some great stuff there. You can also download patches, updated rosters, and EA Football Net software. The Thinking Man's Guide to Madden 2000: Great Custom Plays there. Check it out. http://www.geocities.com/colosseum/pressbox/9051/2000.html EBS EBKE (de45515@alltel.net): For the Spacebar coin toss winning tip. ----------------------------------------------------------------------- 12. How To Get/How To Use Don't know where to get used PC games. Could try eBay. Using it...get a DirectX compatible controller or your mouse or your keyboard, then have "Autorun" enabled on your CD-ROM device if you want to to boot up immediately (otherwise you can select the CD-ROM manually from My Computer), install it, all that. It's not a very stable program even with the patches, so watch out. Save early and often, now and then you may need to backup your save file, as Madden 2000 has been known to corrupt it, both in the console versions and the PC versions. Know that if you use a utility to edit save files, rosters, etc. it may crash (on boot for rosters, on load for other files), removing them from the given directory lets it refresh itself. ----------------------------------------------------------------------- END OF FILE