NFL

I have done no joke about 5,000 simulated season in NFL2k5 in the last 20 years. I can probably tell you more about franchise mode than any person alive. I’ve figured out what positions go when and certain trends in how the game drafts. Obviously everyone knows the first round is messed up, but here’s some other things.

-kickers never get selected in rounds 1-2.

-Punters never get selected in rounds 1-5

-Centers are drafted weird. I feel like they ALMOST never get drafted in round 2. If there’s a good one or two, they might go in round 3. They are also ALMOST never drafted in round 4 and they are never drafted in round 5. I usually draft one in round 5, sometimes the best center is still available.

-it is nearly impossible to get a good running back or tackle after round 1. In fact, until maybe 2-3 years ago, I NEVER drafted these players after round 1. Now I will occasionally grab a running back in the mid to late rounds as a cheap backup. And I was shocked to learn just recently how good these crappy running backs drafted late can get. I had a guy drafted as a 56 overall and he got up to an 84, which I believe is the highest overall jump I’ve ever seen on this game.

-I actually have quite a bit of success drafting defensive ends in the last 2 rounds. Sometimes you can get guys in the low 60s that will jump up to the high 70s or low 80s. In all my franchise years, I even had one guy I drafted in round 7 get over 100 career sacks.

Draft anomalies: In all my seasons I’ve done, one player sticks out. Running Back Jose Powers. Jose played 16 years for me, gained over 1000 yards all 16, averaged 4.7 yards per carry as a 72 overall in his last year, finished with over 23000 rushing yards, 600 receptions, over 30000 yards from scrimmage and 237 touchdowns.

Receiving stats are low if you just sim 5 minute quarters like me. In any given year you’ll only have between 0-6 1000 yard receivers. Any amazing receiver you would be something like 80-1300-12tds. I’ve only had one guy exceed these numbers in a season, and it wasn’t close. 100 rated receiver Rudy Stone once had a 100-1778-17 line in one season. This would be like a real NFL receiver having 175 catches for 2500 yards and 30 touchdowns. I’ve never cleared 1400 in any other season with anyone and this guy had 1778. Insane.

• I’ve never had a player break the All time sack record, but the closest I got was a defensive tackle who finished with 188. (Record is 200).

• I’ve never had anyone break the all time interceptions record of 81 but I did have a guy with 76 so it might be possible.

• highest overall players I ever drafted was a 90 overall at the draft, once a guard and once a cornerback. The guard jumped to a 99 after preseason, the highest rated rookie I’ve ever had.

Other tips

Managing the salary cap is difficult. You can’t keep everybody. But here are some non cheating tips that can help.

• when your season is over, if you have money left over on your salary cap, I try to use as much of it as possible before going into the next season. For example, say you have a 92 overall cornerback who just finished his rookie deal who is about to be a free agent in the next season. Say I have 10 million left in cap space. Say corner wants 4/28 million. I will do a front loaded or descending contract. This is like essentially ripping up the last year of the rookie contract and giving the player a new one. Sign the player to a descending deal that pays them 10 million in year one. Then you go to the next season and that player is now playing out the remainder of that new 4 year deal, which would be 3/18 million. I try to re-sign or extend as many players as I can without going into the red; this isn’t the real NFL and salary cap space does not transfer to the next year so if you don’t use it, you lose it.

• don’t give signing bonuses to players who aren’t stars. The worst thing to have in managing a football team is dead money. If you give a player a signing bonus and then cut or trade him, you pay the entirety of the bonus. So if you sign a guy for 6 years and cut him or trade him after year 2, you’re still paying his bonus for 4 more years. Money isn’t finite so don’t waste it on guys no longer on your team. For the longest time I gave every player descending contracts with no bonus. This was so I could cut or trade guys without paying a penalty. This isn’t cheating because contracts will be larger overall when there is no bonus. A guy might want 6/16 million with a 40% bonus. If you give no bonus you might have to give him 6/18 million. You pay guys a little more this way but it gives you more flexibility. And then every new season you have a bunch of players making less than the year before and that opens up cap space to re-sign your players. In recent years I’ve just started tweaking my formula a little bit. I will give bonuses to superstars. If you are positive a player is going to be on your team for many years, the best thing to do is adhere to those contract demands. Since it’s a superstar, it’s unlikely you will need to trade or cut them, so giving them what they want will make them a little cheaper and may make their next contract a little cheaper as well. Also, I came to notice that sometimes giving players a descending contract when they don’t want one could make them retire earlier. Say a player makes 15 million the first 3 years of a deal but might only make 5-6 over the last 2 years, they might say fuck it and retire early. So for super duper stars, give those guys exactly what they want and you’ll be able to keep them longer for cheaper.

• check your depth chart in playoffs. The game glitches and puts some backups in when the playoffs start. I always check my whole depth chart before simulating a playoff game to make sure it’s accurate.

-when you look at the injury report, it’s a little misleading. If you go into a new week and your report says the player has an injury with one week left, put them in because they are healthy.

• if a player is doubtful or questionable, the game will sit those players even if they are still starting in the depth chart. However they will still play if they are probable.

• sometimes you will notice in the depth chart a player’s rating is in red meaning they are hurt but you won’t find them on the injury report. This just means they still have a lingering injury but they are still playing.

• Tackles do not get injured in simulated games for some reason.

• it’s almost pointless to draft tight ends and tackles in the last 2 rounds. The reason being is that you’re not going to get anyone good enough to start at those positions in rounds 6-7 and when the draft is over, you can sign undrafted rookies and get them incredibly cheap. For other positions, drafting backups late is great because you can typically get them cheaper in the draft then after. So basically if you draft a 50 overall tight end in round 7, you might be able to get the same guy after the draft for the same price, or cheaper, and then you can draft someone else.

This is all I could think of tonight but I’ll post more when I remember. Any questions let me know. Oh and fuck Madden! Lol

NFL+ is a scam!

I just purchased a month of NFL+, at their base package, and I cant even watch it on my TV!

The base package only allows a mobile phone or a tablet, and when I cast it from my phone to TV it says it's not allowed. So I opened up a web browser, cast it to the TV and now I am watching a choppy version of the Week 5 match up of Pit vs Bal.

So I spent $8 just to get told to spend $20 to be able to do what I want to do, which is watch the Texans make playoffs!

Fuck the NFL for having a POS app with a POS marketing scheme

These are my predictions. There is explanations for any changes in QB or coach.

Miami: Tua Mike McDaniels

Buffalo: Josh Allen Sean Mcdermott

Jets: Aaron Rodgers Robert Salah

Patriots: Jim Harbaugh and JJ McCarthy

Patriots will Hire Harbaugh to be the head coach after Bill is traded away. The Patriots will Draft JJ McCarthy with pick 35 in round 2.

Baltimore: John Harbaugh and Lamar Jackson

Cleveland: Joe Flacco/Deshaun Watson and Kevin Stefnski

Cleveland will start with Watson who will get injured and Flacco will take over.

Steelers: Mike Tomlin Jacoby Brissett

Kenny Pickett will start the season terribly and they will sign and put Brissett in by week 5 and will be better.

Bengals: Joe Burrow and Zac Taylor

Jacksonville: Trevor Lawrence and Doug Peterson

Colts: Anthony RIchardson and Shane Steichen

Houston: CJ Stroud and DeMeco Ryans

Titans: Will Levis and Mike Vrabel

Kansas City: Patrick Maholmes and Andy Reid

Denver Broncos: Russell Wilson and Sean Payton

Denver will select Bo Nix in round 2 to replace Wilson in the future

Las Vegas: Justin Fields and Antonio Pierce

Pierce keeps his job and the Raiders trade a 2nd this year and a future 4th for Fields.

Chargers: Justin Herbert and Ben Johnson

Charger Hire Lions OC Ben Johnson to take over and coach the team.

Dallas: Dak Prescott and Bill Belichick

Dallas will lost in the playoffs and fire Mike Mccarthy. They will trade a late first for Bill.

Eagles: Jalen Hurts Nick Sirianni

NY Giants: Jaden Daniels and Brian Daboll

Giants will move from 5 to 3 in the draft to snag Daniels.

Washington: Drake Maye and Brian Johnson

Washington will Draft Maye at 2 and snag Johnson from the Eagles.

Detroit: Jared Goff Dan Campbell

Green Bay: Jordan Love Matt LaFleur

Vikings: Kurt Cousins and Kevin O’Connell Vikings Resign Cousins

Chicago Bears: Caleb Williams and Matt Eberflus

Caleb Williams goes number 1

Tampa Bay: Baker Mayfield and Todd Bowles

Baker Resigns

Saints: Derrick Carr and Dennis Allen

Atlanta: Michael Pennix and Brian Flores

Atlanta adds Pennix in round 1 and steals Brian Flores from the Vikings to be the Head Coach

San Fransisco: Brock Purdy and Kyle Shanahan

Rams: Matt Stafford and Sean McVay

Seattle: Pete Caroll and Geno Smith

Arizona: Kyler Murray and Johnathan Gannon

It’s 2024 and they are still broadcasting games in 720p. I live in Canada and Raptors games are in 4k, Blue Jays games are 4k and a lot of NHL games are in 4k for years now. Is this some American broadcast limitation? Would be interested to know.

It doesn't make sense. My only guess is that their sports betting partners have something to do with it.

Anyhow, does anybody know of alternatives?

It worked like this: No draft, everybody picks from same set of players and players can be on multiple teams. Standard fantasy lineup and scoring. If your players team wins, you get 2x points for that player in the second round. Win again 3x, etc.

The game is on ABC. They could have kicked off at noon EST and finished around 3:30 so ABC could still get an hour of Monday Night Countdown before Steelers/Ravens.

I don't get it. Seems like such a wasted opportunity to get more eyes on the FCS.

A friend and I am driving up from Chicago tomorrow for the game, he is a hugeeeee Bears fan (eep) and I have never been to a non-high school football game so I figured I'd join to see what it's like!!! I have combed through all the posts here and seen how lovely Wisconsonites are, so I wanted to ask for advice if anyone had anything they wished they knew before their first game.

I see cardboard for your feet and hand warmers are recommended, and I see they rent seat cushions for $8 (I think?) Is there anything special extra I should bring other than handwarmers, mittens, and credit cards? (I read it's no cash?) I'm assuming no big bags are allowed in the stadium? I'm so sorry to ask but are sweatpants encouraged? I was thinking layers on layers on layers.

We are hoping to get there at 12 and walk around and people watch the tailgates, and I saw Kroll's West is the place to go for food and drink! First time NFL game, first time tailgate, first time at Lambeau, 3rd time to Wisconsin!! VERY EXCITED TO SEE SOME CHEESEHEADS!!!!!!! (also don't know if cheeseheads is a fun nickname or a very out of touch nickname, I was born and raised East Coast haha)

edit: also anyone have experience with post sunday game night traffic? Is it notoriously bad or ok? thanks for entertaining all my silly questions :)

I admittedly have limited sports history knowledge beyond the 313, but I can’t recall any other trades that have been as mutually beneficial for both parties involved.

Yes another Justin Fields post

Yes another biased Justin Fields fan

I think this and my 2nd point are being underrated aspects of the current debate going on. People are anchoring on to Mooneys 1000 yard season (a year he got 140!!! targets). I’m struggling to find a worse group of WR2/3 in the league (Carolina is probably the only one).

2nd point brought up by this week by RJ Bell (quoting Mike Lombardi) is the idea of playing behind a bad o-line “bringing your eye level down". Sam Howell was playing really good football to start the year and just got progressively worse, the theory being the more sacks you take, the lower your confidence to make plays with the deep ball. The line Fields played behind Y1/2 was absolutely a catastrophe, and they really didnt become good until around W6. playing aggressively with the deep ball is how Fields wins. Y1/Y2 were horrible for his progression.

lastly, the sacks. does anyone have a way to find out how many sacks are taken on 1st/2nd down? from watching the games it seems like Fields takes the vast majority of them on 3rd down, which is very important to note. a sack vs an incompletion on that down in most scenarios has virtually no impact on the probability of winning.

just my thoughts