LogFAQs > #912838276

I have brought this up in chat from time-to-time, and I have probably posted something along these lines once every other season, but I want to reiterate to people that you should always field a competitive team. Even if it seems unlikely that you will make the playoffs, you should at all times try to win as many games as possible.

Player development in this video game does not work like real life. While individual performance does have a great impact on their development, unit and team performance also play a significant role. if you surround good players or players that you see as one of the cornerstones of your team present and/or future with poor or lackluster teammates, the chances of their development being stalled or their regression being accelerated regardless of how they personally play substantially increases. A LB early or midway through their career could have a sensational season, but if their fellow starting LBs were relative no-shows or even worse, the entire defense was a total pushover, then your LB has a great chance of improving by just one point, see no changes, or even digress.

As an example, the Columbus Pioneers ended the season on a seven-game losing streak with the defense completely eroding and becoming the worst in the league by a decent margin. Defensive Player of the Year candidate and MVP candidate, then 29-year old LB Kamerion Wimbley saw no rating change come the offseason. The season before, Packers' 32-33-year-old LB Spencer Havner was a co-MVP winner and by virtue of not having his defensive comrades let him down, he actually saw his rating rise despite being in the waning years of his career.

If you applies this to your entire team, you might see some players go up a point or two after the season ends, mostly the players just starting out their careers who already get an end-of-season boost. but if four times as many see their ratings drop multiple points, then you're going backwards as a team. So if someone adopts a roster-building philosophy that has them doing a sizable teardown and doesn't supplement that with a plethora of high draft picks and/or being a major force in free agency, then you are destined to fall into a cycle of poor or mediocre teams. I would have to assume that isn't very fun nor is it good for the health of the league. There are some examples that I can use of teams that just weren't getting it done but stuck with it and more or less worked out in the end.

The Cowboys are a team that have picked in the Top 10 five times. Their GM was periodically active in free agency. They were patient, and ultimately everything clicked after several seasons and have reeled off four straight SB appearances.

The Pumpkins have picked in the Top 5 three times. Instead of throwing in the towel, they held onto their key players. They had a string of good draft picks, and once the AI took over, they went after free agents hard. They had a non-losing record for I want to say four straight seasons before the hiccup last season. While it never resulted in a playoff appearance as they were victims of being in arguably the toughest division and a historically the tougher conference, they were statistically one of the best teams in the league, and the player development proved that. They remain a playoff caliber team and will likely remain so for at least the next few seasons.

The bottom line is that you should always try to field the best team that you can. That doesn't mean that you should always hold onto players you no longer want on your team just because they have a good rating. I'm just saying that you if feel that you need to make plenty of changes for your team, do not rebuild but retool or the future for your team will likely be grim.
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KCF can't actually be a real person but he is - greengravy
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