Underrated Madden legend

I swear bro if you made a field general I’m either sorry for you, or your God’s strongest soldier. I feel like if you don’t make anything other than a Lamar Jackson archetype, then this mode is unplayable bro… no matter if you set blocking assignments PA passes equal immediate sacks for defense, HB screen passes are always tackles for loss, if you run anything other than mesh, you have 0.5 seconds to throw the ball before you’re hit, WR’s are butterfingers for days, Madden will flash a button indicating an open receiver and they’ll either drop the ball or get intercepted, your entire o line apparently has “smarter ai” but they freely let anyone in the pocket, and they all get hurt game 1 of the season, and all defenses play like Aaron fuckin Donald. Not to mention how buggy this game is, and it seems like whenever you’re doing good the game will freeze with the crowd screaming in the back and you have to quit and start over. I was up 21-0 against the Carolina Panthers with 150 passing yards in the 1st quarter and it did that. Then I replayed the game, now all of a sudden they were CRACKED. It’s like the game isn’t designed for you to win at all bro… I don’t expect anything to be easy but DAMN ts not fun and EA needs to fix their game

Hi all,

Haven't bought madden since the one with the Mahome's cover. I remember the servers being dogwater for Australia making it almost impossible to play online.

Wondering if anything's changed in last few years. Can't see much online about it? Anyone from AU know if it's gotten better at all?

Cheers!

Just wondering how many people are playing previous years versions of Madden regularly? For example, I’m playing both Madden 26 and CFB 26. I typically buy both after the Super Bowl when EA usually sells them for about $13 each. I don’t see the need to buy the current years game anymore as the gameplay is relatively the same and there is still online support for older versions for several years after release. Personally I think Madden should just be a subscription type game with annual roster updates, but until then staying 1-2 years behind I don’t feel I’m missing anything. The only possible drawback is Madden rosters change but if one plays MUT that does not matter as much. In franchise mode players can be traded or created if needed. In CFB, it’s more about the school than the players . Just wondering if anyone feels the same or if buying new versions annually is still a thing

I haven’t been able to start a league yet, how is franchise going after the update?

Okay I've done my best to accept Madden for what it is and continue playing (because l/we have no other choice thanks to EA having exlclusive rights to making an NFL game and therefore they don't have to try), but my god. This is the stuff that makes me rage and just not play. I had already quit but I wish I could've shown how wide open Boston is before the safety (Bullock) makes an absurd break on it in the last second. I screamed WHAT live when it happened, this atrocity was that obvious in real time. The ball stops it's downward spiraling trajectory, turns like 20 degrees, and then takes a 90 degree turn upwards into the defenders hands.. Thank you for listening, had to get this one off my chest lol. Playing in franchise mode btw. Oh, and the entire crowd (I'm playing at home) went wild celebrating after the play. I have video of that too. Amazing stuff EA.

I've spent a lot of time testing the franchise coaching abilities, specifically the scouting ones: Eagle Eye, Talent Evaluator, and Fit Finder.

Quick note up front: the positional abilities seem to work as described. Stack a couple and you'll see a real difference in what gets unlocked for that position. This post is about the scouting abilities, which fail in ways I can't explain.

Problem 1: They don't expire. They reset.
Every scouting ability is listed as lasting 5 weeks. Say you're out of the playoff race and equip one in week 15. You have 4 games left, so you'd expect 4 weeks of the ability, then either 1 week carrying into next season (worst case) or it burning off during the playoffs and offseason, since those count as weeks too (best case).

Neither happens. If the season ends with time left on the ability, it fully resets and locks in at preseason week 1 the following year. You have no choice. You're stuck with the same scouting ability for a full 5 weeks of the next season.

Problem 2: The abilities that should be the most powerful either do nothing or do the opposite.

Talent Evaluator. Supposed to give a 10% reduction on talent range unlock per ability, so 30% stacked across HC, OC, and DC. In theory that drops the threshold for seeing a prospect's round from 95% to 85% with one, or 65% with three.
It doesn't lower the threshold at all. With one or three equipped, you still need 95% to see a prospect's round.
Stacking more than one actively breaks it. I tested a prospect at 100% unlocked: with two equipped, the round disappears entirely. With one or zero, it shows fine.
This one is already well documented as not working, and I can confirm it.

Eagle Eye. Supposed to give a 10% reduction on two-letter range unlock. Normally you need 70% to get every grade down to two letters (A to B instead of A to C). This should lower that to 60%.
It does nothing. With it off, 70% players show two letters and 60 to 65% players show three. With it on, no change at 60 or 65.
Stack three and it gets worse: players at 70% now show three letters instead of two.

Fit Finder. Supposed to be a 20% reduction on archetype unlock. This is filler. Even in the best-case use (equip it the week prospects are revealed), you learn everyone's archetype by about week 3 anyway. So you spend 5 weeks of a slot for roughly 2 weeks of a head start on archetypes, with no info on abilities and nothing you can act on. Truly useless ability.

The bigger picture
Positional abilities work, but they cost 6 weeks, don't reveal much on their own, only really deliver if you stack them, and they carry over too.

From what I understand, these have been broken for several years. It's a shame, because the idea is good. It just never got finished.

So I am trying to use 30 team control and I guess I can’t figure out one of the settings. So I have myself owning all teams and I went and processed the two colts trades and after each trade the teams that acquired the players signed them to long term deals despite me having all teams actions set to manual

Any idea what gives ?

Is that every injury recovery time is like the injury just happened. So guys like Micah Parsons are out for the year. They really need to make injuries editable, like other sports games.

Honestly just looking for POLITE advice, tired of being treated like I’m dumb. Seahawks playbook. Best formations? Should I mix up coverages? spam the same thing? Disguise with pre snap shells?

Feels like whatever I run my opponents just figured out immediately. Doesn’t help I can’t bring pressure and I have no idea what settings to even use at this point. I have good cards and I know this is a me issue, which I’m trying to deal with. Any and all POLITE advice is appreciated.

How do you pass? No matter what I do they are covered. I can rush 150 yards try PA and I get sacked instantly. My players can be 8 yards open but the second the defender touches them the ball falls out of their hands. THESE ARE NFL PLAYERS THEY CAN HOLD ON TO THE BALL. I feel like I’m going crazy.

So I loaded up a game of H2H and several players including my WR Rome Odunze and my DB Tyrique Stevenson had an interesting glitched large object attached to their helmet 😳
This has happened a couple of times since owning the game from pre-order launch date.

Has anybody else run into this ? 🫩😡

It doesn’t really do anything except create an eye sore and make it hard to cover reads but lets just not fix our games I guess EA 🤦🏼‍♂️😭

So, I’m playing with the Giants against the Saints, and the announcers keep calling him Achane—I feel like this has happened before. Do the announcers ever refer to Etienne as himself? Lol this is actually pathetic.

What's your "How are they here?" Moment when looking at a team interested in your services?

I am old school enough to remember when Madden used to have NFL classic teams available. I believe they abandoned it as to not have to pay individual retired players outside of owning the NFL rights and access to all current players. I’d love to see classic teams back in a similar manner that NBA 2K does with classic NBA teams. Does anyone agree this would be a nice feature to renew ?

Kind of crazy but not really