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Madden NFL 15 Player Progression in Connected Franchise Mode

Madden after madden we have always wanted to know what areas really matter for player progression and now that XP is at a premium we wanted to delve in and determine the areas for each position that really matters. One common mistake so far in this madden is people spending precious XP on consistency thinking it will resulting in more xp, which it actually doesn’t provide for drills.

QBs- The live drills in madden 15 are tailored for QBs with several different options. For player progression it’s pretty straight forward for QBs with QB accuracy areas needing to be addressed 1st. Throw power is extremely important as well. The last area that needs to be upgraded is play action.

RBs- There has been some discussion on what to really upgrade on a HB, it really all depends on the type of back. If you are progressing a power back then trucking and carrying is the crucial areas. For speed backs, BCV as well as Awareness is important as running to the outside has better results with these areas being upgraded. I perfomed testing going against the 49ers front 7 and with awareness and BCV set at 0 the RB averaged 4 ypc for dive type runs and 3 ypc on off tackle runs. With BCV upped to 99 the average for dive type runs was pretty much the same with the outside runs averaging 5 ypc. With both awareness and BCV up to 99 the dive type runs averaged 5 ypc and the outside runs averaged 9 ypc.

WRs & TEs- For passing purposes we focused on the obvious catch categories as well as awareness. The catch categories showed to be most important to upgrade. Awareness is also important as players with low awareness would sometimes not even go for the catch letting the ball go by. Route running was another area that we found to be very important as route running resulted in more open targets.

O-Line- The obvious choice is the blocking categories with RBK, PBK and IMPB. We performed some testing adjusting the blocking categories down to 50 with awareness and strength being down to 50 as well. With this setting the dive type runs resulted in -2 ypc and on the outside runs resulted in 0 ypc. We then set the RBK and PBK at 99 with all other categories still at 50 and the dive type runs resulted in 3 ypc and the outside runs resulted in 1 ypc. We then increased the IMPB up to 99 and left the str and awr at 50 and the dive type runs resulted in 5 ypc with the outside runs resulting in 8 ypc. We then increased awareness up to 99 and left str at 50 and the dive type runs resulted in 6 ypc with the outside runs resulting in 8 ypc. We upped the str to 50 and got the same results. With these results it shows that strength isn’t as important for the offensive line.

For Pass Blocking with all the settings at 50, the qb had 2 to 3 seconds to pass on non blitz plays and on a blitz the qb had less than 2 seconds. Upping the PBK to 99 allowed the qb 4 seconds on non blitz plays and 3 seconds on blitz. Changing the Awr slider allowed 6 seconds on non blitz plays and 4 seconds on blitz. Again, strength showed not to be a critical area.

D-Line- We lowered the str and BSH down to 50 for the 3-4 d-line and ran dives with an average of 20-ypc. The D-line got blew off the ball and no one was double teamed. We upped the BSH up to 99 with the str still at 50 and had an average of 6 ypc and the DT would occasionally get double teamed. We changed the str up to 99 and moved the BSH back to 50 and had an average 6 YPC as well and had no double teams. We then put both categories up to 99 and had an average -2 ypc with multiple D-lineman requiring double teams.

LBs- BSH is a critical area for LBs as is PRC and AWR. We performed testing putting these settings down to 0 and up to 99 and found that all were very important. BSH is critical in the run game as well as PRC and AWR. For pass coverage AWR made the LBs play the ball better on passes and resulted in more INTs. PRC was critical for play action passing. With high PRC you don’t need to pass commit for the lbs to cover their zones on pass plays. Pursuit is another area that is important for this position.

DBs- Much like the LBs AWR and PRC is very important. We lowered the PRC and AWR down to 50 and set zone D up to 99. With this setting the DBs did not play their zones aggressive and did not react on the ball. We then lowered the zones down to 80 and increased the PRC up to 99 and the zones were tighter but still the DBs didn’t break on the ball going for the ints. Setting the AWR and PRC up to 99 with zones at 80 the DBs were very aggressive going for INTs by jumping routes with the zones playing very tight. Pursuit is another area that helps in the run game for DBs. The obvious man and zone coverage upgrades are important but are much more effective when you have a player with higher PRC and AWR.

Dev Traits are much improved in Madden 15 and well worth the cost to upgrade. A rookie player with normal DEV trait will get an average of 400 xp for 8 hours of game prep. A rookie with the fast trait will get an average of 600 xp for 8 hours of game prep. A rookie with SS trait will get 800 XP for 8 hours of game prep. To boost it up even further you can purchase the positional upgrades for the coach and that adds an addition 400 xp per 8 hours of game prep. So a rookie with SS trait will get 1200 XP for 8 hours of game prep if you purchase the coach package for that position. Also there is a coach XP package that is supposed to increase XP for all players. This doesn’t effect game prep XP and only has an effect on XP earned from games.

All the testing was performed on all madden setting by long time Madden School moderator Crice256. Let us know your thoughts in the comments section below.

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Dangerzone
Dangerzone
9 years ago

I noticed that each time you increased a rating for online the yards per attempt went up but at a lower rate than the previous upgrade. Do you think that this could be why Strength for O-line appears to have no importance but for D-line it does?

Dangerzone
Dangerzone
9 years ago
Reply to  Dangerzone

O-line* not online (sorry)

crice256
crice256
9 years ago

Strength didnt have any impact at all on O_line results. It was set to 50 while the block settings were moved up. The real change in production came from Impact blocking.

Guerito
Guerito
9 years ago

For the DLine did you do any testing with the finesse and power moves attributes?

For rbs did you do any testing for the str attribute for trucking ability?

For Lbs did you adjust the Str attribute any while run d testing? if it makes such a huge difference for dline blockshedding wouldnt it be the same for lbs?

Great job on the research really appreciate the hard work you and your guys put into this,, one of the most time consuming things to do but one of the most helpful things to guys in the CFM scene

Sajiky
Sajiky
9 years ago

when treating the running backs, did you do the runs yourself of just watch the cpu run them. I guess I understand why awareness is important for when the cpu runs the ball, but what about when I carry it myself.

I guess it just seems to me when I am controlling the runner that I am using my own real life awareness so don’t see how raising that ability can help in that case.

Thanks a ton for your work on this btw some readly good info here.