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Madden 23 franchise motivations player tags

Player Tags, Motivations, and Everything Else That Is New in Madden 23 Franchise Mode

Lots of new changes are coming to franchise mode in Madden 23 and we’ll walk you through each of them 1 by 1 today. If you missed our earlier article on the new Superstar and X-Factor abilities in Madden 23, you can check that out here.

Let’s dive in!

Player Tags

Player tags are a new feature in franchise mode that can impact how a player is treated by their team. Some player tags will cause a player to get increased XP, some player tags will lead a player to be higher or lower on the depth chart by default, and other player tags will influence how many teams are interested in a player in free agency.

Not every player will have a player tag. They are usually reserved for very good players, very young players, or older players.

There are 9 player tags in Madden 23’s franchise mode. You can check out what all of them are and what they do below.

Franchise QB: This one is pretty self explanatory. The truly elite quarterbacks get this tag. Think players like Patrick Mahomes, Josh Allen, Justin Herbert, etc. A team that has a player with this tag is unlikely to draft or sign a free agent replacement.

Award Winner: If a player wins an end of the season award like MVP, offensive rookie of the year, or best linebacker they will get the Award Winner tag. This will increase the number of teams interested in the player during free agency.

Day 1 Starter: Day 1 Starters will be placed above similarly rated players in the depth chart. This solves the problem of when a team drafts a star development 75 overall rookie but for some reason the CPU will bench him to instead play a normal development 76 overall 31 year old. Teams are also unlikely to draft a replacement for this player.

QB Of The Future: This is basically Day 1 starter but for the quarterback position. They are likely to start above similarly rated players and teams are unlikely to draft a replacement for them.

Trade Target: Players with this tag will be added to the trade block.

Mentor: Teams are more interested in these players during free agency. Mentors also boost weekly XP for players at their position.

Future Starter: Players will be placed above similarly rated bridge players on the depth chart. This player will also receive bonus XP during weekly training.

Bridge Player: If starting, teams will look to draft their replacement. Future starters will be placed ahead of this player on the depth chart.

Bridge QB: This is the same as a bridge player just at the Quarterback position.

Motivations

Motivations are different from player tags in that every player has them. When going to sign a player, you will want to check out what their motivations are to see if they are likely to sign with you.

Each player has up to 3 motivations and you can see how well your team does in each of the things that motivate them. Motivations are ranked in order of importance to each player. Their highest motivation will be at the top, then their 2nd and 3rd motivations will be listed below that.

Motivations just make a player more or less likely to sign with you but you can still sometimes overcome low motivation interest by wildly over paying for a player.

There are 12 motivations at this point in Madden 23 and we’ll go over them in a little more detail below.

Super Bowl Chase: Players with this motivation prefer to sign with a team that has a chance to compete for a Super Bowl.

Historic Championships: Players with this motivation prefer to sign with a team that has a history of winning championships.

Head Coach Historic Record: Players with this motivation prefer to sign with a team that has a coach with a good record of winning in the past.

Close To Home: Players with this motivation prefer to sign with a team that is close to where they grew up.

Warm Weather State: Players with this motivation prefer to play in cities that have good weather.

Scheme Fit: Players with this motivation prefer to play for teams where they are a scheme fit.

Big Market: Players with this motivation prefer to play for teams that are located in big markets.

No Income Tax: Players with this motivation prefer to play for teams located in states with no income tax (Florida, Nevada, Texas, Washington).

Top Of The Depth Chart: Players with this motivation prefer to play for teams where they can be at the top of the depth chart.

Highest Offer: Players with this motivation prefer to play for teams that give them the biggest contract.

Mentor At Position: Players with this motivation prefer to play for teams that have a mentor at their position.

Team Has Franchise QB: Players with this motivation prefer to play for teams that have a franchise quarterback.

Free Agent Period

The free agent period will see some changes in Madden 23 as well. There are 2 big ones that immediately jumped out as different and important.

First, you will be limited to negotiations with no more than 5 players in the early rounds of free agency. That means you will have to make some hard choices on which players to pursue. As you get toward the later stages of free agency, this limit will no longer apply.

Second, you will no longer see how your offers compare with other teams’ offers. You used to have the green/yellow/red bars showing you how interested a player is in your offer in relationship to other teams’ offers. That will no longer be the case in Madden 23. You will now only see a number that tells you how many teams are giving that player an offer.

A minor change which can streamline the process of free agency a little is the addition of 4 different types of pre-set contracts. In the past you’d have to manually increase the number of years, the signing bonus, and the salary for a player that you wanted to sign.

You can still do that in Madden 23 (it is called a custom contract), but you can also just use one of the 4 preset offers based on how interested you are in that player.

In order from least effective to most effective, here are your 4 options.

  • Team Friendly – Kind of a low-ball contract that a player is unlikely to sign
  • Neutral – Fair value salary for a player of this caliber
  • Player Friendly – Slightly overpaying but a player is more likely to sign
  • Very Player Friendly – Overpaying by a lot but is a very strong offer.

The team friendly option is more likely to work for an older player who you meet his motivations and not too many others teams are interested in.

Whereas if you are trying to sign one of the top free agents in a class, you will almost be forced into offer a very player friendly contract just to compete.

Our Madden 23 franchise mode coverage is the best around so if you want all of the tools to dominate your online franchise, make sure to check out our Madden School Unlimited Pre-Sale for Madden 23!

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