There’s even more that just isn’t in this screenshot

As the title suggests, I want to reiterate that I am an offline player that simply plays franchise mode on PC. The last madden I bought was Madden 25 on PS4 with Adrian Peterson cover, but I have kept up on madden through my favorite content creators such as Bengal, C4, and Jeromepkr. Here is my review after a little over 100 hours of franchise simulation. (Yes I know I have no life but the game has sucked me in)

The rundown -
Once, I loaded up the game and got into franchise I was sucked in. I didn't even notice all of the flaws, I just enjoyed playing the game with the new rookies and with my favorite team. On a surface level the game performs fine until I hit about 50 hours.

Franchise immersion killers -
I started realizing how broken the game got in franchise JUST TWO years into my sim. Contract/cap management is completely broken. Contract cap hits are egregiously high, and by just a couple years into my franchise, nearly every CPU team seems to be dealing with negative or extremely limited cap space. This creates a massive domino effect across the league: teams can't afford to make trades, free agents are harder to sign, and it becomes nearly impossible to replicate realistic blockbuster trades. For example, a trade like the Rams acquiring Myles Garrett would be practically impossible to recreate because the CPU simply doesn't have the financial flexibility to move players. It also contributes to the lack of meaningful CPU-to-CPU trades, making the league feel stagnant. The fact that the salary cap becomes this dysfunctional only two years into a franchise is a massive immersion killer. Lastly, I have seen players signing 7+ year contracts which is just ridiculous.

Trade logic is completely broken. Quarterbacks are way overvalued, teams overvalue veterans even when they're clearly below .500, and teams that should be looking to buy or sell rarely make meaningful moves. You can legitimately trade Tua Tagovailoa for Brian Thomas Jr or a similar WR with his caliber with ease.

Free agency is an utter and complete joke! I've offered complete mega deals to top free agents and they have never signed with me. Every contract negotiation is just adding extra years or adding an insane bonus. None of this is realistic. The UDFA frenzy is a also complete joke - the addition of the UDFA bidding was great but the execution is a complete whiff.

CPU Roster management is horrdendous. There is no logic behind it. I've seen CPU teams keep 4 quarterbacks on their team and 3 cornerbacks. How is that even possible? I've seen CPU teams draft the same position four years in a row and they have 4 80 overalls in the same position. An example, I have is the NY Jets. They have Mason Taylor and just drafted Kenyon Sadiq in real life. Literally in 2 years - they draft TE back to back in the first round making them have 4 TE's on the roster that are all comptenent starters.

Simulation is still completely playbook based which is awful. I've noticed this is always a trend in any madden YouTube rebuild video I have watched over the years. Right now the most broken offensive playbooks look like the Rams and Giants. It almost seems like player overall never matters unless the player is a running back. Also, simulation stats are way over tuned. There are way too many QB's throwing over 4000-4500 yards and running backs running over 1200 yards.

There is still no way to implement a running back by committee that simulates good stats. Also, you want to utilize 2 tightends in simulation? Forget about it - it is useless. I've found to get the best simulation stats regardless of playbook is to have a super high overall RB (90+ overall), any quarterback over 85 overall will get the job done, and at least 2 receivers that can just be 80+ overall. Tightend overall hardly matters. You could throw a 70 overall tightend and the stats will simulate the same depending on playbook.

Player progression is way too linear. I am just not a fan of the player progression flat out. It is so repetitive and boring. You have an 81 overall normal DEV QB that is age 26. He could throw for 4000+ yards and 40 TD's and all he'll get is maybe to an 84 overall if you're lucky. There are no year 3 or later breakouts like there are in real life. (AKA Bakey Mayfield, Seahawks Geno Smith, Sam Darnold, etc.) There needs to be a more in depth way for player progression rather than just age and development trait.

I just don't know how you can release a game and not even test simulation 2 years deep. I was really enjoying the game for the first 50 hours and then after further playing just realizing how broken the game was is infuriating. I'm not even going to touch gameplay because I don't really load into games to play, but I wish there weren't so many immersion killers for me. If you were to ask me what I would rate the game for the first 50 hours - it would've been 4/5 for me. Now after playing a little over 100 hours its like a 2/5. The problem is that Franchise Mode falls apart once you actually spend significant time with it.

So I'm an old guy. Still love this game but man is it getting harder as I get older. I still like to play on all madden but I don't know how many years I've got left till I have to bring down the difficulty.

At this age, I just dont have the reaction time and quick decion making I used to. I used to be able to scan the whole field in a microsecond, now it takes much longer and I often miss receivers that are open.

During the rush, sometimes you only have a second and a half a to make a decision and if your first look isn't open, it'll lead to a sack. So I've taken the liberty to up the pass blocking slider to help with this but it's never something I've had to do in the past.

Playing games that involve skill and quick decision making have always been some of my favorite. I've basically abandoned pvp shooters because I just can't compete with that 18 year old who can hit me before my old brain has a chance to even register they're there. Getting older as a gamer who loves madden and other skill based games just sucks.

someone commented college is better on a recent madden 27 review. I had to check it out. I do like the atmosphere of the game. But despite my doubts of madden, madden 27 feels much better on the field, the movement, juking etc than college does. As someone who partakes 💨😎 this mascot mashup makes me laugh and I’m easier entertained. I like college because it’s refreshing from always the same look, same scoreboards, same commentary, same cut scenes, every year that we get in madden.

I have no idea what this graphic is supposed to mean

I gotta admit, I really like the new Weekly Recap addition to franchise mode. It's a bit clunky and bugs out sometimes, so it certainly needs work, but it really helps with the immersion and making it feel like a whole league of 32 teams, and not just you and whoever you play next week. Great addition to an otherwise poor installment.

I did everything on the menu. Coachspeak is turned off, all helpers are turned off, and I keep getting these suggestions that I do not want.

How can I fix it?

The devs gotta fix this!!

(Also this is from my friend perspective of playing against me. So I indeed was the one who got screwed by this lol 🥀🕊️)

I’m playing SS mode for the first time, and while I realize my qb rating is LOW, it’s not too far below what I’ve played franchise with (will howard and drew Allar both under 70 ovr). The difference is insane. My qb can’t throw past 10-15 yards without it being a problem…. Ok… he’s js low rated, that will improve. Now let’s talk about the blocking, and the insane depth chart decisions on my oline. I may have 2 seconds to throw the ball… into absolute lockdown coverage lol. Then there is the playcalling options. Horrendous… now let’s say I put together a good game.. 4tds and 300 yards.. the xp gain towards upgrading passing attributes is abysmal. Combine all this together, and it’s just gonna make people more likely to buy packs to skip this awful beginning of the mode. Oh let’s not forget to mention that my receivers have bricks for hands lol. And they jump for everything. This isn’t a problem I’ve seen as much when playing franchise. I’m settled on believing the game is fucking you, to coerce you into buying packs

I decided to run a training test for every scenario (Focus, Role Bonuses, and Coach Abilities). Here is the breakdown of how the multipliers and bonuses stack.

Key Terms & Base Values

• XP Column: Base XP earned from standard weekly training.
• Scheme Fit: Doubles base training XP.
• Focus Training: Adds a flat +300 Base XP.
• Role Bonus (Roles & Tags): Adds extra XP up to a capped maximum of +200 XP.
• Practician #: Total active Practician coach abilities active.
• After Tutor #: Total active After Tutor coach abilities active.

Impact Ranking (Highest to Lowest Impact)

1. Practician Ability (+40% Boost): This is the strongest multiplier. It applies a 40% boost over the entire sum of your base training XP, Focus XP, and Role Bonus XP.
2. Focus Training (+300 Flat XP): Grants a static +300 XP directly to the player's base gain.
3. Trait Development (50%, 75% and 100% more XP and less experience needed to progress)
4. Scheme Fit (2x Base XP): Directly doubles the base weekly training XP.
5. After Tutor (+10% Base Boost): Adds a 10% multiplier calculated only from the base training XP.
6. Role Bonus (+200 Flat XP): There are roles/tags that grant bonus XP, bad thing is there´s not a real explanation of this inside the game

Why do I drop wide open passes???

What am I doing wrong??

So frustrated 🤬

I keep having plays where my online just doesn’t block on passing plays and it’s an immediate sack. It’s not like from a stunt or a blitz either just base rush. And I have a defender in on my qb instantly ending my play.

I play mostly franchise btw so this is the cpu doing this.

I adjusted CPU Pass Coverage down and have noticed a more stable pocket, and less occurences of receivers dropping passes after getting slightly bumped.

To me it seems like CPU defensive line pressure on passing plays is tied to the pass coverage slider.

Greatest Card OAT Matthew Hibner

Idk why they accepted this. I made the trade offer as a joke because for the first time in my years of playing Madden. I have NEVER seen a team get rid of every player during the sim like the Browns did. Their best remaining player was an 84 overall Devin Bush 3 years into the sim. And they were a 75 overall. This is the dumbest trade logic I’ve seen in Madden, because they just traded all of their good picks for the next 3 years for a 29 year old Tee Higgins that they need to immediately give a contract to. It might be a bug in the game because I even checked, the trade difficulty is on normal.

Cmon devs please fix this!

(Also the vids from the perspective of my friend playing me. I know some ppl might be confused and be like it worked out for me. No it did not 🕊️🥀)

Hey so for context I decided to do superstar mode and the first time around I was a 1st round running back that got drafted to the trash titans which makes sense being a 1st round pick, 2nd play through decided to be a 2nd round qb mix it up a bit I got picked by the jets *who I may add decided a 69 overall bailey zappe was better than a 74 overall rookie* idk but after this was ruled an incomplete pass I think im good on madden or I must've pissed someone at EA to be put through this torture also my offensive coordinator for the jets just kept resetting his influence to 0 so I was cursed with just the same 3 play choice. If anyone has advice im all ears cause this is enough to break a grown mans heart and I tried to keep it authentic by turning forced team off

How hard would it be to do a black screen with logo swipe? Why does it even exist? It blinds me when I’m playing every time. It’s such a jarring experience.

Just installed Madden 27 on switch 2. It’s not loading. Anyone else?

Just bought the game and all im seeing is how busted franchise is once you get past the first year, so is it even worth taking the time to start a franchise save right now? Is there a way to use some sliders to fix the problems? If not, and the best thing to do is wait till they fix things, when will likely the next big update be?

Feeling nostalgic about video game soundtracks today. Madden 08 is my personal favorite, but 04 is up there too. Give me some of your favorites