The Madden NFL franchise has seen its ups and downs, but more recently fans have become vocally upset at the state of the series' franchise mode. With the game's Ultimate Team mode becoming extremely popular and bringing in tons of revenue, the developer and publisher have shifted their focus towards making that mode worthwhile.
As a result, the franchise mode has released with issues and has seen the disappearance of key features along the way. Let's now look at 5 problems with Madden's franchise mode and 5 features that need to return.
10 Return: Create A Team
You would assume that almost every sports game includes the ability to create your team, but Madden no longer is one of these games.
There's a rumored story that has floated around the internet that the feature was removed from the games at the request of the NFL as they felt the ability to alter real NFL team logos diminished the overall brand of both the team itself as well as the NFL. Here's hoping the feature makes a return and they allow users to upload their logos, just like the NBA 2K series has done.
9 Problems: Week Rewind
Humans are flawed and because of this, there are times when mistakes happen. Not because they were malicious or intentional, but simply because humans can be dumb sometimes. Giving players the ability to rewind a week would be great and online franchises would flourish because of it.
Coordinating with several other people and making sure their games were played only to sim and find out someone hadn't finished yet sucks. With the ability to rewind a week you could eliminate these types of issues and not make simming feel like a herculean event.
8 Return: College All-Star Game
Madden barely saw the return of the Pro Bowl, which in and of itself was odd that it wasn't in the game. Now players want to see the return of a playable Senior Bowl. Through the QB1 mode, players can experience Madden gameplay with college uniforms, and the Draft Class system allows customizable rookie classes.
Combining both of these things doesn't seem like too outlandish of an ask. A Senior Bowl experience could give people added information about the prospects they're looking to draft.
7 Problems: Better Contract System
For the longest time, the contract system in Madden has been lackluster. The game doesn't include guaranteed and non-guaranteed years and there isn't a way to extend or restructure contracts before a player's contract runs out.
Offering contracts to players is also very bare-bones and there is no way to include incentive-based bonuses as well. The whole contract system needs an overhaul and refreshes to better reflect the types of contracts real NFL players are negotiating.
6 Return: Control Coaching Staff
It's odd that in 2019 you can't hire or fire any coordinators in the Madden franchise. Currently, all you do is pick a specific scheme and the only coach that matters is the head coach. Not only does the game need to bring back coordinators and give players the ability to hire, fire, and promote people on their staff, the coaches need ratings themselves.
There needs to be more role-playing game mechanics thrown into the coaching and management side of things when it comes to franchise mode.
5 Problems: CPU Trades
The AI in Madden when it comes to franchise mode is arguably its most glaring weakness. Every year it seems that the computer-controlled teams make more and more idiotic and unrealistic trades that ruin the overall immersion of the franchise mode.
Teams are prone to trading for players at a position where they already have a great starter, and often the trades themselves are greatly one-sided. The AI, in general, needs a complete overhaul so they conduct themselves somewhat realistically.
4 Return: Training Camp
Training camp is a huge part of every NFL team's offseason, and the strides made in these dog days of Summer often translate to the field once the season starts. It's a shame that players no longer have the ability to experience this in their Madden franchise mode.
If implemented correctly, a training camp section of the offseason could help players develop the younger members of their roster and give them a first-hand look at their team outside of a meaningless batch of preseason games.
3 Problems: Improve Scouting
The world of college football as players make their way to the NFL is filled with stories and rumors about many of the potential NFL stars and role players. Madden doesn't offer enough storylines or interesting information to make scouting entertaining or captivating. It would be great to see them introduce more stories focused on the prospects in the upcoming draft and make them plentiful and unique.
The addition of stories surrounding a top quarterback who played in a pass-happy offense, or a defensive player who never saw tough competition would be welcome.
2 Return: NFL Combine
The return of the NFL Combine in Madden is probably the most requested thing from the Madden community. The combine returned partially by way of the single-player mode called Longshot where the main character competed in it, but that's different than what players want.
Humans are curious creatures and being able to see these athletes perform in the combine, or perform in it yourself if you're doing superstar mode is something fans hope to return as the next-generation of consoles approaches.
1 Problems: CPU Drafting
Earlier it was discussed how the AI in Madden is terrible at trading and it ruins the immersion of the mode. With that in mind, it shouldn't come as a surprise that the way the computer-controlled teams draft is also broken.
The developers have lauded over the years that the AI teams have been programmed to only take their needs, but this isn't the case. Far too often you'll see a team like the Kansas City Chiefs drafting a quarterback in the 1st round despite having Patrick Mahomes. It needs to be fixed as soon as possible.