Madden 13 GM Challenges

I originally posted these back during the Seahawks bye-week to help people get through the difficulties of a week without Seahawks football. Well, it’s the offseason is in full swing, which means that most Seahawk fans are having full-fledged withdrawal symptoms by now. I figured I should try and do something to help.

I’ve created a few challenges to test your skill as a general manager. It’s time to release your inner John Schneider. Try them out, and then let me know how they go. All of them are possible, but a few offer more challenge than others. If you’re really in for a challenge, try and complete the “expert mode” version.

I’ve added some hints for each one, and I added a Seahawks themed one as well.

First a couple rules:

• obviously, offline coach connected careers only here.
• sim every game. we’re trying to test your skill as a GM, not how good you are at playing the game
• use all default settings/sliders unless specified. no turning off injuries or anything.

Now that we have that out of the way, on to the challenges!

The #1 Offense

This one is pretty straight forward, pick a team that has a generally poor offense, and build it up to the point where it is consistently the #1 offense in the league. Trade away your best defensive players for offensive weapons if you have to, just build a goliath of an offense like the NFL has never seen.

Expert Mode: Win a Superbowl with the #1 ranked offense and the #32 ranked defense

Hint: Offenses are ranked by total yards. Pass the ball, and be agressive.

Hint: Same goes with the defense. Who cares if you give up a ton a points. you need possessions. Be aggressive, it’ll pay off.

The #1 Defense

Pick a team that has a poor defense, and build it to the point where it is the #1 defense in the league every year. This is just like the #1 offense, only slightly tougher. If your offense is really bad, your defense will be on the field a lot more and it’ll hurt your ranking. You wont be able to sell off all your offensive talent to build your defense here.

Expert Mode: “The Trent Dilfer” – Win a Superbowl with the #1 ranked defense, and a QB no better than a 72 ranking.

Hint: Run the ball on offense. A lot. If you shorten the game, the defense will give up less yards.

Hint: choose your defensive scheme wisely. Some are easier to dominate with than others.

The No Draft Team

Build up you team without using a single draft pick, ever. Trade away all your picks every season for whatever you can get for them, and still manage to have a top team. This will be very tough, as free agents are much more expensive than drafted players even for the same skill level. Take a bad team and turn them into a Super Bowl winner.

Expert Mode: Win a Super Bowl playing this way after the year 2022.

Hint: Trade your picks for young, cheap players that are under team control for 2+ years. You wont get many, but it helps.

Hint: Don’t let your team get too old. The bottom can drop out on you in one offseason and then you’ll find yuorself unemployed.

The No Free Agency Team

Take over a bad team and build them into a Super Bowl team using only the draft. Use No free agent signings. If you have to sign a player to fill out your roster so you can play games, sign a player who’s skill is in the 60′s. This challenge will take a lot of planning. Make sure you don’t let the wrong player walk in free agency.

Expert Mode: Don’t get the Expert Scouting perk for additional scouting points.

Hint: Trade for better picks next year (your #2 this season for a #1 next season) whenever possible. you’ll need multiple 1st round successes to make this work.

Hint: If you plan correctly, you’ll find times when a player will enter his contract year when you already have his replacement lined up. Be sure to trade that player for picks if possible.

The Expansion Team

This one takes some set up work. Before you start your career, go into “My Madden” and clean house. Trade away or cut every player who’s skill is over 75, or who makes more than 600k/year. Add as many players as possible who’s skill is in the 60s and has an expiring contract. I mean EVERY player here. You’ll probably have to cut 40-ish players, and sign just as many. It’ll take some time. If you have less than $70 mil of free cap space, you probably missed a few players.

Now start your career and pick that team. You’ll want to turn off coach firings for this one, since going 1-15 when the owner expects you to make the playoffs will lead to a short tenure as coach. Sim past the entire first season. Don’t bother re-signing anyone, since none of the players on your team will be good enough to worry about anyways.

Goal: Build the team up from nothing and win a Super Bowl (or multiple Super Bowls)

Expert Mode: Leave coach firings turned on a manage not to get fired in the first couple seasons

Hint: Don’t go crazy in free agency the first 2 seasons. You’ll run out of cap room before your team is ready to compete. Only sign young players who’ll still be around when you’ve managed to draft a core that can win.

The Seahawks As #1 Defense In A 3-4

This is essentially the the #1 defense challenge above, but much more specific. You have to convert Seattle’s 4-3 defense into a 3-4 powerhouse. It’s not as easy as it sounds. There are lots of personnel that have to moved around just to field a team.

Expert Mode: Instead of the 3-4, do the same thing with the tampa-2 scheme and playbook.

Hint: Clemons and Irvin make good stop-gap 3-4 OLBs, but you’ll want to move them for the real thing when you get a chance.

Hint: If you’re doing the Tampa-2 expert version, you’ll have to trade away much of the Legion of Boom. You’ll find they wont be particularly productive in that zone based scheme.