Bye Week Fun: Madden GM Challenges

The bye week is here, and that mean that many of us are going to have some extra free time weekend. Normally that mean some serious Madden playing doing down. The problem is that Seahawk’s bye week is so late in the season this year, that the game has already started to feel a little stale.

So to spice things up, 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.

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 never seen.

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

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 Tent Dilfer” – Win a Superbowl with the #1 ranked defense, and a QB no better than a 72 ranking.

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.

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.

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