manson

TS Barkley was pretty good for me, he definitely played above his numbers. But the hands down answer for me is Barry Sanders. He sits on my bench most of the time because of his low power, but when it's time to do my drives, Max Emmitt gets bumped to HB2 and Barry gets the starting spot. He plays fantastic and most importantly he holds on to the ball better than any back I've had this year. I've had his 98/100 for a little over a month now, tested him extensively in arena initially and three league drives daily against some very high level opponents, dude has fumbled literally ONCE. And it wasn't even a crucial fumble, it was in an intra-league tournament match, and I'm pretty sure my team recovered it anyway. Of course I'm probably jinxing myself, but he's still my fav. And I'm not even a Barry fan, I'm an Emmitt fan (obviously, since I maxed him first). I'm actually a little hesitant to max Barry because he's so great as a 100 and seeing how much Emmitt fumbles as a max player, I'm worried about changing Barry's stats that much. Seems counter-intuitive, but Emmitt is a fumble machine, so....

Such an easy answer. 1) Regret - Emmitt Smith. Dude's a fumble machine. I keep him in for power but swap in 100 Barry for LvL. Will eventually get to maxing Barry, but his 100 plays so well, it's really just the power that I'm missing out on with him. 2) Best - Jimmy Graham. His size with max numbers are a killer combo, especially since you generally don't see TEs with high speed/agility numbers. 2a) Honorable mention for best - Peyton Manning. Only because I enjoy making a complete mockery of the game by having a notoriously slow QB break away huge runs. "We're not going to have unrealistic stats like lineman with 99 speed this year" - EA. Riiiiiiiight.......

Over the weekend I played a 102 ovr with 7112 power. I was in HoF tier, had around 4700 power and I'm 100 ovr. He played FOUR DRIVES and beat me. I played thirteen. I had nine touchdowns to his four and lost 1375 to 1083. Probably goes without saying, but it was all pressures and turnovers that made the difference. I threw three picks, got sacked once, and failed all six pressures. He passed every pressure (only had to pass Zimmer's four lower level ones, he didn't even play the first big one) and scored on every drive. I'm not sure if the four drives thing was a strategy or if he maybe had connection problems, but it was one of the weirdest overdrive matches I've ever had.

The biggest consideration I would make when looking at max HBs is fumbles. You would think that having all 99 stats would drastically reduce fumbles but it does not. There seems to be some unseen stats programmed into players that makes them more or less prone to fumble. Emmitt is the perfect example. He fumbled a lot as a 92 and 94 (those are the only levels I played him at before max) and he still fumbles a lot as a max. League mates report the same thing. I had Jim Brown from 94-98 and he fumbled less than Emmitt, but more than I was ok with. Barkley was great with holding on to the ball, and he's an elusive back vs Brown and Emmitt as power backs, so maybe fumbling is a characteristic of a power back? Who knows. Also something I've noticed in comparing 100 Barkley to Max Emmitt is that even with Emmitt's all 99 stats, Barkley still breaks tackles better and falls forward for more yards. I have video of Barkley dragging a defender into the end zone, holding on to his foot and hopping his way in, just like that famous clip of Gronk. Emmitt never does anything like that. I guess my advice would be to play a little bit with whoever you are thinking about maxing, and make sure you like their gameplay as a 100. Yeah, they'll get faster and more agile as a max, but those behind the scenes things are going to stay the same.

I sympathize with you, but unfortunately posting about it here will get you little more than a bunch of arguments about how it's your fault. EA claims it's not a problem because fumbles happen so rarely in live events that it drives the overall fumble percentage way down to what seems like an acceptable number. They don't take into account the percentage of drive-killing fumbles in Arena or LvL. Then you'll have the people that flat out accuse you of doing things that you know you're not doing, and they require unequivocal proof of that for them to believe you, even though they have zero basis for their own accusations and would probably still spin a reason that it's your fault if you did show proof. "You run a power back and don't constantly truck? Impossible." So that means you never throw a short pass to a "Deep Threat" receiver? That's just a dumb argument, especially with max players, as player archetypes go out the window when all stats are 99. It's a toxic place here sometimes. The bottom line is that fumbles suck and there's not much you can do about it. I personally feel that they add nothing to the game (offense or defense) and should be removed. I don't know of anyone that was sad when they were removed from the game last year or happy when they came back this year. Stats and boosters/reducers have little to no effect. It seems like there is behind the scenes stuff going on (big surprise!!) that causes certain players to fumble more than others for no reason. You just gotta shake it off and move on, knowing that EA just decided it was your turn to fumble.

The Draft Tournament was honestly the most fun I've had in Madden in months. Things were/are taking a slide, especially with the Max program. But this was just plain fun. I absolutely loved the draft events last year and was really missing them this year. I do feel bad for the non-US folks that either couldn't play or had to play at weird hours because of time zones, but I understand why EA focused the times on the US. Hopefully they continue this and make it 24 hrs or multiple days so everyone can enjoy it. Would love to see it as a weekly thing, even if it doesn't have as good of rewards.

Emmitt is my fav HB of all time, and I run Vert, so he was a natural first choice for me. I've had him for two days and so far I'm very disappointed. He runs well, though I can't say I notice a ton of difference from 100 Barkley. The bigger issue is the fumbles. Two days in a row he had completely unjustified fumbles in arena against undermatched opponents. Take that for what it's worth. If I had the opportunity to reverse him and get my badges back, I'd do it in a second and probably get Walter Payton instead.

I believe this 100%. There is something going on behind the scenes for some players that makes them more prone to fumbles than other players. Back when everyone was running 94/96 NFL 100 backs, it seemed like Jim Brown had a bunch more fumbles where people with Eric Dickerson never seemed to have fumble issues. I'd even go as far to say that I believe that there is something in the individual player account that has an effect on it. Like some accounts might have a predetermined number that makes them fumble more, or they might have better pack pull percentages than other accounts, things like that. I'll take my tin foil hat off now, but some things in this game just flat out don't make sense.

You're right. I wasn't trucking too much. In fact, I wasn't trucking at all. Clearly you didn't read my post and just made an assumption on your own so I'll help you out and point out the part where I said "I wasn't using skill moves". In fact, I almost never truck. I've tried it, but it never seems to do anything and I'm aware that performing a skill move opens you up to fumbles. The only skill move I use is spin (and I don't use it very often) and ironically I've never fumbled when getting hit mid spin.

The point of "when you get matched against a top team or player, you already get slaughtered as it is" is completely valid. Nothing will change there. I don't doubt that the top players and teams have skill, but let's be honest. You don't have to be highly skilled to score three touchdowns in LvL when you're already at an OVR advantage, and then get additional OVR advantage from power. So you'll still lose when playing against a top league or player, but it may be a worse loss, not really the end of the world. All that said, I'm still not crazy about the idea of Madden Max on the surface, it definitely feels like a cash grab. But like any promo, I'm reserving judgement until it hits. Completely random side note, anyone watch Mythic Quest on Apple TV? Anytime Nick has to deal out info handed to him from the higher ups it makes me think of the poor community manager on that show stuck in the basement, haha.