Madden 22 will no doubt have already started development on the next update to their storied NFL game.
The #FixMaddenFranchise movement took over the headlines on the release of Madden 21. EA will not want the same thing happening with the next game.
These are the things we want the developers to focus on to take franchise mode up a level for Madden 22.
1. Full Coaching Staff
This could be the biggest and most obvious win for Madden 22.
Adding full coaching staff where you can fire, promote, or sign coaches to be the special teams' coach, offensive coordinator and defensive coordinator.
They should count toward your budgets and have different stats boosts to different positions depending on quality and experience.
To take it to another level, they could have different relationships with different players to promote or detract from roster harmony.
2. Flexible Contracts
This has been on the list for years.
Madden 08 had the ability to chose front and back-loaded deals that obviously give another level of detail for cap management. Bring it back.
Also, please add the ability to have conditional bonuses based on production. This could affect morale/motivation but eat into the budget if successful.
3. Off-season Calendar
The entire off-season between the draft and pre-season is missing.
Mini camps, rookie camps, and training camps should all be added. You could have lots of drills, with training points up for grabs.
Creating position battles and being forced to highlight an ongoing depth chart that then creates scenarios for players surprising in a good or bad way.
4. Combine, Senior Bowl, and the Draft
Another element of the off-season needing a bit more love and attention is surrounding the draft.
Being able to see and participate in the combine would be huge. Watching drills, performing them, quizzing the players, and seeing reactions would be amazing.
Playing the Senior Bowl with the top potential rookies would be another nice addition. Sending your hired coaches from the earlier point would be a cherry on top.
The scouting system is a bit clunky and restrictive currently.
Adding scouting staff, with different ratings that then creating different costs and accuracies would be great.
Seeing the full range of stats, or at least having the ability to scout them, would be much prefered to the current system of only seeing three stats in advance.
5. Day Level Schedule
Many other sports games have a day level schedule in their career modes.
The ability to plan days in detail is somewhat standard functionality, but something that really adds depth to a title.
Planning training days with a balance between development and fatigue is a simple addition.
Factoring in media requirements, commercial activities, as well as pre-match preparations are all parts of running an NFL franchise.
Let's hope we can see any of these edits being worked on for Madden 22.