I started my "Madden NFL 18" franchise playthrough a couple of days ago, and have since spent hours working free agency, and working over the AI with trades, before even playing a single preseason game.

Back in my NFL 2Kx days, Ellyn used to tease me that I enjoyed the squad management more than actually playing the matches. I think she's on to something.

I chose the San Francisco 49'ers. Throughout my childhood in the 80s and early 90s, they were a perennial powerhouse; I figured it would be fun to try to restore them to their former glory. Additionally, they are projected by the "FPI" metric to be the single worst team in the league this year-- I'll enjoy digging them out of the basement.

In any event, I gutted the team of pretty much all old players, and cleverly replaced them with young guns, several of whom are upcoming league stars for sure. I also have a whopping 67.7 million-- which was almost the total salary cap when NFL 2K5 came out-- in free cap room, and that's with 75 players on the roster!

Beyond that, I've also accumulated an absurd number of draft picks over the next two years, which I've listed below.


Starting Offense

Position	Name	Age	Rating	Exp Rate
QB	Teddy Bridgewater	24	80	Normal
HB	Christian McCaffrey	21	82	Superstar
FB	Kyle Juszczyk	26	91	Quick
WR	Mike Williams	22	80	Quick
WR	Jeremy Kerley	28	80	Normal
WR	John Ross	22	79	Normal
WR	Marquise Goodwin	26	76	Normal
TE	Tyler Eifert	26	96	Quick
TE	Vance McDonald	27	81	Normal
LT	Donovan Smith	24	75	Normal
LG	Zane Beadles	30	76	Normal
C	Pat Elflein	23	77	Normal
RG	Ali Marpet	24	86	Quick
RT	Trent Brown	24	76	Normal

Starting Defense

Position	Name	Age	Rating	Exp Rate
LE	DeForest Buckner	23	81	Quick
NT	Quinton Dial	27	77	Normal
UT	Solomon Thomas	21	82	Superstar
RE	Aaron Lynch	24	78	Normal
LOLB	Leonard Floyd	24	81	Quick
MLB	Reuben Foster	23	76	Quick
ROLB	T.J. Watt	22	76	Normal
CB	Rashard Robinson	22	77	Quick
CB	K'Waun Williams	26	74	Normal
CB	Ahkello Witherspoon	22	72	Normal
FS	Jimmie Ward	26	80	Normal
SS	Eric Reid	25	77	Normal

Special Teams

Position	Name	Age	Rating	Exp Rate
K	Robbie Gould	35	74	Normal
P	Bradley Pinion	23	70	Normal
KR/PR	Marquise Goodwin	26	88	Normal

Draft Picks

Year	Round
2018	1
2018	2
2018	2
2018	3
2018	3
2018	4
2018	4
2018	4
2018	5
2018	6
2018	7
2018	7
2019	1
2019	2
2019	3
2019	4
2019	4
2019	5
2019	5
2019	5
2019	6
2019	7
2019	7
2019	7
2019	7
2019	7