I'm in MFN-5, and I just now started looking at the draft class for the upcoming draft, and only 10 players are rated 40 or higher... and of those 10 players, 4 are kickers and 2 are punters!!! Why in the world are kickers rated so high across the board in this game? There are zero players in the draft class that are even worth looking at (the free agent list isn't much better). NFL team have players step right into the starting lineup as rookies, yet there's no way a rookie should be on the field in this game with ratings in the 30s. Highly disappointed.

Players could take a 10-point (or more) jump in their first training camp. In the draft you want to pay more attention to the future value, it only takes about 3 seasons for a player to max out. You'll also want to look at the attributes of the players you're interested in, some may be close to maxed it in some attributes but have significant development to go in others.

Kickers start out higher because they have less of a learning curve with the transition to the pros, but they still have some development to do, just not as much.

I concur about the strength of the drafts. It does not seem to be consistent with the percentages involved in the initial player file. If you have 5% of all players rated over 90 in the initial file, shouldn't the drafts, on average, have the same number?

I didn't do any research, but it seems to me, looking at the various leagues, that there is more mid level quality (70-89) in the league than there is in the drafts... by a lot. Initially, after a couple of drafts, I thought it was just a weak draft... when you randomize, sometimes that happens. But, it seems pretty consistent at this point, and I feel that you need to determine what levels of player types are appropriate, and starting with the initial file, create drafts consistent with that level determined in the initial file.

Right now, there are very good teams that will be good for many, many years. Other teams can't catch these teams, because the poor quality of the drafts. The good teams only need one or 2 quality players every season, on average, to keep their strength. Other teams need a good FA class, which is an aberration this season due to the way all players had 2 year contracts in the initial file (something that was posted about as far as creating a new league)... so FA classes like this in MFN-1 will not happen again.

This leaves the draft. The difference in percentages for different value players in the league, and the percentages in the draft, seem to be very different. Maybe I'm wrong, but I think you should check it out and, if I'm wrong... I'll settle for the current draft quality. If I'm right, hopefully you'll rectify the future draft quality.

I'm going to make some adjustments - necessarily slowly, however. I believe the underlying issue is that the initial player file is too favorable, but there's not really a way to undo that for any existing league. So I'm going to turn up the quality of the draft slightly (while toning down the initial player file for any future leagues). This will likely take several seasons to balance out in the existing leagues, hopefully any new leagues will begin with a good balance.

So I'm new to the game and am noticing this in the draft also. Almost all the players in the draft have a cur value of less than 40. How much do they typically jump before the first game? Seems like there should be some that are in the 70's or higher. After all it's not unheard of for a guy to come right out of college and be a high level starter in the NFL in his first year.

In MFN-2, my 3rd overall pick is a 60/96 SLB before week 2, I had another high 1st round pick in MFN-7 be a 72/90-something near the end of the year. Most 1st rounders jump quick but arent like superstars immediately. All of them take time.

Rookies (and young players in an allocation draft) always start with a large difference between current and future. It should take most players about 3-5 years to max out, depending on a number of factors such as their coaching staff, time on a team vs. being unemployed, etc. The most change through the year with the ratings movement will be during the training camp stage (in MFN-7 there will be a few free agency stages after the draft, which will be followed by the TC stage) - but the movement is calculated on a much slower rate during the season as well.

Check out this blog post for some more info on player movement: http://blog.myfootballnow.com/2014/06/creepers-and-busts-dont-throw-away-your.html

The way the math works is that the _average_ player in the league should be around 50, meaning there should be 50-rated players on the field in most games. You should be able to complete your roster with 50+ players. Players above 70 will be your stars, and players in the 90's should be difficult to get and keep. You shouldn't have to have many players, if any, with a future < 50 (although sometimes the way the dice rolls on the player generation you'll see some positions loaded in the league and others with very few good players).