Here's what I did to boost the potential of the Madden roster...

Traded Pennington to the Bears for 3rd round pick, 5th round pick, CB Corey Graham (only 67 overall at CB, but 96 overall KR and PR)

Moved Sean Smith to FS cuz he has an 80 overall at the position (A lot better than Chris Clemons who was the starter with a 67 overall)

Signed CB Shawn Springs to a 1 year deal to make up for Smith move.

Released Tyrone Culver.

Moved rookie FS Reshad Jones to SS increasing his overall from a 64 to a 69

Moved Charles Grant to DT (78 overall) to backup Starks and fill in on the 4-3

Moved Marques Douglas to LE

Released Ryan Baker

Signed FB Dan Kreider to a 2 year deal to backup Polite

That's about it... not a lot of moves for the offense, but the defense got an overhaul of sorts.

I'm not sure what defense I'm doing to run. It depends how the 34 vs. 43 is against the run. In Madden 10 I refused to use the 34 because it sucked, to be honest. 43 was as good against the run and better in coverage and easier to get to the QB.

Starks and Langford inside with Wake and who cares on the other side, and then Dansby, Crowder and maybe YB at the other LB spot would be sick. Put Smith at FS and Clemons at SS and that's a hell of a defense in a base 43.

Can't wait to get this game!!

I actually changed mine up... restarted the franchise and went with a different approach... stronger base with a stronger DL and kept the secondary sort of the same.

The thing is, even if you choose a 43 the darn coach still picks mostly 34 plays... you literally have to choose all your own 43 plays if you wanna keep it that way.

So now I traded Pennington to the Cardinals for a 3rd and a 5th.
I traded Thigpen to someone for a 5th.

Traded Ronnie Brown to the Chiefs for Jamaal Charles and a 3rd round pick (hahaha what a steal... Charles is only 2 pts overall lower and hes younger)

Moved Cameron Wake to DE where he belongs. Now have Wake and Langford on the ends... talk about sick.

Jarid Odrick went back to DT.

Picked up Angelo Crowell to take Wakes place at LOLB... 1 year replacement, I'll draft someone.

Started Reshad Jones at FS over Clemons. YB stayed at SS.

Picked up Robert You from free agency... 71 overall QB... is the backup to Henne.

I just have to comment that Koa Misi is a beast... I'm still on game 1 vs the tougher than expected Bills...but he is a tackling machine!

Oh man this stuffs funny... playing the Vikings week 2 who have Favre in the game... just got a pick with Reshad Jones on the streak play... we score in 2 plays... then the next drive Odrick creams Favre and he lets a little dribbler go right to Koa Misi who takes it for 6... then Gus Johnson goes...

"This defense is really rattling this rookie passer today."

LMAO!!!!

lmao. I really hope Odrick does sack Favre. That way we can say Favre literally just got sacked by somebody half his age.

That'd be cool lol. The game is a lot of fun though... just took me a whole lot of getting used to for some reason. The Charles trade really helped me out, he's a much better runner in the game than RB is... and FYI the wildcat fails hardcore in this game. This supposedly "new AI that blocks better" is a whole load of bologna.

While every once in awhile the AI does get its head out of its butt and block for you... its still pretty crappy for the most part. Especially on Play Action plays... its like the offensive line forgets they're supposed to block... i avoid all play actions now unless I'm in a shotgun formation.

(side note - beat the Vikings 49-24 and B. Marshall had 8 catches for 222 yards. Henne is also out for 3 weeks with a dislocated Elbow :( )

I've heard the same about running the ball, and also that kick returning is impossible in the game too.

Sounds like they made improvements over Madden 10 though. Looking forward to buying it.

Running is much better but its not a gimme you have to let your blocks set up and make some moves with your runner

Still getting used to the right analog stick... i didn't realize that it's not just for moves... you can move it in any direction to have your guy do quick cuts and stuff... if you press it soft towards a direction its pretty much like controlling your runner with 2 sticks... press harder and you perform moves.

Getting down the usage of the right stick is key.

I'm ordering through the sitvoffer.com .. $60 for a subscription to sports illustrated and madden, sounds like a deal to me!

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Couldn't get the Chiefs to give up the 3rd for RB had to settle for a 4th and 5th. Is it just my teams O-Line that decides that play action passes require no blocking? Never fails as soon as I fake the hand off the DT is dragging Henne down.

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Nope I face the same thing... actually, in a game where the blocking is supposed to be better... it seems worse! The Wildcat is useless, the defense just slides right in every play. Play action the same thing.

Makes for a very vanilla gaming experience lol.

Season update* - Reshad Jones leads the team with 4 interceptions... 1 of which he took back for the score. We're currently 7-1 with our only loss coming to the freakin Patriots.

Jamaal Charles is good on kick returns but fumbles 50% of the time on PR, so I kept Bess PR until I can sign a speedster the upcoming off season. Traded Pennington to the Bills for a 2nd rounder. After 4 games Ricky has 648 yards and 10 TD's :D although over 250 and 4 TDs came in the first game against Buffalo. Took your advise and moved Wake to LE and it's paid off. The 2 games since the switch he has 5 sacks.

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Holy crap man... you playing on Pro?? I don't think my team has 5 sacks total lol.

A pretty decent free agent RB who is pretty quick is Frisch or something like that... I lost Charles for 5 games and needed to pick up a speedy back so I picked him up and he was great. I kept him behind Ricky but he worked wonders on Wildcat plays where he would come across in motion. I'd hand it to him every time and he'd break it for at least 20.

It seems that every game I play I'm loosing someone for 5-8 weeks.

Yeah a lot of injuries for sure. Lost Henne for 4 weeks and Charles for 5 back to back.