The Madden 17 Connected Franchise Mode Wishlist

Madden is promising a revamp of its Connected Franchise mode (CFM) for Madden 17, and so we've decided to create our own list of what we hope to see.

While we certainly don't expect all of these items to be tackled this year, we think it's a good base for developer EA Tiburon to work from now and in the future.

What are some of your ideas? Please put them in the comments section below!

For more on Madden NFL 17, check out the 27 ways the game is trying to fix money plays, ratings & more.

GENERAL

• Create NFL Storylines to surface player personalities and the drama of the NFL. Players could ask to be traded, suspended, regress or progress in ratings dramatically necessitating being cut unexpectedly or demanding a new contract. I understand the league/Players Association may be sensitive to suspensions, so perhaps non-specific language like "league discipline" can be used for incidents.

• Surface league news in the front of the menu system, don't bury it like in Madden 16.

• Add training camp so you can have storylines like hold outs, injuries, and the emergence of diamonds-in-the-rough.

• Bring back NCAA's browser-based team creation tools.

• Player morale tied to playing time, contract situation, and overall success. This can be merged with the current confidence system.

• Press conferences where players and coaches can call out and motivate each other.

CONTRACTS

• More contract options such as front-loading/back-loading and performance bonuses. Bonuses could influence when teams might cut players to avoid paying them on certain dates.

• Restricted free agent status.

• The transition tag.

• The fifth year option for first-round picks.

• Player contracts commensurate with career status. Thus, star players strive for that last payday or the team puts its faith in you as an up-and-coming player and locks you down with your first big contract. Some players demand contracts that put them in the top-echelon based on other players at their position.

• Player-for-a-day respect contracts for retiring players.

• Teams approach players to take a pay cut for good of team.

• The ability to re-sign players through contract extensions, not just those who have one year left.

• More retirement options. Talk specific players back out of retirement or prevent it via a back-and-forth dialog.

ROSTERS

• Add a practice squad

• Gameday active/inactive list

• Put formation subs, defensive assignments, and special teams personnel in the CFM My Coach menu so you're not rushing to do them pre-play.

• Fix the weird roster substitutions for the pre-season so you don't see your starting running back, for example playing special teams.

COACHES, COORDINATORS & GMS

• Hire coordinators, position coaches, and GMs and have them influence your franchise. GMs could control scouting and free agent signing, while coordinators/position coaches influence players' development.

• Coaches have to navigate GM/Owner pressure to sign, re-sign, draft, or play certain players as starters. This could extend into different players being suggested by different camps during the draft.

• Scramble to interview coaches as they become available at the end of the regular season or wait on those still in the playoffs.

• Inject coaches' decisions besides injuries into the game like the old NCAA concept that would ask you to go for the INT vs. be conservative, for example, during key moments. Get some information from coordinators about the tendencies of your team and opponent during the game so you can highlight mismatches.

READ ON FOR PLENTY OF IDEAS ABOUT FREE AGENTS, THE DRAFT, AND MORE!

FREE AGENTS

• More excitement/drama for the beginning of the free agency period. Hot players go quick (perhaps tweaking the old real-time auction system?), and you have a short time to sign them. Have the "no-tampering" tampering period before FA so you can talk to FAs.

• Contracts for street free agents that are more than one year.

• More back-and-forth discussions with prospective FAs. Dialog from players instead of just choosing contract numbers and advancing the week. Also, hear news of who may be cut, not resign, etc. before FA so you can prepare.

THE DRAFT/SCOUTING

• Give prospects some college stats for context.

• Award compensatory picks.

• Set up your own draft big board (and draft war room) beyond the current watchlist. Create notifications for specific players and positions during the draft so you can be alerted when there are a few players remaining before a player you like or there's a run at a certain position.

• Show the positional needs of teams' around your draft position to give a hint at players they might grab before you're on the clock.

• More busts/gems spread throughout draft classes. Seems like in Madden 16 there were a lot of middle-of-the-road players. Bringing back developer-created draft classes could fix this.

• Actual draft trade negotiations between teams during draft day. In Madden 16, when a team turned down your first offer, the computer would turn around and instantly draft instead of issuing a counter offer.

• Sharable user-created custom draft classes. Of course, something would have to be in place to prevent users from inputting real-life college players...

• More smokescreen info on who other teams are interested in. There could also be last-minute draft info, like how this year's Laremy Tunsil photo dropped. Surface which teams are potentially interested in what players and what the needs of the forthcoming drafting teams have, that way you can gauge if a team may leap frog you and draft a player at a position you're eyeing.

• Text descriptions of prospective picks giving flavor like in old Maddens. Also, include comparisons to current NFL players.

• Revamp scouting so you can scout and find information on specific attributes, and not just those that the computer things are important.

• Flesh out college injuries so they can create question marks coming into the draft and possibly affect pro careers. In general, injuries' management and persistence/long-term effects should be important.

• Undrafted free agents.

• Mock drafts from the media.

• Create scouting templates to automatically direct your scouting department to look for specific types of players at certain positions, like cornerbacks of a certain height, QBs with big arms, etc. This will help draft around certain philosophies like real-life teams do.

• Improve distribution of players per position in the draft. Too many times there are big groups of one position bunched up in a round.

OWNERS

• The current financial, advisors, and ranking systems aren't that interesting. Nor are fixing the prices for revenue. Perhaps the owner option should be folded...

• ... and the ability to design your own stadium expanded from templates and put into the general GM/Coach CFM portion.

• Give players the ability to create their own team logos via shapes (like Forza's livery editor) instead of the pre-made ones. If EA doesn't want obscene user-created teams online, they can make it offline only and save the old template ones for online.

• Allow for expansion teams and not just relocation.

• Be able to create your own divisions with these new expansion/relocation teams.