File attached: historical teams for franchise mode

[Ben75]

This project has taken quite a bit of my time over the last month. I've not fully tested this roster but am attaching it, along with a franchise-ready roster file.

The roster (Classic.ros) contains 33 historical teams from the years 1983 through 2009, one for each franchise, except the Raiders which have two. The franchise ready roster (Classicfranchise.ros) is a (mostly) ready-to-go roster file in which each franchise contains the players from its corresponding historical team. Additionally, I edited the team table to include the appropriate classic artwork for each team, and editing the uniform table to make the historical jerseys the default.

The Houston Oilers are substituted for the Houston Texans. Sorry to the Texan fans out there.

Some important notes:

* I did not honor Madden's roster requirements by position, since I've modded my own game, and I began this project for myself. So the Houston Oilers have no tight ends, the Redskins have no fullbacks, etc...and most teams have fewer than 10 offensive lineman. However, you can sign free agents if necessary or make the appropriate edits to get around this.

* I did not mess with contracts, other than to make sure that each player has one. I only made this roster to play a single season and control all of the teams, so I didn't give any attention to contracts and contract length.

* The depth charts are mostly accurate. If a starting player was injured for most of the year, I still put him in the starting spot, generally speaking. So, for example, Kevin Smith is starting at CB for the 95 Cowboys. For the basic roster file, kick and punt returners are set correctly. For the franchise-ready roster file, I auto-filled the depth charts so these positions will be off, though the ratings for the other positions ensure mostly accurate depth charts. (note: if a player did not return any kicks or was not a main return guy, then his return rating was significantly lowered.)

* I used pro-football-reference.com for most of my information, and adjusted the stock ratings accordingly. My knowledge of NFL player history is fair, but not perfect. There may be some minor players missing on a few teams, though I tried to catch all of them.

* There may still be a few fake offensive lineman lingering, remnant from when I was worried about roster requirements. I deleted them if I came across them.

* Hall of Fame players are tagged as NFL icons. I may have missed a few.

* There will be some random errors, most likely dealing with skin color or jersey numbers. I didn't bother to change accessories.

ON RATINGS

* I am sort of a purist and have disdain for 99 OVR ratings, so relatively few players have a 99 outside of kickers and fullbacks. Generally speaking, hall-of-famers at their peak will be in the 95+ range, standard all-pros anywhere from 90-96/97, normal starters anywhere from 85-95. When in doubt I tended to go with the default ratings.

* As I always do, I assign ratings (mostly) based on the range of ratings found in the game for any given position. The exception for this is the fullback position, where I have increased speed, acceleration, break tackles, carrying and agility. In the past fullbacks were more hybrid players and ran the ball more often, so this is reflected in the roster, but it does jack up their OVR ratings. You can adjust how the OVR ratings are calculated to get around this and see a more standard distribution as I did, but it has no effect on gameplay. (I also did this for kickers and punters, as well.) The weights are found in the DB_Templates_12 PORC table. I recommend you edit your player substitution table (can't remember where that is at the moment) to remove the ratings hit FBs take when playing at HB, and vice-versa.

* The stock ratings for the classic teams are a little too high, in my opinion, so you'll see they've been toned down just a bit. For kickers and punters, I created a spread based on NFL averages for FG percentage and punting average and assigned ratings based on their actual statistics. It produced a few surprises. Sometimes an all-pro kicker wasn't nearly as accurate as the game had assigned him to be.

TEAM LIST AND NOTES:

Generally speaking, I went with what I thought were the best teams for each franchise from 1983-2009, but I made some modifications to get certain players in I wanted to see, so that rule doesn’t always hold. Consequently, multiple players appear on more than one team, most notably Kurt Warner. Matt Millen has the distinction of appearing on three different teams. Here’s the list:

85 Bears: pretty easy decision. William Perry has a good run block rating for those interested (I think you have to edit a table to be able to sub him at FB.) Sorry, but no Todd Bell. He wasn’t on the team though I did think about adding him. He might be in the FA pool, though.

88 Bengals: Chris Collinsworth is on the team, though fortunately he doesn’t do commentary.

90 Bills: Could’ve picked any of their four Super Bowl teams. Bruce Smith is one of the few 99 OVRs.

98 Broncos: Though I wanted to include one of their earlier great teams with Elway, had to go with a Super Bowl team.

87 Browns: Wish I had gone with 86, because it was a headache sorting out who were the replacement players and who were the regulars for the unknowns.

02 Bucs: Mike Alstott, I believe, is the highest rated FB on the roster.

08 Cardinals: Their Superbowl team. Easy decision.

06 Chargers: Yeah, I know they made the Super Bowl in 94 but I wanted to get LaDainain Tomlinson in.

90 Chiefs: Features Derrick Thomas and Christian Okoye.

06 Colts: I used the stock roster as a base so Peyton Manning will run the offense like Peyton.

95 Cowboys: Went with 95 so I could get Deion Sanders in the roster.

84 Dolphins: von Schamann, their kicker, only made 47% of his field goals that year. I would say beware, but it’s impossible to miss a FG in this game!

04 Eagles: Donovan McNabb and Terrell Owens…

98 Falcons: This was a good team w/ Jamaal Anderson and Chris Chandler that made the Super Bowl.

89 49ers: I picked 89 because it was their best team with Montana, Rice, Craig, Rathman, etc…

90 Giants: 86 might have been a better team, but I really liked Dave Meggett and wanted him in the roster. LT is a 99.

99 Jaguars: Though they made the AFC championship game in 96, this team had Fred Taylor and I wanted to see him.

04 Jets: Could have gone with a Parcells team, but chose 04 instead. For the life of me I’m not sure why….

91 Lions: Easy one here. Barry Sanders!

91 Oilers: I know their 92 team was probably better, but I went with 91 because they had Drew Hill that year. He was a great receiver.

96 Packers: Would’ve been nice to include the recent Packers team with Aaron Rodgers, but that would’ve left Brett Favre out. Couldn’t do it. Also, it adds Reggie White.

03 Panthers: Their Super Bowl team was the logical choice

04 Patriots: Had a number of options here. Chose 04 because of Corey Dillon.

90/83 Raiders: I made both these teams. Originally, I wanted their Super Bowl team, but then thought it would be nice to make Bo Jackson.

99 Rams: Greatest show on turf…

00 Ravens: Ray Lewis wound up a 99 OVR

91 Redskins: While this might be controversial, I think this was their best team. They were 14-2 and played a number of playoff teams during the regular season. Darrell Green is the fastest player of all the teams, I believe. Willie Gault is a close second. (taking into account SPD plus ACC)

09 Saints: another easy decision

05 Seahawks: Shaun Alexander at his best before he dropped off the face of the earth.

05 Steelers: Could’ve gone with 08 but I know there was some reason I can’t think of right now.

99 Titans: Super Bowl team with Steve McNair, Eddie George, Jevon Kearse, and an aging Bruce Matthews

98 Vikings: Great offense with Randall, Carter, Moss…fun to play with.

FINAL NOTES:
I am going to continue working on this, so feel free to point out some mistakes, though I can’t guarantee I’ll agree on any ratings adjustments. I’m sure there are some random players with the wrong skin color, number, or maybe some guys missing. I may do more teams in the future.

For anybody interested, I also have an edited coach table which can be imported into the franchise file once you’ve launched from the attached classicfranchise.ros file. It has the proper coach names and I adjusted run/pass tendencies based on each team's actual percentages from the relevant year. Additionally, I assigned playbooks that are more suitable to the teams’ offensive strategy and defensive schemes. I carefully edited the table in spreadsheet format so as to avoid the problems with editing coaches in the editor. However, during gameplay most of them are not going to look correct. The COCH table holds values for the in-game models and as of right now I don’t know which fields to edit.

And again, the roster file is designed for playing a single season, so if you plan on going through multiple seasons, I can’t guarantee success.

[Ben75]

Here is the franchise-ready file with the teams swapped in for the current ones.

[Ben75]

Also, please forgive me I should've posted this in the roster section.

[Sidelion]

My picks would differ a little.

1964 Browns: last championship team, Jim Brown, huge upset over the Colts.
1979 Chargers: the only defense Fouts ever had to complement the Air Coryell.
1969 Chiefs: last championship team, Len Dawson, extremely impressive defense, huge upset over the Vikings.
1958 Colts: much more complete team than the 2006 edition, helped make football into America's pasttime.
1977 Cowboys: Tony Dorsett at running back. Last 14-game champion. Maybe not as dominant as the 90's Boys, but Tom Landry>Switzer or Johnson any day. Also, Staubach wasn't starter full-time in 1971.
1972 Dolphins: perfect (even with a ridiculously weak schedule). Still, Larry Csonka was an unstoppable force.
1986 Giants: their finest hour, the long-awaited resurgence from a decade of misery.
1968 Jets: Joe Namath to Don Maynard, Super Bowl III.
1995 Lions: the only year the Lions had a bona fide passing game with Barry Sanders. Also, none of that Silver Stretch chuck-and-duck crap.
1960 Oilers: championship team, George Blanda, first AFL champion.
1961 Packers: number one offense and defense, Lombardi, the best running fullback ever in Jim Taylor.
1976 Raiders: best Raiders team by far. Also, they were in Oakland as opposed to being the LA Traitors.
1978 Steelers: third-best defense of all-time, competent offense, loaded roster. Also, didn't get their title handed to them. 2008 Steelers featured an ungodly defense as well.

[Ben75]

Yeah I was trying to keep my roster more modern. My knowledge of player history only goes back so far, outside of the greats. A lot of the teams I chose were the teams I grew up with, but had to use a few more from the past decade because, let's face it, before free agency a lot of the lesser market teams just could never muster a competitive team, especially in the NFC, where, in the 80s, it was all 49ers, Redskins, Giants, etc...

Actually had a good conversation about this with a friend over the weekend. I miss the continuity of the old days, where every year you knew who was going to be on what team. The NFL is more dynamic now and teams are never but a few years away from being highly competitive, but something in me doesn't like to see players bouncing around so much.

[wolfbest]

thanks for sharing

[Littleware]

Nice roster Ben75. If you are akin request for other candidates, consider the following:

1989 Philadelphia Eagles
1973, 1975 or 1976 Minnesota Vikings
1980 or 1988 Houston Oilers.

Those teams were very good!

[DalPitGbMia]

Does anyone have this file? I cant find it in thread.