[Francis Cole]

Originally Posted by goalieump413

Well, since the overall rating is just an amalgamation of other ratings, including the system he's playing under, the overall rating should fluctuate from team to team.

But I have an idea: Instead of thinking in terms of overall rating being the barometer of a player's value, maybe a better way is to look at the overall as a measure of his capacity.

A lot has been made over the years about "current" and "potential" ratings, and how it's easy to gauge a player's value based on current and future ratings. In real life, players flame out for various reasons without ever reaching close to their potential. There are countless cases where 1st round draft picks only sign one contract, and are cut and out of football before their 2nd contract could come up.

I look at it this way: If a player has an overall rating of 84, let's say, then to me, his maximum value at his position is 84. That's not to say he's a "lock" at 84, it's just that he can only reach that rating value at the present time and not exceed it. He may train harder, get healthier, learn the system better, improve his attitude and ethic some too, which could then improve that value from 84 to something higher.

But he may also decline, meaning his max value is now in decline as well.

I'm not sure what the formulas have traditionally for games like Madden, but I believe it's a combination of the specific ratings based on position.

Also, it would be a good idea to track the ratings over time based on the incoming draft class and free agent marketplace. Free agent trackers often have ratings that help indicate positional strengths and weaknesses, but for an overall rating, again, not sure how the experts do it.

Potentials are in, but again it's not an overall potential it's a potential for every attribute. If we had the current/potential system (as detailed in other posts, completely different to OOTP based on the games/tapes your scouts watch etc), and then transform that into one overall grade, then again adjust that number into how your team plays I can see it getting very messy very quickly.