Forum Widgets
Recent Discussions
M26 FRANCHISE FEEDBACK
So after a pretty good Play Now/H2H experience, I'm kind of at a loss for words on how to describe the difference in experience Franchise has been. I'm only half way through my first season, but there's enough issues I feel that need addressing that it's best to just put this out here and hope it sheds some light on things that EA needs to address asap. In saying that, I'll just get right into the negatives, then the positives, but since this is much longer than expected, I'll likely post bugs found within the negatives, or create a separate post for them. For the record, my User ID is BrandOG-182; Platform is PS5. NEGATIVES: INTERFACE: Slow; Sluggish; Laggy. It's 2025, I really don't understand how it's this bad just trying to navigate. It's not just Franchise either, it's a whole game issue. Speaking of lag, there's been a bit of that with celebrations in game and cutscenes as well. OWNER/PLAYER MODE: The removal of these from the game is actually stupid and limits how people get to experience and enjoy the game. Literally last years surveys showed people wanted more options/customization, and it was even mentioned in the deep dive if I remember correctly...and yet this is literally the opposite of that. Like, why? This is how to alienate your player base and hurt business 101. STOP REMOVING OPTIONS FROM THE GAME!!!!! People are not happy about this, and understandably so. If I'm being objective though, Owner Mode definitely needed a serious makeover, and honestly, apart from setting prices to manage money better, getting to hire/fire your staff and choose different coaches, there's not much your missing out on that you can't find in the new GM's Office selection on the Franchise Main Menu. Breakouts never worked right, and overall it just needed to offer more. I still enjoyed creating a GM with Owner Mode though, and this was my primary go to for Offline Franchise every year. I have hopes that they removed it to revamp it and re-release it in a later title, but we'll see. No excuses for removing Player Mode though...BRING THESE OPTIONS BACK PLEASE!!!! UNIFORMS: Speaking about removing things from the game, what is going on with these? We literally went from being able to create multiple combinations from every available uniform and save multitudes of them in years past, to now being left with 2 custom options last year, and now 2 superstar options this year. Though worse than previous years, it could be okay if we weren't very restricted to very limited options for customization (no access to past uniforms?), and to top it off, we're locked from making our own combos when beginning a game now too. Just another thing that leaves me asking, why? Just go back to '22 or '23 and let us mix and match and save as we please. STOP REMOVING OPTIONS FROM THE GAME!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! CPU: It's frankly just ridiculously extra/overpowered far too often than is necessary. Literally everything seems to favor the CPU... catches, knockouts, swats, speed bursts, blocking, tackling, juking/trucking/spinning...pretty much everything. I've seen many complain about this on both All-Madden and All-Pro, and I'm told this is on EA's radar, so that's good. However, this is exactly why people complain and say the game feels scripted...it's just too much. The stuff I've witnessed within games is absurd at best, and is actually cheating at worst. QB's never miss a throw; guys warping/glitching/transporting into places to make unrealistic plays at unrealistic speeds; super low overall CPU players consistently getting the better of higher overall User players; CPU always has the upper hand on reaction time; absolutely cranked tackles/hits on pretty much every play. Most losses feel scheduled. Ratings don't matter; Sliders don't matter. Just what is actually going on here? How is this such a different experience from Play Now/H2H? I'm not sure how this game is coded, but this is what makes the game unfun, unfair, and unplayable to many people. There needs to be balance; ratings and sliders need to matter and work as intended. This is unacceptable. TRAINING CAMP: This was actually fine the way it was last year, and for some reason EA just had to mess with it. Overall the changes made weren't for the better. Bucket drop is objectively garbage. Removing a couple mini games so less players get training was dumb (I deleted M25; am I imagining this?). Training camp is really where the mini games I feel stand out and shine. I really feel there should be more of an emphasis on Training Camp for the mini games and less on the week to week, which can become tedious, especially in user leagues. Allow more players to train and gain some XP/skill points. Offer more mini games in general. Week to week training allows you to choose which mini game to play, allow this for Training Camp as well. Only positive I can think of about Training Camp this year is, I think, two mini games got a skill point increase to 2 if you get gold. Other problems I've found with Training Camp are that many seem, or are in fact, extremely bugged. 1) Can't get a consistent pass in Bucket Drop as the cursor snaps back to its original position more often then not. This does not happen to me in game. 2) Chase & Tackle is either extremely broken or someone at EA has a seriously sick sense of humor, because not only does the runner not hit the proper gap more often than not, but literally runs you in circles like a hamster behind the LOS. It's extremely frustrating. 3) WR Battle - Red Zone Attack has the quarterback lobbing passes out of the end zone, making the ball uncatchable and impossible to gain gold. I do believe this might be related to Traits, specifically the one that gives QB's the tendency to throw more lob passes. This theory needs testing though. But taking that trait off my QB did fix it for me at least. 4) Rushing Attack - Close Quarters; FB does not consistently block as necessary leading to high improbability of gaining gold. I'm sure I'm missing some, but I'm over it...moving on. SCHEMES/DEPTH CHART: I haven't completely gone through these yet, but I know for a fact some are wrong; Detroit being my first and primary example. They are listed as 3-4 Under Defense when in fact it should either be a 4-2-5 after googling it, or Base 4-3 if you were to check ESPN. Idk if there are more of these, but I remember it was a thing last year with Lions, Packers, Eagles, and Jags to name a few after irl changes were made with coaching staff and whatnot. I hope these get addressed. Literally just google these or go to ESPN and get the schemes and depth charts right please. RELOCATION: Mostly I'm just disappointed to see that more cities weren't added. At the least, it would be nice to have some cities where current franchises already exist, like Miami, Detroit, or LA for example. That way you could change the name/uniforms of a current franchise to different ones if you wanted. Team Builder import is nice for this when creating franchise, but I don't think there's a way to change a team name after starting a franchise. Would be nice to see a couple of new additional cities like Phoenix, or Boston, and some international ones as well. The uniforms and basic team names could use work too. Just a bit too bland and basic despite the helmets looking better after they redid them last year or the year before. ROSTERS: Still no older rosters for nostalgic franchises. This was a thing back in like '05 even. It made the game really fun, and again, it just goes to show how stupid it is to just keep removing options from the game. I really need to see these added back to the game if I'm going to keep buying and running into so much broken crap every year. Make the frustration worth it. I could easily do a ten year franchise if I could go back to 2015. EA has the Download Center for them...at worst, they could even create an in game store as part of the DLC, and put them up for purchase since we know EA loves their profit. Wouldn't love having to purchase them, but having them is better than not. OR, add them to Premium Team pass...just do whatever you need to get them back into the game please. This goes for All-Times Teams as well. POSITIVES: SETTINGS: These remain a strong positive. The only thing I'd say, and have seen posts about, is add the ability to import and adjust Wear & Tear/Weather sliders within the franchise settings. COACH CENTRAL/COACHING ABILITIES: I've really been having fun with this, and I really feel it was a great idea and implemented pretty well. I love the variety of different abilities. If you're an underdog team, there are great abilities to close the gap and make yourself more competitive vs better teams in the league. From attribute boots that help give your team an edge vs stronger opponents, to XP/Training boosts to help get your team up to par faster in order to compete better, there's a lot of great options here. And if you're a team on top of the league, there are great abilities that can help ensure you stay there too. At higher levels, abilities that help retain staff and improve scouting can help maintain staff with unlocked maxed abilities and ensure generational talent remains within the franchise despite the players that eventually leave. There are a few changes I would make however: Make more slots available. I think there are currently 6 for coach abilities, 4 for playsheets, and 2 for trainers. I wouldn't mind if those numbers were bumped up to 9 or 10 for coach abilities, 5 for playsheets, and 3 for trainers at higher levels. More slots especially seem better when there are certain abilities, such as the scouting abilities, that remain in the loadout for several weeks without the ability to remove them. Not only would more slots be nice, but I would love to see them distributed differently. Right now there is just one uniform loadout for coach abilities, playsheets, and trainer abilities respectively, in which you can activate whatever ability or playsheet from your coach and/or coordinator each week. To make each coach and coordinator feel different and special though, I would like to see the loadout sorted by each coach and the trainer instead. Give each coach and the trainer 3 abilities max to activate each week, maybe 4 for the head coach if you bumped the number up to 10 max coach abilities, then give each coordinator 2 playsheets for max activation, and the head coach 1. This makes coordinators feel more important as they can give you access to more plays per game while the coach has more of his/or own special abilities to activate that the coordinators don't. I would like to see some better spacing for ability and playsheet unlocks. Some unlocks seem they could be too far apart, but I have yet to max a coach out, so we'll see. TRAITS: These are pretty nice actually, and the fact you can add them on any player within your franchise is nice too. I'm sure there are plenty of things I'm either forgetting or have yet to stumble across, but no matter, that's what discussions are for, so others can add to them, so feel free to do so if you happen to come across this and read it. Haven't gotten to draft yet, so we'll see how that pans out and what issues arrise with that. I also have yet to try Team Builder, so hopefully I'll get some feedback for that soon as well. Overall though, considering the hype, Franchise has been a bit of a disappointment. I'm hoping a lot of fixes are coming with the first update, but that always comes with it's own problems too, usually.
Can you be on the same team with friends online in Franchise mode?
Hey Madden community. I have been yearning for the ability for friends doing a shared franchise to be on the same team for years. I haven't had Madden since 18 and in large part due to not seeing this be implemented yet. To explain exactly what I am looking for, I want the ability for friends online doing franchise mode together to be able to be on the same team. Whether that means one person is controlling the team, while another controls a individual created player, or both have created players on the same team or lastly both control different players on the same team. Ever since Madden did connected franchises in Madden 13, this has not been implemented over the last 13 years. Does Madden 26 have this??? This will determine me getting it or not lol. Also as a bonus, is Switch 2 crossplay with Xbox/PS? Thank youTraining Camp Mini Games are TERRIBLE
Bucket Drop QB Drill - placement and accuracy passing is entirely too difficult and takes too much time to master for the average player. HB - The running area needs to be wider, the FB misses blocks half the time (especially on tosses). Redzone WR - The QB throws lob passes and throws the ball out of bounds the majority of the time, nearly unplayable. Chase and Tackle LB - Half the time I try to tackle my linebacker hesitates and the RB cuts and runs for a TD. The other half the running back runs clear back across the line while my line backer gets stuck into the line dummies. Gauntlet EDGE - Sometimes the rusher will get stuck in an animation where the o line is holding and ends up pushing the rusher out of bounds. The rusher cannot block shed and doesn't respond to pass rush moves in any way when this happens. Also complete side note, please fix the translucent prospect list in the draft when you make your first selectionNeeds patched
Need to patch the fantasy draft still the same exact bugs and glitches as last year like the right guards aren't in order the development trait doesn't organize right it resets every time and sometimes loads all the players to one position. and loading screens are just as long as last year when I thought you guys were supposed to make them fasterFranchise Depth Chart Bug
I am having an issue that pops up after week 14-15 in every franchise I’ve started. For an example, I did a run with Dallas and in week 17 against the commanders I am unable to play the game anymore. In my WR 1-4 and TE 1-2 positions the game is ignoring my depth chart and inserting Milton as my WR 1, Will Grier as my WR 2 and Asim Richards in at TE1. It will change every play until I run out of people on my depth chart. Then it will just stop at the worst possible people to play those positions. Please fix this EA. This isn’t a minor glitch. I buy this game to zone out and play franchises with multiple different teams. If I can’t do that… then this game is basically worthless to me.Can't Save Game After Draft is Started
Once the draft is started there is no option to save game once the draft is started, this bug showed up on X in 2025, but not One, on xbox X the autosaves were glitchy, the freezes were rampant, so what do the lazy developers do for the problem they cancel the auto save, this means if you exit a Fantasy Draft at anytime in the 53 rounds, your entire draft is GONE Madden developers think we want to, and now have to bite off and swallow an entire fantasy draft in one sitting, no saves, no checking rosters, just get one shot, its sad, since this really used to be one of the true gems of playing madden they deaded the owner mode, claiming franchise upgrades, they deaded the joy of the fantasy draft BRING BACK AN AUTOSAVE, at leastOnline Franchise not popping up
I run an online Madden franchise with over 27 ppl and when I have new users to join they can’t find my league. I have changed the name and password multiple times and still doesn’t work. The error message they get is league not found as if the league isn’t even there. Please let me know was this due to the recent update? We drafted on Friday August 7th if that helps.Too many bugs
I love how user max protection don’t mean jack squat in this game let me try and run glitch sack after glitch sack after glitch sack even play action pass no time to do anything automatically takes down on run or pass don’t mean jack squat call max protection nothing glitch take down before you can even get a run or pass downTravis hunter 2 way stats don’t show only one side.
Ea please fix this issue, so excited to use hunter and only one side of his stats are recorded post game, yall hype him and this game up and every year release an unfinished game. And when you update it make it so you don’t gotta restart a franchise. So unfair to get an int in a game and touchdown to not have one side of stats saved. Such a let down and immersive killer.The Franchise Mode Weekly Recap Is a Step Back EA
This year’s Franchise Mode Weekly Recap feels like a hollow afterthought—nothing like the gold standard ESPN NFL 2K5 show that still sets the bar for how a recap should look and feel. Back in 2004, NFL 2K5 delivered dynamic camera angles, real-time storylines, and sharp, context-driven commentary that made you feel every pivotal moment. Madden 26’s recap, by contrast, slaps together generic clips, robotic voice-overs, and templated stats with zero insight. It’s obvious EA once again took the lazy route. EA’s focus isn’t on giving us an immersive Franchise Mode experience; it’s on milking the so-called “cancer” that is Ultimate Team. Every microtransaction, player pack, and daily coin grind screams loud and clear: “We don’t want to build the best game, we just want more revenue.” Meanwhile, the dev teams who once crafted deep strategic options and compelling story arcs are sidelined to pump out yet another pack sale. But we, the gamers, aren’t innocent in this cycle. By pre-ordering unfinished games and funneling cash into Ultimate Team, we’ve built EA’s business model around half-baked features and endless monetisation. If we truly want to see Franchise Mode flourish again, it’s time to hit EA where it hurts in their bottom line. No more early access cheerleading. No more weekly UT spending. Imagine the message we’d send if thousands of players held their wallets: “We won’t reward lazy updates or pay for recycled features.” When Ultimate Team revenue dips, EA’s higher-ups will finally realize that stripping resources from core game modes costs them more than a few pack sales ever will. Let’s demand the return of the real weekly recap a showcase of in-depth analysis, meaningful story arcs, and polished production values like we saw in NFL 2K5. If enough of us refuse to fund unfinished games and toxic microtransactions, we can push Madden back onto the shoulders of its devs instead of EA’s finance team.franchise draft class
EA, the same recycled 50 year old faces to choose from for generic draft classes are getting really old. Would it be impossible to just move over the player creator from superstar mode to franchise to allow more diverse draft classes? genuinely curious on if that’s far fetched or if y’all are just lazy
Featured Places
Madden NFL Game Info Hub
Get all the information you need about Madden NFL games here!Madden NFL 26
Check out the Madden NFL 26 community forums and discuss the latest news and game information.Madden NFL 26 General Discussion
Join the community on the Madden NFL 26 forums and talk about everything in and around the game.Madden NFL 26 Ultimate Team
Get the latest news on MUT, helpful advice, and discuss strategy with the Madden NFL 26 community.Madden NFL 26 Franchise
Chat about your Madden NFL 26 Franchise in the community forums.Madden NFL 26 Game Modes
Discuss Superstar and more in our Game Modes community for Madden NFL 26.Madden NFL 26 Technical Issues
Need support with tech, connectivity or performance issues in Madden NFL 26? Join us to discuss troubleshooting.Madden NFL 26 Bug Reports
Issue with a bugs, glitches or errors in Madden NFL 26? Report bugs and see what the community is saying on this forum.
