Modern Defensive Positions

Dear Madden Development Team,

I see all the great changes made for Madden 24 & I appreciate that you are listening to community feedback. These changes make me want to actually purchase Madden this year, but I don't think I will. As an avid offline CFM player, there is one simple change that has been needed for years & that is a modernization of ROSTER positions on the defense (specifically Edge, IDL, LB).

This one change will prevent AI mismanagement of these positions. To be clear, the depth chart positions do not need to change, ONLY the ROSTER positions. On the roster screen players NEED to be classified by Edge, Interior DL, and LB. Safeties should also be reworked but that is a bit more complicated because it is scheme dependent.

With the current system, AI teams will often sign, draft, or play players drastically out of position. For example a 4-3 team might sign a 270lb pass rushing "OLB" and play him at off ball LB. In reality though, he is a DE in their scheme. This will happen every year in Franchise & leads to very poor team building by the AI. If however, this same player was classified as an EDGE, that 4-3 team could sign him as an EDGE and in their depth chart EDGE players would play at DE. All you need to do is change the roster position listings & then tie each of those new positions to the corresponding depth chart position based on the team's selected defensive scheme. This will also allow teams to fire/hire a new coach with a new scheme & fit their current players into the new scheme, without having to change their position, which the AI rarely does on their own.

The Archytpe system can easily accommodate this too. Edge players could have archetypes such as "4-3 Pass Rusher", "4-3 Run Stopper", "3-4 Pass Rusher", "3-4 Complete/Hybrid" or something along those lines. New England would want 3-4 Hybrid guys, San Fran or the Jets would want 4-3 Pass Rushers, Baltimore or Pittsburgh would want 3-4 Pass Rushers, etc. Same thing for IDL. You could have "Nose Tackle", "Pass Rusher", "Run Stopper", etc. And then LBs would basically just have the same archytpes as MLBs currently do.

As far as safeties go, it does need to be changed from the current FS/SS system to probably a single position, with archytpe changes to differentiate lets say a Box Safety from a Deep Safety, etc. Maybe the defensive back positions would be something like CB/Nickel/S. But I do see issues with that, its a bit more complicated, so I won't say too much on that.

I know this would not be implemented for Madden 24, but this is DESPERATELY needed for Madden 25. Not only does the current positioning system hurt the game, it also does a disservice to the fans. John Madden didn't sign off on 7v7 back in the day because he wanted the game to teach football. By modernizing the defensive positions you would be helping a new generation of fan learn how the game is played to today, and making Franchise and other modes a far better experience. Thank you for all the efforts you put into the game year to year, I know its a challenge to improve the game on such a short development schedule. I hope this change can be made for Madden 25.