The state of Madden 24 and what need to be addressed (gameplay)

The zones to NEED to get to their landmarks, IN A HURRY, Defenses was GREAT during early access and pure zone coverage was decently responsive (Tampa 2 actually was decent for its intended purpose: limit downfield passing.) Clouds worked, Deep Halves worked, Deep 1/3s were responsive, hook zones played aggressively (they even caused fumbles when you would throw an ABSOLUTE HOSPITAL PASS).Match was iffy, but not as bad as it could have been. The tackling and pursuit wasn’t as bad bc they at least got immediately to their run keys and fits.

Zone drop Quarter flat players should drop to the curl area(similar to a vert hook) and work to the flat only after and if the ball is thrown there (like a cloud flat). This allows for Cover 4 drop zone to have its proper weaknesses.

Now, hooks suck (no big hits in middle of the field, just won’t happen). Match is broken in various areas it never was. Clouds don’t get depth, they don’t drift (look for work after hitting their landmark) effectively and it’s annoying. Seam Flats STILL don’t work vs trips (Cover 3 match in general doesn’t activate vs trips, should just check to the rules from a flood play in 2x2 but as a base rule set vs trips, would even work vs bunch). Cover 3 match doesn’t have the player responsible for carrying a 3rd vertical up field carry it (even in 2x2, should usually be a weak hook in Cover 3 match with 4 underneath defenders, and the 3 rec when it’s 3 underneath defenders, leaving the weak seam flat and underneath cross if no player runs to that seam or flat). Also hook defenders no longer widen with the their assignments if there is no defender to pass them off to in the flat (the 3 push rule in Cover 3 and 4 match that activates when either the seam flat/ quarter flat defender is busy downfield carrying a vertical route).

There is no 4th receiver match checks (simple as weak side flat takes shallow cross to the flat in Cover 3 & 4 match and for Cover 2 it should be left to run to the flat across the field. Regardless of the fact defender is there or not). The 4 receiver floods should have (weak side flat defender in Cover 3 and 4 match , and Weak vert hook in Cover 2 match) follow 4 to the side where he runs if no one crosses. Deep safety responsibility largely does not change. (In a quads formation in Cover 4 match the 3 rec would have 4 vertical, Cover 3 match would spot drop vs 4 strong, cover 2 should resort to the same rules it uses now.) The problem with 4 strong is that the game does not recognize that the 4th receiver strong is the 2nd receiver weak, causing bugs and the player matching the 2nd receiver weak to not be able to match him/pass him off and cover the correct player if a new #4 emerges.

Also please bring back Cover 2 sink, last seen in madden 21 (Cover 2 match that actually had active mid reads and vertical hooks playing their match rules in tandem). And cover 2 carry, last seen in madden 17 (cover 2 with the 3 rec and two vert hooks, with vert hooks and 3 rec playing their stock matching rules, regardless of whene the HB flare to the flat), a zone drop version of this would even be pretty good at stopping short passes too.

Compression sets should be able to be easily defended by zone drop and match zone principles. These zones should play outside leverage stock vs tight or compressed receivers (curl flat, seam flat, or quarter flat, cloud flat, soft squat, and hard flat, outside 1/3 zones and outside 1/4 zones). The rest should play inside leverage. 

Also you cannot get proper double teams or bracket coverage because both defenders play the same leverage. They don’t play inside-outside or underneath-overtop brackets, and it limits the ability to get proper double teams on receivers; this is even a problem in Match Coverage.

Blitzing does not work as intended in Madden because pass protection is automatically near perfect by default (even if you call a bad protection). To combat this: I would suggest a way to be able to see/highlight the all of the defenders accounted for in protection. You could even use this for run blocking schemes too, to help allow for more transparency. This could help mitigate the problems that split zone run schemes have where players that should be unblocked and left for the splitting player to block from across formation, who gets blocked by the O line, leaving the Player working across with nothing and an unblocked player to get a free hit. This also applies to power runs with pulling players as well.

Can you bring back the match up wheel that was present on the old gen versions of the game when hitting L2/LT pre-snap. That allowed you to check stamina, match ups and compare ratings on the fly. And it was really helpful for evaluating WR vs DB matchups and decisions. 

These are all of my critiques and suggestions I have for gameplay in madden at the moment. If you were to take all of these, that should complete alleviate the problems facing gameplay and the game would have everything have at least one counter for it. If implemented please make sure to have a dedicated account in game section that explains how to use these features and clear confusion on what exactly these do, that way this isn’t just left up to the community to figure out on their own.