On the field

These apply to games you play.

• Stat adjustments. Stat tuning from completion rates by throw depth to sacks, drops and long runs, against real-football rates.

• Each level plays like its level. Player ratings are now read against the average at their own level, instead of on one scale built for pros. Passing accuracy, receivers' hands, how long a quarterback reads, and how often a collapsing pocket ends in a sack are now set for each level. Players' top speeds now match the 40 times their level really runs.

• The deep ball. A quarterback used to place every long throw exactly where his receiver would be. He now misjudges the lead a little, the way real passers do, so deep balls are overthrown and underthrown. When nobody is on him he rolls out and keeps looking instead of throwing it away, and once he's out of the pocket his receivers break off into the scramble drill. Go routes no longer stop at 40 yards. A receiver keeps running until the ball is in the air.

• A clean pocket keeps reading. Before, a quarterback with nobody near him threw the ball away at exactly 3.2 seconds, every time. He now keeps working through his reads until pressure arrives and can hold the ball longer. Drops and interceptions were also running high at the pro level. Both are now set from real drop and interception rates.

• Coverage. Deep zones cover their real share of the field, and a deep defender now plays between the routes that threaten him, so an outside go route no longer pulls a safety to the sideline and leaves the middle open. A man defender reacts to a receiver's cut a quarter-second late, as a real one does, so a well-run route can now get open. A player running with his back to the throw now picks up the ball late. Before, he knew where it would land from the moment it left the quarterback's hand. A pursuer who can't catch the ball carrier now takes the angle that gets him closest.

• Quarterbacks escape when they can actually make it. Whether a quarterback could extend a play or take off running used to depend on fixed rating cutoffs. Every Pro starter cleared them and no high-school starter did. He now goes when he can beat the free rushers to the spot, and he can keep the ball when the lane is open.

• Jet and orbit motion meets the quarterback. With the ball on a hash, the motion man ran to a point several yards away from the quarterback, so most jet, orbit and reverse handoffs were stuffed. His path now starts from the ball.

• Flip a play. A new ⇄ FLIP toggle on the call sheet (or press F) mirrors your next call: routes, motion and run direction, with your left tackle still on the left. It resets after each snap. CPU offenses in games you play now flip about half their calls, so they no longer run every play to the side it was drawn.

• More body types. Nine body builds take the field instead of five, and the heaviest build now covers nearly every Pro lineman.

Clock and penalties

• Pros has a two-minute warning. There was none at any level. Pro games now stop at 2:00 of the second and fourth quarters and of overtime.

• The clock stops when it should. At the pro level, going out of bounds now stops the clock in the last five minutes of the fourth quarter and in overtime, not just the last two. Injuries stop the clock at every level. In fast-forward and Quick Sim, incompletions, late out-of-bounds plays and changes of possession now stop the clock. Before, it kept running through all of them.

• Timeouts and kickoffs cost real time. A timeout called late in the huddle no longer gives back the seconds that already ran off. A returned kickoff now takes 8 seconds off the clock. It used to take none. The scorebug clock now ticks during the play instead of jumping when it ends.

• Late hits out of bounds keep the play. This foul happens after the play is over, so the play now stands and the 15 yards are added from where it ended, with an automatic first down. A touchdown keeps its points, and the 15 yards carry over to the kickoff. You used to have to choose between the play and the penalty.

• Declining a penalty keeps the play you watched. A flag on a play the field showed as a touchdown could offer a short gain on the decline side instead, so the touchdown disappeared either way. Declining now keeps the play you saw.

• False starts and offsides look right. In the replay of a pre-snap flag, players could be standing on the wrong side of the line. Both units now line up legally, and only the player who jumped crosses.

Around the league

• Long runs happen. In simulated league games, a run used to be a stuff, a breakaway, or almost exactly 4 to 6 yards: 60% of Pro carries gained 4, 5 or 6. Runs of 10+ yards came up 3.3% of the time at every level. They now come up 9.4% of the time at the pro level, 9.7% in college and 11.1% in high school.

• High-school scores are realistic. HS scoring was about 35% more than the games you play or watch: 25.2 points a team against 18.7.

• Better name variety. The game draws names from far larger pools, built from Census data and weighted by how common each name really is. In the shipped universe, almost half of all players shared their full name with someone else. Now it's about 6%. Every player and coach in the starting universe has been renamed. Coaches keep their faces. The renamed universe reaches new games only. Your existing saves keep their names, but players and coaches who enter them from now on draw from the new pools.

• Names and faces match. Generated free agents could get a name and a face drawn from two different backgrounds. They now match.

• The 2023–2025 draft classes are numbered correctly. In the starting universe, some draft picks were numbered within their round instead of overall, with duplicate slots and more than 32 players in a round. Each class now has 32 unique first-round picks, and rookie contracts follow the corrected slots. New games only.

Offseason

• The home screen follows the offseason. It used to show frozen end-of-season cards for the whole offseason. It now shows a stage timeline, the latest retirements, coaching changes, signings and draft picks, your own team's arrivals and departures, and the top recruiting or rookie classes.

• Offseason Wire. The offseason screen has a running news feed, filed under the stage each story broke in. On wide screens it's a column on the right. Otherwise it's a section you can expand under the stage. It shows stories from your own level.

• Rookie Watch. A new screen in the League section for Pro coaches ranks the rookie class by production, including undrafted rookies, and marks each player as a steal, on par or behind for his draft slot.

• Draft Classes. Pro team pages have a new tab listing each year's picks, where they are now, and their rookie and career lines.

• The draft follows your board. If you skip your remaining picks, the game now picks from your ranked Draft wishlists before falling back on its own choice.

Recruiting

• Recruits move during the season. High-school seniors are re-rated after week 5 and again before the playoffs, based on how they're playing and on scouts getting a better look at them. A senior who's tearing it up can climb a tier, and one the services overrated can slide. You get an inbox message with your recruits who moved and the biggest risers and fallers.

• Signing Classes. College team pages have a new tab listing every class the program has signed. Each signee has a short written scouting report and shows what has become of him since. Talent you haven't scouted stays hidden. Past classes are ranked league-wide under Recruiting Rankings, on each class's best 25 signees, so a big class padded with walk-ons doesn't outrank a smaller elite one.

Your team

• Wishlists. Star any player or coach from their profile to add him to your Watchlist or to lists you create for recruiting, the draft, free agency, the portal, trades or coaches. Rank them, add notes, and find them on the new Wishlists screen. Stars also mark them in the draft, free agency, the portal, the recruit database and the coaching carousel. Lists last for the whole career.

• Compare. A new Compare button on player and coach pages puts two to four of them side by side, starting with your own best player at that position, or your coach in that seat. You can add more from your team, your wishlists or a search. The best value in each row is highlighted, and talent you haven't scouted stays hidden.

• Run your own book. As a head coach, your own playbook was never used: your coordinator's book always called the plays. You now run your own book on your side of the ball by default. You can hand it to your coordinator on the Scheme screen, and the game preview shows who's calling it.

• God mode, if you want it. New careers have an optional God mode, off by default and fixed for the life of the career. It lets you edit players, coaches and teams in your live universe, with undo, and your job is safe whatever your results. God mode careers are marked in the sidebar and the save list. Existing saves and normal careers are unaffected.

Sandbox

• A full offseason screen. Sandbox now opens the offseason screen with league-wide results for each Pro stage: records broken, retirements, coaching changes, expiring deals, free agency and training camp.

• Watch the Draft. Start the draft and watch it pick by pick, with a clock you can set to 3, 10 or 30 seconds a pick, a pause button, and options to sim to the end of the round or the end of the draft.

• The Gazette follows the level you're watching. Standings, injuries, season leaders and a new edition each week, with a notice when one comes out.

• Signing classes are ranked on the College home screen.

Saves and the desktop app

• Long saves use less memory. Each finished season is now saved once, by itself, and its games leave memory. Older box scores, highlights and game logs load when you open them. On a save aged ten seasons, the game used 24% less memory. Record books and head-to-head histories are unchanged.

• No more black window. I spent a lot of time trying to reproduce reported black screens. If the game's window crashed, the desktop app left a black window behind with no message. It now reloads to the title screen, tells you the game restarted and why, and writes the cause to a log file on your machine. If it crashes repeatedly, it stops and asks you instead. Separately, if your graphics driver reset mid-game, the field could stay black until the next snap. It now redraws straight away. If you still get black screens, share the log file with me.

Keep the reports coming