How the sim works

FTG Football plays every game one drive at a time. It does not call plays. This page covers what the sim looks at, what you can change, and how the computer-run clubs make their choices. There are no formulas here. You get cause and effect: pull this lever, expect that result.

How one game is played

Each drive starts with one club holding the ball and ends in a result: a touchdown, a field goal, a punt, a turnover on downs, an interception, a fumble, a missed field goal or a safety. The sim compares the offense with the opposing defense, then draws the result. A better offense scores more and turns the ball over less. It never guarantees a result, so the same two clubs can play very different games on different days. You read the outcome in the drive log on the Box score.

How good a club is comes from its players. The sim takes the club's best available players, whatever their position, and averages their overall ratings into one strength. That one strength serves on offense and on defense. Coaching is what separates the two sides. Only the best players count, so a deep bench does not lift a club by itself. A backup matters when the backup moves up because someone ahead of the backup is out.

A few things shift the odds before the result is drawn:

• The coaching staff. A good offensive coordinator lifts the offense, and a good defensive coordinator lifts the defense. The head coach's game management lifts both sides. The effect is small.
• Schemes. Each coach runs an offensive or defensive scheme. Some offense and defense pairings favour the offense and some favour the defense, by a small amount. A roster of adaptable players suffers less from a bad pairing. The Scheme versatility development goal raises a player's adaptability. See Coaching.
• The hot seat. In the regular season, a head coach under heavy pressure drags the whole club down a little. The playoffs are exempt. See Coach profile.
• Field position. Where a drive starts matters. After a punt, a turnover or a kickoff, the next club starts in a different place. Only a club pinned deep in its own end can give up a safety.

A game runs two halves. If the score is level after regulation, the clubs trade possessions in overtime until one is ahead after a full round. A tie is possible, but rare.

Which ratings matter

The sim reads one number for each player: the overall rating, shown as OVR. It does not play a quarterback's arm or a receiver's hands as separate skills. A player's overall rating already reflects the player's age, so a young player plays below the player's ceiling and a veteran past the peak plays below the best. POT shows the ceiling. See the Glossary.

Position does not change how the sim weighs a player. The best players at any position count toward the side they play for. What position does change is the stat line the player earns. Quarterbacks collect passing stats, receivers collect catches, and so on, which you can follow on Stats.

Coaches have ratings too. An offensive coordinator brings an Offense rating, a defensive coordinator brings a Defense rating, and the head coach brings Game mgmt. A rating above the middle helps, and one below hurts. A coordinator's Development rating does not change the game. It changes how fast your players grow in the offseason.

Hot and cold streaks are not ratings. The sim reads only a player's overall rating, so a streak does not carry from one game to the next.

What you control

You steer the sim through the people on the field and the staff on the sideline.

• Who is on the roster. Because strength comes from your best available players, the biggest lever is the roster itself. Sign, trade for and draft better players. See Roster and Free agency.
• Your depth chart. The Depth chart sets who starts, who backs up, and how snaps split between them. Your saved chart holds through the season, and the computer does not rebuild it for you. It also carries into the next season. When a new season starts, the game keeps your chart and your snap presets and only fills the holes: a slot whose player left the club, retired or went to the practice squad, and any slot that was empty. Each hole takes the best active player at that position who has no slot yet, so look over where your new signings landed. When nobody is free to take an empty starter cell, the backup moves up to starter. During the season, when a starter goes to IR, goes to the practice squad or is traded away, his backup moves up to starter. Finishing a Learn a position goal fills holes the same way. The chart decides who gets the playing time and the stats. It does not change how strong the club is in a game, because the sim rates the club on its best available players. That matters more than it sounds, since stats feed how players develop and what they are worth later.
• Your coaching staff. Hire coordinators and a head coach with strong ratings and schemes that suit your roster. See Coaching.
• Development goals. Pick players to work on a goal, such as a breakout push, a durability program or scheme versatility. A goal plays out over several weeks, not in a single game.
• Keeping the head coach safe. A coach on the hot seat costs you on game day. The club's record, how it compares with what its scoring says it should have won, and how long the coach has held the job all feed the seat. Goals the owner sets and you miss add to it. See Owner's box.

There is no play-calling screen. You cannot choose to run or pass on a given down, go for it on fourth down or call a timeout. Those choices are not part of this sim.

Injuries and fatigue

Injuries. Players get hurt after each week of games. A club that has a bye, or that missed the playoffs, takes no injuries that week. Most injuries are short and leave a player Day-to-day. Longer ones put the player out for several weeks, and the longest put the player on IR. A player who is out or on IR does not play, and the next-best player takes the place in the sim. When a player goes on IR, the player leaves the slot on the depth chart. You see the empty slot and fill it. A player who is merely day-to-day can still play. See Reserves.

Who gets hurt. Starters get hurt more than backups, because they play more. Some players are more fragile than others. Some positions take more punishment than others. The risk creeps up as the season wears on, and a player just back from an injury is more likely to get hurt again. A Durability program development goal helps a player stay healthy.

Coming back. A player returning from a major injury plays below the usual level for a few weeks, then recovers. Every injury from a season is healed by the next one.

Lasting damage. A rare serious injury costs a player some ceiling for good. You see it in the news as a player who "lost a step". The risk grows with age. A rarer injury ends a career. Older players and players in decline are the most likely to retire this way.

Fatigue. The sim does not track tired legs inside a game. There is no stamina rating and no in-game substitution. The snap split on your depth chart decides who earns the stats, not who gets tired. The only wear the sim models is the injury risk that creeps up late in the season.

How AI teams decide

A club with no human GM is run by an AI front office.

Depth charts. The sim builds each AI club's depth chart from its active roster, with the best players by current ability starting. It rebuilds an AI club's chart in the offseason, and again during the season whenever an injury, trade or signing leaves it stale. It never rebuilds the chart of a club that a human GM runs. In the offseason it only fills the holes in that chart.

Free agency. In the offseason, AI clubs bid to fill the positions where they are short. A club that leans toward spending bids higher, and a club with strong cap discipline bids lower. A club also limits itself on big-money bids. These leanings match the Acquisition and Cap discipline sliders in the AI personality pane on Front office.

Mid-season signings. During the season, an AI club with a clear hole at a position, for example after an injury, will sign a free agent who clearly beats the best player it has there, if it has the cap room. These are short rentals that end with the season, and a club fills its holes one at a time.

Cuts and roster balance. In the offseason, an AI club may cut a few older, overpaid veterans in decline, as long as it has depth at the position. The club also moves players between the active roster and the practice squad so it carries a sensible mix of positions. An AI club must also stay under the cap. Once each offseason, and after any trade between two AI clubs, a club that is over the cap cuts players to get back under it.

What they know. When an AI club bids in free agency or weighs a trade, it judges other players by its own scouts' grades, not the true ratings. Those grades can differ from the market's Consensus. Where they do, you may find value. A club knows its own players' true ratings, so it uses them when it decides whom to cut. Its in-season free agent pickups also use true ratings.

For how AI clubs trade, see Trades and Front office.