Hints
Free advertising
Just before a home game, put all advertising up and play your game. After the game, do not sim week. Go out and set the advertising to zero. Sim week and you will get 100% attendance, but pay nothing.
Play Football 101 to Earn Easy Tokens
One place to garner quick Tokens is Football 101. Run through all of the plays in your playbook to get a substantial helping of Tokens, which you can use to purchase Madden Cards.
How to unlock stuff
Bingo cheat - Reach level 2 in your EA Sports Bio.
Ray Lewis - Reach level 3 in your EA Sports Bio.
1990 Eagles team - Reach level 4 in your EA Sports Bio.
Steve Spurrier coach - Reach level 6 in your EA Sports Bio.
Preist Holmes - Reach level 9 in your EA Sports Bio.
Super Bowl 38 card - Reach level 12 in your EA Sports Bio.
Super Bowl 38 stadium - Reach level 19 in your EA Sports Bio.
Tiburon Complex stadium - Reach level 29 in your EA Sports Bio.
Ricky Williams - Reach level 27 in your EA sports Bio.
1988 San Francisco 49ers - Reach level 35 in your EA Sports Bio.
Cheerleader and Pump Up Crowd Cards - Successfully complete the "Game Situation" challenges in mini-camp mode.
Madden Cards and game cheats - Get a gold rank in any event on the All Pro, Pro and Rookie levels in mini-camp mode.
Add stats to Bio
Every time you simulate a season, if your team makes the playoffs it raises the stats on your EA Bio. You only have to save the Bio, and not the season.
Determine if defense is playing man to man coverage
Send a player in motion. If a defensive player follows him, then the corners are playing man to man coverage. Remember that the safeties may have zone and a LB could cover a WR (should be an easy completion).
Easy interceptions
While in defense, choose the play Nickel-Normal, go to cover 2. Now that you chose the play move your line in, your LB to the left, and your coverage in. Note: This only work about 85% of the time in rookie mode, sometimes in pro, if you are lucky on all-pro, and almost never in all-Madden settings.
Easy first down or more
When you create a playbook, make a formation with the quarterback one step back from the center, and the halfback in the same location as the quarterback, only behind the left tackle. Make a custom route for him. Have him run straight towards the QB, then streak as soon as he reaches the outside of the offensive line. Have the fullback out as a receiver going for a 25 yard post. Have the left side receiver go for a 25 yard streak, and make a custom for the right receiver (next to the fullback). Have him go straight for 5 yards, have a two second delay, then post left. About the time he starts his post, the fullback should be starting his, and the defense re-adjusts to cover both men, leaving just enough time to get the ball to your open halfback. This works about 90 percent of the time. You must be quick to avoid getting sacked.
Easy punt return touchdowns
Chose "Block Punt" then when they come out, audible to a middle punt return. This will work about 85% of the time.
Easy onside recovery
Choose "Onside Kick", move the arrow as low as possible, then kick a full kick. The returning team will drop the ball and give you a chance to recover.
Choose "Onside Kick". Set it far as you can to right and far down as possible. Then, kick as hard as you can. You have a good chance of getting the ball.
Easy points and tokens on Two Minute Drill
To get easy points on two minute drill, go for running plays. Make sure you score a touchdown or you will not get enough points. By the end of the drill, you will be given bonus points and get at least 355 tokens for one drill. Note: Go for four drills to get a lot of tokens, but make sure you play against a weak defense like the Claymores.
Play as the Vikings against the Claymores. Make sure Moss is running a Fly Route (straight down the field) and that no one else is running a route close to him. Then, just hike the ball, wait a few seconds, and lob (tap the button) it up to Moss. This works about 95% of the time.
To get over 70 points and nearly 40,000 points in Two Minute Drill, play as the Rams and use both the Shotgun-Normal-Hail Mary and Shotgun-4WR-Hail Mary plays. Use both these formations every few plays just to throw off the defense. Throw to Marshall Faulk while in the normal formation after you have moved him to the left or right and you should have a touchdown about 96% of the time. Play against a European team such as Barcelona and you should do well.
To get easy tokens in Two-Minute Drill, set the CPU defense to the Amsterdam Admirals and set the difficulty to All-Madden. Set the offense to the Atlanta Falcons and start. When the game begins, pause and go to "Coaching Strategies". Go to "Substitutions", and find the Field Goal formation. Substitute the QB already in the play with Michael Vick, and begin the drill. Call all Pass plays, and instead of passing, run with Vick. Usually, you can get it in in one play. After the TD, call a Fake Field Goal - Pass for your extra point. Again, instead of passing, run the ball in with Vick, and you will get more points. Repeat this until the Drill finishes.
Instead of passing to players, run the ball. Play against the Amsterdam Admirals and use a team that has got a good running back and just run it the whole time. Most likely, you will break a run and get a touchdown, if you are skilled at running the ball. Also, the points are a lot higher if you run for a touchdown and you will get many tokens.
Play as the Vikings or 49ers and against the Admirals. Make sure that Terrell Owens or Randy Moss is on the right side running a fly route on every play and that no one else is running a route near them. Then, wait a few seconds and lob it up to Moss or Owens. They should run past the defender with their speed, and you can jog it in for an easy touchdown.
Play as the Vikings against the Dragons. Select the Hail Mary and always throw it to Moss in the corner. Wait for awhile to let him get open and you will get a high score.
Select a bad team such as the Claymores and change their rosters around. For example, put the punter as the QB and switch the entire roster so that their overall rating is 12. Then, go to Two Minute Drill and choose the Vikings. Play against the Claymores in All Madden and keep passing it to Moss.
Play as the Rams against the Thunder. Make sure Kurt Warner is the quarterback, and Isaac Bruce is playing. Also make sure that you have Mike Martz's playbook. Set up the Shotgun 4-WR. Run the Hail Mary play and throw a light touch pass to Isaac Bruce. You will score a touchdown most of the time. Then, go for two and run Goal-Line. Run the Outside Toss play then run to the outside. They will move in the corner back usually, giving you a clear shot. If they do not, call a fake audible and they will pull them almost all of the time. If they do not start running to the outside, then very sharply cut into the edge of the line and stay at least three yards away from any line backer. Keep doing this repeatedly to earn a lot of tokens.
All-Madden coffin punt and clutch kicking in mini camp
Use the following trick to get gold on All-Madden coffin punt and clutch kicking. When you start, look at the kicking meter to see how fast the wind is blowing. At 10 to 15 mph, it is difficult to get a kick just right. Keep restarting until the winds are at 3 mph or lower. This makes it a lot easier to kick the ball to the red or yellow target.
Easy money in owner mode
While playing your franchise in owner mode, wait until you play any home game. While playing, go to menu options and save your game. Immediately quit the game and completely exit out of franchise mode. Reload your franchise game, and repeat as many times as necessary. The trick works off your ticket sales for that game. For example, if you normally make $5 million a game, multiply that by the number of times you saved/quit/reloaded. If you do it ten times, then you will make $50 million in ticket sales for that game. Note: If you save and do not quit, most likely your game will crash after a few plays.
Before you face a team that is very bad, go to owner mode and select "Advertising". Max out everything, then go to Fan Appreciation Day and choose the top option. This would be what the crowd would like the most. Get your win (simulate or play one game). After the game, go to owner mode and select "Advertising". Bring everything down to zero. If you winm you should gain about $6 to 7 million.
Quick blitz
If you want to blitz fast, go to the setting menu, then choose "Penalty", and turn off "Offsides". You can now run before the play.
Getting good players
Enter owner mode and create a player. Intentionally keep his stats very low and sign him to your team for the maximum number of years at a minimum salary. Then, return to the player creation screen (not through the rosters), and change his attributes to full. You will be able to keep the player through the length of his contract for the original low salary.
While in franchise or owner mode, when asked to input players at the end of a season, begin this by doing the regular offseason procedures. When the next screen appears, go to your features to create-a-player. Create your player, but make his attributes between 12 to 20. Save the player, then go to offseason features until you get to re-sign free agents. Begin the bargaining process on your created player (if the above steps are done correctly, his salary should be between $200,000 to $400,000) and sign him. When main screen appears, go back into the features and highlight your created player you just signed. Go to attributes and raise all the attributes to 99. Notice that although the overall rating goes up, the salary remains the same.
Check to see what teams you are playing. Then, create a player with a 99 overall rating. WRs work best as they are not used every play on offense. Sign the free agent, then go to trade block. Look carefully at what your true needs to make your team better are. Put the created player on the block. Ask for the two positions with a rating of 90 you need the most and a first round draft pick. You can usually get a first rounder with a 90 to 95 player depending on what position you ask for. When you trade, try to get the best deal from teams that you will not face. You can do this with probably three to five created characters, depending on the deals that you get and the needs of your team. This is easy because you do not have to spend any time creating the player and you benefit by trading to teams you do not face.
To get unbelievable players, create a player, in a position that you need who is only 18. Make him rated about 75 overall. After training camp, pre-season, and a good season, you can have a player near 83 overall. Then, down the road, you can easily produce a 99 overall player.
To have a good team with one player or more and a low salary, create a player that would be very bad at his position. Sign him for as cheap as you can without a bonus for seven years. A bonus would make you pay more in the long run. Change his rating to perfect and make him good to a position which is common to his position on offense/defense. For example, WRs can be good secondary players and defensive lineman can be good offensive lineman, or if they are smaller and fast a fullback or tight end.
Note: The following trick only works in franchise mode. To get good first round draft picks each year, create a player during the season (quarterback works best). Make his quarterback accuracy and power 100; if any other stats are made better he will be too much to sign. He will be added to the free agents. Go to rosters and look for all the teams in the NFL that have a bad quarterback. Most of the time, the team who has a bad quarterback will also have a bad season. Once you have found the team with the worst quarterback, go to "Free Agents" under "Roster", and sign the player you created to a one year deal. Once this is done, go to "Trades" under "Roster". Trade your created player (his stats should be about 78) to the team that had the worst quarterback for their first and second round draft pick. Next, go to create a player and adjust the attributes of the quarterback you just traded and make him 12 overall. Now you will have the team's first and second draft pick, and they will have a bad quarterback.
Go into the roster before you enter the franchise. Make a player for any position and make his ratings awful. His overall should be 12 (seems to be the lowest it will go). Start a franchise and sign the created player. As a 12 overall, you can sign him to a seven year deal for a cheap $1.75 million and $350,000 bonus. Export the team. leave the franchise, and go back into the roster. Import your exported team. You can now adjust his ratings to all 99's if desired. His salary will not change. Note: In five, six, and seven seasons, you will not be able to keep this team together. Contracts will skyrocket for these players when they run out. Pick a few team leaders, keep them, and use the rest to trade for good draft picks. You will own the first round of the draft and should stay good enough to win the Super Bowl, even after dismantling the team. Trade your original players before they retire to get awesome players, keeping your team among the elite forever.
Play as the Rams in a fantasy draft. They always get a low draft pick.
Enter franchise mode and trade you first, second, and third round draft pick for a bad team's first, second, and third round draft picks just before the trade deadline (before week 6). You will get to pick first if they continue to play badly. This works most of the time, but it depends on the team's performance at the end.
When you select franchise mode at the main menu, you will be asked you how many teams you want to control. Set that number to 32. After doing this, make sure owner mode is on. During the draft make sure to get a good player at every position for just one team. For every other team, give them the lowest possible player. After about eighteen to twenty rounds you will not be able to sign any more good players; make those twenty picks count. Simulate the rest of the draft, allowing the CPU to get a few good players as well. Simulate the training camp, preseason, regular season, and playoffs if you make it. In the off-season, select "Coaching Strategies" and there should be an option to make every team except the one you created to be good controlled by the CPU. You now have 29 years to create a winning franchise. When a player gets old, be sure to trade him for a younger player at his position who is also good.
When it is your turn to draft, just simulate the entire draft. Go to sign draft picks and give them exactly what they want. Then, simulate that. After the wait, go to "League News" then "Draft Summary". Look at the entire league's draft. View the players stats, display his ratings. Scroll down until you find your draft position. You can now draft any player after that. Do this for every round. Make a note of the names of the players that you want down. Note: Before you simulate the draft, save the game so you can then go back to before the draft; there is no point in seeing the rankings if you cannot go back to get them.
In Franchise mode, wait till about week 6, then look for the team with the worst projected record by year's end. Swap draft picks with them (for example, rounds 1, 2, 3). When it is time to go to the NFL draft, do not enter the draft. Instead, go to trade and see what you can get for your first round pick, since most draft picks are not that good.
Low salaries for star players
Before you start a season or franchise, go to "View Rosters" and edit all of the player's attributes. When you do this, his salary does not go up but his overall skill does. Do this with younger players so you have them longer and they do not retire in franchise mode.
If you created a character that is maxed out in everything and has a high salary, trade him for either a draft pick or, look into the salary section while trading and sort it out. The lowest, yet best player is yours. Try this with a maxed out CB at age 24 and see what happens when you trade him for Champ Bailey and perhaps a first or second draft pick.
Explore the galaxy in the franchise's first open-world game.
