Madden NFL 17 Franchise Mode Guide with tips on becoming a Player, a Coach, or an Owner.
Similar to last year, Madden NFL 17 Franchise Mode is deep and fast mode that ensures an authentic NFL building experience. The Franchise Mode allows you to draft players from the ground up and take control of the team over the course of multiple seasons.
Whether you decide to play online with your friends or against AI, you will experience an equally challenging and most complete Madden NFL 17 Franchise Mode experience.
Madden NFL 17 Franchise Mode Guide
Our Franchise Mode Guide walks you through everything you need to know about the game mode.
Choosing a Role
Regardless of the role, the first thing that you need to do is to choose a team. Although you should be able to find a team that complements your playstyle, you should choose your favorite team.
As a general rule of thumb, choose a high rating team if you want to increase your chances of winning and a team of rookies if you want to build the team yourself.
Be a Player
You can select an active player or create one from ground up. Once done, you need to decide position, player type, backstory, etc. This bars from controlling other players on the field; but the idea is to earn XP, designate strengths/weaknesses, and become the best NFL player.
Be a Coach
This allows you to control the entire team instead of a single player which is what makes it more complicated. As a coach, you decide things like drafting, trading, signing, etc. Once again, you can either select a pre-existing coach – and inherit all his traits – or create one from scratch.
Be an Owner
This allows you to experience the Madden NFL 17 Franchise Mode in its entirety. If you are not comfortable with making stadium decisions or managing the prices off the field, you should probably choose something else. Similar to other roles, you can select an active owner or create one from the ground up – the latter affects finances, team happiness, and fan happiness.
Be a Player – Best Position Types
Mobile QB
This should allow you to not only benefit from the short pass plays, but also gain a few yards in almost all situations. There is a huge emphasis on defensive mechanics in this year’s iteration which a Mobile QB can easily counter.
Balanced MLB
You basically need to benefit from speed and RAC to tackle the ball carrier quickly and bar advances towards the red zone. You should not only be able to play the edge a little more successfully, but also shift position and even stop the offense.
WR
As mentioned earlier, there is a huge emphasis on defense mechanism and zone defense in Madden NFL 17 which is why it is a good idea to have red zone threat WR. Whenever you find yourself in the red zone, take advantage of play recognition and decent catch rate to make big plays.
Choosing the Squad
As mentioned earlier, you should definitely consider selecting your favorite team if you are playing for fun. But if winning is all that matters, these teams will surely help you out.
Best Future-Proof Teams
Oakland Raiders
This team has shown significant improvements for the past couple of years. Featuring a game-winning defense and an experienced QB, Oakland Raiders are not to be trifled with. The team still lacks a decent running back and are in bad shape for winning right now. However, if you can find a playmaker HB or TE, you are definitely good to go.
Dallas Cowboys
This team has phenomenal passing game, but fall apart against good air defense. Dallas Cowboys can benefit from the running backs and an HB with high awareness and the ability to break tackles. Work on these minor flaws and you have a championship winning team at your disposal.
Kansas City Chiefs
The team’s defense has shown remarkable improvement over the past couple of years. With a good HB and experienced WRs at its disposal, Kansas City Chiefs are looking better than ever! If you are looking to go with it, you must find someone to protect the QB.
Best Overall Teams
Green Bay Packers
With this team, you still have Aaron Rodgers as one of the best QBs in the game. Combine Rodgers with two amazing WRs that the team has, Green Bay Packers packs serious offensive threat. Provided that the offensive line stays good, you definitely have a shot at championship.
New England Patriots
With this team, you get Tom Brady as an elite pocket passer who can easily make all the throws. Moreover, with Dont’a Hightower and Rob Gronkowski, the team is brimming with superstars. And while most of the superstars are on the offensive side, the defense has more than enough young talents to stay in the championship.
Arizona Cardinals
Having one of the best passing game in the league; you can safely bet on Arizona Cardinals, thanks to its speed and an experienced QB. On top of that, this season’s zone defense hugely complements the team’s defense – especially Tryann Mathieu. Definitely consider Arizona Cardinals if you are eyeing championship.
Be an Owner
The upper-right corner of the screen lets you keep track of your finances. As an owner, you have a fistful of responsibilities apart from coaching the team. Being an owner, it is your responsibility to manage the financial pieces of the team. Below you will find some of the options under My Owner panel.
Team Success
This is the place where you check your wins which eventually translate into success. In addition to tracking your performance, you should also be able to compare it to the rest of the league.
Media Questions
Speaking with media has direct connection to happiness in different areas and team popularity. Due to this, you must be wise when answering media questions.
Team Value
This essentially allows you to investigate your team’s weak points and make important amendments. You should also make sure that you have enough funds going into the off season.
Finances
This allows you to review earned and spent money. You need to make sure that ticket prices are justified and you are not ripping fans off unnecessarily.
Marketing
You need to understand that your team’s popularity is directly connected to happiness in different areas and ticket prices which result in revenues.
Stadium
This plays a huge role in generating revenues and keeping fans happy. You can also rebuild or relocate depending upon a number of factors.
Fan Happiness
It all boils down to fan happiness. This area should not be undermined at any cost. Keep fans happy and revenue should start pouring in without any difficulty.
Staff
This is another important thing that you need to consider when being an owner. You need to understand that the best trainers and scouts do cost more, but are required for putting out best players out in the field and to keep fans happy.
Goals
Goals in Madden NFL 17 Franchise Mode are more important than ever before! Accomplishing goals definitely helps you win games and should not be neglected. As an owner and coach, you can check your goals in the Goals Menu.
There are drive goals, weekly goals, season goals, and milestone goals. You should definitely consider completing them because they provide XP that result in upgrades and winning games.
Madden NFL 17 Franchise Mode – General Tips and Strategies
Earning and Spending Player XP
The best ways to earn XP is to complete goals and to focus them. There are more dynamic goals for positions and players which can be used to earn a ton of XP.
XP can be used to earn different upgrades and traits. One important thing to note here is that already earned XP does not diminish – no matter what! Therefore, it is a good idea to let XP accumulate and acquire something worthwhile instead of spending it uselessly.
Building up Player Confidence
Similar to XP, you can also build up confidence and make better your players significantly. One of the ways of building confidence is to win more games. Winning more games results in more confidence which again results in winning more games.
During gameplay, you can complete a handful of features to boost player confidence. Apart from this, you should also try to target players’ weak areas to do so.
Learn More About Players
Since it is a team game, you must find synergy between teammates and how they play with each other. You need to learn more about players, at which positions they are generally comfortable playing at, what your team needs, and things like that. Continue to learn more about your players and formulate a better team.
Sort Out your Roster
This is very important to consider in Madden NFL 17 Franchise Mode. You should always check the depth chart to see if you require any sort of adjustments, fill in any spots, or need backups. I cannot simply overstate the importance of backups – they can easily win your games in different situations.
Starting the Franchise
Preseason
You should be able to simulate the preseason which will allow you earn XP and confidence without worrying about injuries. This of course holds true if you do not want to have some practice with your new team.
League Settings
It is a good idea to familiarize yourself with League Settings – especially game length as it can create the difference between winning and losing games. Try to play with different settings and see what works well for you.
This is pretty much everything we have on Madden NFL 17 Franchise Mode. If there is anything else you would like to add, let us know in the comments section below!
