All cheats for this game by platform: GameBoy Advance | GameBoy Color | PC | PlayStation 2 | PlayStation | Xbox
Primary Collection of Cheats
Taunt your opponent
Before the snap, when you are controlling either a defensive player or your QB, press [L3]. Your player will taunt the other team.
Houston Texans
After the first season in franchise mode, do the expansion draft for the Houston Texans.
Before the snap, when you are controlling either a defensive player or your QB, press [L3]. Your player will taunt the other team.
Houston Texans
After the first season in franchise mode, do the expansion draft for the Houston Texans.
Hints
Unlimited creation points
Create a player, then go to "Edit Player" at the roster screen. Press [Up] or [Down] to choose the player you want to edit. Press [Right] to get to the speed category. Press [X], then press [X] again.
Perfect team
In season mode, go to rosters, choose "Edit Player". Select any player (created or a real) and go to "Attributes" Move everything to 99 for every player.
Hidden taunt
While running into the endzone, hold [Turbo] + [Triangle].
Thanksgiving commentary
Set the system date to the third Thursday in November.
Christmas commentary
Set the system date to December 25 to hear Pat Summerall will say ''Season's Greetings''.
New Year's commentary
Set the system date to January 1 to hear James Brown (JB) say "Happy New Year".
Created player announced
Give a created player a pro's last name to hear his name announced.
Winning the coin toss
Repeatedly press [L1] + [R1] + [Start] before the coin toss screen appears.
To win the coin toss, remember what you or the CPU chose last time. 95% of the time the result is the opposite of the last coin toss. For example, if the CPU chose heads the last time and won, next time choose tails.
Easy tokens
For easy tokens, go to the two minute drill screen. Choose two to four accounts, and the Admirals for defense. Choose your team and make sure you choose a profile to save to, then start playing. Keep throwing to WR2 and you should get many touchdowns. It is possible to get a score over 33,000 with this trick.
Have the Dragons on defense and the Titans as offense. You can score well over 55,000 points by selecting HB Off Tackle as a play. It takes about eleven seconds to run and you receive 5,150 points per touchdown and 375 points for running the same play as a two point conversion. If you can successfully score 11 touchdowns, you will have a score over 55000.
Edit the speed of every player on the Raven's defense to 15. Edit all of the halfbacks', fullbacks', tight ends', and wide receivers' ratings down to 0. Edit you offensive lineman's pass block rating to 99. Edit your quarterback in the following manner: 0 Passing Power, Accuracy; 99 Speed, Accel, Carrying, Awareness, Stamina, and Agility. Save your roster as "Cheat", load it before doing the following trick. Start a Two Minute Drill. Choose All-Madden, and then the Ravens' defense. Choose whatever team you modified offensively, and make them your offense. Next, you will need a passing play. Choose Single Back Formation, and then Hot Route your second wide receiver, looking left to right. Also Hot Route your tight end. For the Hot Routes, make them do a buttonhook ([Left] on the D-Pad). Now instead of passing the ball, run a "Quarterback Sweep" by sending the quarterback to the right side of the field. Run towards the endzone, using speed bursts as needed. Make sure you get to the endzone. If you do not, call timeout if the clock keeps ticking. If a penalty is called, do not waste the time running down the field. Just head out of bounds, and do it over. You should be able to score about ten touchdowns. Your score will be very odd, and you will get millions of tokens. Go the Madden Cards menu to see your tokens -- they may not appear on the Two Minute Drill menu.
Create a profile with M. Martz's playbook. Run the two-minute drill under rookie with Galaxy as the defense. Use the Rams. Run single back 5 wide, Hail Mary. Faulk or Hakim will be open every time. You can score 100 points and get about 220 tokens. It takes nine seconds to score.
Select "Options" at the main menu and select "Roster". Go all the way over to "Edit Player" and select your favorite team. Increase their stats all the way. Set your worst team's stats down as far as it can go. Then, back out and save the roster. Select "Options", then "Settings". Put the game on "All Madden". Go to either exhibition or two minute drill mode. Start playing and do well. If you selected exhibition mode, run the ball all the way back to the 1 yard line. Then, do a Hail Mary, catch it, and run for a touchdown. You get 36 tokens every time you pass a 90 yarder. Note: You need Madden Challenge on and should have a profile.
Go to exhibition mode and play as the Ecko team against the Dragons. Turn penalties off and do an onside kick if you have to kick. Repeatedly do running plays and you should be able to score over 100 points in the game. Note: Make sure the Madden Challenge is on.
Dance going into the endzone
Press [L1], [L2], [R1], or [R2] while running into the endzone and your player may do a dance.
Kiss a cheerleader
After your first five seasons in franchise mode, at the end of the SuperBowl there will be a cheerleader waiting for you. You have to be a running back, corner back, wide receiver or a linebacker for this trick to work.
Better catches
To do a better catch than the generic one, where the player throws his hands in the air at the last second and most of the time misses, simply press "Catch" a second or a half a second before you reach the target of the ball, or before the ball reaches the receiver. The player will do a better looking and more effective catch, such a one handed catch, a jump catch, a spin catch, an over the shoulder catch (good for lobs), or a better diving one if the ball is out of reach.
Change player appearance
Under the options screen select "Rosters", go to "Edit Player", and finally go to "Player Appearance". You can make anyone in the NFL look different than they really do.
Get by the offense
Select your fastest player and put him in the front line. Press [Circle] + [R2] + [L1] and your player should do a spin move to get past the offensive lineman faster.
Avoid tackles
Stop running for a moment. You can sometimes easily avoid being tackled. Sometimes you will need to juke, spin, or stiff arm to get past defenders.
More broken tackles
When you run the ball to the outside, hold "Stiff-Arm" ([L2] on right side, [R2] on the left side). Eventually the person with the ball will drop his arm or use it to stiff arm a player. Then (while continuing to hold "Stiff-Arm") you will start to ram into tacklers and break them.
Onside recover
When you are kicking the ball go to onside, press [Circle] and when the red arrow appears, move the arrow to the center. Then, move it all the way down and try to kick it hard, It should kick a pooch very high. Press [Triangle] to jump and recover the ball.
Easy safties
When it is your turn to kick the ball to the other team, choose the play that says "Kick Left". Press the [Down] to make the red arrow go down all the way, then tap [Left]x2. When you kick the ball, make sure that it is slightly behind the line.
Easy touchdowns in Two Minute Drill
For Two Minute Drill, select the Admirals Defense and play as the 2000 All-Madden Team. Use the HB Counter play and you can usually run all the way for a touchdown on your first try.
Easy sacks
When selecting a play on defense, go to 3-4 then press [X]. Go to the play where the three right-most linebackers are blitzing (press [Down]x3, [Circle]) then bring your left-most linebacker up. You will now have seven men blitzing for easier sacks.
When you are do going to do a blitz, run up to the line of scrimmage then fade back until you are behind the ref. When the QB calls hike, use the boost. About 50% of the time you will run through a hole and sack the QB. Be careful -- sometimes he may fake you out and move.
Select 3-4 OLB Blitz and control the middle linebacker. Move him over to the side and most of the time you will get a sack or a quick tackle.
Play as the Eagles and select 4-3 on defense. Select the Whip Man play and press [R2] before the snap. Jeremiah Trotter will easily slip past the defense.
Select the 3-4 defense play and select the play Wipman. Then, control the DT on the left. Move him to the right to block the center. This will work about 80% of the time.
Easy passes
When you are the QB, you can throw the ball two different ways: straight (hold the button of the receiver you want to throw it to) and up high (press and release the button for that receiver). When you throw it up high, the QB will throw the ball over the safety to your receiver. He will catch the ball most of the time. Throwing it straight is the most common way. He just throws it to the receiver and it will not go over the safety. It is best to use the straight pass if the WR is wide open.
Throw the ball to any receiver. After the ball has been thrown, switch into your intended receiver and let the CPU run the pattern. Immediately before the ball gets to you, tap [R2] + [L2]. If the ball is somewhat to the receiver, he will reach out and most likely catch the ball.
Good protection
To get good protection on kick returns, choose "Onside Kick" as your play. When you run back the ball, you will usually get past the 20.
Real draft
This trick requires NCAA Football 2002. Simulate a season in NCAA Football 2002. When the game tells you who is going to the draft, save that draft class. After that, simulate a season in Madden 2002. At the end of the season, after the Pro Bowl, the game asks "Advance to off season?". Select the "Import A Draft Class" option and the real people will be in the draft. You can do this as many times as desired.
Ultimate draft
Use the following trick to draft all first round draft picks up to the league maximum per draft. Start the season in franchise mode, then go to the rosters screen. Buy all free agents that your team can afford, with stats 63 or higher, preferably SS, FS, OLB, MLB, LOB, CB, or DE as they have a higher trade value. Go to "Trades" and trade any three of your same defensive players to any team willing to give a draft pick at least fourth round or lower. Next, trade one bad player along with all fifth and sixth round picks for a fourth pick. You may end up with second to fourth rounders. Next, trade only picks for lower picks. For example, three fourth round picks equals one third round pick; three third round picks equals one second round pick; three second round pick equals one first round pick. This takes some time, but you can create a super team all from draft picks with a team average of 99.
Getting good players
In franchise mode, create a new coach and assign him to one of the teams that are available, but not your team. The game only lets you choose from the worst teams. Then go to "Roster", then "Trade". You can now trade away the better players on that team to your team without having to send a ridiculous amount of good players for just one (even bad teams have some good players). Also, because the teams you can choose are the worst teams, they have the best draft picks. This allows you to trade away the draft picks. In other words, if you do this with several of the bad teams, you can actually end up with, for example, four first round draft picks. Its a good way to keep your team on top, and not have to suffer because your team wins so much.
Use the following trick to get a lot of first round draft picks during the first year of your franchise. Keep signing the free agents that are good (77 and above) and trade them away before week 6 to the worst teams, standings wise to that point. You will get their draft picks for like three players in the mid-to-high 70s. They can all be people off of the free agents list.
To get a very good running back, draft or trade for Ladainian Tomlinson from the Chargers. At the end of year 3 in franchise mode, his rating will go from 83 to 100.
Realistic franchise mode
Use the following trick to affect the ratings/attributes/salaries of players that will carry over into franchise mode. On the main menu, select "Options", then "Rosters". You can do a lot of things here to make the players/ratings/attributes/salaries more accurate. The game was rushed out to market after the draft, and there are a lot of inaccuracies on which players are on which teams, the ratings/attributes of players (especially rookies), and player salaries. In the Rosters screen, you can sign, cut and/or trade players to any team you want. This will allow you to account for the roster changes made after the game was created. Also, you can create players to account for any rookies or players not in the system, though in doing so they will automatically be salaried at what the game thinks is fair market value. For example, the Packers roster does not have David Martin (TE) or Gbaja-Biamila. Note that by simply selecting a player to edit, you can change appearance, name, attributes, etc. You can make players better or worse to make their attributes more accurate. Even better, as soon as you select "attributes" to edit, the players salary changes to what the game thinks is fair market value. This works against you when editing rookies and young players, who typically have low salaries. But fair market value is never too outrageous and it is more fun to use players who you really see on the field and that have accurate ratings. For those overpaid players in the game, by simply hitting edit attributes you will knock their salaries down to fair market value. For example, the Packers' Santana Dotson, Levens, Reynolds all have grossly inaccurate salaries in the game, and this fixes them. It leaves the contract lengths the same, it only changes the dollar value. After making all the desired changes, save the Roster to a memory card. Then begin a new franchise mode and all the roster changes you made will be reflected in the rosters. Of course, the roster changes are in every playing mode as well. Most franchising involves trading overpaid players and signing free agents who do not really play for your team, or cutting players and suffering the cap penalty. This will also allow you to have signed free agents you wanted for your team to sign but did not (i.e. Charlie Garner, Simeon Rice), or to adjust who your team drafted this past spring.
Easy Madden points
Choose your favorite and least favorite teams. Enter the rosters screen and select the "Edit Player" option. Make everyone on your favorite team a perfect 99 points for everything, then go to you least favorite team's roster and make everyone on their team the minimum 15 for everything. Save your roster changes. Repeatedly play in exhibition mode and do your best; run kickoffs and punts for touchdowns, let yourself get tackled, and run for 96 yards for a touchdown, etc. This can result in over 1000 points in a game.
Money plays
Select any team (Buccaneers recommended). On defense, choose 4-3: Whip Man. Before the snap of the ball, tap [R2] and [L1] to move your defensive line to the far right and your linebackers to the far left. Take control of one of the safeties and the ROLB should either sack the QB or make him act quickly.
For easy sacks or tackles for a loss, do the following. Select a Man To Man coverage play. Man Lock, on 4-3 defense works best. This is the play where the ROLB is blitzing. Do not move your defensive end. Move your ROLB over to the right (your left on the screen) outside of the right tackle. With offsides off just keep running at the QB. The QB will either scramble forward and be hit by one of your defensive line fronts or he will scramble into you. He will do this every time. If the other team moves a tight end over to block you, just move slightly to the outside of him and it will still work. This will work every time with any team and can be used to get over twenty sacks per game.
For the best defense, create a team. Go to the Create A Playbook section. Make a defensive play from the 4-3 formation. Have your cornerbacks lock inside front, the safeties do not matter, but make sure that there are six men that are covering a man. Have the defensive end on your left blitz left, and vice versa. Have the DLs stunt towards the middle, and the middle LB blitz middle. Save it to a memory card. <PRE> X X X X x X X X x X X </PRE>
Have the Rams playbook. (M. Martz). Do Singleback 5 Wide and do the Hail Mary. Throw it to your "R1" receiver and use the lead button. Hold [L2] and press [R1] about five to eight seconds into the play. It should gain about 30 yards or more if you catch it.
Start a new franchise with the Rams. Use Mike Martz's playbook. During a game, on defense, select Goaline as a formation then Blitz A. When the other team passes, a man will break through the line and hit the quarterback, causing him to fumble almost every time.
Select any team. When you are on offense, choose a play in shotgun (must be a pass), then just press [X] to hike the ball. Do not press anything else and the QB will throw the ball for you, and it will be caught 99% of the time.
Find Corner Threat under Shotgun Normal. Pass it to the "Square" player, and if you get your timing correct you will always gain at least 10 yards.
When on offense, choose Mike Martz's playbook. As soon as the first play appears, press [Right]. This should allow you to have five receivers. Choose that play. As soon as you snap the ball, press [R1] for a bullet pass. You should gain 10 yards every time.
Select Mike Martz's playbook. When on offense and the play selection screen appears, press [Right] so you have no running backs. Press [X], then go down until you see "Hail Mary" on the right. Press [Circle]. As soon as you hike the ball, press [R1]. You should complete the pass and be tackled immediately. You should have a first down every time. Note: You can also wait about ten seconds after you snap the ball before pressing [R1]. The receiver should be wide open and catch the ball, but be prepared for overthrows.
Get the ball at the start
Set the weather to "Heavy Rain" before the game. If the CPU wins the coin toss, it will choose to kick most of the time.
Get the ball back easily
Select "On-Side Kick" on the play screen. Then, press [Start]. Go to "Settings" and turn penalties off. Next, resume game play and get the arrow as far back as it can go and turn it to your side. Do not press [X] two times. Press [X] once and select one of your players that are closest to the ball. You should get the ball back. This works about 98% of the time.
Stall a two-minute offense
Use the play Dime: Double Wide when you need to stall a two-minute offense. You will have a better chance of running the clock while the opponent is trying to score with a two-minute offense.
Offense always gets the ball
When kicking off (at least in an indoor stadium), aim all the way up and all the way to the right. With penalties off, the returner will call for a fair catch. One of your cover players will either strip the returner or catch the kick, giving you the ball on the 35. For example, play as the Buccaneers. When playing at Detroit, Grammattica will kick it and Dwight Smith will make the play downfield.
Bypass Leslie Visser commentary
Press "Star" when she starts talking, then press [Start] again. You will continue your game, and Leslie will not give her report.
Team rankings
The following a list of the teams from best to worst.
Create a player, then go to "Edit Player" at the roster screen. Press [Up] or [Down] to choose the player you want to edit. Press [Right] to get to the speed category. Press [X], then press [X] again.
Perfect team
In season mode, go to rosters, choose "Edit Player". Select any player (created or a real) and go to "Attributes" Move everything to 99 for every player.
Hidden taunt
While running into the endzone, hold [Turbo] + [Triangle].
Thanksgiving commentary
Set the system date to the third Thursday in November.
Christmas commentary
Set the system date to December 25 to hear Pat Summerall will say ''Season's Greetings''.
New Year's commentary
Set the system date to January 1 to hear James Brown (JB) say "Happy New Year".
Created player announced
Give a created player a pro's last name to hear his name announced.
Winning the coin toss
Repeatedly press [L1] + [R1] + [Start] before the coin toss screen appears.
To win the coin toss, remember what you or the CPU chose last time. 95% of the time the result is the opposite of the last coin toss. For example, if the CPU chose heads the last time and won, next time choose tails.
Easy tokens
For easy tokens, go to the two minute drill screen. Choose two to four accounts, and the Admirals for defense. Choose your team and make sure you choose a profile to save to, then start playing. Keep throwing to WR2 and you should get many touchdowns. It is possible to get a score over 33,000 with this trick.
Have the Dragons on defense and the Titans as offense. You can score well over 55,000 points by selecting HB Off Tackle as a play. It takes about eleven seconds to run and you receive 5,150 points per touchdown and 375 points for running the same play as a two point conversion. If you can successfully score 11 touchdowns, you will have a score over 55000.
Edit the speed of every player on the Raven's defense to 15. Edit all of the halfbacks', fullbacks', tight ends', and wide receivers' ratings down to 0. Edit you offensive lineman's pass block rating to 99. Edit your quarterback in the following manner: 0 Passing Power, Accuracy; 99 Speed, Accel, Carrying, Awareness, Stamina, and Agility. Save your roster as "Cheat", load it before doing the following trick. Start a Two Minute Drill. Choose All-Madden, and then the Ravens' defense. Choose whatever team you modified offensively, and make them your offense. Next, you will need a passing play. Choose Single Back Formation, and then Hot Route your second wide receiver, looking left to right. Also Hot Route your tight end. For the Hot Routes, make them do a buttonhook ([Left] on the D-Pad). Now instead of passing the ball, run a "Quarterback Sweep" by sending the quarterback to the right side of the field. Run towards the endzone, using speed bursts as needed. Make sure you get to the endzone. If you do not, call timeout if the clock keeps ticking. If a penalty is called, do not waste the time running down the field. Just head out of bounds, and do it over. You should be able to score about ten touchdowns. Your score will be very odd, and you will get millions of tokens. Go the Madden Cards menu to see your tokens -- they may not appear on the Two Minute Drill menu.
Create a profile with M. Martz's playbook. Run the two-minute drill under rookie with Galaxy as the defense. Use the Rams. Run single back 5 wide, Hail Mary. Faulk or Hakim will be open every time. You can score 100 points and get about 220 tokens. It takes nine seconds to score.
Select "Options" at the main menu and select "Roster". Go all the way over to "Edit Player" and select your favorite team. Increase their stats all the way. Set your worst team's stats down as far as it can go. Then, back out and save the roster. Select "Options", then "Settings". Put the game on "All Madden". Go to either exhibition or two minute drill mode. Start playing and do well. If you selected exhibition mode, run the ball all the way back to the 1 yard line. Then, do a Hail Mary, catch it, and run for a touchdown. You get 36 tokens every time you pass a 90 yarder. Note: You need Madden Challenge on and should have a profile.
Go to exhibition mode and play as the Ecko team against the Dragons. Turn penalties off and do an onside kick if you have to kick. Repeatedly do running plays and you should be able to score over 100 points in the game. Note: Make sure the Madden Challenge is on.
Dance going into the endzone
Press [L1], [L2], [R1], or [R2] while running into the endzone and your player may do a dance.
Kiss a cheerleader
After your first five seasons in franchise mode, at the end of the SuperBowl there will be a cheerleader waiting for you. You have to be a running back, corner back, wide receiver or a linebacker for this trick to work.
Better catches
To do a better catch than the generic one, where the player throws his hands in the air at the last second and most of the time misses, simply press "Catch" a second or a half a second before you reach the target of the ball, or before the ball reaches the receiver. The player will do a better looking and more effective catch, such a one handed catch, a jump catch, a spin catch, an over the shoulder catch (good for lobs), or a better diving one if the ball is out of reach.
Change player appearance
Under the options screen select "Rosters", go to "Edit Player", and finally go to "Player Appearance". You can make anyone in the NFL look different than they really do.
Get by the offense
Select your fastest player and put him in the front line. Press [Circle] + [R2] + [L1] and your player should do a spin move to get past the offensive lineman faster.
Avoid tackles
Stop running for a moment. You can sometimes easily avoid being tackled. Sometimes you will need to juke, spin, or stiff arm to get past defenders.
More broken tackles
When you run the ball to the outside, hold "Stiff-Arm" ([L2] on right side, [R2] on the left side). Eventually the person with the ball will drop his arm or use it to stiff arm a player. Then (while continuing to hold "Stiff-Arm") you will start to ram into tacklers and break them.
Onside recover
When you are kicking the ball go to onside, press [Circle] and when the red arrow appears, move the arrow to the center. Then, move it all the way down and try to kick it hard, It should kick a pooch very high. Press [Triangle] to jump and recover the ball.
Easy safties
When it is your turn to kick the ball to the other team, choose the play that says "Kick Left". Press the [Down] to make the red arrow go down all the way, then tap [Left]x2. When you kick the ball, make sure that it is slightly behind the line.
Easy touchdowns in Two Minute Drill
For Two Minute Drill, select the Admirals Defense and play as the 2000 All-Madden Team. Use the HB Counter play and you can usually run all the way for a touchdown on your first try.
Easy sacks
When selecting a play on defense, go to 3-4 then press [X]. Go to the play where the three right-most linebackers are blitzing (press [Down]x3, [Circle]) then bring your left-most linebacker up. You will now have seven men blitzing for easier sacks.
When you are do going to do a blitz, run up to the line of scrimmage then fade back until you are behind the ref. When the QB calls hike, use the boost. About 50% of the time you will run through a hole and sack the QB. Be careful -- sometimes he may fake you out and move.
Select 3-4 OLB Blitz and control the middle linebacker. Move him over to the side and most of the time you will get a sack or a quick tackle.
Play as the Eagles and select 4-3 on defense. Select the Whip Man play and press [R2] before the snap. Jeremiah Trotter will easily slip past the defense.
Select the 3-4 defense play and select the play Wipman. Then, control the DT on the left. Move him to the right to block the center. This will work about 80% of the time.
Easy passes
When you are the QB, you can throw the ball two different ways: straight (hold the button of the receiver you want to throw it to) and up high (press and release the button for that receiver). When you throw it up high, the QB will throw the ball over the safety to your receiver. He will catch the ball most of the time. Throwing it straight is the most common way. He just throws it to the receiver and it will not go over the safety. It is best to use the straight pass if the WR is wide open.
Throw the ball to any receiver. After the ball has been thrown, switch into your intended receiver and let the CPU run the pattern. Immediately before the ball gets to you, tap [R2] + [L2]. If the ball is somewhat to the receiver, he will reach out and most likely catch the ball.
Good protection
To get good protection on kick returns, choose "Onside Kick" as your play. When you run back the ball, you will usually get past the 20.
Real draft
This trick requires NCAA Football 2002. Simulate a season in NCAA Football 2002. When the game tells you who is going to the draft, save that draft class. After that, simulate a season in Madden 2002. At the end of the season, after the Pro Bowl, the game asks "Advance to off season?". Select the "Import A Draft Class" option and the real people will be in the draft. You can do this as many times as desired.
Ultimate draft
Use the following trick to draft all first round draft picks up to the league maximum per draft. Start the season in franchise mode, then go to the rosters screen. Buy all free agents that your team can afford, with stats 63 or higher, preferably SS, FS, OLB, MLB, LOB, CB, or DE as they have a higher trade value. Go to "Trades" and trade any three of your same defensive players to any team willing to give a draft pick at least fourth round or lower. Next, trade one bad player along with all fifth and sixth round picks for a fourth pick. You may end up with second to fourth rounders. Next, trade only picks for lower picks. For example, three fourth round picks equals one third round pick; three third round picks equals one second round pick; three second round pick equals one first round pick. This takes some time, but you can create a super team all from draft picks with a team average of 99.
Getting good players
In franchise mode, create a new coach and assign him to one of the teams that are available, but not your team. The game only lets you choose from the worst teams. Then go to "Roster", then "Trade". You can now trade away the better players on that team to your team without having to send a ridiculous amount of good players for just one (even bad teams have some good players). Also, because the teams you can choose are the worst teams, they have the best draft picks. This allows you to trade away the draft picks. In other words, if you do this with several of the bad teams, you can actually end up with, for example, four first round draft picks. Its a good way to keep your team on top, and not have to suffer because your team wins so much.
Use the following trick to get a lot of first round draft picks during the first year of your franchise. Keep signing the free agents that are good (77 and above) and trade them away before week 6 to the worst teams, standings wise to that point. You will get their draft picks for like three players in the mid-to-high 70s. They can all be people off of the free agents list.
To get a very good running back, draft or trade for Ladainian Tomlinson from the Chargers. At the end of year 3 in franchise mode, his rating will go from 83 to 100.
Realistic franchise mode
Use the following trick to affect the ratings/attributes/salaries of players that will carry over into franchise mode. On the main menu, select "Options", then "Rosters". You can do a lot of things here to make the players/ratings/attributes/salaries more accurate. The game was rushed out to market after the draft, and there are a lot of inaccuracies on which players are on which teams, the ratings/attributes of players (especially rookies), and player salaries. In the Rosters screen, you can sign, cut and/or trade players to any team you want. This will allow you to account for the roster changes made after the game was created. Also, you can create players to account for any rookies or players not in the system, though in doing so they will automatically be salaried at what the game thinks is fair market value. For example, the Packers roster does not have David Martin (TE) or Gbaja-Biamila. Note that by simply selecting a player to edit, you can change appearance, name, attributes, etc. You can make players better or worse to make their attributes more accurate. Even better, as soon as you select "attributes" to edit, the players salary changes to what the game thinks is fair market value. This works against you when editing rookies and young players, who typically have low salaries. But fair market value is never too outrageous and it is more fun to use players who you really see on the field and that have accurate ratings. For those overpaid players in the game, by simply hitting edit attributes you will knock their salaries down to fair market value. For example, the Packers' Santana Dotson, Levens, Reynolds all have grossly inaccurate salaries in the game, and this fixes them. It leaves the contract lengths the same, it only changes the dollar value. After making all the desired changes, save the Roster to a memory card. Then begin a new franchise mode and all the roster changes you made will be reflected in the rosters. Of course, the roster changes are in every playing mode as well. Most franchising involves trading overpaid players and signing free agents who do not really play for your team, or cutting players and suffering the cap penalty. This will also allow you to have signed free agents you wanted for your team to sign but did not (i.e. Charlie Garner, Simeon Rice), or to adjust who your team drafted this past spring.
Easy Madden points
Choose your favorite and least favorite teams. Enter the rosters screen and select the "Edit Player" option. Make everyone on your favorite team a perfect 99 points for everything, then go to you least favorite team's roster and make everyone on their team the minimum 15 for everything. Save your roster changes. Repeatedly play in exhibition mode and do your best; run kickoffs and punts for touchdowns, let yourself get tackled, and run for 96 yards for a touchdown, etc. This can result in over 1000 points in a game.
Money plays
Select any team (Buccaneers recommended). On defense, choose 4-3: Whip Man. Before the snap of the ball, tap [R2] and [L1] to move your defensive line to the far right and your linebackers to the far left. Take control of one of the safeties and the ROLB should either sack the QB or make him act quickly.
For easy sacks or tackles for a loss, do the following. Select a Man To Man coverage play. Man Lock, on 4-3 defense works best. This is the play where the ROLB is blitzing. Do not move your defensive end. Move your ROLB over to the right (your left on the screen) outside of the right tackle. With offsides off just keep running at the QB. The QB will either scramble forward and be hit by one of your defensive line fronts or he will scramble into you. He will do this every time. If the other team moves a tight end over to block you, just move slightly to the outside of him and it will still work. This will work every time with any team and can be used to get over twenty sacks per game.
For the best defense, create a team. Go to the Create A Playbook section. Make a defensive play from the 4-3 formation. Have your cornerbacks lock inside front, the safeties do not matter, but make sure that there are six men that are covering a man. Have the defensive end on your left blitz left, and vice versa. Have the DLs stunt towards the middle, and the middle LB blitz middle. Save it to a memory card. <PRE> X X X X x X X X x X X </PRE>
Have the Rams playbook. (M. Martz). Do Singleback 5 Wide and do the Hail Mary. Throw it to your "R1" receiver and use the lead button. Hold [L2] and press [R1] about five to eight seconds into the play. It should gain about 30 yards or more if you catch it.
Start a new franchise with the Rams. Use Mike Martz's playbook. During a game, on defense, select Goaline as a formation then Blitz A. When the other team passes, a man will break through the line and hit the quarterback, causing him to fumble almost every time.
Select any team. When you are on offense, choose a play in shotgun (must be a pass), then just press [X] to hike the ball. Do not press anything else and the QB will throw the ball for you, and it will be caught 99% of the time.
Find Corner Threat under Shotgun Normal. Pass it to the "Square" player, and if you get your timing correct you will always gain at least 10 yards.
When on offense, choose Mike Martz's playbook. As soon as the first play appears, press [Right]. This should allow you to have five receivers. Choose that play. As soon as you snap the ball, press [R1] for a bullet pass. You should gain 10 yards every time.
Select Mike Martz's playbook. When on offense and the play selection screen appears, press [Right] so you have no running backs. Press [X], then go down until you see "Hail Mary" on the right. Press [Circle]. As soon as you hike the ball, press [R1]. You should complete the pass and be tackled immediately. You should have a first down every time. Note: You can also wait about ten seconds after you snap the ball before pressing [R1]. The receiver should be wide open and catch the ball, but be prepared for overthrows.
Get the ball at the start
Set the weather to "Heavy Rain" before the game. If the CPU wins the coin toss, it will choose to kick most of the time.
Get the ball back easily
Select "On-Side Kick" on the play screen. Then, press [Start]. Go to "Settings" and turn penalties off. Next, resume game play and get the arrow as far back as it can go and turn it to your side. Do not press [X] two times. Press [X] once and select one of your players that are closest to the ball. You should get the ball back. This works about 98% of the time.
Stall a two-minute offense
Use the play Dime: Double Wide when you need to stall a two-minute offense. You will have a better chance of running the clock while the opponent is trying to score with a two-minute offense.
Offense always gets the ball
When kicking off (at least in an indoor stadium), aim all the way up and all the way to the right. With penalties off, the returner will call for a fair catch. One of your cover players will either strip the returner or catch the kick, giving you the ball on the 35. For example, play as the Buccaneers. When playing at Detroit, Grammattica will kick it and Dwight Smith will make the play downfield.
Bypass Leslie Visser commentary
Press "Star" when she starts talking, then press [Start] again. You will continue your game, and Leslie will not give her report.
Team rankings
The following a list of the teams from best to worst.
1. Rams
2. Broncos
3. Packers
4. Buccaneers
5. Vikings
6. Lions
7. Seahawks
8. Patriots
9. Panthers
10. Saints
11. Cardinals
12. 49ers
13. Chargers
14. Dolphins
15. Colts
16. Bills
17. Bengals
18. Browns
19. Titans
20. Bears
21. Giants
22. Falcons
23. Jaguars
24. Jets
25. Cowboys
26. Steelers
27. Chiefs
28. Redskins
29. Ravens
30. Eagles
31. Raiders
32. Texans