Overview

Welcome in! Today I'm going to guide you through drafting a Madden team centered around one of the most important concepts in the game - speed.

The team we draft will be fast at all levels and position groups. This will open up quite a few schematic options and also help us mitigate risk defensively. We'll be drafting for the following schemes today, though this guide can be adapted for any scheme combo you want to run.

• Offense: Balanced

• Defense: Balanced 4-3

We're going to be drafting from position 18 in a snake draft. For each draft blueprint blog post, we choose a random position to start from.

We'll be utilizing the Madden Tools Draft Board search filters along with the watch list and draft list functionality to assist us with this. We'll also be referencing the Top 10 Rounds Guide to give us a solid plan to reference as we draft the foundation of our team.

Note: This draft is based off of the "Week 8" iteration.

Search & Filter Setup

Tag: Speed (Elite+)

This will be a general filter we leave applied on the entire draft board. What's great about tag filters is they are relative to the position - Meaning every player shown will be considered "Elite" or above speed compared to the others at their position.

Round 1 - Pick 18 - Drake Maye

According to the Top 10 Rounds Guide, this will be our Franchise Player.

To me, this pick is between two options: Drake Maye (R1-22), and Mailk Nabers (R2-8):

Personally, I'm going Drake Maye - Nabers is excellent, but this is the last opportunity to snag a high-level stud at QB. I was eyeing Caleb Williams at R3-14, but Maye is a lot better and only a couple rounds cheaper. Plus, there are some great WR picks we can snag later.

Round 2 - Pick 15 - Jahmyr Gibbs

As per our Top 10 Rounds Guide, we're going to look for our "Assistant" to the franchise player - Specifically using the "Synergy Strategy".

A player who fits the bill perfectly is Jahmyr Gibbs.

It's a slight reach, but he would be gone by the time our next pick rolls around. Also, he's a special player in terms of his mobility - Super fast and agile. Simply having him as an option will cause opposing defenses to fear breakaway running plays.

Round 3 - Pick 18 - Brock Bowers

Although the top 10 rounds guide suggests we balance our roster out a bit, there are no defensive players at this draft spot that can justify the pick. However, Brock Bowers is available, and honestly, he's such a good value, we'd be making a mistake passing him up. a 22 year old, 91 OVR X-Factor? Can't beat it.

Round 4 - Pick 15 - Brian Thomas Jr.

Our offense is pretty loaded at this point, but with Brian Thomas Jr. available, we can bring it to the next level. A defense will need to account for Maye, Gibbs, Bowers, and Thomas... Which is honestly a nightmare.

Round 5 - Pick 18 - Byron Young

Now it's time for some balance. We can't keep putting off defense.

Milton Williams may be available, and in that case we'd go with him. There's a chance he'll be gone though, so for the sake of realism, we'll go Byron Young here.

I'm not the biggest fan of this pick, as I typically don't like drafting players who are past their development window, but he's the best fit for our team at this pick. He really is scary fast, has good pass rushing ability and won't be a complete liability against the run.

Round 6 - Pick 15 - Erik McCoy

This isn't a glamorous pick, but it's one that will pay dividends in the trenches. Erik McCoy is still an A-tier Center who has a few years left before significant regression hits.

The Center is the foundation of the offensive line, and affects the awareness and blitz recognition of all other lineman.

Round 7 - Pick 18 - Jihaad Campbell

Now this is an exciting pick - Jihaad Campbell is an athletic freak, and only 21 years old to boot. He will anchor the middle of our 4-3 defense for the next decade to come.

Round 8 - Pick 15 - Xavier Worthy

Would this really be a scary fast team without Xavier Worthy? We're perfectly positioned to pick him up without reaching. This one is a no brainer.

Round 9 - Pick 18 - Edgerrin Cooper

The intent here is to move him to WILL. Our linebacker corps is really looking good.

Round 10 - Pick 15 - Ikem Ekwonu

I don't love Ekwonu's pass blocking, but he still has room to develop.

Round 11 - Pick 18 - Josh Simmons

We'll move Josh Simmons to RT. He's extremely athletic, has good size, a decently balanced skillset, and is only 22 years old.

Round 12 - Pick 15 - Walter Nolen

Walter Nolen is one of the best DT prospects I've seen in years. The athleticism he brings is incredible given he's a 300lb defensive tackle. Also, he's 21 years old and star dev, so you'll have plenty of room to develop him.

Round 13 - Pick 18 - Nick Emmanwori

Probably the best rookie safety prospect in the game, Nick Emmanwori is 6'3" 220lbs with 93 speed - He's also 21 years old with star development.

Round 14 - Pick 15 - Nick Cross

Now we have both of our starting safeties, and should be comfortable with what they bring to the table.

Round 15 - Pick 18 - Payton Wilson

A 6'4", 238lb linebacker with 92 speed? How can we pass that up?

Round 16 - Pick 15 - Jared Wilson

We're starting to reach for some players now. Jared Wilson is another raw, athletic prospect. Paired next to Erik McCoy in the interior of the line will provide some reinforcement.

Round 17 - Pick 18 - Jack Jones

Our first CB. Looks like we're going to be playing a lot of zone.

Round 18 - Pick 15 - Shemar Turner

We'll put him next to Walter Nolen and have a pair of freakishly athletic DTs - This opens up the ability to put anybody on the DL in a QB spy if need be.

Round 19 - Pick 18 - Darien Porter

Now we're adding some real speed into our secondary. With Porter, we need not fear getting burned over the top by opposing WRs.

Round 20 - Pick 15 - Dallas Turner

It was between Turner and Chop Robinson. Turner just edges him out a bit in athleticism.

Round 21 - Pick 18 - Bhayshul Tuten

Tuten is a solid value pick here, and a good backup to Gibbs.

Round 22 - Pick 15 - Anthony Richardson

If you're playing with other users, Richardson may have been taken a long time ago - He's a popular pick for a good reason - He has a cannon for an arm, has great size, and is ultra athletic.

Roster Check-In

Now that we're 22 rounds in, it's time to check-in on our current roster.

So after looking through our team so far, there's a few things to note:

• Our offense is really solid. We have enough weapons across the board, and a solid enough line (though we still need another guard) to get us by.

• Our defense has some bright spots, but is pretty raw. We'll be playing a lot of zone coverage for the first season or two.

• We'll probably favor the base 4-3 even against 3WR sets due to us being zone-heavy and having extremely athletic LBs. This will also help us stop the run, since our DL is raw and needs time to develop.

• The only time we'll go to the nickel is against 4WR sets, and even then, we may go with the 3-3-5 to keep our LBs on the field.

Keys for rest of draft

• We still need our last starting guard on the offensive line.

• We need some more talent at WR.

• We still need a CB3 and CB4, though they're less important due to us playing zone and staying in the base 4-3.

Target prospects for rest of draft

Conclusion

This was a tougher draft scenario than I thought! As the rounds wear on, the pickings get slimmer and slimmer. Even still, I think we accomplished our goal of a "scary fast" team, but more-so on offense than defense.

I hope you enjoyed this draft blueprint, and until next time.... happy drafting!