Improvements I'd like to see:
- 85-man rosters. New gen consoles allow for more actual data on the game disc. No reason this shouldn't happen now.
- Realistic player ratings and progression. The value between 5-star guys and 3-star guys needs to be much more dynamic. And 'gems' shouldn't just be guys that have higher OVR's than they're supposed to... They should be guys that progress at faster rates than other players, meaning 3-star gems are realistic developmental guys, and 4/5-star gems are the actual jackpot recruits that you luck into and win championships with, not just guys you easily target with scouting points. A 'bust' can be a guy that comes in with whatever OVR you scouted him at, and then just doesn't really progress at all.
- More neutral-site game options
- Expandable playoff
- No restrictions on conference realignment. You should be able to creat/delete conferences entirely
- Force conference championship games, even for leagues with less than 10 teams (shoutouts to the AAC).
- An actual transfer portal, where you not only try to convince guys to stay, but you try to attract guys with promises of starting jobs, draft position, or championships, too.
- I'd like to say adding positional coaches would be cool, but the HC/OC/DC trees already provided good recruiting and attribute bonuses. You'd simply be pulling back on those to have positional coaches provide bonuses, which would likely be needless fluff.