It’s the release of a new Madden and just a few weeks before the start of a new NFL season, so the only thing that any football fan can think of right now is fantasy drafts. In traditional fantasy football, you create an imaginary team of real-life players based on their actual weekly performances, but a fantasy draft in Madden unlocks so much more.
In Madden 23, players can kick off their franchise mode with a fantasy draft, putting all the players on the Madden roster up for grabs in a snake-style draft. This feature gives players the option to completely rebuild a team from the ground up.
Looking to reset the league in Madden 23? Let’s walk you through it.
How to start a Fantasy Draft in Madden 23
The fantasy draft option is available in the game’s franchise mode only. In Ultimate Team, there is a head-to-head mode called MUT Draft where you can draft a roster, but you are only given a certain number of rounds to just draft from a small selection of similar players.
To start a fantasy draft, go to Franchise mode and create a new league. At this stage, you can select whether to play online or offline and can select which roster you use. You can go offline or online, and even support a fantasy draft with other players online, but you have to use the Active roster. The Real-Life NFL roster and Preseason roster options do not allow you to do a fantasy draft.
After selecting either the offline or online active roster and importing it, select your team. Then when you’re in the Customize menu, go to Starting Point, and select Fantasy Draft. At this point, you can change what coach you want to use plus other league settings before selecting Start Playing.
Madden 23 Fantasy Draft basic guide
With your early picks, you’ll want to draft cornerstone or franchise players for offense or defense. Unfortunately, you can’t see what other teams have picked before you in the draft from the main page, but if you move over to the League menu and scroll down to Transactions, you can see the most recent picks get signed to new contracts.
Here’s an idea of how the first round goes, based on simulated results: elite, young QBs in the first nine picks, then a mix between the elite defenders and elite WRs and TEs for pretty much the rest of the draft. The first RB, arguably the best in the game in Jonathan Taylor, didn’t get drafted until the third-to-last pick of the first round.
After you take a franchise guy in the first and/or second round, look to beef up your linemen or key defensive positions first before grabbing a WR or a RB; there is tons of depth at these positions and you can always wait until later rounds. Keep an eye out for rookies with tremendous upside too.
If you’re drafting on your own, or even with friends in an online draft, you can pause the draft timer for each pick so you don’t feel rushed if you’re new to this.
