Hey Guys,

Brand new to the game, but love all things NFL and American Football so really looking forward to getting involved and hopefully getting competative...i know im not gonna win every game, and dont mind getting a pounding, but will get there...eventually!

Have read all the FAQ and many forum threads/topics..certainly alot to take on board - but whats the one best bit of advice youd give to a total newbie?

Cheers all

ok...thanks

what kind of levels should i be looking at for 'my level'?

ive been quite active to try and get my squad some depth

Welcome to GI.

First thing is that this is an American football manager game. If you stomp the best team in GI, it won't mean a thing if you go bankrupt shortly after due to mismanagement. So, the most important thing is to get your financial situation set up in a good way. The best way to do this is to build your stadium. Build VIP seats first, as many as you can on a side of the stadium that doesn't already have seats. Every few weeks, add more VIP seats, again, to a side that doesn't have any seats. Once all sides have seats, you'll need to plan your expansions a bit. Build during any period you don't have a home game for 2 weeks. You won't get many of these, so you'll still need to build at times when there is 1 home game. During these weeks, build on the side providing the least income (fewest VIP seats). Once all VIP seats are built, do the same for Exec seats.

As for players, figure out the best positions for all players on your team that are 3.5* in talent or higher. High intelligence and consistency players should go at QB and MLB. High intelligence players should go at SF (high con is good here too, but you can live without if you don't have it). High consistency should go to K/P. Speed and strength are important too, but since those skills aren't capped, you won't be able to factor these in much until then. Go with best guess and be prepared to switch a player's position if a skill caps early. High speed should go WR, CB, SF. High Strength should go OL, DL. QB and K/P doesn't matter for speed or strength. Opinions differ on speed/strength needs of RB, TE, and LB.
Once the high talent players are sorted out, play them at the new positions all the time. They will get better at those positions and the BPOS will eventually change to the new position. Fill in any other positions with whatever you have and play them there all the time as well. You'll eventually replace these players, but they will suffice until then.

Don't spend a lot of money on the transfer market and make sure to pay attention to the player's salary before you bid. High salary players can hamper you for a long time. Spend a maximum of $10K on transfer market per week. Concentrate on young players with high intelligence and/or consistency, but you may have to settle for players lacking in these skills for a while. I recommend spending no more than $3k on each player for now(preferable $1K). What you are looking for is 3.5* or better talent, but you won't know what you got until you buy them (or scout them, but you're limited to 5/week and there's no sense paying $3500 to scout a player, then pay $3000 or less to get the player when you'd know the same info for just the cost of the player). Fire all players you buy with less than 3.5* talent. As you get 3.5* + talent players insert them into your starting lineup in place of lower talent players and fire those low talent players.

This should get you through this season. If you continue reading the forums and ask questions here and there, you'll soon figure out most everything you need for afterwards.

Good luck.

The only other thing I'd add is try to quickly get rid of your older players. It will take many season to fully develop a player, and there is no point wasting valuable playing time on someone in their mid to late 20s or older.