most FAs irl actually get a full training camp because they get invited to a camp by a team but with no guarantee of a contract (that's where the 90 player cap comes in) and have to try to outperform the players on the team to get a spot

A good thing to devlop players would be to have a practice squad. Would be better than larger roster, imo.

If a player received retro development for the camps missed it would not matter how long they sat in FA. Like Kurt Warner, did not play in the NFL till late but "boomed" once he got there.

Here, he would have been looked over at like a 50 ish rating and sat in FA for multiple seasons, but after the first camp he sees he could have gained 20 plus points by accumulating say 5 camps worth of grow. Warner had hidden potential and grew as a player and while playing arena or CFL those first few years of his career.

I'm starting to lean towards having a larger roster for TC, and preseason. Of course I don't think 90, but 75 would keep in less complicated while giving long shot prospects a chance at becoming an explosive starter like what mrfakename mentioned above as well as other undrafted players that are now stars (Seahawks know this system well by signing WR's Doug Baldwin and Jermaine Kearse).

Maybe a practice squad of a maximum of 10 players can be a separate roster from the main roster that is active all season long, and if one player develops enough through camp, could be promoted or at least available since injuries could (And do) occur multiple times in a position in a season. Have something like a Add to Roster button on the practice squad player's page and if you already have 53 players on the main roster, you will have to cut one of the players on the main roster or at least send him to the practice squad.

+1

+1

Personally i dont like it as teams with great rosters and tons of cap space still can load their rosters (trust me I have lots of rosters that are pretty **** good) without even having to worry about cap hits if they release them later on.

The rich will get richer IMO

I don't see the point of having larger preseason rosters. The additional players you would end up signing might develop enough to be a bench warmer. There just isn't enough progress in training camp / pre-season for a player to improve enough to go from being your 70th best player to your 35th best (for example).

I know that your 75th best player most likely wouldn't make it to your final roster, but the idea behind this is that at least that 75th player got to go to a TC and improve a bit. And who knows, JDB likes to point out the promising deep draft sleeper that he once had as an example of lower tier players turning out to be worth something.

I've actually recently changed the progress logic so that players that miss TC still get their regular _potential_ updates (previously their potential attributes only increased if they were actually on a team) in an effort to help those hidden gems avoid getting lost. They just don't have any improvement in their _current_ attributes. So hopefully this will mean that you will start seeing those boomers begin to appear in the free agent market.