Draft Scouting Reborn: the new Coverage Model
The biggest system overhaul since the salary rework: the old sampling scouting (one prospect every few weeks, with a random outcome) is gone. In its place sits a coverage model that distributes your scouting hours fairly across the entire draft class, phase by phase — with clear levers, visible probabilities and a cinematic Combine reveal in Week 25. If you take the draft seriously, you finally have real knobs instead of dice.
🧮 Coverage instead of sampling
- Every scout produces 18 hours per phase. With the maximum of 10 scouts that's 180 h per phase — spread across the ~396 draft prospects in the default "All positions" filter it lands at roughly +11% accuracy per player
- Hours are distributed via a water-fill algorithm: less-scouted prospects take priority over already-known ones, so the class is raised to an even baseline before you drill deeper
- Three layers share the budget: Priority (a flat +30%, see below), then your filter (All / Top Team Need / Top Estimate / Unscouted only / Manual), and finally random fill for any leftover hours
- Weekly cost = season total / 26, booked separately as "Draft Scout Department" on your finances. Down-sizing your scout count is only allowed in Phase 1 (W1–8); upgrades any time
⏳ Four phases, four reports
- Phase 1 (W1–8) — initial scan. Report drops in W8
- Phase 2 (W9–16) — deepens coverage. Report drops in W16. The Top Estimate and Unscouted only filters unlock here
- Phase 3 (W17–21) — Priority Players become active. Report drops in W21
- Phase 4 (W22–25) — Combine runs at the start of W22. Final report + Combine recap in W25
- At the end of every phase a teal Interim Report overlay opens: total players per confidence bucket (100% / 75–99 / 40–74 / 1–39%), the Top-5 by OVR estimate, plus a teaser for the next phase. A bell-style notification on every page links you straight in
⭐ Priority Players (Phase 3+)
- Star your favorite prospects directly on the Big Board (Draft Players tab) or enable Auto-pick
- Slot limit: scouts × 2 plus bonus slots from the Scout Director (+2 / +4 / +6 at lvl 2 / 3 / 4)
- Priority players gain a flat +30% accuracy per phase (capped at 100%), independent of the filter. A pick sitting near 30% at the start of Phase 3 typically lands at ~60% after Phase 3 and ~90% after Phase 4 — almost fully scouted, but with a residual surprise built in
- The list stays editable through W17–W21 and only locks at W22 once Phase 4 has consumed it. A hard block in W16 prevents accidentally simulating into Phase 3 with an empty list — either star prospects, or enable Auto-pick
🏃 Combine in W22 — reveal in W25
- Invitees: every priority player + scouts × 3 top prospects by current estimate (no team-need bias, so the best athletes show up)
- Signed shift distribution: -3 (1%) / -2 (3%) / -1 (10%) / 0 (59%) / +1 (20%) / +2 (5%) / +3 (2%). Applied directly to the player's real OVR — no trick, no temporary modifier
- The Combine column on the Big Board stays hidden until W25 so the reveal moment lands in the final interim report (with severity colors: green for positive shifts, amber/red for drops)
🎯 Big Board & UI
- Every prospect shows OVR + POT as range pills (e.g. "78–84" with 56% confidence). At 100% scouting the range collapses to a single value
- The pick-reveal overlay is auto-skipped once confidence = 100% — no noise when you already know everything
- Mock Drafts in W8 (#1, round 1 only), W16 (#2, all rounds) and W21 (#3, final) give context for the league-wide perception
Coverage instead of sampling, visible phases instead of a black box, Priority + Combine as the final levers: the new draft scouting rewards preparation — and turns every season finale into a small reveal event. Give it a try, the Big Board finally feels like a real front-office tool.