Progression
OK, good news. It’s not as wacky as I originally thought. Players are moving up and down the ratings scale, just not when you’d suspect them to. It seems to happen more during the Off-Season rather than after camp.
Vince Young went from an 86 OVR in 2007 to a 91 before camp started in 2008. Cutler stayed at a 78. Leinart went from an 82 to an 87. Now, I personally don’t think that the vast majority of players should keep the exact same ratings like they seem to do here (and everyone does seem to lose a bit of AWR…which is kinda odd) and I do think that more players should see sharper ratings drops based on age or “bustability”, but that’s just my take. The player progression is in fact technically working, which is good news.