If ever you find yourself drafted by a team you have no interest in playing for, you’d probably want to get traded as fast as possible. You may even have a preferred destination in mind.
After a ton of hours trying to figure out how to request a trade in Madden 22 Face of the Franchise mode, I’ve reached the conclusion that there is no feature to request a trade to another team.
However, there is a way you can switch teams. It involves a quite lengthy process.
Here’s how you can switch teams in Madden 22 Face of the Franchise.
This will take a lot of steps and there might be some randomness or RNG involved.
Improving Your Player
The first step you need to do is to show other franchises what you got. Just like any rookie in any sport, they do not have that much influence over where they will go. It is built that way so that small-market franchises can have a shot at a generational talent and a franchise player.
In line with the title of the game mode, Face of the Franchise, you need to focus on improving your player first and focus on your game. This is important when trying to switch teams because you will need to have other franchises want you on their team.
You can create the best quarterback build by combining the best abilities to better suit your team. If you performed well leading up to draft day, you might end up being drafted as the first overall pick.
This will force you to start on a weak or rebuilding team which can affect your individual performance. It is part of the game and you just have to make your player shine.
You can already get a 99 rating in Madden 22 for your player by the end of your first season. This will entice other franchises to make any contract offer you can dictate and open up more opportunities.
Your performance as an individual also matters. I was able to win the Offensive Player of the Year — as a rookie — over the likes of Patrick Mahomes, Derrick Henry, and other future legends.
While my team did not perform as great, this will help you get offers from other teams.
Ending Your Rookie Contract
This is the longest step you need to finish before you can switch teams in Face of the Franchise mode. After playing through the first two seasons, there were still no transfer options, leaving me wondering how to get traded in Face of the Franchise.
I checked through every tab, option, and even turned off the trade deadline to see if I can get myself traded to another team. The demand trade option just did not show up.
The next step I tried is Free Agency. However, you are still under your rookie contract, so you would have to wait things out.
During the offseason, you can check your team’s player salaries to check all current contracts including your own.
You can find your player and just next to your overall rating, you can see the remaining years on your current contract.
To finish this 4-year contract, you will end up as a free agent only through the 2024 season. Luckily, you can simulate with ease through the seasons. You can easily simulate through the games and wait until you reach the end of the Super Bowl game in 2024.
This also means that a lot of current players you might want to play with might retire already. You just have to take in the good with the bad.
How to Switch Teams in Face of the Franchise
After simulating or playing through your rookie contract, you have to wait for the offseason to have the “Demand Release” option show up in the options.
This will only show up under two conditions.
First, you need to be at the end of your rookie contract year. Second, you can only do this after the Super Bowl game when the offseason starts.
You will not be able to demand a release during the middle of the offseason. It is weird since it is still the offseason but, this notification will keep showing up after demanding a release to switch teams.
Try not to simulate as much after the playoffs, as you might end up simulating too much. I guess this gives time for your franchise to brace themselves on your shocking decision to switch teams.
Once the demand a release option is available, just press yes. While the text says “if no team signs you by the end of free agency, you’ll be asked to retire this character”, you do not have to worry if you’ve performed well throughout your career so far.
You should have improved your player well enough to have other teams line up and make a contract offer during free agency.
Once you are released, you will already see the contract offers on the main screen of Face of the Franchise mode. After opening it, you cannot back out of the screen anymore so you have to choose among those teams who made a contract offer.
I highly suggest checking the team rosters first before pressing the contract offers. This is important because if you have simulated through 4 seasons, the teams will look a lot different from when they were 4 seasons ago.
Declining the offers or backing out of the screen will force your character to retire.
If you are stuck or not ready to make the decision yet, you can close the game and restart it.
When you are picking from the various contract offers, you can look at the position rating to check if the team already has a great player with the same position as your player.
Choosing the team is completely up to you. If you have a low overall rating, you might end up being a backup for a better player. Stealing the position from great players like Lamar Jackson or Patrick Mahomes might seem great for you but, your team might end up being worse than before.
They might choose to keep you both which is just a waste of talent at this point. If the team you are looking for did offer you a contract, you have no other options.
You will not be able to see the contract offers before the game saves itself to EA’s online service. This will make it impossible to refresh the contract offers by loading a previous save file.
Your player’s performance and rating will be a big factor here. Just perform the best you can as you have 4 seasons to do that. This will potentially give you more contract offers and give you more chances to find the team you are looking for.
