[crossbow]

I am by no means an expert on modern NFL but here is my worthless take based on observing the league for over 40 years.

I thought the successful franchises had GM's that:

1) Had a vision of how the team should be constructed based on their division, weather, location.
2) Hired a head coach that shared their vision and would manage the team with that style.
3) Had enough social skills to sign draft picks and free agents and not alienate the fans.
4) Did all of this behind the scenes and was able to avoid making himself the focus of the franchise.

Or if none of that worked then just go out and draft a stud QB that won lots of games so that people were willing to overlook him being a jerk.

In FF you just try to guess who is going to have the best stats and draft those guys. That would not necessarily equate to success in real life. You couldn't afford to have all the good players on one team. The best coaches and GMs in real life would hate FF. They have stat busting players because of the things they did to make it that way. In FF you can't game plan, adjust to the other team, or basically have much input to the outcome of anything except deciding who starts.