GMs — we rebuilt the heart of the game. Since the last update, Gridiron Grit stopped simulating games as abstract drives and started playing them one snap at a time. That one change ripples through everything: the stats, the roles, the tactics, the recap you read after every Sunday. Around it we shipped the biggest player-visibility update yet, a smarter depth chart, and a long list of things you asked for through F9. Keep those reports coming — half of this update started as one.

Here's what changed.

🏈 The Play-by-Play Engine

Every game is now resolved play by play: downs, distance, field position, the clock, the call, the matchup, the result. No more abstractions under the hood — when your box score says your left tackle gave up two sacks, it's because a real edge rusher beat him on two real snaps.

• Every stat is earned on the field. The sack goes to the rusher who won his duel. The interception goes to the corner who was actually in coverage. Tackles go to the men who made them. Defensive Player of the Year is now won, not rolled — and for the first time ever, your offensive linemen have snap counts.
• Your players' actual skills decide plays. Throw accuracy by depth, a receiver's hands and routes against the corner's coverage, a back's break-tackle against the front seven, your line's pass protection against their rush. Depth chart decisions, development, and scouting all cash out on the field now.
• The ground game is real. Run/pass balance, carries, drives per game, third downs, and red-zone conversion are all calibrated against real NFL numbers. Ride a workhorse back, lean on play-action, and watch a clock-killing fourth quarter actually kill the clock.
• Situational roles: name a Goal-Line Back to take the carries inside the 5 and a 3rd-Down Back for passing downs — right-click a back on the depth chart. By default your starter does it all, exactly like before.
• Standing tactics: set your game-plan leans in Staff & Focus — commit to the run or open up the passing game, gamble for takeaways or protect with coverage. Two-sided trade-offs, not free buttons; your opponents set theirs too.
• Modern fourth downs. Coaches go for it on short yardage in plus territory like it's this decade.
• Try starting a game with no quarterback on the roster. We fixed what used to happen. It is no longer pretty.

📺 The Game Page

The little game recap became a full broadcast-style game page — because now there's a real game underneath it to show.

• A quarter-by-quarter linescore under a proper hero scoreboard with both teams' logos and full names.
• A GAME DAY strip: the stadium, the host city, the weather — indoors, a clear 68°, or snow in December — and the attendance your fandom actually drew. Struggling franchises play to empty seats; title runs sell out.
• A scoring summary with game clock and running score — pick-sixes named and shamed.
• The full play-by-play: expand any drive and read every snap — who threw it, who caught it, who brought him down. "7 plays, 68 yards" is now a story you can open.
• Stars of the Game, trench and skill matchup breakdowns, clutch moments, and the box score round out the page.

🔍 See Your Players — the Attribute Sheet

The other half of this update: you can finally read your players like a scout does.

• The full attribute sheet is on the player card. Every rating from speed to route running to play recognition, organized into what matters for his position, his athletic tools, and the rest — color-coded by family: red for physical, blue for football IQ, amber for technical skill.
• What you see is a scouting read, not gospel. Attributes show as ranges that tighten with familiarity: your own veterans read exact, a fresh trade arrival takes a season to fully know, and a rival's left tackle might be "somewhere between 62 and 86" until you put a scout on him. Scouting is now a real information edge.
• Development writes to the numbers you see. Growth lands on real attributes — your burner can polish his hands, your project QB's accuracy visibly climbs year over year. (This pass also fixed a long-standing invisible bug that was slowly eroding league-wide talent over long saves. Your 20-year dynasties are safe.)
• Aim your training. Development projects now take a focus — route craft, pass rush, arm talent, coverage — and the growth lands where you pointed it. You choose what grows; talent and coaching still decide how much.
• Draft prep shows attribute bands too — wide and unreliable before you scout a prospect, sharp after. The board finally shows you why your scouts love a guy.
• Compare anyone. A new side-by-side compare sheet lines up two players row by row — and you can pin a player and carry him across screens: pin your starter on the roster, open free agency, and weigh the upgrade directly.

📋 Who Starts — Depth Chart Clarity

• Named starting spots. The depth chart now shows exactly who your LT, C, or CB2 is — gold spot chips on starters, an amber flag when someone's covering out of position, and a visible hole when nobody's home.
• Drop a player onto a starter to swap them in one gesture. Right-click for a real menu — including "compare with the man ahead of him."
• Bug fix with teeth: the sim now truly honors your depth chart for grouped positions. Promoting a lineman to First Team previously changed his stats but not your line's actual strength. It does now. Your benching decisions matter on every snap.
• All five starting linemen (and your whole starting 22) now correctly get starter-level development and morale — previously only the top man at each position group counted.

💰 Crafting Offers Feels Good Now

• Sliders with landmarks replaced the little number boxes everywhere you build a deal — contracts, free agency, coach extensions, restructures. Gold tick = his ask. Grey = the market. Red = your cap. Drag coarse, nudge fine with −/+ buttons.
• A live accept-chance meter on the contract composer moves as you drag — watch a lowball turn from red to green as you close the gap. His answer is no longer a surprise.
• Free agency shows the estimated rival bidding range right on the salary track. Outbid the field by exactly as much as you mean to.

🏆 Real Hardware — Icons & Trophies

The era of text-symbol placeholders is over.

• Real iconography across the whole UI — 26 hand-made glyph icons and 9 honor emblems replace the old text symbols, sized to actually read at a glance. (This also permanently kills the "empty box" missing-symbol bug some of you saw in Steam builds — the marks are art now, not font characters.)
• The Trophy Case got a shelf. Championships and honors display as real emblems with their years, at a size worth looking at. MVPs, All-League nods, and title banners finally look like hardware.
• Team Pulse wears the new art too — the banner's fandom/trust/cohesion icons are the same crafted set everywhere.
• Fixed: the Ring of Honor showed the same list for Offense and Defense. Each side now honors its own.

🧭 Polish & Fixes

• One gold button. Every screen's primary action — Advance Wave, Start Draft, Finish Cuts, Start New Year — is now the same gold button in the same place, right beside Close. Your eye always knows where "next" lives.
• The AI stopped donating first-round picks. Draft-day move-up offers are now priced by actual value — no more collecting a 1st for sliding twelve spots in the fourth round. (Yes, we saw what some of you were doing. Well played.)
• New Game fixed: starting a fresh dynasty no longer briefly loads your old campaign underneath the franchise picker.
• Trade desk fixes: your staged package survives a rejection or counter instead of being wiped, failed counters report honestly, the builder remembers your in-progress deal when you close it, and the GM rolodex is searchable.
• Draft class ages are back to 19–23 — no more 18-year-old pros.
• A pile of screens that could draw buttons off the bottom of the screen (Spring Camp's Sign/Cut worst of all) are permanently fixed, with an automated gate so that bug class can't ship again.
• Take a player straight from his card into the Development Hub with one click, camp position surpluses are flagged next to shortages, and dozens of smaller F9-driven fixes.

Thanks for playing, and keep the feedback coming with F9.