Not just different players. Different controls. Like last year's Madden had a new feature called "hot-routing." You could change a receiver's route in the middle of a play, as the quarterback. And the hit-stick on defense. And various other things which I've forgotten, because I haven't played in a long time.

But really, football games get massively better every year. I used to be an avid Street Fighter player, and I can't remember any sequel changes which completely changed the dynamics of the game as much as various changes to simulated sports' games have.