Island of Misfit Toys, revisited

[QuikSand]

I've got something of an itch to fiddle around with this concept again. After playing a fair number of seasons in FOF 2001, I am increasingly convinced that a decent, if not competitive team can be assembled under the "Island of Misfit Toys" challenge rules-- using strictly players who were undrafted rookie free agents, signed to 7yr minsal deals. The backup plan would be to allow your team to sign 7yr deals to second year free agents as well, but I feel that's a second-best solution.

In general, I would separate the positions into three groups-- based on the level of talent that seems to occasionally fall through the entire draft:

Sometimes very good: FB, C, G, DT, LB, S, P, K
Sometimes decent: QB, RB, WR, TE, T, CB
Very rarely any good: DE, CB

So, if you could assemble a team of players with decent (but not great) skills in every position except CB and DE, how would you play the game?

This forum has been the able spawning ground for thinking about game plans and so forth-- I think this might really be a test.

Maybe this idea is worth more than the ten-year firing period. I've tried it in both FOF2 and FOF 2001, and have been fired after ten years. I confess, however, that I didn't do very much shifting around with the game plans other than obvious things (varying pass length a bit based on QB skill, lots of outside running for my breakaway backs with no other skill). Perhaps the "GM firing" option ought to be turned off, and the challenge shoud be allowed to run a longer course, as needed.

Any thoughts how to make this work? I'd like to bounce it around a little in concept before I really put time into it...

[Ctown-Fan]

I think that one of the keys to making this sucessful is the ability to put key players out of position. I have toyed with this a little, and found that moving a saftey to corner or dt to the end can help out. even rotating offensive line positions is useful.

The biggest challenge I see to it is the ability to establish a strong RB by committe attack. It is the perfect scenario to use the 75run attack. Since you won't have that power qb to dominate a game, unless you get a boomer, it will force you to focus on a series of backs with fair to good ratings, and a short passing game.

Another wrinkle to the game is you ability to scout and place linebackers-as they become even more important to your overall defensive scheme. In other words, you have to get a LB with high run stopping potential for the middle. At least one blitz OLB to counteract the weak defensive ends, and a good zone or man coverage linebacker to handle the tightends and rb coming out for passes because your ability to use nickle and dime backs will be hampered by their low abilities. I believe that this type of challenge will enhance your understanding of how defense operates in the fof universe. In terms of developing a strong defensive philosophy and sticking to it, you won't be able to focus on strickly a 3-4 or 4-3 because you have to adapt to your players instead of fitting them into a pre-set system.

I think this style of play will enhance your overall focus on the actual game play aspects of the season.

[Ben E Lou]

I've had some success with using LB's at DE as well. This would definitely be an option for this challenge.