QuikSand
02-16-2012, 11:15 AM
I wonder if this very old FOF idea might be worth a go at this point in the FOF cosmos?
QuikSand Football Academy
An FOF 2001 Challenge
The idea behind this team is as follows:
Players will join my team by draft or rookie free agency and will serve me for no more than four years.
In essence, I intend to play this career as though my team were a college (or even high school) team. The draft and free agency will represent my “recruiting,” and my young players will be required to play immediately in many cases. For players whose contracts extend beyond the four-year limitation, I will attempt to trade those players away, to garner more draft picks—I’ll consider this process a representation of an increase in school prestige (boosting my “recruiting” ability).
Obviously, some “suspension of disbelief” will be necessary—this college team clearly operates in an alternate football reality where they play a 16-game season and into a playoff system. For the moment, I’ll live with this, and I’ll focus any narrative on my team itself, and not on the fact that I’m purportedly playing against the Pittsburgh Steelers or whomever. If this concept proves to have some long-term merit, I may revisit these issues—perhaps renaming the other teams into more appropriate-sounding opposition.
At the outset, I have no idea how competitive my team can be. My suspicion is that even a pretty strong team of all young players won’t be very good. However, if I can trade away my early picks for other draft picks, and eventually (perhaps) double my draft dimensions each year—I think I might be able to field a credible squad. What would it take to make this team a champion? I haven’t the foggiest.
I intend to sign URFAs to a four year, doubling value contract. I also will re-sign players whose rookie contracts expire prior to four years’ service (to the extent affordable under the salary cap)—allowing them to play out their 4 years with me, and then be traded (if possible) or released. This gives me (theoretically important) incentive to take my top-rated players in the draft itself, rather than waiting until the 4-yr signings after the draft ends.
Needless to say (I think) I won’t be making any trades in this career that bring in new players. I’ve considered allowing myself to sign young free agents (a la JuCo transfers) but I think I’ll keep it simpler, and keep the players all home grown.
My first year will also be odd… I’ll obviously fill up entirely with rookies. From there, the lesser players will eventually be replaced by attrition. Once I get a full cycle deep, I expect that the team will cycle in a fairly normal fashion—that I’ll have 12-15 slots (perhaps a bit more) open each year for my new draft picks and fill-ins.
I’ll see how it goes, and I’ll try to detail the happenings in this thread – we’ll see if it works out to be interesting. My intent is to use college parlance in describing my team as appropriate.
I know that with most of my teams, I end up really focusing on cohesion and chemistry as a means to team performance. Limiting guys to 4yr careers with your team would completely emasculate the cohesion side, and I'd think this might be better overall to play with chemistry off, just to allow more focus.
But I could imagine paying way more attention than I ever have to things like "% developed" - and a new look at the game might be intriguing at some level.
Thoughts?
QuikSand Football Academy
An FOF 2001 Challenge
The idea behind this team is as follows:
Players will join my team by draft or rookie free agency and will serve me for no more than four years.
In essence, I intend to play this career as though my team were a college (or even high school) team. The draft and free agency will represent my “recruiting,” and my young players will be required to play immediately in many cases. For players whose contracts extend beyond the four-year limitation, I will attempt to trade those players away, to garner more draft picks—I’ll consider this process a representation of an increase in school prestige (boosting my “recruiting” ability).
Obviously, some “suspension of disbelief” will be necessary—this college team clearly operates in an alternate football reality where they play a 16-game season and into a playoff system. For the moment, I’ll live with this, and I’ll focus any narrative on my team itself, and not on the fact that I’m purportedly playing against the Pittsburgh Steelers or whomever. If this concept proves to have some long-term merit, I may revisit these issues—perhaps renaming the other teams into more appropriate-sounding opposition.
At the outset, I have no idea how competitive my team can be. My suspicion is that even a pretty strong team of all young players won’t be very good. However, if I can trade away my early picks for other draft picks, and eventually (perhaps) double my draft dimensions each year—I think I might be able to field a credible squad. What would it take to make this team a champion? I haven’t the foggiest.
I intend to sign URFAs to a four year, doubling value contract. I also will re-sign players whose rookie contracts expire prior to four years’ service (to the extent affordable under the salary cap)—allowing them to play out their 4 years with me, and then be traded (if possible) or released. This gives me (theoretically important) incentive to take my top-rated players in the draft itself, rather than waiting until the 4-yr signings after the draft ends.
Needless to say (I think) I won’t be making any trades in this career that bring in new players. I’ve considered allowing myself to sign young free agents (a la JuCo transfers) but I think I’ll keep it simpler, and keep the players all home grown.
My first year will also be odd… I’ll obviously fill up entirely with rookies. From there, the lesser players will eventually be replaced by attrition. Once I get a full cycle deep, I expect that the team will cycle in a fairly normal fashion—that I’ll have 12-15 slots (perhaps a bit more) open each year for my new draft picks and fill-ins.
I’ll see how it goes, and I’ll try to detail the happenings in this thread – we’ll see if it works out to be interesting. My intent is to use college parlance in describing my team as appropriate.
I know that with most of my teams, I end up really focusing on cohesion and chemistry as a means to team performance. Limiting guys to 4yr careers with your team would completely emasculate the cohesion side, and I'd think this might be better overall to play with chemistry off, just to allow more focus.
But I could imagine paying way more attention than I ever have to things like "% developed" - and a new look at the game might be intriguing at some level.
Thoughts?