"It's Tight To Death, Shawty." (An FOF2K7 Dynasty)
My latest little FOF kick is an offense that uses 2 tight ends on every snap of the game. (See this thread for details and a sample game plan.) So, I figured I'd play out a bit of a dynasty that focuses heavily on tight ends, attempts to tighten up the game with some house rules, and uses a very tight salary cap. It's tight to death, shawty.
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INITIAL SETUP
HOUSE RULES
Salary Cap
Staff Hiring
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2021 Amateur Draft
1(24)--CB Carlton Gambrell (23/27)--3 red combines, 2 blue, 51% developed--should become a VG corner eventually
2(23)--WR Bruce Meeker (24/59)--3 blue combines--Could be a "good enough" WR. 3(25)--QB Ben Banks (13/37)--3 blue combines, 41% developed-knows 2 of the 2-TE formations 4(24)--LT Donovan Slechta (19/25)--3 blue combines 5(23)--C Scottie Schultz (25/60)--1 red, 2 blue 6(25)--P Andy Fuller (15/29)--1 red, 3 blue 7(14)--FL Antoine Ellis (19/44)--no combine guy, blue in both showing |
2021 Camp Results
1st round pick Gambrell was +8. No shocker there. 7th round pick WR ellis also gave a +4. (For those reading from IHOF, his pre-draft bars looked extremely similar to those of J.R. Janjic.) Rather surprising no change from 2nd round WR Meeker. I was expecting a drop there. Season 1 will run in the morning.
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Oh, and Banks learned a third 2-TE formation (but was -3 in camp). Still, he looks like the starter.
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2021 Roster
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Front Office Football 2007 |
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Front Office Football 2007 In short, we sucked. Not much to say about this. One interesting thing to note is that the formation situation may cause me to stick with Banks at QB much longer than I might have otherwise. |
2022 Offseason
No retirements.
Sent 7th-round WR Ellis to summer league. CB Gambrell +4 in FA1:1 We have the 1.1, and there's a stud QB with 76 intelligence. He is starting out with only 2 of the 2-TE formations and he's 8% developed, so there's no question that he's going to struggle big-time early on, but he's a must. What should be really interesting is managing the team at half the salary cap when this guy starts putting up the numbers and wanting the $$$.
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2022 Amateur Draft & Camp
Rnd 1 - Antoine Hickman, QB, Michigan (13/58)-5 blue, one red--As I said above, this will take some time.
Rnd 2 - Lincoln Massie, DE, New Mexico (34/56)--VU, no cmobine, one blue--great bar signature Rnd 3 - Irving Goddard, TE, Washington State (20/37)--VU-- 3 blue Rnd 4 - Randal Cochrane, CB, Cal. - Northridge (17/33)--2 blue Rnd 5 - Louie Dimitrenko, T, Ohio State (20/54)--1 red, 2 blue, 1 green Rnd 6 - Karl Castillo, DT, Washington (17/52) Rnd 7 - Ken George, DE, Texas Tech (16/42)--Converted from DT. Had a great dash and great pass rush tech bar Top Ten Most Likely Breakouts: Name Team Pos Change George, Ken Tucker LDE 12 Hickman, Antoine Tucker QB 8 Goddard, Irving Tucker TE 6 Gambrell, Carlton Tucker LCB 4 Kollars, Clay Tucker RB 2 Viano, Leo Tucker K 1 Gunn, Steven Tucker LCB 1 Sellers, Thomas Tucker WILB 1 Oliver, O.J. Tucker RG 1 Ingram, Irving Tucker FB 1 Major hits in this draft, and the CB keeps on creepin'. |
The AI offers a 2nd round pick for WR Meeker. WR Ellis has better endurance already, and it creeping. He might end up the better of the two, and this offense only needs one WR. I could use the pick. We accept the offer.
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Overall, it looks like we have our QB1/TE1/WR1 combo in place now. QB Antoine Hickman, TE Irving Goddard, and WR Antoine Ellis hope to be the cornerstone of our offensive attack...but methinks we'll just suck again this year, and maybe next.
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2022 Roster
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Front Office Football 2007 Still the league's worst roster by a long way. Modest goal this year: win a game. |
...and I'll be danged if we didn't win the opener. We picked off five passes. S Percy Thornton (undrafted free agent) had four of 'em. Nice!
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OUch. This could kill our mega-creeper CB:
Carlton Gambrell, LCB - Ankle Surgery, Out, full strength in 2023. He was up to 49/49 (from original 23/27) and counting. |
Lo and behold, we won three. Not bad given that we only used two offensive formations all year long, as best as I can tell.
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Front Office Football 2007 |
S Thornton's 9 picks earn first team All Pro honors for him. Of course, he had four in just one game. :)
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2023 Offseason
No retirements.
Summer League: 7th-round DE Ken George FA1:1 Changes..some nice ones: Code:
Name Team Pos Change Looks like Gambrell may be ok. He has four weeks left on his injury, and still went the big +6. Kollars has been a nice and steady creeper at RB. He was 23/25 and is now up to 39/39. Not sure he gets much better than that, but he may be decent. No surprises on any of the others. We have the #4 pick in the draft, and there are some interesting options. I don't think we'll trade up, but depending on what happens, we might try to trade down. |
Yup. The guys that really caught my eye went #1 and #2. However, there are a couple more guys I like ok but am pretty sure I can get a bit further down. So I trade...
1(4) 4(1) for 1(8) 2(8) 6(9) |
1(8)--SLB-->SILB Bucky Tobeck (37/74->38/81 (on position switch)--3 red, 3 blue--Will probably move to ILB. Great bars everywhere except pass rushing.
2(3)--LDT Arnie Barber (26/42)--2 red, 2 blue--Looks like our nose tackle for a long time. Should creep a good amount. 2(8)--FB-->TE Bruce Woods (22/71-->22/65 (on position switch)--3 blue, 1 red--6'3" 265 pounds. Methinks we now have our two tight ends. 2(31)--SLB-->WLB Kerry Sauceda (28/44)--4 blue--He is now our 3-4 WLB. 3(2)--G Troy Insley (31/43)--one red, 2 blue--He should creep quite a bit. 5(4)--C Jared Chov (24/59)--2 red, 2 blue--I'm ok, not great, at C. If this 280-pounder can gain weight, he probably moves to guard. If not, he's gunning to be our center long-term. 6(3)--RDE Tyrell Capodaglio (12/42) --3 blues--We're set at DE, but can always use a solid backup. 6(9)--RT Reggie Burke (7/34)--2 blues and he's 6'7" 338 lbs--Worth a shot this late. 7(2)--QB Jonathan Jozwiak (8/24)--doesn't look like anything special, but he's best combines left by my analyzer weights, plus best adjusted rating left, plus knows 12 formations including three 2-TE ones. Could be a decent backup for us. |
Heh. WR Antoine Ellis holds out for some pretty big bucks. I show him the money, but this could get interesting in a hurry. With this signing, I ahve less than 10% of the cap available. And we're not exactly a good team.
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Camp...
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Name Team Pos Change |
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You gotta be kidding me. |
If every 7th round pick is obviously a super-creeper, this "challenge" will really never be one. Like most, sadly.
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2023 Roster
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Front Office Football 2007 Still the worst roster on paper, but not by a wide margin. We might be able to win five or six games this year. |
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Front Office Football 2007 With just a few injuries, we rarely had our top guys all on the field in any given week. The good news is that we'll draft in the top two next year. |
2024 Offseason
5th-round pick C Chov goes to summer league.
FA1:1 Movers... Code:
Top Ten Most Likely Busts: EDIT: Left the game open without saving, and a little power outage pushed me back to 2024 Franchise/Ticket stage, so a new draft class is getting generated. Man, I was really getting excited about that TE. |
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I thought I'd give a picture of what I mean here. This is the current FA class, sans P and K. In my past SP experiences, classes have much more talent than this. |
See edit above...short power outage and had to re-generate draft class. Stud RB. I'll be taking him.
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Hmmm....there's a also a studly-looking (by combines, not bars) tight end. He's not as good as the guy in the first iteration of the class, but if he's still there at around 1(20), I might try to trade up for him.
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1(1) RB Irv Gillespie (70/81)--3 red, 3 blue--Uh, yeah.
The TE is still there. I trade 2(2) and 3(1) for 1(22) and 5(21). 1(22) TE Hardy Gosselin (34/47)--3 red, 2 blue--Should creep a ton. 4(2) WILB Victor Richardson (13/31)--3 blue--He's iffy, but we really suck at ILB. 5(1) SLB Ike Casteel (12/23)--3 blue--See Richardson...we also suck at SLB. 5(21) LT Phil Tatum (22/38)--1 red, 1 blue--Another big position of need. 6(2) RT Marlon Young (14/45)--no combine--I tend to doubt his VU, but at this point, worth a shot. 7(1) LDE Donny McKenzie (17/28)--3 blue--Don't really have a need at DE, but he was BPA this late. |
Heh..
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All these high picks need to start producing...and very soon. We've only got around $2M in cap room left after signing our draftees. We can get into FA1 next year, but at this rate, it doesn't look like it can be a significant way to build a team at halfcap.
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Camp results...
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Top Ten Most Likely Busts: Roster rating is no longer the worst in the league. Up to 4th-worst now. Progress! |
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Front Office Football 2007 So my stud 1(1) RB is going to miss the first 5 weeks of the season with a shoulder injury. Lovely. The good news is that we look at least competitive this year. |
Five wins..
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Front Office Football 2007 |
I love your dynasties because they're so detailed and yet, they don't overly focus on the mundane.
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Thanks, DC.
Trying to squeeze out another season or two before heading to bed. Halfcap is now officially an issue. We're going to be skirting pretty close to it this year, the first time we might be able to make a meaningful foray into free agency. Perfect! |
FA1:1 Changes...
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op Ten Most Likely Busts: Quote:
As for the draft class, we're at #5, and from the looks of the class, we may go stud OT, or trade down. |
So, yeah: tough decisions already. I have three good starters who are set to become RFAs, and all want real money:
DE Massey (75/75): $8.5M this year CB Cochrane (57/57): $3.42M DE George (53/53): $3.06M After the more obvious cap outs and cuts, we have $13.45M max for new player. The starters who got cut... WLB Sauceda--2nd round pick who didn't pan out. G O.J. Oliver--I have three guards at roughly the same talent level. He's the most expensive. I also had to cut basically all players in year 5 not set to start this year. The most notable is RB Clay Kollars (41/41), who is now sitting at #3 in the depth chart. It's looking like #3 = rookie on this team. The cuts get us down to 34 players under contract. Doing a little cypherin', I calculate that I can spend roughly $6.85M on non-minsal players. That's just enough to sign my two less expensive RFAs. Checking free agency, there are no better options at DE or CB in year 5 (actually in any year), so I sign both guys and don't participate in FA. On to the draft... |
2025 Draft
Now that we're through four drafts and free agency, we have some actual specific needs. The top ones are:
OT OLB ILB S There are two studly tackles in teh top five adjusted rating players, and I have the #5 pick. I'm hoping I can get one of them... ,,,and sure enough, when my pick comes up, the better one is still there. 1(5) LT Gino Conley (60/86)--3 red, 2 blue, 43% developed--looks like a monster 2(6) SLB K.C. Barlow (19/61)--1 red, 3 blue--Not necessarily ideal, but should be pretty solid. 3(5) RT Stanley Lovallo (17/45)--1 red, 4 blue--I could use starters at both tackles, so why not? 4(6) WLB-->WILB Kyle Adams (18/32)--3 blues--Looks like he could be fairly heavily masked, and I need a starter at WILB. 5(5) FS Ronald Kinney (9/30)--One red agility combine, and blue Sol. No guarantees, but I need safety. 6(6) C Donald Kinney (24/74)-one red, 2 blue...I think he'll drop, but I don't think he'll drop *that* much. I don't need a starter, but hard to pass up the possibility here. 7(5) SLB->WLB Percy McConnell(17/39)--Decent bars, no combine, and as I said, I need linebackers. |
Camp...
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Top Ten Most Likely Busts: Very solid draft. Looks like our top five picks are going to pan out to at least some degree. |
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Front Office Football 2007 We're now middle-of-the-road in roster rating, but QB Hickman still only knows two of the formations we use. Hard to say what to expect. |
Solid season, but something rather interesting at QB:
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Front Office Football 2007 On the surface, it would appear that the two QBs performed very similarly. However, Hickman had turf toe for about 6 weeks. As a result, he ended up throwing just a small handful of passes in those games--and he performed brilliantly in those games, usually something like 9 for 10. In games where he played the entire one, his numbers didn't look nearly as good. Later-game familiars, no doubt. The backup knows four of the 2-TE formations. Hickman's intelligence (76) would indicate that he should learn more formations soon enough, but that's a good bit of info to keep in my back pocket. I'm wondering if financially, the best way to play this out might not be with some 45/45 QB who won't cost me much, but knows all five of the 2-TE formations. Hmmmm... |
More details on Hickman's numbers: he had six games with a QB rating over 100. In five of those, he threw 21 passes or less. He also had six games with a rating of 75.4 or worse. In all of those, he threw at least 31 passes. It looks like he only had one full game with a strong performance: week one, 21 for 35 and a 116.2 rating.
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2026 Offseason
Summer: WILB Adams (4th round pick)
Franchise: WR Ellis WILB Adams gets a +5 in FA:1:1, as does TE Gosselin The cap situation is, uh, tight. 23 players under contract, -$4.17M max for new player. Signing frnachisee Ellis to a long-term contract saves a nice chunk, but I have four starter-quality players hitting FA this year: C Chov, G Insley, P Korz, TE Woods. I make some cuts as well as cap outs and last-year renegs. notable cut... WILB Richardson: He's a +6 creeper who's probably good enough to start evenutally, but he's making too much for a backup. Gone. We freed up enough cap room so that I don't have to cut any top guys yet, and I was able to re-sign the RFAs. However, it wasn't enough to make a serious foray into FA. Instead, I just focused on one-year minsal signings to make sure I have all starting slots filled with decent players. I had *just* enough cap room to do this. Here are the guys I signed: all are for one-year minsal no-bonus deals. RCB Mack Rayburn (42/42)--Mentor who'll be the nickel back. WLB Ed Garrett (28/28)--Our own guy from last year. high bars in pass rushing and had 12.5 sacks. WLB Jamal Gaither (43/43)--A higher-bar version of Garrett. 74 PrTch, 59 PrStr FS Tyrus Brohm (46/46)--Pretty solid bars across the board, and high endurance. SE Hardy Phelan (41/41)--WR2 rarely see the field in this offense, but wanted a decent option in case of injury to WR1. LDE Calvin Oleary (38/42)--56/64 PrTch SS B.J. Harper (46/46)--Solid run defense, ok passing defense. FB Irving Ingream (42/42)--our own FB..high run blocking RG Gerald Pickett (40/40)--nothing particularly good Now that I suspect we won't be drafting high enough to hand-pick a stud starter at a position of need every year, I figure the best way to go is to have someone in place to start, and then if something better comes along in the draft, wonderful. |
2026 Amateur Draft
Needs...
Really, any of the minsal positions mentioned above are needs. Plus we have several backup slots to fill. 1(23): LDE Kennedy Corbett (28/50)--5 blues--Should creep a bit and be a nice bookend at the RDE slot. 2(23): RCB Brenden Atkins (25/43)--2 red, 3 blue--eventual nickel guy at worst. Solid starter possibly. 3(23): C Timothy Gaden (21/58)--3 blues--My hope is that he can gain weight. Whether or not e can, he's moving to guard. He's 291 pounds and 88% at the moment. 4(23): SS Derrick Bronson (20/44)--2 blues--He's listed at 48% developed, and we need someone to be a capable backup/possible starter at both safety slots. 5(23): RT Teddy Jeffries (20/30)--1 red, 2 blue--Not a top-tier position of need, but we're not set for sure there, either. 6(23): SS Lance Kaplan (17/29)--1 red, 2 blue--More of a long-term project than Bronson, but still a need. 7(23): WLB Kirk Lynch (14/29)--2 blues--Massive bars in both pass rushing categories. |
C Gaaden is able to gain weight. He gains nine pounds, and the switch is up to 91%. He's 22/55 post-switch, post-camp.
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Camp...
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Top Ten Most Likely Busts: Big ol' jumps at the bottom of the draft. Very nice. Bad news, though is that the QB still only knows two of the 2-TE formations. I'm thinking about adding in some GL just for variety. |
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Front Office Football 2007 Good team, but the offense is still suspect. We're listed as the league's 6th-best roster now. |
Wow. I guess the addition of GL made the final difference. We had some big injuries, but won it all. The good news in terms of keeping my long-term interest is that it looks like we'll be roughly $30M over the cap to start next year, and with 30 guys under contract. At least it looks like keeping the team together will be challenging.
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Front Office Football 2007 |
2027 Offseason
No franchisee. WLB Lynch heads to summer league.
So, uh, yeah. Cap issues time. we have -$33.4M max for new player, and 30 guys under contract. Running the numbers, it's looking like the only way to make this work is to cut some salary. Gone are... TE Irving Goddard (63/63)--He has been the least productive of the three good TEs I've carried. LCB Carlton Gambrell (59/59)--We won it all with him on the IR for the last half of the year. I don't need a potentially injury-prone big-salaried CB when I've got two other good ones. LDE Ken George (61/61)--Same story as Gambrell. He got hurt in Week 9 and that was it. WILB Bucky Tobeck (78/78)--Man, this one hurt. I don't have a replacement, but it was a numbers game that he had to go to make things fit without getting rid of any of my big guns on offense. C Antonio Milloy (46/46)--Solid ratings, but really #3 C at this point. RT Stanley Lovallo (34/45)--Has stayed right at 45 and is costing more than veteran minsal. |
Same general idea as last year, just less money to make it happen. I sign three minsal vets to start:
FB Irving Ingram (42/42)--Re-sign our long-term blocking FB SILB Bryce Maxwell (39/39)--Ratings pretty much flat across the board. FS Tyrus Brohm (45/45)--Pretty solid ratings for a minsal guy. He played for us last year as well. Of course, we have the 1(32) pick this year. Lots of holes to fill. Most important ones: RG RT RDE Could use immediate starters at all three of those positions. |
2027 Amateur Draft
1(32)--LG Ross Marshal (30/51)--3 blue, 2 red--Should be a nice creeper, and will start immediately.
2(32)--LDE Ronnie Conley (13/46)--4 blue--Low development, but I really liked his combines. 3(32)--LT Graham Ross (14/27)--all black--He was the highest-developed tackle with no green combines, and I need a tackle. Hoping he creeps. 4(32)--FL Jonathan Kinzie (14/22)--4 blue, one red--hard to pass this guy up this late. 5(32)--SILB Clay Allen (20/37)--one red, 2 blue, 1 green--I only have four LBs under contract, so this guy needs to see significant playing time. 6(32)--LDT Robert Wolfe (19/23)-- 2 blue--need a backup NT. 7(32)--LCB Jeremy Carr (10/23)--2 blue--need a nickel CB |
So my draftees didn't quite cost as much as I thought, giving me a small amount of breathing room. Not enough to sign anyone particularly good, but I see a backup QB I like. He's got solid (64) sense rush, knows four of the five 2-TE formations, and has 90 intelligence, so maybe he'll learn the fifth one. By my house rules, his deal must be 50% bonus. It's a bit of a risky move, but I can see him eventually being our starter as cap space continues to be an issue. He sings a three-year deal for $10M, with a $5.06M bonus. He's only rated 35/35 overall, but I think he might be exactly what we need. I also sign Jimmie Molenaar, a 39/39 backup WR. He's a minsal guy. All other signees in 2027 FA2 are minsal rookies.
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2027 Training Camp Report
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Top Ten Most Likely Busts: 1(32)--LG Ross Marshal (30/51)--3 blue, 2 red--Should be a nice creeper, and will start immediately. Nice gain to 36/56. 2(32)--LDE Ronnie Conley (13/46)--4 blue--Low development, but I really liked his combines. No change. Not sure he'll amount to much. 3(32)--LT Graham Ross (14/27)--all black--He was the highest-developed tackle with no green combines, and I need a tackle. Hoping he creeps. Only +1. Not sure he'll be worth it. 4(32)--FL Jonathan Kinzie (14/22)--4 blue, one red--hard to pass this guy up this late. Also only +1 in a surprise. 5(32)--SILB Clay Allen (20/37)--one red, 2 blue, 1 green--I only have four LBs under contract, so this guy needs to see significant playing time. -2 camp hurts. 6(32)--LDT Robert Wolfe (19/23)-- 2 blue--need a backup NT. nice +3 guy. 7(32)--LCB Jeremy Carr (10/23)--2 blue--need a nickel CB. Only a +1. Other changes of note: QB Shields ws +7. but is still only 16/22. Could be interesting. Significant drops (-11 and -7) to starting FB and RB. But perhaps the best news of all is that QB Hickman learned a third 2-TE formation in camp. I'm starting to think that knowing three could be the tipping point. |
2027 Roster
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Front Office Football 2007 Pretty solid roster this year. I don't think we're good enough to repeat, but with a little luck, it's possible. |
2027 Regular Season Report
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Front Office Football 2007 QB Hickman and RB Gillespie both had injuries this year in the middle. Both were healthy for the playoff loss. Interesting to see that the backup with 5 2-TE formations did better than the 81/81 starter. As cap space gets more and more tight, I'm starting to wonder if the correct play is to go with a QB like Hills instead of Hickman. |
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