GroupThink - 1997 Little Rock Rollers
 

GroupThink – 1997 Little Rock Rollers

This is a continuation of the GroupThink career, managing the Little Rock Rollers. The career started in 1990, and has been jointly managed by several of the regular FOFC members, with input from numerous others.

All are welcome to download the game files, and join in the discussions. (Note: the game files will rename your cities and teams, so back up your own universe directory before overwriting those files)

GroupThink Original File


For the detailed history of the Little Rock Rollers, here are previous threads that can get you up to speed:

GroupThink beginnings
1991 offseason
1991 regular season
1992 offseason
1992 regular season
1993 offseason
1993 regular season
1994 season
1995 offseason
1995 season
1996 offseason and season



Here is an updated version of our house rules, including some amendments I have penned to keep them in line with the way we have actually played this out:

House Rules:

1. Must take 60 players to training camp each season.
2. Must keep at least 53 players on the roster all season long.
3. Players can not start out of position at the beginning of the season, and replacements for injuries must be made within position groups, if possible.
4. At the start of the career, all players under contract on the team must be offered a new contract or released.
5. No one can sim games except for the specified simmer for that week. That person can only sim once, the official results will be obtained from that sim.
6. When offering a contract to a player requesting a signing bonus, we must either:
- offer him exactly the deal he demands, or
- offer him a signing bonus at least as large as the largest yearly salary.

Trading:
1. Draft-pick-for-draft-pick deals can only be initiated during the draft. (plus potentially more restrictions)
2. We can accept any AI-initiated trade, if it meets the “fairness test”
3. We can shop a player, and then can only make one trade offer, to the top interested team-- if that offer is rejected, we must release the player.


Free Agents:

1. All offers to free agents who are new to the team must come prior to week 1, and may not be altered afterwards (except to withdraw the offer).
2. "Fan Favorites" or "Idolized" players who are the most popular players in their position group on our team must be offered at least their requested contract in week 1 of the 20-step process. These players may not be traded or released.
3. We may tender an offer to re-sign any of our free agents at any time.
4. Franchise tag can be used.
5. Only undrafted rookie free agents may be signed outside of the 20-Step Process, and only to a one-year deal.

Renegotiations:
1. Renegotiation allowed only in last year of contract in the case of a "Classy Veteran" defined as:
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
- In the 10th year or later of his career.
- Has played 5 full seasons on our team.
- Has a Loyalty rating >75.
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
2. No "classy veteran" whose Play For Winner Rating is 60 or above can be renegotiated with following a season when the team didn't make the playoffs. He can only be re-signed via the 20-Step Process.
3. No "classy veteran" who is unhappy or has a conflict with a teammate can be renegotiated. He can only be re-signed via the 20-step process.

And, in case you’d rather cut to the chase – here is the club’s record of success to date, after our taking over the franchise in 1990 (after the original one-player universe settled into maturity):


Oddly enough, our team has followed a downward spiral in its playoff results the last few years – even though I think we could argue that our team has actually gotten better over that time (as our regular season record would attest). Regardless, we remain a major factor in the league, and would like very much to reverse that downward trend.


So, read on, play along, join the staff or just let us know what you think!

1997 offseason


Retirement announcements

We once again have nobody at all departing. Our esprit de corps must be high – nobody wants to leave! Actually, this is probably a function of our invesment in mostly fairly young players, but still – even S Donnie Bridgeman is back for another season, and he’s as old as dirt!


Front Office

A big jump in player salary and bonus costs pushed our bottom line downward – we lost some $59 million last year. With a new deal impending for our QB Coghill, this season might not be too kind either.

Our front office staff is in place, and since our team hasn’t fallen apart, we’re sticking with them. Full Contact Jarvis, our coach, now has a remarkable record of 97-32 overall, and is on pace to shatter the record for the fastest coach to win 100 games in the league. His winning percentage of .751 is over 100 points higher than anyone else’s in the league. Kudos, coach!


Free Agency

As we prepare for the free agent signing period, another look at our team popularity rankings tells us this about our favorites and idolized players:


The asterisks indicate players who are seeking a new contract this year. By my calculations, this means that all four of these guys must receive a new contract. (I believe I’m interpreting the discussion from last year correctly – that split end is different than flanker for this purpose, and therefore Karl Dockery must get an offer)

My sense from previous discussions is that we seek to re-sign Otis Coghill at all costs, and in my mind that means we use the franchise tag here. That will offer us an unmitigated chance to get him locked up in the first week of free agency, without worrying bout other teams bidding on him. Since he’s our cornerstone player, I am very comfortable with this. That slots him at around $18.6 million for this year – which is about what we had been expecting, maybe even a little lower.

So, with Coghill penciled in there, our bigger financial picture looks like this:

29 players signed (a new low for us)
$54.6m in cap room
Pencil in $25m to sign S Bridgeman, WR Hill, and WR Dockery
Five draft picks, expected cost of $5.8m

That leaves $24m or so to sign 23 players. With URFA players costing something like $600K each, that means we have rather little room to spare.

Unless I’m missing something major (or we don’t end up getting either WR Hill or S Bridgeman) we will have precious little capacity to even make a run at any of our departing players – including such notables as DE Russel Austin, DE Riddick Finley, and LB Clay Harden. Each of those guys is rightfully seeking big money – and I don’t see how we can fit an extra $12-15m contract in under our cap this year.

Maybe this is finally the year. Maybe we have completely painted ourselves into a corner. Will we even be able to field a respectable defense this year? I think we have no choice but to look for bargain basement options, and consider using some guys like that as starters, like it or not.

We’ll stop here for now…

I think Bridgeman is just waiting until he can collect Social Security before he retires. :(

Can we move Ty Lincoln to SS and then not be forced to re-up Donnie Bridgeman? I realize that would be circumventing our house rules a bit, but I wouldn't feel too badly about it in this situation.

I had planned on Ty Lincoln being our starting SS going into next season anyway. I was hoping Bridgeman would retire, but his skills are slipping so I figured he would be sitting behind Lincoln anyway. I only moved him to FS last season because I wanted him to get some playing time.

I liken it to the Cowboys playing Roy Williams at FS so he can get some development time even though lng term he projects as a SS. I understand if we don't think it flys but I don't think we would be sacraficing realism in this case to do it. Especially since that was my plan anyway.

Right now, I have penciled in offers to:

WR Wayne Hill - 1yr, $10m
C Zack Jones - 2yr, $3.4m
S Donnie Bridgeman - 1yr, $5.4m

Jones is seeking basically a minsal deal, and I don't see how we can turn that down, as he has been awfully solid for us. The oter two are forced - but i have shortened the deals as much s possible.

I think we can get WR Dockery for less than $10m this year, but a 2yr deal is the minimum - and there's no way out of that one, we must offer, and he will accept (as a restricted free agent). This guy (a very mediocre receiver, but popular for having played all last season) is killing us financially.

Hmm. I wondered what happend there last year - I moved Lincoln over to FS last pre-season for (in part) this reason, to get us out from under Bridgeman's contract. I felt liek Lincoln was better than bridgemn, and we'd be better served with the younger and more popular player in there for the year. I didn't foresee your counter-gambit, which kept Bridgeman in the starting lineup (which I also did not forecast).

I'll leave this to the greater powers that be.

Yea I decided kind of last minute that having both of them in the lineup was better than having Bridgeman on the bench. I of course wasn't thinking about the off season implications. :)

A few cheap guys to consider as free agents:

DT Marshall Castillo - good run stopper, former player of ours, askinf for only $1.6m

RG Lamar Campos - seriouus player, asking for cheap deal, good signing

LT Randall Upshaw - might be betterthan our starter, asking for modest deal... tough year, but he's awfully good

DT Gus Lang - not as good as Castillo, but also a cheap run stopper

OLB Brandon Peabody - former player of ours, seeking modest deal


Man, there just isn't a lot out there. I was hoping for a bargain LB or two, but Peabody is the best I could find. This will be tough, very tough.

Okay, here's the thing. About that "franchise tag" thing I mentioned... I seem to have made a mistake along the way there. (I had to backtrack after making a different error, and forgot to re-designate him)

I think I can re-create the season up to this point (which would mean we have a different rookie draft, but not much else). Does that sound like the best way to "fix" the problem?

Wow this is going to be a rough off season. We also only have 5 draft picks this year.

What about a guy like LDE Glenn Grant. He doesn't have spectacular looking ratings, but he has put up pretty solid numbers. Especially last season.

Another guy like that is LDE Keith Dillon.

That's fine Quik. We wouldn't be able to draft super stud DT Richie Willams anyway so I don't mind him disappearing into the ethos. :)

Okay, here is the file update

Here is the second file

primelord, you need to put on your thinking cap really tight for this year, and work out a plan for the LB position. Right now, I think our front seven is going to be in crisis this season, and we need to have a plan together. LB will be real trouble, I suspect.

I haven't had a chance to download the file yet, but I was wondering if there were any high salary players we could cut or trade to free up space without seriously damaging our team?

I unfortunately did not get a chance to look in detail, but from what I saw the decisions to be made are mostly on the D :).. As for the few offensive moves that QS suggested, I agree with all of them.... making Cog a Franchise player, will we be able to work out a reasonable long-term deal?

Ok we have some serious holes to try and fill on defense.

Defensive Line:

We have 4 guys under contract on the Dline. If we simply had not other options I would say we would probably be ok with starting the 4 we have. But I am concerned with two players. Howard Johnston's skills were already on decline and now he is coming off of a knee injury so I am afraid when training camp is over he may be worthless. And A.J. Hitchcock has shown that he probably isn't a starting caliber DE.

So we said we want to try and get 7 players that can play at this position. We have 4 now, and we should probably be able to find a guy who could step in and play this year in the draft even without our high picks. So I think that means we really need to try and land two Dlineman in free agency.

Here are some guys I like:

DE:
LDE Ben Howen 2 yrs 7.5 mil - He was a 4 year starter with Wheeling. He has put up very good looking numbers the last two seasons. He just seems to produce despite his average looking ratings.

LDE Jermaine Kennicott 1 yr 1.6 mil - He has been a career backup, but is looking for a 1 year no risk contract. And his ratings suggest he could put up average numbers.

DT:
LDT Marshall Castillo
RDT Gus Lang

I agree with Quik's suggestion that one of these two guys probably make sense. Neither one can really rush the passer, but they both seem to be decent run stoppers and are cheap.

So on the defensive line I think we should make an offer to Ben Howen and either Castillo or Lang and then look for a 3rd guy in the draft. Probably a 4th guy too. :)

Linebacker:

As Quik mentioned we are even worse off at Linebacker in terms of players on hand. We only have two LB's under contract and only 1 of them I feel good about starting. If James Beckers ratings hold he should be ok at WLB, but I have a feeling he is going to take another hit after training camp. Again that was my bad.

OLB:
WLB BRandon Peabody 1 yr 1.3 mil - Peabody does look to be the best of a pretty weak bunch in the bargain range at OLB. His skills suit our defense pretty well so he would make some sense to sign.

WLB Brandon Carr 2yrs 3.5 mil - Peabody is probably a better fit, but this is another guy who might be able to play for us.

ILB:
WILB Stephen Money 2 yrs 5 mil - This is a guys who despite his lack luster ratings made 101 tckls just two years ago. He may be a little too pricey for us, but he might be a candidate to move over to one of the outside slots. He has the size to do so.

I think we are set at DB. We have 4 corners under contract. And 2 safeties although it is likely we will end up getting Bridgeman back too.

So if we land 2 Dlineman and 1 LB we have enough to field a starting team. I say we then try to fill in the rest of the gaps in the draft. That means it will probably be a pretty defensive heavy draft for us. Is the offense ok with that?

Some guys that may be around for some of our picks in the draft.

LDE Tommy Walton - Looks like he fits Quik's boom blue print very nicely and it's also possible he might fall into the 3rd round.

LDT Alen Schenk - Another boom candidate.

I would need to look at upcoming contracts ending to be sure, but at this point I'm pretty happy with the Offense.. we could use a better SE, but we can deal with what we have... I of course always like to have an influx of young OL, but if we go one year without it won't kill us -- we can usually pick up some guys in the draft..

There's simply no way we can even think about investing more significant money at the WR position. Assuming we get our two guys re-signed (pretty likely), we will have three receivers each making over $10 million this year. I think that's enough of an investment already.

Ok, maybe I didn't explain..

I know we can't, I'm just saying that's the only "need" i see on the offense..

I am going to throw something out there that I am pretty sure will be an unpopular idea with atleast Quik and Wade. Should we consider trading TE Lamont Dresow? I know you guys are very fond of him, but we would save 6 million dollars by moving his contract. And that would make it a lot easier to get some bodies on defense next year.

The way it looks now it is going to be very difficult to sign anyone that can be of any help to us next year and still have enough money to get to 60 players going into camp.

6 million could buy us a couple decent players.

Also since we only have 5 picks in this years draft we could probably use the extra 4th or 5th rounder we may get for Dresow.

TE is generally not a critical position either...

wade, that's QS's way of saying, "Are you out of your @%#$! mind??? Go take a flying leap." :)

How is it that you spend to the cap (as do all other teams), maintain a high winning percentage and yet, lose $59m?

Our player bonuses are what really killed us last year. We payed out 67.8 million dollars in bonuses last season which was up 81% from the year before. Our total costs went up 19% and our total revenue went up less than 1%. I guess that might do it. :)

So what's the consequences of that or how does that effect your decision makings?

I think the biggest consequence is it makes Quiksand cranky.

Umm..

Isn't Dresow still injured? If he is, we can't trade him, can we?

TE Dresow is indeed hurt, and there's a substantial chance that once he is better, he will reveal a lasting injury. So we cannot cut or trade him right now, and even once we can, we might not get anything in exchange. I agree he may have to go, but we're constrained by the injury.

I am confused as to why we can't trade him. There doesn't appear to be anything in the house rules about us trading a player when hurt and the game certainly allows it.

Maybe I'm clinging to my memory of previous versions, where it was impossible to trade an injured player - the other team would inevitably refuse to accept "damaged goods."

I'll check and see.

Okay, you're right - we coudl trade him in his current state. What do you think is a fair asking price? Mid round pick? I agree his contract has to go, period, as much as I like him as a player.

We have to raise the price on our cotton candy.

QS -- on Dresow.. Like you, I hate it, but he has to go.. Our current TE performed pretty well in his absence, and he's probably going to plummit in ratings anyways (we should check him out a season from now)... Again I'm clueless on asking prices, as usual on this as I never trade..

Okay, I have added offers to DE Bon Howen and DT Marshall Castillo - assuming we get those two, we can at least field a defensive line this season. Looks like our second year man Adrian Brewer is going to be our best weapon from the DE position this season.

LB Brandon Peabody is pissed at us - we must have cut him before, so he won't accept any deal from us, period. I really don't see anyone out there who is both affordable and a substantial upgrade over what we can probably get from a rookie - so my inclination is not to invest in guys of this quality. (I just don't see how Stephen Money can improve our team - despite the fact that he has played a lot of plays on a bad defense before)

My thinking is that we watch OLB Gerald John, and assuming his demand slide down and he goes unpursued, we grab him and hold on to him for another year oro two - he's far better than any of the comparably priced free agents.

So, that would have us going into free agency with five offers on the table, plus one more we have to make to a restricted free agent of ours.

Okay, Manhattan expressed the most interest in TE Dresow, and we have traded him to them for their 3rd round draft pick. If he were healthy, he might have fetched better (he might have anyway) but I felt this was a reasonable asking price, under our rules (this year, I didn't feel like getting burned). I suspect we're going to need to use the two third rounders to grab critical defensive players anyway - so we need the pick pretty badly.

By the way, I think it goes without saying - we have little choice here but to leave the tag on Coghill, and let him roll over year to year on one year tender offers. His asksing price for an extension is another $7m on top of this year's salary, and it grows rapidly from there.

After week one of free agency, we always get a bead on where things are going.

LB Clay Harden immediately accepts his long term deal with Pensacola, and will earn $50m, over 3 years. Great cash-in for our former star player.

We have the only offer in to each of our other targeted players - making it seem even more likely that we will indeed re-sign WR Hill and S Bridgeman.

In week two, WR Wayne Hill and C Zack Jones are re-signed. The following week, S Bridgeman takes our offer. So the big money is secure now - we aren't going to have a free pocket of cash to spend after all.

DE Russel Austin, last year's camp breakout, signs a $67m deal with Puget Sound, over 4 years. Big money for him, too.

In week 10, DT Marshall Castillo is the last of our several pursuits to take our offer - we're done with our actual signings. Now, I'm watching our own players, and hoping for a chance to re-up with LB Garald John, who would figure to start for us at the sam slot this season if we can work out a new deal.

I'm waiting out LB John, hoping to get his demands to drop just a little more, when I am startled - red letters in the signings box! Fortunately, it's just C Leo Johnstone, taking a modest deal from Fort Worth. Close call.

I am spurred by this, however, to make the offer than John wants - and he accepts it in week 15. He'll return for $6m over two years, not too bad for us.

Some more good news is that it appears that WR Karl Dockery's demands have lightened a bit. He is now asking for only $47.4m over 5 years - meaning that he might take a two year deal for something like $8m per. A little less burdensome than I had expected.

I (eventually) work out a new deal for Dockery - 2yrs, $17.2m, with a hit of $8.3m this year. Painful, but probably the least we could get away with.

I’ll assume that we have no ability to trade up here – we don’t really have the immediate capital in hand to consider it, really. So, I plan to just run the draft up to our pick at #30, and we’ll discuss our strategies from there.


That means we are on the clock… I will post the update files.

Update #1

Update #2

Regrettably, these guys look like the best DL left in the draft as of pick 30... not a great sign. I agree, either one might be nice in round three. I'm hinky taking either guy here in round one.

I'll await the group's input, but I think we might need to consider making another trade - to get out of this pick and perhaps enhance our slotting later (or else pick up two picks in this draft).

I don't see a single player I'm thrilled with here, even at non-need positions.

I would recommend raising the price of cotton candy from $1.25 to $1.50 but reduce the price of the Clinton Bobblehead from .79 down to .19 since no one wants one. ;)

Seriously, it appears that you are going forward without any consideration for the amount of bonuses you have and adjusting ticket prices. Couldn't there be a house rule regarding either of those two (for additional challenge)? I'm not saying the financial bottom line should mean anything (they don't to me), but just curious as to how it can be used.

Yes, Anrhydeddu, it could be used in some fashion. Actually, when we first started out, I pinned our ticket prices to those of a nearby rival (Texarkana?) to ensure some realism. I have not annually checked to ensure that we remain level there, but our prices remain realistic.

We have also been fairly frugal with our front office staff- our coach in particular is among the cheaper guys in the league, despite his stellar W/L record.

Since, for practical purposes, those are the only two areas where you can make much difference financially - we're not being unreasonable.

We could add something rougher, I'm certain. Have any thoughts? Care to take an active role? Maybe we could fall into financial receivership, and you coudl assume the role of the "financial supervisor" - laying down some new rules or restrictions on where we go with the club, in a financial sense. Or you could just help us come up with a rule of some sort. to follow.

Any thoughts?

Quik,

Signing John was an excellent move. I didn't even consider him because I just didn't think we had the money even though his price wasn't that high. I agree there was nothing to like obout Money. I just figure he was a body that could be thrown out there, but your right a URFA would probably preform equally well at a cheaper price tag.

I don't see any problem moving down. We could use the extra picks.

There are two guys I think look intriguing though. Quik what are your thoughts on

MLB Thurman Ritchie
FS Nicky Mercado

Ritchie looks like he may be a slight bust, but still may be solid and better than what we have.

Mercado looks like his skills fit our system very well.

I am leaving to go play golf so I will not be able to check again until later this evening. Those guys and the two Dlineman I mentioned are the guys I noticed right off. Don't hold up on my account if you see someone who could help the D feel free to grab him. We need bodies at essentially every position but CB.

QS: Thank you for the offer, I will think on it this weekend (to see if there is a practical role).

primelord, MLB Ritchie will be a major bust, take it to the bank.

The only LB with real promise in this draft, at this point, is Skip Artis - and I think we might actually get him with a later pick. He could actually be a fairly good fit for us - I'd be inclined to start him as a rookie, if we got him.

Okay, we made a trade with Key West - we sent them our 1st and 6th picks for their 2nd and 3rd. The 2nd rounder we get is in the middle of the round - we move down 17 spots, in essence. The 3rd rounder is early in the round - so I'm hoping we get two passable players out of this swap.

Here's the draft progress after that:


So that's where we are... I won't post updated files, but I don't think we lost a lot by movinng down here.

I could be easily convinced to take LB Skip Artis here, or one of the defensive linemen.

primelord, I have no problem with S Mercado, but I just don't see safety as a real need area. We'ev been consistently able to get decent playable safeites in free agency for just over minsal... I don't see the gain in using a high draft pick on a similar player, especially when we have serious gaping holes at positions like DT and DE where we can rarely get quality cheaply.

In my mind, the guys that would make good additions to our team are:

DE Tommy Walton
LB Skip Artis
LT Jackie Miller
CB Dominic Emerson
C Shaun Tobias
S Nicky Mercado
LT Brandon Hansen
QB Levon Johnstone
RB Jay Borroquere
FB Ty Lindrud
WR Matthew Sims
C Albert Hamilton


My thinking is that there is really only one DE worth taking, and only one LB - and that we pretty much must take one or the other here. My best guess is that DE Walton would be a little more likely to be selected between here and our next pick, but that's not based on anything but a hunch.

I'd vote to take DE Walton here, and then I'd be crossing my fingers that LB Artis fell. With the next couple of picks, I'd hope we would get perhaps one of these good-looking OL, and one other guy off this list - and we'd be in good shape overall.

I'd welcome any thoughts from here...

The one concern about Walton is he's only 250 lbs. I doubt we'd be able to move him to RDE in the future if it was ever needed. With Brewer at LDE and signed for several seasons, it looks like Walton would have to be a #3 DE backup (unless we wanted to consider moving Brewer which I don't think makes much sense).

Skip Artis is a good size for a LB (255 lbs), but is already a Fan Favorite (which could be an advantage or disadvantage depending on our current situation with LBs). Artis also plays WLB, where we currently only have Becker. Not much competition there. This brings up an interesting little experiment if we get him. In the strategy section there was some discussion about the possibility of players being more likely to "breakout" if they were fan favorites. Artis has the basic look of a possible "breakout", but it's hard to tell in this version (IMO). Could be a good chance to do a little testing on the side...

I agree with Quik. I think we should take Walton here and then take Artis if he is available at our next pick. I don't see a problem moving Brewer to RDE. He is still very young so shouldn't take much of a hit in the move and we really need another guy who can play at DE.

Okay, we get the draft underway in earnest for our guys... and the early going is all good:


That gives us two more solid, usable guys for our front seven - badly needed. We still have two more pick in this third round, so we have more chances to add to our talent pool. I will post updated files for this consideration.

First update file

Second file

Okay, at this point, I htink we have eliminated our most desperate need situations - now we have a little more freedon (though another contributor at LB would have been nice, I just don't see him out there right now).

Here are guys I could make a case for with these next two picks:

WR Matthew Sims - decent receiver and kick returner, could give us good depth

C Albert Hamilton - looks like solid pass blocker inside

DT Alan Schenck - might have modest breakout potential, but semi-sold anyway (fan fave)

CB Dominic Emerson - pretty decent cover man, might be a solid #3 in a year


If we feel we really need another LB, I guess Antoine Tatum is the best guy out there, but at 236 lbs, he might be stuck at MLB (which won't be his best position). I'd prefer to hope for him late - I don't think he'll be all that good.

I like Sims the best myself. At center I don't see Hamilton standing out significantly above a few other guys (Shaun Tobias, Percy Hironaka and Ronnie Reis). Schenck looks like a little bit of a reach at this point unless we are desperate for another DT. Emerson would be ok if we need depth at cornerback, but again I see a couple guys like G. Burke and Al Wolfe that are in the same league. Sims looks like he's the best WR available by a good bit.

I'd like to bring attention to RT Scott Wetzel as well. He looks like a possible breakout to me and someone that we might pick up later in the draft (not necessarily at this pick).

We're up again... and the usual suspects are still available.

By the way... I think young DE Adrian Brewer is in the midst of a mid-draft ratings boost... similar to what we saw from another DE last year. You'll be impressed with what you see after the draft is over.

Maybe S Nicky Mercado woudl make sense here... all three of our current safeties are up for new deals after this season. Might be good to have a potential starter locked up for next season, and Mercado is admittedly a pretty good fit.

On the other hand... so-so safeties do tend to slip in the draft - he might be there in round four.

Sorry I haven't chimed in all weekend, you know how they go for me..

Sims looks to be a nice pickup.. did you envision him staying at FL or moving over to SE?

I think we definatley go defense here... there is not much there on the offense available, and I think we've already made it quite clear that Defense is our bigger need..

Mercado makes sense to me too. I didn't really see anyone that stood out to me that would be a better pickup.

This is probably going to be a pretty tough week for me guys. Things are very busy here at work now. But I will still try to check in regularly.

In terms of BPA I think Mercado makes sense, but I am wondering if we shouldn't go with DT Schenk here. We said we wanted to try and get some legitimate depth on the Dline and even if he doesn't break out it looks like he could be a solid enough backup. If we think we can get Schenk later in the draft then I think we take Mercado here. If not then I think we select the DT and hope Mercado falls to our next pick.

Since S Mercado is atop the ranked list at safety, I decide that he's the safest pick here - and I'll hope to see DT Schenck fall to our next pick:


That wraps up the rookie draft - getting C Tobias at the tail end was nice, as he was a guy we actually considered much earlier.

I'm working through the roster, building toward our 60 players... and it looks liek we have some money "left over." I'm at 49 players right now, and if we signed 10 more URFA players (minsal rookies) we'd still have over $8m left under the cap. That number might go down if I re-sign a few more passable players off our returning roster, but it eaves us with some options:

DE Riddick Finley did not get signed by anyone - his demands have come way down. He now seeks only $4.8m for a one-year deal. It looks like we have the cash - I think this would make a ton of sense for us. The only downside is that it clogs up the DE spots a bit this year - but we can easily get Brewer in there in passing situations to make sure his development comes along.

WR Deion Perea is still looking for a new deal. We know he's pretty good, though not as flashy as some of our other guys. In our pass-happy offense, having scads of solid wideouts is a plus - Perea would add to our arsenal. He'd cost us around $7m I'd guess, for a one year deal.

RG Ray Gardner has been quielty solid as a three year starter for us at right guard. As of now, we are slated to go into this year with unproven (bot promising) Trent Ballard in that position - re-signing Gardner would aid our cohesion and keep a solid contributor in there.


To me, this is a no-brainer. DE Riddick Finley was a star-caliber talent, but he now comes off two injury-plagued seasons. In his first two seaons with us, he posted 29.5 sacks - if he got anywhere near that level ofproductivity, we'd be in great shape on our DL (after lamenting it so loudyl this offseason). I think this is the move to make, and let the other pieces fall where they may.

However, I'm posting it here... is there any dissent? Any other thoughts?

If we sign Finley, should we try for more than one year? If he comes back to form, this could be our chance to lock him up for 2 or 3 seaons well under market value. Of course doing so ties our hands a bit financially - we'd have bonus money tied up in a 10th year player who hasn't been productive for three seasons.

I'd vote for a 1 year deal with Finley. Keeps our options open next year and we avoid getting stuck with someone who might fall apart (with his injury history I think it's a definite possibility).

Bee, any thoughts on Ray Gardner? I personally am fine with Ballard taking over at RG (and we have a converted rookie C there as well)... but if you felt strongly, I might be swayed otherwise.

I think Finley is more important to the team. I wouldn't mind seeing Gardner come back, but I generally don't value guards very highly myself. Ballard should do fine IMO.

I concur wholeheartedly with Bee... We can take the hit at RG for the young rookie to get Finley in there to shore up the DL.. it seems as an overall package Finley is more crucial to the team..

The only reason I would say we should consider Finley for a longer deal is we are always so thin on the Dline. If he stays healthy and get 10+ sacks this season it will be next to impossible to bring him back after this season. If Walton breaks out and we have 4 DE's who can all start for us I would say that is a good problem to have. Especially since history tells us two of them are probably goign to go down at some point in the season.

I have signed us all the way up to 60 players. Even with DE Riddick Finley back on the roster (for one year only), we remain $7.6 million under the cap.

I have little choice but to attribute this to poor forecastign on my part. A few players came in a bit lower than I had expected, btu I still didn't forecast that we'd ghaev this much room - we could haev made a run at LB Clay Harden, for instance (though that would have been pushing our luck, I confess).

If we wanted to work out a deal with WR Perea or RG Gardner, we coudl still cut one rookie and do so. I'll distribute the game files, and we can go from here.

I want us to wahct C Christian Dillon closely. I don't think he will pan out, but he is an interesting test case - he got a "void" in a key rating, and I'd like to use him to test my theory. (I think he will bust) For the record, he rates 11/65, 10/74, 4, 38/58 before the first training camp.

Files to follow...

First update

second file attached

After some thought, there is no "role" to play but simply the addition of another house rule. There is experience by gamers here of establishing a rule saying that you must be profitable or only lose so much money; or at least, determining this season's financial decisions based on last season's balance sheet. All this does is add another layer of complexity and challenge to the game. But as much as I assume you guys would like to have more of a challenge, you do not want to do anything that takes away from the group think critical decision-making process. Holding down player bonuses would mean that you would have less decisions to make about keeping a player (and perhaps conflicting with the fan favorite rule) as well as limiting your efforts in free agency. It is a shame that the game treats the balance sheet as irrelevant and show large losses whereas in the real NFL, that is not conceivable, I believe.

Anrhydeddu,

I think the critical failing of FOF in this regard is twofold. First, even though it is allegedly better in this version, the game still doesn't allow fan support to be enough of a variable. I think the game would be better if you really risked having a drop in ticket sales if your prices were out of line.

And second, of course, is the lack of any real repercussion for doing a poor job financially. Unless you really, really muck things up, the financial side is completely irrelevant to any in-game considerations (i.e. being fired). You're welcome to inject them yourself if you like, but that's the only way it becomes relevant, as you observe. I don't know how you can meaningfully make this better withotu descending into the picayune details I (endlessly) decry, but without consequences, there can be no motivation.

Anyway - thanks for giving some thought to all this. Maybe we ought to have some sort of financial house rule... I'll give some mroe thoughts to that. Perhaps some sort of multi-year "running average" of profits - that would offer some better flexibility than doing it purely year-by-year, I'd think. While forcing us to spend below the league salary cap for players is not realistic, it might be an interesting thing to consider... especially since we are doing awfully well on the field, despit our supposed "challenge" rules.

THe other difficulty with this is another aspect of fan support meaning nothing..

First off, look at our attendance.. does it make ANY sense that we never come close to selling out? The money we make seems out of whack... and 10K more fans a game would make a difference across the board (ticket sales, merchandise, etc)..

Truer words have never been spoken. This appears to sum up this group think (and many dynasties as well). No matter how much you fear the upcoming off-season, the consequences and results are still the same. It is fun, I perceive, to go through the motions (and to follow along) but where is the challenge that you desire back in season 3? It seems to me that the best rules are the ones limiting the quality of players on your roster (e.g., empty cupboard). Or does it really matter? I suppose it is better to keep playing the positives of being a constant winner as oppose to trying to lose. But as much as I see the positive in maintaining a winner, it is the journey from the bottom to the top that offers the best reward, imo. FOF has always been best used, imo, as single-season, on-field simulation but it is only through the user's creativity (and the willingness to start over) to where it can be meaningful season to season.

How much do you think Cog is going to cost in the future? Do you see any benefit at all to locking him up long term now, or does it merely cost us?

A sick part of me says let's resign Gardner, get another year out of him, resign ballard to a cheap deal, and THEN start him.. If we start Ballard this year, his cost is going to sky rocket, is it not? Either way, I think he may be the better sign of the two.. it is a toss up, but we do have a load of WRs already (admittedly, Perea is better than quite a few that we have).. but if it could save us on ballard in the future, it may be the better power play..

Here's a thought. Perhaps the best strategy for this season at DE would be to have Riddick Finley come off the bench? Make him the top reserve at both LDE adn RDE,and perhas make him a starter in passing situations... he'd still get on the field plenty, but we would still see both our young guys get plenty of playing time as well. With Finley's recent injury troubles, this might not be unrealistic - keep him as a specialist, in limited action.

I bet we can still get 8-10 sacks out of him using him that way...

News Bulletin

Little Rock has announced a landmark deal with their star quarteback, Otis Coghill. The two sides, previously at a contract impasse, have suddenly reached terms on a new six year deal. The contract will provide Coghill a stunning $30 million bonus, and will pay a total of $168 million over the duration. It is by far the largest contract paid by the franchise, and commits the team to this star for the foreseeable future.

During Coghill's last three seasons, he has posted the top three season-long SB ratings in league history, guiding a sometimes unstoppable Rollers offense to six straight playoff appearances. His career statistics, including 94 TDs to only 38 interceptions, and a career 42-9 winning record, make him among the league's most prolific and bankable stars. His only downside has been durability - he has missed games in each of the past three seasons, which has robbed him of all-star selections that most certainly would have come otherwise.

The kiss of death...Coghill will go down and lose all his ratings now. ;)

Sorry I haven't been to chime in recently, but I work at a radio station and we just changed formats. I've quite seriously seen my workload become about 10 times larger.

This is getting more fun as we go along. Great work locking up Coghill, lets pray he stays healthy.

I guess we can do that. I think we may be giving up an awful lot against the run that way though. Walton looks like he is strictly a passrusher (atleast with his ratings as they stand right now). To be honest I wouldn't have moved Brewer to RDE this season. I would have started both Finley and Brewer and used Walton as the backup to both spots and then assuming he takes a rating bump like we expect start him next season instead.

$28m per year?? Yikes.

primelord, ism't there a limit on how many times a player will change positions? Thinking longer term, Brewer has already been switched from left to right, if we switch him back to right that's not so bad... but after this year we presumably would want to have both him and Walton starting. If we end up locking them both in on the same side, we'll have a bigger problem in the longer run.

Sorry if my jumping the gun on switching Brewer before has contributed to this problem. With this being a matter of irregular attention, I just wanted to make sure it got done while he had agreed to it, rather than finding out too late that we forgot. I'd be heppy if we could solidify that responsibility - maybe we make position switching a form part of the process, right before we run training camp? (A responsibility of the coordinators?) That would suit me fine.

Anyway... if this is only 2 switches for Brewer, then he shoudl be okay - and have one more available. Your call, primelord...

Well, his current franchise tag tender was already $19.5, and that woudl certainly rise over time. Lockign him up costs us more, but is also more realistic, in my mind. I cannot recall any real NFL team taking ther best and most popular player, with whom they are on good terms, and tagging him year after year forcing him to play for the one-year tender each season. To the extent we were prepared to do so, to save $5-8m per year, just doesn't seem fair.

So, I have deleted the restriction on contract negotiations with our tagged players, to conform with our actual practice. I think that what we've done (used the cap sparingly) has been pretty realistic, and has kept things tough for us. I guess the only way to rtchet it tighter would br for require us to accept the player's demand in the first week of free agency... which could be back on the table if we want it to be, starting next season.

Quik,

It's not a problem. We can just leave Brewer at the RDE spot. Your right long term we don't want Brewer and Walton at the same position because Walton can't switch. I just figured since Finley was a much better run stopper it would make sense to have him in starting instead of just pass rushing situations and in breathers. But we can also do something like start Walton, but set his playing time very low so they rotate a lot of the running plays.

It probably is a good idea to make position changing a part of the process. That way we know what page everyone is on.

It sure is taking us a long time to get through training camp. :)

I think QS is probably done with his part at this stage? Are we going to move one of the WR's over? Otherwise, we're probably basically ready for your or I to take over and change our settings..

We still need the file with Cog's contract extension.

Details, Details ;)

:) I of course was just kidding. There is no rush we just seem to have been at this one spot for quite awhile.

Rather than post the new files, here are the details of Coghill's new deal:

$30m bonus
$20m
$20m
$20m
$23m
$25m
$30m

He will accept that, and you're up to speed. That should be simpler than reuploading and redownloading everything.

I moved C Ancheta to LG to backup our young stud Lofton, there was a giant logjam at C, and still is to a certain extent with 3..

Skip Artis must have been a good pick, we grabbed him in the third round and we already have an offer for a 2nd rounder and a pretty damned good full back for him..

Same with Tobias as we grabbed him in the 7th and we have a 4th rounder straight up being offered..

Prime, go ahead and run the preseason.. if you move on to the regular season I need LG Lofton, Lucas, Morrell, and Cog put back into the lineup..

File 1..