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Alright, Let's Do this Thing! FOF7 Rise of the Jaguars
I have d/led my latest edition of FOF7 from Steam, and I'm anticipating a new dynasty, right now. I loaded up a Jaguars game, and we'll take the first game they give us - full on X Factor, GMs are fireable, chemistry is a thang, and so forth. No draft, no craziness.
And I won't be making any house rules. Every tool is available for this dynasty. My goal is to get a Super Bowl as quickly as possible. I don't care if I franchise, sign free agents, trade all up and down. If its a tool in my toolbelt, you had better believe I'm using it to get my beloved Jaguars a ring. My GM's name? Marquis D'Avignon |
DAMN!!!
The obvious question is whether or not Blake Bortles is a thing. If he has something going, then we hit. Otherwise, this is a darker dynasty indeed than I had hoped. And it looks like a sunshine ray of awesome is about to hit north Florida Meet… Mr. Blake Bortles (Let me get you an image real quick)  |
He’s literally my best player on the roster. Only two players have a potential of 70+. Bortles at 72 and WR Marqise Lee at 71. Then 2 in their 60s (42/67 LT Luke Joeckel and 52/63 OG Zane Beadles)
And that’s it. No other talent with a current or future estimate of 60 or more. Not a great roster. In fact, we have just 7 players with a 50+ future estimate as well. It looks like the X Factor giveth (yay Bortles) and taketh away. Why is Justin Blackmon on my roster? He should (probably) appear on my 2015 roster, that’d be awesome as a way to demonstrate talent that is out for a season due to suspensions and such. So, what are we looking at Bortles? How about the other QBs from this draft? Bortles may end up second best, and you’ll be surprised at who’s best… Think Teddy Bridgewater is the best one? Think again! 22/50 What about Derek Carr, who quietly had a very good season for Oakland in real life. Here? 24/53 How about Johnny Football, him of the much hype? 33/72. That’s right, the same potential as Bortles! Obviously, this stuff changes based on hidden stats, how the shake out, and more. But right now, we got a real franchise-saving hit with Bortles. Hopefully. |
Finally a FOF on the FOF forum! Hahaha.
Good luck with the Jaguars. You'll need it. |
Where are our other strengths and weaknesses?
RB? We have Toby Gerhart, Denard Robinson and rookie Storm John, with one of my favorite names in RB history. The best is 44/44 Gerhart TE Marcedes Lewis has a solid 52/52 rating, fairly close to real life obviously. I’d rate him better in blocking and lower in catching if this were me (he’s a great blocker in real life), but roughly the same overall. No issues here Now, the WRs. In real life, this was a huge upgrade for a team that was hurting. Robinson, Lee, Hurns, all played well at times, and Robinson looks like he could be a real #2 WR for the future, and if either Lee or Blackmon are your #1, then you are set, while Hurns appears to be a strong #3 #4 guy with great big play ability. On the other hand, Cecil Shorts III was a major disappointment. So, where are the receivers here in my game? FL Cecil Shorts – 30/39, great big play stuff, low everywhere else FL Allen Robinson – 38/51, good, solid all-around stuff, with high endurance, and lower avoid drops, but potentials that are in the 40s (big play, ourage, route running) or 70s (downfield, third down, adjust to ball) SE Justin Blackmon – 44/57, Solid everywhere, 84 big play, 21/31 downfield and 24/44 adjust to ball are lowest. SE Ace Sanders - 34/42 SE Allen Hurns – 26/30 – lower Big play than I’d expect (just 70). Weak everywhere else. SE Marqise Lee – 52/71 - Good stuff! 100 big play, lowest ranking is 16/44 avoid drops and 24/52 adjust. But just really good everywhere else. So our offensive skill positions are pretty solid. Line? C Luke Bowanko, 15/31, 6th round rookie. Weak as all get go OG Zane Beadles is solid, and we have OG Brandon Linder, 3rd rounder, with 26/45. (In real life I’d probably put him at 31/55 or so, but that’s not bad, and he could creep this thing all up and such) OT Luke Joeckel was solid, and OT Cameron Bradfield (29/41) undrafted, and adequate, but needs to grow P Bryan Anger – Bust in this dynasty – 39/43 K Josh Scobee – 46/46 In real life, the D Line was the best of the defense of the Jags this year: DE Tyson Alualu – 35/35 DE Red Bryan – 33/33 DE Chris Clemons – 37/37 DE Ryan Davis 29/40 LDT Roy Miller – 34/34 RDT Evander Hood – 52/52 RDT – Sen’Derrick Marks – 55/55 Well we have a strong DT tandem I can work with, but those DE folks do not represent how well they rolled in the season. Ah well. LB corps? This was a huge weakness of the Jags this season, especially after Paul Poz was injured early on. What about here? MLB Paul Posluszny – 47/47 SLB Telvin Smith – 29/47 WLB Dakota Watson – 31/31 WLB LaRoy Reynolds – 25/37 Weak, yuck. Secondary? LCB Will Blackman – Bust. 19/19 LCB Dwayne Gratz - 39/54 Last year’s 3nd rounder looks pretty sexy to me. No strengths or weaknesses, just a solid bar all around. LCB Jeremy Harris – 30/52 – Last year’s 7th rounder? Dang that’s good stuff. Great run D, weak man-to-man D and picks. RCB Alan ball – 39/39 SS Jonathan Cyprien – 37/37 – Sigh. That’s about right too. FS Winston Guy – 22/25 – Yuck And even rookie Aaron Colvin isn’t that good (20/35) Long Snapper? Guys a 36 in long snapping |
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Thanks!!! |
Leadership and chemistry??
Two mentors – CB Will Blackmon and FB Will Ta’ufo’ou. Leaders? FB Will Ta’ufo’ou TE Clay Harbor RT Cameron Bradfield DE Chris Clemons RCB Alan Ball Good stuff? RB Gerhart exceptional affinity DE Red Bryant strong affinity SLB Telvin Smith mild affinity BUT LB Dakota Watson extreme conflict DT Marks strong conflict RB Robinson conflict We don’t like that. Now, I would like to pick up a mentor WR for my young corp. |
So we can make some immediate improvements without even thinking that hard.
Such as my Long Snapper and Punter. It’s post-camp, and pre-season. So I make some offers immediately to see what I can do: I sign some Undrafted Free-Agents still out there: K Tyler Bernard, who’s 50/80 P Trenton Tucker, 33/53 LS Grayson Johnstone, 100 LS I cut my old special teams players (P,K, LS) Who else is looking good in my neighborhood? LCB Alec Bowbliss, 23/57 RDE Kaden Rivera, 33/57, affinity with Chris Clemons SS Rondell Darin, 19/53 If I’m not going to have great players with current stats, there’s no reason not to have players with solid future potential, right? In order to avoid conflicts, I cut Denard Robinson and sign ufa RB Irv Hornung, strong affinity, 27/39 I trim some fat to get to 60 players for the pre-season The game is forcing me to sign another QB. Sigh. I sign UFA Dwight Herndon, who has an 79 kick holding. I sign OT Nicky Fitzgerald, move him to C, and now I have a 16/48 C, which is a big improvement I sign a UFA MLB Deion Gardner 20/41 with an exceptional affinity with Chris Clemons, and cut MLB JT Thomas, who was a 13/14. I sign LG UFA Nicholas Weaver, 22/37 to replace my 14/16 5th year man Jacques McClendon After looking over at our depth chart, we have horrible punt returning. I cut RB Jordan Todman for UFA RB Corwin Shields, a 25/30 guy who is really good on special teams. |
Alright, we’re ready for the pre-season
We barely lose the first game 23-20 to Tampa Bay in Week 2 CB Jeremy Harris is out for 6 weeks. Then we lose 17-24 on the road at Chicago, and an injury to a FB We barely lose to Detroit 21-23 in week 4. Finally, in week 5 of the preseason, we get rocked by the Falcons 37-17. No more major injuries, and we finish the preseason 0-4. Time for some final massaging of my roster. Anyone cut from other squads that looks appealing? Not yet. So I trim more fat and I cut: FL Tandon Doss RG Tyler Shatley RT Sam Young RB Storm Johnson DT Abry Jones CB Aaron Colvin DE Andre Branch And so it begins! |
And so it begins!
Week 1 – We travel to Phily and come back losers 41-17. We were never really in the game. But Bortles? 31 of 29 for 354 yards, and 1 TD and 1 pick with a 102.3 QB rating. That’s good stuff! Marqise Lee grabbed 9 catches for 101 yards and Cecil Shorts III had 8 for 94. WR Ace Sanders on 2 grabs caught the TD as well. Meanwhile undrafted rookie Alec Bowbliss, starting for the injured Jeremy Harris, grabbed a pick. But we just couldn’t stop Philadelphia at all. No major injuries. That’s not a bad start to our offense though at all. Week 2 – We defeat the Redskins in a come-from-behind victory in the 4th 25-21 in their place. CB Alan Ball was Game MVP with a pick of RGIII plus a return for a score, 32 yards, and three kick returns for 61 yards and he led the team in tackles with 9 solos and 2 assist. Two more picks by CB Dwayne Gratz and CB Demetrius McCray. Meanwhile Bortles rocked 21 of 32 for 249 and 1:2 ratio, and hit Allen Robinson 6 times for 76 yards (TD by TE Lewis). Gerhart added a score on the ground (his 2nd in two weeks) We scored the last 17 points, we were down 21-8 in the 3rd after Alfred Morris rushed for a score with 5:30 left in the 3rd quarter. Then FG, Ball’s pick/score and Gerhart’s 4 yard plunge. We missed a PAT early on. Lots of injuries though this week. The biggest is that RB Corwin Shields is just out for 10 weeks. I toss him on injured reserve. Although not as good, I sign UFA RB Sean Stewart to a similar special teams role. MLB Paul Pos is out for 2 weeks with a concussion. I deactivate him. MLB Deion Gardner is starting until he returns. Lots of probables. I’m de activating FS Winston Guy with a broken finger for a bit. Week 3? We host Indy. We hold them to 19 and drop 24 on them. Not so Luck-y now, are you? We dropped Luck for 5 sacks and harassed him all day long. MVP is Bortles, with 26 of 35 for 307 and a 2:1 ratio, including Lee’s mega-day with 8 grabs, 161 yards and a score. Robinson added 1 score and 67 yards as well. UFA DE Kaden Rivera dropped Luck twice, and DT Evander Hood 1.5 times – shoot, even S Cyprien dropped him once on a safety blitz. They scored in the last minute to make things respectable. CB Jeremy Harris is back to start for us. Week 4 – We travel to San Diego to take on the Chargers. We leave losers, 24-29. We stopped Rivers cold, with just 181 yards and a pick, but RB Mathews was on fire. Bortles had his worst game thus far, 1 of 43 for 196 and 1:2. WR Blackmon caught his lone score. CB Alan Ball had a 94 yard KickOff return and WR Blackmon had a 94 yard kickoff return. So that was nice for both of those folks, but the double returned scores weren’t enough to put us over against the Chargers. (Ball had the pick as well). Injuries? MLB Pos is back next week. SLB Geno Hayes was injured with a broken foot and will be out for 9 weeks. I IR him and sign 3 year vet SLB Emmanuel Lamur, with an exceptional affinity for Clemons and a 61 rating in special teams (16/22 overall) FB Will Ta’ufo’fu is injured, doubtful, and I deactivate him. |
Week 5? The Steelers come to town. They leave victorious with a 35-28 victory. We fought for it though. RB Toby Gerhart had his first real week with 126 yards (on 10 carries) for 1 score and a 80 yard scamper for a score in there. He also caught a pass from Bortles on a 1 yard line for another TD, and a 3rd from the 22nd yard line. Bortles was a respectable 22 of 38 for 227 and 3:1. WR Lee caught the other score. One pick, by CB McCray.
Injuries? Yes, one major-ish one. Starting LT RT Cameron Bradfield is out for 89 weeks with a degenerative hip condition. I throw him on IR as well. I sign 21/34 UFA RT Larry Garcia who has a mild affinity with Cameron. Week 6 arrives – We head to Tennessee and shut down the Titians 23-0. Dang! Bortles is MVP with 26 completions of 39 passes, 316 yards and 2:0. Despite two catches, WR Cecil Shorts III rocked 108 yards and a score, and TE Lewis had the other score. They pulled Locker after he sucked for Metterberger, who sucked, and then Whitehurst. Two picks were tossed to CB Ball and S Chris Prosinski. Even OT Joeckel rocked 5 KRB. Everyone was involved. Injuries? SS Jonathan Cyprien will be questionable for a week or two. Meanwhile, newly signed RT Larry Garcia is doubtful with a hyperextended elbow. I massage my depth chart a bit. Week 7 – With a chance to go up to 4-3, we lose at home against Cleveland 34-24. Bortles – 30 of 55, 339, 2:3. Too many picks. Too many passes. We need to get this kid a running game. Shorts III had 5 for 117, WR Blackmon a score before being knocked out of the game in the 1st quarter, and Robinson 80 yards and the other TD. MLB Paul Pos grabbed a pick of a Johnny Manziel toss. Meanwhile Pos had 11 solo tackles and 3 assists. One major injury – Blackmon will be out for a month with a knee injury. But Bortles is questionable with a strained hammy for an unknown amount of time. He’ll remain starting though. Week 8 – We host the Dolphins this week. Can we get to .500 for the halfway mark of the season? Yes! We win 46-43. Get ready for Bortles stat line…. Bortles (MVP) 53 attempts, 35 compleitions, 442 yards, and 6:2. That’s SIX touchdowns. (Gerhart runs for 117 on 17 carries btw) People who caught TDs, in order? Shorts III (17 yard) Robinson (25 yard) Shorts III (94 yard) Lee (9 yard) Gerhart (11 yard) TE Clay Harbor (12 yard) Robinson (2 pt conversion) Get this, with 2:04 on the clock and us driving downfield, down by a point, Bortles tosses a pick six. We are down by 8 now. Well, that’s basically game, right? Nope, the rookie drove the field, scored with 0:21 left to third string TE Harbor, and then hit the 2 point to tie things up. We win in OT with a 50 yard FG by UFA Tyler Bernard. DANG! Robinson rocked 120 yards on 6 catches Shorts III grabbed 139 on 6 Lee had 10 catches for 84 Meanwhile CB Bowbliss had a pick. DT Sen’Derrick Marks had a fumble, sack, and recovery of QB Tannehill. OG Beadles had 4 KRb No major injuries either. Whew! At the halfway mark: We are 4-4. Surprise! Bortles is 2nd in the league in passing yards after Ben Ben. He is tied with Cutler for 3rd in TDs with 18. However, his 12 picks are tied for 3rd most with Orton and Manziel. But dang, there is no question we got a good one with Bortles. It’s about time Jacksonville. It’s Bortles Time Baby! Two players (Julio Jones, Antonio Brown) already have 1000+ yard seasons. We don’t. Our most is Lee with 597 yards. We are the only team in the NFl at the halfway mark with at least one kickoff return for a score, and we have two. |
Let’s move to the 2nd half of this season
Week 9 – We are traveling to Cincinnati for a battle against the Bengals. OT Larry Garcia is back from injury. SS Cyprien is as well. He has blown up his rating and is suddenly looking very good (51/62) so we’ll see if he can keep to that. RG Brandon Linder is out for a couple of weeks with a knee injury. I massage my roster in various places. We lose to the 7-1 Bengals 24-38. Bortles was just 28 of 41, 1:0 for 211. Gerhart caught the lone TD. However, Blake scrambled for two scores. CB Bowbliss with a pick. We forced three fumbles on defense and recovered one. Beadles rocked 4 KRb. Injuries – C Nicky Fitzgerald is out for a few weeks with a separated shoulder. C Bowanko is starting until he returns. Week 10 – We host the hated Cowboys, rocking a, 8-1 record. And they leave 8-2, after we beat them 27-24. We kicked a FG to go up at the 2:00 minute warning and won. Backup RB Irv Hornung got a 1 yard score, and we had two fumble returns for scores. The first was by S Rondell Darin, 73 yards. The second by S Winston Guy, 89 yards. They had shut Bortles down all day long – 23 of 32, 233 but 0:2. Lee might have added 100 yards, but no scores. Gerhart rushed for 105 yards on 20 carries. CB Bowbliss with another pick. Poz also recovered a score. This was a smash mouth sort of game. Now we are 5-5 and back to .500. Not that bad of a start to the second half of the season. Our schedule is rough. 8-2 Cowboys, 6-3 Texans we haven’t gone after yes (Colts are 3-6 right now), 8-1 Bengals, 7-3 Steelers, and so forth. So perhaps we can use this as a platform to leap onto the next level? We are currently in 2nd place in the AFC South, and it’s feasible we could catch up to the 6-3 Texans. We have a BYE in Week 11 RG Linder is back from his injury. Week 12 – Today we rock the Colts in Indiana. Hopefully. Damn it Colts you didn’t play the script! 31-14. Ah well. The Texans lost, we had a chance to catch up… Bortles is 16 of 33, pulled and had 2:2 and 135 yards (Scores to TE Lewis and RB Hornung). MLB Paul Pos with a pick. 15 tackles by S Cyprien and 2 assists. WR Blackmon is back from injury. Week 13 – We host and lose to the Giants. 23 us, 27 them. Gerhart had 12 carries for 126 yards, Bortles was 31 for 4 for 259 and 2:1. WR Lee rocked 8 grabs, 146 yards, and a TD (87 yards). TE Lewis with a score. CB Jeremy Harris with a pick. CB Bowbliss recovered a fumble on special teams (knocked out by Gerhart). We are now 5-7. We went 1-3 in the last 4 games. Feh. We can do better, right? Right! |
Week 14 – We host Houston, now at 8-4. We lose, but it’s close – 33-28. Bortles was MVp with 29 of 38, 334 and 4:1. Dang! We drove and hit Robinson with 5:37 left, but weren’t able to get another score late and lost by five. Cecil Shorts III had a pair of scores and WR Blackmon the 4th. CB Harris rocked a pick from QB Fitzpatrick. Injury? OG Nicholas Weaver is out for 31 weeks with a back surgery. So I IR him and sign 9 year vet Rob Sims, with a mild affinity for our leader. FB Ewing is doubtful for a couple of weeks. Week 15 – We travel to Baltimore. We lose 27-20. Bortles (MVP) has 24 of 38, 303 and 1:0- He hit Robinson for a score. Both of our starting safeties, Cyprien and Guy got picks of Flacco. RB Sean Stewart had an 84 yard punt return for a score as well. Great news, finally, Bortles ‘s hammy is cleared up and done. Week 16 – We host the Titans. Can we crush them as badly here as we did in their place and put ourselves back in the winning column? So we win! 28-27. It may not be crushing, but I’ll take a win right now. Bortles (MVP) has just 14 of 25 for 183 and 3:0. Paul Pos got a 50 yard pick and return for another score as Tennessee’s random backup QB Burroughs was trying to drive for a score late to win. We hit Lee, Lewis and Gerhart for receiving scores. OLB Dakota Watson joined Pos with a pick. Injuries: We lost CB Harris and DT Hood for the final game at Houston. Week 17 – Houston is 10-5, and still has a shot, technically for the 2nd spot. Cincinnati is 13-2 and first, and we have KC a t11 wins out West, while the Jets and Pats are both 10-5 in the east. Meanwhile the Steelers and Broncos are 9-6, and if they go 10-6 could get the other wildcard spot. Those seven teams are all fighting for everything from the 2nd seed on down. Can we play spoiler to the Texans? Nope. We lose 13-23, and we had two picks, one by Bowbliss and an 82 yard return for a score by Ball. Bortles was rookie-esque with 27 of 44 for 193, and 0:0. Beadles grabbed another 4 KRB. We finish 6-10. We had some surprising wins in there (Cowboys, par example), we swept the Titans. Final standings in AFC South – Houston (11-5), Jacksonville (6-10), Tennessee (6-10), Indy (5-11). |
2014 Playoffs!
Wild Card Weekend – Chicago travels to Atlanta and wins 27-11 New York Giants to San Francisco and win 38-17 Kansas City hosts Denver and wins 28-24 Jets travel to Houston and win 35-16 Week 2 – Chicago travels to, and loses to, Dallas – 31-20 Giants travel to tundra of Packers edge them win 16-15. KC is shut down at New England 24-17 Jets are blasted in Cincinnati 45-24 Championships: Three outta top four seeds held Bengals host the Patriots Cowboys host the Giants Cowboys win 31 to 7 Patriots win 31-16 in snow Your Super Bowl: #2 Cowboys vs #2 seed Patriots In the battle of the next-best teams, the Cowboys emerge victorious 26-24 |
Season Awards:
Offensive Rookie of the Year: QB Blake Bortles Season stats: Passing: QB Bortles was 4280 yards, 31:18 TD:Pick ratio, 88.3 QB Rating, and 64.1% completion rate. Sacked 44 times, 2 rushing TDs. No issues there. Rushing: RB Toby Gerhart – 973 yards on 206 attempts, for a 4.72 average, and 3 rushing TDs. Not good enough at all. Receiving: WR Marqise Lee – 93 catches, 1261 yards, 5 scores – 13th most receiving yards in NFL (Julio Jones had 2122 yards) WR Allen Robinson, 89 grabs, 887 yards, 5 scores RB Toby Gerhart, 86 catches, 631 yards, 5 scores – no RB had that many yards/catches as Gerhart did (although RB Arian Foster has many fewer catches, he has a 1000+ receiving season though) TE Marcedes Lewis – 49 catches, 523 yards, 5 scores WR Cecil Shorts III – 31, 536, 5 scores WR Blackmon - 25, 228, 3 scores I like my receiving corps. Special teams – K Tyler Bernard – 22/25 FGs, 42/43 PAT. Long of 57 and 5 50+ made. P Trenton Tucker – average punt length 40.9 (one of the worst) 32 of 99 inside the 20. CB Demetrius McCray, 20 tackles, 4 FF, 1 fumrec Defense – S Jonathan Cyprien, 14 starts, 101 solo tackles, 27 assists, 1 sack, 1 hurry, 1 pick, 6 pasdef, 3 Forfed Fum, MLB Paul Posluszny – 14 starts, 90 solos, 30 solos, 1.5 sacks, 2 hurries, 3 picks, 1 ret TD, 5 pasdef, 1 fumrec, 2 FF DE Kaden Rivera - 34 and 17 tackles 6 sacks, 4 blocked passes, 9 hurries, 1 knockdown DT Evander Hood, 45 and 16, 5.5 sackes,4 blcoks, 9 hurries, 3 knockdown DT Sen’Derrick Marks, 28 and 21, 1.2 sacks, 2 hurries,2 FF, 1 FumRec DE Tyson Alualu, 27 and 6, 4.5 sacks, 2 blocked, 7 hurries, 2 knockdowns CB Alec Bowbliss – 13 starts, 5 picks, 7 passes defended, 3 forced fum CB Alan Ball, 4 picks, 2 returned for score,s 4 pasdef CB Jeremy Harris, 2 picks, 3 pasdef Nothing great, but Cyprien and Pos are keys to our defense, clearly. Blocking – OG Zane Beadles – 21 KRB, 6 sacks allowed OT Luke Joeckel – 16 KRB and 14 allowed OG Brandon Linder, 14 starts 12 KRB and 8 sacks C Nicky Fitzgerald, 13 starts, 11 and 4 We can’t be this bad next year. Our blocking and running was horrible. That has to be a key for development next year. |
Team Awards:
Offensive Player of the Year – QB Blake Bortles – I don’t like handing out two awards to the same person, so check out Bortles’s strong performance, with 4000+ yards, 31 scores and a strong first showing. We have a great place to build off for the future! Defensive Player of the Year – MLB Paul Posluzny – He’s good in pass protection, tackling, and rushing, and a solid rock in the middle of the defense. Pos had another very good outing for the Jaguars, and you can’t deny his impact. Unless you are blind, that is. Special Teams Player of the Year – CB Demetrius McCray – He lead the team in tackles (by far) had a ton of forced fumbles, and even recovered one. His special teams play was just really strong from the outset of the season. Good job buddy! Rookie of the Year – WR Marqise Lee – I’m going with a different choice here, since he rocked more than 1200 yards in his first go around the block. He’s a strong player with a lot of room for growth, and we think he’s got a bright future in teal! Heart Award (Awarded to the player who really punched above their weight class) – LCB Alec Bowbliss – UFA signed to be an amazing potential guy, he was forced into the lineup a few times, led the team with picks, and passes defensed, but yet busted in terms of his outlook (31/31) Good stuff from the guy! |
I want to sign an UFA Donovan Marshak, RCB, to a contract, just to get him into our program, but we can’t.
Alright, let’s end 2014 Team Performance – 14 Franchise Value – 85 Profit/Loss – 86 Roster – 35 Year End Score - 61 |
Several of our players busted on their profile, and others look tasty.
Our roster today? DE Kaden Rivera is still a strong 41/63 from his first campaign and is looking strong QB Blake Bortles? Uh oh. 31/56? Yuck? SS Cyprien is up to 57/62 WR Lee is rocking 52/70 And that awesome K we signed? I feared a bust, but Tyler Bernard is 60/73 Now, our Punter Trenton Tucker dropped to 32/32. We can safely drop him I suspect. |
Major movement?
OG Rob Sims and OT Cameron Bradfield have retired. Bradfield from his injury, likely. Other major retirees across the NFL universe? OLB John Abraham WR Larry Fitzgerald WR Steve Smith OLB Lance Briggs CB Charles Tillman CB Terence Newman QB Peyton Manning OLB Julius Peppers K Adam Vinatieri WR Reggie Wayne OLB Robert Mathis RB Adrian Peterson S Charles Woodson S Troy Palamalu TE Heath Miller TE Antonio Gates WR Santana Moss So, who do you think makes the HOF from this class? It’s a heavy retirement-oriented HOF stuff – I’d go Manning, Palamalu, Gates, Fitzgerald, and Woodson for sure. I think you have great arguments for Wayne, Peppers, Vinatieri and Mathis in here too. And Miller was no joke. That’s a lot from one retiring class. But the good news is that the retirement bug didn’t hit us too badly – I want to keep DE Chris Clemons since he’s been a strong leader for us. |
Major players on our team not under contract:
UFA – CB Alan Ball, 9th year in league FL Cecil Shorts III FB Will Ta’ufo’ou And some others I’m not that sure I want at all. RFA – LS Grayson Johnstone SS Rondell Darin (Now just 22/36) LCB Alec Bowbliss (31/31) MLB Deion Gardner (busted to 17/20) RDE Ryan Davis, 29/35, 4th year vet DE Kaden Rivera, 41/63 – YAY K Tyler Bernard P Trenton Tuckner RT Larry Garcia, 24/33 LB Nicholas Weaver, 23/36 C Nicky Fitzgerald, 22/52 SE Ace Sanders, 40/50, 3rd year RB Sean Stewart, Corwin Shields, Irv Hornung We have 31 under contract right now. $51 mill in cap room too. We have the 6th overall pick this year. That’s not bad. It’s Arizona, Oakland, Cleveland, Indy, San Diego, and then us. We made 34 mill last year in good hard cash. Our stadium is ranked 5th worst; Roster is 9th best; Support is 7th worst; Economy is 10th worst; franchise value is 636, 940,000 and that’s 9th lowest in the league. 79/1% attendance last year. No changes to ticket prices. |
Staff:
Our Head Coach is leaving, Duane Jongeling I look at the others: Defensive Coordinator – Abel Newsome, 2.02 mill, 54 years old, Nothing too great or bad in bars. DB specialization. 1 year left Offensive Coordinator – Nathaniel Crownover, 3.98 mill, 58, specialization in development, young talent, and tight ends. 2 years left Assistant Coach – Jameson Linthicum, 1.37 mill, QB focus, good in young talent, interviewing, and 38 years old, 2 years left. Strength Coach – Frank Brost, 4 years, 920k, strength train focus, intelligent I don’t give my DC a raise. Staff Draft time We pick 27th. I sign: Head Coach Roosevelt Bonilla, an increase of 10 suitability from 58 to 68. 3.44 mill, 4 year deal, amazing motivation and very strong intelligence and young talent. Weaker scout and play call (in the 40s Ithink). 57 years old, specializes in d line. Assistant Coach – Mike Walczak, an improvement of 6 from 50 to 56, and I got a lot better in scouting, which he was really bad at. TE focus. Good at motivation and young talent. 1.13 mill for 4 years Strength Coor -0 Byron Conquergood, also a 6 point raise from 55 to 61. Great condition, 4 year deal, 690k. So we dropped salary and improved our staff in several areas. Can’t argue with that! |
I will not be using any tags prior to FA beginning
What do we need? We have 51 mill under cap RB – we could really use an improvement over Gerhart O-Line – Man we need some upgrades here. I’d love to snatch a great OG at the RG spot or an RT. RT Bradfield retired, so we are missing an starter (and we weren’t exactly winning there anyway) P – I could use a really good punter DT – I need ot let go of Marks, he has a strong negative conflict with Clemons,and that’s hurting everyone I think -0 and that creates a hole in the DT spot if I do. SLB, WLB – We really need a WLB that can find a player and shed blockers to do so. WLB Dakota Watson has a strong conflict as well, so I’m looking for an immediate upgrade here. FS – I was hoping that Rondell Darin could grow into something really nice, but that wasn’t to be. I need a quality FS to go along with Cyprien RCB – With Alan Ball not on the roster and Alec Bowbliss not 100% assured of a starting role, I need a good starter to go across from Jeremy Harris. In order of need: RT WLB RB P FS RCB SLB RG DT What can I find out there? QB Chad Henne is demanding a trade. But he has grown into a QB mentor. I want to lock down my two major UFA victories We sign RFA Kaden Rivera to a three year deal; K Tyler Bernard as well. Alec Bowbliss too earned enough for a three year deal and LS Johnstone to a one-year one. That locks down some areas I don’t have to worry about long-term for now. |
I take a look at FA to see what’s available before we begin to interview rookies.
Players that intrigue me: RB DeMArco Murray RB LeSean McCoy RB Knowshon Moreno RDT Terrance Knighton – That would be hilarious Tons of receivers – Desz Bryant, Torrey Smith, Michael Crabtree, Mike Wallace, etc. I love C Rodney Hudson from the Chiefs. Maybe a few good mentors out there too. Let’s do some interviews: We love this RB at the top of the draft, but it looks like we can get some great RBs in FA too. There’s no good OT talent near the top though. Week 2 FA I make offers to: RB DeMarco Murray LG Mike Iupati RT Jamon Meredith SLB Jabaal Sheard RCB Patrick Robinson FS Rahim Moore |
Man, you're tough on Toby.
292 touches, 1604 yards, 5.49 per touch and 8 touchdowns, that's a pretty good season. Will be following, so many ex-Seahawks in Jacksonville, so I've got some guys I'm definitely pulling for! |
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Awesome! Plus, you can root for...you know...a fun dynasty? Yay? |
Week 3? Not much.
Week 4 – We sign DeMarco Murray for 4 years and 26.71 mill We lost Sheard to Cleveland and Moore back to Denver I make an offer to a random Punter I make an offer to RB Shane Vereen to join our team for a year to be a leader. Our new RB leader was RB Gerhart, and Murray conflicts with him, so Vereen can come in and make nice (and Bortles likes him too) I go for the top DT in FA Ahtyba Rubin, since I lost out on some other targets and he’s in reach I feel. My backup targets are brought in. I have to sign FS Quintin Demps – he comes in as a leader with six affinities. Are there any major big names out there that are enticing me? Other than Dez Bryant. Not yet. Week 5 – We sign RCB Patrick Robinson but miss out on DT Rubin. My next offer is to DT Kevin Williams to be a one-year patch for us. Week 6 – We sign RT Jamon Meredith Week 7 – Dallas signed the Punter we were chasing Week 8 – We sign Kevin Williams Week 9 – We sign RB Vereen, UFA from last year RCB Donovan Marshak, WLB Courtney Upshaw I look for any hold over value sort of folks… I still have 31 mill under the cap, and I want to keep a lot for later moves. I waive DT Marks and OLB Watson now I make an offer to LB Brian Orakpo as well. Week 10 – CB Alan Ball signed with the Bucs. Week 11 – Both LB Orakpo and Demps sign with us. Anyone else left that entices me? I sign SE Ace Sanders to a two year deal as a RFA, C Nicky Fitzgerald to a three year deal. I picked up a lot of cheaper FA in case I need to be mobile in the draft or later on. Let’s make an offer to another TE to help with Lewis We sign TE Jermaine Gresham for a two year deal |
The Draft:
Arizona takes the first player off the board, OLB Cornelius Yachera, a stud I would have seriously considered taking at 1.6 if available. Oakland takes the RB we really liked next Then the Jets take another RB Colts grab DE studly, best player in the draft at 1.4 And CB goes to San Diego Who do I want? I interviewed and was looking at getting lucky with the DE that went to the Colts, and the OLB Yachera and both RBs. All gone. So, here’s people I like. OG Marquis Satre. That’s funny because I’m Marquis D’Avignon. I just signed an OG for my team, but this guy? He looks like your hoss to just use and abuse for years to come. We interviewed him, very underated, great bars already, fits in, great scores. We don’t have as many interviews in FOF7, so I didn’t interview many folks. Uh oh. Hmmmm… CB Jonah Clayton? DT Drew Ellard (yuck)? Gamble for someone I didn’t interview? Or take the safe pick at OG? What are my needs heading into here: Backup Qb Backup RB FB Backup TE C Backup OG Backup OT P Studly DE would fit Backup DTx2 Backup MLB Backup OLB Backup S That’s it. So I could use a starter C. But otherwise, we could use a star class guy at a lot of spots. I was hoping to sign enough talent that I could draft BAP. So let’s shut up and do it. Our next pick arrives at the 2.5 spot Who do I like here? With no interviews: FS Asher McElroy is very agile and smart to boot. Most agile safety in the draft C Howie McCormick, best C on the board, dash and agility are good, but low intel marker MLB Daryl Chandler, looks solid bar-wise DT Cesar Vandenberg – Best DT on board and has an affinity Meh – the S or the C. McElroy’s weakness is picks, and I have a SS who’s weak in picks as well. Not sure that’s a good combo. I select C McCormick Welcome to 3.13. The rest of my draft follows: Jacksonville Jaguars 2015 NFL Draft 1. OG Marquis Satre, Mississippi State 2. C Howie McCormick, Oklahoma 3. DT Hardy McCleary, Methodist 4. FB Dennis Fortune, South Carolina 5. QB Teddy Cote, Portland State 6. OT Ron Linares, Oklahoma State 7. RB Johnnie Lindsay, Oregon |
Early ratings for my folks. This is very, very early, obviously:
OG Satre -54/98 C McCormick – 28/55 DT McCleary – 23/44 FB Dennis Fortune – 20/37 –Yuck QB Teddy Cote – 11/46 OT Linares – 17/45 RB Lindsay – 23/31 Alright, let’s start with FA #2: RB Toby Gerhart is holding out I make an offer to a random Punter and a bunch of UFAs. I grab P Johnny Hekker I pick up these UFAs: FB Sherman Calabro SE Will Wheeler SS Warren Samuels QB Bryson Howard TE Ramon Doll FL Jamie Turnbull WLB Weston Bullock DT Francisco Wayne Many of those were the best in their genre That gives me an even 60 players. I sign a few more to add in some bodies for training camp I grab RB Dylan Young, DE Juan Villasenor and CB Stephen Gadget |
CAMP TIME!
We sold 41,900 season tickets Post Camp? I’ll tell you about any UFAs or anything that’s a boom. Or a bust from a rookie QBs - Bortles is still sitting at 36/56. My two rookies are 13/40 range. Henne is still pissed RB DeMarco Murray is 70/70, and Gerhart is still holding out, and 47/47. Shane Vereen is 37/37 and I have lots of options for the 4th spot FB I have a three way competition for our starting FB I suppose. No one is that good TE Marcedes Lewis is 52/52 and Gresham 49/49. I can use these guys well, I hope, going forward. FL Allen Robinson – 47/54 SE Marqise Lee – 65/70 – Yeah he is! SE Justin Blackmon – 54/54 – final year of his deal too SE Ace Sanders – 44/50 C Nicky Fitzgerald (28/52) vs Howie McCormick (28/54). Who will win out? LG Marquis Satre 62/98 – really more about which OG won’t start: OG Zane Beadles – 59/59 or OG Mike Iupati, 59/59 LT Luke Joeckel – 52/54 RT Jamon Meredith – 48/50 P Johnny Hekker – 51/51 K Tyler Bernard – 60/60 – potential dropped RDE Kaden Rivera – 44/63 LDE Tyson Alualu – 36/36 – not that great LDT – 53/53 Kevin Williams RDT Evander Hood – 48/48 MLB Paul Posluszny – 39/39 – Wow did he drop due to age? That sucks! SLB Courtney Upshaw – 46/48 WLB Brian Orakpo – 51/51 LCB Jeremy Harris – 46/46 RCB Patrick Robinson – 54/54 SS Jonathan Cyprien – 60/60 FS Quintin Demps – 42/42 LS Johnstone Not bad stuff, right? Much better than last time. Any major booms with my UFAs or lower round folks? Nah |
Who’s left? Anyone who can come into my home and help this roster out?
I cut: CB Dwayne Gratz C Luke Bowanko FB Dennis Fortune Anyway, let’s take a look at our stud OG  Yeah baby! Even if he eventually winds up in the 80/80 territory, he’s just obviously a studly OG. Right now he’s the 12th best OG in the league at 62 currently, and he could be the best. A 36/80 OG went to the Titans in the 1.10 spot as well. He is the rookie, by far, with the best potential in the league at 98. The next best is Punter Percy Martinez, and then OG Rosenbaum by the Titans. OG Satre is the top player on The Green Page. Roster Strength? 4th best RB in league 5th best reserve TE in league 12 best WR in league, 1st reserve WR in league 6th best OG in league, and 2nd best reserve OG 9th best K in league The worst DE, ILB in league, btw My goal this offseason was to accumulate enough talent in the 40s and 50s that we aren’t embarrassing ourselves out there. But we still have needs – Alualu and maybe Pos are areas of weakness to focus on next year. We are the 3rd youngest team in the league We got a B- draft grade |
That's an excellent pick!
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How far has Bortles, perhaps, fallen?
Get ready for Psychedelic Bortles!  That is not a good fall. He had great stats. Hopefully this does not reflect his new parabola and he’ll play past this. We made a real commitment to the running game this year, so I wouldn’t be surprised if his stats drop off somewhat. DeMarco Murray and some real o-lineman are useful tools to help get some smash-ery behind. We’ve upgrade the OG and OT spots in two places, and s oforth. The S I was wrestling with in the 2nd round was picked at the 2.8 mark by Detroit and is a bust at 22/32. We were the first team to take a C in the draft, and it looks like we got the best one, even if he’s not that good. Manziel busted down to 38/55 too Any Green Page players taken later? At 2.4 the Colts got a 45/61 RB. At 2.15 the Panthers got a 36/61 WR At 4.20 the Cards got a 30/51 QB At 4.6 the Lions grabbed a 36/52 RB That’s it. Early money looks like the QB the Cards got, Logan Thomas, was the best value pick of the draft. But we’ll see. |
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Thanks!! I hope to have a rock for Murray to use with determination. |
Fantastic offseason, nice job!
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I guess we'll see. I'm holding my breath. The roster was so bad it gives me the shudders. Basically, I think Murray and Satre are our major acquisitions, and I have to juts hope that we can do better with that sort of result, because we aren't exactly a top-heavy team, you know? |
Alright preseason:.
Week 2 - We travel to St Louis and defeat the Rams 10-3. No major injuries Week 3 – We host and devastate the Bears 34-9. Week 4 – We defeat the Cards in our place 13-10. RB Toby Gerhart ended his holdout. I have to cut someone to make room. 7th round draft pick RB Johnnie Lindsay is going. Week 5 – We crush the Vikings in Minnesota 34-7. We finish the pre-season a strong 4-0, with 2 very decisive results. Time to make some cuts. CB Stephen Gadget QB Bryson Howard WR Jamie Turnbull LCB Will Blackmon LDE Red Bryant FB Sherman Calabro TE Clay Harbor We have a few players ending their contract with us this year: TE Marcedes Lewis QB Chad Henne FB Bradie Ewing SE Justin Blackmon DE Tyson Alualu FS Winston Guy DT Kevin Williams I extend SE Blackmon by two years. It’s pretty cheap after this year down to 3 mill a year. DT Beau Allen was released by the Eagles. He was a 7th rounder of theirs last year. I sign him and cut DT UFA Francisco Wayne. He’s just a 26/34 guy, with pass rushing specialization. We have a few minor injuries. Players like Orakpo, Lee, Rivera, Lewis, Beadles, and Robinson have minor probables and such. |
Let’s go!
Week 1 – We open the season hosting the Colts, and we lose 38-21. RB Murray had 1 2rushes, 90 yards, and 1 score. Bortles was 19 of 34 for 195 and 2:3. Yuck. TDs to Lewis and Lee. Gerhart, Murray and Bortles all fumbled once each as well. (Although Gerhart and Bortles recovered theirs) . In his first game, rookie OG Marquis Satre had 4 KRB and OG Mike Iupati, starting for a probable Zane Beadles had 4 as well. We need fewer picks. And more running. No additional injuries, and Orakpo, Robinson, Rivera, and Beadles are fine. Week 2 – We face Tampa Bay cross state and come back winners 27-20. Bortles, MVP, 25 of 33, 272 yards, 1:1. 16 rushes, 93 yards, 1 score for Murray and another rushing score for Gerhart. WR Marqise Lee rocked 105 yards on 5 grabs and a score. Paul Pos forced a fumble. C Nicky Fitz rocked 6 KRB today. Week 3 – For this week, we are heading out to Denver to face a Manning-less Bronco team. Their new Qb is Jimmy Clausen. We fly in hoping to emerge with a win. That’s not to be, we leave with a thumping – 31-7. Our sole score is a 94 yard score to Hurns from Bortles. Bortles wasn’t too bad, 21 of 38, 280, 1:1. They stopped our running game cold though. Hurns had 5 grabs and 130 on the day though. CB Harris notched a pick, CB McCray forced two fumbles, and not a whole lot else. I change my formations to give us more runs. I want more Murray. Week 4 – TE Lewis is back from injury, while DE Alualu and OT Joeckel are banged up a bit. The Jets arrive and leave winners 31-28. Murray had more rushes this time – 18, with 73 hard yards and two scores. Bortles was 22 of 33 for 276 and 1:1. Lee caught the score. CB Alec Bowbliss rocked a pick, and returned it 61 yards for a score. We were winning losing 21-7 in the last minute of the 3rd Quarter, and then we scored 21 points from the 0:51 mark of the 3rd through the 5:02 mark in the 4th to go up 28-21 Then they scored a TD, held us to a3 and out, and kicked a FG as time expired to win. We finish the first quarter of the season a disappointing 1-3. |
Week 5 – We host the equally 1-3 Dolphins and emerge with a win, 26-21 victory. Bortles, MVP with 24 of 31, 290, and 2:1. Ace Sanders and Allen Robinson with scores. RB Murray was 29 rushes, 133 yards, and a score on the ground. C Nicky Fitz added another 5 KRB.
Week 6 – With a chance to get to 3-3, we head out to face the Colts. But they win to go to 4-2, 20-17. Murray was 16 for 43 and a score. Bortles was 29 of 41 for 247 and 1:0. RB Murrary caught that score. SS Cyprien had 14 solo tackles. OT Jamon Meredith is out for three weeks with a separated shoulder. Week 7 – We host, and upend, the 3-3 Titans in our place 28-22. Bortles, MVP, 20 of 27, 214, 3:1. Rushes for a score too. RB DeMarco Murray was 7 catches, 60 yards, 3 scores; 17 carries, 93 yards. Picks by LB Upshaw, CB McCray and Bowbliss, and forced fumble by Upshaw as well. We had a few folks banged around a bit – next week is a bye Week 8 – BYE As we prepare for the Buffalo game in New York, We have OT Josh Wells out for 3 more weeks with a strained foot ligament, but Meredith is probable, so I activate him and send Wells to the bench for a bit. Everybody else (DT Evander Hood, CB Patrick Robinson) healed up over the bye. We are 3-4, and we have a chance to finish the first half at 4-4. That would be nice. Week 9 – We don’t, and leave losers at 23-28. Winston Guy rocked a 93 yard kickoff return, Marqise Lee had a 89 yard completion from Bortles for a score. Murray held to 44 yards, and Bortles took over but couldn’t complete enough passes, 21 of 42, 319, 1:0. S Quintin Demps with a pick. DT Kevin Williams with a sack, strip, and recovery – the trifecta. 3-5 at the half, but we started 1-3 and then improved to 2-2. If we finish 4-4 we’d go 7-9 this season, and that’s a one game improvement. What worries me so far is that we have scored – 21; 27; 7, 28; 26; 17; 28;23 There’s no 30+ point game in there at all. |
Week 10 – We head out to New England and come back losers, 44-24. They shut down Murray and Bortles rocked 5 picks. 39 of 62 for 375 and 3:5. Lee had 104 yards and 2 scores, Blackmon notched 107 and Robinson caught a TD. ILB Pos with a pick,
Week 11 – Can we get a win hosting the 6-3 Texans? We begin a four home game stand. They thump us 37-15. Ouch! Bortles hit Hurns and Blackmon. We’ll skip the rest. No major injuries. Week 12 – For the next game, we host the 6-4 Panthers. Can we win this time? Oh yes. 41-15. Well, there was our signature win of the season! Bortles, MVP, had 24 of 31 for 267 and 4:0 while Murray rushed 17 times but was held to just 41 yards and a TD on the ground. WR Lee had 8, 158 yards, and 3 scores, and WR Sanders caught the other one. Robinson was dinged up and emerges questionable for a few weeks. Bortles was named Offensive Player of the Week for the NFl as well. S Guy rocked a pick, DT Hood had a pair of sacks, and so forth. Week 13 – The next of our home games is against the Steelers. They’re just 4-7 this season, so we can send them to their first non-winning season in quite some time with a victory today. We win 31-21. Sorry Steel City! WLB Brian Orakpo had a 35 yard pick and return for a score in the second minute of the game. Bortles, MVP, with 24 of 27 for 276 and 2:0 – a good look. He hit Lee and TE Lewis for scores. Murray rushed 26 times for 119 and a score as well. We had another pick by FS Demps. But we emerge with multiple injuries. SS Jonathan Cyprien is out with a concussion for a couple of week.s LT Luke Joeckel is doubtful with turf toe. RT Jamon Meredith is questionable, as are DT Evander Hood and DE Kaden Rivera while C Nicky Fitzgerald is probable for a few weeks with knee tendinitis. We finish the third fourth of the season with a 2-2 record after two blowouts to begin things but we grabbed a couple of games. The final quarter of the season sees us finish at home vs the Falcons, and then take three games on the road against the Titans, Saints, and Texans. After going to 4-2 with their victory over us, the Colts have lost 6 straight and are now behind us 4-8 on the season. The Titans are also 4-8. |
Week 14 – We upend the Falcons 31-21. Bortles, MVP, with 21 of 30, 252, 2:0, and Murray rushed for 96 yards and a score while catching another. Lee got the other score. CB Robinson grabs a pick.
But this week will cost us some. RB Shane Vereen is out for a year (52 weeks) with ACL Knee Surgery. I IR him and sign UFA LCB Tyler Kilgore, because I like his potential. He came in at 17/49. MLB Paul Pos is out for four weeks with a strained calf muscle. I IR him too (not enough time to come back) and sing UFA MLB Abraham Fulcher, with a strong affinity for Clemons, who is 15/38. SLB Telvin Smith will be starting for us in the middle. RT Meredith is back healthy. Week 15 - We are 6-7. Can we get to 7-7 today against the Titans? Nah, we lose 16-24. DeMarco had 15, 83, 1 score while rocking 6 catches for 119 yards. Sigh. Another non-winning season. OLB Telvin Smith is questionable with a sprained knee. Week 16 – I would really like to win one of our final two roads games to improve our record by at least one game over last year. This one is against the 10-4 Saints though. But….any given Sunday….we win 21-10!!! Bortles was 20 of 34 for 256 and 2:0. He hit Lee and Blackmon for score,s and Gerhart rushed for one spelling Murray. Picks by S Guy and CB Harris. WR Robinson can return for the finale. CB Harris is doubtful and I pull him. Week 17 – We travel to the 9-6 Texans. They have won the AFC South In the AFC, we have the 11-5 Charger and Jets in front (the Jets have had wondrous results from Vick these past two years). And the Bengals are up 10-5 over the 9-6 Browns and the 10-5 Bills are in the #5 spot already. So, we can’t be spoiler to the Texans, and they are going to be the #3 or #4 seed. So, all we are playing for is to go 8-8 this season, a respectable 2 game improvement over last year. We win. 34-19. Bortles, MVP, 24 of 28 for 291 and 3:1. Murrary was 22 for 70 and 1 on the ground. WR Allen Robinson fresh back from injury and clearly wanting to get caught yup caught 7 balls for 105 yards and three scores. Picks bu FS Demps, Cb McCray, Bowbliss and recent signee Tyler Kilgore. DT Kevin Williams forced a fumble that DE Rivera recovered. Nicely done! AFC South, 2015: Texans – 9-7 Jaguars – 8-8 Titans – 7-9 Colts – 5-11 |
Playoffs:
Wild Card Week – Cleveland wins at Houston 20-17 in OT The Pats win in Cincinnati 31-28 Dallas loses in San Francisco 24-27 and the Champs will not repeat. Chicago is blanked in Green Bay 21-0. That’ll be a cold winter in Chicago! Week 2 - Cleveland survives the Jets 38-31 New England survives the Chargers 22-20 Both Wild Cards make it to the AFC Championship – odd Green Bay can’t win in New Orleans 0-6 San Fran can’t win in Phily, 23-34 And both top seeds win in the NFC to make it to the Championship. The Championships - #6 seed New England to #5 seed Cleveland #2 seed New Orleans to #1 seed Philadelphia Winners? Home teams. Cleveland puts 24-10 and 38-7 in Phily The 2015 NFL Super Bowl – Your AFC Champion Cleveland Browns Vs Your NFC Champion Philadelphia Eagles Eagles win 31-27 |
Season League Awards? None
Stats: Passing – QB Blake Bortles, 4361 yards (6th most in league), 67.2% (4th in league), 30:14 ratio (Tied for 3rd most TD in league with Luck and Eli Manning). QB Rating of 97.9. Sacked 35 times, 1 rush TD. Huge improvements over last year, and last year was good. Few picks, better completion, higher yardage, and so forth. QB rating rose by 9 Rushing – RB DeMarco Murray – 268 attempts, 1127 yards, 4.21 ypc, 11 rush scores, 67 grabs, 654 yards, 5 receiving scores. (Barely missed out on two 2000+ yard rushing seasons by Marshawn Lynch and rookie Isaiah Tucker of the Jets picked 1.3). Murray is doing what he needed to do. Now I’d like to see more of it next year. Receiving – WR Marqise Lee – 81 for 1150 and 12 scores. Tied for 2nd most scores with DeAndre Hopkins in Houston. WR Allen Robinson – 12 starts, 49, 583 yards, 5 scores TE Marcedes Lewis – 14 starts, 44, 600 yards, 2 scores WR Blackmon, 4 starts, 33, 427, 2 WR Sanders, 42, 306, 2 No major concerns here at all. Even Marcedes Lewis looked good in his 10th year in the league. Can’t argue with 600 yards from a guy with 14 starts. Special Teams – K Tyler Bernard – 16 of 21 FG, 46 of 47 PAT, long of 52m P Johnny Hekker – 42.7 average, (6th worst); 34 of 75 inside 20. RB Toby Gerhart, 20 special teams tackles CB Demetrius McCray, 20 special teams tables, 3 forced fumbles Bad Punter season again, and Bernard just isn’t growing like I hoped he would continue to do. But, we don’t have a lot of opportunity to crap out, or to shine. No sense picking up a major K or P and spending tons of cash if you are punting 5th fewest times or kicking 3rd fewest FGs. Defense – FS Quentin Demps – 73 solo tacks, 21 assist, 1 sack, 2 hurries, 3 picks, 4 pasdef CB Alec Bowbliss – 72 solo tackles, 19 assists, 3 picks, 6 pasdef ILB Paul Posluzny – 13 starts, 68 solos, 25 assists, 2.5 sacks, 2 block passes, 2 hurries, 1 QB Knockdown, 1 pick S Jonathan Cyprien, 12 starts, 68 and 22 tacks, 1 sack, 8 pasdef DE Tyson Alualu, 20 and 5, 6.5 sacks, 2 blocked passes, 9 hurries, 1 knockdown DT Kevin Williams – 47 and 14, 4.5 sacks, 1 block, 1 hurry DT Evander Hood, 13 starts, 29 and 13, 4.5 sacks, 2 blocks, 5 hurries, 1 knokdown OLB Upshaw – 65 and 20 tackles, 2 sacks, 2 blocks, 1 knockdown, 8 pasdef CB Patrick Robinson, 1 pick, 10 pasdef CB Jeremy Harris, 2 picks, 8 pasdef Hmmm… Not a good year for anyone here. It’s very blasé I think we have a few players, but we need to grab some studs here soon. Blocking – OG Zane Beadles – 15 starts, 31 KRB of 81 KRO, 6 sacks allowed C Nicky Fitz – 29 of 60, 3 sacks, 1 pancake OG Marquis Satre – 20 of 75, 3 sacks allowed, 4 pancakes OG Mike Iupati – 5 starts – 14 of 34 and 7 allowed OT Jamon Meredith -0 14 starts, 13 of 32, 5 allowed OT Luke Joeckel – 12 starts, 11 of 38, 8 sacks Joeckel simply cannot be the worst of my five starters and expect to retain his job. I would’ve liked more from Satre, but it’s a start. Pleasedontbust. |
Team Awards
Offensive Player of the Year – QB Blake Bortles – I hate to be a person who gives out the same award two years in a row, but he earned it, with stats in the top handful of the league in a variety of metrics (QB Rating, yards passing, TDs tossed, completion %). Good job buddy! Defensive Player of the Year – FS Quentin Demps – There really wasn’t a standout player or season on the team by anyone on the defensive side of the ball. But Demps led the team in tackles and picks. From the free safety position, not the strong one. Plus he had a pick/score as well. Pretty saucy! Special Teams Player of the Year – CB Demetrius McCray – Again, Mr. Tackles a Lot did a strong job of tackles and forced fumbles on the special teams side of things, and he has put together two really solid years for us in covering punts and kicks. Rookie of the Year – OG Marquis Satre – There’s no other real option here. We wanted more, but he was still 3rd in KRB and 1st in pancakes and tied for fewest sacks allowed among starters. That’s a pretty good season to build off of for next year. Heart Award – TE Marcedes Lewis – This might throw you off a bit get it. 10th year pro. Gets 44 grabs for 600 yards, and that’s 13.65 yards per catch. Among TEs in the league that started, that is the 3rd best yards/catch after TE Gronkowski and Pitta over in Baltimore. Now add in 2 scores. Did you know that while never fumbling the ball at all this season, Lewis recovered 3 fumbles other offensive players dropped to the ground? Did you know he had 6 KRB out of 8 KRO (my best percentage of any player by far)? Good stuff old man! |
Let’s end the 2015 Season folks!
Team Performance – 34 Franchise Value – 82 Profit/Loss – 85 Roster – 31 Year-End Score – 66 |
Major retirements:
We lost no one. Everywhere else? DE Osi Umenyiora OLB Terrell Suggs WR Anquan Boldin DE Jared Allen RB Frank Gore TE Jason Witten P Shane Lechler DE DeMarcus Ware WR Andre Johnson OLB Jason Babin QB Tom Brady QB Drew Brees RB Darren Sproles ILB DeMeco Ryans OLB Dwight Freeney Tons more talent gone. Again, who are HOF candidates? Brady surely, Brees probably. Witten has the stats. Andre Johnson was one of the best at his time, what about him? Players like Dwight Freeney, DeMarcus Ware and Terrell Suggs have strong resumes. |
We have 36 player sunder contract. Who ain’t?
UFAs: DT Kevin Williams RB Shane Vereen (injured badly) FB Bradie Ewing QB Chad Henne FS Winston Guy DE Tyson Alualu TE Marcedes Lewis RFAs of Note: RDT Beau Allen LS Grayson Johnstone LCB Tyler Kilgore SS Warren Samuels TE Ramon Doll WR Will Wheeler None that major. Not like last year. How have our views of major players shifted? QB Bortles is 54/59 OG Satre – 82/92 RB Murray – 70/70 WR Lee – 70/70 SS Cyprien – 60/60 K Bernard – 59/59 DE Kaden Rivera – 49/49 No other major growths. |
We lost 16 mill last year. We had signed a lot of bonuses. Value dropped to 611 million which is 6th lowest. Stadium 6th worst, Roster 9th worst, support 7th worst, Economy 10th worst. Attendance last year was 72.3%.
Our Defensive Coordinator is out of contract, and our OC has one year left. Do I sign him to an increase in cash to keep him? I like him, so yes. Staff Draft: We draft 27th again. I hire a new Defensive Coordinator. Robert Geathers – 4 years, 1.5 mill, age 33, d line focus, very good everywhere except horrible motivation and not-great interviewing. I choose not to tag anyone out. |
Free Agency:
We will be drafting 1.13 this year I have 52 million under the cap. Anyone I want to resign pre-shopping? I sign: LS Johnstone to two year deal. DT Beau Allen to three That’s it. Alright, Free Agency targets: I need a backup QB that could go in when Bortles tumbles We don’t have a FB at all on the roster I wouldn’t kick a really good OT out of bed for eating crackers. An upgrade at P isn’t a major priority, but if its there We seriously need to upgrade our DE problems DT Williams is gone, so a starter on the D Line is useful With Pos aging, we need a real MLB And a studly CB too. So, in order of priority: DE DT MLB CB stud Backup QB FB Maybe a good S or TE as well And I’m looking to upgrade our roster again. We did it on the cheap last time, with only one major pickup. Who’s walking around this time? LCB Kareem Jackson – best UFA out there SLB Justin Houston is a star MLB Mason Fason is the best one, but a distraction MLB Brandon Spikes – next best MLB And so forth My initial offers: LCB Kareem Jackson – 7th year vet, top target, I’m in the sweepstakes FB will Johnson – why? He’s a leader and he ends the issues that Vereen did between Gerhart and Murray. And he’s the best FB out there. And he’s from WVU too, btw. QB Nick Foles Sigh… No cheap DE options, or really young hot guys either. I’ll drop down a bit for a cheaper one: DE Rob Ninkovich At 46/46 Kevin Williams is still the best DT in FA. That’s crazy. DT Kevin Williams I’m going to chase the best LB out there, and then move someone ot MLB. SLB Justin Houston FS Tavon Wilson (just another body, but cheap and get’s along) We have a bit of a conflict with TE Gresham, our new receivers leader, and FL Allen Robinson. I look to sign someone that can change that dynamic. TE Owen Daniels, is actually the best UFA TE out there at 50/50, and not looking for much either. That’s a lot of offers, and it includes the two best FA out there – SLB Houston and CB Jackson. What’ll happen? |
Week 3 – Nothing major happens. I massage some of my offers to the best UFAs out there. I convert some salary to signing bonuses and offer some serious cash.
Week 4 – We sign three players: DE Rob Ninkovich, SLB Houston and LCB Jackson to major deals of 2 years 6.54 mill; 4 years 52.5 mill and 4 years 63 mill respectively. We have spent a large chunk of cap room, but the result is two major upgrades for our squad. We are still chasing Nick Foles, Will Johnson, Owen Daniels, Kevin Williams, and Tavon Wilson. Week 5 – We sign Foles, Johnson, and Williams. Week 6 – Quiet Week 7 – We sign S Tavon Wilson Week 8 – Owen Daniels is ours, and we have signed every one of our top targets After this frenzy, we have 13 mill under the cap and room for 7.5 mill. Now where are we in week 8? We have Foles and Bortles, QB is set for now RB has Gerhart and Murray. It’s fine We signed a great FB Grabbed two good, adequate TE in Daniels and Gresham WR Corps is strong We have two solid Cs and both busted a bit – we could use one light’s out C Very good at the OG spot with three legit starters Weaker at OT with Joeckel and Meredith not the best in the world, Kicker is fine Punter is upgradeable DE we brought in 53/53 Ninkovich. We avoided the money trap of more expensive and bigger names (Mario Williams, for example) . Rivera is just 46/46 but that’s adequate DT we brought back Kevin Williams and could use a better player later. So I could still use a good C and OT and DT. So let’s begin some interviews. I interview the top four DTs, the top C, the 2nd, 3rd, and 4th DE, I want to ensure that I have scouted the top talent, and there are a ton of great players in this draft – true hosses. I might get a better than normal player because of all of the juts absolute top talent that pushes down the normal stuff. There’s a good C out there if I wanted to make a play in FA but he’s in his 11th year – Chris Chester. I’m not going to chase any more FA on this side of the draft. I could make some money by cutting Paul Pos and sign some other folks, but I want to keep things calm until post-draft. |
The 2016 NFL Amateur Draft
We have the 1.13 spot. The Vikings start things off by taking this absolutely studly ILB. The players go DE, OLB, QB, DT, DT< DT, OLB, DE, CB, CB, and CB Hmmm Interesting There are several players we interviewed that I like here. My favorite is DE Cesar Velazquez, with three red solecismic scores in intel, dash, and agility. We interviewed him as very underrated, he fits in, and we likes him way much. He’s no super stud DE or anything, but he’s a great fit for us. But… We also have the best OTs in the draft still on the board… I interviewed a few, and we have some nice options… Such as OT Jesse Hoffman, OT Brayden Ledoux. And… Don’t forget NT Tyrell Emmons, that I like. He was the 4th best DT in the draft, and he’s still on the board, just chilling like a villain. Or DT Quentin Grossman and his 4 blue solecismic scores. Despite the DT run, they are still pretty sexy. As is another DE we interviewed Dalton Corbett Hmm… Lots of options. You know what? Would it be possible to try and trade down, pick up something nice, and then just take what’s left later on? That sounds like a winner, with this many strong guys here. I’m sure someone will be interested in jumping up. We trade: Our 1st.13 and 7.15 this year for Houston’s 1.22 and 2.21 They take a S, the first one off the board. I didn’t scout him, not sure how good that may have been for the Texans. Carolina takes the next S. and then: KC a WR Denver S Rams RB Seattle WR Giants – TE Bills – QB Chicago – OLB And we are up again Lots of offensive talent taken, and defensive stuff too. I don’t want to keep dropping to take DE Velazquez. But still, not a single OT has been taken, and this strikes me as odd. Surely, one would go soon, right? I grab DE Velazquez, our top target all along, but there is still some strong talent here it appears. DT Grossman? OT Hoffman and OT Ledoux? Velazquez was as the top of the board for a while by adjusted grade. The next four are OT Ledoux, a DT we don’t like, OT Hoffman, OT Huntley, and then DT Quentin. Hmmm…. Could one of these strong players fall to me at the 2.16 spot? Let’s take this slowly, because I can totally see myself making a move up to grab one. Particularly DT Grossman. 23. Cincinnati – CB 24. Dallas – ILB 25. San Francisco – CB 26. Green Bay – DT Peter Heybach, the one we scouted and did not like, at #2 on the board was just taken. 27. San Diego – OG 28. New York Jets – CB Hmm… Now we get into the danger zone. We get to teams that need a DT at the back of the 1st. Make a move up to grab DT Emmons? What would it cost me? I make a trade: Our 2.16 and 2.21 to the Patriots for their 1.29, 4.29, 5.29, 6.29 and a future 7th With his four blue Combine scores just taunting me, I take DT Quentin Grossman at the 1.29 spot. So basically I traded my 7th into two first round picks and an extra 4th, 5th, 6th this year and a 7th next. I’m happy. I got my targeted guy at 1.13 instead at 1.22 and I grabbed a DT at the 1.29 who looks pretty solid as well. Now, where do we go from here. Because if a great OT moves into the 2nd perhaps I’d move more stuff to pick up Joeckel’s replacement. 30. New Orleans – OT Brayden Ledoux, blast it – there’s one. Two more left. 31. Cleveland – RB 32. Philadelphia – DT Niebauer Okay. Two of the OTs fell into the 2nd. Now what? They are both the top two players on the general board with an adjusted grade of 6.2, better than the next player, a RB, at 5.8 33. Oakland – NT Emmons, who I was looking at later in the 2nd ( I scouted him, he was pretty useful looking) 34. Washington – OT Hoffman. Ah well OT Huntly goes in the 40th to Baltimore. The top player on the board for a while has been this OG. OG Pearson. Potential affinity with our squad, no interview though, and a red in strength and blue in dash. Not bad at all. Pick after pick after pick goes. Could I draft him and move him to Center? Hmm…. That might work. If he’s good. Is it worth the flyer? At this, I don’t know anyone, because I have a lot of picks and I haven’t targeted folks in other rounds. The top C, who wasn’t that good, is off to the Jets at 2.17. This guy looks naked and isolated on top of our board for about 15 picks now. What would it cost for the current pick, 2.20 from Buffalo? I offered my third (3.15) and every New England pick they sent us but no dice. I swap their 4th for our 4th, which is 15 picks earlier. No dice. I do that with every round and offer two 6ths. That’s a lot of picks for the 2.20. Would it be worth a future 2nd? Not really. Could I blow through my 4ths and 3rd too instead? I finally got them to agree to an offer. It’s a lot though. I would give them my 3.15, 4.14, 4.29, 5.13 and 5.29 for their 2.20. That’s basically the rest of my draft. Now previously I sucked the last of my draft – I cut two players before the season began, and another is off today. Without a lot of interviews to target folks in various rounds I like, it’s hard to do. But, there’s more chances of a hit that way. However, the lack of depth I can do by signing more FAs in the second period. I have enough money to sign some 30/40 level guys. Even if this OG is a bust (and we have good bars, good combine scores, and an affinity on my squad, but no interview) it won’t be the end of all things. I select LG Roger Pearson. I see you again in the 6th round 6.16 is here Who appeals to me? I could draft a Punter with three reds and one blue. RB Skip Barlow, with high breakaway speed and special teams 6.29 last pick TE Efrain Noa |
The 2016 Jacksonville Jaguars Draft:
1.22 - DE Cesar Velazquez, Iowa 1.29 – DT Quentin Grossman, USC 2.20 – OG Roger Pearson, Clemson 6.16 – RB Skip Barlow 6.29 – TE Efrain Noa I move Pearson over to C. Early results for my rookies? RB Barlow – 20/31 TE Noa – 19/23 C Roger Pearson – 25/63 RDE Velazquez – 33/68 RDT Grossman – 27/60 Not bad at all really I still can’t draft later on in the draft worth a crap. Maybe playing trade hockey will be worth it laters. We got a B- again, but I like it. Two of our draftees are on the Green Page – DE and DT Dang – OT Hoffman? 33/68; OT Ledoux? 17/65; NT Emmons, 36/56 So many of my targets were good too. Early busts? 1.4 QB 14/38; 1/6 LDT 30/43, and some others we’ll skip for now |
2nd FA Period
Any UFAs strike my fancy? I make offers to some FAs MLB Koa Misi, 43/43 RT Juan Basile, 39/43 LCB Ellis Lankster, 40/40, from WVU, 7th year vet, with a solid punt return WLB Antonia Randle, 2nd year WLB who was an UFA signing by the Colts last year, and now let go. Week 2 – We sign RB Manusky, a UFA, and UFA FB Kenyon Strong and WLB Randle Week 3 – We sign T Juan Basile, MLB Misi. Week 4 – TE Marcedes Lewis signed with Pittsburgh. We sign CB Lanskter. Week 5 – I lose a fight for FS Cole Shea from the 49ers, 30/41 to the Browns. I also grab UFA WR DJ Donaldson and DE Kenneth Butler. I make an offer to FS Brendan Tate from the Browns and he signs we me – 33/33 Orakpo has fallen pre-camp, I was intending to move him to MLB. Here are my current, pre-camp, LBs: MLB Paul Pos – 39/39 MLB Koa Misi – 42/42 SLB Justin Houston – 73/73 SLB Courtney Upshaw – 51/51 SLB Telvin Smith – 44/44 WLB Brian Orakpo – 40/40 WLB Antonio Randle – 20/44 I want to make moves now, so they can grow via camp. Who are my best three guys now? Upshaw, Houston, and then Smith, although the others are really close. What combo gives me my best starters? All three are SLBs. How about moving Smith? Nope – only options are D Backs I move Justin Houston to WLB. No change in ratings at all. Now I have him on the weak side, and I can run Upshaw at his SLB. Do I run Misi in the middle? Misi is a great special teamer, as well as other things. Okay, let’s stick with Pos/Misi here. Upshaw loses a lot, 80% to go to MLB – he’s too tall and heavy, and we can’t slim him down any more. We have Mentors in FB, TE, OT, S, CB, OG for my folks. Any chance of a DE or DT for camp? RDE Frank Kearse to a 2 year vet min sal. |
Let’s take these 61 men to camp.
Post-Camp, where are we? QB Blake Bortles – 57/57, Nick Foles is 41/51 RB DeMarco Murray 70/7, Gerhart is 45/45 FB we have Will Johnson at 61/61. TE rocks Owen Daniels (50/50) and Jermaine Gresham (49/49) At receiver we have FL Robinson at 51/51, Lee at 70/70, Blackmon at 52/52, Sanders at 50/50 and Hurns at 30/35 At C we have Nicky Fitz – 37/47; Roger Pearson – 28/60 and Howie McCormick – 31/42 OG rocks Satre – 88/92, Iupati – 56/56, and Beadles 58/58 and even Brandon Linder – 45/45 OT we have Joeckel 55/55, Meredith, 48/48, and Juan Basile 40/40 P Hekker is 48/48 and K Bernard rockes a 59/59 body DE Ninkovich is 53/53; DE Rivera 46/46 and rookie Velazquez is 40/72 DT we have Kevin Williams at 46/46; Evander Hood at 48/48 and rookie Grossman at 31/59 WLB Justin Houston – 73/73; Orakpo is 40/40 SLB Upshaw – 51/51 with Smith at 44/44 MLB Pos at 39/39 and Misi at 42/42 CB? Take a look at sexy Kareem Jackson, 79/79. We also have Robinson at 44/44, Jeremy Harris at 47/47. S? SS Jonathan Cyrpein is 61/61, FS Tavon Wilson 55/55 and Demps 40/40. And Johnstone at LS again |
We do have some money to spend (around 7 mill) if we wanted too. And I could make a lot by cutting Paul Pos.
Before we do that, let’s have a bit of a rookie lookie: DE Cesar Velazquez –  Now second on the Green Page You can see that he has a lot of potential, and getting a another 70+ potential rookie makes me happy. Especially since we needed to work on the D Line. Cesar is a good, solid addition to a defense that’s woeful at times. |
What about my other 1st rounder?
DT Quentin Grossman –  Not as good, obviously, but at the 1.29 spot, not a bad catch. A bit green, but with some strong potential, we hope. The highest rated DT on the Green Page. What happened to the others? NT Emmons from the 2.1 pick to Oakland is 37/57 – not bad at all. He’s the only other on on the Page. What about the many other 1st rounders? One is 36/46, another 35/52, another 43/53, another 28/46, and another 32/44. That’s a lot of average DTs from the draft that I thought was going to be thick with them. We got a solid guy and we’ll see how long that lasts. Some of these could be creepers very easily. |
How is Bortles? Same as last time, no growth or charges.
What about Bortles’ competition? Manziel – 42/58, played, and lost in a Super Bowl Bridgewater – 45/57, team was atrocious last year Carr – 41/45, not looking good, stat wise. In 32 starts he had 26 TDs and 41 picks, So the other 1st rounders are all around the same. Ours is 57/57. Garoppolo busted to 17/27, and after Brady retired, the Patriots will instead be turning to QB Tyrod Taylor, a 6th round pick by the Ravens 6 years ago. Did you know that? As of his second year, Marquis Satre is the best OG in the league: Top five OGs: Satre – 88/92, Jaguars Zack Martin, 86/86, Cowboys Evan Mathis, 82/82 Eagles Brian Winters, 81/81 Jets Kevin Zeitler, 78/78 Bengals |
Roster Strengths:
We are 9th best QB and 3rd best backup 3rd best RB 5th best FB 19th best TE, 2nd best Backup 8th best WR, 5th best backup 9th worst OC< 11th best backup THE best OG, THE best backups 16th best OT, 12th worst backups 11th worst P 11th best K 5th worst DE, 4th worst backup 16th worst DT, 17th worst backup 13th worst MLB, the worst backups 7th best OLB, 8th best backups 10th best CB, 19th best backup 10th best S, 9th best backup So the injection this year of multiple major talents (CB Kareem Jackson, SLB Justin Houston) and a draftee with some zest (DE Cesar Velazquez) has given us one great player at each level of the defense. Now add in newer stuff like better players here and there (FS Tavon Wilson over FS Demps last year) the potential future of DT Grossman, and more, and we have a much better defense. Meanwhile, we have developed offensive players like Bortles, Lee, Murray, Satre, and more. The only position with any green is at Center on offense. I hope that our offense clicks, and our defense keeps us in games. Before preseason, post-camp, I cut Chris Clemons. He’s no longer the leader on this team for the defensive front after we signed Ninkovich and he’s not a mentor to Des. So we save some money and cut him. |
I’ll be starting Nick Foles in the preseason
Week 1 – We host and lose to the Cardinals 9-3. One of our players is doubtful for a few games. Week 2 - BYE Week 3 – We travel to Minnesota and defeat the Vikings 27-24 Week 4 - We host the Rams and win 17-7 Week 5 - We travel to Chicago and lost 24-7. We have only a few injuries, all now healed or back to probable in the offseason. I cut: RT Ron Linares DT Hardy McCleary WR Allen Hurns C Howie McCormick FB Kenyon Strong MLB Paul Posluszny LCB Alec Bowbliss We have just two players on our roster form last year’s draft. The stud OG Satre and 3rd string QB Teddy Cote. The only other player with 2 years of experience from last year is…undrafted WLB Antonio Randle, 24/47, We were going to cut him or Pos, but he’s cheaper, and has more upside. We now have 18 mill in cash. |
Okay, whose contract is up this year?
SE Ace Sanders OT Luke Joeckel LCB Demetrius McCray S Jonathan Cyprien RB Toby Gerhart TE Jermaine Gresham RT Jamon Meredith DT Kevn Williams CB Jeremy Harris SLB Courtney Upshaw Of those, Williams is in his 14th year and was signed as a patch. I like Meredith, and he;s my leader, but hits in his 8th year. Can I really sign him to a large extension? What do folks want? LCB Harris, 7th rounder from a few years ago, is currently on a vet minimum salary. In order to extend, he want to bump this year to 4 million and 5, 5.5, and 6 the next three years. Way too much. McCray has been a special teamer we like, and he plays well. We would want to raise his salary this year to a 1.4 cap ht, and sit at 1.7 and 1.9 the next two years. Maybe. That’s a bit too high. I’d do 1 mill a year. Cyprien? He’s at 1.7, and I sign him for a four year deal. It’s hard to find safeties in this league, and he’s good save for the very low pick stats. I extend him for three years, double the signing bonus they wanted to 6 mill, but lower the salaries to make it really flat. 5 mill this year, and 4.4 the next two year, and 5 the final one. Joeckel is making 6.75 cap hit this year, and is willing to extend four more years at 8.82 hit this year, and 7, 7.5, 8.3 and 9.5 the next four years. That’s way too much for a guy who doesn’t perform on the pitch. Not right now. Sanders wants a lot more money. This year;s figure would triple, and he’d be in the 2.9 mill-3 mill range in the future. That’s too much for a 4th wideout. I’m going to have to break up the band. To extend Meredith is an increase to 3.9 mill this year (about 2 mill more) and then at 4.1, 4.4, and 4.9 the next three years. That’s a lot of financial commitment to a guy who’s aging. But he is my leader, and I don;’t want to lose both OTs. Alright, we’ll do it. I drop Gerhart’s contract to 2.34 mill this season and extend him a year. He’s not a bad backup for us at all. I extend Upshaw by two years I also extend TE Gresham by one year. We’re only paying him 1.7 next year, so we have cap flexibility in case it’s needed. Alright. That’s good stuff. |
Actually, I’m thinking of extending Bortles’s deal now. He has two years left, and I certainly don’t have to. He’s get an extra 10 million hit on this cap, and an extra 14 on next year’s. After that, it’d drop though. Right now hit cap hit would roughly be 20 a year if I do the deal now, for three extra years. On the other hand, if I wait until next year, it could raise to 25 mill or some such with inflation, cap increases, and things from this year. After all, if we have a winning season, and maybe even make it to the playoffs as a division champ or wild card, his price is rising.
I have some other major players with a deal ending, not this year at the end of 2016, but next year too: WR Marqise Lee WR Allen Robinson WR Justin Blackmon QB Bortles RB Toby Gerhart I’m not too concerned with folks like OG Linder, OC Fitzgerald, or DT Evander Hood. But these are the sorts that I really care about – that great offensive skill position and depth I have. I have to extend Bortles and Lee, those are non starters. Here’s Marqise Lee, year 3:  That’s a huge big play guy, and strong everywhere save for avoiding drops. When you have a player like this on your team, you have to keep him. He’ll be expensive though, and my cap is going to take a hit to do so. He’ll probably rise to the 9-10 mill a year range to extend him, but I have too. There’s no other option with the guy. Knowing that I have to extend Lee and Bortles next year, I need to Keep myself from doing too much with Robinson and Blackmon and Ace Sanders. Allen Robinson is replaceable, he’s 50/50. He ranges from 38 avoid drops to 72 adjust to ball (and 71 getting downfield but just 46 big play, 50 route running). He’s a solid flanker, but I can find another. He just wants 3-4 million cap hit range each year We can look at that next season when I get a better feel for our cap. There’s certainly a chance we’ll extend him. Here are the roles my WRs sort of had: Ace Sanders is that ideal 4th wideout who can be the reliable guy who catches the ball when you need a first down to keep momentum going. He has a 94 route running, but just a 19 big play, with a 546 drops, 60 downfield, and 56 3rd down. That’s his role. Nothing sexy. Blackmon is the reliable 3rd option, moves into a starting role when there’s an injury easily, he has an 83 big play so he can get that huge play as your 3rd option in a normal three wideout set, and he’s a a good solid 3rd guy, but not a good #2. Robinson’s stats work well as a #2. Lee’s are obviously a strong #1. And I simply can’t commit 3 mill of next year’s cap to Ace Sanders because I need it for Bortles/Lee and maybe Robinson. |
Here, let me take a quick picture of the top non-kicker players in the NFL currently on rosters.
 Dang! Hello OG Marquis Satre! It’s okay to take an OG at pick 6 if her ends up looking like that, right? Honestly, with this developed offense, and with so much great reserves and backups (WR Blackmon, RB Gerhart, QB Foles, TE Owen Daniels, WR Ace Sanders, OG Mike Iupati, OC Nicky Fitz or OC Roger Pearson) in addition to DeMarco Murray, Bortles, Satre, Lee, and so forth. We have a developed offense that should be really in tune, and I expect this to be a top 5 offense this year. With the defense a work-in-progress and hopefully no longer embarrassing, I think we have the pieces for a 9-7 or 10-6 run that puts us in the offseason question. |
Satre looks like a monster.
|
Quote:
Yeah. I hope he plays like it! |
Let’s start the 2016 NFL Season
Week 1 – We begin by hosting division rivals the Titans. We use this as a chance to begin the season right and easily win 34-10. Marqise Lee was MVP with 6 grabs, 168 yards, and 3 scores. Bortles was 18 of 25 for 245 and 3:1, and Murray was 17 carries, 148 yards, and a score. CB Patrick Robinson grabbed a pick, OG Satre rocked 4 KRB. We do have one injury of note. OC Pearson is doubtful with a pulled groin, and I bench him for a while. Week 2 – We travel to Detroit to face the Lions this week. We thump them 44-24. Bortles, Game MVP and NFL Offensive Player of the Week, was 31 for 38, 423, and 4:0. He nailed Murray, Lee, and Gerhart twice for score,s and Murray added a 5th on the ground. Blackmon had 126 yards on 8 grabs. Meanwhile new signee Kareem Jackson grabbed a Stafford pick and OG Satre and FB Will Johnson each had 3 KRB. Shoot, CB McCray had 4 special teams tackles even. Guy was a force. Week 3 – We fly over to Cleveland for a game against the Browns this week. We lose 27-21. They held us to little ground offense, and we were forced to throw too much -= Bortles was 30of 49 for 313 and 2:2. Murray and Blackmon netted scores and OLB Telvin Smith a pick. OT Luke Joeckel is out for a week with a concussion. Week 4 – We host the hapless Raiders and send them home at the tail end of a 37-10 loss. Bortles, MVP, is 26 of 29 for 297 and 2:0 and Marqise Lee catches 11 for 131 and a score and Blackmon the other. Murray was banged up a bit and Gerhart grabbed 2 on the ground and 16 carries for 57 yards part way through. Murray finishes probable for next week with a twisted ankle, and we’ll rock him. CB Kareem Jackson grabbed another pick, and Satre and C Fitzgerald each grabbed a trifecta of KRB. We finish the first quarter and very strong 3-1, with all three of our victories just blasting our foes by 20 or more points. That’s just nasty. Is this the beginning of the Jag-ernaut? |
DAMN!
i just began simming the next quarter. Week 5 is a bye, so I just did week 6. Wow! Just, get ready.... |
Week 5 – BYE
Week 6 – For today’s match hosting the Colts, we have all injuries healed up. We win 27-10. Holy crap! OG Marquis Satre had 11 KRB and 4 pancakes in one game! DANG! OT Joeckel had 4 KRB and OG Zane Beadles 3. Satre was the Game MVP, and you don’t see that much from a O Lineman! Murray was 23 for 107 and 2 scores, Gerhart added 63 yards on the ground, and Bortles rushed 7 times for a score too. Oh, and we threw the ball around too – 24 of 27, 222, and 0:1. OLB Courtney Upshaw has a forced fumble and recovery on their RB. CB McCray ha 4 special teams tackles and forced a fumble on it and Kareem Jackson recovered it. We have one injury – OT Meredith is out for a month or so with a strained calf muscle. Iupati will start for him. Will today’s game be the beginning of Satre’s All Pro legacy? In five games, against people in the league with 6, he hasn’t allowed a sack, he has the most KRB by 3, and the lost pancakes by 3. If he continues at this rate, he will dominate all o-lineman in every major stat at the end of the year. Week 7 – This week we travel to our Titan foes, where their one-win team hopes to shock us with a win. We shut that down, 33-6. The unbeaten Texans finally lose, and they are 6-1 (we are 5-1). Bortles, MVP, 24 of 27, 222, 3:0. Murray was 24 and 86, and Blackmon, Lee, and Murray all caught TD Passes. CB Jeremy Harris grabbed a pick, FS Tavon Wilson forced a fumble that CB Jackson recovered. OLB Justin Huston was an animal with 12 solo tackles, 2 assists, and a sack, and a hurry. Sarte, Beadles each had 4 KRB and Joeckel 3. A few probables by backups (OLB Telvin Smith, FS Quintin Demps), nothing major in injury news. Week 8 – A lot of our wins thus far this season haven’t come against top-flight talent. The Titans are 1-5 and the Colts 2-5, and that’s three of our five wins. Our first major test is today in Kansas City, against the 4-2 Chiefs. Denver is 5-1, and the Chiefs are trying to keep pace. So, it’s not a big victory, but we’ll take the 24-10 game we just won. Bortles, MVP, 20 of 29, 232, 2:0. RB Murray and WR Blackmon are the scorers. Murray is 14 for 86 and a score. CB Kareem Jackson notched two picks off Alex Smith and backup CB Ellis Lankster another. Kareem also had a forced fumble that OLB Houston recovered (from one mega-signee in the off season to the other!) OT Joeckel with 3 KRB. C Nicky Fitzgerald is knocked out for a week with a concussion and C Pearson will be starting. T Meredith is probable for two more weeks – we’ll continue to keep him out. Week 9 – Our next test is the 6-1 Broncos arriving here in North Florida. If we can win today, we will finish the first half of the season an incredibly strong 7-1, gone 4-0 over the last quarter, and have two victories against winning teams in there as well. But it’s not to be. We lose 27-20. Murray was 14 for 79 and a score, and Bortles was 24 of 39 for 250 and 1:2. TE Gresham caught the score. OG Satre rocked 4 KRB. Injuries – C Nicky Fitz will be back. FS Brendan Tate is questionable for a week (cold) and OG Beadles injured his knee and is questionable for a few weeks. I bench both for a while. I put OT Meredith back into the lineup. We are 6-2 and Houston 7-1 in the first half of the season. |
Week 10 – We are traveling to face the 4-4 Chargers. We come back victors 27-20. Meanwhile Houston lost to the Colts, so we are both 7-2. DeMarco Murray, MVP, with 14 rushes, 83 yards, and a score, and 7 catches, 57 yards, and a score. Lee had another score. Bortles was 21:32, 2:1, 215 yards. Pick by S Tavon Wilson. OG Iupati 4 KRB, Satre 3.
A few folks are healing up. Week 11 – This is the most important game of our season thus far. We are traveling to Houston. If we win, get a game up over them, and we’ll have the tiebreaker. We have them at home in Week 15. Win here, and we put ourselves in a very good position. Lose, and it’s not the end of the world if we can at least hold our serve in then. We score 31 They score 17 We defeat the Texans, and move into 1st place for the first time ever. Bortles, MVP, 14 of 20, 202, 3:1, hit Murray for 2 scores and WR Allen Robinson for another. Murray was 15 for 101 rushing. S Cyprien with a rare interception. Rookie DE Velazquez rocked 2 sacks. OG Iupati had 3 KRB. We have a few injuries though. WR Blackmon broke his finger and LG Iupati his nose. We’ll play both this next week though. Week 12 – Today we host the 4-6 Vikings. We win 31-17 same score as last week! Bortles is Game MVP, and NFL offensive Player of the Week, with 22 of 25, 269 and 2:0. He hits Lee and Robinson for scores. Murray rushes 24 for 116 and a score too. DT Hood and CB Jackson both get picks and SS forces a fumble that CB Jeremy Harris snatches up. C Nicky Fitz with 3 KRB. We have a major injury. Signee, OLB Justin Houston strained his deltoid. He is out for a few weeks. I activate WLB Antonio Randle in his absence. Orakpo will start in his stead. Meanwhile Bortles injured his ribs and is probable for a few weeks. OG Beadles is back from his injury. Houston lost in Green Bay and we are now two games up. Week 13 – We hope to defeat the 5-6 Brady-less Patriots in our own home. But nope. We drop a game and lose 24-13. Bortles – 24 of 44, 235, 1:3. Murray 20 for 57 yards. Lee caught a score. Not a great offensive performance. CB McCray as a dimeback got a pick. FS Quintin Demps forced a fumble. The Pats can still shut you down hard. Houston lost to the Bengals, so we didn’t drop a game on them We have a few injuries again. DT Kevin Williams is out for the rest o the season with a damaged elbow. He’s out for 8 weeks with it. I go ahead and IR him. I sign Jacksonville native and 3 year vet Louis Nix, a NT< to replace him. He was a 3rd round pick by the Texans a few years ago. They cut him after pre-season this year, and he comes in as a 36/36 guy. Rookie Grossman is starting the rest of the year. RCB Patrick Robinson is doubtful with turf toe, and we’re not sure when that will end. I deactivate him. Jeremy Harris will start instead. We finish the next quarter with the same record as each of the other s3-1, and we are now 9-3, and in a good place to win the AFC North this year. |
Week 14 – We travel to the 4-8 Bears and try to get to 10 wins. Houston loses to Detroit and are now 7-6, and we win 38-9. Bortles, MVP, 25 of 34, 362, 4:1. He nailed FB Will Johnson one score, Lee 2 scores and 145 yards, and WR Blackmon the final score. 2 picks by Kareem Jackson, one of which was returned 62 yards for a score.
No major injuries. Cincinnati is 10-3 and on top of the AFC North by 3 games. Denver is 11-2 and on top by 4 games Jets and Bills are 8-5 and the Pats 7-6 and all in a fight for that division. So basically we are still in the running for a bye with three games to go. We are third with the Bengals beating us right now in a tie breaker. Week 15 – We circled this week as a major game hosting the Texans. Now it’s not. We are hosting the Texans, the 9-4 Packers and then hit the road to finish at the 6-7 Colts. The Pack is now the big game left. Even if Houston wins today, they probably aren’t catching up to us and then winning the tiebreaker against us too. We hang 44 points on them to remind them of that. They score 17. Bortles, MVP< with 22 of 28, 328, 3:0, and he he Lee 5 times for 161 yards and s core, and WRs Robinson the other. Gerhart had fewer runs, broke two open, and had 85 yards and a pair of running scores (Murray had 87 yrds). Gerhart also caught a score. OLB Telvin Smith and DE Velazquez forced fumbles which CB McCray and DT Grossman recovered. Satre had 4 KRB and 4 pancakes. OT Meredith h had 3 KRb. No major injuries. Denver lost to Oakland. So now we have three 11-3 teams atop the AFC charts. Week 16 – Green Bay. At 10-4, Green Bay is a major, playoff caliber opponent. But we have them traveling from the arctic tundra to balmy Jacksonville, where we’ll be playing in 67 degree weather. Bortles’ rib injury was fully healed this week. I’m bringing back OLB Justin Huston a week earlier than expected from injury, because I need all of the help I can get this week. We take them down 34-20. Bortles, MVP, 26 of 32, 320 but 0:1. Murrary, Gerhard and FB Johnson all rushed for a score. Lee had 9 catches for 106 yards though, and S Tavon Wilsin got a pick and returned it 34 yards for a score. Other picks by OLB Telvin Smith and CB Jeremy Harris. OB Satre with 5 KRB and 3 pancakes. That was a really nice victory for us! DeMarco Murray injured his thumb and is probable for 2 weeks. FS Tavon Wilson is concussed and out for 3. RCB Patrick Robinson’s turf toe is over and he comes back. Robinson was banged up and dropped to 39/39 with that injury so I’m leaving Jeremy Harris in the lineup. Week 17 - Denver lost again, this time to Atlanta. So if we win in Indianapolis today, then we will wind up with a bye. And we do, we win 24-7. Game MVP is Bortles with 25 of 26, 3:1 and 247 yards, and Allen Robinson was 6 grabs, 107 yards and a score. Murray rocked the other TD Catch, and OG Satre had 7 KRB and 2 pancakes. Injuries – DE Kaden Rivera is out for 3 weeks with a concussion. LT Luke Joeckel is questionable with a sprained knee ligament for a few weeks. Final Standings, AFC South Jacksonville – 13-3 Houston – 8-8 Indianapolis – 7-9 Tennessee - 5-11 We have the top bye. Jacksonville, 13-3 Denver, 12-4 Cincinnati, 12-4 New York, 11-5 Buffalo, 10-6 Pittsburgh, 9-7 That’s 1-6 in order. Well, that was a much better season that I was expecting. |
The 2016 NFL Playoffs!
Wild Card Weekend Bills lose at the Jets, 10-35 Steelers win at the Bengals 34-26 49ers can’t win at the Packers, 34-3 Seahawks can win at the Falcons 24-16 Week 2, NFL Playoffs: Jacksonville hosts Steelers Denver hosts Jets Washington hosts Packers St Louis hosts Seahawks (Both 13-3 teams from the same division – some are calling this the NFC Championship) Lingering injuries for us? Murray is back to 100% FS Tavon Wlson still out for this week DE Kaden Rivera the same – he’s my 3rd strong now behind Ninkovich and Velazquez – I have 5 De on my roster, so we’re fine. LT Joeckel is upgraded to probable and will play today. Before we begin, should we resign Joeckel? We’re losing him right now, and he has had his best season for us now, in his 3rd year – 26 KRB of 64, 6 sacks allowed. He had 27 KRB in both previous years combined and allowed 22 sacks. This is a major improvement. Even though his cap is in the 7-8 mill range for the next four years, it’s not worth it, not when I have Lee and Bortles to deal with. So, sorry Joeckel. But no. This is our first playoff game in my tenure, and we have a great offense, and they have a number 6 seed, with a not-super-hot team. But they do have TE Marcedes Lewis starting for them, so we welcome him back warmly. We win 34-27. Their defense was on Bortles all day long and he was just 28 of 45, 315 and 3:3. He hit Robinson, Murray and Lee for scores. Murray was Game MVP with 1 rushing score too (Gerhart got a TD as well on the ground). CB Jackson rocked a pick. We forced three fumbles on the day, and both DT Hood and LB Houston forced and recovered their fumble. DT Hood had 2 sacks, 1 blocked pass, 2 hurrys, a forced fumble and a recovery. Great day for him. Jackson also defended 3 passes. OT Meredith had 3 KRB. In other news, the Broncos edged the Jets 17-16, the Packers defeated the Redskins on the road 17-10 and the Seahawks won that battle on the road 20-13. Low scoring affairs. FS Wilson will start next week. DT Nix, whom we just signed is questionable with a pulled ligament for 8 weeks. I toss Rivera on IR since his time off appears to cover the next two weeks (Champ and Super Bowl) so I can sign RDE Byron Kelley, 3 year vet originally undrafted and brought into the Giants, Panthers and Patriots and now us, all for short spells. He’s 30/42, and in his third year. I deactivate him and activate RDT Beau Allen and deactivate Louis Nix as well. |
Championship Weekend:
The #5 Seed 13-3 Seahawks travel to the #2 seed 12-4 Green Bay Packers And the #2 seed 12-4 Bronco travel to the #1 seed 13-3 Jaguars If we win today, and the Super Bowl, it will have happened to teams with really good records. Earlier this year we lost to the Broncos and defeated the Packers. So we all know each other. This time, we edge the Broncos. 34-28! Game MVP was DeMarco Murray, with 21 carries, 88 yards, 3 scores, 5 catches, 28 yards, and another score. Bortles was 24 of 31, 292, and 1:1. CB Lankster forced a fumble that CB Robinson recovered. (On special teams) C Nicky Fitz was 4 KRB and OT Meredith 3. Meanwhile, Seattle upends the Pack 38-13. Not even a game. Going into the final game: OT Luke Joeckel is still probable QB Bortles was probable from that game and a sprained knee OG Satre is questionable with a broken toe. Everyone will be starting! We made it a lot further this year than I was anticipating! |
Nicely done, congratulations and good luck!
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The 2016 NFL Super Bowl
Your NFC Champion #5 seed 13-3 Seattle Seahawks Vs Your AFC Champion #1 seed 13-3 Jacksonville Jaguars I guess that attempt to turn Jacksonville into Seattle East paid off! Seattle marches down the field and scores a FG in the first, and we tie it up as the first quarter ends. 3-3 Then score two more field goals as the second half opens and we keep them from the endzone twice. Their defense is playing really stingy. Just before the halftime, a 2 yard pass from Russell Wilson to Sebastian Ratcliff gives them a 16-3 lead at the half, Bortles opens the second half with a drive, that ends in a pick to CB Robert Alford. They drive down and Michael Crabtree catches a 13 yard ball for a score at the 11:05 mark. 23-3 Our next drive heads down, and we grind out a score with Ace Sanders on a 2nd yard play on the 1 yard line. 23-10 They grab the ball back and score on a drive that features Marshawn Lynch a few times. 30-10. Bortles is picked off. We stop them and they punt. We get a great punt return by Justin Blackmon. 3rd quarter ends! We open with a drive and Allen Robinson scores form a 14 yard pass by Bortles. 30-17. Seattle offense begins to stymie. Then DT Quentin Grossman, the rookie, gets a nasty sack on Wilson, forces a fumble, and DE Kenneth Butler spelling, DE Valazquez, recovers. We get the ball in dangerous territory. A few plays later, and a nasty pass rush on us by the Seahawks forces Bortles to scramble, and he is hit and fumbles the ball right back. They drive a bit, stop, punt, and put in on their own two yard line. The very next play Bortles is sacked for a safety. And that’s the game’s final score – 32-17. Seattle lifts another trophy. Congrats folks! We came this close to that victory… I was expecting a Super Bowl in 5 years when I took over, that would have been really fast! |
Quote:
Thanks!....but..... Edit - At least your Seahawks won though! |
Season Awards:
Player of the Year: QB Blake Bortles – Well, we probably should have signed him this year, his price is probably now a lot worse than it would have been. Sigh? Offensive Player of the Year: QB Bortles All League 1st Team: QB Blake Bortles OG Marquis Satre All League 2nd Team: CB Kareem Jackson |
Stats!
Passing QB Blake Bortles, 4382 yards, 11.65 yards/catch, 73,2% completion (By far the best in the league), 35:14 TDs to Picks (most TDs through by 2 over Russell Wilson), 109.9 rating, by far, the best of the season (Andy Dalton was next with 103.5), 32 sacks, (3rd lowest among folks that started 16 games), 2 rush TD, 3 fumbles. Wow. That’s just a great season for him. Now, it’s not a blow-you-off-your-seat 5000+ yard season led by 40+ TDs, but he had lethal accuracy and a great rating. In Blake we Trust Baby! Rushing: RB DeMarco Murray – 254 attempts, 1214 yards, 9 TDs, 5th most yards in NFL this season. Tied for 3rd most TDs rushing, 2 fumbles lost; 80 catches, 529 yards, 8 scoring receptions. Dang is Murray doing well in receiving. Sure, I’d love him to have a better yards/catch., but he’s doing quite well, and accounted for 17 TDs. Receiving: WR Marqise Lee – 87 catches, 1429 yards, 11 TD – Was 3rd in yards heading into final game of season and was shut down fur just 2 catches and 13 yards there and dropped to 6th in yards receiving, which probably put him out of All Pro level. Tied for 2nd most TDs. WR Justin Blackmon – 54 for 622 and 5 WR Allen Robinson, 44 for 626 and 5 Note the missing scores and yards of a TE. Neither Gresham nor Daniels really did much. Daniels had 145 yards and Gresham 132 and a score. Special Teams: K Tyler Bernard, 30 of 34 FGM, including long of 58 (longest FG made this year by 3 yards). 56/56 PAT P Johnny Hekker – 77 punts, 41.1 average, 37 in 20. 4th lowest punting average and 8th lowest net average. CB Demetrius McCray - 22 special teams tackles, 1 forced fumble, 1 special teams recover (1 in normal play too) No one really excelled (DE Robert Quinn had 30 sacks this season, by the way) Defense – DE Rob Ninkovich – 11.5 sacks, 1 blocked pass, 20 hurries DE Cesar Velazquez – 8 sacks, 3 blocked passes, 20 hurries, 5 knockdowns. DT Evander Hood, 5 sacks, 4 blocks, 10 hurries, 1 knockdown DT Quentin Grossman, 7 starts, 2 sacks, 1 block, 6 hurry, 1 knockdown OLB Courtney Upshaw – 75 tackles, 24 assits, 3.5 sacks, 10 pasdef OLB Justin Houston – 13 starts, 68 tack, 26 assist, 3 sacks, 1 block, 1 knockdown, 9 pasdef MLB Koa Misi, 54 tackles, 16 assst, 1 sack., 1 hurry, 1 pasdef OLB Telvin Smith, 2 picks, 2 pasdef SS Jonathan Cyprien, 104 tack, 32 assist, 1 sack, 1 pick, 9 pasdef CB Jeremy Harris, 68 tack, 16 assist, , 2 picks, 12 pasdef CB Kareem Jackson, 53 tack, 15 assist, 7 picks, 19 passes defensed FE Tavon Wilson – 15 starts, 50 and 17, 2 picks, 14 passes def CB Patrick Robinson – 34 and 9,1 pick and 4 pasdef It’s about time someone had a pass rush. Thanks Ninkovich! DE Velazquez looked pretty good in his rookie year as well. Meanwhile, Upshaw had a strong year for us, and Kareem Jackson proved the money worth it. Houston could have been better, but he was out for a bit, so he’s alright. Blocking OG Marquis Satre – 57 KRB out of 132 KRO, 23 pancakes, ZERO sacks allowed. I‘m just going to pause here a second. No sacks allowed. He led the league by 10 pancakes, and 4 KRB One guy had 53 KRB, the next highest had 43). And no sacks allowed obviously leads the league for 16 game starters on the O Line. That’s right, he won every single blocking stat in the NFL this year. The era of the Marquis has begun baby! OT Luke Joeckel – 26 KRB out of 64 KRO, 6 sacks allowed OG Zane Beadles – 13 starts, 15 out of 46, 7 sacks allowed C Nicky Fitzgerald - 12 starts, 14 out of 50, 1 pancake, 5 sacks allowed OT Jamon Meredith – 13 starts, 13 out of 33, 1 pancake, 6 sacks allowed OG Mike Iupati - 7 starts, 12 out of 27, 4 sacks allowed FB Will Johnson had a pair of pancakes (I would have loved to have seen those!) and8 KRB and no sacks allowed either. Better stuff by many on my line. Although Beadles disappointed – his worst stat line in his three years of starting for us, although he had 3 fewer starts. Not bad at all! |
Team Awards:
Offensive Player of the Year – I can’t not choose Blake Bortles a third year in a row. Sorry. His stats speak volumes! Defensive Player of the Year – CB Kareem Jackson – I can’t deny that he has a lot of talent, but he also played well too, and got an All Pro nod. We needed a player in the secondary for us, and Jackson has performed that role quite admirably this year. Special Teams Player of the Year – K Tyler Bernard – He kicked the longest FG in the league this year, he was a solid 30 of 34, and made all of his PAT, and there were a lot of games where he’d go 3/3 or 4/4 without any problem this year. Good job Tyler! Rookie of the Year - DE Cesar Velazquez - What did Velazquez bring to the team? He rocked the 2nd most sacks (and more than most people ever got for the team in previous years), with 20 hurries and that’s pretty solid. In the NFL this year, the most hurries was 42 (Robert Quinn) and then 32. 20 that Velazquez got was tied for 9th in the league with Ninkovich, BJ Raji, and Charles Johnson. Pretty good stuff for a rookie, right? Heart Award - DE Rob Ninkovich – Basically the Defensive PotY award came down to Ninkovich or Jackson. Jackson deserved it, barely. To be fair, that’s what we expected from Jackson, the highest rated free agent last year. Ninkovich isn’t that person. He’s an old, 11 year vet, with a 39/39 rating, and he rocked 11.5 sacks and 20 hurries, both of which led the team. He really played beyond himself, and deserves this award. |
End of 2016 NFL Season:
Team Performance – 86 Franchise Value – 83 Profit-Loss – 84 Roster Strength – 29 (Why?) Year End Score – 80 |
Retirements on our team?
DT Kevin Williams has retired. You have a good post-NFL life! Other Retirements of Note: DE jonathan Babineaux DT Haloti Ngata MLB D’Qwell Jackson OT Michael Roos MLB Derrick Johnson WR Greg Jennings DT Vince Wilfork MLB Daryl Smith (Sad face) K Sebastian Janikowski RB Maurice Jones-Drew (sad face) TE Marcedes Lewis (sad face) TE Vernon Davis OG Logan Mankins RB Reggie Bush CB DeAngelo Hall Not as high a class as the last two, but a few that people might talk about in HOF conversations later. But not any that would make it in my book. |
Anyone not on my roster that I care about:
UFA: SE Ace Sanders OT Luke Joeckel CB Jeremy Harris CB Demetrius McCray FA: None that I care about that much We have 43 players under contract. We currently have 17 million in cap space (12 million after accounting for our draft class) Team Stuff: We lost 12 mill last year. (Even more salary costs due to bonuses, and we’ll lose more this season with Bortles/Lee on tap) Our value is 693 mill, 11th lowest Stadium is 6th worst Roster 3rd best Support 10th worst Economy 11th worst 87.5% attendance, a huge bonus |
All of our staff have 2 or more years on their deals.
Staff draft time! We still pick 27th I make no changes to our staff this year. I don’t do that much to my ticket prices, but I touch them a little on the high-end stuff. Do I want to tag someone? Anyone? Joeckel? Nah. |
Free Agency Time!
The two most important things I have to do this FA are to retain Bortles and Lee. That’s my priority. I sign Bortles: 2017 - 14.4 Mill cap hit this year 2018 – 17.7 mill cap hit 2019 – 17.9 mill cap hit 2020 – 19.9 mill cap hit 2021 – 25 mill cap hit Not bad for the Player of the Year last year. Our scouts have Bortles now at 61/61 Now, what will it take to extend WR Marqise Lee? Huge signing bonus and he wants an odd deal: 2017 – 6.15 mill cap this 2018 – 8.6 mill cap 2019 – 14.85 mill cap hit Alright, we’ll do it. I can’t use it to build my team this year. These two extensions give me 5.6 mill in cap room this year and just 240k in max for new player. We need to make some adjustments. Such as cuts or stuff I cut 30 year old OG Zane Beadles. This frees up 6.01 mill of cap space. I still have Mike Iupati, Satre, and Linder on my team. We’re good. And while I lose a mentor, Beadles wasn’t playing that well. So this was an obvious choice. And now I have money again! I have 42 players under contract, add in 8 draftees ( I have two 7s this year) and that’s 49 folks. That’s not a lot of need on my roster…but… I do have some holes... TE Perhaps? WRx2 Backup OG Starter OT, backup OT Better Punter MLB for SURE CB for SURE 1x CB backup Others in their final year I might want to negotiate in order to make some cap space? I extend Nick Foles for a year, drop his cap hit this year by 1 million If I want, I can pay 200k more now to extend Gerhart by a two years really cheaply. I want to hold off though, because you never know if I can sign a backup RB cheaply later on. CB Patrick Robinson has disappointed recently, and I could cut him for some good money, but I need to have a CB in hand in order to do that, with Jeremy Harris and Demetrius McCray off my roster. I want to keep either Blackmon or Robinson past this year. |
So our team obviously benefitted from a hugely good rookie class four years ago when we drafted WR Marqise Lee, WR Allen Robinson, QB Blake Bortles, OG Brandon Linder, SLB Telvin Smith, and undrafted folks like WR Allen Hurns, K Tyler Bernard, DE Kaden Rivera, and C Nicky Fitzgerald. Were we just lucky?
Let’s take a look. Here are the best QBs in the league right now. Now we’ve had three major retirements – Peyton, Brady and Brees, that impact this. Russell Wilson – 82 Andrew Luck – 76 Aaron Rogers – 72 Ben Roethlisberger – 63 Cam Newton -= 63 Philip Rivers – 62 Jay Cutler – 61 Blake Bortles – 61 Tony Romo – 54 Alex Smith – 52 Andy Dalton – 51 Teddy Bridgewater – 51 Matt Ryan – 50 Derek Carr’s 44/45, Johnny Manziel’s 47/60 don’t look that bad. Any recent rookies that are intriguing? What are the highest potential QBs 3 years or younger? 42/50 Jaylen Banks – St Louis Rams 20/46 Cesar Jones – Philadelphia Eagles 11/44 Jonah Cocozzo – 49ers 21/43 Percy Philips - Chargers 17/42 Corwin Hastings – Broncos 22/41 Richard Compton – Panthers Will there be a time when every QB in the league is in the 40s or less? We haven’t had one, major, QB guy come through the tanks at the level of Bortles/Bridgewater/Carr/Manziel. And Carr isn’t even that good. I’m glad I extended Foles by a year. Nick Foles is a cheap 42/50. 2.4 mill this year and 1.8 mill next. If Bortles goes down in a career-ending injury, I can just keep things going with Foles. Not as well, but I should be okay. My guess is that we’ve just had QB poor classes, or that we have some QBs that are growers out there that don’t look good yet, but perhaps this is a sign that FOF7 doesn’t make many good QBs. Of the good list of Qbs, many are in the mid30s and likely to retire soon – Ben is 35, Rodgers 33, Phillip 35, Jay 33, Tony 36, Alex 32, and Eli (a unsigned FA at 44/44) is 36. And many of these players are on their way down if they stay for a lot longer. The only U-30 Qbs in the top list are Wilson (28), Luck (27), Cam (27), Bortles (25), Andy (29) and Teddy (24). That’s not a lot. I extend RFA Deals: DE Kenneth Butler No one else at this time. |
I would love to pick up an MLB, OT, and CB in the FA pool.
There’s not a lot… The top talent in the FA pool – 10 year vet CB Aqib Talib,62/62 11 year vet LDT Brian Mebane, 60/60 10 year vet LCB Brandon Carr, 59/59 P Brad Norman, 59/59 FB Mike Tolbert, 59/59 WLB Bruce Irvin – 56/56 K Justin Tucker – 56./56 And a few others In fact, both Ace Sanders and Luke Joeckel are in the first page of current value in my list here. Ace is the top valued wideout at 50/50, and Joeckel the top OT at 54/54. Both are high in the Grey Sheet Let’s move to week 2 Aqib wants a lot of money. I really like Bruce Irvin. He’s cheap, solid, and from WVU. But I can sign OLBs until I’m blue in the face, it won’t help my MLB problem. But Bruce is a good, budget conscious player that I need right now So, for example, the best RB in the FA class is LeGarrette Blount, at 53/53, and he doesn’t want that much, and he’s better than Gerhart (although not a good fast back nor power inside, he’s more of a receiving/blocking back.) Matt Forte doesn’t want much either. The best combination of youth, talent, and price on the market is Manti Te’o at the MLB spot – he’s 45/45. No one is better than 49/49 though, so he’s just a step back. The difference in prince between an OT at 54/54 and one at 44/44 is incredible. I have a lot of options there for a player who’s budget conscious. |
I make offers to:
MLB Manti Te’o OT Derek Sherrod RCB Darqueeze Dennard Week 3 – Nothing Week 4 – OT Luke Joeckel signed with Phily. For a lot of money. Week 5 – Quiet Week 6 – Ace Sanders signed with Phily too. I am the only one chasing our three targets. Week 7 – RCB Darqueeze Dennard signs with us. I cut RCB Patrick Robinson. Any major names still out there, now that I’ve freed some more cap space? I make an offer to Punter Brad Nortman. Anyone else appeal to me? Nobody has made offers to RG Roger Saffold, 51/51, who I could sign for a song right now (1.6, 1.9 for two years) SS George Iloka is a 50/50 guy….hold on…. He’ll come in with an affinity, cheap, and a mentor for safeties? Now I have FS Quentin Demps who is 31, 40/40, mentor, and used to be my secondary leader, but Kareem Jackson apparently just took it over. This guy is better, also a mentor, younger, and cheaper, and has an affinity. I make Iloka an offer Actually, I’m not sure if Iloka is a splurge. I have Tavon Austin at 52/52 and Cyprien at 61/61. This would just be my 3rd string S. Although, to be fair, there is value, because my CB group is weak, so he could be a nickel/dime back. That’s fair. Let’s do it. Week 8 – We sign – RT Derek Sherrod, SS George Iloka, and I release Demps. I sign FA WR DJ Donaldson to a 2 year deal. Week 9 – CB Jeremy Harris signed with the 49ers for about 4 mill a year. Week 10 – P Brad Norman signed with us. He’s 59/59. I cut my 47/47 guy who was sucking. I also sign Manti Te’o I have 6.9 mill in cap room, and 1.49 mill in max for a new player after those signings. Anyone else? I can cut WLB Orakpo to make some room it seems. Maybe I should have gone after that WVU anyway I cut Orakpo now. Free up 4 mill. He’s not starting – I have on my roster a bunch of LBs better than he was. Now, if I want a quality LB backup, I can sign one. I have 5 under contract, and a RFA (Randle)I extend Randle for a year at the minimum which will take me to the draft. Alright, now that OI know where we are, roster wise, time to interview some draftees. We are picking all the way back at 1.31, which is not that great, obviously. The key here is to always draft the best available player. In the first few picks, you can take the best player for your need, or take the secondary third best player because he better fits your system. Here you just grab the best body in order to give value to your pick. I’d love a stud starting TE, OT, MLB, CB, DT. But I’ve signed talent enough to skip on folks for need. We have 46 players on our roster right now, so here are the folks I need, in terms of backups and such: RB WR OG OT DT 3xCB I have my eye on Free Agent Jonathan Joseph, a great special teamer who’s a mentor to CBs. In case I draft one or three. With those needs, where would I target for late 1st? Three of the top four players on the board are QBs this year. One is from WVU! This is a good time to need one. I begin my interviews. I interview all six of the CBs in spots 3 through 8. I also interview a other folks I think might fall (C, TE, a four MLBs) that sort of thing) Alright, let’s hit the draft. Week 11 – Zane Beadles signed with San Diego |
Great Read!
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Thanks!
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The 2017 NFL Amateur Draft
The first three picks are the Qbs Then the top ILB goes to the Rams. The top OT< who looks like a pure stud, doesn’t go until 1.14 to the Cowboys. I suspect that could be a steal. Our turn. The best TE is still on the board, and we interviewed him, hoping that would be an awesome pick, since he has good scores and bars 0 but he comes back very overrated. Sad face. Sorry TE Kendall Metcalf! What else fits here? I like Melvin Robinson, the top MLB on the board, so I grab him. Red, top of the line combine score in agility, (7.30, faster than any other by far), and then he’s blue combine marks (smart 6th smartest ILB with a 37 score) dash, and strength. Bars are fine too. Not a good pass rusher or bump and run, both otherwise he’s fine. Round two arrives and one of my Cbs is still here. I take CB Shane Hopkins Round three? Nobody is left that I scouted. So, I’m sort of gambling from here on out. I take a Qb late with solid bars, red dash (4.44 40), blue strength (13) and position drills (79) just as a flyer. I also take a TE with great combine numbers and awful bars late too. I don’t like it already. We’ll see how it looks post-draft though! Jacksonville Jaguars 2017 Draft 1. MLB Melvin Robinson, Syracuse 2. CB Shane Hopkins, Mississippi 3. OT Ezekiel Kamin, Virginia 4. DT Julian Small, Tulane 5. CB Andrew Doyle, Northwestern 6. QB Mack Andrews, UCLA 7. RB Theodore Goeken, Northwestern State Louisiana TE Howie Coles, Catawba |
What do the early scouts think?
B+ drafted review. Huh. Better than my others? Not really. Here are the early results: MLB Robinson is 17/48 and not a good 1st rounder at all, not even late. Maybe he’ll grow into it? CB Hopkins looks good, 27/61, and a strong late 2nd rounder – my one, hopefully, bright star OT Kamin is 24/41 DT Small is 21/34 CB Doyle is 23/35 QB Andrews is 6/27 RB Goeken is 21/26 TE Cole is 22/27 We’ll see what happens ,later, but that’s not good at all. Anybody else that tempts me? Let’s make some offers! I make that offer to RCB Jonathan Joseph to be a mentor and gunner. I really like Van Linn, a Flanker that was undrafted three years ago and brought into KC for two years. Van, 1 34/37 person, has an 88 big play receiving, with an solid courage (52) and adjust to the ball (36/42) and getting downfield 26/46),. Now add on that decent presence on special teams with 50 special teams, 53/63 kick return and 11 punt return. I make offers to a few UFAs for potentials, special teams, and such. According to the Green Page, the highest ranked rookie is RB Desmond shepherd 59/88) taken 1.7, That OT I mentioned is 37/80 right now for Dallas at 1.14. The triple QBs? They are 25/82 (Tampa at the 1.1), 19/80 (New Orleans at the1.2) and 28/54 (Baltimore at the 1.3) Our CB Hopkins is on the Green Page, and is the highest ranked CB (just one other on the Green Page, Lincoln Atiles, 37/64, was grabbed by the Bengals at 1.24). We took the 6th CB selected in the draft, and our interviews helped know which one to take. There’s a wideout with great bars but low rating that looks a lot better, so I’m making that UFA (Denzel Huntley) an offer too. Week 2 – No changes Week 3 – We sign some UFAs – QB Edgar Martinez, WR Huntley, We also sign RCB Joseph and WR Linn. Week 4 – We sign UFA SS Hector Shillingford and WR Morici. Week 5 – I sign two more UFA – OT Tim Walters and RB Oscar Myers |
Alright, are you ready for the camping?
Camp Time! Any major booms or busts from my younger folks? Or my rookies? RCB Shane Hopkins is a 32/59 guy, with a strong potential in things like picks and zone D, weaker in Run d and punishing hitter. We’ll start Hopkins out as a nickelback and then move up from there later on I hope. Post-Camp Cuts – After having too many conflicts with folks, we are cutting Mack Andrews. He just doesn’t get along with anyone. Other youth movements? 1st rounder last year, DE Cesar Velazquez is 60/78 Undrafted DE Kenneth Butler from last year has moved to a strong 36/59 1st rounder last year DT Quentin Grossman is 39/54. 1st rounder this year, MLB Melvin Robinson is 22/48 and not looking that good. Ah well. I had some hits (Satre, Velazquez) and Grossman’s not that bad, but you sometimes miss I suppose. Any other undrafted angels this year that I like? None. Mr. Great Bars is not there (Denzel Huntley) I need to trim two more pre-pre-season, because I had 63 on my roster. I cut UFA RB Oscar Myers and QB Teddy Cote for undrafed FA Edgar Estevez to have our 3rd spot. Edgar has more potential, and a lot more kick holding. I extend FL Allen Robinson for three more years. We old 50,600 season tickets |
Pre-Season!
Week 1 – BYE Week 2 – We take out the visiting Redskins 20-14 Week 3 – We lose to the road against the Falcons 22-19 Week 4 – We lose on the road against the Cowboys 19-20 5 of my O Line have minor injuries and are at probable or questionable Week 5 – We eviscerate the Bucs 39-3 in our place and finish 2-2 in the pre-season Final roster massaging: I cut some folks: TE Howie Coles WR Raymond Morici SS Hector Schillingford WLB Antonio Randle DE Frank Kearse RB Theodore Goeken In the pre-season, MLB Melvin Robinson grew to 27/51, rather than 22/48, after I started him. That’s….interesting. Do we have a grower, someone who needs to play and grows into a better player than they first seem to be? Or is this just an adjustment? Post-camp, DT Evander Hood fell to 43/43. Need to keep an eye on that later. |
I’m thinking about starting DE Kenneth Butler this year, over Ninkovich. Ninkovich had a great year last year, but he dropped some as well to 35/35. Meanwhile Kenneth is 36/59 and could be a thing. So Kenneth is in. Ninkovich is now a mentor to DE(He didn’t use to be) so I cut the other mentor I had, Kearse – we didn’t need him anymore. I could also run DE Kaden Rivera again, but his 46/46 body is started two years and did nothing in year two when he got better. (Year one he had 6 sacks, year 2, none)
Hmmm…. I shop DE Kaden Rivera and trade him to the Steelers for their 4th and 6th rounders next year. And there we are. No more issues with who to start at DE! Final roster check: QB Bortles and Foles are a strong one-two in case of injury and such. Bortles dropped back down to 57/57. RB DeMarco Murray and Toby Gerhart again for the ride. Murray is down to 64/64. FB Will Johnson is also fun. And still 60/60 TE We have Owen Daniels and Jermaine Gresham rocking the block but Daniels tumbled to 38/38. Gresham is the sole show now in many ways. Marqise Lee (68/68) and Allen Robinson (52/52) are together for a while now, and Justin Blackmon (53/53) will be here for a year. Meanwhile, DJ Donaldson, Van Linn, and Denzel Huntley will play various roles on the team. OC Nicky Fitz (46/46) and Roger Pearson (34/55) are still in a constant battle for who will start. OG Satre (95/95) leads Mike Iupati (51/51) and Brandon Linder (41/41) OT Jamon Meredith (49/49) is elading Derek Sherrod (43/43) and Juan Basile (41/41). K Tyler Bernard is still 59/59; new signee P Brad Nortman rocks a 60/60 body, LS Grayson Johnstone. At DE we have Cesar Velazquez (57/71), Kenneth Butler (36/59) and Ninkovich as a sub (35/35). Meanwhile at DT we are starting Evander Hood (43/43) and Quentin Grossman (40/54) The LB Corps is odd as always: MLB features Manti Te’o started with a 47/47 look, and we’ll keep rookie Melvin Robinson (27/51)in mind. SLB rocks Courtney Upshaw (54/54) and backup Telvin Smith (37/37) WLB sees Justin Houston (69/69) rocking the block. At CB we have LCB Kareem Jackson (69/69) and RCB Darqueeze Dennard (48/48) starting, with rookie Shane Hopkins (35/57) and other signees helping out. At S we have SS Jonathan Cyprien (60/60) and Tavon Wilson (54/54) with backup George Iluka (49/49) |
Roster Strengths:
6th best QB, 6th best reserve 4th best RB, 6th best reserve 3rd best FB 18th best TE, 10th best reserve 7th best starting WR, 17th best reserve 18th best C, 6th best reserve 2nd best OG, 7th worst reserve 20th best OT, THE best reserve 10th best P 8th best K 6th worst DE, 13th worst reserve 12th worst DT, 19th best reserve 11th worst MLB, worst reserve 5th best OLB, 8th best reserve 7th best CB, 17th best reserve 11th best S, 2nd best reserve Coming off a Super Bowl appearance and loss, where do I think we are at this time? We dropped in some areas in talent (OT, for example) and raised it in others (no one could do worse than Koa Misi last year at MLB). I think our defense will fall a bit and games will be closer, we’ll end up 11-5 or 12-4, and win the AFC North or be a wild card again, but I doubt we’ll get lucky enough for a #1 spot again. Meanwhile, our offense is still fully developed everywhere, although I’d like more at TE and OT for later on. |
Any other thoughts I have on the 2017 draft, now that we are post-preseason?
I have made some really bad choices. Except for my 1st and 2nd I haven’t, gotten any major quality at all. I have been more effective with my undrafted free agents (CB Bowbliss, C Nicky Fitzgerald, DE Rivera, DE Butler, K Bernard., etc). Unless MLB Robinson ends up being a grower, this will have also have been a bad draft too. And I can’t just waffle on my late 1sts simply because they are a late first. I have to hit on them too. For example, we traded from 1.13 to 1.22, and still took DE Velazquez last year, and then traded back into the 1st at the 1.29 spot for a serviceable tackle. This year, in the 1.29 spot, the Packers took the 2nd best WR in the draft. 45/69, and on the Green Page. At 1.15, the Pats got the best, a 56/73 guy – in the middle of the draft’s first round. Two rookie Cbs have bounced above ours now, 3round pick 3 to the Vikings CB Giovanni McNeil (31/69) and 1st round pick 27 LCB Jeremy Moser, 54/57. We can get lots of great players later on. DE Manuel Benson is 37/52 from the end of the 2nd round to the Browns (2.26). Even after 5 Rbs were taken in the 1st round, the Lions grabbed a 46/60 guy in the 2.9 spot. 35/65 OG Trey Brandon (2.20 to the Chiefs), and so forth. We’ve seen lots of talent late first. I need to do a better job drafting in the 1.31 spot. Good example, let’s look at the 3rd round, where I took OT Ezekiel Kamin at the 3.31 spot. Any other players of any value that were taken in the back half of the round that are clearly better than Kamin, who’s so not good that he’s inactivated? RCB Mahony (30/54), FS Grier (36/48), FB Foley (36/63), LG Simmons (35/68), RG Baker (23/48), RG Gannon (28/49) – all are better than my 25/42 OT. Only one player, QB CJ Ellison, has a potential of higher than 80 (its 86), the three Qbs have potentials of 86, 75, and 75. There was an MLB, Lane Morris, taken 2.18 by the Giants that is 37/59, and looks pretty good. That’s the worst thing about drafting MLB Robinson. Knowing better was on the board. |
Contracts that end in 2017 that entice me to extend them?
Major Contracts: WR Justin Blackmon DT Evander Hood K Tyler Bernard DE Rob Ninkovich RB Toby Gerhart TE Owen Daniels TE Jermaine Gresham FS Tavon Wilson CB Ellis Lankster CB Johnathan Joseph C Nicky Fitzgerald LS Grayson Johnstone RG Brandon Linder SLB Telvin Smith That’s not any of our major guys, but it’s a lot of our depth and such. I extend Brandon Linder by a year, at almost min sal levels. I’d like to extend Nicky Fitzgerald, but I’d have to make a big commitment to it (to around 4-5 mill a year) for a 46/46 Center. That’s worth it at all. Hmmm… Should I keep Nicky? I got a couple of trade offers for Nicky a while ago. I rejected them, but there is a market here. Maybe I could move Nicky and commit to Pearson, and then sign another C from Free agency. That way I don’t lose the time I invested in Nicky Fitzgerald. Let’s see if anyone is even interested. And what it would cost. No one is interested. Ah well. I’d love to extend FS Tavon Wilson, but I’d have to increase his salary to 3.5 cap hit this year to do it for 3.8 next. Not too bad, but he’s 1.8 this year, and I’d only get one more year out of him. I extend Blackmon’s deal instead. 2017 - 4.75 mill 2018 – 5.2 mill 2019 – 5.4 mill 2020 – 6.7 mill And now we have all three receivers locked up, and Bortles as well. Yay offense! If we don’t spend our remaining cap money on injury replacements, I can resign FS Tavon Wilson later. We have 2.5 mill right now left after extension’s |
Let’s take a quick look at CB Shane Hopkins for you
 Basically, the only thing I drafted of any value at all. And he’s not busted, but he’s bent a little. This was a strong 2.31 pick. He has the ability to make picks, he’s fine in coverage, and he just isn;t strong as a hitter or in run d. That’s fine. Again, he’ll begin as our nickelback and dimeback packages, and be our primary replacement in case of injury to my starters. Let’s suppose he winds up as a 52/52 starter down the road. That’s good results from a late second rounder. Now let’s head back to last year’s draft a moment, for players a year in. Where did we wind up? Velazquez is the 8th highest potential non-kicker in the draft last year, and the 16th overall best player by current ability. For d-lineman, Cesar is the 3rd best one taken in the draft, behind Wes Winters (72/82 – taken 1.2 overall) and Telvin McPherson (63/83, taken 1.9). If it stands, Kenneth Butler, the UFA would be the 5th best potential as well. Among DTs, Our Grossman has the most potential tied with Omar Marsh (taken 1.6, who is 35/54). Right behind is Tyrell Emmons (40/53, taken 2.1). Those still stand as good, high quality picks. Notbad at all! |
Week 1 – We host the Texans. They have been a good team the two and three year ago, and began hot last year. We can’t just assume that because we swept them last year that we can do the same. We have to take them seriously. But I don’t think the team got that message, because we lose 26-23 at home. Yuck. They won in OT. Murray rushed 25 times for 102 yards and Bortles was 19 of 33 for 209 and 1:2. Lee grabbed the score. We had three picks, one by new signee SS George Iloka was returned 56 yards for a score. New signee and starter Darqueze Dennard got a pick as did backup CB Ellis Lankster. Murray fumbled twice (Bortles once) while undrafted FA DE Kenneth Butler in his first start forced a fumble that Lankster recovered. CB Dennard also got sack (one of three we had on the day). Butler had a sack too. (OLB Houston had the third) Even Manti Te’o looked competent with a pair of passes defensed. (Dennard had a pair as well). OG iupati racked up 3 KRB.
Week 2 – We travel to the Rams, who were a filthy 13-3 last year. That’s okay, because we just stomped them 41-24. Maybe we needed a wake up game against the Texans? Bortles, MVP, with 25 of 26, 357 and 4:1. Gerhart rushes for a score, Lee has 7 for 139 and 1 score, WR Robinson got 2 scores and 72 yards and WR DJ Donaldson nets the final score (and 76 yards). CB Dennard grabbed another pick and 2 more passes defensed. OLB Upshaw and FS Tavon Wilson both force fumbles, and Hood recovered one of them. DE Velazquez racked up 1.5 sacks and 2 QB Knockdowns. DT Hood? Two blocked passes! Sacks by Grossman and Upshaw as well (even Te’o got a half sack). OG Satre allowed his first sack this season (sad) but grabbed 3 KRB. Injury! LCB Lankster is out for afew weeks with a hyperextended elbow. Week 3 – We travel to New York to face the Jets. We don’t score a lot, just 17, but we keep them from scoring too, and we win 17-10. No major injuries, either! Game MVP and NFL Defensive Player of the Week is Cesar Velazquez. He had 5 tackles, 2 assists, 3 sacks, 2 forced fumbles, (recovered by Grossman and Hood)and 3 hurries. Great stuff! (again, Te’o got a half sack) Murray was held to just 36 yards on 12 carries, Bortles a pedestrian 2:3 with 337 yards off 32 of 42. Scores by Murrary and Allen Robinson’s 127 yards. Good job Velazquez! Week 4 – We host the Bengals, another really good team. All four of our first quarter games are against teams that have been making it to the playoffs a lot. We win 37-22. Bortles, MVP< 27 of 30, 265, 3:0 – hit Robinson twice and WR Van Linn once for scores. Picks like Tavon Wilson, Dennard, and a 99 pick and return by….Manti Te’o. I kd you not. 4 KRB by Sherred and 3 by Iupati. So at the first quarter mark, we hae a solid 3-1 record. BUT… The AFC South Indianapolis – 4-0 Houston – 3-1 Jacksonville – 3-1 Tennessee – 3-1 Uh oh…. |
Week 5 – We host Cleveland, another team that has been pretty good recently, and was in the Super Bowl two years ago. They are just 1-3 though, and we have a chance to really push them into the loser’s bracket. We score 48 to their 12. Bortles is Game MVP and NFL Offensive Player of the Week with 28 of 36 for 309 and 6:0. It’s just raining TDs in north Florida! Who caught them? TE Owen Daniels, RB Gerhart, Marqise Lee, Marqise Lee, Marqise lee and DJ Donaldson. We picked off Manziel twice by CB Dennard and rookie Shane Hopkins. They were tired and pulled Manziel for someone else - it didn’t help. On just 12 carries, Murray still had 91 yards, and we just shot through the air today. Forced fumbles by RCB Jonathan Joseph (on special teams), FS Brendan Tate (on special teams) and and rookie MLB Melvin Robinson.
We have an injury. WR Allen Robinson is out for three weeks with a hyperextended knee, and Justin Blackmon starts for him. All of the teams playing in the AFC South won. Which sets up…. Week 6 – We host the 5-0 Colts. If we can deliver a loss, we pull them off their undeafeated streak. Maybe we ground them. Just them and the 4-0 Broncos are still unbeaten. Bortles is MVP as we win 30-27 in OT. In fact, we kicked a FG and then they responded to try to tie or beat us, and then we got a Luck pick (his 3rd of the day) to SS Cyprien and we win. Other picks by SS Iloka and OLB Justin Houston, who returned it 51 yards for a score. Bortles was 30 of 41, 310, 2:0, and he hit Murray twice for scores. Lee was 11 for 120, and Murray 17 rushes for 113. Sarte 4 KRB, Sherrod 3. We have a few minor injuries, nothing worth bothering about. That was close. Week 7 – We head out to Pittsburgh, to have a rematch of last year’s playoff match, this time up north. Currently the AFC South all have 1 loss teams. Well, you knew that wasn’t going to last. We are defeated 24-31 by the Steelers, and three teams dropped a game this week, and Houston won to go to 5-1. Murray was stymied, Bortles was 30 of 42 for 328 but 2:2. Mad hit Blackmon and TW Daniels for score,s and WR DJ Donaldson rocked 6 catches for an even 100. Pick by rookie CB Hopkins. WR Huntley fumbled the ball, twice, on punt returns. Sherrod had 3 KRB. Robinson will be back. Week 8 – We head to Baltimore and get our winning groove back 37-27. Bortles, MVP, 24 of 27, 334, 3:1. TDs to Lee as he had 7, 121 yards, and Robinson had 4 catches, 86 yards and 2 scores. Murray rushes 22 for 84 and a pair of scores. Pick by CB Shane Hopkins. DE Keneth Butler had 1.5 sacks, 1 hurry, 1 knockdown on the day. OG Satre rocked 2 pancakes and 6 KRB and Iupati had 5 KRBs and a pair of pancakes as well. We are 6-2 at the half. AFC South: Jacksonville – 6-2 Houston – 5-2 Indianapolis – 5-3 Tennessee – 4-3 Something unusual has happened. As of today, every, single, player on my team is healthy. That’s just…odd. We play on 150 injury setting. That’s an odd place to be right now! Hopefully that won’t be a knock-on-wood comment that leads to WR Lee getting MCL surgery or something. |
Week 9 - Next up we host the Titans. You know how sometimes a really good team just lays an egg, and you aren’t sure why? Or how it happened? Well, that just happened we are shell-shocked ,in our own backyard, 44-17. That’s not a misprint. Damn. Bortles was 18 of 30 for 195 and 2:3. (TE Greshemn and WE Robinson with scores) Murray held, Bortles loses a fumble, WR Huntley does again, but Manti Te’o had a 11 tack, 2 assit, 1 sack, day, and OLB Houston rocked 2 sacks. Even DT Beau Allen and DE Velazquez had sacks, so we had pressure. OG Iupati was 4 KRB.
We come out of this stinker with a pair of lesser injuries. DE Kenneth Butler – out for three weeks with a hyperextended knee TE Own Daniels – out for 1 week with a hyperextended elbow Week 10 – BYE At the end of the bye, with everyone with nine games, we’ve dropped to 3rd in the division. Week 11 – We travel to Houston to take on the 6-3 Texans. Will they suffer another half-time collapse? Maybe! We win 24-20. OG Satre rocked 6 KRB and 4 pancakes, but allowed a sack. DE Ninkovich and Velazquez each had 1.5 sacks. CB Shane Hopkins had a pick, returned 76 yards for a score in the 4th quarter at th e 7:36 mark. Lee caught 6 passes for 129 and 2 scores. Bortles was 24 of 31 for 314 and 2:1 (and MVP). Another minor injury – FL Justin Blackmon is out for a week with a strained tendon as well. In a battle of the division, Indy beat Tennessee, and we beat Houston, we both move up the ladder. Week 12 - Now we have, what we hope, is a breather. The 3-7 Cardinals are coming to coming to town, and this is a breather in the midst of a nasty gauntlet of Browns, Bengals, Steelers, Ravens, and our own division coming alive and the Broncos and Seahawks we have later this year. We do, we win 33-7. Bortles, MVP, 22 of 35, and 243 yards for a 3:0 ratio and he hit Robinson twice and Lee one (lee also had 108 yards on the day). Meanwhile Murray was 21 for 98, and K Bernard was 4/4. 2 sacks by DE Velazquez. And MLB Te’o had 4 hurries. Every one is back from injury. We have a minor one to RCB Jonathan Joseph. Week 13 – We host the Broncos, who are 11-0. This is a team that beat us last year in the regular season, and then we beat them in the AFC Championship. Now what? We lose 23-27. Murray was 19 for 109 and a score, and Bortles was 241 yards on 19 of 33 and a 1:0 ratio. Lee caught the score. CB Dennard rocked a pick. C Pearson had 4 KRB and OG Satre 3. We have several injuries. FS Tate is doubtful (Groin) and WR Huntley doubtful as well (Triceps) I bench them both, Questionable? OG Iupati (Knee) and DT Hood (abdomen) – Both will start next week, RB Gerhart and CB Joseph probable We are 8-4 finishing up the 3rd quarter of the season, and we have the biggest game of the season next week |
Week 14 – We travel to face the 10-2 Seahawks, and a redo of last year’s Super Bowl matchup. Can we get the win on the road? No. We lost 20-17. They shut down Murray and Gerhart completely. Bortles was 21 of 34 for 291 and 2:1. He hit Lee 8 times for 95 yards and a scor,e Robinson 4 time for 117 yards and FB Johnson for a score. Satre had 3 KRB. Not a good day for the team.
We were winning 17-13 after, at 6:61 left a K from Bernard (who had earlier missed a 53 yard attempt, but was good from 37) and then they scored from a pass by Wilson in the 2:09 mark. And they won. We just can’t beat this team, but at least it was closer. Week 15 – And now we head out to Indianapolis to face the 8-5 Colts. It’s time to get back into the winning side of the world, and we thump the Colts 33-14. DeMarco Murray MV with 25 for 174 and 2 scores, and Gerhart had another, and Bortles tossed a pick and was 24-31 and 264 and not a good passing game. OLB Telvin Smith with a pick, and a fumble recovery tool. K Bernard was 4/4. OG Ipati rocked 6 KRB and 2 pancakes and Satre 5 and 1 and C Pearson 4 KRB and Sherrod 3. Sometimes, you need to run to win. That victory moved us to 1st place. TE Gresham is questionable. I move Daniels up. I also resign FS Tavon Wilson. Week 16 - It’s been a while since the 49ers were a winning franchise and this year’s 3-11 team isn’t going to do them any favors. We are hosting them here in Jacksonville. We’re 9-5 and looking to head to 10-5. They aren’t. Well they were pretty spunky. They made it close, 31-26, but Game MVP DE Cesar Velazquez contained them just enough with his 2 sacks, forced fumble (recovered by DT Beau Allen for a score), and they played good defense (Bortles was 20 of 30, 205, 2:3 – hit Lee and Blackmon) and we had picks by rookie LB Robinson and S Iloka (which was returned 52 yards for a score). We needed both of those defensive scores to win today. But I’ll take it! We are 10-5 and one game up on Indy, and two up on Houston and Tennessee. Week 17 - Earlier this season we hosted Tennessee and were spanked by them. They have hung 52 on Houston and 47 on Baltimore. They are not going away unless we put them away. They know that they are out of the playoff races. But I guarantee that they want to win today to go to 9-7 on the season – guaranteed. We get that victory 31-17. Highlights? DE Velazquez rocks another pair of sacks, 3 hurries, and 2 knockdowns Murray is 22 for 119 and a score Bortles, MVP, has 22 of 29 for 280 and 3:1 Lee is 6 for 64 and a score WR Robinson is 6 for 81 and a score too DJ Donaldson had a score Pick by FS Tavon Wilson – ironic OG Satre with 5 KRb, 1 pancake OG Iupati 3 KRB The final AFC South: Jacksonville – 11-5 Indianapolis -10-6 Houston – 8-8 Tennessee – 8-8 Pretty good year for everyone. |
The 2017 NFL Playoffs!
We have the #3 seed. AFC Seeds: #1 Denver Broncos 16-0 #2 Buffalo Bills 13-3 #3 Jacksonville Jaguars – 11-5 #4 Cincinnati Bengals – 11-5 #5 Cleveland Browns – 10-6 #6 Indianapolis Colts – 10-6 We played the Browns, Colts, Colts, Bengals, and Broncos this year, so we had 5 games against teams in the AFC playoffs. We host the Colts on Wild Card Weekend In NFC News: Phily at Green Bay St Louis at Dallas Results? Wow We win 44-41. MVP? Murray – 22 for 137 and 3 scores. Bortles was 21 of 30 for 187 and 2:1. Murray caught both scores an 93 yards. It was all Murray. DE Velazquez rocked a pick. Satre had 6 KRB and 3 pancakes to grade the road for Murray, but this was all Murray all day long. He just took this game over and didn’t let go! Browns are thumped by Bengals 38-6. Packers beat Eagles 23-7 Rams beat Cowboys 41-28 |
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