"Action Points" Test.
 

OK. I had an old saved career with a dominant team. I simmed to the end of that season, and I can take over any team. I thought I'd start out with a team in a pretty "average" situation for cap room, players under contract, and roster strength. Throwing out the top six and bottom six in each category I get:

Cap Room: $27.79M<--->$43.45M
Under Contract: 23<--->30
Roster Strength: 30<--->69

...and I also want the team to pick somewhere in the middle 20 spots in the first round as well.

Looking around, Washington falls well into all of those categories:

Cap Room: $32.65M
Under Contract: 27
Roster Strength: 31
Draft Pick: #20

So I take the 'Skins. Here's the initial roster:

FORWARD-THINKING/BUDGET
I don't have a good feel for staff/renegs/draft/free agency/trading, so I thought the best thing to do for now is look ahead to camp/in-season/salary cap and figure out what I'll spend there, then use the rest on the earlier stages.

IN-SEASON		Pts
	Custom Plan	10	With an aging QB and a star WR, I'll go into "win now" mode and rebuild later.
	Staff Depth Chart	0
	Injury 200	0
	Replacements	4	(one vet, one rookie, lowest rookie after that)
SALARY CAP
	Leave 5% Unused	12
	Expensive Players	6	Six over the 5% mark at this point. One of those guys looks like he'll get cut. Pretty sure I can get this down to three w/o too much pain.
TRAINING CAMP
	Default Settings	0
	53 Players	0
		32

STAFF HIRING
Ouch. Big trouble here. NO staff members under contract. I'd like to get a long-term coach, and I probably won't be using interviews any time soon so no need to spend on a scout. I decide to make the requested offer on a coach early. He signs. The others get signed in stage three as freebies. 2 points used this stage.

RUNNING TOTAL: 34

INTERNAL CONTRACT MOVES

• I send the sixth rounder to summer league, so no cost there. 0 points
• 55/55 5th year corner gets franchised. Hard to let that guy fly. 2 points
• Release T T.J. Carter (over 5% of cap and not worth it). 0 points
• 3 requested renegs (QB Davison, ILB Sweeney, OLB Scott), and 1 cap out (OLB Scott): 6 points. (These moves get me down to three 5% players. Can't sign any more of those now.)

So. 8 points used on internal moves.

RUNNING TOTAL: 42 points.

So, if I want to use a fully custom game plan, I have 18 points to spend on signing 25 players, including draft picks. I also have four more points to play with that I currently have allocated for in-season pickups.

I'm guessing that the draft is going to cost me 12ish points, so I really only have 6 points to spend on free agents, 10 if I want to risk not being able to sign any decent in-season players.

Looking over the roster, I would like to acquire starting-quality players at the following positions: RB, FB, WR2, WR3, C, RDE, WILB*

Most critical are WR2, C and RDE, because we have no centers, one WR, and one DE under contract. Sounds like the prudent thing to do here is to spend points on those positions, and go with draftees or free players at the other slots. Off to fix lunch. More in a bit.


*--Looking at the personnel on defense that's currently under contract, it seems to make the most sense to switch to the 3-4.

Looking carefully over the FA menu, I'm pretty certain that I can allow myself 3 more points of the budget. My goal, which should be very attainable this year, will be to leave 10% of the cap unused.

OK. I end up making six offers in early free agency:

RB: flat (2)
FB: flat (2)
WR: requested (1)
WR: requested (1)
C: requested (1)
DE: flat (2)

So, if all sign, I'll use nine points, leaving me 12 for the draft (assuming I can come in 10% under the cap.)

And here's how free agency went.

POS	NAME	EXP	RTG	TYPE	COST	COMMENT
RB	Tyrell Thomas	5	49/49	flat	2	solid-looking all around RB with an affinity
WR	Victor Sloan	8	42/42	request	1	good getting downfield (71). will start if no rookie
FB	Dustin Burkhart	6	53/53	flat	2	affinity, can catch it out of the backfield, 58 run block
DE	Frankie Peete	5	49/49	flat	2	80 pr technique
C	Raymond Stockmen	8	52/52	request	1	own player re-signed to start
WR	Vernon Weaver	4	25/26	request	1	good getting downfield (68), not much else
					9

Ok. Signed no-bonus old guys at WR-OL-DL-CB to help get us up to leg. Upon further review, I kind of like it. I'll be pretty much forced to draft at certain positions. Budget update forthcoming.

I sort of like it, too, for the same reason.

So here's where we are....

STAFF HIRING		Pts
	HC Requested Offer	2
	OC Stage 3 Requested	0
	DC Stage 3 Requested	0
	Scout Stage 3 Requested	0
INTERNAL MOVES		Pts
	6th rounder-->summer	0
	Franchise	2
	3 Requested Renegs	6
	1 Cap Out	0
EARLY FREE AGENCY
	3 flat contracts	6
	3 requested contracts	3
	4 no-bonus old guys	0
	TOTAL SPENT TO DATE	19

And here's the budget for the rest of the way....

DRAFT
	BUDGET	10
LATE FREE AGENCY		Pts
	1 Rookie FA	2
TRAINING CAMP		Pts
	Default	0
	53 Players	0
IN-SEASON		Pts
	Custom Plan, No changes	10
	Staff Depth	0
	Injuries=200	0
	Replacements	4	(one vet, one rookie, lowest rookie after that)
SALARY CAP		Pts
	Leave 10% Unused	9
	Expensive Players	6
		41

So, it looks like I do have a little wiggle room if I want to go crazy in the draft.

So I went with a modified version of the points for the draft. It ended up costing me 14.5.

Pick	Pos	NAME	Grd	Adj	40	Sol	BP	Agi	BJ	PDrl	Dev	Imp	Cur1	Fut1	AP	Comments
1(20)	WR	Ethan Hammond	5.9	6.1	!	!	+	+	-	+	23%	xxx	25	53	3.5	Should start immediately.
2(19)	DT	Robert Heyward	5.6	6.1	!	!	+	+	+	xxx	28%	xxx	30	42	3.5	Yeah, so forget that 3-4 idea. Can't pass him up.
3(18)	S	Wade Bailey	5.0	4.7	+	+			-	!	23%	xxx	16	38	2	getting old there
4(17)	G	Clay Shanabrough	4.9	4.7	+	+	+		+	xxx	30%	xxx	28	44	2	should see significant playing time this season
5(16)	QB	Scrap Horst	4.6	5.2	+				+		18%	xxx	13	46	1	Thus begins the process of finding the future QB...
6(15)	DE	Clarence Canadeo	4.3	4.7	!		+	-		xxx	15%	xxx	17	47	1.5	Another youngster who should play a lot.
7(23)	RB	Louie Prior	4.0	4.2		+	+		-		46%	xxx	17	23	1	Could be my RB2 this season.
															14.5

I can still come in ok at this level, and I'm pleased with who we've added.

That puts me at 33.5 points spent. Between custom game plans, 10% of the cap, and expensive players, that's 25 more points. I don't have any huge holes left, although rookies and marginal players will play in several slots. With injuries set at 200, I'll hold back that last AP to sign a decent rookie in-season if needed. So, I sit out late free agency.

Heh. I can't QUITE get to the 10% unused mark without a handful of cap outs. DT Jarvis, K Barlow and G Lauer get capped out right before camp, leaving me with $14.05M available on a $138M cap. Perfect!

Camp notes...

• Aging QB Davison doesn't drop any.
• FA signee RB Tyrell Thomas goes 49/49-->38/38. Ouchers.
• As far as draftees are concerned, we see positive movement from the first four picks, negative from the last three.

Heading into preseason, here are position-by-position comments.

Player	Pos	Exp	Cur	Fut	Cntrct
Davison, J.T.	QB	14	55	55	2 yrs
Herndon, Ryan	QB	8	25	41	1 yr.
Chamberlin, Arnold	QB	2	17	43	2 yrs
Horst, Scrap	QB	1	17	42	3 yrs

Davison looks like he's still got something in the tank. The other three were -2 or worse in camp this season. There's work to be done at QB, no doubt.

Thomas, Tyrell	RB	5	38	38	3 yrs
##Bell, Brant	RB	4	31	31	1 yr.
##Fitzgerald, Earl	RB	3	33	33	2 yrs
Hendrick, R.J.	RB	2	30	40	1 yr.
Prior, Louie	RB	1	18	22	3 yrs

Hendrick was +1 this year, but with the AI handling the depth charts (no way around that at this point), he's probably the backup this year unless Thomas gets hurts. None of the others gave us reason to hope in camp this year.

Burkhart, Dustin	FB	6	54	54	3 yrs
Jarvis, Darryl	FB	3	34	43	1 yr.
Norton, Juan	TE	5	53	53	2 yrs
##Wedderburn, Joe	TE	4	31	31	1 yr.
Gilbertson, Derrick	TE	3	31	31	1 yr.

No immediate worries at either of these positions.

Witt, Perry	FL	8	37	37	1 yr.
Zimmerman, Harold	FL	8	70	70	4 yrs
##Ramirez, Bennie	FL	2	26	36	1 yr.
Sloan, Victor	SE	8	42	42	1 yr.
Hammond, Ethan	SE	1	29	58	4 yrs

Hammond, a +5 in camp, looks like an outstanding pickup. He's probably relegated to WR4 by the AI tihs year, and Zimmerman (RR=89, End=87) should get a buttload of targets.

Brennan, Brant	C	10	42	42	1 yr.
Stockman, Raymond	C	8	52	52	1 yr.
Samuels, Monty	C	2	32	43	1 yr.
Vreede, Kurt	LG	8	43	43	3 yrs
Godfrey, Albert	LG	2	33	56	2 yrs
Lauer, Floyd	LG	2	53	65	3 yrs
Shanabrough, Clay	LG	1	30	45	3 yrs
Schalk, Mickey	LT	4	52	52	6 yrs
Buchanan, Conrad	LT	2	21	51	2 yrs
Hatcher, Adam	RT	2	43	56	3 yrs

Nothing magical on the offensive line, but we're young everywhere but center.

Surcon, Toby	LDE	4	60	60	1 yr.
##Hardy, Carlton	RDE	11	33	33	1 yr.
Peete, Frankie	RDE	5	48	48	3 yrs
##Andersen, Jeremy	RDE	2	25	33	1 yr.
Canadeo, Clarence	RDE	1	16	35	3 yrs
Jarvis, Ian	LDT	8	49	49	3 yrs
Pharms, Burt	RDT	2	26	37	2 yrs
Heyward, Robert	RDT	1	35	43	3 yrs

The d-line is nothing to write home about as it is, and if someone gets hurt, we'll be playing some real scrubs here.

Sweeney, Deion	MLB	7	55	55	4 yrs
Wells, Zach	MLB	4	36	41	1 yr.
Kaplan, Martin	MLB	3	31	47	1 yr.
Scott, Bobby	SLB	7	58	58	3 yrs
Irwin, Adrian	SLB	2	45	49	3 yrs
Lynn, Richie	WLB	5	66	66	4 yrs

Definitely a solid-looking crew here. I still need to think about the 3-4 for next season.

Upshaw, Ryan	LCB	2	27	34	1 yr.
##Castillo, Bill	RCB	11	23	23	1 yr.
Callahan, Detron	RCB	5	53	53	4 yrs
Tyler, Glenn	RCB	3	53	55	2 yrs
Beckles, Mel	SS	12	52	52	1 yr.
Bailey, Wade	SS	1	21	42	3 yrs
Ofodile, Preston	FS	9	53	53	1 yr.
Oren, Bert	FS	2	29	34	1 yr.

I like the youth at the starting corners, although the nickel situation is less than ideal. We're definitely in need of help for the future at safety.

RATING: 72 (11th overall)
COHESION: 83-72-100-94

No need to get into nitty-gritty details, but no huge surprise that Davidson-to-Zimmerman was a winning combination. 12 wins. Loss in the NFC Championship Game. Zimmerman had 101 catches for 1520 yards and 16 TDs. Given the personnel I inherited at key positions, it's certainly no cause for alarm. I really should have looked more closely at the team, rather than going by the general numbers. The 'Skins have now been to four of the last five NFC Championship Games, so this is nothing out of the ordinary. The real test of the AP system will be over a few seasons when Davison retires.

Heh, my AP testing team is in exactly the same situation.

Only one retirement, the starting SS.

2026 Prelims...

• No points used in staff hiring.
• Franchise Tag used on DE Surcon (2)
• 4th round pick G Shanabrough sent so summer league (1)

FYI - in the point system, if you are still with a coach that you hired under a 2-pt contract (as I think you are), he'll cost you 2 pts per year. (I have probably rewritten that section since you copied it, but that was my intent all along - cost is not just in the hiring year)

Ah! Great call. I like that. I was about to post about being able to lock up coaches long-term, but that solves it.