Throwback Football League - Ravens Rebuild
 

Hello again, friends. I can't quit you.

It's the Throwback Football League
Throwback Football League

The invitation was blunt: "the Ravens are available, and they have Patrick Mahomes"

I accepted.

I am not positive this was ideal, but here we are. A thread like this has always added to my pleasure from such things, so I plan to give it a go here again.


Context for this league, as nearly as I can tell it:

-I guess it started out with real NFL roster as of some point in time

-Since then, they have resorted to slapping real-life draftee names on incoming draft classes when there are new ones available from the NFL... that sounds interesting in concept, but it's just baffling/misleadong if you are familiar with the real players... so be ready for real-life 5'8" 168lb jitterbug Rondale Moore from Purdue to be in this league as a rookie WR who is a 6'3" beast from Oregon State, or whatever... it's just a re-naming, not a bona fide attempt to replicate the draft class...and then it will be 304 more league seasons before they paste names on again, I guess.

-It seems like a pretty slow pace, more so than my preference, so I expect to be bored a lot... I'm bored already and I'm in full building mode

Here's where we are:

-Early free agency is complete
-The rookie draft is complete, sort of...
-Tomorrow is a chance for some teams to claim some undrafted rookies as "supplemental picks" for losing free agents
-Late free agency starts on Sunday

I have made quite a number of moves in free agency, no shock, and have the team poised for a lot of flux. Honestly not sure how much I want to do, as there seems to be a good deal to work with now. If I don't gut the roster, I think the installation of a decent gameplan might make this a 9-10 win team. But, maybe I cannot help myself...

Front Office Football Eight
Baltimore Ravens Roster, Scout Overview

Okay, here we are again... let's have a look through the roster at this point. Rookie draft is sorta complete... there's a day or two delay as some teams (not us) get compensatory picks for losing free agents. Will have to decide whether that system offers much of an angle for me.


Okay, let's start by re-stating... ignore the familiar names, they are merely iwndow dressing. I don't get it, I don't like it, but it's what this league does.

Patrik Mehomes is a very solid QB, in year 10, worth building around for now. That's really it for this group... I expect to settle out the QB2 job based on chemistry, but that hasn't fallen together very neatly. So, no rela insight here...multiple new faces contenting for QB2/AB3 job(s).


Another very unsettled group here. I like Shreves enough to assume he's RB1 (especially since I missed out on a mid-round RB I liked in the draft)... but I'm not committed enough to have built chemistry around him. Everyone here has a semi-legit chance to make the team. Rookies may fit in as well. No chem plan yet.


Okay, this is a mess, but there's a central player here - Dusty George was brought in specifically to be both TE2/1 and our chemistry leader. He's a Group 10 guy (from the "smart" triad of the 3-4, 5-6, 10-11 guys) and has 93 personality. So, he's going to stay, and that meshes with some draft decisions I made based on having him here. None of the others at TE are chemistry fits, not sure I will untangle that this season.


Okay, so the featured player here should be "Tyreke Hall" but suffice it to say he's just a decent old receiver. Might not even make the team, if it feels like this is a lost year due to cohesion losses.

Rookie E Moore is the key guy... got him standing pat at pick 16, and he looks like the quality one would expect with pick 6-8 in a typical draft, a great get. Very pleased. Once we made that pick, that's when I shifted gears and figured I'd buidl the group chemistry in that triad -- Moore is a 3-4 guy and will have affinity with the TE leader. WR Camp was my 4th round pick but looks disappointing... my scout loved him so perhaps there's hope for a preseason boom but it doesn't look evident to me.

I'm not really invested in anyone else here...Shelby is good enough to be WR1 for now, and Svyrud is a chemistry fit so likely stays due to that. If cohesion doesn't strangle us, this group ought to be just fine, and Moore will emerge as a future WR1 and 1,300 yard sort of guy, I'd think.



That's a long list, but I will mentally whittle it down here. LT Young is a powerful run blocker, mediocre as a pass blocker, and better suited for RT. He's also a solid chemistry leader, and I am planning to keep him for those multiple roles. He's a 1-2 guy so I am building in the "quality" triad, trying to emphasize intelligence where I can.

The fits there include G Williams, a pass-blocking G who could play LG or RG; T Rosenfels (free agent signeem decent quality, and good chemistry), and rookies G Borom (pass blocker) and T Peterson (major disappointment upon sneak peek). So, I expect that group to stay... I guess Peterson might lose his gig.

I signed C Martin to a fat free agent contract, just looking for an anchor player for this group, and while I paid a LOT I think it was wise. Center feels awfully important to the running game, and I wanted to not feel skittish about it. He's very sood, but not a chem fit.

So, that's the skeleton of the OL group... most likely plan here is to drop in another young player or two aroudn them and jettison the rest, including G Dotson who's not bad but is a red flag.


Emmons may stick, but the most likely situation is both positions are TBA.


Okay, we have a chemistry plan here, at least. And solid talent. LB McCutcheon is the group leader from the 8-9 group, and we have multiple good fits with him to work with. This should be our most natural and ready-to-go group.

Pierce is a pure pass rusher, Chaisson is more well rounded (he will be tough to extend after next season, he wants to get PAID). Kinlaw and Posharow are a nice platoon for the DT role, which I generally perfer to use, Kinlaw is the pass rusher.


Group here is solid, with Long last year's first round draft pick (good but really, a run-stopping LB at pick 9?). McCutheon got overpaid but was important for chem. around them we ought to be okay, I may end up keeping some non-chem guys here just for contintuity.


Chem plan got messed up here when my target leader took a better offer, to my surprise. So, short term there might not be a serious plan.

Two young players to build around, in my view, are CB Caniglia and Perkins. Both are in the 2-3/4-5/6-7 triad, so a good Group 6 leader would have been ideal. Alas.

S Stuart is good but maybe more of a CB than S... I have already agreed to trade Pegues...lots of decebt role players here, I just don't have chem as a fallback organizing principle.


whatever


Nearly capped out here, already. I actually signed a few no-risk free agents only to cut them, as I needed my cap space to re-sign a couple quality veterans and to fill out the roster. This team was not left in great shape... and for what? With that combo of QB/WR the team only went 8-8?

I usually do so much changing that the team tanks right away from cohesion failure. That may happen here, even though there's a good deal to work with.

One quick player note omitted above... RB Malik Benton is 5-7, 203... he is going to get a look at WR, hopefully after shedding some weight. If he comes through, and looks good, he could be good enough to play a while as WR3 or so, and that would probably let us cut WR Hill. Fingers crossed, as such things are not easy to predict, but the un-submitted bars look very promising. (He's a guy who should have gotten this treatment as a rookie)

So, anyone who signs up for yet another dynasty thread from me, you probably want to hear about chemistry. Well, you got it.

OFFENSE

I typically have a look through the roster and look for build-around players... and figure the chem scheme should follow them where warranted. If there's an obvious QB to build around, I can try to drape things to work with him... otherwise, I'll let the groups build themselves with as much synchronicity as possible, with an eye toward making the QB fit into the scheme.

On this team, nothing came too easily. The QB is a 10th year guy with fairly low personality, and from the dumb triad of signs... all bad for building long term chem. So I felt like I might as well ignore Mahomes, and just build through the three offensive groups.

OL was easiest to put into place. My two best players, LT Young and LG Williams, are from the same triad - and Young moved into the leadership role with 93 personalty without much work (one cut, I think). So, that felt pretty straightforward... gives us a strong leader, probably for a long time, and I can work with that. Not a ton in free agency that fit well, but I did go after RT Reiff and paid him enough to be a "starter" at least in name, for a while. In the draft I liked a combine-skipper T Peterson and hoped he'd move inside to be a run-first G, while G Borom is a pass-blocker who was on my list for later rounds and ended up coming aboard in round 6. Once aboard, I now rate Borom as the long term asset, and Peterson probably not. Neither brings anything great in personality for chem purposes - Peterson may be a cut, in fact.

I decided to go ahead and pay up for a starting C, knowing he'd be neutral in chemistry, but I just wanted to nail down that position.

So... OL plan basically in effect. If I figure I now have guys in place for LT, LG, C, RG and RT ... then I have the rookie OT as OL6 and a variety of veteran holdovers as candidates to stick for either quality or cohesion purposes.

...

So, WR/TE group. A mess. Best guy we have on hand is WR Dillon Shelby, and he's in Group 11 (part of the 7-8/8-9/11-12 "meh" triad). So, not ideal, but I'm at least open to working with that structure, given his high personality. That is my first idea, and I drop a bunch of low-risk free agent offers to land guys who would fit that scheme.

However, when my pick at 1.16 comes up, I am surprised to see a couple pretty good looking WRs available...and this ends up realigning my plans. I select Elijah Moore to play WR, in hopes that he can step in as my WR1 upon a bit of development. (Note: upon landing on my roster, he's pretty much all I wanted)

So... change in plans. Now I have a legit build-around guy in Moore, so I decide to go in and build the WR/TE group to suit him. There's a free agent TE available who would become a solid G10 leader, fitting with Moore as a G3... these guys are in the "smart" triad. This can work. I draft the rookie WR my scouts tagged as "very underrated" (also from G3, same as Moore) in round 4, and I bring aboard two more free agent receivers who could develop affinities as well. The moonshot is a veteran RB who looks like he might position-switch to WR, and if he does he could be a very useful player. If not, an easy cut.

TE is a work in progress, but we didn't have any talent there to begin with, so nothing lost there -- there was a big-bars guy in the draft wayyy down the big board in-game, I missed out on him when he went in round 3... he looks pretty good but not sensational. Had he fallen to round 3 to be my pick there, I'd be super happy about this group right now. As it stands, I'll hope for some magic dust among the undrafted rookies, perhaps.

...

RB/FB group. No plan here, and that is not a joke or exaggeration for effect.

Basically I have a mix of inherited guys with various skills and signs, plus a couple of free agent no-risk signees... most any of whom are capable of playing HB2, I'd say. Nobody I love as a build-around guy, and nobody important for chemistry, honestly.

I don't love a clean sweep, but the play here is probably over this season and next to reboot this group to align with one of the two chem triads I have already committed to, in order to develop a double-affinity channel for a couple of backup QBs.

My usual hope is that we land some undrafted rookie or two to help. They seem to appear at RB fairly often. I am pretty open to starting the season with two or more rookies in the mix, maybe around a chemistry leader guy from hopefully the 1-2 or 10-11 group.



So that is the plan, right now. Definitely some players on offense who will not click with the system. Maybe as many as 10-12 by opening day. I usually can't abide that, but again this isn't a complete rebuilding project, exactly... we might be good enough to compete right away, if I don't tear too much down.

Wait... so you roster build to chemistry? DWS... :)

So, looking over the RB/FB group, and... there's no rhyme nor reason here.

Ideally, I want 4 guys for the group... a legit RB1, a RB for passing situations and/or breakaways, a special teams designee, and a lead blocker. Someone in the group needs to be a chem leader, as well, and on a well-crafted team I have guys who stay around mainly to serve as cohesion boosters.

That said, among the guys on this roster right now, who could fit what role?

RB1: Shreves meh, Pritchett (but bad chem combo 100/9)
3DRB: Benton (if not switched to WR, he'd be solid for this role), Ackerman?
ST: Ackerman
FB: Carr (prob not good enough to stick without a chem fit), TE Morton?
Ldr: Maldonado (but G4, same as Mahomes)

This is really not good. I let some free agents go by, watching my bottom line and the draft, but then failed to get anyone in the seven rounds. I suspect there will be players I like okay in the rookie class after-draft (should be able to see later tonight, I guess) ... but without a plan for a chem build-around guy even that is difficult.

My best guess right now is that I bring aboard a stiff to serve as a chem leader for a while (even a position-switched guy just to stuff in a crate)... then I decide to keep Shreves for continuity as a decent-at-everything option, and plug in two rookies who fit into the chem scheme, and double that up with either the WR/TE guy or the OL guy.

Long winded way of saying... there really is not a plan.

Roughly as expected, we signed twenty players in the first two stages of late free agency. Just covering my bases, I expect a lot of these guys will get insta-cut and will cost us 20K in cap across this season and next. Okay.

Shortly, a new file post training camp will arrive. We had to cut to 70 for camp, but sincerely don't yet have a legit plan for RB/FB and DB both in terms of chem and cohesion/additions.

I have one of those okay-at-everything rookie RBs, and I expect he'd be at least close to replacement level if we just dropped him in as RB1 right away. But it's not like I have a legit young talent to build around there.

At DB, I'm basically resigned to leveraging a guy on the roster now whose hold on the leader job is tenuous, but is good enough to play and has very high personality. My two build-around CB talents don't fit with him, but I let the one anchor guy who connected with those two get away in free agency.

...training camp file is tonight, I'm just so spoiled by BELCo leagues into thinking there should always be a file every day...

So, I think I have a plan at RB... going to try to post an image here to replace the thousand words:

We'll bring along a group chem leader in the 1-2 group, same as our OL leader, to promote more offensive love and happiness. We have a couple ways to get there, I believe.

Okay, with the step by step preseason, i have lots of cycles to tinker a little bit here and there.

For preseason week 3, we add a new WR, JJ Arcega Whiteside. As mentioned, the name is a paste-over. What I get from him is:

-a 74 personality affinity
-a 95 special teams rating
-a not-totally-worthless 60 RR and 48 GD combo, in case he gets a few targets

Pretty much everything I would want in a WR5. If you follow my threads, then you know how exciting this sort of pickup us for me. This is the good stuff.

Who needs "starts" on this team? Wow, a lot.

Week 1 plan:
TE2 Maxwell
RB Corbett
RB Gaines
WR Syvrud
FB Lobert/George (?)

Then later:
WR E Moore
WR Camp
C Whitfield (?)

On defense, we have rookie CB Deommodore Lenior who despite a 22 personality, looks like a long term asset, so i will probably drop him into one of the starting groups in hope of inching him toward 8 starts - he's a potential nickel back and special teams standout, and his +9 in preseason gives us hope he's a long termer.

Young NT Nielson will get a look in the 3WR formation, and rookie LB Derrick Barnes maybe in the base. Will have to see how the season progresses - I could end up a bad year with a lot of young guys earning their chem down the stretch, if we're off to a 3-5 start or whatnot.

Move for tonight's pre-season file: get an actual fullback to put onto the field

I realize it was unfair to leave you hanging like that... but HOW WORTH THE WAIT WAS THIS? A NEW FULLBACK BABY.

Well, more like a baby fullback.

I want three things from a FB, basically. This guy is okay in all three... chemistry (92 personality, possible future leader)... special teams (38/61 meh)...and run blocking (23/74, just in case a fullback works like a fullback in real football and lead blocks from time to time).

Not great, but he's likely FB1 for opening day. Also, fun fact, a guy I signed previously and cut for some reason before training camp. We grade him 17/37 now, so this is not an impact player. Just trivially better than what else we have to work with here.

First pass as the 53/46 roster heading into a "midweek stage" - we are weaker at a few important positions than i am accustomed to.

Okay, so... in the other thread I'd just post "here's the entire regular season." Here, I guess i post a game by game summary every couple of days? Ugh.

Anyway...opening day:

Baltimore 38, Pittsburgh 24

Just a good, solid offensive performance, nothing really stands out. We led 24-21 going into halftime and sort of dribbled it out from there. No huge turnovers or weird plays, we just played well, especially on offense. Nice start.

...by the way, we kick off the season with 34 out of 53 players new to this roster. We didn't get socked by cohesion in week one, but it feels like it should be a real problem, with that absurd level of turnover.

everyone missing the gml? just me? cool.

not just you

double ugh

Week 2:

Baltimore 37, Tampa Bay 10

Solid game for Mahomes, he's now up to 5/1 ratio in two games and the offense has just been very solid. Elijah Moore playing nicely as the WR2 and RAC target. Getting leads from your offense makes everything better, except the running game stats and who cares about that.

Strong start.

Aha, found the online html for posting box scores...

Ravens humbled by Dolphins 41-13

Not a crisis... this team wasn't going to be some sort of juggernaut.

19-13 road win to get to 3-1

https://www.fof-tfl.com/leaguehtml/2schedule.html

What do I see from this team after four games? Well, a bit better than average passing, a bit better than average against the pass. That checks out. Rest is probably TBA. 3-1 seems fine, if we hold up and play superficially this well we probably can win 7 of 12 and end up 10-6, that would exceed my opening day expectations by a win or two.

Really good week 5, 38-13 over Cinti, and we're 4-1.

So this league moves really slowly, we're 5-2 and i'm bored AF.

Made a minor trade for a reserve TE who will give us some chem, play special teams, and can't be much worse than the garbage I have on this roster now.

Yawn.

it was mistake to join this league... i have very rarely given up a franchise in MP FOF, but I might do so after this initial season

just hard to get any attachment, and the "real names slapped onto fake players" grates on me more than i could have guessed it would

6-4 feels about right for this team. Disappointing after a 5-1 start, but genuinely about where I think we are this far. Maybe after one more offseason it will feel more like my team, rather than some weird puppet show.

Wrapping this up, we finished 8-8, lost our playoff opener, and I regret joining the league. Looking for a way to either make this a net positive for me, or bail.

oh wow, yeah that would drive me up a wall. The opposite of immersion.