FOF 9 - The Highlander Challenge
 

A FOF 9 Highlander Challenge Career

Okay, back in the olden days, I used to do a lot of dynasty threads here, mostly with variations on house rules and so forth. One of them I liked was the “Highlander Challenge” where I took a long list of things that felt exploitable in the game, and I created a house rule that “There can be only one…” of such things. Fun play on words, if you remember the flick.

Here’s a thread from back in 2008, playing the FOF 2007 game that was the frontier at the time. Pre-MP, of course.
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So, I’m going to do something really similar, going to start up a new FOF 9 team/career, and I will play it out under these rules – just limiting things that feel unreasonably effective in the game to one use per season:

-there can be only one free agent offer outstanding at any point in the early FA process
-there can be only one unrestricted free agent signed to a one-year contract
-there can be only one unrestricted free agent signed to a two-year contract
-there can be only one unrestricted free agent signed to a three-year contract
-there can be only one unrestricted free agent signed to a four-year contract
-there can be only one unrestricted free agent signed to a five-year contract
-there can be only one unrestricted free agent signed to a six-year contract
-there can be only one unrestricted free agent signed to a seven-year contract
-there can be only one year on any new offer made to a restricted free agent
-there can be only one renegotiation/extension before the season starts

-there can be only one trade, either within the current draft or AI-team-initiated
-there can be only one post-draft rookie signed to a multi-year deal

With that as the setting, we’ll see what we get.

This is fun. I cannot figure out how to resign as GM so I can take over a crappy team elsewhere. Can this really be absent in the game?

From the help file: “Once the teams are created, you will choose the team you want to control in this universe. Once chosen, this is your team and that can't be changed.”
Neat-o.

I guess I need to start a new career, rather than switch teams in a mature league where I’d have more comfort. Fabu. Loving it already.

Ok, I trudge through the initial game launch, and take the Miami Dolphins. Muscle memory from a childhood admiring guys named Csonka and Griese and Mercury, and who won every game.
I do a preference draft, and deliberately handicap my team by setting low emphasis on QB, WR, and DE; and I set the draft to favor experience over potential. Looks like it worked, the team didn’t select a QB until round 43, so we will have our best assets as older guys in low-value positions. Good setup for a rebuild, more or less.

2025 Season
With the league kickoff right at the start of the 2025 season, I guess the move here is just to QuikSim the season and put a year’s worth of numbers in the books, and then take over in earnest for 2026. Fine, I suppose.

I check out my expiring contracts (they seem randomly assigned from the distribution draft) and… oh well, no extensions available here.
I’ll just print-to-file so I can dump the roster, and… oh, this game doesn’t have any print capacity. This is going great. Loving all the newly removed features!

Okay, fuck it. Run the season, we’ll sort it out in the offseason when we get to put our full mark on the place, you know, paint the walls and stuff.

I’m writing this up in MS Word, and will post some screenshots in my Word doc to keep stats handy… no clear idea quite yet how to share that effectively.

Season summary image: https://snipboard.io/1502Tn.jpg



Bottom line from 2025: we start out 5-3, but lose our last nine and land roughly where I would have expected – in the top ten in the draft. Seems like OL and ground game are okay, but nearly everything else is flailing in grave distress.

Workover job ahead, as we want it to be.

Do not know how to better manage the image size here, sorry.

2026 Offseason
Okay, warmup season in the books. Herb says 11/100. Okay, then.
Lots to do here, as we will fairly faithfully try to work out this offseason to fit our intentions. New stadium plan submitted. Ticket prices adjusted.
Staff “draft” remains a crappy idea, but I guess it gets the job done and nominally rewards prudence on the financial side. Whatevs.
Head Coach: Trumaine Gruttadauria, young and high mot/disc
Off Coord: Dominic Lobdell, 48yo, SMASH, 80PLC, 50SCT, 60YPD
Def Coord: Bo Shapiro, 35yo, 34OVER, 50PLC, 60SCT, 20YPD (others good)

The “draft preview” stage, ok then. There’s gonna be a draft, now we can see the guys. Fine. We have pick 4 overall. Looks like one legit QB in the field, and one freakishly good receiver, so I would imagine we will seek to trade down and pick up selections to replenish the cupboards a bit.

I’m not tagging anyone, lol. No thanks.

Free Agency
Matters a lot here, let’s do a roster rundown, I will try to share an image to portray the sitch:





On offense, the players I see having a reasonable run here are basically:

RB Isaiah Barnett, 27, do-it-all workhorse back
RB Avery Pearl, 26, bargain version but RB1 caliber
TE Dwight Navarro, 24, nice in-line TE comes off 796yd season
TE Maxwell Caerasani, 24, solid TE2 and special teams asset
WR Randall Dunn, 22, the one-eyed man in the land of the blind
LG Carlton Montoya, 25, build-around caliber guy, all-star
RG Camden Marcy, 25, solid run+pass lineman, starting caliber
RT Brian Maes, 27, run-blocking power right tackle, solid

So, that’s fine for what it is – and it’s by design. Not what I would have drafted given the hands-on reins, but with the deliberate sabotage to the pref drafter, we got a nice interior line, and a couple backs behind it – and curiously a couple solid tight ends we can work with.



Defensive assets worth noting here:
DT Sammy Joyner, 34, great talent, but in waning years, obv
DL Kristopher Huynh, 26, we’ll slide him outside to be a starter
LB Damion Cooper, 26, leading tackler, run stopper, ok overall
LB Danny Workman, 23, might slide out to edge rushing WLB
LB Trevor Moore, 26, great zone coverage, solid overall
LB Justice Umbrage, 25, weak in coverage but solid and ST ace
CB Max Machado, 30, perimeter bump/man skills I like
CB Eric Despain, 25, (FA) zone first, decent overall, will keep
CB Kellen Sharp, 23, ballhawk but weak coverage, maybe to FS?
CB CJ Sweeney, 28, zone guy odd ratings mix
CB Tyree Phuong, 22, man/bump combo nice depth guy
DB Bryson Baker, 22, intriguing depth caliber zone DB (to FS?)
SS Malik Brenner, 23, really high end do-it-all 221lb safety
SS Preston Brooks, 28, solid overall safety, low diagnosis
DB Kurt Connell, 23, nice ballhawk DB, may be better outside

Anyway, that’s basically the rundown. So, it’s a red alert situation at both QB and WR, then a massive gap, then I’d say we have relative needs at edge rusher and offensive tackle, then another gap, and then just depth everywhere and specialists.

Okay, for open free agency, I am going to abide by my one-at-a-time rule, which is designed to prevent me from just landing anyone I want. Also, we’ll see how it works in FOF 9, but in earlier iterations my requirement of signing guys to weird contract lengths often left me deliberately leaving dead money on the back end of a deal (i.e. the guy won’t listen to a 7y offer unless it’s really two legit years and bonus, with a series of “void years”) This is pretty common in the real NFL, and one of the reasons I liked this challenge was being pushed to do that crap in ways that FOF rarely does

Anyway, I’m just going to lay out my grid of contract lengths, and note the guy we eventually got here, rather than the tick-tock style narrative…
But bottom line is – no really tantalizing QB in free agency, no shock, so at most I will toss out a few bucks to get a fill-in but that might be after the draft. Receiver we can find some help, though. We are a bit cap-strapped, though, so I will be fishing in the shallow end of the pool, all told. Mainly looking to improve from bad to okay. We’ll try to get “great” later and elsewhere.

1Y: WR Zachary Linke, 30, ST ace, good hands, good fabric guy
2Y: WR Emilio Hunt, 28, 4.32 burner, PR, mixed bag but exciting
3Y: DL Robert Byrne, 27, $2.4/y, max PR tech, push out to edge
4Y: (going to wait until after-draft RFAs free up)
5Y: QB Billy Mease, 28, $2.0.y, 39-rated w/high “good decisions”
6Y: oops, not allowed in FOF9!
7Y: oops, not allowed in FOF9!

Well, I missed out on a couple of pass rushers and a more well-rounded receiver I wanted (kinda good, overall, that I didn’t just land everyone I wanted). But targeted need spots, and feel okay about that. Ideally, everyone here will be merely role players before long, but for right now, I’m mentally penciling in Robert Byrne for 9 sacks as our main edge threat, and WR Emilio Hunt for a DeSean Jackson type season, including a brain fart in a big situation.

On to the draft… table is set for an impact player at 1.4, or else we will explore a full table setting from the lower priced shelves…
We are at pick 4, QB Troy Garcia sits atop the big board, and my need-weighted top target WR Ryan Wade sits at 5th. Tantalizing! In the in-game mock drafts, they show Wade going at 1.1 in 2/4, but on the others he falls to our selection, which would be massive. The mocks have us taking the top CB, which I don’t fully rule out (total stud) but it doesn’t feel like a top need position at the moment as we are fielding roughly a high school passing attack.

Surprisingly to me, the draft starts out WR-WR-WR, this feels like a proper multi-player FOF league after all! So, Ryan is out of mind, but the top QB is here for us. Is that the play? I didn’t really focus on him, to be honest.

Top apparent skills are the “field general” stuff – great test score at the combine, passing touch, throw quality, good decisions, and read the defense all maxed out. Sense rush looks low, and that’s a red flag in FOF up until this version… and very important nonetheless. Only 8 reps suggests noodle arm. I don’t think I’d take this guy in FOF 8. But here, in this situation… ok, I will at least kick the tires on a trade down.

Buffalo offers their 5th and 6th to move from 1.6 to 1.4. Awful. Two thirds to move down to pick 12. A 3&5 to move down to pick 9 feels like the best offer on the table, and it isn’t that overpowering…

MIN sends 1.8, 3.6, and 2027 MIN 6th
MIA sends 1.4

Not sold on QB Garcia, and the guys I like best might still be there at pick 8, I hope this turns out to be something for nothing.

Draft Summary:
So, a couple guys look a bit less titillating on the roster, btu overall I feel fine. C Lord and CB Solaita look superb, we will sort out the right slot for Carriger but I expect impact quickly.

I realty wanted to draft a WR, I just… couldn’t find anyone I loved. Or liked, really.

After the draft, it’s 1y contracts only, plus we saved our 4y offer for some special young guy – let’s hope it’s a wideout.

Nope. Nothing to see at wideout. Running backs who could convert are the best out there, yuck.

Initially I included a rule:

-there can be only one post-draft rookie signed to a multi-year deal

…I’m withdrawing that and just turning it into the simpler:

-there can be only one year on any new offer made to an undrafted rookie or former RFA in late free agency

…will avoid a potential cheesy 5y low-bonus lock-him-up deal with the best looking rookie every season. If I want him, and to have him cheap, I need to draft him.

Anyway, in the late FA stages, we sign five guys – a utility WR Dakota Budd who likely gets a few looks this season, and rookie NT Angelo Eakins, LB Chance Shaw, K Omar Victor, and CB Antonio Winkler. To 56 signed players, meaning most of these guys will stick for this season.

Time to extend a key player, and we get that done by releasing CB Max Machado, as we are very high on our rookie corner as a starter: G Montoya takes a top-of-market deal to stay at around $12.5m/yr. Glad to do it, that’s a fun piece to work with.

Ok, we are ready for the first season of “my” Dolphins on the field. We’ll slot in the wily veteran Billy Mease (40/40) at QB for now, but I do expect to pull the trigger and “see what we have” in the rookie Ashton Meyer (30/41) perhaps mid-season, assuming things are not going great.

2026 Season
Power rating: 42/100 (21st)
Roster rating: 86/100 (31st)
Cohesion: 90/100 (32nd)
Avg age: 24.8 (28th)

I expect growing pains, and probably another season somewhere around last year’s 5-12. My hope would be that that is the last year of us being toward the very top of the draft.



Okay, so it goes a shade better than we had forecasted. QB Billy Meese gets dinged in week two, Ashton goes in and gets three wins in four games, and we keep him in there from that point on. It’s not perfect, but it’s functional and some other things go well – the running game was solid overall, the defense played well, and we end up 7-10 despite being -12 in turnovers. We’ll take that.

:popcorn:

2027 Offseason
Herb awards us a 20/100. Felt like we did better than that, but okay.
We are tops in the league for cap space as the new season approaches – 35 players signed and over $150m in sap space. DT Sammy Joyner did not retire, but he is out of contract into his 35yo season.
From last season, a quick rundown of players who have now earned a slot in our central thinking:

WLB/EDGE Carriger – 7 sacks in 8 games before he went down with an injury. The real deal on the egde, pencil him in for big stuff.
C Gilbert Lord – anchor caliber center, we were lucky to get him in the early 2nd
DE Robert Byrne – the one skill guy tallied 11 sacks and locked down a job, we’ll use him and Carriger as our main attackers. Great value from him.
CB Jaleel Solaita – immediate starter and impact player, 79.5 PD% in year one really encouraging, 15 passes defensed.
…and as for Ashton Meyer, we’re grateful for his first season and a slight elevation of the offense, but I wouldn’t say he has a firm grip on the job quite yet. Still scouting at 32/41, managed 6.4 ypa, and with 20 picks in season one, we think he is a little more careless than we’d prefer. Troy Garcia, incidentally, only played sparingly last season but he’s rated 44/63. We’ll see if he proves to be a serious winner.

We learn that our stadium plan was rejected last season, and now we have to wait 20y to make another effort. Seems totally fair and right. Sucky things suck, I can’t help it here, this is just sucky.

We hold pick 10 in the draft. The class has been released, no mocks are up yet, but overall I like our trajectory.
Across the offseason, I feel like our need hierarchy looks something like this now:

long-term QB
WR1
LT
.
WR depth
DL depth
.
LB depth
ST capacity among reserves

We have a number of veteran players whose contracts have expired, and retaining them at their asking price is an in-game mechanism I’m using here, at least for now, outside the Highlander theme.

I’ll just lay out the main cases, with notes on my actions here:


One last year from DT Joyner would cost us over $18m, I think we are too far away to merit that, and it might impinge our ability to pursue a top tier FA, we let him go.

Umbridge wants to be paid like a star, and I just feel like good-enough LBs are easy to draft/find/sign here, so we will move on from him. I guess that triggers an eventual supplemental draft pick (assuming he signs well elsewhere), I don’t know how to track those in-game but I know it’s a thing, so that’s part of the calculus here, too.

On to open free agency, I think I am very open to spending money at QB if there’s a needle mover out there. Two QBs got tagged so I presume the AI teams are guarding theirs, but cap space might be the hidden story.

Top guy I see is a rather uninspiring 28yo who has great Sense Rush, a few of the lower-tier physical skills rated highly, and Good Decisions. Basically a higher tier version of our current veteran Plan B guy, Bobby, who remains dirt cheap. This dude only wants $7m a year, btu overall I don’t think he changes our fortunes, nor would he prevent me from drafting an intriguing QB prospect, so I’ll lay off at the position and hope for further developments.

We still have decent cap space, even after re-signing DT Joyner. The top-tier offensive tackles seem to be in high demand, seeking 15-20m/yr, basically enough to eclipse our path to getting a receiver of any real consequence.

I do find a youngish guy, a 4th year pass protector LT who looks basically like what I hoped last year’s rookie reach might develop into… so we pursue him instead of the headliners. (And eventually miss out, that's good)

My biggest roster need outside QB is a true X receiver, we look rather like the NYG roster in recent real life years, with five guys best suited to play the slot, and nobody who can make a contested catch downfield. Khari Hilton is the 6’5” physical guy who would bring the whole room together, we’re willing to pay up to try to land him.

1Y: (going to wait until after-draft RFAs free up)
2Y: LB Bubba Beyt, 25, 2/2.3m ST standout, usable LB ratings
3Y: CB Danny Craft, 23, 3/4.5m solid rotation caliber young’n
4Y: WR Khari Hilton, 26, 4/60m physical guy locks down the X
5Y: (going to wait until after-draft RFAs free up)

Under these rules, my one-offer-at-a-time rule means that deferring until after the draft effectively costs me a one-year undfrafted rookie deal. But the potential upside of grabbing a former RFA who looks better than these picked-over 30yo free agents makes the gamble worthwhile here, I think, with that 1y deal especially.

Wrapping up with my restricted free agents, I am mulling the wisdom of this rule from the setup:

-there can be only one year on any new offer made to a restricted free agent

… I don’t really feel like I am taking advantage of these guys by accepting their (common) two year request. For now I’m going to just accept/reject their demands, and treat that as my rule, just no haggling. We re-sign several guys who look useful in rotation-level play, more or less.

Heading into the draft, I would re-assess our needs tree a bit, with a pretty solid WR1 in place:

long-term QB
.
LT
Flanker/WR2
.
Starting LB
WR depth
DL depth
.
LB depth
ST capacity among reserves

My best guess is that we will find either WR or OT with our pick at 1.10, but not a build-around QB.

Not surprised that the OT group is partially available at pick 10, including the guy I liked the best there. I look at the trade market – could get 2x 3rds for a deal-down to pick 20, not bad. A 2&4 this year to move to 21 from Detroit – I decide to take that offer, give up on an all-around LT prospect, and take my chances later… just pretty confident we can get a high quality guy in round two, based on last season.

Then, oddly, something went wrong. I made the trade, but turns out we stayed at pick 10, didn’t realize this, and the pick got auto-selected. That was fun! I don’t recall when I last saved, so I just decide to roll with it, but I didn’t get the guy I wanted at 10 after all… then the draft confusion persists and my 2nd gets taken as well. I just booted this, I guess – either I didn’t click what I thought I had, or the game can’t handle trading out from the pick on the clock. Anyway, two auto picks and no trade.

Draft Summary:
Okay, the two Otto picks seem fine, just aren't "my guys." Of course, quality at DT was there all the way through the draft, one we grabbed a guy much earlier than desired. Ugh. Again, no real answers to the WR problem in day one or two.

We’re up to 56 players signed now, heading into late free agency, so this year we will be able to do some actual pruning down.

Using imgur, if you put an h before the period in the filename, it gets smaller. There's a few different options with different letters. There may be something similar with snipboard

Late Free agency… we still have slots for a 1y and 5y deal to non-rookies. Need a kicker here, otherwise just searching for some unearthed gems.
1Y: WR Luis Hinman, 24, 2.5m, ST ace and decent enough
5Y: LB Quinten Gonzalez, 24, 5/$6m, ST ace and maybe LB6 caliber
We ink rookies TE DeShawn Mullen, RB Osvaldo Schuster, K Amani Camarena, and CB Salvador Kuhlman, and I’d say that each looks to have a real shot at displacing some weaker limbs on the tree later.

62 players aboard into training camp. Simulating 81 days…

In cutdowns, I release another former starter at CB to clear the way for new blood – here it’s Danny Craft, a Saints’ castoff whom we signed as a free agent, and who looks like he can handle multiple coverage schemes pretty well, I hope to see him take a lot of snaps this year.

2027 Season
Without a serious gain at QB, it’s hard for me to see this team getting really good. I’m thinking maybe the fundamentals get a slick better as we have more guys I am comfortable with overall, and we have improved a good deal at WR, at least we hope so. But we overachieved a little last year to get 7 wins, and I think we might edge upward in overall effectiveness, and remain roughly the same place in the win column. I think a 7-10 that feels better than last year’s is about right. If Mease at QB can calm down the interceptions, maybe a click better?

At 3-3, I have a genuine look at Billy Mease. He’s putting together a very standard “capable backup” effort – 7.16 ypa is fine, 10TD/8Int is fine, and 3-3 is fine. Does it make sense to stick with him here? I don’t think that much of Ashton Meyer (34/41) to force him in ahead of Mease (40/40), so I just decide to let it ride, and effectively give up on Meyer as having any real claim on the top job. (I’m letting the game run the depth chart for now, but would be willing to take that over if this felt important)

Well, Billy deflates a bit and we fall to 3-6. I guess we will take another look at Meyer after all, his confidence should be sky high by now, right? Ugh. With him in... we put up 45 and 40 points in his first two games, both wins, and… what the heck is going on here?

Injury management is… a lot. Probably not unrealistic, but definitely really hands on here. I fear that last year’s top rookie Carriger is just going to be a what-if kind of guy, he seems to get hurt every couple of weeks.

Anyway, we edge to 8-7, and are in the race to win our division. Wow.

We close it out with two home wins, and… we are hosting a playoff game, with a 10-7 division title.



By the numbers, we’re not a winning team, we rank 20-something in a lot of stuff. Both WRs Hilton and Hunt will miss the playoff opener. We’re likely just cooked, but the fans should appreciate a chance to buy playoff tickets, right? Things are kinda looking up, and maybe I was very wrong about Ashton… his 16/7 ratio this season is perfectly reasonable Andy Dalton level stuff, at this point.

We put up a fight, but get nipped 20-19 at home to the Patriots, so one-and-out for our playoff stay. Feel pretty good about the state of the roster, and the QB situation shifting in a good way was an unexpected positive development.

2028 Offseason

So, are we an actual winning team now? Like, solved the riddle and everything? I guess… maybe?

I still see a team really lacking in multiple ways, but we have been actively replacing weak links with better players – in ways that the computer-run teams just do not seem to do very well. That matters in a single player game. “How is AI?” indeed.

Skip past the “you can’t even think about a new stadium” stage. Laugh riot. Tickets, fine. Staff we plan to stand pat, but next year will be extensions and maybe drama. Our DC get poached, and we bring in Zachariah Catalan, a 3-4 guy who should continue our current approach, more or less.

Some updated assessments on players, with another year of insight:

-I’m fine walking away from workhorse RB Barnett. He has been fine, but not paying him $22m will help a lot. His ratings faded last season, and between Avery Pearl who looks good enough to put up a 1,000 yard season behind this line and whatever else we have/get, I think we are fine at RB.

-When we signed WR Hunt, that blazing speed and his high-efficiency production elsewhere had me excited. Now, after two seasons, he is up for a new deal, and I am unsure what to do… 8.56 ypt last year was great, can that stick? He’s 30, so not a long term solution regardless.

-Our OL situation is fine, but we have some decisions ahead. LG Montoya and C Lord are locked in for two years, but G Marcy will walk after this season and I might not be able to afford him – and young Neel from last draft doesn’t look any better than fill-in value. Tackles… starting RT Maes was hurt half of last year and now wants a new deal, and we have stragglers from three straight drafts, day two picks at that, all hanging around… so it’s unsettled.


-Edge rush was a strength last season, even with WLB Carriger missing much of the season. DE Hyunh (10S, 3.6%) and Byrne (14.5S, 9.3%) powered a nasty attack all year. Love them, they are cheap but great at the one thing I need them to do. Healthy Carriger could elevate this to an elite group. Lisenby has 3 sacks and should be a good complementary piece on the inside.

-Cornerback room is kind of messy. Solaita is the main man, 68/68 and put up the stats to match, solid #1 guy. Danny Craft was picked on last year, gave up 35 catches with only 6 breakups and one pick – we need better from a starter. 27yo Kellen Sharp is really just a ballhawk type with weak coverage skills, but was on the field for over 600 snaps, that’s a spot where we just need bigger bars. Ideally move Craft down a rung by signing/drafting an honest #2 guy.

Okay… those are the interesting elements of where we are right now. Team feels like it’s “on the way” and another strong offseason, and a better draft, and we should be positioned as a legit contender.

I will again look at the QB universe, but don’t expect to find a guy better than our rookie contract “good enough” guy Meyer. I do think that I could walk away from him if he remains merely good enough and then asks for a $40m/y contract in a couple of seasons. (Side note, QB Troy Garcia got to start in Minn, and put up a really nice season with 6.94ypa and 30/13 ratio, 90/7 passer rating plus nice scrambling numbers)

Overall priorities:

Star WR
Star QB
.
High end OT
Starting caliber CB
Quality young/cheap RB
.
LB depth
WR depth
Kicker

2028 Early Free Agency

Okay, we are atop the league in overall cap space after estimated draftee costs. The “highlander” rules make it more palatable to just re-sign our own players than to go and grab replacements, so we may end up bringing back guys like RT Maes and LB Damion Cooper, we’ll see what their demands look like. Nobody here ius getting the tag, though.
But we ought to have enough cap room to bring aboard one impact player somewhere, I think.
We also have extra picks in rounds 3, 4, and 5 from trades or compensatory selections. So, some chance to throw more darts.

Our own players are up, and we get to yes/no their demands:

Okay, LB depth is not off my worry list, returning these two guys gives us enough bodies to carry us this season. Always open to adding great fits, btu urgency to get “someone to play a little” is covered, these two are both that guy.
WR Hunt gave us a good season last year and his ask was reasonable enough, so he is back. Last year he kinda slid into more of a “joker” role playing slot and flanker here and there, but getting fewer targets than the much less gifted Dakota Budd. I think if I were managing depth charts carefully here, I’d add a legit WR2 and make Hunt the situational joker and Budd the true WR4, on a serious team.

Quite a lot of quality players available, as I reckon teams are having trouble with the back ends of some of the contracts from the distribution draft. LOTS of defensive linemen here, and I’m at least open to grabbing someone with value in mind. We have space to sign guys, so we’ll look primarily in the obvious places.

The demands on these top-tier OT are insane. We’re apparently not the only team hungry for one.

I instead target a wideout, 24yo Kerry Cunningham comes off a 94-1170-7 season in Minnesota with Garcia, and we put in a $17m/y offer to land him as our flanker, the exact right guy to slide down our string of wideouts into more suited roles. Really want him, loading up the bonus to see it happen.

1Y: DL Khalin Vinci, 26, 9.5m 4-bars but all the right ones
2Y: WR Ahmad Rotolo, 26, 2/9m depth WR and good ST/KR combo
3Y: WR Kerry Cunningham, 24, 3/51m solid and young, reliable
4Y: DB Rashod Masterson, 26, 4/12m small but good coverage
5Y: (going to wait until after-draft RFAs free up)

With our own restricted guys, we lock up:
CB Salvador Kuhlman, undrafted last year, still promising
RB Osvaldo Schuster, redshirt last year but seems like RB2
LB Chance Shaw, I really like him as depth piece
K Amani Camarena, seems adequate and I don’t want to be trapped
DT Donnell Kinsey, midseason pickup, nice skills fit actually
LB Diego Lawson, fascinating skills but void at Run D

That actually pushes us to 53 players signed, before a 10-player draft. Feeling more like my usual FOF teams, now…

(I'm having weird problems spacing paragraphs here, pasted from MS Word... not really sure why, sorry for readability worries)

2028 Draft
Going to be vewy, vewy careful out here hunting wabbits. Will try to avoid being foiled by misclicks or misfires.

Thinking I am now pretty open to adding talent wherever we can – eventually cap considerations are going to kick in and make things tricky for us to keep players we like, so having cheap ones ready to contribute anywhere will be a priority.

I would like to bring aboard a true fullback, it seems we have had RBs playing a fair number of snaps at the position (rather than TEs, as I’d set it up manually) so that’s a minor concern for us here.

Adding some legit talent at LB, EDGE, CB, RB, and WR would be welcome, of course. An exciting QB rather than the low-confidence darts sounds nice as well.

Pick 21… not likely we see high-end talent at the rare positions there, but we will be adaptable. Mocks all have us going edge rusher – not inconceivable, but we like the low-rated perfect-bars guys we have there enough to consider that position well-staffed.

My top tackle went at pick 17, so that rules out a silly spring there, I guess.

A combine skipper DE, though, sits at pick 21 for us and… oh those bars. Might be too much to work around. Yup, cannot pass him up.

Draft Summary:
Ok, so… DE Lavelle looked great in the draft preview. After he lands, a few clicks less so. It happens. Still looks like a very solid 3-4 DE but probably not the 18-sack whirlwind I thought I might be getting. It happens.

Really disappointed in the overall rating for WR Hostetler – it seems worse than his apparent bar pattern, a bad sign I think. Nearly dealt out of that pick, tbh, now I wish I had.

2028 Late Free Agency and Preseason

TE Dwight Navarro, fresh off a 1,000 yard season, is holding out and it’s hard to blame him. Wants to make $17m/yr and… I guess someone might pay him that much. Would we? I don’t think so, long term, but if we can get him to show up to camp with a one or two year deal in that range, maybe we do that.

Yup, a one year extension with about $14m each year gets it done. I’m ok with that.

So, we didn’t pick up a running back in the draft, nor in open free agency. Are we okay there? I hope so. Avery Pearl looks to me like he’s good enough to chair a committee, and Eugene Kenyon has put up 6ypc in limited play so far. Schuster looks like he has the right general ratings to do well, so that feels okay overall. But we will kick tires on undrafted rookies, looking for some “tells” that a guy here or there is better than we had him scouted.

5Y: LB/DE Tyrone Strong, 23, 5/5.7m, worth a look at DE, I reckon

URFA pursuits: TE Edwin Logue (turns us down), RB Jameson Morrissey, RB Denzel Rheaume, P Brent Ungerer

We carry 68 guys into training camp, after our summertime break

In weight training, I am trying to size down our 1y flier DL, Khalil Vinci, whom I’d like to play on the outside rather than the inside. 297 will do fine, well done sir, that’s some real commitment for a one year contract.

Cutdown to 60 is pretty tough now. Holding 5x at RB hoping to see some separation and rookie reveals, I think they all make the cut here.

I have carried 4QB to be able to bench a guy (Billy Mease) without taking over the entire depth chart. That might be an unaffordable luxury now, and we may just let Mease walk – this year’s rookie Bower grades at 30/46 and likely is our second call this season if needed.

WR needs pruning now. Following free agency, we feel like our top guys right now are clear – X Khari Hilton, Z is Kerry Cunningham, and we expect to see Ahmen Rotolo and Emilio Hunt getting most of the other targets. Where does that leave a guy like Dakota Budd? He’s 28, had 981/6 last season, but he feels like the guy left out here. Randall Dunn was our WR1 in the fake initial season, and now he is… done? Todd Gaines was drafted just a year ago, and Rod Hostetler got some real draft capital this year but my scout says an uninspiring 28/43 now. Who survives? . . . Gaines gets released, and Dunn is next. Leaves us 6x to preseason, and maybe 6x making the final 53 man.


Ok, 60 was tough. Some preseason reveals should help us find more cuts at RB, but past that it’s going to mean releasing a couple DBs that I genuinely like, and probably a nice LB or two. These special-teams-first guys are such tough calls, it’s hard to keep a 28/28 guy with 95 ST when you’re releasing a 43/43 guy who could give you 300 good snaps in real defense. But we may be doing exactly that – already happened at TE.


Following preseason, we have 2x OL including our best guy Montoya heading to IR but open to returning midseason. Helps with the cutdown chore, but losing Montoya is bad news.

RB cutdown is tricky here, and a new though hits me. Avery Pearl has been my RB1 in pencil, but… he’s 28, is in his contract walk year, plays no special teams, and dropped 3 points in preseason. Is he maybe just a cut? He has the three essentials I want for a handoff-on-first-down RB: Speed 72, Hole Rec 58, Endurance 50. That sounds like a solid contributor to me. Who else do we have?


Okay. I don’t think anyone here is special, so it’s just assembling the best batch for this one year and we’ll check in next season. There’s a body of work in earlier FOF that endurance really matters at RB and maybe everywhere, more than meets the eye. So, I now think of it as something of an overall multiplier, mentally. Rheaume just doesn’t have enough ancillary stuff to make it, he’s my first cut here. 25 year old rookie looks okay but… fuck he’s 25, dude. I’m just keeping the three veterans.


Also releasing a 3rd round pick from this draft, DE Searcy, just looks mediocre at best, cutting bait now rather than sacrificing a productive veteran to let him develop.


Now need 3 more cuts, likely from the LB/DB group. I like so many of these guys. 5th round Rookie S Keegan Fox just can’t cover anyone, he’s out. But 6th round rookie S Arthur Lee, though undersized, has enough nice bars that he’s in.

4th round rookie LB Figueroa – again, just a few good bars, rates low overall, and declined upon preseason reveal. Gone, sorry. AT LB, Danny Workman is a 4th year guy with 139 tackles over the last three seasons – he’s up against young guys to keep his slot. 54 special teams helps. He wins out and we cut Bubba Beyt, a 95 ST guy who really shouldn’t be on the field otherwise.

My cutoff for special teams, now, is at 52 – that’s the lowest-rated guy who is “encouraged” to play on ST. I’ll try to keep that as a measure. We have 8x guys rated 75 or better at ST.

2029 Season

I lapsed in providing some numeric context for the last season, here it is again and I will try to remain faithful in posting this:

Brand Value: 335m, #17
Franchise Value: $5.71B, #22
Power Rating: 66/100, #9
Roster Rating: 91/100, #26
Cohesion Rating: 92/100, #3
Avg Age: 25.0, #29

Okay, so we end up loading up behind our somewhat pudgy QB Ashton Meyer, and he delivers a late season rally and a division title. Hard to say that we overachieved, but I still feel like the stats don’t support this as a serious contender, at least not yet.

Two more serious people at WR, and two more additions to the edge rushing complement, and… perhaps we are more ready to be serious players. I’ll again forecast that we stay the course on wins, but look better fundamentally doing it… I’ll guess 10-7 again but a more solid effort overall.


Two games in, we are 1-1 but our OL is in shambles, two tackles onto the IR and we are grabbing hoboes off the street to play. The OL was the initial build-around asset here, now we are in trouble there.

Ashton is slingin’ it, even behind a makeshift line, and we race to 4-1, but with two 5-0 and 4-1 clubs ahead in the division, WTF? Meyer gets hurt and we have to have the rookie come in to start, we’ll see how that goes.

Rookie QB Bower is fine and acquits himself nicely to a 3-1 run. Meyer returns and we lose two, with injuries just bedeviling us. With three straight losses under Meyer, and a wild card berth feeling elusive at only 7-5, now the winds may be shifting – by the numbers, Bower has been the better guy this season, QB ratings are 96.7 for Bower and 83.6 for Meyer. Wow, pull the trigger and give it to the rook?

Bower gets the ball. And delivers three straight wins. Wins are a QB stat here in Miami. We’re 10-5 and in the driver’s seat to make the playoffs, despite the Jets coming out of nowhere to be a 13-2 powerhouse. TE Navarro joins our co-star Cerasini on the IR, and we hobble to two late losses, and wrap the season at a mere 10-7. That was my prediction, but I had hoped it would feel better than this, where we gave away our playoff slot with a piss-poor finish.



Can feel good about a few things – the run game was just fine even behind a makeshift OL. Mid-pack with 4.51 ypc, and both Schuster and Pearl looked the part as effective time-splitters.

The secondary, especially with Masterson stepping in as a starter at CB and letting our role players just be role players – it’s basically where I want it to be. We don’t generate a ton of turnovers, only 13 picks all year, but my top corners broke up 32 passes for 110 receptions allowed – that’s not too bad at all.

Next year, we will need to look closely at QB, but nearly every other aspect of the team feel pretty good to me.

2029 Offseason
Herb says 30/100. Herb is rather rigid, in my view.

Stadium? Not available. Tickets? Whatever.

I want to extend coach contracts, but I run into this damned thing again where I cannot get the option to do so to activate. Left click, right click, do a rain dance, whatever. The answer seems to be, in the end, left click, swear a bit, left click again, wait a few seconds, and then the option opens up. It’s like “fuck me” is the magic word, a la “open sesame.” We re-up with everyone, and cannot improve on our uninspiring DC so he stays too.

Our top level decisions are what to do with two guys whose contracts have expired S Malik Breiner has been making $4m a year but that’s going to go WAY up soon, for us or someone else. And G Camden Marcy was an early pick in the allocation draft, so he has been expensive, but should remain so as a maybe A-tier (not S-tier) starter. I’d like to keep both players, but it’s a numbers game, as always. Both are positions where we can likely find effective “value” players to do fine for way less than market-setting contracts. Oddly, all three of our veteran safeties are up, so we will be basically building/shaping that position for the foreseeable window shortly.


We have draft pick 1.18, and an extra sixth rounder this year as a compensatory pick. That’s fine, we are now at the point where the late round guys are having trouble sticking at all, as most everyone on the team is now there for an active reason, not just inertia.

I don’t have any particular hunches on where we go with our top pick, as of yet.

S Malik Breiner is rated 71/71 overall, and his tag value would be $17.4M – for the first time, I actually see the value in using the tag and apply it on him, intending to reneg him out but not wanting to be at his mercy. We’ll see how that looks… his loyalty plunges to zero after we apply the tag, so maybe negotiations will be difficult. (That would be good for the game experience, even if bad for this team right now)

I also note that last year’s prove-it contract with DE Khalin Vinci paid off nicely, he posted 7 sacks on 412 pass plays, yielding a 7.0% PR% which is pretty solid. I am open to paying him, at age 27 he has his peak right ahead of him.

So, re-signing our own guys, the summary:


Pleasantly surprised that DE Vinci was so cheap, I was steeling myself for an 8-10m/y price tag, and he asked for less than 3 for some reason. Dumb game, this is a good player who wanted $9m/y last year and delivered on it.

My decision on CB Winkler was the toughest one here. Older guys I am okay letting them leave. Winkler is basically a zone-only guy whom I’d use as a nickel/dime guy here and there and be okay with it, if I were micromanaging the roster. But now he wants to get paid 3m+ and… I think I can replace that skill set with a 4th round rookie, or thereabouts.

With Byrne, he wanted a 3y deal, I don’t want to commit to that, but I will be open to signing him on a 1y deal in open free agency, I think, to fill out our rotation at edge rusher. 33.5 sacks in three seasons with us is special stuff.

In open free agency, we have our limited arsenal to work with, I am looking primarily at RB, TE, LB, and CB.

Whoa, is an S-tier inside linebacker ever worth being the highest paid player on the team? This guy might be. Wow. Asking for $24m/yr and likely to get it, but I see him at 120 tackles and 15 passes defensed playing as our strong-inside guy. My bias is against paying LB since it feels like there are a lot of pretty decent ones cheap, but this guy is amazing.

For $10m/y it looks like we could lock up a high end running back, and that makes some sense to me. Ted Atkins has averaged nearly 5 ypc in his 4y, he’s still only 25, and has the ratings bundle that I lean into. Great fit. And, he wants his deal right away, so win or lose I am freed up to move on quickly. He’s our top target. The LB I cannot justify for that much scratch, if he goes unclaimed maybe later.

1Y: DE Robert Byrne, 30, 2.9m bring it back for another run
2Y: (going to wait until after-draft RFAs free up)
3Y: RB Ted Atkins, 25, 3/28.5m standout RB1 workhorse guy
4Y: TE Robbie Brock, 26, 4/5.0 minsal ST guy can block, TE3
5Y: SS Erick Twedt, 23, 5/6.1 low-End but high Zone covg

Feeling okay here on filling holes. We will hit the draft with 49 players, and short of a legal roster in a few places – I would assess our needs like this:


LB starter
TE depth/future
CB contributor
.
RB depth
K improvement
ST aces anywhere
WR depth
DL depth
FB real improvement

…with the ever-present “impact QB or WR” always unspoken as the thing we’d move heaven and earth for.

Let’s go get it.

2029 Draft

As we approach the draft… do we give LB/ED Carriger a $15m fifth year guarantee? Cannot justify it, he had 10 sacks last year but he has had so many injury worries, I’d like to see one more steady season before really doubling down.

Mock drafts have us taking WR or LB here, and I’m okay with that, will be watching both positions closely. I keep being put off by the price tag for top offensive tackles, and have that position in mind too should a star-caliber guy show up. Oh, quarterback, if a godsend lands there, we’d at least kick the tires, right?

Staff wants to go with a nearly flawless-looking tight end prospect in round one and… well, they’re not out of their minds here. This guy goes at pick 1.03 in a MP FOF8 draft, I think.

Draft Summary:
Mayhall looks like the whole thing.

Again, my second round pick looks really underwhelming after landing on our roster – bad scouting? Just me being a dummy? Open to either. Sanchez jumps to a more respectable-looking 44/67 when we slide him to DE, so that will likely be his shot anyway. And he’s sorta similar to Carriger, so a nice hedge if Carriger doesn’t look worth committing to this time next season.

34/52 is not bad for the late round dart throw at QB, but we’ll see, I reckon he is a pick machine waiting to happen. But he’s got high StR and Accuracy, so maybe there’s something here. Another nice hedge to have.

Into late FA, we have a 2y slot to use, and can put in some 1y offers on undrafted rookies.

2Y: DB Davis Beam, 24, 2/2.4, experienced can play some S and ST

We sign UDFAs: DE Cole Cervantes, CB Nelson Laramie, DE Donald Moroz, WR Clarence Piller. . . not setting high hopes but each have something we like about them, obviously.

63 signed as we drift into the summertime…

And I’m thinking it’s maybe time we take over the team and become more hands-on through the season. Will go more slowly, but maybe give me a chance to manage the team the way I prefer to with my MP teams in FOF 8. More “fit guys into the system” than just grabbing the best I can and seeing what happens.

/ Time Passes /

Update: This was not miserable, once I eventually unlocked what the fuck to do on these gameplanning pages (just from a p.o.v. of … “it says drag and drop, okay, from where and to where to I drag something, and what does that something look like?”). A couple clicks less awful than I had expected.

I started with defense and spent a little time creating a D that runs more or less like the one I try to run with my FOF 8 teams. No deep testing yet, but I ran a couple seasons on a different abandoned FOF9 universe and it didn’t seem to ruin everything, so… we’ll give it a shot here. For now I think I will leave the offense pretty generic. I started by importing a McVay-based playbook someone posted on FOFC, and just turned the gameplanning over to the game staff. I’ll likely just leave it there, for this season and just focus on my D being used the way I prefer.

I do discover in this process that FOF 9 will not allow me to play an OLB in a DE role, unlike FOF 8. That is. . . very bad news for Mr. Carriger, who is a pretty decent linebacker but has the proper skills to play much better as an edge rusher. I expect him to backslide in my defense this year, and likely take a walk after this season wraps up. Quite disappointing, he cannot add weight and has not way to get into the true edge role.

(Oops, wrong about that, he can formally switch roles even at 258lb, and voila he is in my plans to take snaps at DE this year, all is not yet lost)

2029 Preseason and Cutdowns

Okay, cutting 3x to get to 60 for preseason.

So, I plan to take control of the depth chart. But when I go to play the first preseason game I’m getting an error message. It’s not complete. So I go through piece by piece and fill it out. Still an error. I have staff set it for now. This sucks.

Cutdowns to 53, again painful. I like DE Kristopher Hyunh, but at 30 and only slated for a modest rotational role, he’s a cut here. Several more “guys we like” are casualties here, and I think I need to be more contemplative about the cut-to-53 as I’m out there picking up and re-signing marginal guys. In FOF 8 I’d be driven by affinities here, but in FOF 9 I guess it’s special teams and longevity/playability for cohesion.

So it goes.

Now to the tedious task of reassembling my depth charts the way I want them. I don’t like spending, what, ten minutes on this… even if I have decided that managing it hands-on for the season is for the best.


Ok, set. Carriger remains the trickiest player to slot, but we are going to try to play him in a hybrid role. He remain suited to play off-ball LB, but has pass rushing skills as well. We’ll give him a shot to do some of each, for now.

And at QB, what to do? Here’s a quick rundown of relevant ratings:



So, it’s not an easy call. I have been riding the “hot hand” for every half season it seems, and every three game losing streak is a window to a new guy. This year’s rookie looks, maybe, better than last year’s rookie did, and the guy before him is fully developed and uninspiring.

I don’t sense any of these guys are “plus” players, so I decide to lean into the best Sense Rush, and that’s the rookie, Brice. We’ll see what he’s got, our staff grades him the brightest prospect overall, and it’s not like the others have been any kind of sure thing.

Ok, it’s the moment of truth. No, not the opening kickoff exactly. It’s the moment when I click that I want to play the game and we wait to see whether we get an error message again saying I cannot proceed because I have not turned over some authority to staff, or my definitely-completed depth chart is not complete. I hold my breath, and…

2029 Season

Game on!

And a win!


At 3-2, the injuries are… just a lot. CB1 and CB2 both out for several weeks. Now our only functioning outside receiver, Hilton, is gone for the season. We pick up a 6’4” physical human from the waiver wire, but he’s at best a “sacrificial X” for us the rest of the way, and worthless old man Emilio Hunt is gonna see some targets now, my dudes.

At 3-3, it feel like things might slip away here. But I’m not souring on QB Francisco Brice, even though he’s upside down at 10TD/14Int. We’ve got positive chemistry with 5 of 6 receivers, and I’ll be damned if I know how that shit works but I like what I see there. Over 7 yards per target in a rookie season is not bad either, he might be a guy who can hold it down a while here.

Quick note here. So, when I deactivate an injured player, I hate that when I go to the depth chart to rearrange things around to accommodate that guy’s absence, he is still sitting there in the depth chart everywhere. I’m still sorta learning my guys’ names here, so it’s a bit of a rabbit hunt every time (wait, who was the guy we just sent to IR?), and if I miss one instance I see a complete depth chart but get the damned error message again and have to go snipe hunt for him. I dislike this a lot, older FOF games did what makes sense to me – newly-inactive guys leave open spaces in the depth chart grid, obvious to see and easy to find and replace.

How is this team 6-4? I feel like our defense is sabotaging us badly, we’re getting no pressure on opposing QBs and we’re giving up way too many passing yards. Awful.

Okay, we hobble along, step by step. We win more than we lose. The division fell apart, don’t know what happened to the mighty Jets from last year, but another 10-7 season is indeed enough to put us into the postseason again. How bout that.

Poor Francisco Brice ends up throwing 598 passes, going for 4377-33-28 in a Peytonesque rookie campaign. His 001/100-rated Intelligence score is… I don’t know… maybe somehow an asset? Maybe I have the wrong Colts QB, maybe he is Jeff George reincarnated instead? Good decisions? Read the defense? Who needs that shit. Grip it and rip it. Deliver me from the pick six.



I plan to do a position-by-position breakdown, as we had a LOT of players get pressed into service – maybe it was just more apparent since I was managing the depth chart – and I want to try to take stock. I feel we had a lot of “break glass in case of emergency” players getting a lot of snaps out there.


In the postseason, my hopes are not high, and we live up to them… a loss to Tennessee in our opener and we remain in search of that elusive first postseason win. But three straight ten-win seasons isn’t awful, right now we’re feeling pretty good.

Are we having fun?

Damn a division title with that defense is truly impressive and helped by an abysmal AFC East?

Yeah, I think my defensive scheme is a net negative, I don't blitz a lot and the pass rush tailed off in my first year using my scheme that leans that way. I plan to tinker a bit to bring it a bit closer to the norm, which is what FOF has historically favored.

2029 Roster/stats Wrap-Up


Kind of…? I like the process of writing/narrating a career. It adds some vague sense of accountability that’s missing when I just play a game solo. And it slows me down, which is pro-immersion.

Am I loving this game? Not really, I don’t think. But I like football enough, and “career mode” enough that I’mma stick with it a bit more.

Looking at the roster now, a bit – focusing on each position group, will go deep where I find it interesting.


QB: Okay, I am sufficiently enamored with Brice that I think he’s my guy for the foreseeable future. I’ve said it before, so maybe we waver, but no plans to scan for a free agent, or anything like that. Ashton Meyer, oddly, is only just now finishing his rookie deal, seems odd… I don’t expect to re-sign him and I suspect he’s maybe a clipboard holder elsewhere.


RB: We signed Atkins to be the do-it-all guy, but then saw him taking a ratings dive. Okay. We split time in the main ball carrier duties and they were very good behind our healthy O-line: Atkins with 5.80ypc and 1048/3, Schuster with 5.15ypc and 896/9. Not great for fantasy players, but good for winning games, I think.

My ideal roster would round out with a legit 3rd down back (Atkins is in that slot now) so I will look for a guy with strong blitz pickup and special teams skills, likely as a mid round draft pick. But pretty pleased here overall.

Incidentally, FB Abrams is a special teamer who technically fills the FB role, but doesn’t add any real skills. I would like to replace him with a plus guy, but the rookies I like tend to go in rounds 3-4 and that feels too soon for my tastes.

TE: Mayhall is the truth. As advertised. 568/8 in his rookie season despite missing a few games with an injury, I expect big things ahead. Brock Bowers sort of build-around talent. I’d love to keep Navarro, but maybe he requests big money and we can’t pay a TE2 top dollar. Robbie Brock is pretty much what I like from a TE3 (blocking/ST), but replaceable with a draft pick, I think.

WR: This group is interesting. SE Hilton and FL Cunningham are both rated 59 and both signed for 2030, and that’s it. Both are good enough to consider as long term investments, or at least one more contract’s worth. Losing Hilton really hurt, as he is our only guy physically well suited to play in the X – adding another bigger body to play there is a priority.

Soph Hostetler is playing okay, put up 415/4 but isn’t noticeably better than the walk-on guys playing around him. Emilion Hunt, 32, is total dust. Clarence Pillar, UDFA pickup then cutdown victim, came back for two injury-driven stints and actually put up okay numbers… and he’s got positive chm with all our QBs, I think he is an end-of-roster keeper.

Ahmad Rotolo had every chance to step up and deliver this year, and… nope, he’s got multiple big red bars but he plays like a special teamer. He’s not signed for next season, I’m open to re-upping but won’t overpay as he missed a big window this year.


OL group: The group stayed healthy this season, likely a major part of our offense playing so well. 75/57 C Lord is up for a new deal, and I am inclined to pay up – even though I feel like good-looking centers are plentiful in the drafts. Bird in the hand theory here. G Montoya is also a build-around caliber guy when healthy. G Marcy is stable and signed, so the OL interior is in god shape.

Tackles? Less so. Brian Maes is costing 13-14 under the cap, and it’s mainly salary, so we could free up cap space by moving on, and I think we are likely to do that. He’s 55, run-blocker first, and isn’t a lot better than replacement value, I think. Wharton (25, 53/53) is signed for 2030 and he could start at RT, I think. Amir Criblez started 12 games before getting hirt, I think we pencil him in at LT for this year, and I will consider re-signing Keion Walden (25, 45/45, pass blocker) but more likely fill in with youth there.

A high end left tackle would make me rather happy in this draft.

The D-line was a big scramble this year, as we had a serious mix of old and new. I moved on from Hyunh at the start of the year, and should have done so with Robert Byrne as well, he backslid badly and was on the sidelines toward the end of the season, so lights out there.

The upside, though, was a dynamite season from hybrid edge-backer Nathan Carriger, a former 1.08 overall pick. He’s got DE1 pass rushing ability, high endurance to play all day, and is actually strong in zone coverage – so we used him a bit everywhere. Staying healthy, he delivered a monster season: 73+24 tackles, 9 sacks, and a 7.9 PR% even while playing Sam linebacker in base formations. 11.9% tackles and 7.9% pressures – does not come along that often.

Rest of the DL corps, summarized here, ratings and 2029 stats:




Not a ton of tumult here, I plugged in guys for Byrne as the season went on, felt good about the key guys. With two young guys ready to play next year, we are mostly okay here, I’ll listen to Lawson’s demands with interest, I like him.

Linebackers went through some things this year:

Okay, I feel like I spend the entire season reshuffling for injuries here every week. A few guys put in way too many snaps, some of them playing too much in disadvantageous positions. We will absolutely re-sign Chance Shaw (low overall but has the key stuff we like) and probably will want to add some real depth here, at least one more guy who is very comfortable dropping into zone, and give us a lot of snaps against multi-WR formations.


And why not with the secondary, sorta the same story there:



Okay, Solaita out for 11 games, I ended up relying on Kuhlmann WAY more than we would have guessed. Twedt looks good, but his super low endurance leaves him limited. So Masterson and Kuhlmann held down CB1/2 nearly all season, and while our pass D was not good, they were not awful, really. Thin pressure is hard on outside cover men, especially without many double teams called up in our defensive gameplan.

I think we re-sign Solaita almost no matter the price, and I think I’d like to improve on our CB depth… want to add someone better than both Craft and Laramie, as something of a priority.


okay, turning the page now…

2030 Early Offseason

Herb says 42/100. Pro-gress, I suppose.

Again, no retirements. Young league, I suppose, and our team exemplifies that.

Brand value: 393m (#9)
Franchise value: $5.98B (#18)

I note that Green Bey tried to build a new stadium, they too got rejected, but they still show up as having a 2014 facility, so they are able to try again. Not us.

Tix, done. Staff, re-upped, but with a new young DC who had a bit more of the ancillary stuff than our last guy.

We have just 7 picks in this draft. But my end-of-roster slots have been tougher to sort out these last couple of years, so I am not anxious about that whatsoever.

Tag Gilbert Lord as a $34m center? No thanks. Carriger at DE for $21m? Actually more sensible but again, we’ll take our chances with the own-team extension window.

We are, however, atop the league in effective cap space (after the draft costs taken into account), though we come into this season with a scant 36 players signed… hmm, by the numbers we are going to have to re-up with a lot of our own guys at their demands, whether we like it or not, just to get to 53 this year, I think. No crisis, but will need to keep that in mind – I have had one or two undrafted rookies stick per season, but without a “practice squad” system here, it’s tougher to carry younger developing players.

(Side note: I wonder how hard it would have been to introduce that game element? I have been playing some Madden in recent years, and in their franchise mode it works pretty well)

Ok, on to our own free agents:



Biggest decision there is not re-signing CB Solaita, who is asking for a fortune off an injury season, and CB Craft, who wanted over $4m/yr. I will make that position a somewhat higher priority, but I was not happy having Craft on the field so much last year anyhow, but if we let both of them walk, that makes the position a top tier need.



1Y:
2Y: LB Will Meyers, 27, 46/46, 2/5.4m, coverage-first great ST
3Y: WR Bucky Ruark, 26, 56/56, 3/17m, 6’2” physical X-receiver
4Y: CB Tre Morris, 27, 4/21.2m high endurance, no injuries
5Y:

I find CB Tre Morris, who looks like a very solid fit with us as likely our CB1. A couple stags later, CB Solaita leaves on a new deal elsewhere, so that now feels like a money-saving swap for us.

I’m not looking to break the bank, but I do want another jam-beater outside receiver, to correct that clear roster gap. Bucky Ruark fits the bill, he’s been productive for years, and at only 26 is in the zone for a new contract that won’t break the bank. And at 6’2” 213, he is the body type I want out there to relieve Hilton every so often.


LB Will Meyers is a coverage-focused LB, the type I felt I was missing last season. I still want to land a useful LB in this draft, but securing a 27yo veteran sounds ok here as well.

I’m going to sit on the 1y and 5y windows for former RFA players, as we try to get a younger player or two locked up after the draft.

2030 Draft
Approaching the draft, I feel like I already scratched the main itches that I had in free agency, so I have more latitude to think ahead to future roster gaps. Offensive tackle have been going for offensive prices in the open market, so I am very open to finding a long term answer there if I can.

Quality additions at CB, WR and LB also feel important. A more helpful FB would be nice. A third-down running back with the right combo of skills. Maybe a cheaper depth TE. Another dart throw at QB, prolly.


DT Tanner Lisenby for a $13m fifth year? I think I’ll just work out an extension – he has turned into a good player, even if he wasn’t what I wanted with a top ten selection.


I have not been open to trading UP in the draft, typically, but… there’s an OT I’d make a deal to go up and get. Was thinking maybe I’d trade up to pick 12 or 15… but he’s gone at pick 1.4, so much for that idea.

At 22 there is a good-looking OT still there. He’s got maxed-out volatility, which I tend to ignore but it kinds jumps off the screen at me with this guy. Not sure if I like that here.

The best overall player I see is another tight end, but I don’t see how to make that make any sense for us.


Draft Summary:
This draft haul has a look about it… not great. Early signs suggest the LB and DE may be the best of the lost. We’ll see.

Late pickups:

1Y: LB Ricky Spindler, 31, 51/51, 2.4m, Solid fill-in coverage LB
5Y: none

UDFAs: QB Marquise Colson, DT Camdem Threats


So, Spindler will likely cost a young player a roster spot, but even if he adjusts at -5 he is really just what I needed last season – a high endurance guy who can play any LB slot, and can cover well. I’m going to fight the last battle again, it appears.

We rumble through the preseason without major incident or injury, great news. TE3 Brock is out for the year, and I never signed a depth TE so we have to fill in with a random rookie.

Cutdown to 60 is hard, per usual. Noteworthy cuts: day three of my draft, basically. 4th round DE Riordan survives by sliding inside to be the backup DT, the rest are gone.

2030 Season


Not sure if that illuminates much of anything, tbh.

Expectations: well, we seem to pull 10-7 rabbits out of the hat whether it feels like it’s going well or otherwise. No serious QB chatter, gladly, though this year’s undrafted rookie looks like he might be pretty good and with maxed-out Sense Rush.

I’ll get optimistic and project us to take a step forward and post 11 wins.


I work through the depth chart. I have loved FOR forever, but I always feel funny with these little annoyances that I can get over, but present to us all the time. On this page why does it say that firming up a place in the depth chart is shown as a “Checkmark” when it’s a “Red X” on my screen? They are not the same thing. I mean, it’s nowhere near the top of a to-do list, but these are the cracks in the paint that get some buyers to walk away, right? One man show, I understand. It is what it is.

Anyhow, I am going to try to really use the checkmark system this year, set my depth chart the way I want it, and then when there are injuries I will uncheck the newly vacated slots and try to have the staff do the fill-ins. Might be less tedious. I hope so. Clicking 66 boxes on defense to do this once (for lack of a “checkmark on all players”) is tedious enough.


Three wins and Francisco is ROLLING. Then four losses, and we are REELING. Sounds about right.

We are again not sacking the QB nearly enough, still <1 per game. Not gonna cut it. I need to dig into the gameplan and fiddle more.

We win 3 of 4, and now are back atop the weak division at 6-5. Are we good? Still unsure. Francisco is 25/19 in his TD/Int ratio, a bit better but I think he is just a free spirit, and will simultaneously power the offense and stress the defense. We’re gonna play some high scoring games all year, it’s clear.

The error message saying you cannot advance the next game because something is wrong (and the implied “have fun finding the problem, asshole!”) is really getting on my nerves. I get it like 20-30 times a season playing this way (week by week, adjusting for injuries each stage and apparently forgetting one of the six things I needed to adjust). Not dropping Inactive/Out players from the depth chart is a major part of it, but… maybe it’s just my lack of familiarity with the “user interface.” But this is the stuff that makes me just stop playing other football sims. Annoying.

Oh, and I don’t know how many times I have tried to “drag and drop” a player (which, incidentally, messes up my second monitor with garbage when I do it… but we know this game is written to work on exactly one setup and when you don’t follow that exactly, the advice is “don’t play the game that way”) and accidentally tried to drop the player name onto the “LG” spot (ERROR) instead of the spot to the right of the “LG” tag, where he is supposed to go. Ugh. I just need to remember all the unintuitive stuff better to get past all these little things.

Anyway, it takes me 6 cycles of error messages to final get things sorted out for my “December 8” game (it’s up to me to count the week number, apparently, unlike literally everything I have ever seem trying to be pro football).

Sorry for the mini-rants, there. I like the game. Some repetitive stuff that interferes with me really liking it can get triggering.

In our… uhh… Week 15 game against the Giants, we get the win but lose RB Ted Atkins maybe forever. Definitely the season. Yikes. We bring back the guy who was in camp with us to serve as RB3, but my vague sense that spending big at RB wasn’t worth much will get put to the test here… we are 8-6 and look to be a playoff team.


Our season finale against 8-8 Buffalo is for the division title. WR1 Cunningham, who has put up an impressive 1,681yd season, is out. And, so is… 5,000 yard passer Francisco Bryce. 30 weeks. Fuuuuuu.
So, it will be EJ Bower in a must-win game. Though, to be fair, this doesn’t look like a team that could make a deep run if we sneaked into the playoffs, anyhow. It’s just for the stat, and the run of 10-win seasons, I suppose.

We lose, 23-21, and slip to 9-7 and give up the seemingly impregnable division lead after losing 2 or 3 down the stretch. Rats.



So, we score 30 a game, 1st in passing, 1st in total offense, but near the very bottom in defene. I think if I just turn over the defensive playcalling to my staff, this team likely takes off.

I don’t think I am so wedded to my style, nor my long term future in this game, to resist that, so I reckon we will do so, and get back to more blitzing and pressures than I otherwise prefer. The pass rush just isn’t getting home in this system. Perhaps we will switch to a more conventional 4-3, where I feel plenty comfortable with the overall vanilla scheme. (As I type this, it feels like the completely obvious idea to pursue)

this is gonna make me actually play FOF this winter, me thinks. I couldn't really get into it at all, but...its been a long time.

Basically my mindset here... I gave the game a couple half-hearted tries, and walked away. But I know every FOF has been really good under the hood...and I'm glad I have ferreted my way into it here.

2031 Early Offseason
So, we were #1 in passing offense overall, so I cannot be all that displeased with that. But, we have nominally or top two receivers up for contracts, and getting to “challenging” ages, so it’s worth looking into who did what in this offense.

For the most part, I gave up really depth charting, and put a few key guys into important slots, and used the staff recommendation to balance out the rest. In retrospect, that seemed to give our best X Receiver Hilton fewer targets than I think I would have preferred, many of them inexplicably going to third year man Rod Hostetler.

Summary below:





What I see here is: Kerry Cunningham ATE as a true WR1. Hostetler, kinds surprisingly, delivered us over 8 yards per target on his many chances, so can’t really complain there. Hilton was productive outside, as well. TE1 Mayhall wasn’t a workhorse like we had back when our WR talent was sparse, but he is worrisome to defenses to keep everyone honest inside.

The supporting cast – nothin much to see there. Ruark with big per-play numbers but that feels like small sample size.

Honestly my biggest question here is… how much do we believe in Hostetler? Our 1st from this draft just looks like a miss, but is Hostetler as good as these numbers make him look? Ratings don’t really persuade me he is s star – top ratings are 76 catch in traffic, 71 secure the ball, and 76 good hands… so maybe he’s a vacuum cleaner out there, an Adam Thielen type? Don’t know, but I do not look at him and say that I can just let a guy like Hilton or Cunningham walk because Hoss is completely “that guy.” I think he’s probably a one-more-year guy and then we’ll see based on contract demands… I chart him roughly where the IRL Chargers are today with Quentin Johnston, if that sounds right. Useful lately, but not really sold yet.

I think my plan will be: re-sign Cunningham, at anything that’s at all reasonable, preferably for like three years, taking him to age 30. Assess Hilton, but if he is affordable (like $10m/yr or less), plan to re-up with him. If not we’ll push Ruark into playing a LOT at the X next season. And let it ride with Hostetler, and we will judge him after his four year tour is complete.


For 2030, herb sees that we backslid a bit, grades us down to a 34, again seems fair enough.


Oliver Walters is only 32, but we bring him and his 43-under scheme in to revamp the overall look on defense. 60 Play-calling is good not great, but he has ancillary ratings that look good, and I think he can grow with us, in theory. Welcome in, kid.


We have a shot to re-sign our own veteran players, and… a quick aside here. I feel like I need a rule here, since getting this opening stage of free agency to re-neg is realistic overall, but it’s a big change from previous FOF games. So, I decide that with “own player extensions” I am going to use my own Highlander setup… There can be only one re-signed player of each duration. I’ll make it so, beginning this offseason.

So, for our own players to be re-signed:

1Y: LB Ricky Spindler, 3.4m, just a solid guy to have on hand
2Y: G Carlton Montoya, 2/38, feels like our foundation player
3Y: WR Kerry Cunningham, 3/62, reliable WR1 and centerpiece guy
4Y: DT Tanner Lisenby, 4/66, rock solid max endurance good stats
5Y: RT Dixon Wharton, 5/19, good enough run blocker to commit to

considered but not signed yet:

WR Khari Hilton wants $20m/yr and didn’t even crack 1,000 in any season with us. Injuries and whatnot have left him a click below my hopes, and I think we likely move on, unless his demands come way down.
CB Salvador Kuhlman has played okay (maybe a shade better than that) for us, in heavier duty than I would have liked, and I will consider him when we get to open free agency, just couldn’t prioritize him here. A long term deal might be nice, if we could get him to listen to that.

LT Amir Criblez won’t settle for a 1y deal, so we will target him in open free agency, seeking to lock him up to offer stability at the tackle position, at least.

LB Ellis Chatterjee basically the same deal, not urgent to re-up but he has been solid, at least, for us.

. . . I definitely like this setup better, and fits with the house rules concept nicely. Nobody but a fossil wants the 1y deal, so that makes it a triage process.

Now in open free agency, I have a couple of our own guys noted above, but will look for WR depth anywhere we can find it, as we have gotten precious little out of Rotolo and Ruark, despite them looking to me like they’d get a fair share of looks, and last year’s top rookie Durst doesn’t look like he can play much.

Have to at least mull the RB position, Atkins might be toast, but if so I’m most likely to go back to the “committee of decent guys behind a good line and alongside a good passing game” philosophy, and hope for 5 yards per carry.

We do have something of a need at interior DL, even with the extension for Lisenby. I have Kent Riordan, a decent looking young guy there for now (at 283, we’ll try to beef him up regardless) but I think he’d be better suited to be DT3 rather than a nearly full time player. That might be a target spot.

But this year, after our expensive re-signings, we are on the low side in cap room available. That’s new (and welcome).


With the spacing of our own players’ timing, I think the play is: look around for BPA types early, then lock up CB Kuhlmann and OT Criblez later when they want to settle, likely back to back. Of those latter two might be open to 5y and 4y deals, I’d be good with that.

On his chosen date, WR Khari Hilton is asking for 2/30, and I pass on that. I’m open to 1y later if nobody comes knocking, but I just do not want to get trapped in a bad contract if he is just never going to be a main target.

Hilton signs with the Giants, and we move on with a consolation prize who ought to grab some of the targets being freed up.


1Y:
2Y: WR Conrad Hashimoto, 29, 2/9, Rotation caliber and ST star
3Y: DL Duane Amos, 28, 3/12, Veteran fills a need (DT) perfectly
4Y: LT Amir Criblez, 27, 4/13, Run-focused guy can play either T
5Y: we target CB Kuhlmann, 25, but bid too low and he walks

We re-up RFA QB Marquise Carlson, thinking he is my main backup forward.
Pretty much according to plan other than missing on our CB.

2031 Draft

Eyeing the draft, we again have flexibility to take the best overall players, but WR and OT remain “avoid paying the absurd market premium” slots I’m focused on, even having re-upped with 3x at those positions just this year.


Draft Summary:
Ok, the first look backs up most of what I thought I was seeing in the draft. Paulus is a no brainer really good player. Again, my OL swing looks shaky, but if he really gets to 50+ that’s good enough. Rest mostly fit hopes – we might have a value in 3rd round WR Shine, at the cost of me having Silversun Pickups' “Lazy Eye” playing in my head. We’ll see if that is worth it.

1Y: 33yo RG and long snapper Pierre Sturtz, double up OL depth

UDFA: RB Alexander Womble, CB Kent Som, CB Alfredo Deayon

When we reach the preseason, QB Brice and RB Atkins are each still Out-10, leaving us in a tricky spot to open the season.

After preseason, a few bits to sort out via cutdown to 53. QB1 and Rb1 onto IR, as is veteran LB Spindler. So, fewer actual releases than usual.
At CB, undrafted rookie Alfred Deayon looks like he has earned some real playing time, and can play inside or out. Really nice find – he didn’t stand out at all during the draft, but afterwards he looked good to us. He beats out our other undrafted rookie Kent Som. But our CB group overall has taken some hits in the last couple years, so we may use a real rotation this season, I expect. 5th round DB Cayden Sensor – cut, but he might get a call-up if we have injuries, wish I could practice squad him.

7th round rookie RB Hulsey is cut, and we will keep UDFA Alexander Womble instead. Again, the after-draft clarity prevails.

Veteran edge rushers Khalil Vinci and Diego Lawson both get the pink flag here, just a numbers game against younger players who needs the snaps. WR Clarence Piller also yields to younger players.

Rookie DT Justin Lass is released, and we will cycle in some edge rushers to spell the starters at DT, although not ideal.

2031 Season

I’ll run the numbers next season, I’m tired.

We need to see whether we get our QB1 and HB1 back midseason, btu assuming we do, I am optimistic that reverting to a more normal defensive plan should help us regress toward average there, and I hope we remain a high end offense, even with an untested soph slinging it for a bit here.
Can we get back to 10 wins? That’s my goal and prediction.

Week one Marquise Carlson goes out and does just what we love to see – 397 yards and 4 TDs. Hellllllo!


Injuries, again, it’s just a weekly barrage of shuffling lineups. But our offense remains really crisp, and we keep chugging along. Not the number of picks we had gotten used to, to be honest, it’s kinda nice.

So, we make it to the point where RB1 Atkins and … well, uh… QB Brice are both healthy enough to return. Atkins looks like he has declined, but that might just be age. Brice looks fine, he’s rated 50/52 more or less where he would have been.

What do we do, though? I mean, if you’re (against all odds) reading all this and paying attention, I have really had no stability at QB – in part because every time some guy runs out and wins a few games, we declare the old guy a heretic and the new guy is the messiah. Well… Carlson is sitting on a 5-1 record, with the one loss by one point, and we (again) have the top offense in the league. Carlson also throws fewer picks already, and seems to be able to avoid pressure like a magician.


Okay, it’s Carlson’s job now. Brice will ride the bench until we need him. Sorry, I guess.

So, wins are a QB stat, we are 8-1, and Marquis Carlson cannot buy a drink in this town. (And this town is Miami) We work through OL injuries (starting LG and LT both on IR now), but… we will keep keeping on, I have held onto LT Keion Walden for just such an occasion.

WR Kerry Cunningham, on the other hand, we have no plan for. Out for the year, and. . . oh boy. 874 yards in 9 games, on 11/5 yards per target. . . now gone. We expect to see Hostetler in the Z role a lot – he played really well last year when called upon, but we have to fall off by a lot here, right?


I don’t know what to say. We didn’t run the table, we didn’t have any more 40-bombs, but we did win most of the rest, just two close losses down the stretch, and get ourselves a 14-3 finish… just a tiebreaker away from the coveted week off. WOW




Smashing! We got the turnovers righted and we are plus there for the first time in a while. We’re still giving up passing yards but it’s due to us being ahead, not due to us being awful. Sacks still low, but not abysmally low any longer. Carriger mostly back to being his old self, 11.5 sacks. LB Paulus has a DROY case.

Surely we will get our first postseason win here… yes? Carlson is back from his ding-up, he’s in, and our assembly of role player receivers are ready to go get it.
A WIN! 12-9 over Cleveland. All FGs. Okay, we’ll take it!

Hosting Baltimore, we fall down 10-7 in the early 2nd, but take over from there and flatten them, 34-10. Three TDs for Carlson. Sensational, off to the AFC title game in Houston…

And the fun stops. 36-20, Houston gets in at home, and we are content with a great season, a deep run, and a whole lot of light at the end of the tunnel.

A look at the two quarterbacks, while we’re here…






I think visually, with these guys effectively apples-to-apples now (with one season starting apiece, and virtually the same age) it’s fairly clear that Carlson is the superior player. That max Sense Rush helps a lot, I suspect the numbers back that up, but way higher ratings in Good Decisions and so forth have to help, too. Just a more complete player, even without the arm strength and accuracy that the gunslinger shows us.

2032 Early Offseason
LB Ricky Spindler retired, no shock, he was a deliberate late-career fill-in guy for us anyhow. Good on him!

It’s staff retention time, for most of our guys. Hard to make big changes here, we extend everyone and they remain in place through the hiring phase.


Re-signings are up – and from her on out, I am going to count my RFAs on this list, to lessen the apparent advantage I am gaining by landing good players after the draft. From now on, they count toward the one-of-each-duration limit for re-signings, or else they are part of the next round of one-per-duration.
2nd year CB Deayon is, oddly enough, basically my top priority here, rated 50/50 at age 23. LOTS of aging older players here – my impression here is that ratings decline is happening earlier in FOF 9 than it does in FOF 8 – sure feels that way I this career.


1Y:
2Y: LB Brendan Ferguson, 26, 2/7m, run stopper, w good ST
3Y: SS Kurt Connell, 29, 3/10.7, solid starter in late career
4Y: DL Devonta Lavelle, 27, 4/24.5, run stopper at both DT/DE
5Y: CB Alfredo Deayon, 23, 5/19.5, locked in as long term CB2/3
I’m letting CB Masterson walk to free agency, he’s 30 coming off two shaky years and the math doesn’t work, even for a 1y deal. Need to focus on CB this offseason, now, for certain, as we suddenly look really thin there, even with Deayon locked in.

Nobody is willing to accept a 1y offer here, not even our fossils. Mucks up my plans a bit.


Into open free agency, and we sit at 40 players signed. Workable, but we won’t have wave after wave of cuts to make at the end this cycle, I think.

Looking for guys at RB, CB, OL and FB … and we need a P and LS at some point too.

1Y: CB Nelson Laramie, 24, 4m, decent rotation guy maxed ST
2Y: WR Rod Hostetler, 28, 2/9.6, cohesion and productive guy
3Y: RB Martin Small, 26, 3/9.6, great fit as 3rd down back
4Y: RG Sergio Burroughs, 24, 4/5.6, reserve G and long snapper
5Y: DB Darius Kaba, 25, 5/15.5, rotation caliber man coverage

The 5th year extension on first rounders is typically sill in this game, but TE Mayhall for 14m doesn’t sound that bad, I lock him up.

We head to the draft feeling a bit more secure at both CB and RB. So, my thinking for priorities as of now is like this:

WR quality
OL quality
CB quality
S depth/future
run-stopper DT
RB quality
FB starter/ST
P
punt returner specialist
LB depth
WR depth
QB3 prospect

We have ten picks (extra 4,5,5) and will have plenty of chances to take day three stabs at special teams contributors and weird bar patterns who look like they could actually help on-field. I want to be getting more out of my draft picks, and to rely less on after-draft pickups.

2032 Rookie Draft

Not going to feel rigid here, just want good production and value. Okay.

When we come up at 30, the top guy on the board is a 7.7-rated QB. L.O.L. Of course it is.

For our BPA pick, I have guard or linebacker. Just invested 2nd and 1st rond picks at LB, so lineman it is, and that makes sense anyway, I think.
Draft Summary: After seeing my “dream date” FB go in the early 3rd, I won’t let that mistake happen again, and… I might have gotten trigger happy with the must-have punter in the 4th.

In the after-draft market, I have used all my FA signing slots, so it’s just undrafted rookies to fill in and get my roster legal: QB Henry Skaggs, LB Larry Morford, CB Doug Swartz, RB Bruce Calderon, RB Jeffery Cifelli

60 signed, right on the dot. We’ll take a break and then do some sorting out.

2032 Late Offseason
I’m intrigued by rookie RB Titus Paff, guy has speed to burn, and a massive batch of ratings… and then a fat 0/1 turd at the be-all rating, Hole Recognition (and another at route running). Test score backs it up, he’s as dumb as a bag of hammers. Maybe at 239 he could play some fullback? He does look like my answer at punt returner, at the very worst.

I’m setting preseason depth charts and… wow, CB Tre Morris is really no longer a talented player. Signed to play CB1, and did that a lot last year, but he is in free fall, and likely to slide more in preseason. Could be on the bubble, even without a top draft pick coming in.

Rookie DL Cha is my top candidate to slide inside to soak up the snaps available at DT, partially to help him develop and partially because he looks like he could play really well there. He gains weight and gets to 301, it’s happening.

Ok, DL injury shuffling through the preseason, and Tomaceski (promising soph) will miss most of the season, sadly.

At RB, we have to pare down, and I decide that rookie Paff will best out the true FB from round seven and make the team at HB4/PR/FB. He’s a pet project. The real lineup should feature returning guys Osvaldo Schuster and Robbie Williams, and our third-down specialist Martin Small. Small actually has the highest overall ratings, so I will lock in a couple of the ball carrier guys into key spots to keep him from taking the true RB1 job.

Cutdown day comes for three more guys to get us to 53 effective. Randall Durst, our 1st round pick from a couple of seasons ago, doesn’t bring us anything on special teams, and without that, he’s just not worth carrying. Sorry slick. Late-round OL Nickerson from last year’s draft has developed only very slowly, and gets beaten out by our 5th rounder Manchester, who will be the oft-used swing tackle. 6th round rookie Tucker Bost just lacks coverage skills for now, and he’ll be out too.

Nice turn here is that 30yo veteran CB Tre Morris really kicked it into high gear in camp, and regained a lot of lost ratings – back to 52/52 (from 42/42 as we started this season) and back on top of our depth chart. Not used to seeing that in FOF, noteworthy to me.

We’re ready for another season, hoping to retain our seat among the elite.

2032 Season
QB Carlson is dinged up for week one, but we let him go, and we’re off with an opening win. Then after a loss to the Bucs, CB Deayon is out for the season – already was thin at CB, now way more so. Ouch.

Despite the DB worries, we slide on to 6-1, powered by an offense that remains top tier, and a defense that presents at best a mild inconvenience to opposing offenses. I decide here that we’re probably better off just turning the staff loose with their own generic 43 defense plan, than the garbage I assembled myself. Just seems wiser.

Robbie Williams, even not getting many carries, hits the IR and now we expect to see some of the rookie Paff in the workload platoon.

1-3 with the staff-run defensive plan, and… I’m going back to my own now. We’re 7-4 and in the thick of the playoff chase, I don’t feel like fucking around and blowing a season of “cheap QB” here. We were winning with my system, we will go back to it, and cross our fingers.

Incidentally, WR Rod Hostetler continues to baffle. Our scouts have him rated 33/33. With the offensive skill positions, I get sick of micro-managing every ding and dent so I have a few key roles “checkmarked” with a Red X to hold them in place, and between games I just ask for the staff to set the rest of the depth chart. Anyway, through 11 games, Rod is sitting on another really productive season – 639/3 on nearly 8 yards per target. I don’t get it. Good hands. Clean livin’. Something like that.

We’re 8-4, and one game up in the division – and now TE Mayhall is out for the year (44 weeks, we’ll cross fingers). Navarro is only 30, but he feels like a dinosaur here – but he will be the go-to, with two companions mostly skilled in tackling the punt returner. Great.

Now, we limp toward the finish line, and go-to-WR Cunningham comes up lame again, for our final game of the regular season. Awful timing. We do find a bit of the old magic stuff and put together a big win over the lowly Jets, to clinch the division with a solid 11 win season. Despite the injury woes, not too bad.




So, the handful of games with a staff-led D gameplan were awful. So I guess I’m just going to keep tweaking mine. The D was not historically bad, but given the talent and investment on that side, it feels like it should be far better than this. Did sorta come together down the stretch this season, a bit, and finishing with 7th fewest yards allowed is... actually jolly good all told.


I take a peek at the Buffalo injury list… they have 4x total, with only one OUT. We have 9x and 4x, respectively. Every year it feels like we get clobbered. Am I taking injury-prone players inadvertently because I don’t check that when evaluating free agents and rookies? (Which I definitely do not) Perhaps.


31-24 over Buffalo, we run run run them to death.

We host Pittsburgh, and . . . after no joke seven or eight cycles of error messages … we drub then 44-14 to advance to the conference title game in Baltimore.

Elits status was in doubt as we slid to 11 wins. Feeling better now. Again need to rearrange a dozen things in the depth chart, but here we are. . . a smash mount 13-12 win (they missed their one PAT try), and we get our first berth in the big game.

Superbowl. Nice. The Bears, from Indiana or whatever they are by 2033.



Ha! Teacher’s pet RB Paff breaks a 90 yard return TD to turn a 10 point game into 17, and their late rally falls short by a score. Ladies and gentlemen, we got ‘em.

Welp.

That is the end of the “cheapass quarterback” cheatcode window. He’s not rated super high, but we’d expect Carlson to come back and ask for… maybe $25 million a year? That is two high end players elsewhere, sounds about right.

So, that should elevate the degree of difficulty. But I like the team, it’s doing mostly what I want, and I still have things I want to do with it. That’s good.

The Actual House Rules

After playing several seasons, I have refined the rules a little bit to reflect differences between FOF 9 and its predecessors. In essence, with the flowery “highlander” language removed, the rules are fairly concise:

-Each offseason, I may re-sign up to five my own players (including restricted free agents), only one of each duration of years 1-5

-Each offseason, I may sign up to five additional players via free agency, again only one of each duration of years 1-5

-I may make at most one trade per season, merely accepting an offer made by a computer team

-After the draft, and during the season, I may sign only undrafted rookie players as needed to ensure a legal roster

Now, this no longer has the effect that the “one per year of duration” rule did back in FOF 7-8, where I was routinely signing guys to absurd 7y contracts just to get a guy signed, and knowing that it was really just a 2y deal with void years, in practice. I kinda liked that pressure. Here to be honest, the 5y contract is more of an exploit than it is a constraint – the extra money required to get a guy seeking a 2y deal to take a 5y deal is just not enough to make it a bad proposition, if he’s young and feels under-valued.

Anyway, pretty solid set of rules, not as absurd or restrictive as the concept originated.