The NFL's Top 10 Snakebitten Franchises thread in OT and a sudden craving for FOF again led me to ask which year/teams were in the worst scenarios.
Out of those ColtCrazy suggested, I decided to go with the 1992 Bengals. Why? Because I like the AFC and I always thought the Bengals had a cool logo and uniforms.
Plus, I think we have quite a few Bengals fans on FOFC.
I don't remember what difficulty setting I used for my Dolphins dynasty, but I'm going Wall Street to make certain this is as tough a challenge as possible.
While I prefer to have 0 to 1 salary increases, I'm going with 10% increases until 1998 because of how ridiculous some contracts are and I'd like teams to avoid cap hell.
Now time to look at the roster...
Code:
Esiason, Boomer 7 QB QB 9 74 74 1 yr.
##Hollas, Donald 8 QB 2 8 20 6 yrs
Klingler, David 12 QB 1 11 36 4 yrs
Wilhelm, Erik 3 QB 4 31 38 5 yrs
Ahh yes. The year of the infamous Klingler selection. I remember being quite stunned at the pick, as everyone was. Boomer's still one of the top QBs in the game, so we have that going for us at least. Unfortunately, he's also in the last year of his contract and not willing to entertain a long-term negotiation. Wilhelm not only looks better than Klingler, he has double affinities, making his selection as the backup a no-brainer.
Code:
Miles, Ostell 46 RB 1 22 42 2 yrs
Hellestrae, Lester 48 RB RB 1 34 47 1 yr.
##Morton, Dwight 35 RB 1 27 45 1 yr.
Taijeron, Mo 22 RB 1 30 38 1 yr.
Fenner, Derrick 47 FB FB 4 60 66 3 yrs
Green, Harold 44 FB 3 49 58 4 yrs
A slew of rookies at RB, none of whom excite me. We're in great FB shape with Fenner the starter and Green the backup, though. I'm so underwhelmed with our runners, though, that I'll probably grab some old guy off the free agent pile.
Code:
Holman, Rodney 81 TE TE 11 55 55 1 yr.
Thomason, Jeff 88 TE 1 20 44 3 yrs
Thompson, Craig 85 TE 1 7 25 2 yrs
TE has never played a big role in my offenses, so this is a big shrug. Holman's the much better WR, but Thomason has terrific blocking potential. Too bad the would-be stopping beast has the endurance of Kathy Griffin when faced off against Pumpy Tudors. This group will need an upgrade, but it's not worth investing a ton in.
Code:
Pickens, Carl 87 FL FL 1 44 68 7 yrs
Query, Jeff 84 FL 4 46 54 3 yrs
McGee, Tim 82 SE SE 7 52 52 1 yr.
Rembert, Reggie 86 SE 3 17 29 2 yrs
##Stegall, Milt 80 SE 1 9 17 3 yrs
Burns, Ryan 83 SE 1 19 47 1 yr.
There's a ton of teams in love with Pickens so we'll probably trade him. I don't much like this WR corps as everyone's drop-prone and there's nothing that makes me madder than a butterfingers receiving set. 9 team with 90+ interest, in fact.
Unfortunately, when I try to hunt for deals, teams either complain that they'd have too much dead cap or Pickens wouldn't have as big an impact on their team as they're looking for. I hate this aspect of the NFL culture, especially having been busy with DDS:PB for so long where trading is an essential part of my gameplan.
Then again, I'd be eating about $2.5 million in cap space myself next season if I dealt away Pickens, so I'll stick with this group I guess. Man, what an ugly outfit.
In fact, that's one thing I hate about FOF in general. You're basically left groping in the dark as far as trades go and have no real measure for if a trade is fair value or not.
Oh well, moving right along.
Code:
Arthur, Mike 1 C C 2 29 57 1 yr.
Kozerski, Bruce 55 C 9 44 44 4 yrs
Melander, Jon 62 LG LG 3 47 68 1 yr.
##Stephens, Richard 73 LG 4 14 16 1 yr.
##Withycombe, Mike 71 LG 5 19 19 1 yr.
Moyer, Ken 69 RG 4 22 26 3 yrs
Rayam, Thomas 64 RG RG 3 39 57 2 yrs
Munoz, Anthony 79 LT LT 13 80 80 1 yr.
##Sargent, Kevin 75 LT 1 11 36 7 yrs
Scrafford, Kirk 76 RT 3 42 60 1 yr.
Walter, Joe 67 RT RT 8 72 72 5 yrs
Munoz-Melander-Arthur-Rayam-Walter just like it says. At least we're in excellent shape on the right side, as I feel very comfortable having Scrafford as Walter's heir apparent. But holy moly are we in trouble with a lot of the rest of the line. Wonder how Walter would feel about moving to the left said once the immortal Munoz finally hangs it up.
Code:
Johnson, Lee 13 P 8 73 73 7 yrs
Breech, Jim 2 K 15 81 81 1 yr.
Uh, yeah. 7 years for a Punter? At least he comes cheap. Note to self: Draft Breech's replacement next year.
Code:
Ridgle, Elston 74 LDE 6 28 28 1 yr.
##Rogers, Lamar 95 LDE 2 11 15 1 yr.
Stubbs, Danny 77 LDE LDE 5 67 67 3 yrs
##Frier, Mike 97 RDE 1 17 35 2 yrs
Mitz, Alonzo 94 RDE RDE 7 26 29 1 yr.
##Nix, Roosevelt 78 RDE 1 15 44 2 yrs
##Saylor, Jay 92 LDT 1 14 39 1 yr.
McIntyre, Randal 72 LDT LDT 1 20 39 1 yr.
Giovannelli, Hugh 96 RDT RDT 1 13 39 1 yr.
Krumrie, Tim 70 NT 10 40 40 3 yrs
It'll be Stubbs-Krumrie and uh, I have yet to determine. Probably Nix, but I'll do a further analysis when I'm sober.
I'll also do rest of roster.
I'm tempted to trade Boomer's low loyalty ass too.