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stkelly52 · 12-19-2004, 01:22 AM

YEAR 3
I come into this season with a lot of excitement. We greatly improved the team last season, and we are all expecting to build upon the success from last year. My goals this year:
Equal last season's 10-6 record
Have Leland Nixon run for 1600 yards and 15 TDs
Win a playoff game

I decide that my staff has done a fine job and none of them need to be replaced. None of my players are worthy of franchising, so I move on the free agency.

One of the problems that we have is the salary cap. We will need to make several cuts to make this team fit under the cap while also being able to pick up help in our secondary. The first choice was to release oft injured safety Isaac Whalen. Whalen is a great player and I hate to lose help in my weak secondary, but Isaac spends more time out injured than he does playing. We just can't afford to spend $4,000,000 on a spectator.

Next I go ahead and resign restricted free agent Leland Nixon to a 3 year deal that will pay him 3.2 million over the next 3 years. With this I have 6.3 million to sign new free agents. I want to shore up my CB situation, so I focus on a couple of solid man to man CBs. I am hoping that I can save a little money by tweaking my game plan to mostly use man coverage so that I don't have to pay the premium for a well rounded CB. After that I just look around the league and try to fill in various backups, particularly in the LB corps. I am not able to sign any big name free agents, but there just wasn't anyone available that really filled a need. I am all for getting fans excited by bringing in that big name to get the job done, but I will not do so at the expense of the overall team. Instead I sign most of my moderate backups and I get my two new starters at CB.

I have a slightly disappointing draft as both my first and second round picks bust in camp, but that is offset by having two breakout DTs that I took in the fourth and fifth rounds. They both look like they could be starters in a year or two.

After the draft I make one more free agent acquisition. QB Clay Gearhart joins the team and he should be our starting QB. He knows how to win ball games, accumulating a 10-5 record last season (his first as a starter). However, many other coaches were unimpressed with his overall performance, saying the Bengals were able to win in spite of Clay and not because of him. He will have to greatly improve on his 67.5 QB rating if he wishes to prove his doubters wrong.

We head into the preseason with one basic goal: minimize injuries. To this end, I deactivate several of my starters and allow my potential backups to use these games as practice.

12-19-2004, 01:22 AM	#28
stkelly52 College Benchwarmer Join Date: Dec 2000 Location: Seattle WA	YEAR 3 I come into this season with a lot of excitement. We greatly improved the team last season, and we are all expecting to build upon the success from last year. My goals this year: Equal last season's 10-6 record Have Leland Nixon run for 1600 yards and 15 TDs Win a playoff game I decide that my staff has done a fine job and none of them need to be replaced. None of my players are worthy of franchising, so I move on the free agency. One of the problems that we have is the salary cap. We will need to make several cuts to make this team fit under the cap while also being able to pick up help in our secondary. The first choice was to release oft injured safety Isaac Whalen. Whalen is a great player and I hate to lose help in my weak secondary, but Isaac spends more time out injured than he does playing. We just can't afford to spend $4,000,000 on a spectator. Next I go ahead and resign restricted free agent Leland Nixon to a 3 year deal that will pay him 3.2 million over the next 3 years. With this I have 6.3 million to sign new free agents. I want to shore up my CB situation, so I focus on a couple of solid man to man CBs. I am hoping that I can save a little money by tweaking my game plan to mostly use man coverage so that I don't have to pay the premium for a well rounded CB. After that I just look around the league and try to fill in various backups, particularly in the LB corps. I am not able to sign any big name free agents, but there just wasn't anyone available that really filled a need. I am all for getting fans excited by bringing in that big name to get the job done, but I will not do so at the expense of the overall team. Instead I sign most of my moderate backups and I get my two new starters at CB. I have a slightly disappointing draft as both my first and second round picks bust in camp, but that is offset by having two breakout DTs that I took in the fourth and fifth rounds. They both look like they could be starters in a year or two. After the draft I make one more free agent acquisition. QB Clay Gearhart joins the team and he should be our starting QB. He knows how to win ball games, accumulating a 10-5 record last season (his first as a starter). However, many other coaches were unimpressed with his overall performance, saying the Bengals were able to win in spite of Clay and not because of him. He will have to greatly improve on his 67.5 QB rating if he wishes to prove his doubters wrong. We head into the preseason with one basic goal: minimize injuries. To this end, I deactivate several of my starters and allow my potential backups to use these games as practice.