...okay, 8-8 isn't awful. Well, unless the QB of my dreams manages to slide into pick 10 but not pick 17 or whatever we end up with. On the surface we apparently were the absolute prototype 8-8 mediocre club. Given the changes we made under the hood, that's pretty good.
GML: Baltimore Ravens 2117
My thoughts:
QB Wolf - maybe I haven't been giving Teddy enough credit...Ivan Wolf barely ekes out 6 ypa, terrible in my book, and we are mid-league in offense (again, awful)...he's sneaky effective toting the rock, though
Running game disappointing, w/Liverwurst only getting 3.4 ypc - I'll tally that up to the miserable OL but geez. And he'll want a fat contract next year...way to go get it there, buddy.
Receiving...nobody good on a weak season, naturally. WR Holtz was good enough as our primary slot guy, TE Ogden was rookie-like with a heavy load, nothing impressive there.
OL stats tell us little, except maybe sacks... our 7.1% sacks allowed was 3rd worst in the league. Just a year to forget there. Running game also sucked, despite me being happy with my "talent" there. O'Donnell does look like a slowly developing star, so that's good.
Pass rush was totally anemic... like historically low, 3.2% sacks, tied for worst. Wow. Helming is really good, he needs to get back out there full time - my tandem of Schneider and Mealey were ear-pinners but only 6 combined sacks as the edge guys in both 3WR and 3rd-and-long formations (458 snaps).
Secondary was...not awful? Maybe actually pretty good? Rookie Wiggins delivered a solid rookie season, other riffraff guys posted nice composite stats with their PD% up in the 80 range. I don't have any explanation here, but that's really encouraging. Like, only Conners (45 catches allowed) seemed like a weak link... are these other guys actually worth something? (Side note - I flubbed Dawson a bit, and failed to get him his starts to activate his leadership, so another season ahead of building around phantom affinities, I fear)
PR Vaughn... ugh, I don't want to talk about it. I apparently just overlooked this window, and failed to put him in as our punt returner. He got a handful of kickoff returns and managed to peel one for a TD... but dammit. That's obviously my fault, thought I tended to everything. (WR BJ Woods posted 14 per PR, despite his middling 38/41 rating there)
Okay...we had no expectation of this being a great year. It wasn't. But we have done some foundation work, I think. (codespeak there) Ivan Wolf is signed for one more minsal season... my guess is that's his shelf life. If I had faith in my drafting prowess, I'd be thinking about a really heavy draft to go and load up all these positions where we are building (DB, OL) ... but given the hand I'm dealt there, we might just remain in the moneyball game, per usual.