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Team Awards (Given out by Me)
Offensive Player of the Year: WR Marvin Graham - He had a marvelous record setting year, and you have to account for that in the awards. No offensive layer shined as brightly. No one else on our team led the league statistically in two major categories (although our punter came close, being 1st in one and 2nd in another).
Defensive Player of the Year: S Donovin Darius - He led the team in picks with 7, and was second on the team in tackles with 79 solo tackles and 26 assists, just one less than leader Lethon Flowers. He also was second on the team for the most passes defensed. He got picks, he made tackles, and he defended passes. That’s a nice slate of contributions he made.
Special Teams Player of the Year: P Blaine Baldridge - Olindo Mare led the league in Fgs made, but he attempted 7 more than the next guy, so that is to be expected, plus Mare missed a PAT. On the other hand, Baldridge dominated the punter stats, with the 2nd highest average and the most punts in the 20. And that is not a function of how many punts he had. He had four more than the next guy, but punted 86 times to that guy’s 124 times. He had a high percentage as well as a high kick average. The result was a powerful weapon.
Rookie of the Year: DE Ian Smith - With 5.5 sacks, the hope is that this 3rd rounder will develop into a perfect complement for Brackens.
Heart Award: WR Tony Dunnigan - He’ll never be an amazing receiver, but this undrafted FA started several times when 2nd round rookie Marty Swift went down, and he even managed two TDs in the Super Bowl. He had a strong number of yards, catches and TDs considering his relative lack of ability. Excellent!
Players leaving next year of import:
Whose contracts are up and we aren’t bringing back:
DT Seth Payne
Patches like RB Priest Holmes and several of my LBs.
DT Norbert McSwain - signed as a patch, but he was not bad. Got a lot of sacks from the DT position, which is hard to do.
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