More impactful news from free agency, we re-signed LB Micah McCarthy. When I originally signed him, I gushed a bit about what this sort of player (good enough to play, super-high personality) means to a team like this:
Quote:
Originally Posted by QuikSand
Free Agency, stages 4-5: One signing, I'm thrilled, you won't be. 5th year LB Micah McCarthy was a 6th round pick for Miami, started out 24/39, developed to 47/47 (my scout says 44/44) and they basically let him walk. We sign him to a 2yr deal, and I'm hopeful this will be a long term signing. He does everything okay - rated 50-ish in lots of stuff, including RunD and ZoneCov. He's got high endurance, and a 95 personality for an Exceptional Affinity. This is the cornerstone of the way I build my rosters. Big signing for us, even if he's merely a 40-tackle guy as our LB5 for the next 6 years.
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McCarthy needed some force-fed starts last season to get back to happiness with his playing time. Okay, then. Anyway, now he's back aboard on a 3yr deal.
Ordinarily, a 58-Leadership guy is not a candidate to be a group leader. Too hard to keep him in place.
But, I think this is the best play I have here. So, we're sliding the chemistry setup for our D7 for the future -- McCarthy is a 7-8 guy, with a 98 personality, and he's signed for 3 years. He's our guy now.
Time to assess what we have on hand, and who fits with the new scheme. It will mainly be the guys in his same sign (the 7-8 guys) who fall out of favor during this switch - they connected with the old leader, but will be neutral with him.
Key: POS Name, Exp (Years w our team), Leadership/Personality, Forecast or role
DE Shane Rivers, 7(3), 41/91, rotation guy at end of contract (bubble)
DE Damian Baker, 4(4), 20/50, busted 1st rounder (bubble)
DE Peter Douglas, 9(4), 19/43, fading one-trick pass rusher (unsigned, bubble)
DT Brian Wooden, 6(1), 28/96, solid run stopper great chem (long term asset)
DT Jeremy Lesky, 6(1), 69/92, marginal talent, chem threat to MMc (castoff soon)
DT Marcus Matthews, 8(1), 4/100, pass rusher to play outside (serious rotation guy)
DT Barry Broomfield, 5(5), 36/99, solid do-it-all NT (long term asset)
DT Elliot Lind, 3(3), 22/95, not much here but chem and 6 starts (bubble)
DT Christopher Hancock, 1(1), xx/xx, hoping he develops into all-purpose guy (long term asset)
LB Caden Mathews, 12(11), 6/99, run stopper w pass rush skills (stalwart)
LB Philip Hillenbrand, 9(2), 25/86, solid but in same group as MMc (bubble now)
LB Santiago Richardson, 2(2), 59/87, ST/depth guy needs starts (bubble)
LB Micah McCarthy, 7(3), 58/95, rotation talent now essential (build-around guy)
LB Erick Emerson, 7(7), 22/32, solid run stopper (long term asset)
LB Blaine Haayer, 7(4), 7/100, affinity-only guy in 7/8 group (easy cut now)
LB Jameson Burks, 2(2), 68/19, fairly promising but in 78 group (bubble now)
LB Lance Shapiro, 10(5), 10/62, decent w great coverage bars (stalwart)
LB Gabriel Lincoln, 5(5), 11/89, best overall talent at LB (build-around guy)
LB Robert Lester, 4(4), 70/26, rotation talent but in 7/8 group (bubble now)
So, that's the bottom line. My core for the next three seasons or so, as far as playing in important situations, looks like:
DE Matthews, Hancock
DT Broomfield, Wooden
ILB Emerson, McCarthy
OLB Lincoln
...and those guys are all GREAT with McCarthy as leader. LB Mathews and Shapiro are good enough to start now, and affinity plus guys, so LB is basically fine short term. We're a bit thin at DL, but as a 3-4 team we really only need 5 playable guys, and if Hancock doesn't bust (and hopefully can shed 12 pounds) we're sitting at 4 in hand. And that's before I sort out what to do with any of the low-risk free agent former Raiders we apparently picked up at some sort of Gwar concert.
And THAT, dear readers, is how I build my team. Teams. The whole empire looks like this. And for what it's worth, my teams pretty much all gravitate toward winning two-thirds of their games.