Pro Strategy Football 2020

[QuikSand]

It has been quite a while since I wrote a vigorous dynasty thread here. Well, for a mix of reasons, I have purchased a new pro football game, which has only a trifle of comments available online. So, I'm going in fresh.

My plan... to document what I'm doing in this thread, to serve as both entertainment, accountability, and possibly information to other prospective buyers.

We'll see...

[QuikSand]

So, I'll give this a go. Will take Baltimore, in a league with default settings, presumably that will be like the NFL. (I have no idea how a game with this much customizability will end up managing AI decision-making...that seems far-fetched to me)

Scouting my team gives me....hmmm... a bunch of ratings that look like a 10-point scale for 11 things, 5 offense and 6 defense. Mmmmmkay. My team is all 6-8, with the high notes coming in run blocking, pass blocking, pass defense, and defensive stamina. Sounds fine, I guess.

Oh joy. When I click over to specific groups, I can see individual players. My left tackle is 24 year old J Cahn. I guess I don't get a lot of detail here, but he's rated 8 in run blocking and 9 in pass blocking. So, assuming 9 is really good - this sounds like a very nice young building block, if this were real football. (No clue whether this is random, or of this guy was drawn from a database where he's based off the Ravens' LT Ronnie Stanley).

[QuikSand]

My RG is rated 9/9, and he shows up as 33... so I'm leaning toward this team bearing a relationship to the real Ravens, and this is Yanda. Sounds fine.

Looking around... okay, I don't really know what's going on. This may or may not be based on the 2019 Ravens. I'll set that aside, and will focus on our mighty...uhh....Crows.

Offensive players on one page, rated for (I'm interpolating 3-letter abbreviations here, where they are obvious): Strength, Quickness, Speed, Receiving, F% (I only see numbers 1-3 here), Ld, and Rd. My QB and HB are also rated for Comp(letions?) and Int(erception acoidance?) - those ratings instead of one 1-10 number are three - so my QB is rated 8/8/6 and 7/7/7, respectively. Perhaps three separate ratings based on pass depth?

Anyway, perusing the offensive lineup, seems like we have a decent veteran QB, a great 24y/o HB, and a star 30y/o WR, then mostly chattel.

DL rated in only vs Run and Pass Rush, I have 5 total guys. LBs and DBs are one big group, rated in Vs Run, Vs Pass, and Reaction. Interesting. I apparently have one stuf 35 y/o LB and a bunch of meh.

I continue skimming through... my "returners" page is an anomaly. It shows who my assigned KR and PR guys are, but for them the ratings (are these ratings?) look kinda like stats:



If that pic doesn't work, then: Pasteboard - Uploaded Image

What do these numbers mean? My guy Vlachos gets to return the kick 50% of the time? His average and longest seem like stats, not ratings, and the 2% number means... what? I'm perplexed. I don't seem to be able to DO anything on this page, so I guess these are... just auto-picked for me as the best guys I've got? Okay.

Okay, I have looked at my team. Guess it's time to figure out what I actually do in this game.

[QuikSand]

Well, the button that calls out to me here is "Modify Season Game Plan." Looks like the league just starts as we are about to play Week 1, which is I reckon as good a time as any to start.

I select from my options:
Offensive Emphasis: Favors Running
Offensive Aggressiveness: Balanced (vs. Gambler or Conservative)
Defensive Set: favors 3-4 (three options)
Defensive Coverage: favors man (vs zone or balanced)
Blitzing: Typical blitzing (vs. rarely, more, or heavy)

I save. I guess I'm done.

The button that seems like the next things to do is Week 1...

[QuikSand]

I get to a Week 1 schedule screen, and have options by each game to Sim or Play (which I guess means either watch or call plays). I decide I will just sim this first week, see how it goes.

Baltimore 35, Miami 28

I pull up the "boxscore" link and get this detail: Dropbox - Screenshot 2019-09-28 13.02.54.png - Simplify your life



Wow, such drama!

Oh, I can pull up "Stats" and see stuff that makes more sense I guess:

Dropbox - Screenshot 2019-09-28 13.04.57.png - Simplify your life

So... we were effective running, super efficient but conservative passing, and won a close game we probably shouldn't have. Sounds like the Ravens, actually.

[QuikSand]

Okay, so since I'm not really "wedded" to this team, I just sin the regular season. Baltimore goes 10-6, nice. Pittsburgh (12-4) and Jacksonville (14-1-1) get the byes, so have a tough road in the playoffs.

So, worth noting here - there are no "player pages" where we can see everything about a given player. I'm kinda used to that in a sports sim, so the absence is noteworthy. I search for leaders, pull up passing... and see my guy in the middle (sounds about right). I can see my guy's stats for the season here: 327/503 for 65%, 3491 yards for 7.0 ypa, 23/6 and 95.45 rating. But I don't see anywhere all my players are listed, or archived - I'm guessing this data will just be gone after this season?

Okay, I stumble onto a "History" tab that tells me I will be able to:

-View Career Leaders, Past Seasons, and career history for all teams.
-Sort career leaders by any category. View standings and season leaders for any season.
-View any team's season records and their players over time.

(capitalization verbatim)

Okay from this screen, I get to sub-pages, and can see my team's output:

RB Jenkins 383-1636 4.3 10TD 6f
WR Edwardson 115-1497 13.1 7TD
WR Ramsey 69-916 13.3 7TD
...and so forth.

LB A Jackson was a stat monster: 139T, 6S, 1Int
... and on and on. No way to print this out, I don't really feel like typing it all up. There's a summary to be had, but you have to want it, it seems.

Incidentally, my RB was #1 in rushing yards, and out WR1 was 3rd in receiving yards.

[QuikSand]

We lose our playoff opener 19-16 at Oakland, and we are done. Pittsburgh beats New Orleans in the title game.

So... I'm really in this for the offseason, so I'm looking forward to what happens next in the career mode. Trouble is, I cannot figure out how to advance from here. The title game is done, I'm looking for what to do next.

Well, in trying to figure that out, I landed on a revelation of sorts... the "Play" feature that I haven't really explored yet is basically a Tecmo Bowl style rendition of a game - here's a screenshot from a big play in the title game, a KO return TD: Dropbox - Screenshot 2019-09-28 13.29.27.png - Simplify your life

So... it appears that in my attempt to sim forward, I skipped the draft and free agency, and went right to the next pre-season. And, there seems to be no way to go back to my saved game. That's neat. Okay.

So I just quick sim through another full season. Why not.

Oh, looks like there's a bunch of hands-on stuff I have to do for the "pre-season" games. So, I can't skip that - sounds like this is an important part of this game.

Signing out for now. Frustrated that I one-clicked right past the rookie draft.

[QuikSand]

My guess from here, an hour or so in, is that this might be about the same depth as Football Mogul, just a very thin sim. Looks like there's no free agency or contracts, so I'm guessing in career mode your players just age and fade over time, and your roster decision-making is just whom to cut each year. The on-screen stuff, I'm guessing, might turn into something akin to playing Tecmo Super Bowl on the COA setting, where you just get to call plays. I haven't explored that yet, but that seems about the level of complexity - though perhaps with a legit playbook, rather than just 8 pre-set plays.

No idea if this is good at doing that stuff, but the model didn't start out with a trainwreck, at least.

[QuikSand]

So, I do the training camp stuff - it's a small event, a few add/subtract options. Seems like you can power up three players a year who will randomly gain one ratings point. Okay then. And in training camp you can de-emphasize and over-emphasize certain functions to lose/gain there, or have a chance to do so. Seems... shallow but fine, I guess.

I see a few things I take note of - my former stud LT Cahn (I remember because I pointed him out above) is now apparently a stud center. And I get no control over this. Okay. I'll need to look into stuff like that upon getting deeper in, who knows.

We go 4-11-1. Hmmmm. Running game still strong, passing game fell apart a bit... 36/15 ratio rather than 23/6. Maybe it didn't carry over my gameplan settings from the previous year? (Looks like it did) Oh, well.

Oh... this time, I do have a button for "Start Offseason" and it looks like I'll get to do more than I had expected.

[QuikSand]

I get a big team update... lots of red arrows (ratings went down) and green (up). Lots of guys with asterisks, that apparently means they are free agents - so perhaps there's more to the roster management side than I had guessed.

From this one screen, I get a warning that I had better have "checked your players and identified your needs" - so I go back, maybe this is the only screen where I can see where we stand.

I'd say the team needs are, assuming all the * guys just walk away:

+1 OL
PASS RUSHERS
younger/better QB
WR (only one guy's coming back?)
LB depth
CB/DB w pass def skills!
PR ours is leaving?

Okay then, at least that's a gameplan...

[QuikSand]

The Rookie Draft:

Okay, at each position, we see guys sorted into lettered Tiers, with ? for all their ratings. Seems like I can "scout" a limited number of players to get the details. There's a hard-to-find overall Big Board too. (I think we have pick #3 overall)

I'm looking for defensive linemen, and cannot find them. Hmm. Linemen, Offense, LB/DB all have pages. There are DL in the "overall" page, but I don't seem to be able to scout them there. Tricky, that's where I'd like to spend my top pick here.

Oops! Found them, they're in the back half of "linemen" because that makes sense. Okay. I scout the top three guys at DL... get (Dur, vRun, Rush) 388, 488, 778... guessing these are the ratings they'd start out with, and if I put time into them in offseason they could bump up a point. And then at the end of each season guys seem to move up and down, connected to age. Got it. I guess the 7-7-8 is the best of that lot, but not overwhelming. I have 20 interviews, so I will spend a few more on this top slot, it's a team-defining pick, right?

DB McMill is 8-8-8-7 okay, maybe thats my guy?
DB Beckham is 8-7-9-8 so even better against the pass, maybe he is?
QB Vitalis is 887-889 so... he looks like he'd be a big deal, too

Ok, I'm done scouting for my top pick. It says I can keep using scouting during the draft, so it seems dumb to do too much in advance...

I click to the next phase, but instead see a window: Select Team for Trades... hmmm...

[QuikSand]

Trading seems to be picks for picks... I'm not going to fiddle with it here, I'll wait until I have done at least one draft, to have a sense what a late round pick is "worth."

So, on to the draft, right?

First two picks are at OL then LB. Geez, the QB seems obvious, but since I have such a striking need on defense, I will go with the 9-rated pass defense CB, L Beckham. But when I look a the top two guys, the first one's ratings are now better (?) than before? I'm confused. Anyway, I guess I'll take him instead...

My draft:
1.03 CB M McMill Tier A Dur 8 RunD 8 PassD 9 React 7
2.03 WR E Bailey Tier A Dur 5 Stam 8 Str 7 Quick 8 Speed 7 Recv 8
3.03 OL P McFriendly Tier B Dur 9 RunB 7 PassB 6
4.03 WR J Eagle Tier B Dur 6 Stam 9 Str 6 Quick 7 Speed 7 Recv 7
5.03 TE G Marich Tier C Dur 5 Stam 6 Str 6 Quick 6 Speed 6 Recv 7
(at this point I'm out of scouting reports... and have lots of scouted guys I hate)
6.03 RB J Morris Tier B (no scouting report)
7.03 DL M Harts Tier C (no scouting report)

So, draft is done. Now, apparently, I "finalize rosters." It says "those marked at the bottom of each section will be marked CUT and will be removed." Okay, then...

[QuikSand]

Okay, I see how this works. With my OL group, I have up/down triangle buttons to click by each guy - here, I get to set the starting lineup, set one guy as an extra OL, and everyone below that slot gets labeled as "(cut)" by his name. Makes sense. The rookie OL is still 9-7-6 (same as during the draft), that makes him my starter at RG. Our 35 y/o vet is done, he moves down to the (cut) range, and I guess that means we keep 6 OL.

DL Harts (7-6-5) is a cut candidate, even with my poor group here - but because he's young, I keep him ahead of a 31y/o guy who moves down to (cut).

...I now see the point here. Very rigid limits on each position group, so if you draft a HB, frex, you must still cut down to two HB on your final roster. So, drafting for need is key. I'm cutting a 29y/o 7-7-7 guy just to make room for my rookie there... I would have been better off adding a DB, even if he stinks, I guess.

Now, I am confused about my WR group. EVeryone but Thomas had a star, I thought that means they were free agents. But I have 7 guys for 5 positions here, after drafting two rookies. Not sure how that works.

I'd much rather cut TWO stiffs at DB, and keep an extra RB or WR, but I don't seem to have that option. Noted.

Sounds like that's it. So, I still don't really understand how players leave my team - the game mentioned there were free agents. I didn't have any opportunity to try to retain them, it seems like they all came back, but I'm not sure. I think I cut 7 players to clear space for 7 rookies, suggesting that the roster was full leading up to the draft. Not sure, though.

Anyway, I'm back to the preseason and training camp routines, where I guess I get to bump up a few players, and tweak the team training emphasis. At last, I guess I have completed one full cycle. Okay, then.

[QuikSand]

Now, the offseason camp stuff feels more sensible. I get to target three players for special "player mini camps" to bump them up one point in a random slot.

WR Bailey +1 Quickness
CB McMill +1 Durability
LB Harrison +1 Pass Rush

For Team Drills, I see where my teams stands in several items, and I can alter training to move those numbers. De-emphasizing means 50% chance it goes down 1, do it twice it's 100%. Emphasizing something means 50% to improve, twice is 90% chance.

My current settings, and changes from my camp:
7 Red Zone O
9 Ball Security
7 2 Min Offense (2x de-emphasized, -1 to 6)
7 Def Stamina
5 Red Zone D
6 Def Stop Big Plays
6 Def Cause Fumbles
4 Team Discipline (2x emphasis but didn't go up)

Well, that sucked.


Looks like we're ready to sim another season. I think I'm still focused on the front office, and am not interested in calling plays or watching the games play out. At least now some of these fairly anonymous players have some meaning to me - new stud at CB and third WR are "my" guys, and I can look for them to help improve on that rotten season from a year ago.

[QuikSand]

2021 Season: 8-8, no playoffs

We were 2nd lowest in overall yards (5150), and 4th lowest w 33 TDs. Not good enough on offense, clearly. Defense yields 5718 yards, a shade lower than average.

QB Hebert 60.1% 3560 6.4y/a 25/11 85.3
RB Jenkins 319-1419 4.5 ypc 5TD 5f (was 1st in 2019, now 17th!)
WR Edwardson 72-744 3TD
WR Thomas 84-995 9TD
WR Bailey 23-419 3TD
TE Robertson 40-346 4TD
LB Harrison 162T 8S 3Int
CB McMill 49T, 0Int

Grr, I thought I had located one place to see this year's stats for my players, but now the best I can do is find career leaders, Meh.

Anyway... no way to know if our top CB was an impact player - no picks, but was that because he didn't get picked on much? No clue. The league is just loaded with HUGE RB seasons... my guy's 1400 yards is only 17th best, that's silly.

Whatever...obsessing deeply over stats isn't going to make it work here. We need to build the team and focus on wins.

[QuikSand]

Oops, I assumed we missed the playoffs, but 8-8 won our division, how about that. But at least seeing this got me to the team stats page - you get there from clicking the team name in the standings screen, and then a click after that. Not intuitive, but it's there somewhere.

Noteworthy? Not a lot. Our backup RB never touched the ball. RB Jenkins had 97-7474 in the receiving game, so he was a monster yardage guy, whoa.

DE Ofarim posted 7 sacks, but that's a HUGE team need for sure, we are really thin in the pass rush.


In the postseaon, we get pounded at home by Tennessee 28-3 and are out quickly. Houston beats Minnesota for the trophy.

[QuikSand]

Yet again, I have played out the season, including the title game, and appear stuck. The only way I find to get past this stage is to go to the "Simulate Current Season" button, which seems dumb. I once clicked a too-aggressive setting and missed a whole draft... I'll be more careful here. But, design, ugh. So, here I click "Playoffs, Too!" to get into the next offseason routine.

Okay...I misread earlier. Players with names in RED are the free agents, presumably leaving the team. This year, nobody shows up in red.

Ratings changes:
+ RB Morris, LB Harrison,
- starting QB Hebert, WR Edwardson,

Obvious CUT slots (guys whose ratings are so low, they're totally useless - thinking these are places for late round filler draft picks): FB, DB, DB, P, QB? (Hebert faded badly)

Ok, onto the draft... the phases here are:
-early scouting
-trading window
-actual draft

We pick in the middle of the round, so I'm going to limit my early scouting. No Grade A QBs in the class, and lots of DL, so I expect I'll just scout til I find a pass rushing stud and take him first.

[QuikSand]

Bah, as a division winner, we pick 22 instead of what 8-8 would have gotten us. So it goes...

1.22 DE J Cobbler Tier A Dur 7 RunD 7 PassR 8
2.22 DB J Williamson Tier B Dur 7 RunD 7 PassD 7 React 6
3.22 DB R Gunderson Tier B Dur 7 RunD 7 PassD 6 React 7
(ran out of scouting here)
4.22 QB J Motor Tier B 677 666 revealed after pick
5.22 QB C Endres Tier B 676 777
6.22 FB B Jordan Tier D 645
7.22 DL Quigley Tier C 955

Nothing shocking in setting the roster. A couple old faded guys get cut. The two rookies at QB don't look great, but Hebert has no future - I'll start Endres this year and see what we've got - likely a ticket to an early draft pick and hopefully a new signal caller.

[QuikSand]

So yeah... without documenting this in a thread, if I'm just quick-simming the regular season, then it looks like this might be a 20 minutes a season sort of casual game. Worth gaining that perspective, I guess.

[QuikSand]

Offseason minicamps:
DE Cobbler +1 Pass Rush to 9(!)
WR Bailey +1 Strength to 8
CB McMill +1 Leadership to 6 meh
I leave team drills the same
gameplan changed: heavy running, more blitzing

2022 Season: 6-10, no playoffs
QB Endres 312/550 56.8% 3773 6.9ypa 30/14 85.5
RB Jenkins 348-1681 4.9ypc 10TD 7f 92-719rec 7TD
WR Bailey 81-1189 10TD
WR Thomas 70-981 7TD
TE Robertson 45-567 6TD
LB Harrison 142T 5S 0Int
CB McMill 49T 3Int
DL Cobbler 42T 1Sack
DL Lovett 47T 8Sacks

Okay, we stink. Cobbler can't rush the passer? Team only gets 16 turnovers all year? Ugh. It wasn't the rookie QB's fault, we're just not good enough.

[Pro Strategy Football]

Hey, everyone, I just happened upon this thread, and it's pretty cool! I'm working on the next patch right now, but I'd love to get back on later and help answer some questions. For example, you can find a player's history by tapping on History, then Teams/Players and select his team. Then you can tap any player to see his history.

I hope to work on making that friendlier, just pretty swamped right now. I work on this part time (mainly weekends), and like I say, I'm working on a major patch.

In this upcoming patch, I'm fixing an issue related to player's ages not starting out correctly when creating a new career, but also on some major new features:
1) you'll be able to edit career leagues, including names, ages, and ratings. I wouldn't recommend abusing this, but it will let you tweak values if you want;
2) I'm adding support for "non-standard leagues." These are experimental and a work in progress, but work great for Exhibition play. This means you'll be able to create any type of league you want (up to 12 conferences and 128 teams), but only for Quick Play / Exhibition Play, because writing a generic schedule creator for any-size league has been pretty daunting.

I'm also working on a Windows-only feature to let you save game stats to disk.

Again, thanks for this great thread! I hope you're enjoying the game!

[QuikSand]

2022 offseason updates

Team changes:
Discipline +1 to 5
Red Zone O +1 to 8
Force Fumbles -1 to 6

Position notes:
OL mixed bag, still 6 deep
DL one drop, could be cut
QB Endres bumped a bit, still meh
RB Morris bumped a bit, still meh
FB meh CUT
TE mixed CUT
WR Edwardson is done, Eagle playable CUT
LB three veterans fading
DB McMill gains, group trend up
ST need punter CUT

2023 Draft:
Early looks- two A QBs, two A TEs, really deep at DL, LB, DB
Plan: hope for a QB, if not, prob a DL again

1.12 QB J Stuger Tier A 998 866 Dur 5 Str 7 Qu 5 Spd 5 Read 7 Ldr 7
2.12 WR E Wyman Tier A Dur 5 Stam 5 Str 7 Quick 7 Speed 8 Recv 7
3.12 LB J Petty Tier B Dur 7 RunD 6 PassD 7 React 6
4.12 P B Truett Tier C Avg 46 Blk 1% In20 39% Ret 46% Avg 9y
5.12 FB Scott Tier C (on roster) 655
6.12 DE J Lockwood Tier C Dur 8 RunD 5 PassD 6
7.12 TE C Cotton Tier C (on roster) 455

Setting rosters, nothing shocking. QB Stuger is obviously in right away, LB Petty and WR Wyman will have rotation roles.

[QuikSand]

Originally Posted by Pro Strategy Football

Again, thanks for this great thread! I hope you're enjoying the game!

My pleasure. I'm enough of a fan of this genre, I'm glad to support its various offerings.

I've gotten my $20 worth in the first day. Not bad. I will probably play out this career to some degree of "finishing," I'd guess.

Even if it's not aspiring to be as deep as FOF, a quirky little pro football sim, apparently with a good deal of customization that isn't even on my menu, seems like it's worth having out there.

[QuikSand]

2023 Preseason:

Minicamps:
QB Stuger +1 ShortPass AvoidInt to 9 (!)
CB McMill +1 Leadership to 7 (guessing he's maxed out)
DE Cobbler +1 Durability to 8

Team Drills: no changes

Season gameplan:
balanced run/pass
balanced aggressiveness
3-4 front
equal man/zone
blitzes more

Ready to go. No clue what to expect - will a rookie QB have jitters and throw 25 picks? Or does he just hit the ground running? We have skill players around him, hopefully the D is good enough to keep things legit.

[QuikSand]

2023 Season: 6-10

Total points only 401-423, so maybe the 6-10 represents some bad luck.
Team stats: outgained by 1,000 yards, ugh

QB Stuger 61.6% 3,695y 6.5ypa 30/10 90.15
RB Jenkins 269-1,382 5.2 10TD, 103-805 8TD
WR Bailey 86-992 7TD
WR Thomas 81-895 7TD
TE Robertson 44-458 6TD
LB Harrison 174T 12S 1Int
LB Randall 86T, 6S, 2Int
DE Cobbler 46T, 6S
DE Lovett 49T, 5S
CB McMill 53T, 0Int

Well, I would have hoped for more, but let's tally this up as a function of a young QB. Our running game is due to fade as Jenkins ages, but we'll try to get a couple seasons where it all clicks together.

[QuikSand]

2023 offseason updates

Team changes:
2Min O +1 to 6
Red Zone D -1 to 4

Position notes:
OL starting to fade, still 6 deep
DL mixed
QB Stuger 2 down, 1 up... not thrilled
RB Jenkins starting to fade, still starter
FB meh open to a cut here
TE Robertson fading
WR Day off the cliff, CUT
LB veterans still fading
DB one vet fading, CUT
ST need PR CUT

2023 Draft:
Early looks - familiar, really deep with Tier A on defense, mixed on offense
Plan: BPA in first, ideally pass rusher or stud TE, DB

1.08 DL T Pierce Tier A Dur 8 RunD 7 PassR 8
2.08 DB I Shields Tier A Dur 4 RunD 7 PassD 7 React 7
3.08 PR C Hampton Tier A Avg 12y Long 84 TD% 4
4.08 TE E William Tier C Dur 2 Stam 5 Str 6 Quick 6 Speed 7 Recv 7
5.08 KR R Porter Tier D Avg 25y Long 78 TD% 0
6.08 DB D Penn Tier C
7.08 FB M Ware Tier C

Curious to see the Tier A QB fall to round two... note for later, perhaps...

Roster setting, nothing big, again. New guys at PR and KR both step in, that's good - I don't know when is the right time to take a punt returner but Porter is probably our guy for a decade so, fine. Everyone is basically as expected. (That seems to be ho this game works - ratings are not the place for surprise... maybe stats are, but it doesn't feel like a deep stats game, either.

Minicamps:
QB Stuger +1 Leadership to 8 (maybe he's maxed out too?)
WR Bailey +1 Durability to 6
LB Harrison +1 Leadership to 6

Team Drills: just not feeling it, nothing


Season gameplan:
balanced run/pass
balanced aggressiveness
3-4 front
equal man/zone
blitzes more

Seems like we ought to be a click better with a more comfy QB. His ratings haven't jumped up, but if there's a hidden "jitters" variable like in FOF, seemingly, then perhaps he'll turn into an asset this year. 9 wins?

[QuikSand]

2034 Season: 8-8

Yawn. Outgained by 400 yards.

QB Stuger 67.2% 3,888y 6.8 ypa 32/10 97.5
RB Jenkins 328-1,525 4.7 ypc 9TD, 111-756 6TD
WR Bailey 90-1063 11 TD
WR Thomas 79-863 10 TD
TE Robertson 52-524 4TD
LB Harrison 148T 8S 1Int
LB Jackson 102T 1S 1Int
CB McMill 55T 2Int
SS Gunderson 81T 8Int

Ok, so... what creates a guy getting 8 interceptions, when thus far it's always been 0-3 for all my DBs? Happenstance? Is he... good? Is there a way that I could know this? Will he do it again?

Anyhow... mediocre team. Building around a DB seems stupid as hell, it's probably time to just go in on skill players, we'll be needing a RB1 and WR are always useful. Meh.

[QuikSand]

2024 offseason updates

Team changes:
2Min O +1 to 7
Red Zone D +1 to 5
Force Fumbles -1 to 4

Position notes:
OL slow fade, still solid
DL Pierce up, Lovett down
QB Stuger 2 up, 1 down... not thrilled
RB Jenkins now tossup starter
FB meh open to a cut here
TE Robertson fading to backup
WR Eagle now starter, CUT
LB veterans still holding on
DB McM drops to 7 in RunD, dammit... still solid group
ST nothing urgent

2023 Draft:
Early looks - deep at OL, DL, 2x A TEs, only one A RB
Plan: TE or DL in first round

1.15 TE B Wallace Tier A Dur 7 Stam 7 Str 8 Quick 8 Spd 7 Rec 7
2.15 OL N Grey Tier B Dur 7 RunB 7 PassB 7
3.15 LB J Kake Tier B Dur 9 RunD 6 PassD 6 React 7
4.15 WR B Austin Tier C Dur 3 Stam 6 Str 5 Quick 5 Speed 6 Recv 7
5.15 FB Lukkonen
6.15 OL L Witherfork Tier B Dur 8 RunB 6 PassB 5
7.15 K Granite camp leg

Minicamps:
OL Grey +1 Pass Blocking to 8
DE Grey +1 Durability to 9
TE Wallace +1 Strength to 9

Skip Team Drills again

Season gameplan:
favor passing
balanced aggressiveness
3-4 front
equal man/zone
typical blitzing

Beats me whether we'll be better. What use is a top tier TE? We'll try to find out. 6 wins? 11 wins? Who knows?

[QuikSand]

Side note:

I know what this feels like. It's a challenge setup I have used in FOF, I have called it the "Seven Year Itch." Basically populate your whole roster just using the rookie draft, nobody stays past 7 seasons. So, with only 49 draft picks, you basically have to max out every pick - if you really whiff on a DE, for example, it's really tough to fill in.

Anyway... I sense this is how this game ultimately works. You can't sign free agents, you just build your team through the draft. Depth doesn't matter, apparently, only for purposes of having an able guy ready when an old guy implodes at the end of his useful life.

So, there it is...every decade you can draft 10 first round talents, 10 second round talents, and so forth. Once you have used an early pick on a TE, like I just did, you really can't afford to use another pick on a TE for years and years -- there's no way to set up your offense to use a double TE set, use one in the slot, whatever. One guy would just rot. So - I use a mid-first round pick at TE, hope that's worth the investment, and if next year there's a 9-9-9-9 TE sitting there at my pick at 1.14, well, I have to understand that I'm throwing away last year's 1st rounder to take this new guy... and that's hard to live with. Same thing at every position, basically - though the groups are more forgiving, and you can/should be laddering guys there.

So, that's how you build in this game. Watch for needs, both for right now and for pretty soon, and draft for them. Lather, rinse, repeat.

[QuikSand]

2025 Season: 7-9

Dammit. Mediocre again. +27 in points, down a couple hundred in yards. Yuck.

QB Struger 66.7% 4,121 7.0ypa 28/9 96.0
RB Jenkins 275-1108 4.1ypc 8TD, 99-713 2TD rec
WR Eagle 108-1,317 14TD
WR Bailey 104-1,292 6TD
TE Wallace 44-376 4TD
LB Harrison 146T 7S 1Int
LB Petty 82T 6S 1Int
DE Cobbler 51T 4S
DE Pierce 49T 4S
CB McMill 54T 2Int, 1TD

So, we slot guys at nickel and dime DB, but they don't show up, at least on the tackles tally: my guys in those slots got 8 and 0 tackles all season. Why bother? My 4th DL is getting plenty of work, even though I play the 3-4 primarily. But my 5th LB apparently never sees the field. This seems wonky.

Oh, and the big interception year for Gunderson? Back to 2 this year. Fluke. Nobody on the team has more than 3... I think in our entire history we had that one big season, that's it.

It's fine. It's a cutesy pie game. Not going to obsess here - it's just frustrating.

[QuikSand]

2025 offseason updates

Team changes:
Force Fumbles +1 to 5
Def Stamina +1 to 9

Position notes:
OL two guys done CUT, cut?
DL Lovett down, borderline cut
QB Stuger 2 up, gonna be like this
RB starter job 50/50, maybe cut Jenkins at 31?
FB both up but still meh
TE solid, fine here
WR Thomas fading, likely a CUT
LB Jackson fading, looks done CUT
DB 2 old guys are done... still solid group, CUT CUT
ST nothing urgent, maybe a better kicker?

2026 Draft:
Early looks - usual mixed bag, DL and DB very deep
Plan: WR first, possibly OL, then BPA

1.10 WR M Rivers Tier A Dur 8 Stam 4 Str 7 Quick 7 Speed 9 Recv 9
2.10 OL R Butterworth Tier B Dur 6 RunB 7 PassB 6
3.10 DB M Grumble Tier B Dur 2 RunD 6 PassD 6 React 6
4.10 OL T Hubb Tier C Dur 9 RunB 5 PassB 7
5.10 QB L Evans
6.10 FB J Stills
7.10 DB Z Flash

(two Tier A QBs available in mid-2nd here too... hmm...)

Roster decisions: two starters at OL cut for rookies, but we're freshened there...rookie WR Rivers will start as WR2 and looks great...no shocks elsewhere, our last 3 rookies are instacuts (probably worth looking into trades there)

Minicamps:
OL Grey +1 Run Blocking to 8
WR Rivers +1 Leadership to 8 (meh)
TE Wallace +1 Receiving to 8

Skip Team Drills again

Season gameplan:
favor passing
balanced aggressiveness
3-4 front
equal man/zone
typical blitzing

So... let's hope that he big addition at WR makes a difference. Problem is, our WR1 an WR2 were already solid, so it won't be gigantic. OL suffered a bit, and LB are fading... I will hope for a move forward, as we try to get the air game going. Maybe 4600 yards and 36TD this year? 10 wins?

[Chas in Cinti]

watching... confused, but watching...

[QuikSand]

Not sure this merits your attention, Chas.

[QuikSand]

9-7, division winner. We win two postseason games, but lose in the conf title game. Our best season yet, maybe except for the base year where who knows what was going on with the distribution of talent.

Offseason updates:
RedZ Def +1 to 6

Position movement:
OL Lost finally failing, no urgent move though
DL Andrews done, CUT cut?
QB stable, fine
HB stable, fine (but open to adding long term star)
FB fine
TE Wallace +, ok but might as well CUT Marich, 29yo
WR Bailey + stud now, Wyman ready for WR3, CUT
LB Jackson done CUT
DB McMill - group still solid Gunderson done CUT
ST need new KR CUT

Draft thinking: yawn, I'm bored, even after a week off...

1.28 DL T Sutton Tier A Dur 8 RunD 7 PassR 8
2.28 DB P Ewing Tier B Dur 6 RunD 6 PassD 7 React 6
3.28 OL A McMill Tier C Dur 9 RunB 6 PassB 6
4.28 LB J Jestis Tier C Dur 6 RunD 5 PassD 4 React 5
5.28 TE S Columbo
6.28 KR J Fancher
7.28 WR J Shire

whatever...

TE1, WR2, rookie DL get drills, DL bumps to 9 Pass Rush yay

[QuikSand]

I may fiddle with this game some more, but I don't think I'm going to fiddle with this thread. Not much to gain here. Not certain that I have touched bottom, but it feels like it. The game is fine, it's really not aspiring to be a deep GM sim a la FOF, and that's okay.