FOF 9 - The Highlander Challenge

[QuikSand]

2033 Early Offseason

Herb looks at the glistening hardware, and still says “66/100.” Got it, big guy.

No retirements, that’s cool.

No stadium plan, ticket prices set, keep the staff, we know the drill here.

So, it’s franchise tag time, but there’s a twist. QB Carlson was a 1y UDFA, then got a 2y extension, so he’s a RESTRICTED free agent for us. Hot Damn! Don’t even have to mull over the $60m tag number. No clue what he will demand, with his mere 49/49 rating, but I expect to settle this whole QB sideshow and lock him up. (Even though the devil on the other shoulder sees last year’s 3rd string UDFA is now rated 42/54 !?!?!)

Anyway – nobody gets the tag this season. My pair of 32yo guards are probably the best case, but both are fading and I reckon I can get one back in the open market for 1-2y. S Breiner would have cost $18m, but he will be plenty cheaper in the open market, again.

24 players are out of contract… feels like an awful lot. Assuming we sign our full complement of 10 via free agency, and 8 more in the draft, and add that to the 35 we have signed now… that gets us only to. . . 53, just barely. That seems like I’m penalizing myself too much here. What to do?

Re-signings:
1Y: CB Keion Howley, 25yp, 25/46, 1.1m, CB depth willing to sign
2Y: G Cartlon Montoya, 32yo, 66/66, 2/18, anchor caliber still
3Y: DE Marlon Sanchez, 25, 57/57, 3/15.6, starting caliber edge
4Y: QB Maurice Carlson, 25yo, 49/49, 4/100, sew up our top guy
5Y: QB Henry Skaggs, 24yo 42/54, 5/6.6, long term backup/PlanB

Notes: Main guys still not re-signed… TE Navarro, WR Ruark, S Breiner, RB Schuster, WR Hashimoto

I feel like I have enough retention work to do that this could be a season without any new signings… could easily just spend the 5 open slots on re-upping with guys who got it done last year, right?

The counterpoint: we have cap space, even after the QB deal. About $52m effective, less than average, but enough to consider making moves here or there. Need areas right away maybe WR, CB, LB, RB?

FA signings:
1Y:
2Y: WR Bucky Ruark, 29, 54/54, decent X outside option
3Y: S Malik Greiner, 30, 54/54, stalwart centerpiece guy
4Y: LT Neil Hurst, 25, 67/67, only 4.5m a year for this guy
5Y: DB Amari Ptacek, 26, 51/51, could play any DB role ok

Wanted but missed out on:
CB Jaxon James, 24, 52/52, versatile coverage and +Run D

I did look at Osvaldo Schuster, but generally see a replacement-level guy there. I’ll hope to draft one more committee member this year, rather than commit to Schuster (even though he’s only 26). I leave the 1y contract open to target a veteran, likely a returning guy, after the draft once we see where we need the help – WR Hashimoto, RB Schuster, and CB Iversen all seem like possibles for us there. But Schuster gets a contract in the late FA stages, he’s gone and so is TE Navarro.

[QuikSand]

2033 Rookie Draft
We have pick 32, obv, and that’s great.

Needs landscape something like this:

WR starter
DB starter
TE quality
.
RB contributor
LB depth
OL depth
WR depth
plus FB
kicker
plus long snapper

the 4 mocks all agree with us targeting WR at pick 32…

Draft Summary:

1.32 CB Darrin Merchant        looks like a perimeter CB1, short arms though   44/65
2.32 WR Toby Hultgren          6’5” outside target, well-rounded skills        29/39
3.32 LB Morgan Foxworth        do-it-all guy with good apparent ratings        41/62
4.32 RB Donnie Hass            combine skipper w high HoleRec, End, ST not SP  37/43
5.32  K Erik Damian            skipper w highest test score in entire draft    61/68
5.36 WR Wyatt Todd             pure combine warrior, bars look modest at best  24/32
6.32 TE Malcolm Cruz           receiving threat to complement injured star     27/37
7.32 DB Colin Purvis           just overloading with DB depth, has been needed 28/39

Feel okay about this haul – the top CB looks like he may be our CB1-2 right out of the gate. Big worry is WR, if neither of these rooks are any good, that’s a lot of pressure on the QB.


We do have one 1Y contract slot available for a non-rookie, and my leaning here is to just re-up with a guy like WR Hashimoto, and keep him around for his cohesion, decent ability, and special teams. Not thrilling, but functional. 31yo, 43/43 overall… could we do better here? 29yo OJ Gibbs is coming off three straight 1,000+ yard seasons, as a diminutive catch-and-run guy with high endurance. He wants $14m/yr, but it looks like we could afford one season of that under the cap. I go for the somewhat sexier option, and we ink Gibbs for $13m and change.

UDFAs: TE Manuel Franklin, LB Chandler Harwood, LB Seth Millar (multiple teams offering here), QB Octavio Peck, RB Javon Burcham, WR Ivan Banks

So… allowing myself unlimited UDFAs feels okay, now that our ability to re-sign them comes at the cost of re-signing a veteran player. Case in point – this undfrafted rookie RB looks pretty good to me, but if I were to cut my 3rd round draft pick for him before this season starts, I lose out on the three secure seasons from the draftee, and retaining the young RB next year would cost us something like a 40-something rotation player who’s looking for a second contract. I think that is creating a solid incentive for us to target needs in the draft, rather than merely knowing we can rely on after-draft fill-ins everywhere.

[QuikSand]

2033 Preseason and Cutdowns
Weight training, fairly uneventful. Nobody making any drastic moves or position switches.

We’re at 59 players so no cutdowns for preseason. TE Mayhall is out for 11 weeks, so we expect him to start on IR and we will not be fielding a legitimate TE threat for half the season, I fear. Might have been a wiser use of our final 1y contract than the gadget receiver. Rookie Malcolm Cruz may get too many targets in the first half this year, he’s not ready for that.


We have 3x on IR as we prepare to kick off the real season.

Final cutdowns a bit more merciful than they could have been: UDFA RB Javon Burcham, UDFA LB Seth Millar, UDFA WR Ivan Banks. . . and that gets us down to 53 + 3 on IR.


Finalizing depth charts (tedious, but I’m picking up a rhythm now, a bit) and readying for our title defense campaign. We get the targets on our backs, that’s fun.

I’m going to use Ruark as our main X receiver, but Gibbs has enough speed that he’s intriguing as a deep threat there, despite getting jammed up by good cover men. I decide to give Gibbs a combination role, he will play some outside and some slot – think Temu Tyreek Hill here.

I want rookie RB Hass to take the “RB1” job here, but it will remain a rotation. I don’t think Williams is anything special, and I like Small in his third down role, and I love Paff in his fullback/returner role. . . so Hass on 1st and 10 makes sense to me. We will keep 4x RB active, I think, for most of the season.

I build the defensive depth chart up again from scratch, with multiple injuries, and expect that I will have to eff around with it all season long, as usual. We have lots of depth, and typically need to employ it. Season starts with top two real defensive tackles on the injured list, inactive.

CB depth is much better, but nobody has really high endurance, so it needs to be a committee everywhere – Ptacek, Deayon, Merchant, and Twedt all have roles in the CB1/2 and nickel mix. Twedt turns red (overuse) just being put into the nickel in 3WR and 3rd-and-long formations – that’s ridiculous, but I knew it when I signed him.

I’m going to try to use coverage specialist LB Matt Rojas in more formations this season, it leaves us a bit more vulnerable to the run but he can handle the load and is outstanding in zone coverage.

[QuikSand]

2033 Season

Been a bit since we tallied up the state of the franchise:

               2028            2030           2033
Brand Value:       335m, #17       393m, #9       475m, #6
Franchise Value:   $5.71B, #22     5.98B,#18      6.48B,#14
Power Rating:      66/100, #9      38/100, #22    5/100, #32!
Roster Rating:     91/100, #26     92/100, #18    99/100, #2
Cohesion Rating:   92/100, #3      89/100, #2     85/100, #31
Avg Age:           25.0, #29       25.7, #26      25.9, #29

Okay, the anomalous Power Rating must come from some weirdness around a tight roster evaluation – the game sees zero players at FB ang grades us a zero for that role, despite the fact that someone will line up as FB when required. Maybe the same for TE? Anyway, there might be money to be made in the betting pools, if we are home dogs to the Patriots on opening day, I do not think we deserve to be last in the power ratings, needless to say.

Are we a 13-wi power team threat? Perhaps we will look like it in the back half of the season when we get our star TE back, but with him out, even with a juicy WR addition, I do not really feel like we pack that kind of punch. We’d settle for a division title and a shot at the big run again.


Okay, we are winning, but winning kind “ugly.” 3-0 but by a total margin of 13 points. Let’s get the DL healthy and see what they does, eh?

The Matt Rojas breakout will apparently have to wait – he’s out for the year with a knee. We re-up with rookie Seth Millar, and actually expect to see him start playing a bit, but Terrance Paulus is gonna rack up some bonkers tackle numbers, now.


And so it goes. See injuries. Shuffle lineups. Get error message. Debug lineups. Sim game. Win game. Repeat. We’re 7-0 without any blowouts.


Then it turns. Three straight losses, all close, but losses.

At 8-4, it’s WR Gibbs who goes down injured, just his turn it appears. IR out for the year. 80 yards a game for a last-minute pickup, that seems worthwhile. Anyway, we’ll see lesser guys step up, as usual.


System grinds. Injuries just stack up. And we end up… 10-5 with one to play against 9-6 Buffalo, for the division. We get the 38-24 win at home, and earn . . . a rematch at our place in the opening wild card round.



Main takeaways? Roughly as expected. Offense is high end, defense less so. Injuries just are basically the main element of the game – maybe I am overworking my top players? Staff weakness? (Though my guy is 80 in Conditioning, I hired for that) Why us?

[Young Drachma]

Now I understand the constraints better in that last post. Congrats on the title, stuff just seemed to click this season and your guys weren't going to be denied.

[QuikSand]

Yeah, the career now has a rhythm, and I'm getting used to the depth chart tinkering that is required. I don't love it, but it does help me feel closer to the roster/team, if that makes sense.

[QuikSand]

2033 Postseason

Nice to have Kerry Cunningham around for his first playoffs since our one-and-out in 2029. He’s had another WR1 season, even amidst all the tumult.

Welp, that was fun. Buffalo claps back and gets us 34=27, and we are dunzo. So it goes, funny shaped ball stuff… they get a pick-six after an earlier kickoff return TD, and win a game where we modestly outplayed them.

Solid season, I feel like we definitely belong in the 10+ win strata, so that’s good. And feeling like we are there even while paying a QB real money, or close to it, makes that feel a little less cheap than it did a season or two back.

[QuikSand]

2034 Early Offseason

Herb, unimpressed by the division win, awards us a 33. Feels harsh.

Lots of retirements across the league, none for us, still among the youngest rosters around.

My list of free agents is again 20 long, so serious turnover ahead. Tops of the list: DE Carriger, WR Cunningham, TE Mayhall, C Lord, MLB Nodin.

Let’s see – the usual array of offseason stuff. We watch as teams try to improve their stadiums. I hope to catch up to other cities with attendance after apparently overpricing my own product and leaving fans at home.

I get to have that “how do I get this to work?” moment again trying to extend my DC. It’s soe wrid combo of left click then wait a few seconds… or was it right slick? Or was it click on the position not the name you idiot? Eventually it get it to work. Nothing like 45 seconds of random cursing to keep the vibe positive. Best part of the gaming experience is muttering “what the fuck is it now?”

I decide to hire a new S&C guy, he’s rated 80 STR, 70 COND… maybe we can manufacture some better luck with player injuries. Maybe?

Franchise tag is actually kinda tempting, give our numbers game. But the numbers are silly… TE Mayhall for $22m is the only one that is worth mulling, but I defer anyway, worried he might get angry and become unwilling to re-sign with us.

It; opening day of free agency, time to re-sign some of our own guys. Quite a menu, we are going to b leaving lots of guys to walk to new contracts (maybe we get comp picks later, but will hurt for now).

Re-signings:
1Y: CB Tre Morris, 32, 45/45, #4.3m, veteran willing to take 1y
2Y: WR Kerry Cunningham, 30, 49/49, 2/9m, produced like a WR1
3Y: C Gilbert Lord, 31, 70/70, 3/37.5, keep central piece here
4Y: TE Philip Mayhall, 26, 76/76, 4/60, stud #1 TE build-around
5Y: LB Chandler Harwood, 22, 44/51, 5/7.5, ok young reserve guy

Notes: Leaves MLB Nodin, DE Carriger, CB Twedt, and WR Hostetler all unsigned… all fairly important players for us in recent seasons. Harwood was a fill-in rookie last year but has a little bit of everything, useful for a plug-in role I expect him to hold for a while. I need to get more guys like that with my day three draft picks, tbh.

[QuikSand]

2034 Free Agency
Looking at our 43 signed players, vaguely our priorities are: a long term WR asset, improvement at RB, and LB depth/talent

FA signings:
1Y:
2Y: DE Nathaniel Carriger, 30, 66/66, 2/20, keep the veteran
3Y: DT Marcell Sarkissian, 28, 83, 3/36, standout pass rusher
4Y: MLS Tim Nodin, 25, 65/65, 4/48 just too good to let get away
5Y:
(missed out on targets below)
5Y: TE Kenneth Dart, 24, 57/57, 5/18 nice receiving TE2

Notes: DT Duane Amos walks to HOU, but we knew signing Sark we’d be occupying most of the DT snaps with my two high-paid guys for a while.

I decide again to leave my 1y offer free for after the draft, and after missing on the young TE we wanted, I keep that five year slot free as well, hopefully for a former RFA whose team lets him walk.


But as we look through the roster, our real needs haven’t changed a ton – still would like to draft WR talent, add a RB who alters our picture for right away, and add another secondary piece.

LB Paulus is eligible for a 5th year extension, and my numbers game makes me say yes, I’ll pay up $19m for one more controlled year of one of my best players. Done.

[QuikSand]

2034 Rookie Draft

In addition to adding quality with the early picks, hopefully at need positions, I really would like to improve my strike rate with later round picks. I feel like the easiest thing to do there is to try to land special teams players, and maybe single-skill guys (frex DBs who are good at zone mainly, I can find a role for a guy like that in the depth chart as needed). Anyway… I tend to swoon a bit over players who look like a dime-store version of a good player, but they so often end up being barely worth the dime. I am too often drafting a guy in round six, then signing a guy after the draft, and the after-draft guy is obviously the better player by cutdown day. I’d like to buck that trend. . . sam still goes for me in FOF 8, too, incidentally.

Okay, with that little missive shipped, here’s how things look. We have pick 24, and the mocks are split between offensive line and safety for that slot. I had not been thinking of Ol here, but if there’s a titan there and dicey options elsewhere, I’m not deeply opposed, especially at tackle rather than guard. Crappy draft for WR, which would’ve been my top choice all else equal.

I’m unhappy enough with my options at 24 than I take a trade that looks bad on the surface, but in context is probably okay. Now, I cannot say that “my pick was still there” but the guys I lost were half-hearted picks at best in round one, I think the three for one can work out to be all right.

Draft Summary:

1.24 TRADED to TB for 2.25, two future 3rd round picks
2.24  C Randall Baughman       near perfect center-only prospect, 100 combine  37/76
2.25 DT Lonnie Vaquero         375lb nose, could develop into great insider    43/71
3.24 CB Ross Arambula          not fast but cood cover and RunD skills, nice   35/47
3.33 LB Landon Romo            max End,ST,DDiag – poor in coverage, trade-off  32/52
4.24 DL Dylan Ferguson         big top bars no endurance, scout VU take a stab 31/57
5.24 LB Reuben Upham           just looking for safe make-the-team guys w ST   30/48
6.24 WR Camden Pilch           oddly even meh bars, scout says VU, weird look  23/34
7.24 DB Kellen Daniels         zone and ST might be it, but that’s not too bad 17/33
7.33 LB Jude Aguilar           three good bars, RunD ZoneD and Endurance       21/39

Once again, after a couple of rounds saying “I’ll wait at received” I end up never finding anyone who looks like he can help worth a damn.

Bringing us to the after-party. We have 1y and 5y deals available for free agents, and I probably need to sign someone to help at receiver. As it stands I have 3rd year guy Vallejo lined up to get snaps in 3-WR sets, and he has a total of 10 catches in his first two seasons. We end up. . . and act surprised here. . . calling up Rod Hostetler, and inking him for another 1y deal. We know what we get there, and it’s generally pretty good even if it doesn’t look any good on paper.


CB Jared Fernandez has 67 rating in man coverage, 58 in zone, but he’s a standout with his ST and KR ratings. I think this is worth a lock-him-up deal, and we do so for five years, $15.5m.

Fill-in undrafted rookies, for the record: RB Dane Ferguson, QB Cased Rickman, TE Shaquille Criswell, DT Alexis Shamblin

[QuikSand]

2034 Depth Charting, Preseason, Cutdowns

We carry 61 players into the season, with one (DT Broadnax) heading to the IR already.

Working through depth charts, with 60 players available and nobody banged up, it feels fine. I do worry about depth in multiple spots, though.

First move is… undrafted rookie Dane Ferguson, 24yo, is getting the call as our 1st-and-10 handoff guy. Just the best skills for that role, I think, ahead of last year’s rookie Hass. Martin Small stays as the 3rd down guy, and Titus Paff will retain his quirky fullback fill-in and return ace gig.
I don’t even fuck with the defense, I will wait until the real games, and with the presumed battery of injuries, and sort it out from scratch then.

Oh, you say my depth chart is not filled in? Shocking. Let’s see (three or four times through), every slot is filled. What could this mean? Did they insert my injured-reserved guy? Don’t think so. Seriously, EVERY FUCKING SPACE IS FILLED. I cannot continue, the game will not let me advance, because “your depth chart is not completely filled in.” The fuck it isn’t.

I guess I will save here and… I don’t know what. Just fuck off?

[QuikSand]

(breaking the fourth wall here)

I know I can escape this momentary jam by turning on the "staff sets depth chart" button, and presumably everything is fine for now, until the next thing comes up

But I guess it's sort of an existential moment... like, what am I spending my time on here?

[QuikSand]

Okay, I give in, I let the staff take over depth chart, and get past the obstacle. Still angry about it.

Anyway, cutdown day now after the preseason games.
Cuts to 53:
WR Camden Pilch, this year’s 6th round rookie
LB Jude Aguilar, this year’s 7th round rookie
TE Shaquille Criswell, undrafted rookie
DE Dylan Ferguson, this year’s 4th round rookie
DT Alexis Shamblin, undrafted rookie
S Kellen Daniels, this year’s 7th round rookie
CB Colin Purvis, 3rd year guy, former 7th round pick
RB Donnie Hass, 2nd yr guy, last year’s 4th round pick

Uninspiring turnout from the bottom levels of this year’s draft… it’s just an obvious leak, but I’m not interested in forcing them onto the roster even if they haven’t earned the spot.

[QuikSand]

(the game frustrations, plus the site frustrations, are conspiring to kill this thread)

[QuikSand]

2035 Season

Anyway… I am worried about the overall quality at WR, as my top three guys are rated 46 (Cunningham, fading), 44 (Ruark, big dropoff this year), and 42 (Vallejo, holding, but hasn’t been “good” on field at all yet). If these were the ratings for our WR 2-3-4 and we had a 58-rated guy on top, I’d feel much better, obviously. As it is, it feels like we might be a bit lacking… or we might just be a TE-focused offense.

We gallop to a 3-0 start, but in fine tradition, we are scoring 30+ every game and need it to win.

At 4-1, I am again managing the depth charts, in search of the error here or there. The design decision (or oversight) to let a player who has since been moved to inactive or injured reserve just remain in the visible depth chart, without any marker or coloration to indicate that he is no longer available… is just a constant thorn in my side here.

I’m at the point where I WANT to manage who plays where, but having to go through this iterative process every time I play a game and one or two more players are now out with an injury… I’m tempted to turn the whole thing back over to the staff. For now, my middle ground is to do the click-a-thon required to just let the staff set the, frex, defensive line depth chart, but clicking the “check box” (actually a red x mark) for all the LBs and DBs in each of the different formations/setups. It’s tedious.

Well, we are at 5-5, not looking like the power team that we have come to expect. Division got tougher suddenly, too, with both the Pats and Bills at 7-3. We are +25 in yards per game, but -9 in turnovers on the season – that’s probably a big chunk of it. Carlson is 19/11, so he’s not clearly the problem… I’m guessing the overall drop in receiver quality is a part of it, though.
Our LB corps has just been devastated by injury, we are playing guys off the street for half the game now. Absurd. Then, as the season closes out, it’s the receiving corps who gets hit all at once… with our last game looking like a playoff determinant, we have Ruark and Cunningham both out, and that’s not great.

We lose the season finale to division champion New England, and indeed will sit out the postseason this go-round.



Fine, then. The team is still okay, but there is real work to be done. . . as it ought to be, really.

[perez24]

This is an interesting thread. I clearly do not pay attention to as much as I should when I'm playing a "dynasty."

[QuikSand]

My FOF style is pretty fine-grained, when I can be bothered to slow down and care. I'm still hands on with a few teams in FOF 8 multi-player, and I'm out on one wing of a wide continuum in really deeply investing in stuff like the player chemistry system there. FOF 9 removed some of the facets that I really invest in, so it has taken me some real effort to get into it. Still not really there, tbh.