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12-28-2004, 09:31 AM
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#1 | ||
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Dynasty Boy
Join Date: Jan 2001
Location: Michigan
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The Mice That Roared: The Urban Meyer Challenge (FOF 5.1b)
BACKSTORY: A funny thing happened on the way to Florida...
Urban Meyer, the hottest coaching prospect in the land, was kidnapped and sent to an alternate universe. Before he could complain, he was ushered into the front office of the owner. "Pleased to meet you, Mr. Meyer," the owner said with sickly charm. "I'm Ty Coone, owner of the Los Angeles Xpress. We're a pro football conference in the Alterna Universe League, or AUL for short. This is our first season, and we will be doing a draft of all the alternate universe of players out there. We need your assistance in winning the championship. We're offering a briefcase full of bucks a year, and when we win the Alterna Bowl, we will let you go back to your own world. Meyer was confused but philosophical. He wanted to get back to the real world, but this seemed to be the best thing going for now. A briefcase full of bucks would buy a nice house here, he figured, and how hard could it be to win this league anyway? "Please sign your name in blood on the dotted line," Mr. Coone announced. He signed. Unfortunately, he didn't read the fine print until it was too late... NEXT: The nuts & bolts |
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12-28-2004, 09:36 AM
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#2 |
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Dynasty Boy
Join Date: Jan 2001
Location: Michigan
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NUTS & BOLTS (a.k.a. the Fine Print): I will be playing Front Office Football 2004 version 5.1b using the random new player file. The team I will control is San Diego, moved to L.A. and renamed. Wall Street difficulty, 150 injury setting, X-factor & chemistry on, and most other settings at their defaults. The game will start with a complete draft.
House rules: 1. NO PLAYERS FROM BCS SCHOOLS ARE ALLOWED ON THE ROSTER AT ANY TIME! Not as significant as it would be in real life, but it's still a big limitation. 2. All players taken in the initial draft will be from colleges in the Mountain West Conference, unless there is no one at that position. 3. At least one player from each amateur draft must be from Utah. He must stay on the roster for the full season. 4. No more than two human-suggested trades per season. Computer trades can be accepted without limitation, subject to rule #1. 5. No more than two picks in any round of any draft. 6. UFAs and RFAs from the Xpress can be signed without limitation, but other than that, there can only be one free agent signing per year during the 20 steps, unless signing a player from Utah, then another is allowed. Always keep in mind Rule #1. 7. No players can be signed after training camp, except for need, and those only to one-year contracts at the appropriate minimum salary. Rule #1 shall be in effect at all times. 8. A player that is placed on IR can be replaced with a player of any year at that position. Otherwise, only 1st year players can be signed. Subject to Rule #1, of course. 9. Renegotiations can take place only under the following conditions: a) Any time in the last year of a contract b) When signings bring the team to within 5% of the cap (10% between offseason & free agency, and 10% + projected draft cost for the 20 steps). 10. Ticket prices can be raised a maximum of 5% during years we don't make the playoffs, 10% in years where we make the playoffs but not the Front Office Bowl, and 15% where we make the Front Office Bowl. The goals of this dynasty are two-fold: a) How good would a team that I draft initially from one conference be? Could they be a playoff contender from the start? b) With these limitations, how soon can I win the Front Office Bowl and send Urban back home? NEXT: The initial draft and roster analysis. How pathetic are these guys? |
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12-28-2004, 09:39 AM
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#3 |
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Dynasty Boy
Join Date: Jan 2001
Location: Michigan
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2004 ALLOCATION DRAFT
This is more for my reference than yours; I don't expect you to know who these guys are yet. Perhaps 10 (game) years I'll look back and say, "I took that guy in the 32nd round and he turned out to be a stud! Who knew?!" Snake draft, with the Xpress holding pick #24: 1-24, Los Angeles Xpress, Danner, Johnnie, QB 2-9, Los Angeles Xpress, Kristosik, J.B., DT 3-24, Los Angeles Xpress, Howe, Colin, C 4-9, Los Angeles Xpress, Conley, Monty, CB 5-24, Los Angeles Xpress, Lofton, Brett, S 6-9, Los Angeles Xpress, Price, Billy Joe, S 7-24, Los Angeles Xpress, Ladd, Pete, T 8-9, Los Angeles Xpress, Raphael, Andrew, G 9-24, Los Angeles Xpress, Moran, Harvey, T 10-9, Los Angeles Xpress, Kanpurwala, Harvey, TE 11-24, Los Angeles Xpress, Mangrum, Edwin, RB 12-9, Los Angeles Xpress, Wiggins, Kelvin, RB 13-24, Los Angeles Xpress, Miller, Doug, FB 14-9, Los Angeles Xpress, Karczewski, Dwayne, C 15-24, Los Angeles Xpress, Collier, Norbert, DE 16-9, Los Angeles Xpress, Hertz, Artie, S 17-24, Los Angeles Xpress, Whipkey, Freddie, P 18-9, Los Angeles Xpress, Maples, Andrew, K 19-24, Los Angeles Xpress, Banks, Heath, DT 20-9, Los Angeles Xpress, Starks, Orlando, ILB 21-24, Los Angeles Xpress, Feaser, Travis, OLB 22-9, Los Angeles Xpress, Baumert, Corwin, ILB 23-24, Los Angeles Xpress, Farr, Jon, CB 24-9, Los Angeles Xpress, Bridges, Jimmie, CB 25-24, Los Angeles Xpress, de Groh, Amos, T 26-9, Los Angeles Xpress, Everett, Ron, T 27-24, Los Angeles Xpress, Sparrow, Blaine, ILB 28-9, Los Angeles Xpress, Jordan, Trent, ILB 29-24, Los Angeles Xpress, Riviere, Casey, QB 30-9, Los Angeles Xpress, Whitted, Adrian, RB 31-24, Los Angeles Xpress, Ratan, J.R., RB 32-9, Los Angeles Xpress, Greene, Dwight, TE 33-24, Los Angeles Xpress, James, Wes, WR 34-9, Los Angeles Xpress, Mathews, Neil, WR 35-24, Los Angeles Xpress, Cooley, Butch, WR 36-9, Los Angeles Xpress, Peters, Winfred, G 37-24, Los Angeles Xpress, Smith, Jimmie, G 38-9, Los Angeles Xpress, Sinclair, Leo, DE 39-24, Los Angeles Xpress, Yukich, Kenny, DE 40-9, Los Angeles Xpress, Gaylor, Darren, DT 41-24, Los Angeles Xpress, Hampton, Emmitt, FB 42-9, Los Angeles Xpress, Lester, Tim, WR 43-24, Los Angeles Xpress, Georgopulos, Gabe, CB 44-9, Los Angeles Xpress, Bailey, Marlon, S 45-24, Los Angeles Xpress, Reed, Chester, QB 46-9, Los Angeles Xpress, Chandler, Roy, WR 47-24, Los Angeles Xpress, Rubin, Kenny, T 48-9, Los Angeles Xpress, Shapiro, Willie, DE 49-24, Los Angeles Xpress, Donley, Wendell, OLB 50-9, Los Angeles Xpress, Miner, Wes, OLB 51-24, Los Angeles Xpress, Reagor, Shane, OLB 52-9, Los Angeles Xpress, Barker, Rich, TE 53-24, Los Angeles Xpress, Henson, Marcus, C |
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12-28-2004, 09:47 AM
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#4 |
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Dynasty Boy
Join Date: Jan 2001
Location: Michigan
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2004 PRESEASON ROSTER OVERVIEW
Taking it by position groups: Code:
Danner is the unquestioned starter for as long as I can keep him. He's well-balanced, having no ratings lower than 39, except for scrambling (3; I guess he's a pocket passer). His best rating is with deep passes (82), but he considers himself a short passer. Neither Riviere nor Reed have anything to recommend them, other than fleet feet. If we have to get them into the game, we've already lost. Code:
Mangrum was the best of a mediocre lot of Mountain West running backs. Unimpressive at most of the ratings that matter, he's poor at catching passes and worse at holding onto the ball. He does have some return skills, however. Wiggins is decently elusive, but he's an even worse receiver than Mangrum. Whitted has a good 3rd down rep and has the potential to be the best pass catcher of the bunch. Good kick returner, no major weaknesses. Ratan has a 0 breakaway rating, which tends to be a kiss of death for FOF RBs. Miller's better on the run than the pass (both running and receiving). Hampton has little to recommend him. Code:
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Raphael is a solid pass blocker, the other guards are not solid at anything. Ladd should be very good in time. Moran figures to be a better run blocker when fully developed. Everett and de Groh are just roster fillers. Code:
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Cap data, for the fun of it: Salary Cap: $80,600,000 Cap Room: $8,550,000 Maximum for New Player: $8,780,000 Cap Room Lost (to old contracts): $0 Cap Room Lost Next Year (to old contracts): $0 Cap Room Required Next Year: $63,800,000 This roster looks like it's good for maybe 4-6 wins; there are an awful lot of zeroes under roster strengths. We'll see. Oh, let's look at the staff: Lead Scout Randal Samanta is average at most everything except young talent (excellent) and QBs (fair). He's 66. Doesn't thrill me, so I'll look for his replacement in the offseason. Alex Daniels is the offensive coordinator of this bunch. Generally decent, but only fair with working with young talent. Not too old at 54, but I think I can do better. Perry McGregor is the defensive whiz. And he is a whiz, with very goods or excellents in every category that counts. At 64 we expect his skills to deteriorate, but until then he's a must-have. Alex Wooden is Urban's assistant head coach. Excellent motivator and defensive playcaller, but only fair at avoiding injuries. He might need to be replaced soon. NEXT: The first season for the Xpress. How good can we be? |
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12-28-2004, 12:24 PM
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#6 | |
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Dynasty Boy
Join Date: Jan 2001
Location: Michigan
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Quote:
I've moved on from this season, but I still have the notes, so I'll go from there. Taking it by position groups: QB - Danner, San Diego State; Riviere, Wyoming; Reed, Air Force RB - Mangrum, San Diego State; Wiggins, Wyoming; Whitted, San Diego State; Ratan, BYU FB - Miller, UNLV; Hampton, Utah TE - Kampurwala & Greene, BYU; Barker, UNLV WR - Mathews, UNLV; Chandler, Air Force; Lester, Utah; Cooley, New Mexico; James, Colorado State C - Howe, San Diego State; Karczewski, Colorado State; Henson, Utah G - Peters & Rubin, Air Force; Raphael & Smith, Utah T - Everett - Wyoming; Ladd, BYU; de Groh, Air Force; Moran, Colorado State Kickers - Whipkey, Air Force; Maples, Kent DE - Collier, San Diego State; Sinclair, Wyoming; Yukich, Air Force; Shapiro, BYU DT - Kristosik, Wyoming; Banks, BYU; Gaylor, Colorado State LB - Baumert, BYU; Starks, UNLV; Sparrow, Air Force; Jordan, Wyoming; Donley, San Diego State; Feaser, BYU; Reagor, San Diego State; Miner, BYU CB - Conley, Wyoming; Farr, Colorado State; Bridges, Utah; Georgopulos, Air Force S - Price, Wyoming; Bailey, UNLV; Lofton, Colorado State; Hertz, San Diego State Let's see if I can count them up... San Diego State - 8 Wyoming - 8 Air Force - 9 BYU - 9 Utah - 6 UNLV - 5 Colorado State - 6 New Mexico - 1 other - 1 |
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12-29-2004, 08:13 AM
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#7 |
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Dynasty Boy
Join Date: Jan 2001
Location: Michigan
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2004 SEASON
The Xpress sold 51,100 seats at the Rodney King Colosseum (71,600 available). Not bad.
Ladd made the Green Sheet. No other players on any of the other lists. Good news during the exhibition season - the offense kept getting better during all four games, scoring 0, 7, 10, and 13 points. The bad news is we lost all four games. I care about as much as I usually do. Kanpurwala blows out his knee in the first game (a loss) and is out for the season. But we won our next three before crashing to earth, finishing out at 5-10-1. The season summary: Code:
A decent-to-mediocre offensive team with a bad run defense and mostly ineffective pass defense. There are lots of things to improve here, and I'm excited to get the chance to do so. Howe was the 2nd team center, while Conley was the 2nd team CB. Other notes: * Mangrum superficially had a good year. But his yards per carry was ordinary and he had 7 fumbles. Wiggins was no better, as he was worse per carry and coughed it up 3 times. Danner had 5 bobbles. * Maples made 31-of-42 field goals and all 22 PATs. Unexceptional, I'd say. Whipkey had 84 punts for a 42.4 average with 23 inside the 20. Decent overall. * No, the receivers weren't that good. Their current ratings at the end of the season ranged from 8 to 15. I guess the RBs and TEs were SO bad as receivers that the wideouts got catches by default. * It's probably not a good sign when the two safeties and a corner are the top three in tackles. As expected, Kristosik was the only one of the front seven that's beyond the XFL level. NEXT: The all-important offseason. How can I improve this team? Or can it be improved? |
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12-30-2004, 09:08 AM
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#8 |
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Dynasty Boy
Join Date: Jan 2001
Location: Michigan
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2005 OFFSEASON
Let's see what Herb has to say:
Performance - 19 Franchise value - 60 Profit/loss - 66 Roster strength - 80 Overall - 52 The league signed a new 8-year TV contract and the cap will rise by $5.8 million each year, making next year's $86.4 million. The minimum salary is up to $240,000. Simplified income statement: Revenues - $79.2 million Expenses - $73.5 million Net Profit - $5.6 million Francise value is about $356 million, last in the league. We decide to renovate the parking lot as a prelude to a new stadium later on. The team plans to contribute $5 million, while we decide to float a bond issue to the taxpayers for $6 million. Hey, it's only $2 a year per resident! Isn't it worth it???? Anyway, we have business to take care of. 33-year-old Derrick Bolton is our new lead scout. His ratings are: Very good - defensive linemen Average - kickers Fair - linebackers Good - everything else A slight improvement over what's his name, who's leaving. Bolton will be making $360,000 a year. In other news, we "steal" Darryl West from the Vikings. He's moving to the sunny skies of LA as our new offensive coordinator. His ratings are as follows: Very good - Young talent, kickers Good - QB, OL Average - RB, receivers We increase ticket prices a little because we can. Now we get to free agency. 34 players remain under contract, which makes free agency fairly easy. Our best guard Andrew Raphael is a must-sign. RBs Mangrum and Miller are maybes. The rest are either restricted or I'll let loose. This is a very subpar draft, with only ten players who have adjusted grades above 6.0. We can take one of them with our #8 pick. WR Brian Cooper from powerhouse Lock Haven is our #1 prospect. He's a 46/72 and grades out as a good, but not stellar, receiving prospect. His adjusted rating is 7.1. But will he fall to us? Hard to say. Fortunately I have a few game weeks to think about it. Raphael, Mangrum, and Miller all have very reasonable demands. We submit offers to all three. There are only two free agents from Utah - Raphael (who doesn't count), and DE Ricky Frederick. He's rated at 53/58 and is in his 7th year. He had 11 sacks last year for Houston and would be a huge upgrade. His demands aren't TOO terrible ($18 million, 4 years, $4.7 million bonus), so we make an offer to him too. Our last offer is to SLB Joel Quillen. He's from West Virginia Wesleyan and is a good run stuffer and passable in pass defense. He grades out at 70/70 and is asking for $13 million for 3 years ($4 million bonus). We have $22 million in cap room, so we shouldn't have much problem fitting all these offers in for the foreseeable future. After the first week, all our offers are tops. Frederick has interest from Dallas and Tampa Bay. Quillen also has interest from the Bucs. The others don't have any offers. We're in good shape. Miller ($1.5 million, 2 yrs) and Raphael ($9.2 mil, 3 yrs) sign in week 3. Quillen also signs - with Tampa Bay. Screw him; we'll find someone else. We take another look at MLB George Ehler of Boston University. He had 127 tackles for the Jets last year, so he does have some talent. My scouts say he's a 55/59 He's asking for $8.6 million total for 3 years with a $3.3 million bonus - not half bad, overall. No offers yet, so we put one in to him.. Ehler signs almost immediately. Welcome aboard. Frederick is still thinking; he now has 9 offers - some with voidable years. We're still high dollar, so we stand firm. Mangrum is also mulling things over - or maybe he's on vacation. Who can tell with these athletes? Anyway, Frederick re-signs in week 5 with Houston . One more offer - to SE Chris Roberson of Dayton. He caught 67 balls with the Vikings last year, good for 812 yards. As a 46/48, he'd be a big upgrade over what we have. He's asking for a reasonable $9 million for 3 years ($3.1 mil bonus). We make this offer to him. He signs in week 7. Mangrum is still thinking things over. But finally, he signs too, in week 9. Anyway, on to the draft: Cooper was taken with pick #3 by Tennessee. Argh. There's nothing else of interest that I feel will be taken in the 1st round, so I drop out and trade with the Giants, who hold the #2 pick. I give them S Artie Hertz, my 1st and 3rd rounder this year, and a 6th next year; for their 2nd this year and a first next year. No complaints here. Code:
Houghton looks good, with fairly balanced ratings. He'll back up for now, but might get a chance to start in a season or two. Hansen was moved outside to the strong side, where we need him most. He also looks good, but needs development time. Blair's a definite keeper; he should drive Mangrum to the bench as soon as he develops his pass catching skills. Kolsrud is decent at pass defending and tackling, but has hands of stone. Useful, especially at the price. Wright can return punts, has little else to recommend. Rasmussen has fair pass rushing skills, so we moved him out to DE. He doesn't figure to play much. Code:
The Xpress sold 41,500 season tickets as our ballot proposal went down in flames. Ah well. This is a much better team on paper and I'd say we're slightly better than .500 overall. NEXT: Can we live up to my expectations? |
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12-30-2004, 07:11 PM
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#9 |
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Coordinator
Join Date: Jun 2002
Location: The scorched Desert
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Great concept Blue, as a BYU fan I don't care what happens to Meyer, as long as he is not at Utah!!
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12-31-2004, 02:11 AM
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#10 | |
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Dynasty Boy
Join Date: Jan 2001
Location: Michigan
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2006 SEASON
Quote:
Heh. Thanks for the kind words. On with the show... We sold 41,900 season tickets. Not much of an improvement. Conley and Price ran identical 4.34 second times to place on the Fastest Man list. Kristosik is on the Strongest Man list. Hadley looks good; he's 4th on the Green Sheet. Houghton is 11th. I get an offer of a 7th rounder for Norbert Collier. I think he's more valuable than that, though he hasn't done much so far. We go 1-3 in the exhibition season again. Houghton continues to look about 25% competent and 75% bum. Torres is worse. The really bad news is 11 players are injured already as of opening day. Fortunately none look to last more than a month. We hope that's as bad as it gets. The season started at 0-3 as we tried to get healthy. Eventually we did, but we could never get much of a winning streak going, so we finished at 7-9. Code:
Howe and Kristosik made the 1st team. Those were the only individual honors. All right Herb, be kind... Herb says: Performance - 34 Franchise value - 55 Profit/loss - 68 Roster strength - 85 Overall - 57 NEXT: What changes will be made in the offseason? |
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01-01-2005, 04:02 PM
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#11 |
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Dynasty Boy
Join Date: Jan 2001
Location: Michigan
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2007 OFFSEASON
The cap is up to $98 million, and the minimum salary is at $280,000.
Right now we have 36 players signed and are about $13.5 million under the cap. It may not sound like it, but we're in good shape. We're not going to waste our time bothering the citizens of LA about a tax increase, so we head straight to the staff hiring phase. We need a new assistant head coach and we end up with Harry Whiting. Here are his ratings: Very Good - injury avoidance Average - defensive playcalling Good - Motivation, discipline, offensive playcalling He's a small step up from the other guy we had, whomever he was. More modest ticket price price increases. Income statement from last season: Revenue - $80.4 million (+7%) Expenses - $114.1 million (-9%) Net loss - $33.7 million Revenues were up evenly across the board. Bonuses were way down, and salaries didn't match their increase. Most other expenses were little changed. We slap the franchise tag on C Colin Howe and figure out what to do with him later. This costs us about $3.5 million in cap room. New England's pick turned out to be #12, so we have back-to-back picks in the 2nd round. Comforting. Fresh blood is always good. A fairly thin crop, though, with only 12 players with adjusted ratings of 6.0 or higher. RB Leroy Keeney is a real standout, with an adjusted rating of 8.6 - second place is only at 7.5. Let's see how far he falls; not too far, I would imagine. We really have our eyes on WILB Antoine Turnbull, from Sam Houston State. His adjusted rating is 6.8, has current/potentials of 36/79, and best of all has a Solecismic score of 42, so he's a real smartie. He might fall to us at #13; if not, there are other options. For now, we think about free agency. We make mostly small offers to the spare parts who we didn't sign last year. We make a big offer to New England's LG Oliver Matthews. He's a big guy (6'8", 343) and in his 14th season. He's demanding lots of bonus money ($4.3 million), but the 2-year contract overall seems reasonable ($8 million) for a man of his skills. He'd be a good fit for us, but he spurns us in week 2 to re-sign with the Patriots. Mangrum does re-sign with us as a consolation. As a backup we take a look at LG Marlon Wagner. Not as skilled as Matthews, or as big, he wants $9 million for 3 years. He's in his 10th season and comes from SW Missouri State. He signs in week 3, along with Maples. Feaser signs in week 6, and Whitted in week 7. In the draft, we're hoping for help at WR, T, LB, and DE, roughly in that order. Keeney went to Pittsburgh with the 9th pick. Turnbull is still there at #11, so we trade with Oakland for that pick. It only cost us a 6th rounder - a very cheap price (too cheap?). Code:
We get an offer for Terry Horner that I laugh off. I sign a few minimum wage ham & eggers. Now for a detailed look at the preseason roster: Code:
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The running back picture is obvious - Blair is the starter, Mangrum the backup (though he's lost a chunk of ratings for this season), Shapiro is the 3rd down/receiving back, and Britton is third string. Miller has lost 9 points but remains quality and will be the starter. Hampton fills in the gaps. Code:
With the unexpected decline of Roberson, Kanpurwala is the only receiver worth anything. Flowers will back up. Greene may not survive the preseason. Horner and Hutton have both lost a lot of potential but fill key positions anyway. James is the only survivor from my original receiving corp; he may not last out his contract. Velazquez is deep depth who specializes in hail marys. Code:
Howe doesn't look as good as he did, but remains the starter. Karczewski's time may come next year, but for now is content to do utility duty. Vance may or may not see a regular season game. Wagner and Raphael both lost ability coming into the season but are unchallenged as starters. Lane and Bridges back up. Ladd figures to start on the left side, but the right side is up for grabs between the other three. Code:
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The defense looks good, offense not so good again. I figure we'll hit the 7-9 win mark again, with a vague shot at the playoffs. NEXT: More shocks and stumbles as the 2007 season unfolds! |
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01-02-2005, 01:30 AM
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#12 |
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Dynasty Boy
Join Date: Jan 2001
Location: Michigan
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2007 SEASON
Turnbull made the Green Page at #10.
39,400 season tickets sold? Well, kiss my grits. Franchise value is at $402 million; impressive as it sounds, that's last in the league. We won the first two exhibition games, but lost the last two. Both Houghton and Torres looked good at times, though not good enough overall to make me change quarterbacks. The Xpress went 1-2 in their first two games when I pulled a QB switch (Danner's hamstring was twitching slightly). Houghton came in and led the team to a win. Danner never got his job back as Houghton went 11-2 for the rest of the season. By week 16 we had clinched the division and a 1st round bye. The only thing worth playing for was home field throughout, which we couldn't get. In the semis we host Jacksonville, #3 seed and winners of their wild card game. The comparisons are pretty even, and it's no surprise that Vegas favors us by 3. We are at home, after all. We got the "W", 37-20. The abbreviated boxscore: Code:
Gotta be pleased with our performance, though I'd like to score TDs more than half the time in the red zone. The conference finals is against Cincinnati, 13-3 in the regular season and the #1 seed. We're a little banged up, but nothing we can't handle. Again, the matchups are fairly even; Cincinnati is favored by 1 because they're at home. Alas, our bowl fantasies came to an end against the Bengals' formidable defense. Code:
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Kanpurwala made the first team, while Blair and Howe made the 2nd team. The bad news in all of this is we're already over the projected cap for next season - only $3 million or so, but there are going to have to be some cuts or frantic renegotiation done. |
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01-03-2005, 03:28 AM
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#13 |
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Dynasty Boy
Join Date: Jan 2001
Location: Michigan
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2008 OFFSEASON
Give it to me Herb:
Performance - 86 Franchise value - 52 Profit/loss - 59 Roster strength - 84 Overall - 67 The cap, as projected, is up to $103.8 million. The league minimum is up to $290,000. The franchise value is up to $472 million, ahead of three other teams. Income statement from last season: Revenue - $89.9 million (+10%) Expenses - $159.4 million (+39%) Net loss - $69.5 million Our TV slice was up modestly, while the other revenue components were up sharply. It always helps to have an extra playoff game. It helps, too, to have a winning team to draw the fans in. Most of the increase in expenses was from bonuses, which we hope not to have to give so many of this time around. Average attendance was at 51,600 last season, up modestly. G Marlon Wagner, our free agent signing from last year, has gone into a free fall and is now just a bum. We release him and get the $2.5 million back on our cap. We also finally release WR Wes James, who's had it coming for years. That gets us under the cap (barely) with 37 players signed. We ask the people of LA to renovate our parking lot, again. $24 million, and the team is contributing half. This should pass easily, considering our success the past season. Our financial woes mean that I can't make big money offers to either my offensive or defensive coordinators. I'm sure to lose them, so we have to look at replacements who won't make as much. Brent Taxin is our new offensive coordinator - 3 years, $3 million per. He's good with QBs and RBs, very good with receivers and linemen (also young talent), and average with kickers. He'll do all right. He's 47, so he might get a little better. The funny thing is that Cincy and LA swapped defensive coordinators. They paid about half a million more to retain theirs, but there's not a lot of difference between them. Say hello to 50-year-old Richie Kanell: Very good - Defensive linemen Excellent - secondary Good - everything else We paid the owner-mandated limit for him, $2.85 million for 5 years. We soak the fans for higher ticket prices because we can. Interesting - nearly half the teams (14) were over the cap and had to give up their 3rd round picks. Interesting. The draft is the best and deepest yet, with 24 players with over 6.0 adjusted ratings. There's a superstar RB at the top of the draft, Brett Witt, with an adjusted rating of 9.6. There are a lot of good clip carriers - I mean QBs - that are available: Christian Billiot, 50/79, 8.6, Davidson Mark Miller, 23/89, 8.6, Siena Leroy Emmons, 34/75, 7.7, SMU Randy Elsea, 23/71, 6.9, New Mexico I'm betting that at least one of them will fall our way. There are players at other positions, but they probably won't fall to us. We draft #30. Free agency time is here again, and we've got SERIOUS cap troubles. The big news is that we traded Johnnie Danner to the Jets for their 1st (#15) this year, and a 6th in 2009. That helps us out a lot, adding about $10 million in cap room. Kristosik renegotiates, saving me the trouble of having to release him. He's still OK, but not the monster he once was. Among our own free agents, Roberson will not be getting an offer, and we flat out cannot afford Howe. Baumert and Banks are making modest demands, and we'll extend offers to both. The others I don't think will get offers, but if they do, oh well. Wideout is the one need I don't think will be fulfilled in the draft. Duane Burks of Pace is the third best WR free agent, but the best eligible one that we can afford. He's demanding $48 million over 5 years ($19 mil bonus). It's him or nobody, probably. Banks signs in week 2 with us. Burks signs in week 2 also, with Washington. Baumert is still thinking. Howe gets a monster offer from Jacksonville in week 4. We'll miss him... he signs with them in week 7. I decide to make Roberson an offer after all. He's asking for less than $3 million over 2 years, and I think I can afford that. Besides, he's the team leader. Baumert gets a slightly higher offer from Jacksonville. I offer a tiny bit extra bonus to try to beat it. This convinces him to sign. Roberson finally re-signs with us in week 12. On to the draft. But first, a trade - Roosevelt Dixon goes to the Cowboys, along with my 1st, 3rd, and 5th round picks, for their #1 pick in position #12. So... how far will Witt fall? And which QB will we end up with? Witt went 6th overall to Minnesota. But it's either Billiott or Miller for us at #12. Billiott is more of a finished product, but his avoid interceptions and fumbles ratings don't thrill me. Miller is more raw material and mostly has great ratings, but knows only 6 formations. Code:
I didn't really need another corner, but Labbe was the best of the players I could pick, and he should be good in time. He's serviceable now. Hancock is a definite project, but he does have good raw pass blocking skills. Cortez is mostly polished and should be OK as a backup. Edward is OK and might survive the cut. Crews is a good kick returner, but we've got a lot of those. I doubt he'll be active much. Baumert is getting an offer - Green Bay is willing to give up a scrub TE and a 2nd round pick for him. The pick is valuable, the TE is not, but taking a second look at Baumert... he's really exploded in the ratings since free agency. He's now much more valuable and probably good enough to start. So no thanks. BTW, our proposal passed, and the construction workers are making their way to the stadium to renovate the parking lot. NEXT: Another day, another season. Can I meet the suddenly heightened expectations? |
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01-04-2005, 05:02 AM
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#14 |
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Dynasty Boy
Join Date: Jan 2001
Location: Michigan
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2008 SEASON
The Xpress sold 41,800 season tickets. I need to have a talk with our marketing department because it seems like we're vastly underperforming our potential.
Two trade offers - one for Karczewski, which I quickly decline, and one for Kolsrud. The Bills are offering a 3rd round pick for him. Considering I invested a 5th rounder for him three years back, I think that's fair. The trigger is pulled. No major surprises in camp, so we go with what we have: Code:
If we got to the conference finals with what we had last year, then we can do it again. But I think we overachieved last year and would be hard pressed to do it again. I'd say somewhere between 9-11 wins and a playoff berth would be most likely. Billiot is #2 on the Green Page. Conley made the Fastest list, again. We split the preseason games. Billiott played well and Torres was OK. We've got a lot of talent at the QB position, but Houghton is the undisputed starter. For now. The story was vaguely familiar - we lost our first two games and replaced the quarterback. This time we wanted to see what Billiot could do. He wasn't great, but we started winning with him in the lineup. We ended up 11-5 and holding the #1 seed. After a much needed week off, we face Baltimore, the #3 seed who finished 9-7 on the season. We win most of the matchups and the online books are favoring us by 7. Code:
We fell in the last minute, alas. This was not a good game for Billiot, and his job is not safe going into next season. Kanpurwala made the 1st team, while Blair and Hadley made the 2nd team. As a side note, my old C Colin Howe made the 2nd team for New Orleans. The offer he got from Jacksonville put them over the cap and they had to withdraw it. They didn't make another offer, and neither did anyone else. He finally got an offer from the Saints for the minimum. Shoot, I would have signed him for that. Anyway, on to the seson summary: Code:
NEXT: Improving the team, or trying to keep things together. |
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01-05-2005, 04:13 PM
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#15 |
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Dynasty Boy
Join Date: Jan 2001
Location: Michigan
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2009 OFFSEASON
Another tight one capwise. But first, let's let Herb summarize things in his own unique way:
Performance - 90 Franchise value - 56 Profit/loss - 70 Roster strength - 82 Overall - 74 The cap is up to $109.6 million, with the minimum now $310,000. We're $8.5 under with 36 players signed. Not bad, but we'd like to be in a better position. We'll get there. Last year's income statement: Revenue - $96.9 million (+7%) Expenses - $136.2 million (-14%) Net Loss - $39.3 million Revenue was up across the board, mostly due to our increased attendance (up to 52,700). Bonuses were way down, offsetting small increases elsewhere. All the staff is signed and we don't feel the need to make changes, so we go on. We franchise Billy Joe Price, my stud safety, mentor, and secondary leader. This eats up $5 million in cap room. I'll negotiate a nice long-term deal later. But for now he's mine. Ticket prices go up some. I get a throwaway offer for Hansen. The draft seems a bit thin with only 15 players over 6.0. Again, there isn't much among the draftable wideouts, so we'll have to look to free agency for some help there. In addition to our own players, we offer a modest contract to FL Lorenzo Rogers of Fort Hays State. He had 43 catches for 663 yards for Green Bay as their #3 receiver. His drop totals have been ghastly his whole career (8+ in every season, 39 in his last 4 years). My scouts evaluate him as a 47/51, which is a big improvement over what we have. The good news is he signs, which gives us 8 receivers signed. No way I'm going to keep that many, so cuts will be coming in that department. Nothing else major in free agency; all the guys I wanted to sign did so. On to the draft. In addition to our own picks at #30 in each round, the 3rd rounder from Buffalo came in at #13, and New Jersey's rings in at #22. We might try to swing a trade to move up, or not. The phone is not busy with offers for our own players. Only two draftable players from Utah here - Clarence Burgess, big fat guy who plays guard (a need position) poorly. The other guy is DE Amos Bradford, who actually grades out as one of the top 20 players at his position. His adjusted value is 4.4, and he projects to go in the 3rd-5th rounds. He grades out at 18/48. Nothing much excites me at the top, so we'll stick with what we have. At #30 it comes down to two guards - Bryant Richardson from Western Illinois, and Ike Samuels from He Hate Me U. Richardson has better blocking strength and combine numbers; Samuels has (slightly) better pass blocking skills and endurance. Coin flip... and it comes up Richardson. I hope we chose the right one. By the third round, the crop is so pathetic that I trade both 3rd rounders to Dallas for their 2nd next year. It should be good, since they have the 2nd pick this year. I'll keep you posted. Code:
Code:
NEXT: Can we take another step forward? |
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01-06-2005, 01:22 AM
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#16 |
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Dynasty Boy
Join Date: Jan 2001
Location: Michigan
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2009: A most exciting, frustrating season
We sold 47,000 season tickets. Better.
Billiot is #2 on the Green Page. Billy Joe Price makes his first appearance on the fastest man list. And our newest G Richardson is on the strongest man list. The Xpress went 0-3-1 during the exhibition season. As usual, I shurg it off. I should note that Torres played better than Houghton throughout the preseason, for some reason. We carved through the league like a +5 Sword of Truth through a group of kobolds. Then the injuries happened, and the games started to get closer. But we were still winning them all... until the final one. We were resting Billiot, Blair, and several other starters, and it still took overtime to beat us. Needless to say, we got the #1 seed and home field throughout. Our first foe was a familiar rival, the Broncos. They ended up 9-6-1 and got the last wild card position. They upset New Jersey to face us. We win almost all the comparisons, and therefore the line favors us by 6. We took a relatvely leisurely 31-17 victory. We were up 31-0 midway through the third quarter, but Alterna CBS told us to let them catch up, in order to hook the audience. So we did. Code:
No injuries in this game, and we got a week healthier. Good thing, because we faced 9-7 Cleveland, the #4 seed in the finals. We manhandled them 31-3 back in week 7, but perhaps they've gotten better since then. They did get two impressive wins to get to face us. Surprisingly, they win most of the comparisons, but we're favored by 6 anyway. I don't know what to make of it. This one was never close. It was 35-0 going into the 4th quarter when we let them have a score because Alterna CBS wanted it that way. Code:
Next stop, the Front Office Bowl!!! But first, we do a few renegotiations. That done, we scan the injury lists. Nothing too terrible. Then we scout our opponents. The Cowboys won their division with a ridiculous 8-8 record, good only for the #4 seed. They won three tough games - two on the road - to get to us. We beat them 24-14 in week 3 in Dallas. So, no problem, right? Alterna Al and Alterna John saw it differently. They said the Boys won the majority of the comparisons, but the experts in San Jose, Costa Rica weren't buying it. The line was set to favor us by 7 and it stuck. Code:
I watched this game on the scoreboard for the first time in a long time and it was an interesting experience. We basically had them under our thumb until the 4th quarter when they threw some bombs and got back in it. We also made a lot of mistakes. Karczewski and Hansen made the 2nd team. Code:
NEXT: Trying to get over the hump. |
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01-07-2005, 01:39 AM
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#17 |
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Dynasty Boy
Join Date: Jan 2001
Location: Michigan
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2010 OFFSEASON
After a mostly delightful season with a most frustrating ending, we try to work to make our team even better. But first a word from Herb:
Performance - 90 Franchise value - 59 Profit/loss - 70 Roster strength - 81 Overall - 74 We get our first retirements from the Xpress - G Andrew Raphael (expected), T Leslie Giles (desperation pickup, so who cares?), and S Brett Lofton. Lofton was part of the reason our pass defense was so good, and we'll certainly miss him. Four bad teams are interested in hiring Urban & company. He's still looking for a way home, so he declines these opportunities. The cap is up to $115.4 million, with a minimum salary of $320,000. Income statement: Revenue - $123.8 million (+27%) Expenses - $153.5 million (+12%) Net loss - $29.7 million Revenue was up mainly because (1) we got two home playoff games instead of one, and (2) average attendance was up to 57,500. Bonuses were way up, and salaries didn't go down enough to offset this. We're about $10 million under the cap with 37 players signed. That's decent. We need a new scouting team and we come up with Clay Galindo, who moves up from the college ranks. He's 36 and his staff is rated thusly: Very good - QB Average - RB Poor - OL Good - everything else That poor rating scares me, but I think we can get by with it. Ticket prices are hiked for the sport of it. Two players are cut before free agency for cap reasons: CB Jon Farr and RB Antoine Cortez. Farr had been a contributor for years and I hated to let him go, but he was scheduled to make $3 million next year and we can't really afford that. Cortez was about to get passed by younger backs. This allows me to put the franchise cap on Hadley, which eats up $10 million in cap room. We'll work toward a long-term deal later. Before the start of free agency, I get an interesting offer for T Wendell Turnbull. The Jets are offering journeyman C Amos Guzman (New Mexico) and a 3rd round pick. Turnbull has been solid for us and is probably our 2nd best O-lineman. Guzman is reputed to be a good run blocker and decent at pass blocking. The 3rd rounder is at position #29, not that it matters a whole lot. Guzman and Turnbull are making about the same amount, so the cap impact is small. If worst comes to worse, I can do some shuffling along the line and make this work. We pull the trigger before either of us changes our minds. And now a peek at the draft. 28 players have adjusted values at 6.0 or better, which is above average. It's stocked with D-linemen, including the top two players. The best player I can draft is RB Spencer Mayes of Fort Valley State. He has a 7.2 adjusted rating, and he absolutely will not be there at #31. Someone who has a vague shot at being there is S Jared Gantt of Eastern Washington. He's a 7.1 adjusted and grades out at 35/86. He would fill an immediate hole. Someone with 2nd round potential is WR Jorge Sheldon of Siena (5.2, 22/59). Back to free agency. Our big free agency offer is to FL Zack Jack (Kent). He's spent the last 4 years in Seattle, where they throw to him a lot and he caught most of them for nice yardage. At $20 million for 4 years, he's almost a bargain. We also make some minor offers to supporting players of interest. Jack signs in week 4. All right, draft time. We have extra picks in the 2nd (#32), 3rd (#29), and 4th (#4). The 3rd and 4th round picks could be more valuable than they look because 13 teams got busted for cap violations and lost their 3rd round picks. There's nothing at the very top of interest, but a little further down, there could be some fireworks. My hand is near the phone... I trade with Cincinnati for their #8 pick overall. I send them my #2 (via Dallas, #32) and #4 (own at #31), along with my #1 next year (hopefully very low). And I get my man. Code:
Gantt looks every bit like a superstar; not a return man, but should do everything else very well once he develops. Benedyk is not a traitor to our cause. He, too, looks like he will be fantastic given enough development time. A weakness, if he has one, is a tendency to drop the ball. Isaacson is a good cover guy who couldn't tackle your supermodel girlfriend. He also has sticky hands. Stevens could well be a replacement for Blair if he keeps asking for the moon and stars in contract talks. He's a bruiser-type who can hang onto the ball. Matthews looks decent as a #4 or #5 guy, but you don't want to start him, and we shouldn't have to. Devine was converted from the inside and he seems to have taken it well. Pass coverage is his specialty. Gay is all around decent, but needs seasoning. Bronson will compete for the backup DE job. Wallace is a converted center, and this did not go well. BTW, there were no players from Utah in the whole draft. I checked. In late free agency I get an offer for LB Turnbull that I brush aside. Then I sign some cheap guys (the only ones I can afford). Code:
No prediction this time, but I think we'll do well. NEXT: Well, how well do we do? |
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01-08-2005, 03:41 AM
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#18 |
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Dynasty Boy
Join Date: Jan 2001
Location: Michigan
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2010 SEASON
We sold 50,900 season tickets to King Colosseum. Not half bad, but our goal is to sell out a game or two this year.
Gantt shows up on the Green Sheet at #17. Bah, what do they know? He also ran a 4.30 40 time to rank fifth on the Fastest Man list. Price was just a few ticks behind at 4.35, putting him 18th on this list. We had a nearly perfect preseason, but we had to spoil it by winning the last game. No, of course I don't care. Olvera outplayed Torres, which saved him a spot on the inactive roster. Torres retains the valuable clip carrying position. Labbe blew out his elbow; should be ready for the virtual December. Other injuries are minor. The team played consistently well over the season. The passing game, especially, was much better than in the past. It seems like Jack made a big difference there. We ended up 12-4 and earning the #2 seed. Our first victim was the #3 seed, Cleveland, who finished 10-5-1. We beat them at home 27-21, in one of LA's rare rainstorms. We hope for the same this time. We win most of the matchups, but the Tahoe casinos are skeptical of our chances, so they set the line at a modest 3 points. They knew what they were talking about as we covered, barely. Code:
The defense shut them down pretty well, but we need better production in the red zone. Uh oh, we face the #1 seed in the conference finals - in Indianapolis. Indy was 13-3 this season with the conference's best offense, scoring 410 points. They beat us earlier this season, but Offshorecasino.com is unimpressed - they give us most of the comparisons and make us the 2 point favorites. Unfortunately, we could not live up to expectations. Code:
Haven't seen a QB slap us around like that in years. Hats off to them. By the time the game ended, 18 players were hurt, including 5 on IR. We would have been in sorry shape had we won the game. I got goosebumps thinking of the bad old days of FOF4. BTW, Indy won the Front Office Bowl over the Packers 31-17. Code:
After 4 straight years over 1500 yards, Blair had to settle for "not exactly" this time around. Hadley pushes his team season record for hurries up to 40! Add in the 13 sacks, and the not inconsiderable # of tackles and assists, and he's almost worth the money I'm due to pay him next season (about $16 million in cap value... ouch). He only made the 2nd team. Our 1st team representative was... Maples. 34-for-40 field goals and making all 40 PATs will do that, I s'pose. He's close to 40 and hasn't slowed down any that I can tell. NEXT: Our desperate attempts to get back to the Front Office Bowl. |
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01-09-2005, 06:09 AM
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#19 |
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Dynasty Boy
Join Date: Jan 2001
Location: Michigan
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2011 OFFSEASON
Before I go on, a note. It looks like I've reached the point where I'm a perpetual playoff team and, barring a complete collapse or multiple unforeseeable calamities, figure to stay there. Winning the Front Office Bowl by defeating 3 or more other good teams is never easy, but I figure to get there eventually. It's kind of disappointing to get to this point, actually, because I hoped my restrictions would make a more erratic and less effective team. Not true. But the offseason is always fun, as I try to keep as much of my team together as long as I can and attempt to mix in some new, talented blood.
Moving on, Herb is standing outside our door and he has a report for us: Performance - 83 Franchise value - 63 Profit/loss - 58 Roster strength - 81 Overall - 74 The parking lot has now been paved. That took a long time. The salary cap is up to $121.2 million, and we're going to need every penny of it. The minimum salary moves up to $340,000. George Ehler, the elder statesman of our linebacking corp, has retired. This was not unexpected, and creates more opportunities than burden. The other retirement was more unexpected and has more disastrous results. CB Monty Conley, part of our freakishly good secondary, is saying goodbye to the football world to become an analyst for the Alterna NFL Channel. Labbe is going to have to step it up, but it's doubtful he'll ever be as good as Conley. 38 players are signed and we're currently $5 million under the cap. I told you we were going to need all of it. The more distressing news is that there are STILL five players injured. We'll try to work around them. The number of bad teams that want to take a chance on Urban & Co. is up to 7. Brent Taxin, our offensive coordinator, has an expiring contract. We offer him the max for 5 years - around $4.8 million. It might not be enough. But it was, and he stays with us for another half decade. He's still pretty good. No other changes to staff, so we get out of this. We soak the good people of LA for an appropriate ticket hike. We still have some of the lowest ticket prices in the league. Last year's attendance averaged 59,200, up modestly from last year. Income statement: Revenue - $115.9 million (-6%) Expenses - $178.1 million (+16%) Net loss - $62.2 million The usual factors explained this mediocre performance - we only had one home playoff game, and bonus money cycled up considerably. Other items were little changed. We decide not to franchise anyone this year. This year's college draft pool is very shallow, with only 11 players with adjusted ratings over 6.0. This is probably a good year not to have a 1st round pick, unless it's very high. We make offers to most of our UFAs - the important ones are Blair and Maples. Losing them would cause us some trouble. Maples signs in week 2. Everyone else of note signed, then Blair finally signed in week 11. Our cap situation is troubling... only about $2 million available, and the draft figures to cost at least twice that. I'll manage somehow, but it's not going to be easy. Let's see... we could use a quality SE, a little depth at ILB, and another CB. That's about it. Other than cap room. Code:
NEXT: Can we win a championship and send Urban home? Or is this destined to be just another disappointing season? |
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01-10-2005, 01:12 PM
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#20 |
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Dynasty Boy
Join Date: Jan 2001
Location: Michigan
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2011 SEASON: OH NO NOT AGAIN
Our roster heading into preseason:
Code:
We sold 67,300 season tickets for the Colosseum. That's only a few thousand under capacity. I'm pleased with that. All of a sudden our franchise value is up to $724 million, 7th in the league. It must be the new parking lot and the roster because the underlying demographics haven't changed much. None of our draft picks made the Green Page. Gantt was timed at 4.34 and made the Fastest Man list at #15. The Xpress win one of four summer training games. Yawn. Houghton played well, Torres less well. Well, what can I say? Probably the best thing that happened to us is we lost early, so the pressure to have a perfect season was off. But we were perfect otherwise, though two games went to overtime. We got the #1 seed throughout the playoffs. Our first opponent was #6 seed and division rival Oakland. We beat them both times, but neither were blowouts. We're not taking them lightly. The analysts call many of the matchups even, but we have a small edge overall. London sees it and instill us as the 6 point favorite. We're actually starting to get healthy, which is a good sign. But not for this game. Code:
Another last minute defeat. Oh man, this is frustrating. Believe it or not, Oakland won all four games on the road to take the Front Office Bowl. Well, if it wasn't it, it's nice to be them. Code:
Hansen made the first team, and we had a trio make the 2nd team - Billiot, Karczewski, and Richardson. NEXT: Can I keep this team together? If not, how far will the damage spread? |
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01-11-2005, 05:29 AM
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#21 |
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Dynasty Boy
Join Date: Jan 2001
Location: Michigan
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2012 OFFSEASON
We've had a formidable team the past five years, but no Front Office Bowl rings to show for it, and now the team is going to break up. Billiot's initial contract is running out, and he's demanding the moon, the Milky Way, and three nearby galaxies. We can probably fit him in under the cap, but at the cost of several other players. Or I could let him go and take my chances elsewhere. Decisions, decisions...
Let's cover the kicking stats: Maples followed up his All-Pro selection with 26-of-35 field goals. He blew one of his 49 PATs. Back to earth, I'd say. Is this his final year? Whipkey had 75 puts for a 43.7 average. 26 went inside the 20. Pretty good overall. What's the word, Herb? Performance - 90 Franchise value - 77 Profit/loss - 67 Roster strength - 74 Overall - 75 The cap is up to $127 million even. The minimum salary is now $360,000; I get the feeling we're going to have a lot of players making exactly that next year. Still seven teams are after Urban and his band of merry men. We're not going anywhere. J.B. Kristosik has retired. He had a good run, and we're going to miss him. For the first three or four years, he was a monster in the middle of our line. But he took some hits to his ability and the line developed around him, so he was just another guy. But a nice guy. 36 players and we're about a million under the cap. Could be worse. We'll come back to that. Income statement: Revenue - $164.4 million (+41%) Expenses - $176.0 million (-2%) Net loss - $11.6 million Ticket and suite revenue were up sharply because of increased ticket prices and sellouts at most every game. Concession and parking revenue were also up dramatically, around 700% for each. Salaries and bonuses were actually down from last year, and the other stuff didn't rise enough to match that. A darn fine financial performance if I do say so myself. We'll take steps to improve that even more. We submit a plan for a new Colosseum for the fun of it. It'll cost $652 million, and we'll soak up about a third of that cost. Let's see if they buy it. We offer assistant coach Harry Whiting a modest raise to $7.3 million per for 5 years. He takes it almost immediately. So that's it for the coaches. More ticket price hikes. We're still in the bottom quarter of the league in ticket price. As we prepare to enter free agency, we take an envious look at John Hadley's contract. He'll cost over $21 million under the cap if we keep him, save us $14 million if we drop him, but cost us the same in dead money next year. I love him, but (1) he didn't have his best season last year, and (2) we really, really need the cap room. Sorry Jon. There are two possible franchise targets - stud QB Billiot ($14 million) and stud WILB Turnbull ($5 million). $15 million is about all we can spare, so we'd have to make some other moves if we franchise Billiot. Turnbull, on the other hand, I think we can sign reasonably in free agency. Billiot gets the tag and we hope for the best. Sneaking a peek at the draft, it's fair talentwise, with 20 players with adjusted ratings above 6.0. DE Riddick Williford from Elizabeth City State is a monster in the making, but he's absolutely sure to go in the first three picks. There are some other nice players that might fall to us at #30. We re-sign DE Raymond for a little more than I wanted to pay - 5 years, $41 million. Turnbull signs with Dallas in week 9 - 5 years, $78 million. I'm afraid to look at the rest of the contract. The rest of the marginal players sign with us. We trade Houghton to the Titans, along with our 1st rounders this year and next for their #3 pick overall. Then we go to Miami and trade Kanpurwala and a 6th to Miami for their 3rd this year and a 7th next year. And now on to the draft. I've been drooling over Williford and hope he falls to us. New England and Miami, who pick one and two respectively, don't really need D-linemen. But the two at the top of the draft have by far the best adjusted ratings... so we'll see. And hope. And pray. New England took a guard who was way down on the charts... interesting. Miami took the other DE. So Williford is mine, if I want him. OH YEAH. Code:
Our stadium measure passed by a 51-49 margin, so it should be done in 2017. We hope to be outta here by then, but Alterna LA deserves this new stadium. In the 8 steps, Billiot accepts a cap-busting $159 million for 6 seasons. The bonus was $40 million. This season's cap hit is a relatively modest $9 million, and it shoots upward from there. Mr. Keene, the owner of the franchise, made the negotiations more contentious by imposing a salary limit on the later years. It looks like we'll be about $8 million OVER the projected cap for next year, thanks to the hit from releasing Hadley and a few others. A 3rd round pick might be a small price to pay to avoid absolute chaos. But more about that next year, if I get there. We sign a whole bunch (10, to be exact) of rookie free agents to fill in holes and add depth. Code:
The team is slowly breaking apart due to cap troubles. Lots of 1s in the start column, and too many 1s in the contract column. This is probably still a playoff team, and potentially a top seed, but the glory days are over. NEXT: Are the glory days really over? |
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01-12-2005, 05:57 AM
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#22 |
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Dynasty Boy
Join Date: Jan 2001
Location: Michigan
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2012 SEASON
Williford made the Green Page at #2, and Whitfield is the entry at #18.
The team sold 68,700 season tickets. I can't believe it was only a few years ago that we were well under 50,000. That's what success will do for you. And all of a sudden we have the #1 franchise value in the league at $879 million. Baltimore is about $12 million behind. We come out of summer training with a 1-3 record and a few bumps & bruises. Nothing we can't handle. Whitfield played quite well, perhaps a hint of our future QB. The season came down to a week 15 showdown with Denver. We were both 10-3; the winner would be in control of the division title and would probably get a bye in the playoffs. The loser would likely have to settle for a wild card. We won this one, thanks to two picks by Gantt. He got the game ball. We also won the last two to take the division outright. We lost the tiebreaker to New England and had to settle for the #2 seed. Ah, a week off to rest up. Well well, it's a rematch game. We play Denver for the third time this season. They beat us earlier this season in Denver. But this game is going to be in sunny LA. They're the #5 seed. The Alterna CBS analysts say the matchups are about even, and the sharpies out east make us the 2 point favorites. This one went to overtime: Code:
We breathe a huge sigh of relief as Pittsburgh knocked off the #1 seed. The 12-6 Steelers come to our house for the conference finals. They had a 10-6 record and were the last wild card. They win the majority of the matchups, but we're favored by 6. Code:
Better performance by the offense... except for all the interceptions. Billiot had only 8 picks in the whole regular season. I'm guessing if he throws another four in the Front Office Bowl, we're going to lose. We have a ridiculous 10 players on injured reserve. Some of these guys were going to be out anyway, so I put them on IR for the fun of it. But still, we're pretty banged up. We face Atlanta in Front Office Bowl IX. They cruised through their conference as the #1 seed with a 13-3 record. They're not nearly as banged up as we are. They have a good rush defense, but they're vulnerable to the pass. They have a fantastic QB in Mark Miller; he's even better than Billiot. Their running game is ordinary. They win 5 comps, we win 3, and 6 are ties. Jimmy the Alterna Greek has made us the one point favorite. I have some good news and some bad news for you all... The game was held in Lafayette, LA of all places. Atlanta took the early lead, but we drove right back for a field goal. Atlanta scored 10 in the second quarter, but we scored the last points of that period. But still, 17-6 Falcons was making things look good for those who took them at the books. The teams could only muster two field goals in the third - two by Atlanta. So it was 23-9 going into the fourth. Backup safety showed the first signs of life for the Xpress by returning a pick for a touchdown! Unfortunately, Maples blew the PAT, so that left us down 23-15. Nothing much happened until we got the ball at the Atlanta 38 with less than 2 minutes to go. Five plays later Flowers snuck behind the secondary and Billiot threw him the bomb... he held on! Touchdown!!! But we've got to get the 2-point conversion to tie. Billiot throws a pass in the flat to Benedyk and he walks into the end zone. We're tied at 23. The game goes to overtime. "Heads!" Captain Billiot shouts. Heads it was. We took the ball and... ah, you can read. Code:
There was much celebrating throughout the night, and the day after that, and the day after that. With his mission accomplished, Urban Meyer was free to go back home. He did. And that's the bad news - the dynasty has come to an end. But first, the season summary: Code:
Not quite our best season statistically, but we got the job done. In addition to Billiot's Front Office Bowl MVP trophy, Benedyk was named to the 1st team. That's it for the honors. As always, thanks for reading. |
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