Season Five (2012)

[Tasan]

Season five begins with us needed a new DC. We offer the max our owner lets us offer to Mo Valenta, SF's former DC, and he accepts in the last week. I was afraid, because we couldn't offer much. I see this becoming a problem in the future, because we are not making much money.

Most of our team is in their final year of a contract, so we will probably renegotiate a bunch of people this off season.

Not that it matters much anymore, but we now have mentors. McG is a QB mentor, Gibson, our former FB turned TE is a TE mentor, MLB Houston is a ILB mentor, and WLB Barton is an OLB mentor.

And OUCH. I just looked at TE Matos, who blew out his achillies last year. He is basically worthless now, and will just be roster filler I'm guessing from here on out. Count TE as a position we just don't have anyone at anymore.

McG has turned out to be the 2nd best QB of his draft class, right behind Peter Briggs. McG is now 45/45, and I love his timing and distance pass bars. Has he been "worth" the #17 pick? No. Considering this was a draft poor class though, I don't see me doing any better with another QB. Briggs was taken 1-6 in that draft, so him at 53/53 is not really better.

Heh, another offer for C Patchet, down a round from last year's offer of a 3rd. I delete it yet again.

Wow, for the first time I've ever noticed, a player has re-entered the draft for a second time. Both Indy and Cincy have wasted 1st round picks on FS Larry Torres. His agent has a very high (86) as stubborn negotiator, which is high, but not insanely high. Lets see if he signs this year.

I renegotiate a few key guys, and decide to just leave all the sub 50 guys to resign during FA next season, as they all want too much right now. I'm pretty sure their asking price will be much lower next year, and they won't be in any kind of demand.

[Tasan]

Atlanta gets all of my picks this year, as they flopped to a 1-15 season last year. It comforts me a little to know there are teams that are actually trying everything and are doing worse than I am.

[Tasan]

Buffalo "wins" the Larry Torres lotto. Lets see if thats a wasted pick as well. One of these days this guys has to sign, he's gotta be living in his parent's basement by now, eating hot dogs and pork 'n beans.

[Tasan]

Well, next time through, I know what running back I'm taking. I scanned the FA market at late FA, just to see who came up from our draft, and there is OJ Winters, Mr. Bloomer himself, sitting at 74/74 and looking real nice in his bars.

[Tasan]

And Larry Torres SIGNS! The Bills win the Bills win! He's pretty nice looking too, at 60/73 with lots of red in his bars.

[Tasan]

Nothing much happens, and we start the preseason. Our first preseason game is a win, which is a first. We have only won in week 4 or 5 of the preseason in the past. Maybe this means good things are coming?

Oh we are sticking with the Smash Mouth attack again. I think it suits us best.

Win #17 comes in week 2. After losing by a point in the opener, we squeak by Baltimore 10-7. Reeves hauls in a TD from McG with 2 minutes to go, and the Ravens fumble away the next position to seal it. Both teams kept putting the ball on the ground, but we covered ours more than they did. Sloppy, but we pull it off.

Week 4 brings win #18, a 20-17 thriller over 3-0 Carolina. Bass kicks a FG with 2:30 left and the defense holds on two Panther drives, securing the win. McM is starting to worry me this season. He hasn't put up a dominating performance yet, and his YPC is real low at the moment.

Ugh, the wins are coming too far between. We pick up win #19 in week 12 over Pittsburgh, 20-17. Reeves is our lone bright spot even though we win. Backup QB Ellard starts due to playing time and an injury to McG, and he's just average. Our running game is still pathetic, but our defense pulls us through.

Butch is BACK! Not that he's worth anything now though, but he's back in week 13.

5-11 is a possibility again, with a win over Cleveland in week 16. This is win #20 for us. Our running game finally kicks in, with McM over 100 with 3 TDs. McG is effecient, and we hang on for the win again. The game costs us though, as we loose our good FB for the next game and probably some next season with a knee injury.

Well this was regression, clear and simple. 4-12, and our running game stinks now. McM was under 4 YPC for the second time in his short career, and we didn't have any major line injuries, and our FB didn't go down til the last week. The lone bright spot was Reeves again, with over 100 catches and 1200+ yards. Our defense had a bit more pressure with Brody getting 12 sacks. I forgot about him in the writeup for last season, he was injured most of the year which probably accounted for our lack of pressure. Willie Malcomsen had 8 sacks, which is a high for him too. Too bad our offense didn't play better, we might have done a bit better.

[Tasan]

WR Reeves is our lone award winner, nabbing 2nd team WR. Good for him. The rest of our team, well maybe except Clemons, sucks.