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06-20-2004, 07:24 AM
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#1 | ||
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lolzcat
Join Date: Oct 2000
Location: Annapolis, Md
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FOF 2004 - The "Magic Beans" Challenge
I’ve gotten into the mood for some fairly quick FOF action (as my MP teams are enjoyable, but take forever to see things happen). So, in an idle moment, I came up with this concept:
The “Magic Beans” Challenge It’s actually so obvious, I can’t believe nobody has chronicled something like this yet, at least not that I have seen. One of the most challenging things about FOF 2004 seems to be drafting – it’s tough to get quality young players, when so many of your draft picks just go bust on you and never live up to your hopes. So, I’ll play a challenge career for a while where this is the main exercise in the game – selecting young players, and hoping they turn out okay. My basic rules will be these: -All players will come to the team either via the draft or as undrafted rookie free agents (the latter will receive only one or two year minsal contracts) -I may trade only within the draft itself – I can move up or move down, but may not acquire picks in future drafts (though I may trade them away) -I’m going to focus on acquiring players – so each season will consist of me determining the inactive players, then letting my staff set the starting lineup (this means no acquiring players to be used out of position… unless I can permanently move them to a spot where they will get used) -I will, however, use a basic game plan that I have saved from other careers – so I can try to focus my acquisitions around those skills (I have stuck to these rules pretty closely through the career -- but have occasionally drifted a but in terms of trading. I'm not making ridiculous trades, but have made a few to deal into the next year's draft, and have accepted a trade offer for one of my own players along the way - Q) That’s about it. I’ll renegotiate at will, with the universe of players we get. I suspect that means that I will be aggressively trying to keep all my veteran players, since I cannot go out and sign veteran free agents at any time. We’ll see how this goes. My intent is to detail the drafts themselves pretty closely, along with my player development. And then, I’ll basically just post the season summary – my focus is in the roster-building here. Last edited by QuikSand : 07-22-2004 at 01:08 PM. |
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06-20-2004, 07:24 AM
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#2 |
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lolzcat
Join Date: Oct 2000
Location: Annapolis, Md
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2004
We head into our first draft holding the #3 pick, as my “QuikSim” team flopped badly in its opening season, before we mercilessly cut all the players. I am inclined to trade down, and try to pick up a handful of players who can help us right away – even though the team will certainly be dreadful in its first year or two. I expect to focus my early picks in the spots where it’s generally tough to acquire quality players later in the draft – so spots like OT, WR, DE, DT, and CB should be the early targets. QB is different – we know it’s important, and I’ll certainly take an anchor QB if I can, but I expect to be fishing in later rounds for a potential breakout there. Code:
At #3, I have my eye on DE Troy Diaz, a well-developed pass rusher who looks like he’d be an immediate impact player for us. He survives to pick #3 – so I have to decide whether to take him, or to move down in search of quantity over quality. I decide that the lure of moving down is too great – I won’t get Diaz at pick #10, but I should be able to pick up a couple useful player for the swap. I end up getting Oakland’s #1, #2, and #3 picks this year for my #1 and #7 – so I’m happy to make the move. When Troy Diaz is still there after 6 picks, I decide to try to move up to get him there. But Tennessee wants pretty much everything we just acquired – so I don’t do it, and just sit and hope that he somehow falls three more picks. No dice – he goes at #8, two picks ahead of us. Scott Hannon is a solid overall DT, and should anchor that position for us. We stayed on defense and grabbed two cover man in round two – both Wallace and Burke are man coverage specialists, and should fit well into my system which uses that setup about 80% of the time. I will explore moving C Barber to a tackle or guard spot, but he looks pretty usable. WR Drake was a standout, and I think looks like a breakout candidate. DE Goetz has good run stopping skills, and we might actually have four playable defensive linemen from this initial draft. We fill in the rest of the roster with URFA players – and need a little help form the staff engine, as I failed to leave quite enough cap space. So, we will lose a 3rd rounder next year, I guess – but manage to get to 46 players to go on with the season at least. I’m enthused about WR Leonard Drake, who shows signs of being our first breakout player. I usually expect to see big numbers from some of the best players on such a bad defense – but I don’t know about this group at LB – we don’t have a true standout. Starting at LB will be Alvin Wooden, and he could develop into a 100+ tackle guy this year, just due to opportunity. We have paid very little attention to the offense, but will see QB Steve Newman and RB Joseph Springer in the lead roles. I don’t know what to expect from either one – I liked Newman as a URFA, but it’s tough to project a ceiling for a player like him. I think he’s got some potential, but how much is realistic? Okay – so we take this out for a quick spin – and here’s what we get in year one: Code:
Bottom line for this season – the offense wasn’t nearly as bad as I had expected, and WR Leonard Drake looks like he’s going to be for real. Arnold Shaw, a converted URFA running back, will be a decent complemetary receiver with him. QB Steve Newman had a passable rookie year – but we’ll need to improve there if this team is going to go anywhere, of course. On defense, MLB Carlos Dorff ended up winning the starting job, and was pretty solid – but mostly for lack of competition. SLB Stephen Dugas ends up winning DROY with his 77 tackles and 5 sacks. Our two young corners both had tough seasons, but I still hold out hope they can hold the jobs for a while, at least. The DL – as good as we had hoped? Nope. Quinn Goetz has some potential (9.5 sacks for a run-stopping specialist is weird) and Scott Hannon will be okay, but not spectacular. And we will pick #2, right behind the Bengals in the coming season, which will be nice. |
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06-20-2004, 07:26 AM
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#3 |
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lolzcat
Join Date: Oct 2000
Location: Annapolis, Md
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2005
We head into the second season, with at least a framework to build around. I know that I don’t have long-term answers with most of these guys – but under these rules, I’m going to have to try to make a lot of these guys work as best they can. I’m thinking our top priorities for this season are OT, LB and DB. I’m hoping that I might be able to grab an impact player somewhere (OL or S) perhaps with a later pick. And we’ll be looking for a QB, too – if I can grab a guy who looks to have potential as our real future, I’ll bite. I immediately see the guy I want – DE Curtis Cobb. I always am a sucker for a monster DE when I’m at the top of the draft, and boy this guy looks great. I’m crossing my fingers that the Bungles blow the pick and leave me with this stud at #2. But once again, I am foiled – Cinti hones right in on him, and grabs the player I covet. I again trade down, and pick up San Diego’s top three selections this year. I end up taking the second best offensive tackle in the draft, and feel like he ought to work out well. When the late first round is rolling, I seize a chance to move up and grab a new anchor MLB for our defense in Ray Ireland, who is falling like crazy but looks great to us. After scooping a solid wideout at the top of round two, I get my final target player in the middle of round two when I trade the rest of my draft to get him. Four picks is all – but I love them all at this point. Code:
I’m very optimistic about the fleet of URFAs we bring in this year – here is a snapshot of their progress as well: TE Kelly Newman: 11/34 to 12/36 to 14/40 SE Leland Fielder: 20/39 to 21/41 to 24/46 SE Derrick Barrere: 19/42 to 20/43 to 22/46 C Lewis Goolsby: 23/34 to 24/46 to 26/46 LG Kim Everett: 14/32 to 14/33 to 17/37 LG Tom Blazewicz: 14/35 to 14/37 to 16/40 RT Leslie Ford: 19/34 to 20/37 to 22/42 DT Chris Kearney: 11/19 to 11/20 to 11/20 I’m disappointed with Don Zorn and Ray Ireland – both look playable, but not that great, and both have the arrow pointing in the wrong direction. WR Herb Wolf ought to be just fine, and Safety Wesley Baskey might end up being the best of the quartet. TE Kelly Newman ought to start for us, and could end up being good in time. The other two receivers also both have real promise. The URFA group looks unusually strong this year. – that’s welcome news. Code:
Okay, 4-12 is about what I would have expected – but there’s room for real optimism here, I think. Our offense wasn’t all that bad, and it seems that if we just dropped in a reasonable starting QB, we could start to go places with this group, mostly. LT Zorn is looking like he will be pretty decent, and the line is taking shape okay overall. And 1,100+ yards for Springer – who expected that? Defensively, I’m not surprised to see Ireland get big numbers in the middle for us, but we were just not very good. We got crushed up front by injures (both starting DEs – so we really need reinforcements there) and were ineffective overall. DT Scott Hannon came through with an outstanding season – but we desperately need help around him. Ray Ireland gets DROY, as I would have guessed even before the season. Even better, though, is Scott Hannon earning second team all-pro honors, which he richly deserved. We will be picking high again for next year – and really need to look at the defensive front and perhaps search for a QB to take us to the next level from here. |
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06-20-2004, 08:53 AM
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#4 | |
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lolzcat
Join Date: May 2001
Location: williamsburg, va
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Interesting concept Quik. Obviously you should look to see outstanding cohesion numbers. I am interested to see what happens when you get to about year 4 or 5 and your draftees begin to fill out the red.
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06-20-2004, 02:20 PM
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#5 |
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lolzcat
Join Date: Oct 2000
Location: Annapolis, Md
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2006
Pick #1 this year – we can either grab a foundation player (QB?) or we’ll have plenty of capital to use in a trade. Either way, we ought to do very well in adding to the shell of a team we have now. QB, DL and LB are critical need areas. We still can use quality additions in several spots. We can get a huge DE or DT, both of which I always like, or a pretty attractive QB who can take over right away-- it looks to me like here are three guys worthy of the top overall pick. I can certainly move down one spot, grab an extra pick, and then at least get one of the defensive linemen – so I make the move down. With our top pick, Philly takes a standout RB – so we still have our choice of the two DL at #2. The QB still looms out there as well. I decide to pull the trigger, and pick up DE Tommie Browder – a monster impact player at our position of greatest need. Bullseye pick for us. Plus, we have three extra picks to use in this draft, or to use as leverage to move back up if needed. With Cincinnati on the clock at #8, I’m shocked to see DT Courtney Malan still sitting there on the board. I hustle together a big package – and ship five picks to the Bengals to go up and grab another impact defender for us. Malan looks like the complete package – should be a standout for us, and he shows lots of signs of being a player who even gets better than he already looks, which is already pretty darned good. Two huge additions on the DL in one draft – outstanding. Code:
When we see DE Lockwood fall to the late first round, I deal up to grab him – I don’t want to let a player that good slip away just a few picks ahead of our selection. QB Buddy Conley looks intriguing in the middle round, with our last pick. As for the URFA pickups – maybe we’ll get one to break through this year. There’s playing time available at LB for sure. I have a weird situation at QB now. If I re-sign my former starter at QB (Steve Newman) and keep him on the active roster, my staff will choose him as our starter for this year. However, what I want is for the rookie, Buddy Conley, to get the start – that’s how we’ll see what we’ve got there. So, I think the most sensible way to go is to sign Newman, but have him be our 4th QB – he’ll play only if Conley gets hurt. So, I’ll have three active rookies – and we’ll try to see what they can do, especially Conley. From training camp – some great news about our top three defensive linemen, who all had good camps. QB Buddy Conley – well, maybe not so good. He’ll still be our choice for this season, but I’ a lot less convinced that he is the man for us down the road. We’ll probably have yet another tough year ahead. From the URFA pickups – maybe we have something good in TE Joel Wayne and C Ron McFerrin – both improved during camp a bit, which is usually a pretty good sign. (My strike rate with URFA picks is pretty good) Code:
We suffered injures in the WR corps (Drake and Fielder) that hampered us quite a bit. Regardless, Conley did a pretty passable job in at QB – but for his rookie mistakes, he wasn’t half bad. That’s fairly encouraging: 60% completion rate, and a 6.33 ypa isn’t bad at all. We also lost MLB Ireland for several weeks, and our desperate need for some LB improvement is screaming out now – just look at those tackle totals for our hard-working defensive line. Shocking! DE Tommie Browder gets the nod as defensive rookie of the year, and also picks up a first team all pro selection. Scott Hannon heads to Hawai’i with him, a second team selection. Looking to next season, I’m thinking that LB and the secondary are the top two priorities. I’ll be looking for impact players at RB and QB also. |
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06-20-2004, 02:20 PM
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#6 |
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lolzcat
Join Date: Oct 2000
Location: Annapolis, Md
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2007
I make some staff changes, including an upgrade at scout – so I might have a little better idea of what’s up with the players on hand. Sitting at #3 in the draft (courtesy of a regrettably final week win over the Jets, putting them ahead of us) I have a plan. I like MLB Stephen Hutchins an awful lot, and LB is a spot where I desperately need help. He’d be great as a MLB, but my current MLB Ireland can’t move – so I’d probably have to slide Hutchins to play the strong side. But at 250 lbs, I think he’d be fine. I also have my eye on a QB prospect who I think I can grab in round three or so – fleet-footed Neal Dugger is the 5th QB listed – I’ll be watching for him as we get into round two and beyond. I like what I see there. LB Hutchins is the 6th listed player on the “adjusted” rating list – so I think I can probably trade down from #3 and try to pick up some value here. I trade down to #6, and my heart stops when Clevelend says “linebacker…” but they go after the other top LB out there, a true outside LB. No messing around – I’ll take the stud LB here at #6, and we’ll fill the most obvious need on the team. At pick #31, Detroit takes the top rated QB, leaving my target guy Dugger as the highest-rated QB left. I’m worried that he might go before our pick at #35 – so I decide to make a small move and get him. (I’m pretty sold on him) It costs me a 4th rounder, but I get into Tampa Bay’s spot at the top of round two, and target the “athletical” QB Neal Dugger. I’m glad I did – as the Jets took another QB with the very next selection. Code:
With our third pick (our own original 2nd rounder) I’m really torn between a couple of pretty good cornerbacks, and the next best LB. LB is such a monstrous need for us, I decide to go there, but I’d really like to find a CB I could start with confidence. In round three, I target the fastest man left in the draft, CB Rex Grant. He doesn’t seem to have great cover skills, but man coverage is his best of the lot, for what that’s worth. This pick really only works out if he gets better than his current projections – otherwise, he’s a nickel back at best, with no return ability. The remaining picks are for need – and mostly based on specific ratings. RB Armstrong looks like a decent return man, and that’s how I hope he sticks. After training camp, we see the first important results of this year’s crop. I’m disappointed in guys like QB Dugger (looks like a miss) and LB Tucker (ditto). My top pick ought to be as expected – excellent. And CB Rex Grant does indeed have potential, it seems. So, what to do at QB this season? I drafted Neal Dugger thinking he was going to be “the man.” Now I have a multi-year contract inked with a fleet-footed guy who doesn’t seem to have a whole lot in terms of QB skills. Chicago is offering us a 3rd round pick for Buddy Conley – and while I have decided to stay out of the wholesale trading business, this is one I’d consider. But I’d be much more inclined to do it if I still thought that Neal Dugger was going to get the job done. Right now, that doesn’t look like such a strong case. I put Steen and Dugger out there for the preseason, and this is basically a test of whether Dugger will get a shot to go out and start for us. I implicitly turn down the trade offer for Conley – I expect to either have him start, or else be on the inactive list as we start the season (if I want to engineer Dugger as the starter). Neal Dugger has a great preseason, and I’m sold (against strong evidence to the contrary). To make him our starter, we’re going to have to have two total stiffs up against him in the active lineup. Hastings is fine, but I’ll probably need to sign an empty uniform for the third spot. We anticipate a better defense this year, with our two gaping holes at LB both filled with better players. As for the offense – we’ll see how Dugger can do. I have Conley and Newman waiting in the wings, if needed. Here’s the roster, by my scout, as we head into the season: Code:
Note that rookie RB Benjamin Armstrong has won the starting RB job from veteran Joseph Springer, even though he lacks the skills to really be effective there, I think. Once Devine is healthy, I think I’ll deactivate Armstrong, regrettably. I probably need to make RB a priority for next season – we can’t get by with this mess. Code:
I feel pretty good about going with young Dugger at QB – sure, he made mistakes, but an 80.3 QB rating and over 7 ypa is solid for a rookie. Now, if his potential bumps up after this season, I’ll feel like I did the right thing. Once we got Springer back in at RB, we got the ground game going okay, and Drake again led the passing attack – he’s turning into a pretty serious star for us. I didn’t expect that MLB Ireland would actually have a big stats boost this year, considering the talent we brought in around him – but that’s exactly what happened. We didn’t get much QB pressure, which is disappointing considering our investment on the DL. But we got nice seasons from SLB Hutchins and both defensive tackles – and I’m pretty comfortable with the defensive front. I also am glad to see Rex Grant getting some playing time – while our top corners don’t look too strong right now. We get some ink for our players at awards time—MLB Ray Ireland receives not only first team honors, but also Defensive Player of the Year for his massive tackle totals. We sweep the rookie awards, with Neal Dugger and Stephen Hutchins grabbing their respective awards. Another high draft pick – but it’s now time to think that we can start winning some games with this club. |
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06-20-2004, 06:56 PM
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#7 |
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Grizzled Veteran
Join Date: Nov 2000
Location: St. Paul, MN
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Not too much pressure, but still, your front four got 20 sacks and 57 hurries. Looks like your defense is headed in the right direction...as evidenced in moving from 29th in the league to 6th in yds per carry allowed. Looks like 3rd down conversions are what killed you this year (on offense as well), which will probably be helped when your defenders get a little more seasoning and cohesion. I haven't been that interested in the offense yet with so few elite draft picks spent there.
Good read so far. |
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06-20-2004, 07:05 PM
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#8 | |
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lolzcat
Join Date: May 2001
Location: williamsburg, va
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I am definately interested in seeing the offense upgraded. I think the defense has a good core of players, but will not get very far until the offense moves forward.
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06-21-2004, 08:24 AM
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#9 |
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lolzcat
Join Date: Oct 2000
Location: Annapolis, Md
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Incidentally, I neglected to explain my + system for detailing combine data (even though it might be pretty intuitive).
When a player's combine result places him at or near the top of the list for his position, I give him a +. If the rating put him pretty far ahead of the rest of the players at his position, then he gets a ++. Since I'm making quite a lot of my drafting decisions based on combine data (along with the right general profile of skills) I thought this might be useful to share. |
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06-21-2004, 08:25 AM
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#10 |
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lolzcat
Join Date: Oct 2000
Location: Annapolis, Md
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2008
Bad news as we look quickly at the roster – QB Neal Dugger’s potential rating, from our own scout, has actually dropped from 39 to 36. It’s a big blow – in my mind, this virtually assures that he won’t be a serious player down the road, and has rather little potential for growth. So, the QB position isn’t really resolved, after all. We re-sign two players for modest contracts – DT Dana Fortkamp and starting CB Martin Wallace. I don’t know what I’m planning to do at CB (where Wallace and Burke have been a little underwhelming) but I don’t think letting Wallace go – he’s essentially our most talented guy back there. I like Rex Grant (whose potential has grown even more as we got to this season), and am looking for a way to get him into the starting lineup without emasculating the secondary depth. It seems to be a pretty lousy draft – so I’m not sure what to do. There are two very interesting QBs available – one guy who looks like the prototype top draft pick, and another guy with plenty of breakout signals and great speed. If I could be assured of landing the second guy at the top of round two, I would be delighted to do so. As it is, I’m tempted to go with the “surer thing” with my top selection. We still have some “need” positions on the team – but nothing all that critical. We could really use a quality player at FB, TE, RG, WLB, and SS. And I’m not really thrilled with our players at RB or CB either. So, landing one or two impact players at those positions would be very desirable for us this in this rookie class. The top QB prospect, Darnell Farlow, is on the board when we are up at #3, but I decide to once again trade down. We net 2nd and 4th picks from Philly to move down to #10. Philly passes on the QB also, and I’m surprised to see him fall all the way to … pick nine. Just ahead of us. At this point, I have my sights set on QB Mel Copeland, the “athletical” prospect who looks good to me as a breakout candidate. But I’m fawning over S Orlando Bullock, a standout safety, big hitter, ballhawker, just the type that I love in my secondary. We really could use a big improvement there – he’s just too good to pass up, I think. When the first round is about half way done, I start to panic about the QB I covet. When Buffalo is on the clock at #18, he is by far the best player left in the draft, according to my analysis – he has to go at any moment. I offer them a big slate of picks (2,3,4,4,and 5) to move up to pick #18, where I will grab the only other guy I really wanted in this draft. Done deal. Code:
My hopes are now that Copeland can move into the starting QB job, and Duggs will settle in behind him as the backup. Both are gifted runners, and I feel that they fit the same mold well. In round two, I struggle a bit over the pick, and end up passing over a pretty promising DE to take RB Buckley. If he’s as good as advertised, he should be okay. I take him because I think he might get even better. We’ll see – I’m not wild about this pick, but the options were pretty slim. If we see DE Sherman Olsen going to the pro bowl in a few years, we’ll regret passing him over – he looks like a first round talent to me, but I’m drafting for need here. I swing a minor deal with Seattle to move down in round two, and pick up a third rounder for the effort and some fluff. Several of the URFA players are in due to return and special teams skills – I think this team is taking shape enough so that we can start thinking about the “secondary” things that matter on the field. I’m hoping to bring along one or two players in reserve roles mostly for their special teams abilities. As we head into training camp, QB Neal Dugger picks a curious time to announce a holdout. We’ve just drafted the guy who will presumably move ahead of him, and he’s decided to pitch a fit. Fabulous. (In a weird way, this makes some sense) Training camp brings great news. Our top pick Orlando Bullock is going to be great, and even more importantly it looks like we might have struck gold with QB Mel Copeland – a nice bump in his potentials in training camp is a great sign for a top pick. At QB, it’s pure gold. Look out for DT Brett Frederickson, too – he might end up being a nice value acquisition for us from after the draft. Yet another possible breakout player from the far depths of the rookie pool. Code:
We get off to a 4-4 start, and start thinking we have really turned the corner. But reality sets in, and we drop 7 of the last 8. QB Mel Copeland, our third straight rookie starter, shows promise – he’s the one we’re going with from here. RB Bernie Buckley gave us a pretty solid season – we are surprisingly able to put up rushing yardage, given the overall shakiness of the offense. Injuries kept WR Drake and Wolf from getting out there every week, and the numbers sagged a bit as a result. On the other side, MLB Ireland had an appendectomy and missed time, and never really got completely back. SLB Stephen Hutchins also missed six weeks injured. All in all – we struggled to get our best men out there all season. The DL played well and stayed in place, shockingly. But despite those problems, we had a great defense, honestly -- #3 against the run, #1 against the pass, and top-ranked in yard per play both way. Wow. Tommie Browder and Courtney Malan get trips to alohaland for a job very well done. Well, another year of concluding with “maybe next year.” If we can whip the offense into a little better shape, we can start to go places with this group. |
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06-21-2004, 10:10 AM
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#11 | |
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lolzcat
Join Date: May 2001
Location: williamsburg, va
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Nice Running numbers from the QB also, could be a valuable asset until his arm and mind develop...
I'm doing a franchise with these rules that you have to see how it goes, but not posting a dynasty at he moment.. between my IHOF commentary and my CFL MP Dynasty, I don't have time to post another dynasty atm...
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06-21-2004, 10:36 AM
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#12 |
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Grizzled Veteran
Join Date: Nov 2000
Location: St. Paul, MN
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Was Bullock injured this year? His numbers didn't look too good. I think once your offense gets on track and you get a ballhawk or two at corner, your defense will start piling up some obscene numbers (not that the yardage numbers weren't, but turnovers and points allowed weren't too hot).
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06-21-2004, 12:29 PM
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#13 | |
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lolzcat
Join Date: Oct 2000
Location: Annapolis, Md
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Quote:
Bullock was healthy, but I attribute the fairly low tackle total to our generally effective front seven. We've got very good players up there, and not as many ball carriers get into the secondary... thus, a safety won't get as many chances. That's the positive spin, I suppose. |
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06-21-2004, 01:20 PM
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#14 |
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lolzcat
Join Date: Oct 2000
Location: Annapolis, Md
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2009
As we approach this year’s draft – what do we need? We have pick #5, and what would I like to land there? We could stand to improve a bit at several places – maybe OT, WR, CB, and LB. It’s a pretty deep draft – I see quite a number of prospects who would look good suiting up for us. A few real standouts in DT Oscar Ramey, QB Tom Meier, WR Moe Marschalk and CB Matthew Tate all look like future superstars. I’d love to land Tate at #5, as CB has been a sore spot for us. But the draft does indeed look very deep – we might even get a solid contributor in the second round, if things break well. (The CB position, in particular, seems to have five or six solid players – more than usual) CB Tate goes at #2, right behind WR Marschalk. Defensive lineman are picked at 3 and 4, and we are on the clock. I’m looking at CB Bruce Winslett, who looks like a nearly-ideal candidate for our defense. I think about trading down here, but decide that I’m better off just taking the guy I want – Winsltt seems to be the best CB left, and that’s a good position to lock up with an early pick while we still have them. I’m glad we grabbed Winslett early, because a major run on DBs wiped out the position before our next pick. I end up going for a relative “need” position, and picking up the best TE in the draft, Thomas Newnam. I think he projects to be a major weapon in the passing game for us. (He violates many of the rules of drafting, so I’ll be hoping he doesn’t bust) Code:
The later picks ought to all help on special teams – Pritchett projects as a punt returner, McKenzie returns kicks. LB Tucker, cousin of our current weak-side starter Aaron Tucker, will push him for the starting job, but also should see time on special teams for us. Some of the URFA selections are for similar reasons – we’re trying to add some versatile depth to this club where we can. I re-up with a few of our veterans, and bring 62 players into training camp. We have not been overloading the roster here, and this is probably the highest totals we have carried. Still no salary crunch – I think next season will be the year for some belt-tightening, finally. After training camp, I’m very pleased with CB Winslett, who looks like the real deal, and modestly disappointed with most everyone else from the draft. TE Newnam will be fine, but probably not the star we were hoping for. Our best rookies, other than Winslett, might end up being after-draft guys like QB Mueller and T Middleton. I’m comfortable enough with Mueller that I decide to accept a trade offer from Minnesota – and send them QB Buddy Conley for their 2nd round pick next year. Pruning the roster is tougher than usual – we drop a few players who have been with us for some time. But we’re at that point now. A few holdovers remain – guys like DR Freddie Covington, RB Joseph Springer, LB Stephen Dugas, and S Barry Flowers, players who were once starters for us but have now been dropped back into reserve capacities. I prefer to keep some guys like this around when possible, and I’m hoping that we’ll get a couple of mentors out of the deal in time (Covington, Dugas, and Flowers are all decent candidates). I hope that in time, QB Neal Dugger joins this list – he’s very smart, and could become a great backup QB and mentor to the monster-in-training Mel Copeland. So, here we are – on paper, this is a pretty formidable team. This coming season will only be our second without a rookie QB starting. Yes, that is my own fault, but it’s a nearly sure-fire recipe for a shaky season. Now, with a more developed and mature Mel Copeland behind the wheel, I think the offense ought to be improved, and the team as a whole should be ready to step forward. We ought to at least gat around .500 on the season, and our goal is to be a contender for a postseason berth. Code:
Once again, the team is carried by the defense, who had another very strong season. We make it further this year than last, and tread into new territory – edging out the Jets in our finale to secure a playoff spot for the first time. QB Mel Copeland was still fairly green, but was on the good side of 60% completions, even though he played hurt for several weeks with a minor injury. WR Drake was also hurt this year, which dented the whole offense’s production. Buckley continues to do well, and I’m glad to have Springer back in as our #2 option (I released Armstrong deliberately to get Springer back in there). After defending S Bullock between posts, he comes out and gets hurt in the preseason, and misses several games. And this year, the DL suffers the predictable spate of injuries – much more like what I expect in FOF. DT Courtney Malan has another all-pro trip in him, after a season as our most effective lineman overall. LB Stephen Hutchins had his best season for us, but just doesn’t seem to have it in him to become the dominant force power that we had hoped for out there. Rookie CB Bruce Winslett was solid – 4 picks, 8 passes defensed, and a PDPct over 20, which is great for a rookie. The defensive unit didn’t rank quite as highly as last year (4th and 10th) but brought the points per game down to about 15 – that’s pretty solid. In the postseason: Miami 24, Kansas City 21 – Mel Copeland has perhaps his best game yet, and his 3 TD passes secure an OT win in our first playoff appearance. WR Leonard Drake is back in top form, with 11-158 and a score. Miami 28, Indianapolis 24 – A 21-3 halftime edge disappears in the third quarter, but we tough it out with a big late drive for the winning TD. Copeland is 27/35, and Buckley runs for 135 and the winning score. Buffalo 31, Miami 23 – The dream dies here, as they keep us in check all day. LB Ray Ireland gives us a TD off an interception to keep it close, but Buffalo has too many weapons for us to keep up with. Philadephia beats Buffalo 31-28 to take the title. No more waiting ‘til next year… this team is ready! We’re going to start losing players now, as our cap issues take hold – so the next couple of seasons will be critical. |
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06-21-2004, 03:29 PM
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#15 |
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lolzcat
Join Date: Oct 2000
Location: Annapolis, Md
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Roster Review
Before we get too deep into all this, I’m going to do a fairly thorough roster analysis, position by position, trying to identify the state of the team everywhere right now. I want to give some flavor of what each player is doing with the club, rather than just stopping at scout ratings and stats. Code:
Mel Copeland is turning into a complete QB for us, with 60-90 ratings in everything. He won’t be topped out, but he ought to be very solid. Neal Dugger is a fleet-footed guy whose skills are stuck at the “intriguing” level. He has good timing and won’t throw a terrible number of picks, and he’s very fast for a QB – but doesn’t have the complete game at all. Ben Mueller (URFA from last year) looks like he’s on his way to becoming a solid backup-grade QB, maybe better than that. If he develops hic current potential, he’d be a decent enough guy to throw out there as a starter, or certainly as a good #2. Damon Blackwell looks okay, might have some upside, but is just stuck behind the others here – he probably will stay on the team, but I don’t see any PT for him ahead. Dugger is my sentimental choice to be the #2, but Mueller is edging up in the eyes of the scouts, and has more upside as a basic do-it-all guy. Code:
Joseph Springer gave us a good deal of hard work during the team’s formative years – over 4,000 yards over four seasons as a starter, never under 900. He brings his 4.0 ypc average (behind some shaky lines, even) forward as a backup to younger Bernie Buckley, who has stepped in with two 1,000+ seasons of his own. Albeit on only 3.2 yards per carry. Buckley is a well-rounded runner (with virtually no receiving skills) and Springer has very little to show except solid stats (and 96 elusiveness – eh?). Springer is staying around, he’s our leader at the position group, and a sentimental favorite (as well as a pretty effective player when used). Code:
FB Bert England is a solid starter, probably not really worth the 3rd round pick we used on him, though. He will catch a few passes (not too many, he has a low route running rating, which I prefer) and holds the position down just fine. TE Joel Wayne is a power blocker with modest receiving skills, young Thomas Newnam is a more complete tight end who can catch and run with the ball. Newnam only had 206 yards receiving his rookie year (starting the whole way) but has potential to double that, I think. He posted a 100 yard game in the playoffs – and might be coming into this own. We need to get Newnam starting ahead of Wayne, for certain. Code:
Leonard Drake is our position leader, a mentor to younger receivers, and a standout when he plays. From a 3rd round pick, he has develop well beyond his original potential – he now has ratings in the 65+ range in everything meaningful (but only 65 in route running). I’ve just signed him to a new contract extension – he’ll be making about $5.8 million a year for the next two seasons. Herb Wolf and Leland Fielder are both very solid complementary receivers – Wolf was a high second rounder, Fielder was a breakout URFA player who originally scouted at 20/39. We use a lot of 3 WR setups in this offense, so both get plenty of playing time – Fielder got 82 targeted passes last year, even though he was only credited with 6 starts. Derrick Barrere was in the same URAF class as Fielder, another breakout (though not quite as dramatic). That gives us four solid guys to work with, and Sherman Pritchett is a nice fifth guy for depth who can stay activated, return punts, and play special teams for us – he’ll probably be a gunner for us this year. Code:
Ron McFerrin overtook Louis Goolsby for the starting C job last year, but the battle remains close. McFerrin is a run blocker, Goolsby is a strong, balanced guy. I’m happy with either one. G Emannuel Barber was a 3rd round pick at C, we switched him over to play guard, and he’s stuck ever since. An excellent pass blocker, he has a career SA% under 1, which I judge to be excellent. Kim Everett, a URFA find, is a five-year starter at RG, a solid run blocker but not a standout - also below 1 in SA%, though. RG Rodney Ford was a URFA find who has unbelievable pass blocking potential (36/94) but no run blocking skills. Decen reserve, but it’s tough to depend on a guy like that, I find. At tackle, Don Zorn is our starter on the left, a former first rounder who disappointed slightly but has remained viable. Tommy Fears won the starting job for 2008, but is back to the reserve capacity now. Fears is another pass blocking giant – ratings of 2/3 in run blocking and 98 in pass blocking is about as one-dimensional as you can get, I’d say. We’ll look to re-do his contract and keep him around as a reserve, or a possible future starter at RT. Leslie Ford is our position leader and a solid starter at RT, giving us 5 years of good service after we picked him up as yet another URFA. He scouted at 19/34 when we first saw him, after camp he bumped to 22/42 and we pushed him into the starting job, and has never looked back. Code:
Whatever. No superstars here. Maybe I’ll actually draft someone one of these years. Code:
DE Brent Lockwood kind of got caught up in the scuffle of a monster DL draft for us – he was the third of three D-linemen taken in the first round 2006 (we held the top overall pick, and got a bounty by multiple trades down). Lockwood has delivered very consistently – his pass rushing numbers keep getting better and better, and now he’s getting paid for his efforts, with a fat contract through three more years. Tommie Browder starts alongside him, and has flashes of real dominance, too. Browder is a great run defender (262 solo tackles in four seasons) and has put up 30.5 sacks of his own – he’ll land a fat wad of cash after this season runs out. Scott Hannon was our very first draft pick, and is still a very solid starter. He has missed only four games in six seasons – and has been very consistent in his play. We’ll need to re-do his deal after this year, but should be okay paying him for what he’s worth. Courtney Malan is a nearly perfect player – 100 RD, 100 PRTech, and 93 PRStr – ouch. He, too, has remained very healthy – has not missed a game in four seasons. He’s gotten to the pro bowl twice now, and might be the most talented player on the team, overall. I like our depth here – Quinn Goetz is a nice run-stopper, while Freddie Covington is a pure pass-rusher. If needed, they would make a nice platoon. Brett Frederickson has real potential (but won’t get the playing time to develop, I fear) and Dana Fortkamp is from our first draft, and has remained a soild contributor. Trouble is, thought, that both Covington and Fortkamp are angry about playing time, and might be lost causes for new contract offers. Code:
I picked up Ray Ireland in early round two, looking for an anchor to an empty cupboard LB corps. He has delivered, and has become surprisingly solid in the middle for us. He’s a god run stopper, and solid overall – just what I like in a MLB. Stephen Hutchins is a very good-looking, well-rounded linebacker, with superior talent. He has yet to post a 100-tackle season, but he seems to be getting better and better – on this defense, he won’t be the star, but he’s an excellent player. On the weak side, we start Aaron Tucker (second rounder in the same draft as Hutchins) but he’s an incomplete player. Sam Tucker isn’t going to set the world on fire, either – the position is ripe for an improvement. Stephen Dugas is a one-time Defensive Rookie of the Year, who now plays the role of occasional fill-in for us. Willie Walker and Jeffrey Crosby are basically special teamers – we’re pretty thin in terms of quality, starting-caliber talent here. Code:
The addition of Bruce Winsltt changed everything for our secondary. Now, he’s the anchorman, we’ll isolate him on the best opposing wideout. Rex Grant, after two seasons as an understudy, finally eclipsed Martin Wallace for the starting job, and continues to improve. Grant was a 3rd round pick who I thought might get better – he has, bumping from 18/38 to his current rating of 53/54. He has made specifically good gains in man coverage – just what I’m looking for. Fast, good eye for the ball, I’m thrilled to have locked him into a new deal after his first couple of years, before he started to realize how valuable he could get. Martin Wallace, a five year starter, now plays as our top nickelback option, with Aaron Hill also contributing in coverage as needed. Martin Winslett is a special teamer, on the fringe of our plans going forward. Orlando Bullock has yet to put together a monster season, but he’s got monster ratings and is getting better. I still like Wesley Baskey, a late second rounder who really panned out for us (despite having lousy tackling skills, he’s played well at free safety). Barry Flowers is a grizzled veteran who stepped in to start 9 games last season (and did quite well, actually) – he’s a hard hitter who keeps his eye on the ball. Roger Wheeler, our veteran position leader, saw some time last year, too – after usually spending the season mostly on the sidelines. We don’t really have a great ballhawker type of guy – in this club’s short history, nobody has more than 4 interceptions in any season. My guess is that we’ll see that record eclipsed soon, probably by Bullock. Code:
This is going to be our first year where the cap is meaningful – and with several stars looking for contracts, I expect we’ll have to make some tough choices. They will only get tougher from here. So, what do we do with this team? I am going to try to keep my star players, but I can see that the DL is going to get depleted after this season. Adding depth there would be sensible, and we’ll be looking for one or two LBs who can actually play a bit – maybe even a new starter for the weak side. It seems like RB is a position where we really could use a boost, too. A big hitter on the OL might be a worthy target, as well. We have options – I’m basically comfortable with the whole team right now, so we have some resulting freedom. |
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06-27-2004, 08:55 AM
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#16 |
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lolzcat
Join Date: Oct 2000
Location: Annapolis, Md
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2010
We have our first free agent bidding war – we’re up against St. Louis for S Wesley Baskey, a long time starter for us. In week 10, he finally signs with us – so we keep him on board, which is good. DE Freddie Covington is apparently not quite as mad at us as before – he accepts a new contract to stay with us for three more seasons. Again – I’m pleased, he’s a long-timer and a pretty decent pass rusher in reserve for us on the DL, and he signs very cheaply, too. RG Kim Everett is exposed, but doesn’t generate any interest – I expect to re-sign him, but probably late in the FA process. It feels weird sitting all the way down at #23 in the draft – but we will probably have to get used to it. (Sigh) When we come up, the top flight stuff is gone, including one of the very best offensive tackles I’ve ever seen (who got take at #3) – we’re looking at mostly flawed prospects, really. I’m thinking RB or WLB as my first choices – but I’ll take a standout anywhere, if there is one. RB Everett Dotson is pretty decent – he’s the fastest and most agile RB left in the draft, and has the highest combine rating for strength, too. But not a standout at any of those, really – just top of the list. I see him as a modest improvement over our current back, Bernie Buckley, but not by a wide margin, really. A first round pick? Seems like a reach. WLB Albert Kasica seems like a good fit – strong against the run, good in zone coverage, and a good special teamer. He only projects to 65, though, by my scout – meaning he won’t be a real star, ever. Another WLB, Lester Ridder, looks pretty good to me, also – but I decide that Kasica is the better fit for our needs. RB Dotson goes at pick #1, so my outside hopes of snagging him with my extra second rounder are dashed. However, WR Frank Dotson (no relation, I suppose) is available – and he is the quickest wideout in the draft by far, running a 4.33 forty. I pick him up, adding a little quality depth to our receiver fleet, hopefully. I trade out of my late second rounder, and pick up a second rounder next year. I have to throw in my 6th rounder to make the deal – so it doesn’t seem unfair to do it. Code:
Wow, we got an immediate bump from our seventh round pick, RB Pat Noccolino. I grabbed him to contend for the KR job and perhaps slide in as our third RB – suddenly, he looks like he has far more potential than I had originally imagined. I’m not sure if that’s good scouting or bad… but it looks good now! And at a position where I was even thinking about using my first pick, too – what great fortune. I don’t find an awful lot to like in the post-draft group, and only sign one offensive lineman. I like Locklear – and smell a breakout, of some proportion, coming in him. In the last stage of free agency, I pick up one more URFA – RB Amos Sutter, a potential kick returner and special teamer. Training camp shows a few dents in the armor of my top picks – no great breakouts up there. RB Noccolino continues to impress, as does RG Locklear – both will get extended looks from us. I don’t know where LB Kasica will end up in our depth chart this season – I don’t think he can win the starting job, so he may be relegated to reserve and special teams duty for his first season, which is okay. We head into this season with what I believe to be an excellent team. We ought to be throwing the ball a lot, and we ought to find ourselves again among the stronger defenses. Overall, I like our chances to be a force this season. Indeed, we march through the first half of the season unbeaten, and largely unchallenged. Wow. QB Mel Copeland and LB Stephen Hutchins are both on fire, with all-pro performances in the first half of the season. We get through the entire regular season without a blemish – one very close call in the 16th week, but generally speaking, we remained in good shape. We managed through injuries to Copeland (he played through) and RB Buckley (Noccolino stepped in) and stayed in top form on offense for both spells. Code:
Some unbelievable numbers here – what a season! Mel Copeland came through with a season for the ages, posting some of the best stats I’ve ever seen in this game. That he managed to also scamper for nearly 500 yards rushing just adds to what must be an MVP year. Our running platoon was fine – we had several games where we posted 150+ rushing yards, despite being a pass-first team – 6th in total rushing is a testament to our overall offense, as we got a lot of leads. Defensively, we got monstrous pressure on the QBs, and played very tough against the run. CB Bruce Winslett had a monster year – he only had 32 tackles, but his other numbers were stellar: 10 ints, 4 TDs, and 14 passes defensed to only 25 catches allowed. That’s crazy – if this guy doesn’t get to Hawai’i because he didn’t have that many guys to tackle, it’s a travesty. Rated #1 against the run, and #2 against the pass – what a year for this defense. Unbelievable. Postseason: Miami 34, Houston 10 – Orlando Bullock’s TD interception sets the tone early, and we take control. Mel Copeland is brilliant, and we make quick work of the Texans. Miami 23, Kansas City 20 – Tough game, we are behind 17-13 midway through the fourth quarter, but Copeland hits Leland Fielder for the go-ahead TD, and we get a clinching FG with :22 left to win it. Miami 24, Philadelphia 14 – We hold them to 224 total yards, and cinch the game when Orlando Bullock scores on yet another interception. Mel Copeland gets the game ball, and racks up a superior season with the superfecta of season awards. QB Mel Copeland sweeps the season awards – League MVP, Offensive Player of the Year, First Team QB, and even Superbowl MVP. We also send DE Tommie Browder and DT Courtney Malan as second teamers. A CB from Oakland gets first team honors, largely due to making 85 tackles – maybe if he covered his man he wouldn’t have ot tackle so many guys, eh? Bruce Winslett sits and watched the all-pro parade from his doorstep, since our front seven did its job and he did his, he was left without that many guys to bring down. Shame. An unbelievable season! Perfect record, and as close to perfection in stats, too. Great results. Looking ahead – we see contracts looming, and a wide-scale dismantling might be in the works. This might have been our lightning-in-a-bottle season for this group. But what a year. |
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06-27-2004, 10:13 AM
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#17 | |
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lolzcat
Join Date: May 2001
Location: williamsburg, va
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Funny thing is, I was going to bump this today to see if you were still doing it because it really intrigues me...
To be honest, this is kind of what I expected from this idea... bad early, peak, and then possibly a downfall as you are not able to keep your talent but cannot bring new talent... let's see if that happens..
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06-27-2004, 12:10 PM
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#18 |
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lolzcat
Join Date: Oct 2000
Location: Annapolis, Md
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The roster situation for next season looks downright scary. I worked out an extension for DT Malan, but have about six quality veterans up for new contracts, and I won't have much money at all to work with. There's no way this team comes back anywhere near intact... I will have to make some tough decisions going forward.
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06-27-2004, 12:35 PM
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#19 | ||
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lolzcat
Join Date: May 2001
Location: williamsburg, va
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Quote:
Championships are not out of the question with this design though. You played a perfect season this year, I would HOPE that is not possible to do year after year with this design. However, you are probably concentrating so much on young talent compared to what you/others normally would, that your odds of having a capable backup is much higher.. The tricky part is the fact that right now you are not getting top 10 first rounders, so you do not have a lot of superstars in waiting...
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06-30-2004, 12:41 PM
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#20 |
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lolzcat
Join Date: Oct 2000
Location: Annapolis, Md
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2011
Interesting note – we were awarded a 90/100 for “team performance” by Herb following a 16-0 season, with dominating stats on both side of the ball, and a powerful run through the playoffs to an unblemished title. 90? What exactly does it take to earn a higher rating than that? Our first retirement is safety Roger Wheeler, who gave us seven good years from the very start. We use the franchise tag on DE Tommie Browder, who has been a very consistent performer for us through his five seasons, racking up three all-pro honors. However, the $9m salary he commands for the tag spot puts us over the cap already – and we have much work to do ahead. I work through some renegotiations, and bring our cap imbalance down to $3 million – but we’re still way out of whack. I’m up against a big number with DE Brant Lockwood, and he’s looking for some $12 million in signing bonus to extend for more years. He’s not as good as Browder, but he is pretty good – and I’m in trouble here. Cutting or trading Lockwood would get us out of cap prison – but keeping him certainly would help us this season. Eventually, I work out a new long term deal with Tommie Browder. It will cost us only $5.5m this year and next in cap space, but he gets $15 million up front in bonus. Thus, things will escalate and get totally out of hand in a while. This gets us to right around the salary cap, though – we still have some pruning to do, as we are still mathematically unable to offer a free agent contract to anyone right now. Trouble is – we still have four other starters in MLB Ray Ireland, WR Herb Wolf, and C Ron McFerrin, and RT Leslie Ford all sitting our there unrestricted. I decide that veteran LT Don Zorn needs to go. He’s looking for a big contract after this year, anyway – and we’ll save $1.5 million by cutting him now. I plan to start Tommy fears at LT, and I like the looks of young LT Ike Hickman as a possible future starter. That clears up enough cap room for us to pursue bringing MLB Ray Ireland back on a backloaded deal that we can afford for at least a couple of years. This is very tough, but I’m trying to fill as many pending holes as possible. We start the FA process fully expecting to see RT Leslie Ford and WR Herb Wolf head to greener pastures with other teams. I’d like to bring back Ford, but I need to wait until his asking price settles – so I’ll take the chance on his getting a fat deal somewhere else. I’m deep enough at WR that we can get by without Ford, despite his breakout year last season for us. Same for C McFerrin – we have a quality backup, so he is expendable, in a relative sense. My ultimate hope is that a couple of these guys remain unclaimed, and that DE Lockwood’s demands come down enough that we can try to get them all under our salary cap. Good news – MLB Ray Ireland takes our offer. And WR Herb Wolf is our only FA who is pursued in the early stages. He inks a deal for about $6m a year with Atlanta. We make it through 20 weeks with no other departures – that’s very good for us, right now. In the draft, I’m looking for BPA – with an eye on where we might have holes coming up this year or next. LB remains a relative weakness, and star SLB Stephen Hutchins will be looking for big money next year (at the same time we will have a QB up for a new deal) so that might be a top spot to consider. I’m also figuring that we have trouble ahead at DL – so that might be a consideration as well. CB Rex Grant is probably going to price out as well – so depth there would be useful, as well. I quickly thee the guy I want. LB Alex Murphy is a major power linebacker, a standout at strength, and the best LB in the draft. I don’t think there’s any way he will fall to pick #32, so we will have to move up to get him. But I believe he can be an impact player – he’s the guy we want, for certain. We have to give up our picks at the end of rounds one and two, but we move up to #16 and grab Murphy there, getting the guy we wanted most. We still have an extra pick in the middle of round two, and we target the best Olleft in the draft with that pick, and grab Donovan McBeal. Hi shift to the position where we need him (LG) isn’t seamless, and this might not have been a great pick. Code:
In the late FA stages, we land a number of undrafted rookies who look potentiall promising to me. Before getting any of them, I’d speculate that WR Tito Taylor (the workout warrior with 24 lifts!) might end up being a breakout… but we’ll how for a few of them to make jumps and lock up roster spots for us. Well, my plan all along was to wait until the late FA stages, and then re-work our deal with DE Brant Lockwood, who is a $9m cap hit this year. My hope was to work him down a bit, free up room to re-sign RT Leslie Ford, and then see what else we can do. Trouble is, Lockwood won’t budget off his number – he wants an $11m signing bonus to extend his deal, and it wouldn’t be very affordable starting as soon as next season. So, no deal – he has to go. It’s our first serious cap-motivated cut, but we’ll try to patch together at DE – run-stopper Quinn Goetz will get the job for now, I expect, but rookie Kim Northern will get the chance to play and see if he can step in there. With the cap space afforded, we even work out a new deal with C Ron McFerrin – a guy I had all but given up on seeing with us this year. He had an offer from Dallas, but it didn’t work out – so we re-up with him on a long term deal which should keep him here for at least three seasons more. Great addition! Training camp gives us yet another insight into our young crop. Our top picks all held their ground – good signs. Looks like we do have a couple of promising would-be breakout players among our URFA class – TE Giles and T Jackson might head the list. WR Taylor looks to get better – but has a skill mismatch with our real needs. (What do you do with a WR whose best skills are courage, adjusting to the ball, and avoiding fumbles – but lacks much of anything in the top four categories or even return skills?) So, coming out of camp, we carry 58 players into the preseason – it should be a fairly painless cut-down. We’ll clip a few rookies, cut one of our kickers, and go from there. We’ll be watching the RB position in pre-season – young Pat Noccolino didn’t really turn it on last season as our backup, but he’s approaching Buckley in total skill and might weasel into the starting job this year. We make our cuts, and get everything in line. We’re ready to defend our title, and try to continue our string of wins that stands at 19, including the playoffs. We get two wins, but suffer a tough loss – WR Leonard Drake is out for the season after week two. After losing Wolf in the offseason, we’re going to have quite the turnover in our starting roles here. This will put Leland Fielder into the featured flanker role, with Derrick Barrere staying as the split end. Our slot receiver (previously Fielder) will now be rookie Tito Taylor, at least for the moment (Sherman Pritchett is nursing an injury but may move past him). Our winning streak continues through 7 games, but we suffer another serious injury, as LB Stephen Hutchins breaks his arm. I’m now very glad we drafted his presumed replacement this year – as Alex Murphy is a solid replacement already. We keep on winning, and extend our streak to 28 games as we beat a good KC team to get to 9-0 on the season. Through 11 wins, Mel Copeland has now moved past playing superstar QB and has now begun to walk on water. His QB rating is 119.6 – unheard-of numbers: 35 TD, 6 interceptions, 69% competions, 8.68 ypa. Unreal. Plus, he has 367 yards rushing to boot. Phenomenal. He should ask for the moon and starts in his next contract – and get it. On the road at Buffalo in week 15, the streak finally ends. The Bills get out to a 21-0 lead and hold us off, 30-27 for the upset win. We won 32 straight regular season games, and the same number of total games including the playoffs. Tough to take the loss – but we still look like the dominant force in the NFL here. A 15-1 regular season and, of course, the home field advantage isn’t anything to complain about. Code:
Our pass defense softened up a bit this year – falling to 9th ranked in yards per attempt. But we were #1 or #2 in the other three areas – very strong. With only a +7 in turnovers, it’s surprising we remained as dominant as we were last year, more or less. QB Mel Copeland – what can we say? He’s the man. He breaks the single season record for passing TDs by seven this year, and posts a 115.1 passer rating along the way – six point better than any before this season. He put Fielder and Barrere into the thousand-plus club this year – a definite first for both of them, neither of whom was a regular starter prior to this season. TE Newnam ought to go to the pro bowl, too. Rookie Tito Taylor held on to the third WR role, and posted some awfully nice numbers for a young’un – might he be an outsider for OROY? At RB, Buckley was decent as usual, and we got some real signs of life from Noccolino, who seems to be ready to step into the starter’s role to me. Our defense was again very tough up front, even after losing one of our mighty quarter up front. DT Courtney Malan ought to get all-pro recognition yet again, and DE Tommie Browder might as well. 55 sacks and 81 hurries is pretty impressive – the front is doing its job, all right. And the secondary – all four starters with double-digit passes defensed, that’s a thing of beauty. We didn’t pick the ball off as much this year, but were still awfully solid across the board. With Hutchins back and healthy for the postseason, we should be even better. Postseason Results: Miami 31, Houston 10 – Mel Copeland nails four TD passes, and we hold them to 14 yards rushing and only 207 total yards to dominate the opener. Fielder catches 8 for 155 and two scores. Cleveland 17, Miami 16 – Shocking upset! We outgain them by 386-250 yards, but a FG with one minute to go gives the Browns the win. We only turn it over once, were even in time of possession – tough to figure. Cleveland then goes out and loses to Green Bay in the Superbowl. Oy. Our all-pro nods go to QB Mel Copeland (three awards, MVP, OPOY, and QB1) and second teamers DT Malan and DE Browder. Two tight ends both approached 1,000 yards – sop I can understand that. And Minnesota’s rookie QB threw 25 TDs to get OROY, also tough to argue with. Great season, disappointing finish. But we certainly put a product out on the field. Last edited by QuikSand : 06-30-2004 at 12:45 PM. |
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06-30-2004, 12:45 PM
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#21 |
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lolzcat
Join Date: Oct 2000
Location: Annapolis, Md
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I usually play this game with so many rules that I naver field a team this good. I don't think I've ever put up numbers like these.
Usually, I get bored at about this point (it's so much more fun to struggle and field marginal performers)... but perhaps the lure of trying to keep this team from falling apart under the cap is enough to keep me with it another season or three. |
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06-30-2004, 03:05 PM
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#22 |
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Resident Alien
Join Date: Jun 2001
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I'm enjoying this dynasty, although I wish you had titled it differently. I keep thinking "magical fruit" when I see it.
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06-30-2004, 04:53 PM
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#23 |
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Pro Starter
Join Date: Jan 2001
Location: Rennes, France
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Copeland nearly through 5000 yards and 50 TDS... Geez !
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07-01-2004, 03:28 AM
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#24 | ||
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lolzcat
Join Date: May 2001
Location: williamsburg, va
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Quote:
I usually feel the same way as you here. However, since you are running through the season quickly and concentrating on the off-season, I continue to hold the interest of what happens as the cap comes to bite you.. you saw a nibble this year, but re-signing Copeland could really have a huge overall affect.
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07-01-2004, 08:19 AM
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#25 |
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Pro Starter
Join Date: Nov 2000
Location: Troy, NY
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Sounds like your team really found a way to have the pass set up the run... as far as I can tell, your running game shouldn't be all that great; a middle of the road RB, and good-not-great OL. Yet you got 4.74 YPC - quite impressive.
Just curious - what do Copeland's ratings look like at this point? Are they all red? All in the 90's? Sounds like he could be one of those legendary FOF QB's...
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Quis custodiets ipsos custodes? |
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07-01-2004, 10:13 AM
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#26 |
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lolzcat
Join Date: Oct 2000
Location: Annapolis, Md
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Actually, Copeland isn't even a topped-out stud... but he is fairly close.
In order, his ratings are: 82 88 94/100 83/93 80/88 64 96 Avoid Int 86/98 Accuracy 24/42 Timing 96 78 82/94 83 Scr Frq 73/84 76 So, he's excellent, but not 90+ everywhere. But in this system, surrounded by star-level talent at most positions (except the OL, where we are good but not great) he has been a monster for the last two seasons. Initially, I was thinking that in the next season, we'd let him go and use the money to try to keep much of the team intact. Now, I'm thinking that we do everything we can to extend the window of opportunity with him at the helm and as much around him as possible for one or maybe two more seasons. We might even get into "cap out" offers and such to do this, I'm thinking -- thus are the pressures of being really good right now. |
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07-01-2004, 03:15 PM
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#27 |
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lolzcat
Join Date: Oct 2000
Location: Annapolis, Md
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2012
No retirements – so all our off season decisions are in our own hands. Great. We come into this season with our cap already spent (we have a $1.6m trifle available – not even enough to sign our rookies) and a slew of players without contracts. G Emmanuel Barber, LB Stephen Hutchins, LB Aaron Tucker, CB Rex Grant, RB Bernie Buckley, and of course, QB Mel Copeland are all without deals. So – we have real work to do here. My first decision is to decide not to use the franchise tag on anyone – we’ll haggle through free agency, but I’ll go without a net. WR Leonard Drake, following a season-ending injury last year, is a mere shadow of his former self now. He’s still our receivers leader, and a guy I’d like to keep – but probably not at his current salary of $10 million. We work out a new deal with him, bringing his base down to veteran minimum – much better. Along the way of working through contracts, I notice something really weird – my WR Leland Fielder, my starting flanker, has inexplicably switched to split end. I *know* I didn’t do this. I *know* I didn’t turn my roster over to the computer (in the sense that sometimes accomplishes this switch – setting it to “sign players to fill roster.” But now, I have an imbalance in my WR depth – not good news as all, really. This might be a bigger deal than it seems – we use our Flanker 2 as the main third option – and if my two best WRs are both formally listed at split end, it’s a big problem for me in this career, where I’m letting the depth charts set themselves. I look back, and see that this actually happened some time last season – so it might not be as big a crisis as I’m expecting – Fielder started at flanker last season despite technically being a split end. (There were a couple other side-balancing switches made without my consent last year, but at least it didn’t hurt the players’ ratings) SO, I try to switch him back – and it works seamlessly. Good. Now – we settle up a few more minor contract issues, and have about $11m in cap space - $8.4m in usable space. My hope would be to wrap up QB Mel Copeland and LB Stephen Hutchins, and then see what else we might be able to do later on. But Copeland’s deal is going to be very, very tough – and Hutchins himself is looking for $9m a year. Interestingly, Copeland is asking for a deal worth $140 million over 6 years. The base salary numbers escalate to over $20 million a year in the last three seasons, naturally, along with a $32m signing bonus. My trouble, of course, is that my owner won’t let me pay any player more than $19.14 million in any one season. So – technically, I can afford to put in an offer right around where Copeland is asking – but it has to be completely flat ($31.9m bonus and $19.14m each year). OUCH! I can’t even come close to affording that deal without cutting another $10m from my roster, maybe much more. I’m completely stuck. So, I do something I generally don’t do. I go back to my last save, and play it out again – knowing what I now know about the hard-wired limitations in the game, there is only one option here – I have to use the franchise tag on QB Mel Copeland, period. Rather than just edit out all this narrative above – I’ll come clean and apologize for my lack of foresight – but that game limit just paints me into an absolutely impossible box there. So, I re-work contracts, and get to the point where we have jut enough cap space for our rookies – not a nickel to re-sign anyone at all. Not good enough. I have to make a cut or two, maybe more. RB Joseph Springer is gone – he was a good influence, but I can’t justify his salary. Same goes for backup MLB Frank Morris, and fourth-string QB Bobby Muse. I re-work my deal with DT Courtney Malan – it’s another $9.5 million in bonus, but it will keep him fairly affordable for three seasons, which is all I can realistically ask for at this point. RG Kim Everett gets a long look (or more fittingly, his $2 million salary does) but he makes it through this round of cutbacks, through he might be next on the list. I put in backloaded offers to SLB Hutchins and LG Barber, and a modest offer in to our starting WLB Aaron Tucker. Hutchins, however, gets a huge offer from Denver – and he’s gone in the first week. Berber and Tucker sign immediately with us – so we are at least in good shape there. So, I have some cap space to work with – and I quickly lock up RB Bernie Buckley to a new deal. I expect this is the year that he loses his starting job, but he’s only asking for backup-type money anyway, so this seems reasonable to me. Now, I’d like to parlay some sort of contract offer to CB Rex Grant – he is asking for $6m a year, but if we’re creative we might get him back for a couple more seasons. At week six, we are his only offer – but he hasn’t signed yet. In week 9, he finally relents, and we lock him up for two affordable seasons – I’m surprised that this worked out, actually. We get to the rookie draft with 48 payers on contract, and true roster holes at RB, MLB and S. We’ll try to land some prospects at those spots in this draft. I wouldn’t mind grabbing a solid DL if I can with pick #30, either. In the draft, we end up taking an undersized linebacker who probably will only be able to play in the outside spot. That could cause some troubles, but I like enough things about Burt Veen that I decide to let it go, and we’ll try to get all we can from him and last year’s top pick, Alex Murphy. Code:
FB Max Wynn is an undersized FB – and my goal is to move him to RB and hope to make a utility back out of him. I pick up a couple standout special teamers in Bullock and Shaw, and both should immediately displace my current players. I’m mildly disappointed with the immediate review of a couple other players – but overall I think we’ll come away with a contributor or two here. We have a real battle at the safety position – both rookie safeties looks pretty good, and are making the case for staying with the club. Both are from the same mold as the veteran they may be trying to displace, Barry Flowers – tough hitter, good eye for the ball. All three go into preseason probably competing for two jobs at most. After tinkering with putting Alex Murphy into the reserve MLB slot, I decide that rookie Veen is just not ready to start on the strong side – so Murphy goes back there, and Veen will be a reserve this year. He is just not at all ready to play. Murphy, I think, is ready to take a good step forward (though I hurt him by switching his position twice – dummy). We lose RT Leslie Ford in preseason – maybe a career-ending injury. But we come into the season otherwise pretty healthy, with the top-rated team in all four cohesion areas, not to mention the top overall roster rating (100/84). We are once again a top pick to win it all – we cam close to putting together back-to-back titanic seasons last year – we’d like to follow up with a third. We win our opener at buffalo – the sits of our last regular season loss, breaking our crazy streak. In week three, we get a remarkable three touchdowns from CB Bruce Winslett – one on a kick return, and two on interceptions. That has to be a record – three scores by a player who didn’t ever line up on offense. Halfway through the season, again at 8-0, it’s hard to complain. Copeland is again a titan, but we’re not getting a lot from our RB position – Noccolino is disappointing with only 3.3 ypc. Leland Fielder might be on his way to a monetsr year – with 745 yards at the halfway point. We get a win over Cleveland (who beat us in last year’s playoffs) to extend to 12-0 on the year – but it’s the closest game of the year, only 27-24. In the final regular season game, we paste the Jets 47-0 to run our record to 16-0 for the second time in three seasons. Code:
Well, we posted another tremendous season here. QB Mel Copeland broke his own record for passing yards (though not by much) with 4,966 – and we topped the 5,00 yard barrier as a team. The running game wasn’t awful – but Noccolina was a little disappointing overall. We got banged up on the OL – but still managed to pave the way fo the stars on the team. Defensively, Courtney Malan and Tommie Browder again managed to anchor a dominant defensive line, despite even more injuries. 52 sacks and 80 hurries – that’s pretty good pressure, best in the league. We were okay even without our best linebacker – young Alex Murphy was fine as our sam starter, after all. And we help opposing rushing games to just barely over 3.0 yards per carry – that’s one of those milestone stats I always like to tap – getting under 3.0 there is very tough, I have found. Also – proper credit to Rex grant, who returned to us and had a great season in coverage – rating a 21.1 PDPCT, a very nice mark considering he only picked off 2 passes. Postseason Miami 27, New England 24 – Not really that close, we had a good lead and they scored with 35 seconds left. But they played tough, and outgained us even – our defense came through with some big plays. Miami 52, Cleveland 7 – Sweet revenge for last year’s loss. We have it all working, and Copeland tops it with a blazing 27-of-32 effort for 343 yards and 4 TDs - he is unreal. Miami 36, Washington 16 – We outgain the Skins by 150 yards, and really keep their passing game in check. Copeland secures his second Superbowl MVP award – and our three year reign has its bookend seasons! Predictably, Mel Copeland gets his quartet of awards again. WR Leland Fielder breaks out of the shadow a bit, and gets named to the all-pro first team – not bad for an undrafted rookie (along with his co-starter, Barrere). OL Gerald Kinney didn’t play much, but wowed them at the pre-season workouts, and is named the league’s strongest man. Maybe that will pay off at some point. An outstanding season – we’ll leave it to the judges over time to decide which team was the best of the three, but after shining so brightly two seasons ago, we have again run the table and made it a debate. Last edited by QuikSand : 07-01-2004 at 08:26 PM. |
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07-01-2004, 04:06 PM
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#28 |
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Grizzled Veteran
Join Date: Nov 2000
Location: St. Paul, MN
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Ho hum, another 5000 yard season, another 4th WR with 10 TDs.
 Crazy stats. One interesting note, despite having 11 (!) turnovers on the year, it was only good enough for second in the league. Considering Copeland's performance, I can't see how you could ever reasonably hold him without franchising him every year till he retires. |
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07-01-2004, 06:29 PM
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#29 |
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Pro Starter
Join Date: Jan 2001
Location: Rennes, France
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Yep, this guy IS a franchise player.
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07-01-2004, 06:53 PM
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#30 |
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Coordinator
Join Date: Jan 2001
Location: Not too far away
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I'm amazed that you would go back to the last saved game.
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07-01-2004, 08:21 PM
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#31 | |
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lolzcat
Join Date: Oct 2000
Location: Annapolis, Md
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Quote:
Well, it was (in my judgement) a specific circumstance -- I felt I was unfairly hamstrung by the artificial limitations in the game. Had I known that in advance, I clearly wouldn't have allowed him to go onto the open market where i would have zero hope of keeping him. Had this not been the result of a game quirk, I wouldn't have done it. Not an excuse, an explanation. Sorry if you judge it to undermine what I'm doing - I myself don't, but that's a subjective determination, I'll admit. |
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07-01-2004, 08:34 PM
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#32 | |
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College Benchwarmer
Join Date: Mar 2004
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Quote:
Heh I was wondering why he didnt franchise at first...what was it his 3rd or 4th season he starts breaking records? that means 10 more years and his prime is in 3 or 4 more, I would have franchised that guy in the rookie season  . But seriously there is no way I would have thought about trying to sign him. |
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07-02-2004, 10:55 AM
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#33 |
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lolzcat
Join Date: Oct 2000
Location: Annapolis, Md
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2013
We received another “90” rating for our team performance, which has to be the upper bound there. But we also got a 90 when we went 15-1 and lost in the playoffs – what kind of rational rating system finds no difference between 16-2 and 19-0? *sigh* We again have no retirements – so the next year will again be completely in our hands. We return Offensive Coordinator Kendall England on a new contract – he has been very effective for us, clearly. He is 63, but still very good. A 3 year deal ought to wrap up his career with us. We are already over the cap as the season starts – so this is going to be a very trying year. We will again franchise QB Mel Copeland (of course) and try to make that work, but doing so simply makes it tough – though a franchise salary of only $6.3 million is a bona fide steal for this superstar player. So, we have to cut $10 million in salary, right off the bat. We work through salary restructurings first – DT Scott Hannon, RT Leslie Ford, LB Albert Kasica, CB Martin Wallace (out for the year already), CB Aaron Hill, and a few others work out new deals, and we clear a fair degree of space that way. But, that only gets us so far – we still are over the cap, without space to sign our rookies r any free agents. Trouble. RG Kim Everett is first to go – he was slated to earn $4 million, and wasn’t looking for a cheap renegotiation. We have Donovan McBeal and strongman Gerald Kinney who can compete for the job there. I also decide that since Ron McFerrin has clearly won the starting C job, we can release reserve Lewis Goolsby, and save $1.4 million. We’ll probably go after a young center in the draft, perhaps to take over as soon as next season. With practically zero cap space, we have to decide how important it is to do re-signings. Heading the list this season is WR Leland Fielder, fresh off a career-best 1,400-yard season and a pro bowl. He’s looking for a fat payoff of something like $7-8 million a year. I’m thinking I can make an offer, but we’ll probably have to pay him $2-3 m this year, at a minimum. SS Orlando Bullock is a playmaker in the secondary, and losing him would be a real blow. He’s seeking $7-8 ma year – and my calculations are about the same for him as for Fielder. LT Tommy Fears would be a nice guy to bring back, but I’ll probably wait until the late FA stages and hope he’s still available. TE Thomas Newnam might be the odd man out – I’d like to return him, but I won’t pay him big money. If he’s available and cheap later on, I’ll look. I decide to release DE Quinn Goetz – a long-timer for us, but I can’t carry his $1.6m salary and see him get 50 plays a year. This clear sup a little bit or space – we could at least hypothetically offer a FA deal or two now. To get a better picture of our draft-cap situation, I execute a trade with Jacksonville, moving up from #32 to #12 overall, and flushing four later draft picks. That move clears up more cap space – since I don’t need to reserve room for a bunch of middle-round guys. I seem to be doing far better with my URFA selections, anyway. I have a solid offer in to S Bullock, but WR Fielder is getting really stubborn. He wants $10 million in bonus, and he’s not listening to any of my “creative” offers. I think he fails to recognize that it’s the guy throwing all those passes who is my real star – not this particular guy catching some of them. I’ll wait him out, but it’s looking fairly likely that he departs for big money elsewhere. I have enough huge contracts – I can’t tie up another with him, at a position where we have pretty good depth already. In the FA process, TE Thomas Newnam is immediately signed by Baltimore – getting a pretty good pay raise. S Orlando Bullock is listening to our offer, his only one. And WR Leland Fielder is not getting any bites for his moon-and-stars demands. Might work out okay, after all. Bullock accepts our deal after four weeks – so we are back in business there. Key signing. I go back to WR Fielder in week 18 – he’ still awaiting an acceptable contract offer from anyone. He wants $9m up front now, and still won’t even consider my deals. But I’m feeling better and better since nobody else is biting either. We might be able to get him through the back door after the draft. We head into the draft without a truly pressing immediate need. The OL is an obvious target spot – we have cut one starter and one key reserve, and we are probably going to lose our starting LT. So, a quality addition there would be nice – but I’ve been doing fine with fill-in guys and URFA breakouts along the OL thus far. I still also think that adding a quality player on the DL would be wise – we’re running out of quality there, and soon the contract of Tommie Browder might force a really tough cut there. So – maybe OT, DE, or just BPA. Picking at #12, I’m thinking we can get a pretty solid impact player. If not, I’ll probably look to trade down or out, and free up cap space for another run at Leland Fielder. I see the guy I want with our top pick, and when Ken Curtis is still there at #9, I feel like I need to make a move to get him – but my offers aren’t enough, and I sit tight. He makes it to #11, and I can’t help but move up with San Diego to get him there. Code:
After the draft, in the late FA process, our starting LT Tommy fears has finally gotten an offer – and looks likely to head off to Jacksonville for $5m a year. WR Leland Fielder is still looking for a huge payday – his bonus demand has waned to only $7m, but he’s still beyond my willingness. I try everything I can think of – but it just seems that the only deal he will accept would do two things – use up all the cap space that we need to sign out draft picks, and get completely unaffordable right after this season. So, it just looks like all-pro receiver Leland Fielder will be our latest cap casualty. We’ll head into training camp with him unsigned, and will presumably watch him play for peanuts elsewhere this season. (He does, in Tampa Bay, for the veteran minimum) So – we will have quite a new look on offense. Two of Mel Copeland’s top targets from last year are gone (that’s 2,000 yards and 19 TD worth) – so he will have to work with a different supporting cast. We will, frankly, be asking him to do a lot more by himself than ever before. Derrick Barrere will slide over to start in the flanker spot, and we’ll have Frank Dotson and Tito Taylor in the other two receiver slots. In week two, we take our first loss – to Tampa Bay, of all teams. WR Leland Fielder, bearing something of a grudge, posts 88 yards and two scores as they win 24-14. This sort of thing just didn’t happen the last few years – I’m thinking we are far more vulnerable this season, no surprise. As we get to 4-1, the surprise offensive star so far has been Sherman Pritchett. Who? Well, he’s a receiver, he’s been playing as our special teams gunner, and has been forced to start at the split end spot by an injury to Frank Dotson, our originally slated starter. But in 5 games, Pritchett has posted a shocking 520 yards receiving, with 5 TDs to lead the team both ways. Who knew? A big win at home over New England gets us to 7-1 at the halfway point – while we’re not slamming the door shut week after week, but we are still a pretty good team, it seems. We get to 14-1, but suffer the unthinkable – an injury to Mel Copeland. Fortunately, he ought to be okay after a couple of weeks – and we eke out a narrow win in his absence in the regular season finale. Code:
Interestingly, the offense chugged right along – still the most effective on the game, and Mel Copeland managed an unbelievable season once again. Not quite to his great heights from last year, but another first team all pro effort, I suspect. Sherman Pritchett came into this season with fewer than 400 receiving yards – and now he’ll go to Hawai’i for the pro bowl as a receiver – I definitely didn’t see that coming. But Pritchett and Barrerre both outgained Leland Fielder this year (who admittedly did get hurt). Tito Taylor, getting better and better each season, came just short of giving us a threesome of 1,000-yard receivers. The defense, however, really dropped off. We have been used to being rated in the top handful against both the run and pass – this year ranking 15 and 21 is a shock. Young DE Ken Curtis looks like he will be pretty good, but maybe using him as he developed was a mistake, and we say Scott Hannon’s role in the middle get eclipsed – and we really suffered against the run this year. Here’s a measure for us – last year Rex Grant had 32 tackles playing in our secondary, this year he had to bring down 70 men. This is a defense that quietly fell apart, even as we went 15-1 on the season and looked very good. For the playoffs, Mel Copeland gets a 100% clean bill of health – so we have a real shot to win it again, even though I see an awful lot of new weaknesses in this team compared to the last three. Postseason Miam1 17, New England 12 – Close call, but we manage to tough it out and withstand their late run. Our offense seemed sluggish, but we kept things in hand and hopefully worked off the rust. Miami 20, Pittsburgh 17 – A very even game, we manage to get the game-winnign drive and score with 1:55 left, on a 47-yard FG from Bullock. Copeland is sharp, but the offense isn’t completely clicking yet. Miami 23, Atlanta 10 – Copeland has another solid but not spectacular game – but it’s enough to get him his third Superbowl MVP award in four seasons. Sherman Pritchett tops off a great year with 132 and 2 scores. Copeland misses out on the Offensive Player of the year award – breaking his string of three. But he has still racked up a staggering 14 awards in four seasons – that’s hard to fathom, in my experience. WR Sherman Pritchett makes the first team all-pro squad, and DE Tommy Browder and DT Courntney Malan both do as well. Well – another title, but certainly signs of cracks in the old armor. Can this team stay on top? |
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07-02-2004, 10:58 AM
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#34 |
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Pro Starter
Join Date: Feb 2004
Location: Dayton, OH
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I am playing in a similar manner with my latest career, first 40 years I simmed and drafted, and let the computer do the rest. Then after a disastrous season, I took over the team, and did well for a few years, but then wound up in salary cap hell. You should play a few more seasons and see what you can do with this.
Interestingly enough, over those 40 years the Rams won the FOF Bowl 5 times, and reached the bowl 11 times. However, our winning % is only marginally above KC and NE who have each won 3 bowls. |
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07-02-2004, 02:03 PM
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#35 |
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lolzcat
Join Date: Oct 2000
Location: Annapolis, Md
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2014
We receive yet another 90 for tam performance. Whatever. We have one retirement – veteran WR Leonard Drake. It’s a shame – he suffered a nasty injury, but got back last season to post over 500 yards receiving as our #4 WR, and was primed to stick around as a reserve and mentor for us. Losing him hurts, and causes chemistry problems as well. Mel Copeland will make $7.4 million this year under the one year franchise tender. This is the only path I had to keep him, and he’ll just have to like it one year at a time. We start this season a whopping $29 million over the salary cap. That has a certain ring to it – it sounds like we have landed into the inner circles of “cap hell.” So, we’ll see where this takes us. One good working through of the roster gets us down to … $20 million. Still far, far away from any light at the end of the tunnel at all. I make a coupe of tough calls, including capping out DE Tommy Browder, which all but insures that we have to cut him next season. This year is obviously going to be a sort of “last hurrah” for this club. As much as I love CB Rex Grant (and he’s probably our best cover man now, since Bruce Winslett got hurt last year and lost his previously topped-out ratings), he has to go – we need the $4 million he’d earn, and he won’t negotiate down. I also finally give up QB Neal Dugger, who has been with us for a long time, ever since his OROY campaign in 2007. But paying $1 million for a third-stringer doesn’t make sense for us. And LG Emmanuel Barber also has to go – his $3m is just not workable, and he won’t come down off that number at all. So, after some gut-wrenching effort, we are under the cap. We don’t have any money to offer WR Derrick Barrere a new contract, but we’ll have to make do (and probably go after a receiver in the draft). We also need to work things out with RFA LT Trent Jackson – or else we won’t have anyone to play there, which might pose a slight inconvenience for Mel Copeland. In the FA period – things are silent for several weeks. In week 8, WR Derrick Barrere gets an offer from GB, and we have to act. I’m in a spot – I can’t afford anything more than the veteran minimum this year, but he won’t sign without a sizable bonus, meaning at least $2-3m in cap hit this year. I decide to make another tough cut – LB Alex Murphy, a former first rounder. Following an injury, he’s not quite all the way back, and I’ll save $1.7m with the cut. This apparently hands the starting SLB job to Bobby Beethoven, a former URFA who will have beaten out two first rounders to take the job. Nice development. I work out a couple more contract squeezes, and eventually we get things in good enough shape to approach WR Derrick Barrere – and we make an offer. He signs it after two weeks, and we retain at least one of our original star-studded fleet of targets for Mel Copeland. Interestingly, WR Leland Fielder signs a three year deal with San Diego, getting a great deal less than any of the many offers I sent his way last year at this time. Jackass. In the draft, I’m hoping to bolster up the OL, or perhaps grab yet another good-looking linebacker. Instead, I am appalled by the talent left at pick #32, and decide to trade out of the first round. We deal for Chicago’s top pick next season, and clear out some cap space for this year in the process. Later, in the middle second round, I move up to grab St. Louis’s second rounder, and get my OL upgrade after all. Code:
I’m very excited by the prospects of a few of our URFA players – RB Lamar Wright might have potential to really help us – I mull over slotting him at WR (where I think he would play very well) but end up keeping him at RB. Tough call, though – I think he’ll be valuable wherever we end up using him. QB Gabe Glenn steps right in for Neal Dugger – a fleet-footed roll-out guy who might develop into a backup with much the same style as Mel Copeland. I also like what we see from T Ross Lofton – he might have a high ceiling. We have two weird situations on the roster – functions of my decision to let the staff set the depth chart. My scouts have placed DT Brett Frederickson ahead of Scott Hannon – and I think that’s a bad switch. Similarly, now that WR Frank Dotson is healthy again, my scouts want to have him start, placing WR Sherman Pritchett into the #4 receiver role – where he started last season. Well, after his monster year last season, I can hardly bench Pritchett. The only way to resolve these problems is to de-activate the troubling player – which hurts our depth badly. So, Dotson will be inactive, as will Frederickson, to get the starters I want in there. I make a similar decision of my own at TE – where last year’s backup Roderick Giles seems to be a better fit for our first team, so we get him in there. Interestingly, in our final preseason game – with the first team getting their first work together, we post our first 100 yard rushing game that I can remember in a very long time. And it is from…? No, not Noccolino, of course. Not even from rookie Lamar Wright. Nope, it’s Mel Copeland himself, who carries 10 times for 109 yards and 3 TDs. Unbelievable. After one week, we have a crisis. G Gerald Kinney is hurt, and out for the year. We now have only Mickey Monk available – and slated to start at RG – a disaster, as he is nothing but roster filler. I have little choice but to move T Russ Lofton over there – he will get the start at RG the rest of the way, and should have a chance to really develop (which he ought to do). We need overtime to beat Indy in week 3, but stay unbeaten with a FG in the extra stanza. In week six, we edge a good Denver team to stay unbeaten, after the 30-27 win in overtime again. In week 8, Pat Noccolino’s 4 TDs make the difference as we beat Kansas City to get to 7-0. We stretch out to 12-0 behind a hot streak from Mel Copeland, who picks up the pace a bit after a good, but not great, first half. We get to 14-0 – and then face something practically unheard of. A regular season matchup of two teams who have very real threats of running the table. Sure this happens at 4-0 or so… but two 14-0 teams matching up? Has to be a first. What is even weirder, is that in addition to our rivals this week in Green Bay – there’s also another 14-0 team in Seattle. Wow. Anyway – in Green Bay, they manage to get the win on their last drive, which pushes them ahead 21-17, and hand us our first defeat. But the NFC is setting up for a monstrous clash between the Packers and Seahawks – maybe the win over us has placed the Packers into the lead there. The power ratings now say: Green bay 97, Miami 94, Seattle 82. And in their respective finales, both Seattle and Green bay win to get to 16-0. Wow, we are 15-1, and but for the good fortune of being in the other conference, we could be facing a wild card game as a #3 seed. Code:
Our offense was back where we like it – best in the league at both rushing yards per carry and passing yards per attempt. Copeland has yet another stellar MVP-type season, posting even more staggering numbers. It’s a little blasé by now, but five straight seasons of monster stats is really worth something, I think. Pat Noccolino probably had his best season – but his single-focused nature (he gets no part of the passing game) keeps him off the field a lot, even when we are in some of our standard formations. Rookie RB Wright was a solid #2, and is more versatile – we’ll see where he goes. Again, we put both Barrere and Pritchett over 1,000 yards – even while TE Roderick Giles emerged as a favorite target for Copeland. Giles is improving, but still doesn’t look like a star to our scouts – playing with Copeland has that effect, though, evidence Pritchett, who is a very pedestrian receiver, by his ratings, but now looks like a titan on the field. On defense, we fell short of #1/#1, but getting #3/#3 isn’t bad at all. The run defense was improved with Hannan back in at DT most of the way, I think, and we got another outstanding season from Tommie Browder, who has been the model of consistency at an inherently inconsistent position. Our LB corps has dropped from great to decent, but we got nice efforts from them all, emerging playmaker Beethoven included. And at CB, Maurice Diehl won the starting job and was fabulous – 15 passes defensed, eight picks, and two scores. After a shaky season last year, we put together yet another very dominant year on defense, and put ourselves right back into the hunt with that effort. So, the week off does us well – we’ll prepare for another playoff run, and hopefully a big clash with an NFC titan in the big one. Postseason Miami 31, Baltimore 7 – We stuff the Ravens’ running game, and post a solid defensive effort to secure the good opening win. Orlando Bullock follows up a great year with a super game, and a TD off a pick. Miami 28, San Diego 14 – Copeland finds Tito Taylor for two first half TD passes, and we outpace all-pro Leland Fielder and the Chargers. Great win, and we head on to our fourth Superbowl appearance. Green Bay 27, Seattle 21 – The Packers remain the only unbeaten with a tight win at home against the Seahawks, who can’t believe they went 16-0 and had a road playoff game. Sets up a titanic rematch game. The Packers are 1 point favorites against our Dolphins – what a matchup. They are 18-0, we are 17-1 with our only loss coming at their hands at their field. Now, we settle it in fairer climes – lovely Tulsa, Oklahoma. It’s the first time I actually watch the game sim – this is a huge game. Green Bay 28, Miami 6 – The final score is a pretty fair reflection, we got creamed. Green bay’s star RB and QB were both unstoppable, and they had control all day with their offense. Tough loss, but no heartbreaker. Mel Copeland again takes home three awards – MVP, OPOY, and QB1. In a modest surprise, TE Roderick Giles joins him on the all-pro first team. DE Tommie Browder again appears, on the second team, along with S Orlando Bullock. Several great seasons for us among this group. Weird year – not often we find a CPU-run juggernaut team like that. It would be very intriguing to see if Green Bay can stay together and continue as a major force. |
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07-04-2004, 09:55 PM
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#36 |
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lolzcat
Join Date: Oct 2000
Location: Annapolis, Md
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2015
Into the 2014 season, we manage to avoid any retirements. We have 43 players signed at the outset, and are $19 million over the cap (before tagging Copeland again, of course). Once again, tough decisions ahead. My scout has retired – so we will have some shift in our player assessments. My new scout is better with young players – but a little shaky with receivers. Mel Copeland will cost us $7.6 million. A shade up from last year – but still fine. We have to cut some $24 million or so to be able to sign our rookie class, which includes an extra first round pick at #9. DE Tommie Browder is by far our top-paid player – his cap number is $25.2 million this year. I can cut $19 million by releasing him – and we may have to do so. His initial renegotiation tactic is to ask for over $16 million, and would bring his tag number this year down to only $13.2 million. I’ll hold off for now – but this might be the last decision for the year. So, we get to the cutting. C Ron McFerrin goes – he’s a long time starter, but young Deon Flint is ready to start this year, I think. QB Ben Meuller (a very solid backup) has to go, too – that will save us $2m, and we’ll go with a younger Gabe Glenn as our reserve. There’s clearly only one way out here. I love Tommie Browder a ton, he’s been a remarkably consistent DE – 9 seasons, 144 starts, 93 sacks, 183 hurries, and 54 sacks. That’s an average season of 60 tackles, 10.5 sacks, and 20 hurries. I would love to keep him – but he’s the only way out of this mess. I have five free agents, none asking for big money, and all worth bringing back. CB Bruce Wisnlett was once a monster, now he’s a capable player – possible starter. RB Pat Noccolino has been my top option – and he’s only asking for around the veteran minimum. We’ll try to give him another shot. LB Aaron Tucker was a disappointment as an early draft pick, but he’s become a pretty decent long-time starter at WLB. LG Donovan McBeal might get some attention – a solid starter. And DE Kim Northern will probably start for us if he re-signs here. And so – things go off without a hitch. We get no competition for any of our free agents, and we get all five re-signed fairly easily. We had to trim just a little more, and offer DT Courtney Malan a new extension (and big bonus) but we held most of the team together. We’ll be without perennial pro bowler Tommie Browder, but we will likely be looking for a long-term answer at DE with this early draft pick we acquired. Looking at the draft, I quickly see the guy I really want – DE Luke Stanton. There’s a nearly perfect DT in this draft and a top grade QB, so I figure Stanton will slip to the pick at #3 or 4 or so. My thinking is that if he’s there at #3, I’ll try to move up and get him. If he’s not there, I still have options – but I think I still will have to move up. There are two really good left tackles here – and that might be a nice spot to lock down, too, to better help out Mel Copeland. When the top two DL go #1-2, I’m out of luck there – it’s just way too costly to move up into those very top spots. The first five picks leave only two guys that interest me left on the board – LT Eddie Wickes, and DT Tim Devaney (whom I would move over to play DE, I reckon). Devaney goes at #6 – meaning that to ensure the guy I want, I have to trade up to #7. Once again, I find nobody I like at the bottom of the first round, and decide to trade down again. From the second round, I continue to deal (not liking the prospects there much, either) and end up with a third rounder this year and a first next year from Cleveland. Code:
The draft day maneuvering also frees up cap space – so we might have a little more room to sign someone like P Jeremy Shaw or DT Floyd Sanders than I had initially expected. I had hoped to slide LB Maxwell over to play DE – but it turns out he’s just short on the weight necessary to make the switch. SO, we move him to the strong size, where he might be able to show off his excellent pass rushing skills. Too bad he can’t play the run to save his life. I make an unusual position switch with URFA Michael Price – I don’t want a pass-catching FB, but I’m intrigued by him. I slide him to flanker – but it doesn’t look like the switch agrees with him too well. We receive an interesting trade offer after training camp. Cinti wants TE Roderick Giles – and they are offering a 7th round draft pick. Hmmm… Giles went to the pro bowl last year, and he’s making about $800,000 this year – basically the minimum for his tenure. Gee, do ya think I’m pretty happy with his performance? Or would I want to give him away for some pocket fluff? (Yes, his ratings are only 46/48 – but still, one would think that his on-field performance would merit something. We start out our first career after the loss of DE Tommie Browder – and I have worries about the defensive front, which has been a foundation for this team’s great success. I have also made a change – I’m keeping WR Frank Dotson active, which will give him the starting split end job, over Sherman Pritchett, who will play as our #4 option. There’s a method to this – but overall I think it’s worth it to have four quality guys available. We get through a number of injuries, including both of our starting defensive tackles, but continue with a very strong season. But in week 15, we do something we have managed to avoid for the last five seasons – we lose our second game. We slip to 12-2 – still very much in control of the conference, but we won’t have our sixth straight 15+ win season. Code:
A notch down on offense, generally – but still pretty effective both ways. And Copeland put up great numbers again – his season ranks 3rd in passing yards, 2nd in TDs, and 4th in passer rating… all time, of course. So, putting the season into perspective makes this look pretty good. The WR group basically shared the load – and Pritchett got his share, too, even in the fourth slot nearly all season. Defensively, we were still effective up front, and a ranking of #3 against both the run and pass is excellent. We got a really nice season from Bobby Beethoven – what a find he has been! Great year fro Orlando Bullock, too – perhaps an all-pro season. And Bruce Winslett, a much more pedestrian players compared to his illustrious past, posts a career-best 20 passes defensed. And a very, very nice season from Kim Northern – a nice reserve for a long time, finally getting his shot in the starting role. So, we head on into the postseason, led by our offense, with both of our anchor defensive lineman missing – DT Courtney Malan is on IR with a terribly leg injury. We’ll see how we play out from here. Postseason Miami 34, Pittsburgh 10 – Scores from DT Scott Hannon and S Orlando Bullock make a huge difference, as we keep them in check all day, and avoid making big mistakes on offense. Miami 38, Cincinnati 21 – Mel is the show this week, with 5 TD passes – what a monster. He spreads the ball around, stays cool under pressure, and we end up winning easily in a statistically close game. Miami 31, Atlanta 24 – Mel Copeland snags his fourth Superbowl MVP award, in yet another outstanding performance. 26 of 36 for 311 and 3 TDs – lock it up for this guy and we’re in for our fourth title. For the effort, Mel Copeland once again gathers every single award for which he was potentially eligible – league MVP, Superbowl MVP, Offensive Player of the Year, and first team QB. Unbelievable – he has now won 22 out of 24 hypothetically possible awards from the last six years – that’s just staggering to me. S Orlando Bullock also makes the first team – his second laurel in as many seasons. Well – the great run continues for us, behind the sterling arm of Mel Copeland. It’s starting to get ridiculous (actually that happened a few years ago) – as we have now only lost a total of seven games in six seasons, including playoffs. That’s a six-season record of 106-7… Last edited by QuikSand : 07-04-2004 at 09:56 PM. |
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07-04-2004, 10:34 PM
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#37 | |||
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lolzcat
Join Date: May 2001
Location: williamsburg, va
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hmmmmmmm...
Quote:
Quote:
I'm not sure that this is the first time this has happened, but I noticed it because I was trying to use your rules in a dynasty today... just found it interesting...
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07-04-2004, 11:57 PM
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#38 |
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College Benchwarmer
Join Date: Mar 2004
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He did it earlier but I didnt say anything because I love this dynasty and it didnt seem to affect the flow of the game....also I dont see what that rule does to keep him from.
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07-05-2004, 06:50 AM
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#39 | |
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lolzcat
Join Date: May 2001
Location: williamsburg, va
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I love the dynasty too and I'm not trying to "call Quik out" or anythign... I'm thinking he doesn't even realize it...
It is one more little restraint that keeps him from being quite as dominant as he is now..
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07-05-2004, 10:49 AM
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#40 |
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lolzcat
Join Date: Oct 2000
Location: Annapolis, Md
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No, you're right - I originally ruled out any acquisitions of future draft picks -- a bluntly-designed rule to fend off the all-too-easy "swap firsts next year" with some team that will be terrible while you'll be very good. (The AI doesn't recognize these for what they are)
I have essentially bent the rule to be more like "no unreasonable trades for picks next year" -- meaning that the two times I have traded for future firsts, I have given fair value for them, as least as nearly as I can tell, and have never included my own future firsts in the deal (that's what gets overrated by the trade AI, in my judgment). So, yes - I'm violating the original letter of the law, but not really the spirit. However, while I'm enjoying this career a bit, I don't think I'd ever play by these rules again -- all this contract renegotiating and backloading is suc a HUGE advantage, it makes a monstrous load of difference in how the game is played. Sure, it's been nice to keep most of my players for a long time, but this degree of success just isn't really very much fun for me. ...though this career has gotten me thinking about launching a qiock "misfit toys" career in FOF 2004. I know someone (Jon in MG?) did this, but I didn't follow it. I think with the degree of success I'm having with URFA breakouts, I could put together a pretty good team in the long run without any draft picks at all -- as long as I got lucky at QB. Might be interesting, at some point. |
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07-05-2004, 11:55 AM
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#41 | |
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lolzcat
Join Date: May 2001
Location: williamsburg, va
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Logical explanation Quik. I definately get the spirit of the rule. Without knowing how the other teams did, I could not tell what the expectation of the pick was.
What if you had some rules about backloading contracts? Would you consider that? It seems it is giving you quite the advantage. Or perhaps no negotiating mid-contract so you would be forced to make more tough salary decisions? I have thought about a misfit toys career. That was possibly my favorite dynasty that anyone has done yet.
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07-05-2004, 07:17 PM
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#42 |
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lolzcat
Join Date: Oct 2000
Location: Annapolis, Md
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The thing with the "misfit toys" concept is that while it's fairly challenging to do - it doesn't really require very much tough decision-making. You don't ever have to say "gee, do I want to pick up a defensive end, or do I need a receiver more this year?" With IMT, you basically take what you can get - and you play the hand you're dealt. Your ability to slot guys effectively (and to recognize players with potential) is key, but a lot of your success is out of youur hands -- making it a little tedious in the long run.
I might get there... I'm convinced that with the latest game engine (and my evolving understanding of rookie players) I'd do better than ever before. |
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07-05-2004, 08:29 PM
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#43 |
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lolzcat
Join Date: Oct 2000
Location: Annapolis, Md
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2016
Well we lock up our coordinators again – my offensive coordonator is all but topped out at this point, he’s a great asset. Surprisingly enough – we might be pas the worst of our cap woes. We have $8.6 million in dead cap space from prior year cuts, but even after locking up Ben Copeland again on a franchise tender, we have $5.9 million in cap space. It’s not the lap of luxury, of course, but it’s better than being $20 million in the hole. We have several players to try to lock up – but I don’t expect to have to do another layer of strip mining of my roster to get there, at least. I’ve got four free agents I really want to bring back – MLB Ray Ireland, WR Sherman Pritchett, TE Roderick Giles, and CB Maurice Diehl. We also have several restricted free agents who should stay – but the budget is going to get strained a bit. I renegotiate a few contracts, and make one cut – RB Bernie Buckley has dropped to fourth on our RB depth chart, and I can’t afford to pay him $900K – so he goes. During the first FA period, CB Maurice Diehl and TE Roderick Giles both re-sign, fairly cheaply, I expect to work things out with WR Pritchett too, but MLB Ray Ireland is looking for $3m+ and that’s pretty tough for me to find in my budget. Ireland isn’t spectacular, but he is solid and has been our man in the middle for a long, long time. In the draft, I’ll be looking for a replacement at MLB, perhaps – if we can’t land Ireland, we may need someone immediately. But more likely, we’ll have a #2 ready to go in a season or two when Ireland is done. De, as always, is a need area also. And I’d like to add one more fairly reliable receiver. We’ll see what we can do. The guy I like is probably going to go ahead of #16 – so we swing a deal with Denver, trading my #1, #1, and #2 picks for their top two from the 9th position. That gives us the MLB we want, and a better second rounder – plus (once again) a little cap relief. Code:
I’m pretty optimistic about the group here – Westbrook looks like a serious addition in the middle of the defense, and should compete for the starting job right away. Mickey Sims might break out, and could end up being better than the solid role player he seems already. I like WR Rainwater – his great strength might portend a step forward yet to come. After the draft, we pursue a few of our free agents, and wrap up WR Sherman Pritchett to a new long term deal (made cheaper by the fact that he didn’t post all-star stats last season). We also re-sign Cazares, who will probably be our #3 option at DE for this year. After 11 seasons with us, MLB Ray Ireland has proven tough to re-sign. He demands nothing less than $3m a year – which I cannot afford, especially since I have just picked up his future replacement, who looks pretty well ready to go right now. So, paying good money for a veteran backup (admittedly with mentor ability) is tough – but I would really like to keep him. I do work out a new three year deal with Gabe Glenn – who will serve as the “Mr. Oh Shit” if Ben Copeland goes down for some reason. Ben Meuller, the last understudy from our squad, has become a top-rated starter in Pittsburgh since we let him go. Perhaps Glenn can work out similarly, and eventually blossom. But for now – he’s just an insurance policy. After it’s all said and done, we cannot wowrk it out with LB Ray Ireland, and we’ll have to let him go. He simply wouldn’t listen to less than $2m in signing bonus over two years – and I’m seeing him now as a reserve player – just not worth that kind of money. Of course, nobody else put up that sort of cash for him, either. After training camp – nice looking results from CB Mickey Sims, our second pick, who looks like he might get really, really good, and has vastly more man coverage potential than I had originally guessed – excellent news. WR Teddy Rainwater has been beaten out easily by URFA Bryan Barker, who will make the team in his place. We prune to 53, and are ready for the season – yet another title defense. We get our third win only on a last second FG from Adam Tolliver, but keep the record perfect with the narrow escape against Houston. After getting to 5-0, Mel Copeland still has yet to get picked off, and we are clicking very nicely. Our seventh win is against Pittsburgh, who were also 6-0 before the game, behind Ben Meuller who has really lifted them a lot. We get past Baltimore 10-9 in a tight game, to get to 9-0 on the season, despite a pretty dismal effort from our offense. And a 21-10 win at the Jets all but locks up the division – they were 7-2 and something of a threat to us. In week 12, we get a rarity – a 100-yard rushing game, from backup Max Wynn, who breaks a 52-yard TD run late to get the numbers. But it’s RB Lamar Wright who has wrested the starting role away from Pat Noccolino, and it looks like Wright might be more of an all-purpose back than Noccolino, so we’ll see where this goes. We finish out another unbeaten regular season, and will head into the playoffs with quite a head of steam. Code:
And the beat goes on. Mel Copeland posts another standout season, comfortably leading the league again in yards, touchdowns, and passer rating. Nothing new there. Doing it without a single 1,000-yard receiver at all is new, but not shocking. Ranking #1 in rushing yards per carry is great, and along with #2 in passing yards per attempt has to make us the most feared offense in the league – again. Defensively, I’m really surprised. We lost our starting two defensive tackles down the stretch, were playing with a rookie at MLB, and still managed to be #1 against the run in total yards, and second in yards per carry. #1 in passing yards per attempt, too – I guess that makes us the most feared defense in the league – again. Great season from DE Ken Curtis, who stepped into the leadership vacuum quite nicely. Also – kudos to Cole Westbrook who looks very nicely placed in at MLB for us, for now and for a long time ahead. Postseason Miami 36, Pittsburgh 17 – Copeland outduels former understudy Ben Mueller and drives us into the conference championship – we sacked Mueller five times and picked him off three times to reinforce the message. Miami 13, Baltimore 3 – Tough, tight game from the Ravens – we resort to the ground game more, and get 102 yards from versatile starter Lamar Wright. Miami 42, Atlanta 14 – We really don’t have control until the late third quarter (after trailing 7-3 at the half), but then pull away when the Falcons implode and we snag two defensive touchdowns. Mel Copeland, again, is game MVP – his fifth. In the final awards setup, Mel Copeland yet again lands his foursome of awards. DE Ken Curtis gets a second team nod, but he’s the only other player from this 19-0 squad that makes it to the pro bowl. Fascinating. Well, it could be the worst is behind us – and that the toughest things we have ahead will be the eventual declines and losses of our key players due to age. We seem to have survived the major salary crush over the last couple of seasons – now we’re a very high cohesion team with mostly veteran players… but not a lot of depth. We’re getting by with the usual – but we’ll see how it holds together. |
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07-05-2004, 08:30 PM
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#44 |
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lolzcat
Join Date: Oct 2000
Location: Annapolis, Md
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Just in case anyone was losing track – here’s the performance record of our Dolphins:
Code:
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07-05-2004, 08:34 PM
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#45 | |
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Hall Of Famer
Join Date: Nov 2000
Location: Behind Enemy Lines in Athens, GA
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Quote:
FWIW, I've probably made more tough decisions in my Misfit Toys dynasty than any campaign/career I've played with any incarnation of FOF. But they're definitely different sort of "tough decisions" than the ones you've faced in Magic Beans. For me, it's been excruciating at times, mostly because of the massive amount of URFA's that get brought in for a look in training camp/exhibitions. On the occasions you see those breakouts/likely breakouts, they seem to show up in the wrong positions while other spots are devoid of any real talent. And that makes for some interesting calls. Also FWIW, I'm convinced that you'd do better with it than ever before & do better, quicker, than I've done with it -- your study & understanding of the vagaries of FOF are on a whole different level from mine. In case you're curious though, you can find everything I've posted so far at http://www.middlegaonline.com/games/...sfitindex.html I've got 3-4 more seasons that need to be converted from .txt to .html & uploaded, but there's 26 seasons to get you started |
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07-05-2004, 09:11 PM
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#46 | |
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Head Coach
Join Date: Oct 2000
Location: Colorado
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Quote:
I am surprised by this because with the incredibly easy success you are having against the AI, I thought you would have stopped enjoying this 3-4 seasons ago. |
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07-06-2004, 12:40 AM
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#47 |
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College Benchwarmer
Join Date: Mar 2004
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The thing is the success isnt because of superstars yet because you have alot of guys that get the job done and dont mess up too much which makes for a solid team....on offense obviosly copeland does it but on D I think u just have a solid team with no superstars...
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07-06-2004, 04:22 AM
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#48 |
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lolzcat
Join Date: Oct 2000
Location: Annapolis, Md
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Bucc, I guess part of the reason I'm enjoying the game is because it is really different from anything I usually play. I never have dynasties like this -- I usually play with rules that keep me from getting anywhere near this dominant. So, it's been sort of a change of pace.
Actually, I though that with the inherent imprecision in the draft, I'd be hamstrung with roster gaps forever -- if the only way to get a quality player at, say, LG was to draft him (or pick him up as an undrafted rookie), then I figured a few misses at any position would leave me starting complete bums for years on end. I think my biggest judgment error there was underestimating the quality I'd be able to regularly harvest out of the post-draft player pools, where I'm seemingly getting a couple of breakout players every season. |
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07-06-2004, 05:25 AM
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#49 | |
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lolzcat
Join Date: May 2001
Location: williamsburg, va
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There are some elements that could be added pretty easily... for instance, you could make it so that you have to make every effort to re-sign your first round draft picks every year... or make it so that you cannot cut your draft picks and they have to ride their contracts out.. idano.. something like that..
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Text Sports Network - Bringing you statistical information for several FOF MP leagues in one convenient site Quote:
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07-06-2004, 12:36 PM
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#50 |
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lolzcat
Join Date: Oct 2000
Location: Annapolis, Md
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I realize that there are any number of things I coudl do to make this harder, and if I felt like it, i'd probably be exploring the sort of thing you describe, wade. As it is, I'll probably just ride this out a couple more seasons, maybe see where everything settles while we still have a fair number of the current crop of star players, and then let it die. Who knows? Mel Copeland might have ten titles in him by the time it's all said and done. I've never had a player put up such superlative stats... but he's a monster, no doubt about it.
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