Gary Zeigler; coaching extraordinaire.

[twl221]

So after consideration, I have decided to take up the reigns in New Orleans. They have a great offense, which I won't handle, but a very poor defense, which I will handle.
Name: Gary Zeigler
I'll be running with the Saints Offensive play lol, and the Jags D. Commander personality. I'll leave the Offense philosophies alone, while the Dline needs to get sacks, the linebackers need to be all around, and the backs need to force turnovers. I'll run this way because I know that the offense can put up points in a hurry, so taking the lead and then getting after the QB is my general philosophy. For the draft, I'll just look to keep my picks and select guys there, trading down/up occasionally. Staff and roster next.

[Aurabolt127]

Guess it depends how easy you want your franchise to be. If you want something different and want to focus on D, the Vikings are a good choice, You'll still have the challenge of building a good team, but defensively they have some really good players with enough gaps to make it fun.

49ers would be a new one to see on here, a lot to replace/rebuild and a couple good core guys - could be fun...

Depends on how you build your team, how you want to run it, etc. If you're just going to take all the sleepers and sim the whole thing - or play each game, how close to realistic you want to be...

[twl221]

Staff:
Me: 12, 4 performance, ambition, improved coverage, block shedding
Oc: (32)Doug Marrone, decent, 2/3 performance, improved pass blocking. Will fire though.
Dc: (22)Gary Gibbs, nothing special but with tremendous room for improvement. Can go to 4 in everything at least except play call and chemistry (3), no special skills yet, will retain.
St: (6)Greg McMahon, bad
Qbc: (77)Pete Carmichael, very good. Performance is 2/4, but that's the only thing really he needs to work on. Has ambition too. Promote.
Rbc: (19)Aaron Kromer, decent, 2/3 performance. Not sure yet.
Wr: (37)Curtis Johnson, very solid right now, lots of potential. Keep.
Ol: (3)Joe Lombardi, bad. Fire.
Lbc: (65)Joe Vitt, almost no potential, but I'll see the coaches based on my run. Undecided.
Dbc: (7)Dennis Allen, bad. Fire
Dl: (22)Eric Oregon, decent with solid potential. Not sure yet but likely retain because a good Dline coach is hard to come by in this game.
Gm: (65)Mikey Lewis. Decent but has no potential. Has small school inside though. Likely gonna retain.
Trainer is bad.
Our offensive roster is solid, with the only real holes being Wr2, Lg, Rt and Te. On defense it is bad, however. I have decent ends, though the worse of the two, Charles grant, has a bad contract. I also need a better Dt1, and better olbs, as villa is a solid presence inside. My defensive backs are just awful. I have lots of money, however, so I will make a move in Fa, for Haynesworth or a Cb.

[Mike3207]

Actually, I feel DLC is really a easy position to fill. There are plenty of player coaches that are high in performance and development. You can also get off to a good start by picking Tim Spangler or the 49ers DLC.

[twl221]

Tagged Jeff faine (about 8$) I need a good center and there are no guys the first year. I dot know yet if I will resign him. I'll have to look into what he wants.

Trufant 37/5/6 an instant upgrade that makes my defense so much better, as I now have at least 1 good player in te back 4.

Suggs 24/3/3.5 The start of my front seven building process. He'll line up next to Vilma and my draftee.

Dumervil for 141 and 2009 4th A great pass rusher for cheap. Furthers my front 7.

Going into the draft the only guy I will look to pick up is Keith Rivers; If I can't ill look to trade down. I have 26.5 in cap room so I feel confident in my team building so far. Next up the draft.

Got lucky and Rivers fell to #9, so that shores up my three linebacker spots.

#40 Calais Campbell (shifting to Dt) The first of my Dts taken, Campbell will improve an improving front seven.

78 Dre Moore Dt was taken to complete the front seven that I have assembled. More of a Nose tackle than Campbell, I feel he would be the gap plugged on this team.

172 Alex Brink Qb is the first of many Qbs I intend to develop and flip for picks, while improving the league as a whole.

203 Andrew Crummey Rg He's Crummy.
Udfas

Olb David Vobora
Cb Trae Williams
Wr Josh Morgan
K Alexis Serna
Cb Jonathan Zenon

18.4/5/3.5 for Rivers
4.5/4/.5 for Campbell

880k/2/0 for Crummey

690k/3/0 for Brink

1.82/3/0 for Moore

Deuce Ired (Lis Franc Foot)

Going into the season, I am extremely confident in my team. We have a solid offense, though Deuce going down and the lack of a true #2 guy at wideout, and no great TE (Gresham, how I covet thee). On defense, our front seven might just be the greatest I have ever assembled, but we are straight up bad in the back 4 aside from Trufant. We'll see how far I can go with this team, as I am not used to having this good a staff on year one.

[twl221]

Brees is at the helm, 90, and only 28, with 4 years left.
Bush is 81/90 and starting, ehh backups.
Kearney 81/83 is our FB.
Colston is the #1 guy at 86/91, with Moore 64/71 at the 2 and Morgan in the slot. Our biggest need on offense for next year.
Invitee Glenn Dickerson is at the Te 63/75. (Would be a decent receiving 2 at maxed potential)
Our line is Brown 91/93, Nesbit 76, Faine 87/89, Evans 84/89, and Stinchcomb 77. Decent, but not great.
Our ends are Dumervil 89/90 and Smith 85/86, with Smith 82 and his fat contract backing up both. (He's a solid backup, but not worth the 5.6 mil he is getting this year)
Campbell 81/87 and Moore 84/91 are the guys of the D, while my backers consist of Suggs 87/88, Vilma 86/88, and Keith "The Beast" Rivers 89/95.
Trufant is our main guy in the backs 90/91, while Young is our 2 71/82 and udfa Williams is the nickel 71/79.
Bullocks 77/79 plays Free while Harper 76/79 plays strong side.
Serna kicks while Knorr punts.
In other news, Meachem was cut to clear roster and cap space, and waiver guy Dante Hall has taken his place, who will now return kicks for our team.

Also relevant to the team, training camp invitee Irv Neysmith has made the team. He peaks at 90 potential, at 58 overall right now.
His attributes are 78/88 Thp, 66/97 Tha, 27/97 Awr, 74/82 speed, 75 and 79/85 accel and agility, respectively, and 25/90 learning. What a find! He reminds me of Rodgers irl but with a lot less zing, so maybe a quick Hasselbeck?

Preseason
Game 1 at Arizona 38-7 NO. Bush had a game receiving, 4-120-2, Campbell with 2 sacks, and 5 picks for our D.
Game 2 vs Houston 31-14 Hou. We played terribly but Campbell had another sack!
Game 3 at Cincinnati lost 24-21. Preseason, so who cares? Brees threw 2 and Campbell had another sack.
Game 4 vs Miami (Before this game I signed the most underrated player in HC09, Fs Ko Simpson, he'll start, cause he's awesome) 45-20 NO passing was good.

Preseason over; and although my owner thinks an under .500 is gonna happen, I'll promise the opposite and tell him we'll finish with at least 9 wins in the bag. I have also cut Moore and signed vet Eddie Kennison to be the slot guy so Morgan be be #2.

Draft path given is the Zazzali path (Yay, one of the two I'm not too good at). Goals: 3 of 4 to start, beat Minnesota week 5 and Atlanta week 10; resign Faine (Yes), Smith (no), Vilma (likely), Evans (yes), Colston (Rfa); DROY, and finish with 80 approval. Doable are all of the above.

Because I didn't post a draft recap, here are some notes: Ryan to Atl, good pick. St Louis got Gholston, bust at his position (here's hoping I can pick him up of the waiver wore). DMac to NE (bs) and my goodness there were a lot of poor picks in this draft irl. Brohm went to Miami too, along with Jake Long. Good for them.

First year expectations? A solid team with a lot of high scoring to begin the year, as the offense knows their playbill, but the Defense is learning theirs. Up first versus Tampa Bay in week 1.

[twl221]

That was embarrassing as we lost 33-15, Brees had 4 picks, the Bucs are too good in year 1. I realized after the game I don't have enough offensive playbill mastered, so I'll work on that. Despite the score, our defense played really well, but they always seemed to have great starting position, and Garcia was playing like Rodgers, scrambling like he knew what he was doing out there. We'll get it fixed. Next game is at Washington.

Suggs is out 3-5 with a strained forearm. Scott Shanle will take his place.

[twl221]

A much much better game at Washington as we blew them out 45-24 (a td came in garbage time). A couple notes from the game: Brees had a 350 yard game, 1 Td and a pick. Reggie Bush had 36 touches (23 carries) and scored 6 times (5 rushing). Opotw for sure. Defense was solid, collecting 4 sacks and Trufant played like a shut down corner (Though I'd like to see his deflections turn into some picks soon). We held Portis and Betts to 81 on 30 (Pirtus got hurt, second RB we've hurt in consecutive weeks, Felix Jones being the other twicing him). Campbell was under 50% for the game, though he did walk away with 3 Tds. My Kick Return game has been excellent, due to the fact that for some reason, players are playing at "full speed" or "practice speed" for me. Weird? Yeah, and so is the fact that I can now hear the Pa guy after every play. Refreshing but odd.

Next up we face the Broncos in Denver.