The Houston Texans-Renew the Spirit

[Mike3207]

The Houston Texans have their new coach-Michael Smith of Westinghouse College(made it up).

House rules:likely 3 years for position coaches-5-6 for coordinators. Reason being, it takes longer to develop coordinators. You have to put in some limitations because otherwise your team just gets too strong.

No advanced GM special skills until I run out of points for other things.

Once again-likely no position based special skills for the HC until much later. Besides, I like to leave that sort of thing for coordinators and position coaches.

Very slow raising of Performance. I start at Performance 2 and will only raise it after getting all relevant coach skills to level 2-regular skills, Intangibles, Learning. I'm pretty unimpressed with the physical dev side so don't expect any points in that for a while.



Playbooks:

College-College Attack base with a few extra pass plays-197 plays.

Three-Four-3-4 pressure basedefense with a few other formations-Cover 2, 3-3-5, 4-3-121 plays.

Coach Michael Smith-Overall 13
Commander
Philosophies-all Balanced

Special skills-Speed Training, Strength Training, Disciplined Routine, Game Plan Analysis, Innovator. Innovator is a ongoing SS so get it at the start is my reasoning.

Regular skills-Performance 2, Int Dev QB2, WR2, OL2, DB2.

Sliders-likely close to default with many sliders around 40. I just don't think it makes a difference.

I will be playing all regular season games and playoff games, supersimming the second half of preseason games. In rare cases I might supersim the second half of regular season games. That's all for now.

[Mike3207]

2008 Offseason

Coaching staff:

OC Shanahan has a lot of promise, but is very raw. Still, coordinators with Ambition are hard to find.

STC Marciano is as good or bad as any other STC. Still, I'll seek a upgrade if I can find one.

RBC Harris has a good personality and is decent. I'll keep if nothing better comes along.

OLC Alex Gibbs is top of the line at OLC, but he's got the sort of personality that will leave if you don't make him OC. I might as well fire him if I don't promote him.

LBC Holland is also decent-but I'll also upgrade there if possible.

Roster cuts:

DT Travis Johnson-66/69
WR Andre Davis- 70/70
WR Kevin Walter- 68/68
LE Anthony Weaver- 72/72
C Steve McKinley- 73/73

Franchise tag:

Texans-P Matt Turk-1 year-1.78 million-85-39
Bears-WR Bernard Berrian-1 year-8.1 million-83-25
Bengals-LG Stacy Andrews-1 year-7.1 million-87
Cowboys-LT Flozell Adams-1 year-7.0 million-86
Panthers-RT Jordan Gross-1 year-7.0 million-92-27
Patriots-WR Randy Moss-1 year-8.1 million-96-30
Saints-C Jeff Faine-1 year-6.1 million-87-26
Seahawks-K Josh Brown-1 year-2.4 million-88-28.
Steelers- LG Alan Faneca-1 year-7.1 million-93-29

Season Goals:

85+ LE
85+ LOLB
85+ FS

We'll be carrying about 20 million in cap penalties for next year, but should have plenty of cap room in 2009.

2008 FA is next.

[Aurabolt127]

Cool - a second go with the Texans? What differences are you thinking or are you going to run it along the same lines?

[Mike3207]

Quote: Originally Posted by Aurabolt127

Cool - a second go with the Texans? What differences are you thinking or are you going to run it along the same lines?

A few differences-but not many. First-I realize I'm not likely be able to keep a toprated coaching staff together for competitive balance-so I have to put some limitations on how long they stay with me.One of my first house rules.

Trades-I'm also going to be looking at these a bit more carefully as well. I actually rejected a trade with the Chiefs that would have sent LOLB Derrick Johnson to my team for QB Sage Rosenfels, QB Matt Schaub, and the 4 (115) pick. It would have put my team in 26 million in cap penalties, and I rejected it for those reasons. I may try and revisit later once I have more cap space. There's a argument to be made that the game would have been better served if they had tied trade logic to Balanced overall rather than individual team philosophies, but I understand why they did it.

I'm still going to try and do my best to make good trades when I can-don't get me wrong. I'm just not likely to try and trade 3 fourths for Darren McFadden, because something like that makes no sense. Teams just don't give up on their drafted rookies that quickly-I don't think. A couple trades I made that I'm not sure about is Rosenfels to the Bears for a high third and two punters to the Pats for their low third. I have to think both teams valued those positions sufficently to give up those picks, but I think it's a gray area.Honestly, the Pats trade is a headscratcher. I don't know why they gave up that pick for two punters, unless someone really panicked about not having a punter.

Overall-I'm likely to run it under similar lines for the most part, and just hope the house rules I put into place will be enough to keep the games competitive.

[Mike3207]

2008 FA Period

All players signed are 85 overall and higher. Overalls and age are included-as well as overall contract.

DT Albert Haynesworth-92-26-5 years, 56.0 million-Titans
CB Asante Samuels-91-26-5 years, 43.0 million-Dolphins
CB Nnamdi Asomugha-91-26-5 years, 40.0 million-Titans
ROLB Lance Briggs-90-25-5 years, 51.0 million-Saints.
CB Marcus Trufant-90-25-5 years, 37.0 million-Saints.
FS Eugene Wilson-90-27-5 years, 24.0 million-Texans.
RE Justin Smith-89-27- 3 years, 27.0 million-Broncos.

Traded QB Sage Rosenfels to the Bars for 3(70). The Bears really need a QB, and I can understand this trade from their viewpoint.

ROLB Terrell Suggs-88-24-3 years, 23.0 million-Patriots.
FS Ken Hamlin-4 years, 16.0 million-Bills.
HB Shaun Alexander-85-30-4 years, 24.0 million-Broncos.
LE Antwan Odom-85-25-4 years, 28.0 million-Bucs
K Jason Elam-90-37-2 years, 4.8 million-Lions
K Rob Bironas-90-29-2 years-4.8 million-Chiefs.
RG Jake Scott-86-26-4 years, 21.0 million-Broncos.
RG Ben Noll-86-23-4 years, 18.0 million-Packers.
LG Ruben Brown-86-35-1 year, 4.2 million-Titans.
K Olindo Mare-85-34-1 year-1.6 million Falcons.
P Mitch Berger-1 year-86-35-1.0 million-Browns.

Traded K Kris Brown to Broncos for 4(105)
Traded P Matt Turk to ravens for 5 (136).

Texans sign P Steve Weatherford-82-23-1 year, 900K
Texans sign K Matt Prater 80-23-1 year, 900K.

New Season Goals:

Find a Sleeper
Don't Draft a Bust

Thinking about it a bit more, I can understand teams trading for kickers/punters. They're very slow to develop, so I can understand why teams would give up decent picks to fill those positions.

[Mike3207]

2008 Draft-Round 1

A bit of draft analysis-I traded the 1-18 pick worth 900 points to the Detroit Lions for picks totaling 815 points, so they won that trade by a little amount(at least as far as draft value) The only surprise was the Dolphins picking Matt Ryan over Jake Long first overall

Trade: Traded 1-18 pick to the Lions for their 2-45, 3-76, and 3-87 pick.

NFL Draft - Round 1 Recap
Pick	Team	Player	Pos	Ht	Wt
1-1	Miami Dolphins	Matt Ryan	QB	6'5	218
1-2	St.Louis Rams	Chris Long	RE	6'3	275
1-3	Atlanta Falcons	Darren McFadden	HB	6'0	210
1-4	Oakland Raiders	Glenn Dorsey	DT	6'1	310
1-5	Kansas City Chiefs	Jake Long	LT	6'7	313
1-6	New York Jets	Vernon Gholston	ROLB	6'3	266
1-7	New England Patriots	Leodis McKelvin	CB	5'10	186
1-8	Baltimore Ravens	Ryan Clady	LT	6'6	319
1-9	Cincinnati Bengals	Sedrick Ellis	DT	6'1	295
1-10	New Orleans Saints	Joe Flacco	QB	6'7	222
1-11	Buffalo Bills	Branden Albert	LG	6'7	317
1-12	Denver Broncos	Keith Rivers	ROLB	6'3	230
1-13	Carolina Panthers	Chris Williams	LT	6'6	315
1-14	Chicago Bears	Jeff Otah	RT	6'5	315
1-15	Detroit Lions	Domonique Cromartie	CB	6'1	181
1-16	Arizona Cardinals	Derrick Harvey	LE	6'4	271
1-17	Kansas City Chiefs	Rashard Mendenhall	HB	5'11	225
1-18	Detroit Lions	Dustin Keller	TE
1-19	Philadelphia Eagles	Jerod Mayo	LOLB	6'2	233
1-20	Tampa Bay Bucs	Aqib Talib	CB	6'2	180
1-21	Washington Redskins	Felix Jones	HB	6'1	222
1-22	Dallas Cowboys	Kentwan Balmer	DT	6'5	288
1-23	Pittsburgh Steelers	Gosder Cherilus	RT	6'6	312
1-24	Tennesssee Titans	Sam Baker	LT	6'5	305
1-25	Seattle Seahawks	Mike Jenkins	CB	6'0	200
1-26	Jacksonville Jaguars	Antoine Cason	CB	6'0	182
1-27	San Diego Chargers	Duane Brown	LT	6'5	290
1-28	Dallas Cowboys	Chris Johnson	HB	5'10	198
1-29	San Francisco 49ers	Lawrence Jackson	LE	6'4	271
1-30	Green Bay Packers	Jonathan Stewart	HB	5'9	170
1-31	St. Louis Rams	Kenny Phillips	SS	6'2	202
1-32	Buffalo Bills	Brandon Flowers	CB	5'10	190

[Mike3207]

2008 Draft-Day 2

I'll be doing things a bit different here. I've included some of the other teams picks that are significant-they'll have name-team and position. My picks will include all data, and I added on my undrafted players at the end. I'll also include my trades after this.

2-57-LT Ephraim Salaam, 4-105, and 2009 4th to the Dolphins for this pick.

3-94- Pats trade this pick for P Steve Weatherford and P Michael Koenen.

4-119-Dolphins trade this pick for my 5-136 and 6-177. The pick is worth 56 points and I gave up 58.6 draft points in the picks I gave up. Slight draft value win for the Dolphins.

2008 NFL Draft - Day 2
Pick	Player	College	Pos	Ht	Wt
2-45	Calais Campbell	Miami	RE	6'7	290
2-51	Brian Brohm-Cardinals		QB
2-57	Ray Rice	Rutgers	HB	5'9	200
2-62	Desean Jackson-Patriots		WR
3-65	Dexter Jackson-Rams		WR
3-67	Tavares Gooden-Panthers		MLB
3-70	Earl Bennett	Vanderbilt	WR	6'1	202
3-72	John Greco-Dolphins		RT
3-76	Xavier Adibi	Virginia Tech	LOLB	6'2	226
3-79	Craig Steltz	LSU	SS	6'1	210
3-87	Early Doucet	LSU	WR	6'0	207
3-88	Dre Moore-Steelers		DT
3-90	Jermichael Finley-Bucs		TE
3-94	Josh Johnson	San Diego	QB	6'3	213
4-100	C. Avril-Packers		LOLB
4-115	Roy Schuening	Oregon State	RG	6'4	317
4-119	David Hale	Weber State	LG	6'2	326
5-132	Mario Manningham-Bengals		WR
5-140	Zack Bowman-Lions		CB
5-144	Kevin Robinson-Cardinals		WR
5-146	Athya Rubin	Iowa State	DT	6'3	322
6-173	Alex Brink-Bills		QB
7-208	Andre Woodson	Kentucky	QB	6'5	230
7-219	Kelin Johnson-Bengals		SS
	Undrafted:
	Alexis Serna	Oregon State	K
	David Vobora	Idaho	ROLB
	Steve Justice	Wake Forest	C
	Carl Stewart	Auburn	FB
	Tony Bake	TCU	RE

[Mike3207]

2008 Training Camp

LE Calais Campbell-4 years, 3.8 million, 500K signing bonus.

HB Ray Rice- 4 years, 2.2 million, 500K SB.

New Season Goals:

Trade QB Matt Schaub
Increase Andre Johnson's Play Knowledge by to 36%
Increase Eugene Wilson's PK to 43%
Increase Demeco Ryan's PK to 45%
Add 10 new plays

Trade:

Traded QB Matt Schaub to Bears for 2009 2nd and 2010 7th. 15 million cap penalty hit, so it will cost a bit on second year cap as well.

Further season goals:

Play Eugene Wilson 50 downs
Play Amobi okoye 50 downs
Play Fred Bennett 50 downs

The Preseason is next. I will try Picker's new penalty slider set-default with only two penalty sliders changed.It will be a bit delayed, because my PS3 is down again. I might just buy a new one in January.