Madden 10 Offline Franchise- St. Louis Rams

[RedZoneD25]

Welcome to the first installment, which will tell everything of the first season of this franchise. I'm using the latest rosters, I believe update #6.

I'll be playing it as I post. A few house rules I'm imposing on myself:

-Trades from trade block are fair game, whatever it takes to get CPU to agree

-Only 1 trade per season from a non-trade block player (if I need it)

-Cannot trade for a starter unless they have one year remaining on their current deal.

All games will be simmed with injuries, trade deadline and cap on, and this franchise will focus more on the GM aspect of how to turn a 2-14 team with many weaknesses into a virtually indestructable force. My guess is about 10 seasons in, my goal is around 5. I'll be using the preset draft classes. Let's start with my intent:

Defense: 4-3
Offense: West Coast Variation

QB: Dual threat a la McNabb or 04 Vick. Culpepper, Randall Cunningham, etc. Must be fluent in both passing game and speed.

HB: 1-2 attack with one speed, one power back in the same overall region

FB/TE: Recieving first, blocking second

WR: #1 target will be a speedster, #2 will be a tall slower possession guy, and #3 will be a mix of both. the other WRs will vary.

OL: Pass block specializing

DL: 2 smaller, quick DEs and 2 bigger run stuffing DTs

LB: Run stopping fast OLBs with a coverage MLB

CB: Zone coverage first, man second; ballhawk, not so much on the hitting

FS: Hard hitter, center fielder

SS: Run support, just a little too small to play LB

K/P: Accuracy over distance
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Preseason Cuts/Signings:

Cut QB Keith Null 51 OVR 150K penalty....I sign QB Andre Woodson 52 OVR

Cut RBs Samkon Gado and Kenneth Darby (70/66 OVR) 0 penalty...I sign RBs Kory Sheets and Chauncey Washington (65/62 OVR)

Cut WRs Ruvell Martin and Danny Amendola (66/60 OVR) 0 penalty... I sign WRs Ashley Lelie and Chris Davis (57 OVR both)

Cut DTs Gary Gibson 68 OVR and Leger Douzable 54 OVR

Cut MLB Dominic Douglas 56 OVR, moved ROLB Larry Grant to MLB (went down to 52 OVR from 54)

Cut SS Craig Dahl 68 OVR

Signed LT Kirk Barton 54 OVR
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Pre-Season

Went 3-1... but I lost WR Keenan Burton for the season with a torn pec. I put him on IR and signed WR Dexter Jackson to a one year deal. Donnie Avery is out for one week with a broken thumb, so it's not worth a signing...but I'll still be going this season without Brooks Foster and Laurent Robinson too, who were already on IR. Only other injury this season is DT Adam Carriker, but he too was on IR already. I'm headed into Week 1 with 4 injured WRs, and 3 of them are done for the year. Awesome.

Signed WRs Marvin Harrison and Dexter Jackson to one year deals. Didn't want to sign Harrison but I'll need to make up for Laurent Robinson somehow. Also signed DT Shaun Smith to a one year contract to keep Carriker's loss to a minimum. Released DT Lajuan Ramsey to make room for Smith.

Apparently I screwed up and forgot to set the signings to user, so the CPU signed Chris McAlister CB 84 OVR to a 1 year, 7.55 million dollar deal. This throws a huge wrench in the plan but that's okay, I do however cut CB Justin King as I have 6 on the roster. I also have 8 WRs under contract, but only 4 are active on Week 1, and the 5th will be after that. I don't know if I can afford any WR issues.
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Regular Season

Cap: 1.48 Mil (The McAlister deal screwed me huge...)

L @ SEA 14-15
W @ WAS 20-17
W vs GB 13-12
L @ SF 10-41
W vs MIN 24-7
L @ JAX 16-24
W vs IND 40-27
L @ DET 21-24 (OT)
L vs NO 24-41
W vs ARZ 27-24 (OT)
L vs SEA 19-28
L @ CHI 23-26
L @ TEN 10-31
W vs HOU 33-13
L @ ARZ 20-26
L vs SF 6-23

Final Record Season I: 6-10, not horrible.

I looked at the injuries and we actually remained clean minus the loss of LT Alex Barron for the season. Not to say others didn't happen during the season...but I didn't see so out of sight out of mind.

Pro Bowlers:

HB Steven Jackson
FS OJ Atogwe
P Donnie Jones
KR Donnie Avery

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Offseason

Staffing: Signed DC Brian Stewart 2 years

Retirements: Lorenzo Neal (FB), Marvin Harrison (WR)

Re-Signings: Franchise Tagged OJ Atogwe @ 7.56 Mil

Not re-signed:

L. Little LE 79
C. McAlister CB 79
R. Incognito RG 78
S. Smith DT 78
R. McMichael TE 75
M. Setterstrom C 75
J. Hall RE 73
C. Ryan DT 73
R. Allen LG 71
P. Lenon OLB 70
A. Smith SS 70
D. Vobora OLB 70
V. Adeyanju LE 69
K. Boller QB 68
D. Fells TE 68
C. Washington HB 67
D. Roach FS 64
Q. Butler CB 63
A. Woodson QB 57
C. Davis WR 57
A. Lelie WR 55
K. Barton LT 54
D. Jackson WR 48

I know...that's like half the team...but rebuilding means cutting dead weight, and I had nobody of interest who was leaving and a whole lot of guys who had one year left.

Free Agency:

Signed LE Jevon Kearse 73 OVR to a 2 year deal worth 4.48 M
Signed TE Leonard Pope 70 OVR to 5 year deal worth 3.80, no bonus
Signed OLB Leon Williams 68 OVR to 3 year deal worth 3.21 M
Signed QB Troy Smith 66 OVR to 1 year deal worth 1.57 M
Signed WR Chris Chambers 73 OVR 2 year deal worth 4.26 M

Swung and missed on former Chiefs LB Derrick Johnson, who ended up signing with the Bengals.

Draft:

Rd 1. 8th OVR- Traded to WAS for 1st,2nd and 4th (25th OVR)

Rd 1. 25th OVR- CB

Spoiler

Tremendous Maxwell

Rd. 2 8th OVR- QB

Spoiler

Jordan Ewing

Rd. 2 25th OVR- LB

Spoiler

Ja'Darius Wynn

Rd. 3 8th OVR- SS

Spoiler

Jaron Floyd

Rd. 4 8th OVR- OLB

Spoiler

Jehvon Chandler

Rd. 4 25th OVR- DE

Spoiler

Demetrius Simpson

Rd. 5 8th OVR- WR

Spoiler

Kenny Constantine

Rd. 6 8th OVR- DT

Spoiler

Jarvaris McFadden

Rd. 7 8th OVR- OLB

Spoiler

Tevin Brooks

Rookie Signings-

CB signed a 5-year, 35 million dollar contract.
QB signed a 3-year, 11.5 million dollar contract.
MLB signed a 3-year, 1.71 million dollar contract.
SS signed a 3-year, 4.80 million dollar contract.
OLB signed a 3-year, 1.05 million dollar contract.
RE signed a 3-year, 930K dollar contract.
WR signed a 1-year, 305K dollar contract.
DT signed a 1-year, 310K dollar contract.
OLB signed a 1-year, 310K dollar contract.


Re-Order Depth Chart

QB Ewing gets start over Bulger, both at 77 OVR.
WR Constantine gets #2 spot, Chambers in slot.
Kearse gets starting LE.
ROLB Brooks gets starting nod at 72 OVR.
CB Maxwell gets #2 spot at 79 OVR.
SS Floyd is the steal of the draft at 85 OVR, taking the starting nod.


I'm beat, next post will have full depth chart so this all makes sense. Enjoy and get ready for season two tomorrow!