Started a new Dynasty today

[thedudescrew]

Before I get into what I have done I have to say I remember why I put down the game now. I despise the freezing. When the sound mutes and you know that within 5 mins the game will freeze, so you quickly save the game which takes 5 times longer then normal and then you have to quit the game and reload it which wastes about 10 mins of the time you could be using to get through a full season.

Anyways, back on track now. I started with the Patriots...I know they are beast and everything but I wanted to try and move Belichick to the Raiders as the new Head Coach. This proved to be very tough since the Patriots are so dominant. I had to bench Brady, Moss, Welker and trade away most of the talent on the team...that wouldn't result in too much cap penalties...and I did so. I picked up Alex Brink in FA and had him start. He has high potential in Field General but I figured since he starts out in the low 60's I would be fine. I finished the season....quick simming of course...with a 8-8 record. I was sweating it out for a while cause I thought for sure the tanking strategy to get Belichick the chance to jump ship would work easily....well it didn't. Brink ended up getting to 86 OVR...so that begs the question...are the Patriots coaching staff just that damn good or is it that Belichick is that good?..well we will soon find out.

I took over as the Raiders Head Coach and was happy that they kept most of the coaching staff in place. I had the #1 pick and the English draft path. Ryan was still the DC and only thing I needed to find was GM, OC, QBC, RBC, OLC. Easy enough. I found Staymates who fit the Spread scheme nicely and everything else was filled with ease. I did however set a few ground rules for the Dynasty. The biggest one was I have to start Jamarcus Russell for the remainder of his contract and with being in the English path, I was kicking myself, but I will remain true to that. Also no cheesing the system and signing players and then trading them away. If I signed them I have to use them for the entirety of the season. I also was not going to play a single game. I am simming each game in hopes that what happened with Alex Brink in season 1 would happen with JaMarcus...even if that just getting him to his potential...which I have seen once in the many years I have played the game. I have a few lopsided contracts that I am stuck with. Most notably WRs Javon Walker and (the other one, whos name escapes me, but those who have played with the Raiders know who I am talking about). The others are ok enough for me to feel okay with my situation. The other rule was no using draft guides...which proved easy since I knew the 1st year of the English path fairly well. I drafted LB Mayo, LB Simms, FS Prince Justin, HB James, WR Bellows, FB Barone, TE Drew (something...you know who it is), and an OT who wasnt a storyline guy, the FS out of Oregon State, and a Punter to replace Lechler who sadly wasn't resigned by the Raiders during the season, but at pick #33 I was at a loss. QB Dane Morrow laid there in my lap, should I let him slip by or grab him, I figured since it wasn't the 1st round that I can grab him and not have him affect anything, so I did. Morrow will, sadly, be forever a backup on the Raiders but he will be a good one. I was hoping that Juran RIley would fall to me but he was taken #31. Its a good thing I still had Aso and Hall. In RFA I grabbed a WR, RG, RT, HB, DT. Only 3 of them made the team. One was a 94 Pot RT. I was quite happy with the find and am hopeful that this year my scouting will be better since I was completely in the dark besides the all knowing Storyline players.

So the start of the new season is upon us. I have Belichick on the Raiders and the Jamarcus Russell experiment is about to take place. Can Bill make JaMarcus and the Raiders a winner or will it end in tragedy. We will soon find out.

[thedudescrew]

Well I took over as the Raiders HC with Belichick in what I am now calling the BeliRaiders Dynasty. As I mentioned before I was not going to allow myself to start another QB besides Jamarcus and I have kept that up. And the new era in Raiders fandom begins.

**quick side note The Patriots hired Gary Hammermil as their new HC!!** Yep, that says it all. The games AI loves the Patriots.

Season 1: I finished 10-6 and made the playoffs as the Wild Card. I played the Browns in the Wild Card game and beat them and then lost to the Broncos in the Divisionals.

Russell finished the season with 3510 yards passing with 23 TDs and 21 INTs. Pretty standard amount of INTs for Russell as most of you know.

A couple other notables.

Run DMC had 159 carries for 697 yards and 9 TDs )most of them were receiving TDs).

Leron James (Had to come in a few games as DMC seems to be injury prone) had 112 carries for 419 yards and 7 TDs (most of them were receiving TDs).

Jamarrion Bellows 74 receptions for 867 yards and 1 TD. Only one??

Roydell Williams (picked him up in FA after he tore it up for the Patriots in my "don't make the playoffs so I can become the Raiders Head Coach" season. He developed nicely and I signed him to a 5 year deal...might prove to be a dumb mistake but we will see.) 68 receptions for 1029 yards and 7 TDs.

Thomas Howard had 119 tackles, 5 sacks and 3 INTs (he led the team in sacks as well BTW)

Deangelo Hall 8 INTs, 68 tackles

Asomugha 3 INTs, 65 tackles

Here are the key palyers on Offense:

JRussell 80/81
DMC 91/95
Leron James 88/95
FB Barone 85/88
Bellows 92/97
Roydell 87/88
(A diamond in the rough found by the GM with walk on players in Training Camp) a WR 84/91
Zach Miller 86/91

The Offseason 2010 is upon us. The Owner wants me to keep everyone but the STC and I agree. We end up hiring STC Jason Hanson...WHAT A BEAST!!

I managed to scout a few players and didnt see a lot I liked in the draft. I ended up trading down a lot but still grabbed 2 OL, 1 DL, 2 WRs, 1 FS, 1 CB and in UDFA I grabed another 2 OL, 2 CBs, and a Kicker. I was surprised to see that Jake Scott wasn't drafted. I was very tempted to grab him in UDFA but decided against it since I do have Russell who is backed up by Morrow...who seems to be pressuring Russell to play well so I thinks its working.

My take from the 1st season is that Belichick is the best HC in the game and he can make any team a winner. I didn't do too much in FA or the Draft but I did enough to win games. I am excited for next season and look forward to hopefully seeing Jamarcus hoist the Lombardi trophy really soon and who knows....maybe win a few MVP trophies as well.

[algoody421]

the best coaching staff in the game belongs to indy but the best coach is beliichick hands down. He can develop any position by himself, doesnt need a great staff around him to succeed.

As for gary hammermill, he tends to sign with the best team available. Usually thats between the cardinals raiders or falcons, sometimes packers. Because you moved bill to the raiders, its only fair hammermill take the best opening which would then be the patriots. He was created to be the biggest rival you have in your career.

While I think its a nice idea, I would never handcuff myself to a player, especially not russell. I wish you well, if anyone can make him a success it will be bill. My only question would be, what philosophy do you have it set at for qb? He's only an 81 potential? I would assume strong arm tools would be in the 90s, but I cant be sure as Ive never tried with him...

[thedudescrew]

Quote: Originally Posted by algoody421

the best coaching staff in the game belongs to indy but the best coach is beliichick hands down. He can develop any position by himself, doesnt need a great staff around him to succeed. As for gary hammermill, he tends to sign with the best team available. Usually thats between the cardinals raiders or falcons, sometimes packers. Because you moved bill to the raiders, its only fair hammermill take the best opening which would then be the patriots. He was created to be the biggest rival you have in your career. While I think its a nice idea, I would never handcuff myself to a player, especially not russell. I wish you well, if anyone can make him a success it will be bill. My only question would be, what philosophy do you have it set at for qb? He's only an 81 potential? I would assume strong arm tools would be in the 90s, but I cant be sure as Ive never tried with him...

I am beginning to notice that. I am ok with Russell, he has been lights out so far...well besides the INTs. In year 2 (year 3 of the Dynasty) with the Raiders we are 15-0....yes you heard that right. 15-0 and we have one more game left...unfortunately I had to go to work so I wasn't able to sim it. We are in the playoffs again and Russell is having a great year...to my knowledge...I don't look at the stats until after the season. DMC and James are great receiving HBs too. They seem to get more yards receiving then Bellows...how sad is that? Either way I am happy that Russell is doing so well. Handcuffed...yes, but he appears to be working out well. Only a handful of years left with Russell before I can move on. I am sure I will be getting hit with cap soon though but I have been trading players away and moving down in the drafts to help save on cap.

I will post the results of year 2 next week when I get a chance to finish the season. Thanks for commenting and reading this. I hope everyone is enjoying their Dynasties as well.

[thedudescrew]

Well Season 3 (Season 2 with the Raiders) is now over. I finished 16-0 despite Russell throwing 5 picks against the Colts in Week 17...of course Peyton didn't do any better with a 4 INT game.

I won the HCOTY...naturally.

Probowlin!!
Russell (Starter), DMC (Starter), Roydell, Bellows, Goldman, LG George, C Fouch, Tommy Kelly, Thomas Howard, D Hall, Prince Justin, K Whitman, and P Bass.

I played the Patriots in the Divisionals and won 41-20 with Russell getting 355 yards and 4 TDs. Then it was a rematch with the Colts....of course this time they came to play and beat me 20-13.

Final season stats are as follows.
Russell 4772 yards, 36Tds and 23 INTs
DMC 271 carries for 1195 yards and 19 TDs
Bellows 99 for 1022 yards and 8 TDs
Roydell 76 for 1152 yards and 15 TDs
Thomas Howard 105 Tack, 7 INTs (Led the team in both)
D Hall 78 Tak, 5 INTs
Prince Justin 31 Tak, 4 INTs
DE Newberry (UNLV) led the team with 7 sacks

I ended up keeping all my staff...obviously.

The Giants won the Super Bowl and I lost Thomas Howard to FA, which was planned cause he wanted too much money and I had Simms and Mayo who wanted to start.

I franchised DE Hutton (for the 2nd time since for some reason he hasn't been coming up during the season to resign) and my cap space was 15.66 Mil. I was looking like only draftees again this year..which is fine since I like to build through the draft. I ended up having a decent draft and here is what the new season roster looks like.

Offense
QBs Russell 81/81, Dane Morrow 87/96

HBs DMC 93/94, Leron James 89/95

FBs Casy Barone 85/88, Brian Leonard 84/85

WRs Bellows 93/97, Quesean Mack 79/92 (rookie), Williams 79/92(rookie), London 84/95, Mackey 87/91, Clayton 85/95

TEs Drew Goldman 86/92, Storm Stewart 83/95 (rookie)

LT Ward 92/92

LG George 92/95, McDaniel 91/92

C Fouch 91/91, Hillman 85/91 (rookie)

RG Dargan 89/91

RT Stratton 90/90, Tucker 88/91

Defense
LE Martin 83/91 (rookie), Newberry 88/90 (UNLV)

RE Price 84/90 (rookie UNLV), Hutton 89/90 (UNLV)

DT Tommy Kelly 83/84, Washington 80/85 (rookie), Ed Johnson (Big Money eating contract who I can't cut) 80/80

LOLB Farms 81/85 (rookie moved from MLB to OLB), Simms 90/92

MLB Paul Poz 84/86, Eaton 80/84 (rookie Lehigh), Brown 78/85 (rookie)

ROLB Mayo 89/92

CBs Aso 94/94, D Hall 87/87, Matra 85/91 (rookie), Boyd 85/92 (rookie), Taylor 80/85 (rookie...drafted in the 7th with the 222nd pick. I had scouted him and was surprised to see him still avail so I grabbed him with my last pick), Lawrence 80/85

FS White 87/91, Johnson 83/90 (rookie)

SSs Prince Justin 85/87, Egypt Jones 89/92 (rookie and instant starter over Prince, who is in his last year anyways.), Gibril Wilson (who is another big penalty player who I have to wait out before cutting) 82/82

K Whitman 87/91

P Bass 83/86

**I have a ton of these guys going into their last year and most of them are RFAs so we will see who I can afford to keep once next season comes.

I promised the playoffs and my owner wanted Super Bowl....forget that, we got lucky last year, theres no way we are going to come close to the SB this year.

Going into this season I have 2 years left on Jamarcus Russell's contract. I might jump ship after and get onto another team thats struggling if Jamarcus pans out for me the next two seasons. I need a new challenge and the Raiders are starting to get good. We will see though. I might sign Russell again and go the whole time with him at QB.

Also before I get into the next season I noticed a TON of good players were in FA. Does this mean there are a lot of teams with cap issues? I am curious cause I haven't seen this before.

[thedudescrew]

Well season 4 (3 with Raiders) is in the books. We finished 12-4 and lost to the Broncos in the Wild Card 42-14 thanks to a terrible performance by Russell who threw 5 INTs.

Russell, DMC and FS White made the Pro Bowl.

Season stats:
Russell 82/82 4688 Yards, 38 TDs and 19 INTs
DMC 261 carries for 939 yards and 9 TDs and 63 rec for 1158 yards and 8 TDs
Bellows 93 rec for 974 yards and 11 TDs
Mack 80 rec for 911 yards and 3 TDs
Mayo 79 tak, 3 sacks, 1 INT
D Hall 77 tak, 5 INTs

Giants ended up winning their 2nd straight SB...lucky!!

I lost WRC James Lofton who decided to leave my team. I got a horrible WRC coach to replace him named Mudd but I am sure he will do just fine with the OC and HC I have.

The draft is coming up and I have tendered offers to all my RFAs. I am hoping I am able to keep Leron James and Bellows at the very least. The others are expendable but I would love to keep em all. Best news is Jamarcus is on the last year of his contract so I might be able to grab a new QB in the draft...IF I decide to not intentionally tank this year in order to jump ship. I am still undecided on what I wanna do but I know for sure I want to leave the Raiders in good shape for the next HC if I decide to leave.

What do you guys think I should do?

[thedudescrew]

Well its been a while and we are in year 6 or 7 now. I stayed in Oakland until Jamarcus left, then I too left. I went to the Vikings who made me an offer I couldnt refuse....they let their OC and DC go and kept their GM. Lucky for me I was able to get two solid Coordinators and I allowed them to fire their staff and then I grabbed all new staff...they had Vrabel as their LBC and gave him so much control I had to find a way out of it...The Vikings then had no talent on their team what so ever. Tons of horrid contracts and a very very bad team. I managed to get a decent class for them which was hard with no scouting what so ever. But i managed it. We went 8-8 in the 1st year and then I cut more contracts. I am aiming at a few players in the draft but we do have a QB now in Matt Ryan who we picked up in FA in season one with the Vikings. I was happy about that.


Screwed up thing....Oakland hired Gruden as their HC after I left...Man I just cant win. :P The Patriots and Hammermil won another SB, his 3rd! Once again another team I made successful. Man I love when I can do that. I am slowly moving team by team. I am gonna stay with the Vikings for a few years until I get them back on their feet then I am out the door again and on to more challenging things. Go me!

[algoody421]

The one thing I find that REALLY helps make opponents better over a career is to build your own coaches up with special skills for their position and fire them after 2-3 years(5 latest and thats for the coaches who need that long to develop). To keep the game a lil more difficult, I dont give my head coach special skill anymore until every position is at least at level 3 for development of everything for the hc.

Where ever they go will become a powerhouse at that position(rb coach becomes oc/rb coach somewhere else, they run for 1500+ yard that next season, etc.). As long as they dont retire, even if you win the sb and release them, they'll just get hired somewhere the next offseason, essentially taking a year off.

I like the idea of moving around from team to team but I can never get myself to do it. I get attached to the players and staff, and Ive always been one of those hopeless romantics with sports where you go your WHOLE career in the same city.