The Return of The Chiefs - Winnipeg59's Dynasty

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The Return of The Chiefs

Posted on June 13, 2010 at 02:23 PM.

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After going 6-10 in the recently completed 2009 season, The Chiefs have some work to do in the off-season to maintain their momentum. Here's how it went...

Re-Signings (right at seasons end):
QB Croyle - Backup QB extended with a 4 year contract
TE Pope - Rewarded for his Pro Bowl selection with a new 2 year deal
WR Long
WR Lawrence
* Were the notables
I must admit, I haven't quite grasped the nuances of "re-signing" players before the end of their agreements (be it in the last year just prior to actually hitting the off-season "re-signings" button, hoping that they might feel rewarded and look for less if you do it prior to the actual re-signing period when it's fish or cut bait time, or during the last year, or more, of their current agreement to extended their deal). I'll evaluate how to best extend players as I learn more about Madden Franchise mode.

Movement prior to Draft:
RT O'Callaghan, TE Ryan and 7th Round Pick to Bears for 3rd Round Pick, DT Gilbert and QB Hanie (the last two just to fill backup roles). The key to this trade, for me, was to release some players not in the long-term plans and trade up draft picks.

ROLB Studebaker, C Norman to Eagles for 5th Round Pick, ROLB White and CB Patterson. Basically same goal with this move, move players not part of the plan and pick-up a draft pick and some role players.

SS Brown and 2nd Round Pick to Chargers for CB Cason and a 4th Round Pick. This was a key trade for The Chiefs. We really felt that we had to bolster the secondary and team someone with CB Flowers to provide more of a pass shutdown. Cason was the man (78ovr and A potential as it turned out once we had him on the roster...nice). And because we were scouting at the FS position, we felt SS Brown was worth cinching the deal with the trade down of draft picks included.

2nd Round, 3rd Round and 4th Round Picks to Browns for their 1st Round and 4th Round Picks. We project the Browns to possibly have the first overll and would love to draft a solid piece we think we have identified for O-Line before anyone else has a chance. Combined with our own 1st Round Pick, we intend to spend some cap room!

Front Office:
Hired Scouting team - Franchise Scouts (18 players)
Stadium Upgrades - Medical Facility and Super Screen
* Note exactly sure what the stadium upgrades do for you, aside from your spending income and incurring an annual upkeep expense? I like to think that the upgrades will impress the fans that join us at the stadium each week and make the game even more of an experience, keeping them returning week after week (along with more in the "W" column of course).
Sponsorship: Also signed a 3-year agreement with Scarn for 3-million dollars. Their expectation is either 10 wins or a playoff berth. I agree that would be a plan.

Off Season:

Retirements: None! We're on a bit of a "youth movement" at the moment, so any would have suprised me.

Re-Signings:
Again, not sure whether the players (I know, it's AI) "appreciate" you extending them ahead of time and/or if you pay anything more by taking them to this stage in their agreements without a contract, but will watch this every year and see.
FS Page to new 4year/14million deal
ROLD White
MLB Herron
CB Patterson all to 1year agreements as I recall.

Free Agents:
Truly there were none that really fit the plan, so bypassed the 30-day window entirely. We'll look at Free Agents if they fit the on-going goals and can be reasonably signed instead of a trade or drafting. But not this year.

Draft:
Round 1 - 1st Pick Overall - LT Zach Barnett (the Browns trade)
Round 1 - #12 - RG Austin Burden
Round 3 - FS Raysean Hixon
Round 4 - SS Casey Williams
Round 4 - FS Rob Bland
Round 5 - TE Kevin Leoni
Round 5 - SS Malik Frazier
Round 6 - C Zack McLaurin
Round 6 - LT Gussie Brown

Rookie Signings:
Barnett - 7years/54.75million (A lot, but we see the future)
Burden - 7years/40million (See above, this is the core of our O-Line)
Hixon - 4years/1.75million
Williams - 5years/3million
Bland - 2years/720k
Leoni - 7years/2.17million (max years/min price, hope it's a deal)
Frazier - 3years/930k
McLaurin - 7years/2.17million
Brown - 7years/2.17million
* The bottom half or so are signed without bonuses, making them easy to cut should they not pan out.

Turns out we were given a Draft Grade of B for our work in the entry draft. Barnett was deemed best value (if you can call a huge pay day for him a "best value" for us). We see both he and Burden as the future of a very strong front line for The Chiefs!

Salary Cap prior to start of season - 49.51-million with a penalty, because of the trading, of 1.49-million next year. We have indeed set out to do what we intended, spend some cap to work on the future. I see the rest being used to maintain a solid veteran core to help our rookies along.

On to 2010 - Franchise Year #2///