Week 9 – We head to Pittsburgh and….lose 30-34. Arledge is still MOM with 38 of 50 for 414 and 4:1. He his Wright for 152 yards and 3 scores, Riley for 114 yards, and TE Franklin for 1 score – each of those players had 10 catches precisely. Lorey held to 44 yards. 2 FF by Shaw.


Week 10 – BYE BYE BYE! Just another player in your game of two…


Week 11 -We host and lost to the Bengals, 17-22. Arledge, still MOM, 29 of 43, 379 and 2:0 hitting Wright for 101 yards, and Gillespie and Schuster for scores. Lorey held to 27 yards. FF by Schmidtke, recovered by Tatum. 2 sacks by rookie DE Floyd.

That was an ugly game

Week 12 – We head to New Orléans. That felt like a trap game. We lose, 27-14. MV of was Rincon with 3 sacks. Parmely had 3 too. Lorey? 20 for 623. Arlege? 23 of 40, 288 and 2:2. Frankling and Lorey with TD snags.

Week 13 – We head to 7-5 New England to face the Pats. We get back to the winning ways with a 33-7 thumping of them and a huge Brown Out. MVP was Parmely with a FF he recovered, and 2.5 sacks. Picks by Shaw (returned for a score) Tatum and Schmidtke. Arledge was 22 ofo 33, 205, and 1:0, and hit TE Franklin for that score. Even Lorey was expected with 23 of 102 and 1.

We finish the third quarter 8-4 after a 3 game slump.

Oh no you didn't!:eek:

Week 14 – We heat to Carolina and win 24-9. Arledge, MOM, 19 of 26, 138, 2:0, and hit Wrigth and Lorey for scores. Picks by Tatum, Canada, and Schmidtke. Bening returned a 82 yard kickoff for a score.


We have a major injury post game. OT Trenton Henry tore his ankle ligament and is down for the season. I place him on IR. Unfortunately, I don’t have a good LT. I slide Coleton over to LT and Burmeister to RT.


Week 15 – We host the 9-4 Eagles and….We win 25-22/ MOM is Arledge with 29 of 46, 337, and 2:0. Riley had 107, Franklin and Wright with scores. SS Shaw got a pick. 4 KRB by Maruer as Lorey has 18 for 88 and 1 score.

Shaw is questionable with a sprained knee, but I will start him

Week 16 – We head to 2-12 Tampa. They hammer us mercilessly. But…we win in OT 19-16. The MAM and NFL Defensive Player of the Week was Parmely with 4 sacks. Lorey had 27 for 1-6, Arledge was 19 of 33, 194 and 1:1, hitting Wright for a score. LN Newhart with a pick. FF by Shaw that he recovered and another by DE Floyd that Canada snatched up.

We have a lot of injures too –

Rincon questionable, Nelson, questionable, Wright, probable, C Henson, questionable, LG Plotz, doubtful,

That was an ugly win. We needed it. We are one win in front of….Cincinnati. Yes, the 0-16 Bengals are now 10-5 heading into the last week.

Week 17 -

This is also going to be an ugly win…..

We win against Baltimore 31-21.

Arledge is MVP with 18 of 24, 257 and 3:0 – hitting Wright for 119 and 1 score, Riley and Gillespie 1 score too. Pick by LB Nelson.

Arledge was injured…

Injuries:

Rincon is doubtful,
Arledge questionable
DE Floyd doubtful


But…

We are 12-4 and….have the #1 seed so we have a bye next week. Which we need so badly.

LOL! I was wondering if anyone would get that reference

The 2026 NFL Playoffs!


Week 1 – Wild Card Weekend!

Cincinnati heads to Denver and drops them, 26-20.
Pittsburgh heads to Indy and drops them 17-14

Detroit loves in New Orelands 43-21
Minnesota loses at SF 37-13

So the away wild cards from the AFC North won on the road and the home division champs won in the NFC> Interesting!


Week 2 –

We host the Steelers
Cincinnati heads to the Jets

Saints at Packers
49ers at eagles

No team in the NFL is better than our 12-3 – the Pack, Eagles, all 12-4, and Jets and Bengals 11-5.

Injury Updates:

Arledge – probable, will start
Henson, Nelson – healed
Floyd – probable – will start
PLotz questionable, doesn’t start, staying in.

Rincon doubtful – I deactivate him and LB Newhart will move up

Can we have another all Ohio Conference Championship?

Go Bengals!!!

New Orelans takes out GB 23-16
San Francisco Phily 31-28

And Cincinnati wins on the road vs the Jeys 24-16

This is all good news! Both the teams left in the NFC are the 8-8 Saints and 10-6 49ers. Meanwhile, the 11-5 Jets are down, and all we have left is to take out the Bengals. This are setting up nicely. All we have to do is hold serve with the 9-7 Steelers and we get that All Ohio AFC Conference Championship again!


But……………….









We lose 13-21.

Lorey breaks oiut! 16 for 121 and 1 score. But……. Arledge is 22 of 48 for 167 and 0:2. Krauchick with a pick! Sack by him too! But that’s our only major offensive play – no other sacks or turnovers and…..


We go home all sad and stuff


The NFL Conference Championships

I’m rooting for the Bengals!

Bengals 31-24 Steelers

49ers 24, Saints 17

Hey making a Super Bowl appearance the year after going 0-16 is just bizarre but awesome.

Super Bowl:

49ers vs Bengals.


49ers win 35-16.

Season Awards!

NFL MVP – Brendan Aredge
Offensive Player of the year – Brendan Arledge
Defensive Player of the Year – Everett Parmely

All Pro 1st Team – QB Brendan Arledge, WR Dustin Wright, DE Dustin Parmely, DT Damien Alcott,
All Pro 2nd Team – FB Ralph Schuster, P Rob Emerson

Wow. Well, Parmely is really the replacement for Stanton/Horner’s legacy! And what happened with Arledge?

STATS!!!

Let me show you the entire league's stats passing:


I sorted by TD passes, so Areldge would be on top, but he has 2nd most yards, 2nd best QB rating, most TD passes by one, and more. So this was a great year for him.


Rush?


Lorey barely cracked 1000, and yet he was 8th in rushing yards - just 10 had 1000, we had another 2000 yard by a back as well

Catch Men


Wright was 11 yards behind the league leader in receiving yards. But he led the league by 4 TDs more than anyone else. I think that would make him the best WR in the league to most people's mind. So good job Wright! And another 1000+ season for Riley as well. He was 7th in yards but nowhere near the top in TDs.


Blocking?


Is this where Lorey failed? I think so. Very low KRB in raw number, and reduced % of KRO from previous yeas. My O Line failed Lorey.

Special Teams:

KR TD for Bening, and he led th league in average KR with 29.9, by far the best among qualifiers - teh next was WR Jenkins with 28.8, and Jenkins had two break out TDS to Benings 1 to weight the average.

K Sturigs, 33 of 40, 39 fo 40 PAT

P Emerson - 96 punts, 49,.8 avg, 41.1 net. 2nd in average, 4th in net


Defense!



Parmely led the league in sacks, QBKD and hurries. Alcott led all DTS in sacks and and was 2nd in the league behind Paremly for QBKD. Rincon actually led all LBs int eh league and yet was not an All Pro. So sad. At the halfway mark, Krauchick was actually leading all players with 7.5 sacks, but he slowed down in the 2nd half of the season. I thought he might have wound up DPotY.

Coverage?


Schmidtke had another rock solid season, and Miles Tatum was fine too. Schmidtke was 2nd in Cbs with 5 picks, and no other CB had 5. Only two CBVs had more than 4 - Schmidtke and Comstock over at New England. COmstock was the 5th or 6th CB on the board and I was looking for him back in the 1st, but all of the CBS went early, and I was early in the draft and didn;t want to grab him too early, if you'll recall.

Team Awards:


Offensive MVP _ Arledge. Duh

Defensive MVP – Parmely. Double Duh.

Special Teams MVP – P Emerson. Just his second All Pro ever, and for us. He has always been a strong, solid, punter who gives you top yardage and position time and time again. It’s a lot easier for Stanton, Horner, Parmely, Alcott, Rincon, Krauchick, McGee, Kirksey and Stevens to key off players when you are pinning them so deeply and forcing foes to go further on their drives. A sack is worse. A force fumble is worse. And you build on that over and over again. Emerson is a weapon.

Rookie of the Year – DE Grayson Floyd – 6.5 sacks is no joke, when the third wheel on the 3-4 defense. And he didn’t play as many plays either, if you’ll recall. About 250 fewer plays than Parmely, and 200 fewer than Alcott. And yet he was 5th in sacks, and 3rd in hurries. Great job!

Heart Award – RB Colin Snyder. When Lorey was down, Snyder quietly had 28 for 156m an average of 5.57 carries for Lorey’s 3.20 ypc

Pleasedontretireplasedontretirepelasedontretire

End of Season –

Team Performance – 83
Value 80
Profit 76
Roster 29

75

Well, we do have one retirement K Caleb Sturgis. Odd

Other sof note:

QB Andy Dalton, Cam Newman, Kirk Cousins, Bridgewater, Russell Wilson
WR Odell Beckham, Jarvis Landry, Marqise Lee, Jorda Matthews
Very few O Line – Jake Matthews

DE Joey Bosa,

CB Marcus Peters, S Reid.



So Sad - LB Robert Banda = All Pro once for us, 685 solos, 182 assits, 22.5 sacks, 16 picks, 1 INT RET TD> 52 pasdef, 10 FF< 6 rec

He didn’t start the last two years, and only played in two games two years ago, and none last year at all

Hall of Fame – Von Miller made it

I up my STR Coach

Staff Draft?

Nobody is picked

We made 90 mill last year Just us and the Steelers had 100% attendance.



I have 43 players under contract, 33 mill in cap space, 24 available.

These players are up and not signed for a new deal:

That’s right. I only have RFAs available. No one to franchise or anything!

I head to FA!!!

I advance a week immediately. I want to see if Stanton will take my offer.

Cause he’s Stanton.

Nope. What an asshole. Know how many sacks he got in just THREE games for the Saints? 3. That;s a good number. But he was injured and IRd, like he was year 1 with us after 5 games

RFA Action:

DE Yaros signs 2 yrs, 5.5 mill for us
TE Crews extends 1 year, CB Moss too oh and Hichkman as well
QB McIntyre by 2 years

48 players

Who’s contract is coming due?

Get ready…..

Hello Damien Alcott, time to sit down and make you a permanent fixture here in Cleveland. You are the best player on my team. 5 years, 92 mill, with cap hits this year of 17, then 14, 1,4 and 21 and 28.

Next?

LT Trenton Henry – I make an offer of…..is he worth keeping?

Who else is in the final year of their deal?

Arledge
Bening
Maurer
Nelson

Schmidgter
Schuster
Newsome
Emerson
Snyder
TE Franklin
DE Gibson
DT Tito Nelson
LB Tubbs
LB Newhart

That is a lot of people.

I need to extend the big players first.

Emerson, Newsome, Benign all extend

I wait until ap for Schmidtke

I extend FB Schuster for 2 eyars

Maurer wants a big leap I cash to reup. Not right now

I sign Nelson to a 4 year, 46 mill dela that cuts his cap hit by 4 mill this year

I extend Snyder by 2 years.

Gibson and Nelson would be in the 2.5 or 2 mill range each year for each of them

I extend Newhart for a year, 4.5 mill total, split in half

Tubbs wants 12 mill, 4 years

I kind of want to hold off for Arledge until post-camp to see I f he drop s a little more. Right now he wants 15 mill this year and next, and he’s 13.5.

Franklin wants 12 mill over three years.

Let’s review the draft first

I have these picks – 1.26, 2.30, 3.27, 4.17, 3.27, 5.28, 7.26 – So 7 total picks

What do I need:

Great starter – TE, CB, K,

Backup – QB RB, TE, OG, CBx2, S,

Wow there are a lot of quality LBs, Des, OT< and Rbs. I may wind up with another LB or DE that falls to me late. The 5th CB on the board, Dana Cortez, is affinity and very underrated. This is a horrible TE class. Interview 6 CBs, 3 Ss, 2 OGs and 1 k. There is precisely one good K in the draft – Stanley Ramsay.

The top three TE in fa are all affility nos

Alright Franky

He gets his sweet pretty deal

I wait until the draft to see if I need to resign OT Henry.

Week 3 – Stanton signs with the Cards

I skip the rest of FA

The 2027 NFL Amateur Draft!


The Bucs get us started by taking super mega QB stud Kyle Weaver from the Ivy League U Penn.

1.26 arrives. Who do I like?

OT Catalano looks solid. OLB Boyette? CB Dana Cortez is on the board, but the 3rd CB there still on the board.

Whoa! Hello stud OG, Wayne Croom. Potential affinity.

How is he still on the board?

Holy crap…….

I figured I would take Dana Cortez. I was actually trying to talk myself into trading back. I don’t need to go OT in the 1st round back to back rounds, and Catalano is unscouted, and has 2 reds, 2 blues, and yet looks pretty solid with low volatility, and low endurance but eery thing welse. Would you want an LT, not an RT, but an LT with 65 run block, 80 pass, 80 block strength and 35 endurance? That’s about the average in the far end of the bars. He’s better than Lucas Lcas lst year.

And yet, Croom?

Here!

Who do you take!






EDIT -

This may inform your decisions:




My current 4 OGs and OTs. Note Coleman's age, Maurer and Henry in the final year of their deal, and Lucas Lucas on there as well.


And here are my corners and Safeties.

While we are on "pause" for a moment, this is a good time to talk about my approach to FOF in general, and how you've seen it here.

My goal is to become a synergy of the best of the Steelers and Patriots of whatever universe that they are playing in. That's my goal.

The Patriots have a powerful system. Despite changing names at various positions, they have some genuine HOF players, like Brady, they build around and use. They have some high quality players they retain. But they are not afraid to bring in Free Agents, high profile ones, and more. Randy Moss. Fred Taylor. Corey Dillon. Rodney Harrison. And they will bring in players that will be better in the Patriots system than elsewhere, like Wes Welker. And they will parrot their talent. Brady and company will air the crap out of the ball and bombard everything when they have that talent. Or they will plug up and play a powerful smashmouth run game when that's where they are. Whatever works. The Patriots are about replacement, plug and play, and getting the right people into the right spaces. They will collect draft picks, trade up to target the right player, trade back to acquire more picks, and are masters of draft management. And they make it to the playoffs and they win.

Now imagine that the year after Brady retires there is a top QB talent in the draft, like a Manning, or a Manning, or a Luck or someone. Imagine if they did everything they could to grab that 1.1 pick and take that top talent and kept on going.

That's what I like to do.

But I like to be the Steelers about it. I like to retain my own people. I'd rather keep a perfectly respectable 50/50 OG I have on my roster than sign some dopey 54/54 guy. Now If it makes sense( Half the money, drop in age by 7 or 8 years, etc) then I will. But I don't want to.

I want to:

1). Have the strong system players come into my draft, like the Steelers
2). Retain all of my talent, inc UFAs, that I bring in. Those are "my" players.
3). Master the draft like the Patriots, and match my pick to need, in order to keep it going

That's where I want to be.

I call this combination of Steelers and Pats mentality my "Equilibrium point." I try to get my dynasty to the Equilibrium Point. and we have reached that a couple of years ago here

Here is my path to Equilibrium:

1). Always, with only a handful of exceptions, draft BAP. You will have a healthier, stronger, and more competitive roster, when you took the BAP. Let me give you an example from my last dynasty with the Jags in FOF7. I had two top ten WRs in the mid20s at the end of the 1st round when a draftee called Joshua Wild fell to me. He was the BAP, and a stud. Now I had positions of need outside of WR. But I took him, two yeas later he replaced one of my WRs permanently, and was so good he made it to the HOF and was a concensus best WR during his tenure with us. I will take a stud DE, DT, LB, CB, or S even if I have two starters, with little muss or fuss. (Take my era with Horner and Stanton just now. I would not take a stud DE because I have two All Pros Defensive Player of the Year talents already - but that is a rare case). I will BAP a stud TE, RB, FB, WR or more over my current starters. BAP talent. You can see that in this dynasty with my linebackers.

2). Don't ever cut someone you can trade. Trade a younger 4th year player you won't keep for a future pick. You are building through the draft. So stockpile draft picks.

3). Target top talent, and move up to take it. There are a handful of players that will push my dynasty forward. Twice you saw me target Lorey and Alcott, and move up. Now I have had a 2000 yard rushed and an All Pro 90/90 NT for a 3-4 defense. Both were worth it. When there is a player that will make your team sing the next octave, make a play.

4) Don't get caught up with big bars and fancy stars. There will be studs in every draft. There will be players that should improve your team in every draft. You will lose them. That's fine. It happens. Don't move up and lose something to grab someone that you never really needed. Only make trades for players that are true value to your team.

5). Unlike many FOF players, I prefer bars to combines. There are draftees with great combine scores and low bars. They often grow. But they don't always,

They don't always grow as well as you want or think. Players with high bars who aren't sustained by their combines often shrink, but not always, and not always as much as you fear. I'd rather draft a 30/60 CB and have them wind up a 48/48 CB than draft a 15/15 CB that grows, years later, into a 45/45 CB. I find the growth rarely matches the bars of others. Take a look at this dynasty. Only once did I have a real grower - S Baxter. Usually, they aren't even that - many players don't grow in camp at all, and some high combines have even busted post-camp.

6). Don't be afraid to make mistakes, but learn from them. I made many mistakes in this dynasty. Like my RB position. Or missing players I should have traded up for or BAPs when I wet need instead. Remember when I was thinking about stud MLB Howlerton vs that CB who met my need? That CB busted and was out of the NFl a few years later, and Howlerton is the best LB in football. Or that LB last year I could have traded a random 6th to move up and get in the 3rd, but I figured he'd come to me at 3.19. A first round talent in the third? Just shut up, make the trade, and move on. I learned my lesson. You will make mistakes. But will you learn from them?

7). Cut bait when you need to, but remember to keep things mission central. Don't sign a 65/65 C over a 55/55 OG with better statistics.

8). Do sweat the small stuff. I care a lot about special teams. In the GM Only or One Draft Dynasty Challenge we had here, I did very well. In the first, my first online league, I built the Jags into a Super Bowl team in year two, and built part of a juggernaut that stood around after I left, and another GM came in, improved on my model, and made a powerful juggernaut dynasty with an undefeated season and a bunch of super bowls. And I won the One N Done Draft Challenge where a bunch of players here all used the same draft and could only draft players that first year, and then played it out to see where they wound up. I'm not bad at this part of the game. And part of the reason is that I look at mechanics like affinity and special teams. Especially special teams. I think one of the reasons I won the 1ND is because I picked very good quality special teamers early in order to ensure quality. it matters

P Emerson is a weapon. It worth the money to upgrade my K. You see it here. These things get you wins. They get you to that Equilibrium Point

And once there, it's easier to sustain. Just replace when cash/age/better option comes along for parts already working. No spending cash in FA, you can usually skip it. The BAPs you grab will allow you to have better draft bait. Etc.

Croom has three goings for him. He is the Bap and the he’s been scouted and has an affinity.

So I’m taking Croom. The best fit was probably Catalano. I could use him in either spot. But Croom works

Now I sort of screwed up this draft. I thought CB would be hot like normal. But this great Cb went 1.25, just one in front of me. If I had seen no CB go, I would have jumped to 1.22 or 1.23 to secure it, and seen the team in front of me needed CB badly, but I missed it.

Ah well, mistakes have been made.

But with just one corner gone, with Dana Cortez fall past me? Is that a potential move? I could use depth at CB more than anywhere else, because moving up to take Cortez might be okay in a weak draft like this, where my main concern is getting K and a handful of talent later. Every draft is different, but this one is heavy in places where I’m strong, like DT and DE. There is still a ton of that talent (in 4-3 worlds) out there.

Let’s slow roll this:

1.27 – OT Catalano to the Eagles. So if I had taken him at 1.26, no surprises there
1.28 – OG Vernon Sheldon, GB – So OG Croom would likely have gone here, they went the next one on the board
1.29 OG Alex Clinton, Saints – We get the 2nd OG on the board, and just one of two OG studs.
1.30 – RB Barrett to Steelers
1.31 – CB Tyler McChane to Bengals – Uh oh.
1.32 – S Deon Lovallo, 49ers

Alright, he made it out if the 1st round.

2.1 DT Donovan
2.2 CB Craig – Cortex is now the top CB on the board

What would it take to move up to 2.3?

I have 2.30 this round. Their pic is worth the 550 on the draft trade chart, and mine is 284. So I need around 300 to sweeten the del. Doable, but not easy. I can give them my 3.27? I also send them a future 3rd in 2029, an get a 7th back that year.

I take Cortez. A very underrated affinity

I will see you in the 4th!

My mid round pick arrives. There are two players here I like a lot. K Ramsay is still there, and there’s this decent OT Diaz. Like a consolation prize.

4,17 LT Eduardo Diaz?

4.27 – K Stanley Ramsay

Alrighty then

5th – RB Edwin Willis? FL Darius Hardy? Hardy



7.26 – MLB Cedric Zuccato – Was not brought in to the combine, looks like a great, great player, very low on the list, we’ll see if his bars match his ability

Amateur Draft Report:

Rnd 1 - Wayne Croom, G, Arkansas
Rnd 2 - Dana Cortez, CB, Southern California
Rnd 4 - Eduardo Diaz, T, Glenville State
Rnd 4 - Stanley Ramsay, K, Clemson
Rnd 5 - Darius Hardy, WR, Canisius
Rnd 7 - Cedric Zuccato, ILB, Miami, Ohio

Initial Reviews –

Croom is 33/80 and the 2nd highest rookie in the draft by potential
Cortez – 48/70
Ramsay – 51/79
Hardy 28/49
Diaz 26/54
Zuccato……26/73

Now getting a quality K in the middle of the draft is nothing special. Diaz and Hardy are just bums. Zuccato fell and I snagged him. But I stand by my Croom/Cortez calls then, ad now…

But we’ll see. A Grade

I have 54 players under contract:

RB Edwin Willis was never taken. I make him an offer as a UFA. CB Frederick Dalton, LB Julio Witte, TE Jacob D’Arms, QB Marty Harder

They all sign

CAMP TIME!!!!!

I cut QB Harder and sign Butch Grant

I cut:

CB Quinn Hickman


I trade OT Mercury lane to the Patriots for the 2030 3rd rounder

I’m getting rid of conflicts. I have one left C Burmeister with OG Maurer. Strong conflict. I trade him to the Jags for their 4th in 2030. I trade Tito Nelson to the chiefs for their 3rd I in 2029.

Alright it’s time. I cut WR Bening. I have players that can divide his PR and KR roles. So sad, but I like all five of my WRs right now.

I cut BR Danek

I sigh, have to move a LB. I have 10. So I move Randall Yockey and cut him, and 47/54 LB

I sign LG Marlon Barlow, from Mill Creek WV, a UFA.

We go 3-1 in the preaseason

Final roster adjustments

I extend:

QB Arledge by 1 year

CB Schmidtke by 1 year

OG Maurer by 2 more years

No extension to OT Henry – he hasn’t earned it

Roster!!!

The major news is Lorey who busted hard from 77 to 63. Croom still looks good, and he has an exceptional affinity with Maurer. I’m starting them, and then using Lucas Lucas as my primary backup at all spots in case of injury, followed by Plotz. I believe next year, barring the acquisition of major talent, that someone will move over to OT. Meanwhile, Dana Cortez is already nasty, and Schmidtke is my leader and my Nickelback from here on out. Noting wrong with nickel. Meanwhile, Zuccato looks like no bust thus far, and I’m giving him starts on two run D formations to see what he can do and to give him some quality development playing time. Even Stanley didn’t bust so yay on the whole not busting thing for my 4 70+ potential players

Let’s drill down into that draft some more –

Here let me show you all rookies by future potential –



I got really, really lucky this draft

Other teams did too. Two other Ks boomed in camp, although I’m not upset at Ramsay. Croom is 2nd, and Cortez is great, and Zuccato is there as well. As you can see, we have 12 players with a potential of 70 or more. Three kickers, so 9 non-kickers. We have three. We also have a kicker too! Remember the OT we were looking at? Where did he wind up? 38/55. He had the combines. He had the respect. He had the bars. He had a low volatility. And yet? He busted. Meanwhile a combine-less wonder like Zuccato is the steal of the draft.

Week 1 – We open the season with a thumping of the Steelers, 28-3. We have a first for a this dynasty – Lorey has 21 of 103 and 1 score on the ground, and 6 grabs for 106 yards and thus 209 yards from scrimmage. TE Franklin with both TD Catches. 2 FF by Schmeditke, 1 by Rincon. Rincon recovers and rushes for a score.


A few minor injuries – C Hensen is questionable for 6 weeks witn a sprained knee ligament, and I send in Lucas Lucas to spell him. That seems like the sort of injury that could exacerbate.

Week 2 – Another crush 35-3 on the road vs the 49ers. Arldedge was MOM with 22 of 25, 245, and 3:0. Riley, Lorey and Gillespie with TDs. Lorey adds 81 on 20 on the ground. Pick by Miles Tatum, returned for a score. The defense forced Lorey to fumble, Riley recovered and scored. 2 sacks by Alcott. 4 KRB by Henry


Week 3 – We head to and win in Jacksonville 34-27. Lorey is 23 for 76 and 2 scores, Arledge 23 foor 20, 264, and 2:2, and Riley 109 and 1 score, and Gillespie the other. We have 4 picks on the day by Cortez, Shaw, Canada and Nelson. We also have 2 FF as well, one of which we recovered


Week 4 – BYE


Week 5 - We thump Denver 34-8. Arledge, MOM, with 21 of 34, 275, 2:0 – Franklin with 2 scores. Lorey another 17 for 78, and Snyder and Arledge rushes for scores. Another pick by Cortez. 2 FF by Parmely, recovered by Cortex and Shaw. 2 sacks by the Parme as well.


We are 4-0.

Week 6 – We thump the 1 win Raiders 27-7. Arledge, MOM is 25 of 32, 249 and 0:0. And Riley rushes for two scores Lorey for 102 yards ad a 1 score. Pick by Cortez and Rincon – 5 KRB by Coleman


Week 7 – The Charges fall 23-8.. Areldge, MOM 22, 31 for 336 and 0:1. Wright with 137 yards, and Lorey adds 23 for 66 on the ground and a score, and Snyder another. Picks by Horton and Rincon, FF by Krauchic and Parmely.

Post game, starting DE Grayson Floyd is out for 5 weeks and C Henson is back.

Week 8 – We win 27-24. Arledge, MOM, 21 of 31, 274, 2:0 – Scores by Franklin and Gillespie. Loreyis 21 of 92, 1 score. 2 picks by Cortez,

Week 9 – We win 24-22 over the Ravens. Lorey is 25 for 94, 1 score, Arledge 21 of 34, 342, 1:1. Score by Gillespie. 5 KRB by Coleman


We are 8-0.

Week 10 – We beat Pittsburgh 23-20. Arledge, MOM, 34 of 45, 429, and 1”1. Riley the score, Wright 122 yards. Pick by Tatum.

WR Boothboyd is out for a few weeks.

Week 11 – Cincy falls, 20-7. Mile Tatum is MOM with a pick and a score. Riley 11 yard, Lorey 25 for 119 and Snyder a rushing score Arledge was 21 for 35, 201 and 0:2.

Week 12 – We edge LA 38-27. Arledge, MOM with 27 of 43, 344 and 2:1 Je hit Riley for 100 yards, and Wright and Lorey for scores. Lorey adds 20 for 90 and 3 scores on the ground.

Can we get to 12-0?

TE Franklin out a couple of weeks. DE Floyd is back


Shit!

We wont eh game! 30-10 over the Jets. Arledge, MOM, 19 of 25, 227 and 2:0. Lorey is 33 for 128 and 1 score too. TD grabs by Wright adnd Gillespie. 6 KRB by Coleman and 4 by Henson

…..



But



Brendan Areledge…..at the age of 34….just went down with repetitive concussion syndrome and is out for an expected 124 weeks

Shit

At the 12 game mark, upon his injury, here were the league’s qb stats:




Is this the end?

I toss Arledge on IR. We will be having QB Malcolm McIntyre lead the 12-0 team to see we ca can finish strong.

Week 14 - We win 27-24, Cortez with another pick, 17 for 109 on eh ground for Lorey, McIntyre is 25 for 36, and 289 3:1. He hits Wright for 82 yards and 2 scores and Riley for 51 yards and the other


Well he started well!

Week 15 – We lose 16-20. McIntyre is 23 of 3, 323 and 1:2 and hit Lorey for the score, he was stopped, 24 of 30 yards. They shut him down hard.

CB Canada is doubtful for a week.

Week 16 – We win 34-7 ove the 4 win Cards. This was more a defensive win. Rincon is 2.5 sacks, and MOM. Cortez has a pick returned for as core. Lorey 30 for 111 and 1 score, and RB Snyder the other, McIntyre is 25 of 32, 91 and 1:1. Yes, 25 completions, 91 yards. Picks by Tatum and CB Dalton as well. 5 KRb by Coleman.

Week 17 – Our defense is not letting us lose. We just shut out the Bengals 37-0. Lorey is MOM with 23 for 148 and 1 score, McIntrye 21 of 33, 272 and 3:1 and Riley, Wright Ans Schuster with TD catchs. Cortex has 2 more picks, Nelson one, FF by Schmidtke that Shaw recovers, 4 KRb by Coleman.

We are the #1 seed heading into the playoffs. But we finished with wins over the 3-13 Seahawks, 5-11 Cards, 6-10 Bengals and a loss to the 9-77 Ravens.

The 2027 NFL Playoffs!


Wild Card Weekend –

Denver loses at Indi 20-27
Pittsburgh heads to Oakland and drops them 22-10

Green Bay smashes LA and heads home 27-24 winners while the Vikings can’t get things down in New York as the Giants beat them 27-20.


Week 2, Division Champ –

We hose the Steelers
New England hosts the Colts


The Lions hits the Packer and The Panthers host the G_men – we are favored by 8.

We lose 24-31. Lorey is held to 41 yards on 17 carries 25 of 30, 217 2:3, TDs to Wrigth and Lorye, picks by Rincon and Shaw, Rincon returned for a score, 2 FF, 2.5 sacks by Parmely – not enough.


New England 17-13 over Colts
Detroit 48-22 over Green Bay
New York 34 vs Carolina 37


Week 3 –

Carolina at Detroit – Detroit. wins 18-15

Pittsburgh gets crushed by New England 3-43


Super – Bowl

New England 30. Detoit 6

Season Awards:

Defensive Player of the Year – LB Karl Rincon

All Pro 1st Team – OT Shon Coleman, LB Karl Rincon, CB Dana Cortez,
All Pro 2nd Team – RB Diego Lorey, DE Everett Parmely, DT Damien Alcott

Cortez was absolutely robbed of Defensive Rookie of the Year. The guy who got it was a DE with 11 sacks. He didn’t even get all pro. Cortez had 9 picks, and led all players by FOUR PICKs!

Stats -






Lorey was 3rd is rushing yards, 2nd in rushing scores; and a guy with 2000 rushing yards hit again.

Team Awards:

Offensive MVP – OT Shon Coleman – 2 pancakces, 45 KRB and 6 sacks allowed. He was 5th in the league and 2nd among OTs for KRB, and this was his best season for KRB ever, and his fourth All Pro. Dude is good.

Defensive MVp – LB Karl Rincon. Dude gets Defensive PotY, dude gets my team MVP award too!


Special teams MVP – K Stanley Ramsay – I am not a fan of giving a rookie a non-rookie award. But dude deserves it. 2 missed kicks? 1 missed PAT? Dude can kick the ball


Rookie of the Year – CB Dana Cortez – NINE picks? That’s the best INT total in a single year y any of my players during my Brown Out era. Dude can pick off the ball. Oh, an Shaw led the league in pasdef, we led in picks and pasdef with different players.


Heart Award – QB McIntyre – 3-1. ‘Nuff said

If he retires, here are Arledge’s career:


Year 1 , 10-6, Playoffs as wild card, lost in round 2 playoffs, 11-7
Year 2 – 12-4, Won Division, lost in AFC Champ
Year 3 – 13-3-1, #1 seed, won Super Bowl
Year 4 – 13-3, #1 seed, lost in AFC Champ
Year 5 – 16-0, #1 seed, won Super Bowl, undefeated
Year 6 – 12-4, #1 seed, lose in AFC Champ
Year 7 – 12-4, #2 seed, won Super Bowl
Year 8 – 10-6, wild card, lost in first round
Year 9 – 12-4, #1 seed, won Super Bowl
Year 10 – 15-1, #1 seed, won Super Bowl
Year 11 – 12-4, #2 seed, lost in round 2
Year 12 – 12-0 before getting injured. Team finished 15-1, lost in Round 2

Total record for Arledge – 165-45-1

For much of that time, Arledge was with arguably the league’s top defense and the top offense. 4 DTs, 3 DE, 4 LBs, 2 CBs, 1 S with All Pro, 4 years with Defensive Player of the year and 3 different players with it. He has two OT, including HOF Joe Thomas, C, and multiple OGs with All Pro seasons, the best FB in football, an All Pro RB, and multiple players getting WR All Pro nods, lie Riley, Wright and Hawkins. All Pro P and Ks.



So he had a lot of talent around him.

Now, here are his proper career stats:

4260 completions of 6273 attempts – a 67.9 %
47735 passing yards
Average/catch of 11.21 and /attempt of 7.61
310 TDs vs 128 picks
98.3 QB Rating
448 sacks, 70 fumbles 58 he didn’t recover

439 carries, 1878 yards, 21 rush scores

This places him, should he retire:

Tarkenton – 47004, and Warren Moon – 49, 325.

Current player, Eli Manning is 47284

TDs?

310 is between active players Rivers – 306, and Eli, 316. Elway was 300 and Tarkenton 342.

Completions?

4260 clocks between Elway at 6 – 4123 and Marino at 5 – 4967

Career passing rating?

98.3 is better than Brady and Romo, and places him 3rd all time behind Wilson and Rodgers. Among retirees, he betters the best of all time, Steve Young at 96.8


128 picks? He is tied at 80s with Kurt Water and BoB Waterfield for the most picks

Now, time for comparison to Otto Graham –

Graham led the league, and still does, for most yards per pass attempt at 9.0. No one can touch him. 7.61 puts him at the level of Matt Shaub, Trent Green, Sonny Jurgensen and Daunte Culpepper at 19th best.


His yards per pass completion of 11.21 aren’t anywhere high. The best is Ed Brown at 16.4, he clocks in at 164 with players like Kordell Stewart and Kyle Orton.

67.9% pass completion would lead the league and be the best of all time! The current best is Breez at 66.7 and of retired players, Kurt Warner at 65.5, Chad Pennington at 66.0.

Awards:

3 time Super Bowl MVP
2x League MVP
1 Offensive Player of the Year
2 All Pro 1st Team
1 All Pro 2nd Team

With 5 Super Bowls in 12 seasons, a 165-45 record, an undefeated season, playoffs is every season, and wth the actual proper passing record in one career sta (pass completion %) as well as multiple top tens….


I am declaring Brendan Arledge the next Otto Graham of the Cleveland Browns!!!

Now it's time to hit that "End Season" button...

Eval:

Performance – 90
Value 84
Profit 77
Strength 29
Score - 78


We have three retirees –

LS Newsome
CB Schmidtke
QB Arledge


He retires and is the Legend of the Game

Other retirees of note:


QB Kessler
TE Hardy Downs, one of my former players
WR Mike Evans,
O Line – Brandon Linder, Humphries, Tunsil, and many more
DE DeBuckner,
LB – Leo Floyd,;
CB Vernon Hargreaves, Jalen Ramsey, etc

Hall of Fame – JJ Watt, Chris Harris, Zeke

We made 112 mill

100% attendance

Interesting stuff, thanks for sharing. On the bars/combines thing, I find it useful to use a combination of the two(admittedly still being a newbie). Drafted a guy in the one I recently finished who was projected by 'adjusted grade' to be middle of the first round, but still available in the middle of the third. His bars sucked. Badly. But I'd interviewed him, and he had good combine results and my evaluation said 'Very underrated'. Looked decent at first, then boomed to 50/71 after training camp. Not throwing him back, but certainly I could have gotten bitten if things didn't turn out that way.

Yeah, I hear ya. And we each have our own stories. Take CB Cortez here. If I hadn;t interviewed him and gotten teh very underrated place, and gave you that for the evaluation, would many people have considered him at all? He had two blues, no reds. Very little to sell him, but bars, affinity, and a good interview. Now that Schmidtke has left, that affinity is gone, so who knows what would happen next, but I get it. Bars bust. Combines bust. But you are much more likely to unearth a player that grows over time with combines. And I'll do it where there aren't a lot of other options and I have the spot and time

So.....


what now?

1). I have built a juggeranut. I could go out and grab a undrafted QB this offseason, toss him into the system, and see fi I can get a third Otto Graham!

2). I have built a juggernaut. I have earned the right to break the NFL Go out, and grab a real, proper, QB and just break things. My O line and receivers deserve a proper Qb that just explodes. How often have you seen one of my O Line deserve an All Pro nod but too many sacks spoiled the roast. I can spice that roast into next October with a quality thrower of balls.

3). I have a juggernaut. Switch to another team in the league, and try to build another.

4). Call it. Good job Browns!


So I'm sort of in all 4 spaces right now....

I am voting for option #2 since I already know all the players you've brought in. I want to see what a roster like this is capable of with an actual star QB.

Thanks thanks! Other thoughts!

I would say #3 ... but why not do #2 first anyway? See how long at #3 it would take you to beat the monster you've created -- for bonus points pick another team in the same division, or at the very least the same conference. Add a house rule tweak or two at that point, perhaps involving trades to make it harder to stockpile draft picks?

But yeah, #2 then #3 is my vote.

2 for a season to dominate, then go to 3 to rebuild another team

Coach draft und Stuff:

I give raises to my HC and OC to retain them. I select a new, young sudsy Strength Coordinator, and that’s it.


I only have three players on my team that are unrestricted FAs. LB Dexter Tubbs, DE Willie Gibson, and OT Trenton Henry. I have 34 mill under the cap, and 20 for new players available. I elect to not franchise any of these dopes.

FA BABy!

I would say option 1 or 4. :)

There are three very strong QBs in this year's draft...

Let's commit to #3.

Since i joined the Browns and turned them into a powerful force of nature, the worst teams in the NFL have been:


San Diego – 72-120

Washington – 69-120-3

Jacksonville – 65-126-1


According to the NFL analysts, who has the worst, weakest roster?

San Francisco – 13

Tampa Bay – 13

Minnesota 3


San Diego is 50, Washington 94, and Jacksonville 83

I take a look. Jags have some great O Line talent, and a good strong WR, with a need for QB, another WR and a TE or RB to put their offense out there. On D they have a strong LB corps, and a few other adequate players here and there. Not too bad. Washington? They have tons of talent and have just underplayed. 74/74 QB, 72/72 RB, 68 and 61 WRs, 79/84 LT, 69 RT, 67 C, etc. San Diego has some great offensive talent, just needs a QB to make that work, and then a pretty woeful Defense.

Minnesota? Weak, but the Vikings are the best team after us with a lot of wins.

The Bucs had the worst record in football two years ago, and used it to draft theta QB in the draft at the 1/1 spot. But they haven’t started him, they have been using Winston instead as a 50/50 guy and a higher rating than the rookie with 43/67 stats. So I could build around this guy.

But I don’t want to necessarily. Sure, they have a weak roster, but to I want to try another Otto Graham challenge? Try with another team to replicate Arledge’s success? They already have someone, right?

Just two teams meet my qualifications. After looking at San Diego more, they have a 50 score for roster, but that still is 6th worst in the league. The other is the Rams, with a 53 score, and their talent is aging and spotty. But historically they were 106-86 with 7 playoff appearances in the last 12 years.

But not San Diego.

Now how were the competitors for my Browns doing? The Ravens have a 100 roster score, and one of the best rosters in the NFL. No Ravens. Steelers are 73 and 12th best as the list heads down. No Steel Town.

But what about Cincinnati? 90-102 record, but 5 playoffs and they had that Super Bowl run as a Wild Card, and lost. But they also had the 60 ranked and 18th best roster. Now when I pull them up, they have a solid 54 QB, with just two 70+ players, but a good number of 6 in 60+ as well as one with 60+ potential. That’s not bad. The Chargers are 5 70s, but just 3 60s. So the Bengals are higher at the top, but they lack depth. Just 8 in the 50s with actual or potential vs the Chargers’s 14.

The Bengals were more successful recently, the Chargers weren’t. Both franchises have had very little Super Bowl action historically, but both had some good regular season numbers for a while, and just couldn’t convert, and those eras are long over. The Bengals have the disadvantage of going up against my own Browns, and the Chargers don’t. The Chiefs are very weak, and the Raiders and Broncos are nothing great. Or I could do the Chiefs for that matter. 50 roster rating, 4th losingest franchise of this era.

Chiefs have 1 80, 1 70, 5 60s, 11 50s.

What’s more important? The better roster and history the Bengals recently had? Or the worse Chargers or Chiefs situation?


Let’s do the Kansas City Chiefs

Here's our current roster:

Who are the hits on this roster:

We currently run a true 3-4 defense

DE Nicky Cobb, 80/80, just 3rd year,

NT Lenny Stern, 3rd s, 68/68 guy, had 9 sacks last year, was an All Pro 2nd team.

Ten year vet SE Blake King, 70/70, was drafted by us and spent his whole career with the Chiefs, All Pro 3 times, has 8235 yards and 50 scores

62 OG Philip Bodell, been with us whole career, 27 years old

61 LT Francisco Torres, from WVU, been with us whole 11 year career,

You can see the other players in the roster above.

Position assessment by me:

D Backs? 1 solid young corner with Derek Felker, No one else is good anywhere at any position

LB? We don’t have a single LB with a potential or current of even 50 for a 3-4 defense...

D Line? Our clear and away strength. In fact, if I pushed to re-sgn DT Tito Nelson, a former Brown 6th round pick, we could slide to 4-3 easily enough.

O Line? A bit hit and miss for me, all things considered. My better players are old and good, like LT Torres, or young and weak. If we started today, I’d have currents of 52, 56, 62, 61, and 47 starting for me. That’s not where we need to be.

Second? TE Gretsky is fine, we jabe the older Blake King, and a 56 FL in Erik Fererdick who’s not bad, but again, I’d like better.

RB and FB? Nah

QB? 9th year man 52 Steven Guymon is okay. Luckily he’s good enough to be my starter for now while I build up my franchise, and then in two years maybe we’ll be ready for the next Otto Graham

K/P – Nope.

So we have 4 UFAs here. Only Tito Graham would make sense for us to bring back. I have no desire to chase any of the others.

Our stadium was recently renovated and opened in 3023, with a 55,900 capacity, and had 48k attendance last year, with outdoor, artificial turf, and good and very good stuff all over.



Staff Draft:

We pick 24th. I retain our HC Alejandro Humphries. He’s much better than any other options out there.

Our OC got grabbed for an HC role. So... I take... OC Steve Smith, former WR, as our guy. Likes West Coast, WR Focus, and such. His strongest stat is play calling.

DC? Not only is our 3-4 guy the best DC Out there, but the next seven are all 3-4s too. Crazy. The difference is suitability from the top 3-4 guy ours, and the best 4-3 is from 68 to 49. So we are staying with it for a year.

AC? I hire Brayden Warfield, a 59 suit gentleman.

SC? I hire Benjamin Humphries, the best of the options up there. Split about 50 in each of conditioning and strength.

I massage my ticket prices a tad and we are ready for FA!!!

The 2028 Free Agency Period

We have the 14th pick in the draft, but are missing our 2nd rounder.

We have 40 players under contract, just 50 million under the cap despite a poor roster. Who are we overpaying?

TE Gretsky is 9 mill, SLB Meat Loaf Hauck, 8 mill, SS Keegan Barger 8 mill, WR Giovanni Moss, 7.3 mill, QB Swift 9 mill, QB Guymon, 7.15 mill, etc.

Some of those players make no sense. And there’s no reason to be paying two QBs starting level cash. QB Swift was the 1.2 pick last year, and busted to 15/49. Yuck.

Another recent bust is RB Kendrick Farley, early 1st rounder, now 45/45 heading into year 4.

Alright, anyone I want to retain?

First let’s review FA. Players who attract me?

Looks like I won’t be moving my P, but I may find an adequate k out there, Best is 63, vs my own expensive 52.

There are no franchise changing players out there. They best are a few 60s TEs, RBs, and a couple of LBs. Unfortunately, the Lbs are not great for 3-4, but 4-3.

I extend OG Bodell by 2 years. I hold off on King and Torres for now. Well, nah. There’s no help on the way. Let’s lock them in. I extend each by 2 years and drop their cap hits this year.

Alright let’s head to week 2

Targets in FA I like:

K Edwin Carroll, 63/63 – 3 years, 12 mill

LS Frankie Zirn, with a 96 long snapping, 2 years, 2.9 mill

RB Cornelius Branch, 3 years, 11.25 mill

CB Damon Henderson, 2 years, 7.75 mill

MLB Dexter Tubbs, from Cleveland, 4 years and 15.4 mill. I also liked WLB Dean Krauchick from Cleveland, but he wants too much money. I got a lot of spots to fill.

I cut a random backup OG Leader with no affinities, so I can make an offer to RT Bubba Keith, 10th year veteran, 2 years and 7 mill.

Alright...

Week 3 – Dean Krauchick signed with Carolina

Week 4 – LB Dexter Tubbs signs with us, 66/66 guy. RB Branch signs with us, 60/60. I cut RB Kendrick Farley. DT Tito Nelson signs with Carolina.

I look at the FAs and consider a few more offers.


I offer youther RG David Drake 2 years, 1.8 mill on hope

I resign LB Dwight Beethoven, a RFA from us.

So far we have signed the best RB, and LB in FA. We have offers to the best CB, K, LS and OT as well.

Week 5 – We bring in CB Damon Henderson and OT Bubba Keith

Week 6 – Quiet

Week 7 – We sign K Carroll and OG Drake

I cut my K

I sign a couple of RFAs

I check out the draft. Anyone I love at our spot? At this point I’ll BAP virtually any position. I just need talent. We have studs all over at spots of interest, that won’t be there, like QB Ralph Gomez and OT Sebastian Will. I interview stud TEs, a strong CB, RBs, the 3rd rated QB, and more in order to hopefully prep for the draft.

Week 9 Zirn signs.

Here’s my first FA Class for the Chiefs:

RB Cornelius Brach, 3rd player on Grey Sheet, 3 years, 10 mill, 60 rated 4th year vet – best RB in FA

ILB Dexter Tubbs – 4th rated player on GS, 4 years, 15.36 mill, 66/66 rated guy, 28 years old – Best LB in FA

RT Bubba Keith – 11th on GS, 2 years, 7.16 mill, 31 years old, 55/55 rating – best OT in FA

LS Zirn – Best LS in FA, 93 long snapping, 2 years, 1.89 mill

K Carroll – Best K in FA, 3 years, 10 mill, 59 rating, 28 years old

CB Damon Henderson – 16th rated player in GS< best CB in FA, 2 years, 7.88 mill, 5th year, 53/53 rated

OG David Drake was 27/55 2nd year player. Grabbed on potential

Alright, let’s head to the draft!

The 2028 NFL Amateur Draft!

We pick 14th in the 1st.


We need:

RB for depth only
Maybe a WR for depth only, but not really

OT for depth or starter of studliness only – starters are 61 and 55 are 10 and 11 years in this league
Stud at C or OG would be fine, but not needed

NT for depth
DE for depth
3 starting quality LBs
2 starting quality Ss in a weak S class. Otherwise 2 subs
Maybe one sub CB
Stud P only

Here we goes!

Seattle kicks us off by grabbing RB Trenton Hastings. Then we have QB, QB, OT, and QB in the 1st five.

We finish the Top 10 with OT, S, CB, WR, and DE

This is actually a strong D Line draft, but we don’t really need that. So I may head elsewhere soon. S, RB, and S head off the board and it’s our turn to pick.

We have all of the LBs still on the board. None are outstandingly studly. But several are scouted and fine, like SILB Parker Reid, best ILB in the draft, and underrated for us, with a hole in Zone D, but good at everything else, but again some weaknesses in things like hitter in the 50s and run deff maybe just 55 or 60 or so. But his pass rush is monstrous.

OLB Jerry Sanderson is the best LB on the board, and just as scouted, with a better run d, and still hot, hot, hot pass rush.

I like Sanderson a bit more than Reid. But both make me happy.

Reid doesn’t even go in the 1st round. No ILBs were taken by anyone.

In fact, Reid is still on the board at the 2.13 spot, where we would have picked, had we not traded that draft pick. ARGH! I could have renovated our LB corps in one off season. 

He goes pick 50.

Alright, we are up at 78. Who do I like here?

ILB Jack Kaplan? CB Gavin Mellow? C Terrance Benson? OLB De Jesus? RT Craig? OG Kendrick Zorich? OG Tucker with great bars but 3rd best on the board? Hmmm... Tucker? Kaplan? I might normally take Tucker, but OG is my best starting place right now. With 61 and 56 and both not old. But I know Kaplan is likely to start. I grab Kaplan.


In the 4th, I like DE Cesar Lane here. He’s a 3-4 specialist, and looks to have great bars for us. This was a strong D Line draft, and hopefully I got a good one to drop.

5th round is here. Most good quality Cs are off the board. As are RT Craig, DE Lane, I also like SLB Crawford who’s left. Hmmm....I take Crawford and I’ll move him to the WLB.

Hello 6th round. SS Derrick Mitchell, NT Myron Becker, and then finally WHOA!

There’s this QB with great looking bars, and a 90 position spec red score here in the 7th Josh Lavorin. Should I take him and see if he’s my Otto Graham? Would you consider a 6th round draftee part of the OG Challenge? Can I afford to let him hit FA just to check that box? Given my accomplishment already, I feel like I can massage that a bit. But you know what?

Nah.

Alright, who do I like here. The top P is still there. RB Bennett Shaw?

I take C Sherman Carlisle

7th? TE Donnie Wassen




Early results?

Sanderson is 47/78 so a solid SLB. He’s on the Green Page too.

DE Lane is 31/60, ILB Kaplan is 23/59, SLB Crawford is 30/60, C Carlisle is 27/61. Good stuff.

Now time for UFA!

We had a C+ draft review

I make offers to:

UFAs

P Barginski
FB Alejandro Pasricha
QB DeAndre Salcedo
RT Danny Exner
RB Bennett Shaw – Is he a boom? Good combines, lowish bars
RB Camden Gerhardt
FL Deion Pasquerella – good special teams and returning
C Roosevelt Wagner
LB Demetrius Lujan
SS Roldolfo Franz
FS Parker Lanner

And these FAs:

FS Russell Sanford
CB Frederick Dalton, an RFA not retained by the Browns
SLB Leonard Floyd, 35 years old, mentor to OLBs


Week 1 – We bring in 8 targets. I increase our bid for Dalton to jump over Chicago’s bid by a few hundred thousand bonuses

Week 2 – We sign 6 more. Only Dalton is left

Week 3 – Dalton signs with us

We currently have 66 players under contract, including a whole bunch of cuts I know are about to happed post camp. Anyone else I like? We have 25 mill in cap space. Anyone that hasn’t been chased with a cheaper cap hit now or anything?

In case of bust-age, I make an offer to P Bucky Sutor and UFA OT Bush

Both sign. Who’s ready for CAMPing!

We sold 38500 season tix

Anybody boom in camp? Sanderson is 53/79, Crawford 35/61, and such. P Barginski comes back 43/57, and he looked so much better pre camp, total bust. Busts for a lot of UFas like normal, including QB Salcedo, and WR PAsquarella. DE lane busted to 35/55

Anyone free that I might want to chase? Nah

Time to cut the chaff:


QB Salcedo
RB Shaw
FB Pasricha
FL Pasqueralla
C Wagner
OT Bush
FS Lanner
WLB Mathews
SLB Lyons
P Barginski
P Sutor
SLB Meat Loaf Hauck
TE Wasson


I bring this solid UFA K into camp to see what we can see laters

We finish the pre-season 2-2, with a few minor injuries, C Dwight Dar Dar has a strained hammy and is questionable. A few probables here and there as well.

But here’s my major issue;

Sanderson dropped to 42/58. Yuck. 39/61 for Crawford. K Shin busted hard and I cut him. I cut OT Danny Exner. I cut MLB Dwight Beethoven.

Had I taken Parker Reid, long before I could had, or had a 2nd rounder for him, he would have finished the offseason as the best ranked LB, moved to the Green Page, and is 51/71.

Players I missed this draft include late 4th rounder C KC Boyer, 31/75 I missed and could have taken, LG Thurmon Norris, remember when I was strongly considering him in the 3rd? He went a few picks later and is 46/76. You know how badly I needed a S? I could have gotten this 29/65 guy in the 4th. A lot fo D Line busted, so I can’t be too upset at the Lane bust. The best DE in the draft was on the board when we drafted, and was taken 1.16 – 59/72.

This was a weak draft and UFA class by me. I missed on two UFA Ps and a K. I missed on every other major UFA. Most of my draftees busted, not a few points here and there, but a lot more. Weak. Only Crawford and Carlisle held serve. So weak

Here’s our roster:


So after an entire offseason of major acquisitions, targeting the best players in FA, and more, where are we?

Nowhere.

Notice the drop by OT Bubba Keith to 39, the drop by WR King to 63, my P dropped to 49 and there was still no better option from the two UFAs that looked pretty sexy. My new K is barely better than my old one. DE Cesar Lane, who looked like this great mid draft pick to push my D Line better than Amos might too fell hard. My new signee Tubbs dropped from 65 to 55. My 1st rounder I needed to nail and change this thing around already fell,. As did Kaplan. My S starters are horrible in the 47 and 45 territory. I got better a bit in LB, I brought in CB Henderson who’s still just 52/52, but was better than any other options I had, my new RB held serve at 60, so that was nice, and, um....that;s it. Not one single UFA boom.

Despite my weak, weak, roster, I only have 8 first year players making the final cut.

That’s not a positive off season.

We have the 6th lowest power rating in the league. We are in the 10th or lower resister strength for these positions – Ogs, OTs, (13th worst for QB), (12th worst P), OLB, S, and CB. We have the worst starting tandem at S and OLB, and 3rd worst Cb, and even our ILBs are just 14th worst.

Anyone with a 1 year deal I want to extend? I spend 30 mill to extend FL Thomas Hatcher, one of our starters, and one of the only talented young players we got.

Did you notice that Ben Swift rose a little? I cut Ramon Graham and sign a UFA mentor for QBs. Maybe Swift will prove he wasn;t a bust after all?

Y’all ready for this?

Normally I’ slow roll my season. Take my time, give you all of the details. But I don’t think this’ll be a good season at all. So I fast sim it.

Huh. That feels cheating. We finished 9-7, made the playoffs as the winner of our division, lost in the 1st round badly, had All Pros for RB Branch and OG Bodell. That doesn’t feel right. I check it out and saw that the leading QBs for my two in-division foes that are good both went down early with injury for the season, whereas we were healthy the entire time. So I try again.

Without the best case scenario stuff going off, we finish 4-12, a full two game behind last year’s mark.

No major long term injuries.

Atlanta beats the Broncos 37-13.

All Pro 1st team for OT Torres, 2nd tea, for DE Cobb and OG Laird.

We finish with the 5th lowest power rating


QB Guymon 272 of 457, 2937 yards, 12:10, 78.1 rating, spelling him, QB Swift was 49 of 79, 498, 5:2 and 90.5.

RB Branch was 236 for 1111, 4.71 ypc. 9 rush scores, He was banged up with just 11 starts. RB Johnstone was 128 for 563, 7 scores, and 4.40 ypc. Branch still was 7th most rush yards in league, and tied for 3rd most rush scores.

WR Frederick was 78, 793, and 3 scores, King was 43, 542 and 2, and WR Hatcher 37 for 528, and 3. TE Gretsky was 39, 414, and 4.

I want to try Swift next year full time, unless I have a better option that falls on my lap.

RB Lenny Watson had a PR RET TD, and K Carroll was 29 of 32 and 33 of 34 PAT while P Matlock had 91 punts, 45.2 avg, and 34 in 20.

ON pass coverage, CB Henderson led with 4 picks, then Sanderson with 3, Tubs and Crawford each with 2, and then 1 each for CB Browning, S Barker, Sanford, CB Greshem and DE Cobb and DE Amos. Crawford and Browing returned a pick for score. Most pasdef was Grayson with 7 , then 5 each for Crawfod, Browning and LB Rivera and LB Coles, then 4 for Henderson, and 3 for Sanderson, Tubbs and Barker.

On Defense? Cobb with 9.5 scks, 8.5 for DE Benton, and LB Crawford with 7 sacks, Sanderson 3, and DT Serne a low 2 sacks. The 25 hurries DE Cobb had led the league, while his 8 blocked passes tied for the league lead. Tubbs had 126 solo and 33 assist tackles, SS Barker had 94 and 32.

Blocking? OT Torres had 43 KRB, and 8 pancakes but 8 sacks allowed. C Manning was 37 KRB and 4 pan, and 11 sacks, while OG Laird was 35 and 0 and 4 and OG Bodell was 32, 4 and 7, and OT Keith 6, 0 and 4.

Sanderson led my team with 3 FF, and 2 each for CB Browning, LB Rivera and Tobbs, and DE Benton.

Alright, so there we are.

I’ll give abbreviated versions of my normal awards:

Offensive Player of the Year: OT Torres

Def PotY: DE Cobb

Special Teams POTY: K Carroll

Rookie OTY: LB Crawford – 10th most sacks in league at the LB position as a rookie.

Heart Award – LB Ken Rivera, backup with a lot of good results

We finish 4-12

Ready for next year?

Ready for next year?

2 Performance
61 Value
65 Profit
15 Roster

42 score


Just one HOFers – Richard Sherman

Retirements of note –

We have two LB Leonard Floyd and SS Keegan Barker

Cleveland had CB Cooper Schmidke and TE Hardy Downs retire

Others of note?

QB Paxton Lynch

SE Will Fuller, with 10504 yards, 73 scores; 2 All Pros

OG Tunsil, finishes with 362 KRm 43 pancakes, just 65 sacks allowed in a 13 year career, All Pro 4x.

CB Hunter Craven, 11 years in league, 43 pick, 129 pas def, Defensive Player of the year once in 2021, 4 All Pros

We have:

The 11th worst stadium
3rd worst roster
9th worst support
11th best economy
7th lowest franchise value

We made 34 mill last year

Just 84.9% attendance, which was 9th worst in the league.

I give a raise to my DC

Staff Draft!

We pick 23rd.

I hire a better Head Coach, Vinny Mullis, with almost maxed motivation and discipline and a 74 suitability, 3 more than my current HC

OC? I keep Steve Smith. I keep my DC too, who is so much better than the rest. I hire AC Alfred Lindquist, a little better guy. But my biggest upgrade fo the day is SC and my new guy is 14 higher suitability and a much better set of stats.

Pre-FA, do I need to make any changes?

We have 38 under contract. None of them are worth a franchise tag

Enter FA!

We have the #2 pick, and then alternative back and forth with Arizona 1 and 2 each round....but... we traded our 2nd rounder to San Diego, our 3rd to Cleveland and our 7th to Dallas.

So we just have four picks this round at 1.2, 4.1, 5.2, and 6.1. This was not a good year to trade those 2 and 3s. Do I want to target the 1.2 for a high quality player? Or would trading down and picking up some more picks make more sense? We are not 1 top flight 1.2 player away from competing, right?

FA Time –

I sign these RFAs – MLB Lujan, RB Gerhardt, and SS Franz

I have a ton of cap space right now, but my biggest contracts are about to be signed...

DE Nicky Cobb – 5 years, 84 mill

NT Lenny Sterne, 4 years, 32 mill

CB Derek Felker, 4 years, 15 mill

TE Walter Perrone, 4 years, 11.5 mill

All of those were drafted in the same year, the only major injection of young talent we have here.



I extend LS Zirn for a year; FS Sanford by a year, SS Tatum by one, and while I live where CB Henderson played, he wants serious starter money and a big deal, so I hold off for now.

Any of my rookies boom after a year of play? Or bust further?

Crawford is 54/61, Carlisle 36/58, Sanderson, 52/57, Lane 39/49. Nah. I was hoping maybe Sanderson would rise up or something. But that was clearly dreaming on my part

Time for FA action. Again, not the biggest and highest profile class ever...


Who do I like:

P Rob Emerson, my stud P from Cleveland was let go, signed by the Broncos, and now is free. He’s 65/65 these days, and pricey. Another 65/65 guy, Luther, is available. But also pricey.

The best player is 29 year old 67 CB Middleton, but he injured is ACL and is still out for 11 weeks, and he’s pricey tooooo. Now he wants 4 years and 63 mill. Would I take a flyer on him later in the FA process and when his price drops? Sure. If I have the cap room.

Who else?

SE Rodney Riley is free from Cleveland. They let him go. But I’m fine for WR

RB Diego Lorey from Cleveland is also let free, and to be fair is 31.

I offer a 4 year, 13 mill deal to FS Cornelius Kaplan, the best S in FA

Backup Rod Divirgilio, 1 year deal for 1.3 mill

P Luther Michi, from Matewan, WV

That’s it. Most of the talent here are at places we are fine like RB and D Line and WR.

Week 2 – Diego Lorey heads to New England

Baltimore made an odd choice and tossed 5 years and 95 mill at Middleton a 29 year old CB with an ACL injury. Bizarre.


Week 3 – We sign LT Divirglio. WR Riley heads to San Francisco

Week 4 – We sign FS Cornelius Kaplan

That gives us a 56/56 Kaplan, and 35/56 OT that can be emergency starters or really high quality backups in case I move that way in the draft.

Now what?

Let’s look at the draft first:

Studs in order of stud-ship

DE
RT-ish
RCB-ish
RT-ish
WLB
RCB-ish
LT-Ish
QB ish
RG
RG


I interview a bunch of top talent. The best, ironically, is WLB Randall Flemming, underrated, absolutely house of a player. But there are a lot of quality players we could wind up with in case I trade down.

So let’s head back to FA and finish up.

Week 7 – WR Giovanni Moss heads to Denver.

Week 9 – We sign our P.

The 2029 Amateur Draft!

Arizona drafts first and....goes in a direction I didn’t see. They take WR Curtis Ledford. That’s weird. They could use some serious talent.

Now the draft is my oyster. Should I trade back? I need talent.

How far back should I trade in order to get a future 1st?

We are worth 2600

I swap to 1.7 and get a future first from the Panthers. They need a DE badly, so getting this best player in the draft stud all pro potential DE. Th rest of the draft is QB, OT, OT, and Dt.

Now, who do I like that’s left other than the obvious stud LB?

A great DE, a powerful OG, and a lesser but very, very good one. Good OT. CBs all over.

Could i move down again?

The best talent on the board that matches where we are are OGs, but I had two OGs with a strong year last year statistically, a good Cb, but none of the Cbs are top notch, and would likely be more in the 50s/60s than the 70s like I think. OT Titus is great. But if I wanted an OT I would have taken one earlier. I don’t need DE. So it’s really OLB Flemming, or someone else.

I think Flemming would fall. WLBs are the least likely to go this early. But remember that I don’t get a 2nd or 3rd rounder, so whoever I take here is basically it for this year. Instead of dropping and grabbing another future first, could I intend drop and collect a few 2nd rounders?

On the chart, I am worth 1500 points. A 2.10 is worth around 480. I would have to drop to 1.16 with the Eagles and get their 2.17 in order to find a dance partner. That’s the highest I can do. Now I think Flemming might make it to 1.16. But I would remove any chance I had of getting a stud OG, DT, or that good quality OT, or any of these three top solid, but not spectacular CBs. Is that worth it?


I could probably head to 15 or 14 or 13 or something for a future 2nd easily enough. But we need talent badly. And we don’t have the 2nd or 3rd to collect it, so I think an immediate gain is worth it.

Hmmmm....

Miami is at the 1.17 and 1.20 spots. That’s 950 and 850 in points, or 1800 points. That’s just 300 fewer than I have, or the equivalent of the 60th pick in the draft. I’m sure that Miami would likely take a future 2nd and my 1.7 for their 1.17 and 1.20, and I might even get them to toss in a late rounder, like a 6th or something too. Let’s see

I get:

1.17 and 1.20 this year, 7.17 this year
7th rounder next

I give:

1.7 this year
2nd rounder next

And that still favors them a lot by the points on the board.

Alright, I do it.

1.7 -OT
1.8 – CB
1.9 – CB
1.10 – DE
1.11 – CB
1.12 – OG
1.13 – CB
1.14 – OG
1.15 – CB
1.16 – WR


And there we are. Now there are a few players that I think fell:

DE Elias Upshaw, 2 reds, 3blues, 7.1 grade, 7.8 adjusted score, looks great. He is the player that fell the hardest...

LB Flemming, 7.1, adjusted 6.8, FOUR red scores, 2 blues.

Now I didn’t expect Upshaw to fall, so I never interviewed him. And I really don’t need a DE that badly. And he’s more of a 4-3 DE anyway. But talent shows. And it rises. So...Flemming or Upshaw?

I could, conceivably, trade my 1st future first to grab the 1.18 pick here, or slide from 1.20 to ensrue I got Upshaw. And take them both. But again, I don’t know if I need another DE that badly. But this LB show help take my back LB offseason last year and dial it up massively.

Let me show you Flemming and Upshaw





You can’t not take them. They are too high quality to play around with, right? Right!

The only issue with Flemming is the super high volatility. But dude is.

Alright, I’m taking the Flemming machine, as you expect. How long until Upshaw gets taken?

1.19 to Dallas. That’s just not fair.

At 1.20, the best S is still on the board, so I go with my secondary instead of my D Line

Alright, see you in a bunch of rounds.

The top of the 4th arrives and there are a few sexy players here. K Elijah Fields as a 7.3 graded K, with multiple red and blue combines. Looks great. TE Miguel Mayers? CB Cochrane? DT Schultz? All look good here. But, I need a better K by far. Ks are weapons. I grab Fields.



I then grab SE Shane Whalen in the 5th. Take LT Ross Dixon in 6th round, and then in my new 7th rounder...hmmm....CB Bryan Tubbs, Combine guy. With red speed, and smarts, and blue pspec, but green strength.


Early post-draft results:

WLB Flemming – 42/92
K Fields – 59/82
S Randall Clayton – 42/70
OT Dixon – 7/57
CB Tubbs – 13/54
SE Whalen – 25/50

This is all about Flemming and Clayton and then not busting with Fields.

Good-ish deals

Alright, FA time.

We have a C+ draft again

QB Guymon is holding out and wants real money, like a 3 year deal and 15 mill each year. Nah

I make offers to these UFAs:

C Tevin Lowe
RB Nicky Willis
QB JC Houari,
QB Lukas Wheeler
SE Allen Hudson
TE Warren Grijalva
DE Ricky Kerr
CB Randal Weldon
OG Gerald Wilkes

FA TE Jake Browne, 3 years, 5 mill
FA DT Alexis Lincoln, 3 years, 5 mill
FA DE Heath Murphy, 2 years, 3 mill


I make a 3 year minsal offer to mentor QB Brock Snyder
I make a 2 year minsal offer to SLB Jordan Garcia, a former Browns lb mentor

Stage 1 – We sign just 1 target.

Stage 2 - another 6 join us. C Dar Dar signs with Miami. P Matlock heads to the Giants

Stage 3 – Our other targets sign with us too.

I am thinking about moving Flemming to SLB and then Sanderson to WILB to spot for Kaplan.


I have Sanderson lose weight, and then move him to SILB.


I sell 37500 season tix


I cut:

RB Lenny Watson
TE Grijalva
SE Hudson
RT Upshaw
CB Weldon
SS Tatum
DE Kerr
WR Woodson


I head to the preseason

We win our first match, and then Guyman returns. I cut a rookie. We finish h the preseason 3-1. Final cuts include QB Houari, K Carroll, and OT Bubba Keith

Do I want to do any extensions? Is it worth extending Damon Henderson? I could do 4 years, 34 mill. He did lead my team in picks last year, but a 52/52 guy would not, hopefully, be my starter for the long time. I do have the cash though, I have 44 under the cap... So I do it.

Here we go:

Take a look at the ROSTER:




You can see that my key three rookies are all looking pretty sexy. Much better than last year. In the middle, Tubbs, Sanderson, Kaplan are splitting reps. I slid to C Carlie because he’s more well rounded instead of a run blocking specialist with no pass blocking of C Manning.

This off season many of my additions are much better. P Michi and K Fields. SLB Flemming. SS Clayton. FS Kaplan. Some players continue to drop, like Sanderson, and others, like TE Walter Perrone have gotten better.

There are four players in the NFL with a current or future potential of 90 or more. One is Flemming. We have 2 90s – NT Damien Alcott for the Browns, OG Percy Duffy for the 49ers, and then 72/91 RT Sebastian Will for the Cards and.....52/92 LB Flemming for the Chiefs. If he reaches his potential,, and that’s always an if, he would be the best player in the league, period.

There are only 5 Safeties in the NFl with a current or future potential of at least 70. The best is rookie Daniel Konkler, 38/76, that the Broncos got in the 31st pick and boomed in camp a bit. Then 73/73 Raiders, 72/72 Jets, 71/71 Texans, and our 53/72 guy as well.

Only 4 kickers in the league have a current p potential higher than 70, and outs at 65/71, would be the second highest. A 77/77 is the best.

Other than a few probables and minor questionables, like DE Cobb’;s sprained knee, we are ready to go.

We are 12th lowest power rating

We are worst 10 in QB, OT, and that’s it. Big improvement from last year.

We are 2nd best TE, and have top tens in DE, S (at 12), DT (At 12), OLB (at 11), P, K, OG,

Even with the weak QB and such, I’m thinking that we are about to unload some serious damage.

I’ll be surprised if we don’t get at least 8 wins.

Week 1 – We win 17-13 over the Chargers. MOM is DE Cobb with 1 FF, 2 sacks, and 3 hurries. FF by DT Sterne and LB Crawford as well. QB Guymon is 15 of 31, 231 yards, and 2:1 hitting WR Frederick for 103 yards and WR Hatcher and RB Johnstone for scores. 3 KRB by OG Laird.

No major injuries, although FS Kaplan is out for two weeks. Russell Sanford will start.

Week 2 – We barely lose 27-30 vs the Giants. Guymon was 24 of 37, 308 yards, and 2:0 and hit Frederick for 96 yards and a score, WR King for 113 yards and a score. Before he went down with an injury, RB Branch had 17 carries for 89 yards, and Johnstone finished with 13 for 49 and a score. 5 KRB by C Manning.

QB Guyman is questionable with a broken thumb, and RB Branch out for a week

Week 3 – We lose 3-17 to Tennessee. Guymon a quiet 22 of 34 for 163, and the FF by DT Sterne, Kaplan and Branch return next game


Week 4 – We take out the Jets 21-13. MO is Guymon with 15 f 28, 257 and2:1, hitting Hatcher for 100 yards and both scores. LB Flemming had a pair of picks.


Week 5 – We barely manage to beat the winless Raiders 14-6 in our place. MOM is OLB Flemming with a pick and a sack. FF by DE Benton and LB Sanderson. Picks by Ss Kaplam and Clayton. 2.5 sacks by DE Cobb. Our scores are a lucky run by backup Jon Buckner which breaks free for 70 yards and a score, and then Guyman is 14 of 26, 168 and 1:1 and hit WR Hatcher for the other score.


Week 6 – BYE

Week 7 – I only have three probables coming off our bye. So we appear to be healthy. Ish. We just smash the 5-0 Pats 37-11. Guymon rocked the MOM award and had 18 of 29 for 194 and 2:0, and hit Hatcher for 107 yards and a score and TE Gretzky for the other. Branch was 18 for 84 on the ground, 2 picks returned for scores by S Randall Clayton and CB Paul Willing. 2 sacks by LB Crawford, 3 KRB by each of my OGs. No major injuries either.


Week 8 – We defeat the 2 win Dolphins 22-6. K Fields is MOM with 5/5 on FGs. Guyan is 18 of 29, 224 and 1:0 and hit RB Branch for a score, and King for 124 yards. Branch had 17 for 81 on the ground, and picks by S Clayton and CB Derek Felker, and a FF by Felker too. 2 sacks by ILB Rivera. 4 KRB by OG Bodell.

No major injures, but 4 starters were knocked to long term probables, like S Clayton’s hand.

Week 9 – We thump Denver 34-14. MOM is Branch with 26 for 109, 1 score on the ground,. Guymon added 21 for 33, 217 and 2:1 and hit Hatcher for 2 scores. LB Flemming with a pick. 2 sacks by Cobb, and 6 KRB by OG Bodell and 4 by OT Torres.

At the halfway mark we are a surprising 6-2, with all three of my key rookies playing very well. Right now Flemming is tied for league lead with 4 picks, and the 3 picks and one returned for a score by SS Clayton is really helpful too. Even K Fields has the longest long FGM at 58 yards and a solid performance thus far. DE Cobb isn’t setting any major records, but 7.5 sacks is fine. We’re looking solid. Even Guymon isn’t that bad...

It’s probably going to all fall apart now! :)

Week 10 – We head to Buffalo and win 24-7. MOM is....QB Ben Swift with 14 of 17, 144 and 0), while Guyman was 9 of 12, 71 and 1:0. TE Perrone with that score. RB Johnstone was 26 for 98 and ascore, and Swift added a QB rush TD. 2 FF by LB Crawford, and 1 pick by CB Henderson. 5 KRB by Torres, and 3 each by C Carlie and OT Divirgilio.

Now....this was that game. Know how sometimes you almost wish you’d have a loss than that sort of a pyrrhic victory? That was this victory. Get ready for the injuries:

QB Guymon, out for 5 weeks with a strained foot ligament

RG Bodell – Out for 7 weeks with concussion

C Carlisle – Out for 10 weeks with concussion

RB Branch, doubtful, turf toe, until further notice

I do the follow roster adjustments.

1. Deactivate Branch until he is healed, Johnstone starts
2. I place C Carlisle on IR. We’ll have C Manning step up.
3. I deactivate QB Guymon and start Ben Swift
4. I deactivate OG Bodell, and start OG David Drake
5. I sign RT Eugune Finch off FA

Hey, at least we won though!

Week 11 – We lose 41-24 to the Chargers. We had 262 yards passing, 2:0 from two QBS King had 130 of those and a score, and WR Whalen the other score. Johnstone was 13 for 42 and a score on the ground. Picks by Clayton and CB Felker. FF by Tubbs recovered by Clayton. 5 KRB by Torres

No injury updates

Week 12 – We lose 14-26 to the Eagles. QB Swift was 20 of 41, 148 and 2:1. King and Frederick with scores. 2 GG by Sanderson, 1 each by Rivera and CB Henderson, and Recoveries by DE Benton,Clayton and Crawford.

FB Buckner is out for the rest of the season with a busted knee. I toss him on IR. And I sign FB Omar Nixon to my roster.

Week 13 – We get back to winning with a37—10 drubbing of the Bengals. MOM is Cobb with a sack, FF, Fum Rec, returned for a TD. RB Johnstone adds ground scores, Swift is 23 of 31, 219, and 1:1, hitting RB Nicky Willis for a score. 5 KRB by OG Laird.

In injury news, CB Tubbs is out for a month with a calf injury.

Week 14 – We beat three-win Dallas strongly 44-19. MOM os Johnstone with 2 TDs on the ground and 2 more rec. Swift was 22 of 29, 230 and 2:1. Picks by Flemming, FS Cornelius Kaplan (returned for score) and LB Tubbs (returned for TD too).

We have some more injuries news:

WR Thomas Hatcher, out with a calf muscle for a few weeks

TE Jake Brownse, out for 5 weeks. I toss him on IR. I sign random TE Jose Horn.

QB Guymon returned. I’ma stick with Swift for now.


Week 15 – We lose 16-14 to the Broncos. Swift was not good with 19 of 30 for 131 and 0:2. Johnstone held to just 42 yards on the ground and as core. CB Felker with 1 pick returned 98 yards for a scor eto keep it close. 4 KRB by Laird, no injury news

Week 16 – We win 23-10 vs the Redskins. MOM is DE Amos Benton with 2.5 sacks, an he recovered a FF by Cobb too. Browning with a pick. Swift is 17 for 26, 138 and 1:1, hitting Frederick for 90 yards and TE Perrone for a score. Swift rushes for a score as well.

LB Crawford is questionable but I’ll start him anyway. If we win next week, then we win the AFC West.

Week 17 – We head to Oakland to face the 3-12 Raiders. They would love to play spoiler on us. We lose 13-23 to finish 10-6. We have a pick by Flemming, Swift was 11 of 28 for 162 and 1:1. He hit WR King for that score.

Denver won, so they won the AFC West. At 10-6, we are a wild card.

Ready for the playoffs Kansas City?

The 2029 (and 30) NFL Playoffs:

AFC:

#1 Ravens, 12-4
#2 Colts, 11-5
#3 Pats, 10-6
#4 Broncos, 10-6
#5 Steelers, 10-6
#6 Chiefs, 10-6

That’s a pretty even field. Everybody has double digits, 4 are 10 wins, and no one has more than 2 more than the least, so pretty open I’d think. (The same is true in the NFC where 4 teams are 10-6, one is 9-7, and the top seed 11-5).

Wild Card Weekend:

We head to New England. Denver hosts the Steelers

In the NFC – LA hosts the G Men and Carolina the 49ers


We lose 13-15. RB Lorey was MOM and we had Swift with 23 of 42, 167, 1:1, and 47 on the ground. WR King with the score. 1 FF and 2 FumRec by OLB Flemming, and 1 FF by Crawford. 2 Sacks by Crawford too.


Rams 35, Giants 24
Denver 17, Pittsburgh 10
49ers 6, Panthers 3

Week 2 –

Indy hosts Denver
LA heads to Chicago
New England at Baltimore
San Fran at Phily

Indy wins 31, 12
Chicago wins 34-20
New England wins 21-17
San Fran wins 10-9

And that brings up:

Week 3, Conference Championships

Pats at Colts
49er at Beats

In both cases, away teams are favored a bit.

But it doesn’t matter. The home teams both win, Colts 21-7, Bears 28-20

And that sets up your Colts vs Bears Super Bowl

Colts 19
Bears 3

Colts win. Good jorb!

Season awards....get ready to hold onto your butts:

Defensive Player of the Year: OLB Randall Flemming
Defensive Rookie of the Year: OLB Randall Flemming

All Pro First Team: DE Nicky Cobb, OLB Randall Flemming

League’s Fastest Man: CB Damon Henderson

Well, the era of the Flemming has begun.

Stats:

Passing –

Guymon, 156 of 259, 1833, 13:4; Swift 143 of 238, 1441, 8:7.

WR King – 891 yards, 4 scores, 67 grabs
TE Perrone, 58 catches, 2 scores 539
WR Frederick, 43, 641, 2
WR Hatcher, 13 games, 37, 544, 7 scores

Rush – RB Johnstone, 192 for 695, 3.62 ypc, 9 scores; RB Branch, 111 for 527,4.75 ypc, 1 score

King had PR RET TD. I missed that. Good job King.

K Elijah Fields, 27 of 32, long of 58, 41/42 PAT
P Luther Michi, 98 punts, 44 in 20, 46.8 avg.

P Avg was 6th best in league vs a guy who never had better than 16th previously

Defense:

DE Cobb, 13 sacks, 5 blocks, 16 hurries, 10 QBKD, 4 FF , 2 FumRec,
DT Sterne, 6.5 sacks, 2, 7
DE Benton, 6.5 sacks, 2, 31 hurries and 23 QBKD – Benton led all players in hurries by Nine, and was 2nd in QBKd, I was hoping for a bigger nod, but people care more about sacks than anything else , 4 FF, 3 FumRec,

LB Flemming, 5 sacks, 115 solo tack, 19 ass, 1 block, 10 hurries, 4 QBKD, 6 picks, 9 pasdef
LB Crawford, 5 sacks, 6 hurr, 1 abkd, 5 FF, 1 FumRec, 1 pick, 4 pasdef,

Flemming led my team in tackles and picks

Coverage:

SS Clayton – 4 picks, 1 INT RET, 13 pas def
FS Kaplan – 3 picks, 15 pas def, 1 INT RET TD
CB Felker – 2 and 6 pasd
CB Henderson – 1 int, 9 pasdef


Block?

OT Torres, 30 KRB, 1 pac, 14 sacks
OG Laird, 29, 0 and 5
OG Bodell, 9 games, 21 and 3 sacks allows
OT Divirgilio, 14, 0 and 14.



I need a good QB to make this team really work. My defense is getting to a good place quickly. I just need a little more from my QB. I’m not even getting early Arledge numbers from these two former #1 picks at QB.

Team Awards:

Off. Play of the Year: OG Bodell – Until he went down with injury, he was 5th in the league in KRB and on pace to have a great season, and with just 9 starts, he still finished 3rd on my team with KRB . Good job Bodell!

Def. Player of the Year: LB Flemming – I hate to give it to a rookie, but dude gets Defensive Player of the Year for the league, Dude gets the same award for my team.

Sp. Teams. Play of the Year: P Michi -Everybody had a good year, but Michi was the most improved from previous seasons, with a much higher % of punts inside the 20 and better average as well.

Rookie of the Year: SS Clayton – Had a very good year. Only 3 safeties had more picks in the league.

Heart Award: CB Browning – He was deactivated for the first 12 games, came in due to injury, was just a dimeback on one of my many formations, and still notched a pick on just 18 pass plays for the season. He made himself felt!

End of the Year:

Perform – 63
Value – 61
Profit – 62
Roster – 50
Score – 61

New Hall fo Famer – Luke Kuechly, Joey Horner, and C Travis Frederick. Horner was one of the major pieces of my Cleveland juggernaut, and an undrafted house:


Horner – 3 rings, 120 sacks, All Pro 5 times, Defensive Rookie of the year, Defensive Player of the Year in 2017. He was an undrafted guy who was always in the low 60s or so but played very well. He was 40/62 when I grabbed him, and then grew into 65/65 entering year 2. Was ever one of these 70s or 80s studs. But he played like it!

Welcome to the HOF Horner!

Only 20 players are in the HOF right now. And, Horner came in the first year of this dynasty so...I hope we’ll see others soon! Horner is the first of that lot to make it to the HOF. Unless you count OT Joe Thomas

Frederick was made by the PC, and was All Pro 7 times, and finished with 414 KRB.


Retirements of note:

CB Browning and OT Torres are heading out there.

From others?

DE Julio Stanton, another in that era of my dynasty, and the best DE in the league during his era.
QB Derek Carr, retires as legend of the game
FL Bernard ODonnell, 10113 yards, 2 All Pros,
LG Jeffrey Erickson, 355 KRB, 3 time All Pro
DE Darryl Thomason – 98 sacks, 3 All Pros, 1 Super Bowl MVP, 1 Ring
SS Charles Winter, 46 picks, 93 pasdef, 2 All Pros, 1 Def Play of the Year in 2025.


LT Shon Coleman, spent his entire career with my Browns, 384 KRB, 21 pansacks, 91 sacks allowed, 5 Rings, 4 All Pros.

Will Coleman make my HOF? Stanton certainly will with 2 DPotY and 7 All Pros

Longtime LS Bo Newsome for my Browns team

Value:

We are 12th worst stadium, the worst roster, 8th worst support, 14th best economy, 5th lowest value

We made 26 mill and improved to 87.6% attendance

Staff Draft:

We pick 22nd.

I make no changes to my staff

We have 42 players under contract. Anyone I want to franchise now? Only 4 UFAs – QB Guymon, LB Rivera, RT Divirgilio, and FB Nixon

We have the 21st and 22nd picks in the 1st round, no 2nd rounders, and then picks from there. Now, if I can get some quality to drop like they did last year with my FS and LB and even that DE who was close, I’ll be happy.

Here’s who I need to start:

Qb
Maybe Rb, but only if the right one comes down my path
OT
OT
Great Cb

And I’d take a stud stud at OG, LB, or FS

The draft seems to include a ton of different players. I make some interviews for top flash guys like WR, D Line, and more. It’s a top heavy WR draft, two strong CBs at the top, and others. But not the deep OTs that I would hope for this year.

I sign RFAs – MLB Lujan, C Lowe, LG Wilkes, RT Finch and RB Willis. I am 60 mill under the cap and rom for 48 mill.

Anyone is the last year of their contract I need to reup? Yes:

I extend P Michi, LS Zirn, OG Bodell, OG Laird, SE King, OG Drake, FL Frederick

I hand a 3 year, 39 mill deal to DE Amos Benton and that’s his first pro deal for us

I leave C Manning, TE Gretsky, and RBs Johnstone and Branch in their final year. QB Swift too.

Alright, FA Time:

Who do I like as a good target?

LT Darryl Raymond, best OT in FA, 50s guy, 3 years, 11 mill

RB Ernest Barrett, 3 years, 10 mill

FB Michael Bradford, 3 years, 7.25 mill

WILB Ken Rivera, 2 years, 5 mill


Week 2 – We sign RB Barrett and LB Rivera

Week 3 – Raymond is next

Week 6 – Guymon heads to Carolina

Week 9 – FB Bradford signs

Ready for the draft?

The 2030 NFL Amateur Draft!!!

Now, who do I like?

A couple of cool things. The 20th and 21st picks are worth 1650 points, and the 6th pick is 1600, so technically, I could swap up if I needed to.

The best player goes at 1.1 CB Brady Runnels to Dallas.

Then the rest of the top five is the stud QB I loved at 1.2, then CB, WR, and DT round it up. Now there is a lot of talent left. Top Ot, solid WRs, and such. This stud WLB ho looks a bit of a copy of my guy from last year, and more.

I’m fine at WR right now, no need to trade up for a good one. Let’s slow roll.

1.6 DT
1.7 WR – best one
1.8 – WR
1.9 – TE
1.10 – CB

Now I’m not sure who would fall. But I love the untaken LT BJ Fisk. We interviewed him as underrated, good combines, bars, and low volatility. What’s the 1.11 worth?

1250. And the person who holds it is San Diego. They need O Line help so they’d potentially go. I was offering my two firsts for their 1st and 2nd, and they won’t go, even if I offer a 4th this year. So no thanks. Will Fisk keep falling? Nope. They take him 1.11.

1.12 – WR
1.13 – CB
1.14 – T
1.15 – DE
1.16 – WR
1.17 – TE
1.18 – WR
1.19 – C
1.20 – S

Alright, that leaves me my 21 and 22 picks. I want to go BAP to insure the quality of these picks. Who is that?

OG Liam Guzy
WLB DeAndre Jacobs

Those are the two best players. But I have players on my roster with talent. I don’t need LBs and OGs right now. I need OTs and QBs. What’s the goal? Top flight talent? Or best player of need? Talent. I take them both. I’ll likely move Jacobs inside and Guzy could replace one of my old OGs or perhaps even move to OT.

See you in the 3rd


3rd maybe Shaquille Justice, OLB? Could I have too many? I scouted him, he came back As Scouted, but red flag. But frankly, I don’t need another quality LB right now. Even a red flagged one. Hmmm.. how about CB Darren Moschetti? He’s one of the highest players still on the board.

4th time! I like DT Alonzo Stuart here. Seems to have enough to matter. I stick with helping my lines with 5th rounder QB Conrad Rhodes and 6th LT Darryl Skae

7th round – FL Zane Rood and WLB Sam Danieles


Alright, and we are done!

Training Camp!

I cut QB Harvey, FB Buckner, RB Burks, TE Thomason, FL Collins, C Rasby, OG Shepard, RB Vance, OG Wilkes, DT Lincoln, DE Murphy,

We go 3-0-1 with a 20-20 tie in the 3rd game in the pre-season

C Manning dropped a bunch, so I cut him and LB Rivera too.

Let’s look at my QB situation.

Preseason I started my new Rhodes. He grew when I drafted him from 48 to 51 in camp and 52 potential now, although a lot of players only grow once in their first year and then are locked in

Our victories were 36-10, 30-17, 27-14, and then 20-20 tied. Actually, nm, my coaches stupidly played backup Brock Snyder despite me listing Rhodes as my starter. I have nothing to go on now. Dumb coaches.

I should have moved up and grabbed the 2n d pick and taken that great Qb. He’s 79 potential heading into the season and looks solid. Ah well. I’ma start Rhodes, because we got nothing from Swift earlier. RB Branch busted, Barrett will start. I left Crawford inside and keeping my rookie at his natural spot to see if I can develop him there.



You can see some fun players about to hit this thang

Here we are:

Week 1 – We open with a OT loss to the Broncos 16-13. Rhodes was 18 of 29, 214, and 1:0 and hit King for that score. Barrett was 20 for 71 on the ground. 2 FF by Crawford. 3 sacks by Flemming. 4 KRB by new signee LT Raymond and 3 by rookie Guzy, starting at RT.

No major injury news.

Week 2 – We lose 29-33 to the Rams. Pick by CB Henderson, returned for a score. FF by Henderson. Rhodes was 19 of 28, 192 and 2:0, hitting both WR Frederick and Hatcher for scores. RB Johnstone added a score on the ground. We were held sockless, but OG Bodell had 6 KRB abd 3 each for Guzy and OG Laird.

One minor injury of note.

With a concussion, Hatcher is out for a few weeks. I bench him


Week 3 – Get ready. Rhodes just had my first, “Brandan Arledge” game. We beat the Jags 30-12. Rhodes was MVP of the game with 21 of 26, 304 yards, 3:0 and hit TE Perrone, RB Johnstone, and WR King for scores. Picks by Flemming and FS Kaplan. You know how Arledge would look in the 40s, but often play better. Rhodes just played better.

Post game, CB Henderson is doubtful for a month, CB Felker questionable with a hammy, and so forth.

Week 4 – We barely edge the Ravens 24-23 on the road. Mom is Rhodes, with 18 of 23 for 178 and 1:0, and hit TE Greysky for a score. Johnstone added another on the ground and then S Kaplan got a pick returned for a score and S Clayton another pick.

No major injury news. We are 2-2.

Week 5 – BYE

Thatcher healed over BYE

Week 6 – We lose 20-31 to the Bengals. Rhodes tossed his first picks on the season, and had a 19 of 35, 287 and 2:2 game, hitting both RB Barret and Hatcher for scores. FF by Cobb. 3 KRB by Carlisle.

No major injury news again.

Week 7 – We win 13-10 vs the Raiders. MOM was Flemmign with 2.5 sacks. Picks by Kaplan and Clayton, Kaplan returned for score. Rhodes wasn’t great – 16 of 27, 227, and 0:1. 5 KRB by OG Laird

CB Henderson is back


Week 8 – We win 30-24 over the Browns. Rhodes is MOM with 17 of 29, 239, 2:0 and rushed for another score. King had 126 yards and a score, and TE Perrone the other TD. All of my starting O Line had 3 KRB. Creepy I know.

Week 9 – We win 16=13 over the Steelers. MOM is SS Clayton, with 2 picks, and ILB Sanderson with the other. 5 KRb by Bodell, 3 by LT Raymond. Rhodes was ineffective, with 14 of 21, 120, and 0:0. Barrett rushed for our lone score.

At the midway point, only Felker is injured, and I have a 5-3 record despite some lower stats by a lot of my stars. DE Cobb has been nowhere. Just 3 sacks on the first half. Rhodes tends to spread the ball out a lot, so none of my receivers have a lot of yards. I just have 1 100 yard game with 1 players.

2nd half, here we come

Week 10 – We lose 19-24 to the Broncos. Rhodes was just 19 of 32, 195, and 0:0, but he rushed for a score and TE Perrone had 119 yards. It’s like Cobb heard me and got 2 sacks.

Week 11 – We edge the two win Chargers 31-24 in their place on a last minute TD drive by Rhodes, MOM with 21 of 30, 2:1, 282 yards, and hit both RBs Barrett and Johnstone for scores, and Barrett added 2 on the ground. FF and 3 sacks by Cobb. He clearly hear me. Clearly. I gotta write more badly about others. Where are you CB Felker? Get me more picks! FF by Flemming and Tubbs too. 4 KRb by Carlisle and Raymond, 3 by Bodell

We are 6-4

Week 12 – Good news? We beat Arizona 21-9, 3 scores each , but we got TDs. Kaplan with a 74 yard return off a pick for a score. MOM is DE Amos Benton, with 3.5 sacks. 3 KRB for Raymond. Rhodes was 17 of 29, 122, and 1:0 and hit Perrone for a score. Barrett rushes for the last score. Pick bt DT Sterne too. FF by Clayton. Okay, here’s the bad...

Out = FS Sanford
Out – LB Dexter Tubbs
Questionable – Felker still
Questionable – Carlisle
Questionable – OG Laird

I make changes tp my roster to accommodate

Week 13 – We have a chance to go to 8-4 and then.....miss is and wind up 7-5 after losing 17-24 to the 9-3 Jets. Rhodes explodes with 16 of 30, 106 and 0:2. Looking like a rookie. Barrett rushes for a score. Fleming recovers a Fumble for a score. 4 KRB by Bodell and 3 by Carlisle.

Week 14 – Next we host the 10 win Seahawks. We actually win 27-24. WR Hatcher with a Kickoff return for a score. RB Barrett rushes for a score, but OG Bodell is MOM with 6 KRB and a 2 pancakes. Rhodes? 18 of 27, 177, 1:1. RB Johnstone with the score. Picks by Kaplan, Dalton, and Flemming.

No injury news

Week 15 – The Raiders beat us 22-17, and knock Rhodes out with a concussion. Swift finished the game with 14 of 19, 268 and 2:0. Hatcher and Frederick with scores, and Frederick has 111 yards. 2 picks by CB Dalton. Kaplan and Clayton with FF,

Week 16 – We with and Swift has his best day ever for us, and is MOM with 20 of 36, 259, and 3:1 and hit Perrone for 100 yards and a score, and King and Johnstone for scores. SF falls 24-10. FF bu Sterne, on his 2 sacks day, recovered by Kaplan.

We have two major injuries with O Line starters – Carlisle and Laird. I place Carlisle on IR. I sign back LG Gerald Wilkes.

We’ll be starting C Lowe and OG Drake until they come back. I keep Swift tossing

Week 17 – We are 9-6, Oakland and Denver are too. So this week’s game really matters. There are 3 other 9-6 teams in the AFC, so if we wind up 9-7, I doubt were’ making it in. Even if we win, it’s possible we may not make it in if we have a lot of competition. Today we play 4-11 San Diego, so all we have to do is hold serve.

We do. We win 30-13. Pick by SS Clayton. 3 KRB by Guzy. Swift was 17 of 34 for 318 abd 2:2 and nailed Hatcher and Barrett for scores, and Hatcher was 105 yards and had a kick return for a score, Hatcher game MVP.

No major injuries...

The 2030 (and 31) NFL Playoffs

The AFC:

13-3 Jets
11-5 Titans
10-6 Ravens
10-6 Broncos
10-6 Texans
10-6 Chiefs

Again, we are 10-6, and again we have a loss to the equally 10-6 Broncos, and again we head on the road.

Games this week:

Chiefs at Ravens
Texans at Broncos

Rams at Falcons
Giants at Vikings

I’ma leave in my hot hand of Swift and see what he can do.


Alright, here we go...

Well he can suck, We lose 33-3. Swift was 13 of 25 for 123 and 0:4.

Wow Swift you suck so much.

Denver wins 16-9
Falcons 17-13
Giants 42-27


Week 2 –

Falcons at Eagles
Ravens at Jets
Broncos at Titans
Giants at Seahawks

And Seattle wins 23-20
Jets 27-21
Falcons 23-13
Broncos 35-34

And that brings up...


Week 3 Conference Champs:

Atlanta heads into Seattle and....loses 25-20.
Denver heads into New York and.....wins 28-25


2030 Super Bowl –

Broncos vs Seahawks

Seattle wins 21-14

Good job ‘hawks

Awards:

Defensive Player of the Year – OLB Flemming

All Pro-1st Team – DT Lenny Sterne – long overdue. Flemming. SS Randall Clayton

All Pro-2nd Team – OG Bodell,

Did a certain S Kaplan, mine get robbed? We’ll see. If Clayton had had another pick or two, especially for returned, he may have pushed out Flemming.

Stats:



See my pass stats here. Swift is leaving us, and I’m not spending that much to keep him. Can Rhodes carry the burden from here on up?


Barrett got 1015 yards, on 269 carries, and a low low 3.77 ypc. 5 rush TDs.


Receiving:


Perrone led my team in yards and catches and TDs. Pretty good year for him. You can see how much Rhodes spreads that ball out, but Perrone was a major emergency for Rhodes here.

WR Hatcher had 2 KR RET TDs
K Fields was 27 fr 32, and 37 for 38 PAT and long of 55
P Michi, 86 punts, 32 in 20, 46,5 avg

Let me show you my D stats:


Flemming and Cobb each had 9.5 sacks, and Sterne was right there with 9. Denton looked good too. Once again, Flemmign led my team in tackles, and this time, not picks, but sacks.

Pass Cover:



5 picks each by Clayton and Kaplan. 5 was the most any player had this year in the league, I thought Kaplan’s league-leading 5 picks and 3 ret TDs was All Pro worthy. But I was clearly wrong. But the 16 pasdef for Flemming, again, a team leading number. CB Dalton good with 3 and 12,and don’t forget that Felker was limited by injury the whole season.

Bodell had 36 KRB, 2 pancakes, and 6 sacks allowed
OT Raymond, 32, 0, and 9 allow
OG Guzy, 28, 0 and 7
Carlisle, 14 games, 27, 0 and 4 allow
Laird, 14 games, 21, 0 and 5

Team Awards:


Off Player of the Year: TE Perrone – really put together a great year for us. Only 4 TEs had more receiving yards, and such. Good job Perrone!

Def. Player – LB Flemming. Duh.

Special Teams Player – WR Hatcher, with 2 KR RET RDs on the year. Nicely done sir! It’s harder in this era to get KR RET TD after they were hosed, so Hatcher really outperformed

Rookie of the Year: OG Guzy, started, and never was kept back

Heart Award – DE Lane – Our runs specialist had a good, solid year spelling our team, getting some pressure on the QB, and doing some damage. Good job Lane!


Flemming is clearly a monster...

The Flemming Watch –

In two years, this SLB has:

Two Defensive Player of the year awards

14.5 sacks
5 blockes
10 Hurries
219 solo tackles
44 Assists
27 QBKD
8 Ints,
25 PasDef
3 FF, 1 Fum Rec, 1 FR TD


In real life, only Watt, Lawrence Taylor, Singletary, Bruce Smith, Reggie White, Ray Lewis, and Joe Greene have more than 1 Defensive Player of the year, so that is elite company already. Only two – Watt and LT have 3. No one has more. So we have a guy who has his entire career to beat those record. Just 1 other rookie, LT, won the award their rookie season.

How many teams in the league have 3-4 defenses right now? 22 of 32. Crazy trend. So, given that, I;m even more surprised that Flemming fell. I usually have issues getting my Lbs in my 4-3 formats All Pros and more, because you are competing against teams with 3-4 configurations and more players to complete against as well, so I found All Pros just harder to crack. I know how to get All Pro in the secondary or D Line, what to emphasize and more. But still, I’m impressed that Flemming was this good this fast.

End of Season:

Perform – 66
Value – 65
Profit – 64
Roster – 65

Score – 65

New Hall of Game entries –

QBs Dalton, Newton and Bridgewater
RB David Johnson
DE Joey Bosa and Leonard Williams

Retirements –

We lost no one o

Others of Note –

QBs Wentz, Jamison, Mariota


RB Diego Lorey – one of the architects of the Cleveland juggernaut – 3 rings, 4 All Pros, Off Rookie of the year, 12167 rushing yards, 84 rush scores. 4206 rec yards, 28 rec TDs.

Future HOF? I;m not sure... Hopefully!

FB Ralph Schuster, 3 rings, 5 All Pros, played for us (Browns) almost his whole career under they let him go to Green Bay last year.

WR Clayton Bradley, 11692 yards, 1 ring, 4 All Pros, league’s fastest man 2x.
WR Gabe Delany, 10425 yards, 2 All Procs,

Longtime OG for Browns, Norman Maurer retired.


Franchise Value -

14th least value
15th best roster
12th worst stadium
8th worst support
13th best economy

We made 53 mill
Rose to 91.4% attendance

Staff –

I give a raise to OC Steve Smith, and then....

Staff Draft. We grab 18th. I make no staff changes

We have 44 under roster. Anyone I want to tag?

My UFAs:

Swift, Willing, Dalton, Sanford, Gretsky, Branch, and Johnstone.

Nah, we’re good. I raise my prices

Free Agency, 2031

I move to FA and we draft 24th



This is the first time we have real potential targets for signing – CB Dana Cortez, from Cleveland is 72 and 5 years old and DE Kody Benson is 70, 6 years, and even SE Dan Mercado is 63 and 8, and so forth. We even have top flight kickers available.

I have a ton of money under the cap – 80 mill and 70 for new players. So I can chase pretty much anyone. I make offers to all three of my RFAs then, even a more than are pricier.


Anyone I want to keep?

P Michi by two more years
LS Zirn by a year
FL Hatcher – 4 year deal
C Lowe by another year

I hold onto players like C Carlisle, Crawford, Sanderson, SE King and such until after the draft, and perhaps even at the end of the pre-season games when I’ll know my roster better

Any major moves or changes with my roster? Jacobs didn’t do much, but he’s 64/80 now. WLB did not work out for him. I got to find somewhere for him to blow up.

Week 2 –

Do I want to fight for Cortez? Right now he’s at 115 mill for 5 years. Very, very, expensive. He;s entering the prime of his career, but he only has 16 picks and 24 pasdef, so he would underplay his abilities. He’d replace Henderson as my longterm starter at CB, and Henderson, at 52 skill, and 30 years of age in his 78th year, is in a very different place.

Cortez?

Will Cortez help shut folks down? Do I have too many good quality DBacks to make him work?

Other options for talent acquisition:

I need:

Starting QB only, backup otherwise

Starting RB

TE for depth
Top flight WR
Star CB

That’s it

I offer RB Dana Abrams, 3 years, 11.5 mill

I have a few players out there I need to bring in for big contracts coming up = namely Flemming, SS Clayton, and even K Bridges. But I have so much money right now, no reason not to chase Cortex, my old guy.

I make an offer for Dana Cortez – 5 years, 118 mill

He is tied with two other CBs at 72 as the best CB in the league. You gotta pay to play.

Week 3 – They both have signed


Alright, that’s serious fun. Our cap after we played that game is a simple 50 mill left, 42 after the draft. But again, I don’t want to blow that cash too easily. My cap for CB Cortez was simple – 21 mill for the first four years, and then 29 mill his final year. I wanted to keep it flat, as I had spent so much cash on him.

Here let me show you...

Here are the Cbs in this league, listed by potential ratings. I also put RB Adams up so you could see him too.





You can see Dana’s current high is better than everybody but 1 3rd year vet. Only 7 players in the league are at 70 or more potential, and Dana’s is pretty saucy.

Now, is there anyone else I want? Any other targets that make sense?

Now that his price dropped, I make an offer to bring back Ben, as my main or backup, for 2 years, 7 mill.

I am going to make a cool change, by the by for y’all. No more trading for picks. I can trade picks for players, or vice versa, but no more draft manipulations. I don’t want to get accused too much, right? Even if the trades are, technically, in the favor of those I made them with by points.

A lot of my solid backups are heading off. Do I want to fight to keep a CB Dalton? A RB Johnstone? A TE Gretsky?

I make a 6 mill, 2 year deal offer for Gretsky, and then I wont chase my good backup CBs, now that I overlaid Cortez over Henderson. I can drop Henderson to their role as nickel or sub for injury.

For depth:

1 S
1 CB
1 RB

And then starters at QB, maybe a over-the-top WR given the age and reduction of my core three, ditto OT, and then maybe one for FS much later. Kaplan is good, but 30.

Alright, anyone in FA that rubs my belly?

Nah

Week 5 – Johnstone heads to the Jets

Week 7 – Swift signs, Branch heads to Denver

Week 8 – Gretsky signs

Let me looksee the draftsee

I interview OTs, WRs, and QBs but find nothing. Nothing.

The 2031 NFL Amateur Draft


DT Giles Washington heads at 1.1 to Washington. Think it’s because of the name?


1.24 arrives, who do I like?

Two solid Lbs I can’t touch

A DE who looks just top class

A bunch of solid D Backs? SS Burks and move to FS?

RB Jerome Osterhaus?



Or a grower WR that has horrible bars and great just great combines, but without knowing where he’ll end up? Fastest player in the draft with 4.26 dash, reds in two other places, and two blues. But do I take him knowing he’s likely a long term project grower?

You know what? Why not? I currently have good WRs on my roster, so I’m not losing anything by growing him now, right? I know a lot of folks who play FOF who would take the gamble. It’s not my style, but that doesn’t mean he won’t work out either.

I take WR Curtis Holbert.


2.23?

C Carlton Sellers? LB Malachi Shea? RT Bozeman? CB Brooks? I like them all. But none of those are positions of need. Shea is the best by far, and I could keep Shea, my two 1st rounders, and Crawford and Tubbs here, and let Sanderson and others go. Shea is an inside LB. Looks great. I would never normally go C this high, you can always get quality later, and I have a starter who’s 59/59, but Sellers looks sexy, but not stud-level sexy that would lead to me pulling the trigger, just really, really good. Brooks is great as a backup, but is the weakest of these three, and could be a solid dime or nickel back later. He may only be a good, high or mid 50s, but with o weaknesses. RT Bozeman appears the best of the OT lot that is left.

So who and where?

I think when you get past the 50th pick in the draft, including here at 55, you have to take high talent that is this good when you see it. Shea is quality quality nice. I have to go with him. 1 red (speed) and 5 blue stats in the combine too.

3.22?

Bozeman is still on the board, oddly. Three other OTs went. I take Bozeman, and I don’t look back.

The 4th arrives and with it a few players I like such as DE Walter and FS Allen. But I need Safety help and FS too, so I can grab Allen as a backup, with some large potential bars

5th? C McCarthy is a solid pickup this late. Very few Centers went. 6th? OG Tim Banks. 7th? CB Louie Perry. Many of these later picks are showers, not growers. We’ll see if they fall or rise later on.

Holbert comes in 39/46. Just got to have faith in growing ness

That DE I liked in the 1st went the pick after me and is 36/76. Shea? 30/75 went three picks later.


Chicago has voted to move to...... Colorado Springs. That....makes no sense to me at all.

Now I had interviewed 6 QBs in this draft, all came back overrated or very overrated, and none had good bars to begin with. No QB came out with a potential higher than 54.

Late FA!

I have 58 players under contract. I don’t need to chase much:

I make offers to UFA RB Norbert Mabe, RB Gregory Wolfe,

I have holdouts by Perrone and Crawford.

Perrone is the 5th best TE in the league and wants to be paid like it. I signed him, long term, to a now below market salary, and he’s making 3 mill this year and 3.5 mill next. He wants 5 years 65 mill. I do it. That’s fair.

I’m not touching Crawford right now.

We’re good with my offers.

Week 2 – They all sign.

Pre Camp, here is where my rookies are:

39/46 Holbert
30/76 Shea
20/62 Bozeman
31/52 McCarthy
20/52 Allen
21/50 Parry
28/56 Banks

Draft Review B, no one on the Green page


In Holbert I trust....

Camping!


Crawford ended his hold out.

SE Holbert rises to 43/54

Other rookie related moves?

RT Bozeman fell to 25/54
C McCarthy to 36/60

No other major changes yet.

I cut LB Jack Kaplan; WR Rood,

We finish the preseason 3-1 and then I cut OT Divirglio, RG David Drake, CB Parrey dropped so I cut him

Major changes of rookies post camp –

Holbert now 47/63
OG Banks ebbed to 26/55
C McCarthy now 37/60
FS Allen rose to 28/60
Shea fell to 37/71


Bozeman is out for a few weeks

I am going to reverse this script. Swift continues to look better on paper than Rhodes. And last year, other than the playoff egg, Swift was playing better. So, will Swift be the better QB this year? Let’s find out.

Here’s muh roster:




Anyone I want to extend? Only Crawford and Carlisle start for me. Carlisle can be replaced by people on the roster . Tubbs and Sanderson are buried in the middle. But Crawford is solid. But he is now banished to the WILB spot, the least likely to do anything spot on a 3-4, because of the additions of Shea, Flemming, and Jacobs. We’ll see if he does well this year there, but Sanderson didn’t last year.

We’re good!

Week 1 – We beat Oakland 27-20, and MOM is LB Crawford. It’s like he heard me. Sack, pick, FF by DT Stearne, picks by LB Shea in his first game, CB Felker, and SLB Flemming, returned for a score. 3 KRB each by Carlisle and Bodell. Swift was anemic with 18 of 24, 1:1 and hit Perrone for that score.

Swift you are going to have a quick hook. You know that, right?

Duzy is questionable for a bit.
OT Raymond out or 7 weeks with a torn elbow tendon

OT Darryl Skae will start for him until his return

Week 2 – We lose to the Pack 24-13. Swift, 15 of 33, 167 and 1:2. WR King with the score. Picks by Flemming and Kaplan. 4 KRB by Bodell

No injury news.

Week 3 – We beat Buffalo by 16. Swift is MOM with 20 of 30, 239 and 3:!, and hit Hatcher, WR Colbert, and RB abrams for scores, and Abraham, had 18 for 74 and a score on the ground. CB Felker rocked 2 picks. Carlise and Laird with 3 KRB each.

No major injury news. Swift, you got a reprive. Don’t screw it up.

Week 4 – BYE

Week 5 -Tennessee falls before us 30-7. MOM is Flemming with 1 picks, 1 FF and 2.5 sacks. Henderson and Jacobs with picks too. Swift was 20 for 35, 272, 2:0 and nailed Hatcher and Frederick for scores. Both Abrams and Barrett rushed for scores.

With a concussion, backup C Tevin Lowe is out for 10 weeks. I consider IR, but I go deactivations for now.

Week 6 – We beat the Texans 24-20. MOM is Swift with 19 of 33, 239 and 1:0, hitting RB Abrams for a score, and Hatcher and Barrett rushed for scores. Abrams was knocked out and is out for a few weeks. Picks by Cortez and Henderson.

Week 7 – We edge the Colts 24-21. MOM is Cortez with a pick returned 80 yards for a score. Kaplan a pick as well. Swift was 17 of 28, 230 and 2:1 and hit Frederick for two scores.

Week 8 – We lose to the undefeated Jaguars 10-35. Swift? 13 of 26, 146, 1:1, and Frederick with the score. Flemming with a pick. DE Benton with a FF that DE Cobb recovered. 2.5 sacks by Benton.

OT Raymond is back from injury.

Week 9 – We beat Oakland 24-10. MOM is Flemming with 4 sacks, 1 FF. Cobb had 2 FF and 2.5 sacks. Swift was 17 of 28, 205, and 3:1, and Frederick had 1 TD and Hatcher 2. INT by Sanderson RB Adams is back next week from injury.

FS Allen is out with a concussion for a few weeks.

Week 10 – We crush the Broncos 37-10. MOM is Flemming with 2 FF and 4 sacks. Pick by SS Kaplan returned for a score. 2 picks by LB Jacobs, 1 returned for a score. Swift is 20 of 35, 262, 2:1. Frederick both scores. Barrett rushes for a score too.

My defense is just crazy good right now.

OT Skae out for 20 weeks with torn biceps. I IR him and sign LT Myron Anderson, a 41/41 guy to my squad.


Week 11 – We beat San Diego 23-13. MOM is OG Laird, with 6 KRB, and Bodell had 5. Adams had 112 yards, and Barrett had 2 rushing scores. (Barrett is my short yardage RB). Swift was not with 14 of 19, 129 and 0:0. Picks by LB Crawford and Henderson. 2 FF by DT Sterne, 1 by Flemming, and 1 FumRec by Cobb


Week 12 – We win strongly, 30-7 over the Lions. We have some odd statlines, here – look:

QB Ben Swift, MOM, 20 for 30, 191 yards, 1:0, and then 8 carries, 26 yards, and 2 scores on the groun
RB Barrett, 15 for 104 yards
RB Abrams, 14 for 89

So we had more than 200 yards on the ground

Perrone had 99 yards

Cortez with 2 picks

FF by Sterne, Rec by Flemming

2 sacks by Sterne, Cobb, and 2.5 by Flemming

5 KRB by Bodell, 4 by Guzy, 3 by Raymond and Carlisle

Lots of stuff in this game.

QB Rhodes is questionable for a month

Week 13 – We blow out the Steelers 30-6. MOM is Swift with 24 of 30, 240 and 3:0 and hit Frederick for 109 and 2 scores and Hatcher for the other score. Abrams was 20 for 97 and a TD. SS Clayton with a pick. 2 sacks each by Flemming and Benton. 1 FF and Rec by Benton. 1 FF by Clayton, recovery by Cobb. Laird and Duzy each with 4 KRB

Week 14 – We lose to the Bears 16-19. Swift was 29 of 42, 340 and 1:2 and rookie Curtis Holbert had 107 yards and the lone score. FF by Clayton, Rec by Felker. 3 KRB by Guzy

A few backups are returned from injury, like C Lowe.

Week 15 – We win 40-37 in a crazy game. Tied 34-34, heads to OT, and we both make FGs on opening drive, and Fields finally gets us the winner with 1 minute left. Fields was 5 for 5. Despite the length of the game, no picks, no sacks, and no fumbles. Abrams was 21 for 102 and 1 score, and Swift was MOM with 38 of 52, 429 and 2:1, and hit Hatcher and Holbert for scores and Hatcher rushed for another. 7 KRB by Laird, 3 by Guzy and Raymond

At 11-3, we are tied with the Jags for lead in the AFC. We won the AFC West this week. Denver, at 7-7, is the next closest team. We do not have a bye yet, there are competitors in other places too.


Week 16 – The Vikings fall 13-23. Mom is Swift with 16 of 29, 191 and 1:0, ad 1 rush TD too. He his Hatcher for the score. 2 picks by CB Felker, 1 each by Kaplan and Jacobs. Abrams with 16 for 101 yards, and Duzy had 3 KRB. 2 sacks by Cobb

TE Perrone broke some ribs and will be out for a month. Gretsky starts.


Week 17 – We smash the Broncos 28-3. MOM Is Swift with 24 of 35, 3:0, and 408 yards, and he hit Frederick for 123 yards a 1 score, Hatcher for 100 yard, and Holbert and Gretsky for 1 score each. RB Adams added a score on the ground. 3 sacks by LB DeAndre Jacobs. 4 KRb by Guzy.


We finish 13-3 and won the top seed in the AFC and a bye

The 2031 NFL Playoffs

AFC:

1. Kansas City, 13-3
2. Bengals, 12-4
3. Jags, 11-5
4. Jets, 10-6
5. Steelers, 10-6
6. Ravens, 9-7

We have a blisteringly good defense, and Flemming continues to play just lights out top flight football.


WC Round –

Giants at Chicago
49ers at Seahawks
Ravens at Jags
Steelers at Jets


Baltimore with 27-17
Jets win 16-10
Seahawks 20-3
Bears 30-23


Setting up...


Week 2 –

We host the Ravens
Cincinnati hosts the Jets

Reskins host Seahawks
Falcons host Bears

Can my defense continue to smother folks?

Yes we can. We win 32-24. Appropriately, Flemming is MOM. 3 sacks and a FF. Picks by LB Tubbs and CB Henderson. Swift was 21 of 30, 252, and 2:1. He hit Hatcher for 130 yards and a score, ad RB Abrams for the other TD. Abrams rushed 19 for 79 and a score. 2.5 sacks by Cobb, and 1.5 by De Lane. 4 KRB by Guzy


Atlanta over Chicago, 27-13
Bengals over Jets 27-21
Seattle over Washington 20-14

We do have an injury. Dana Cortez is out for a few weeks, and Henderson will be stepping into the lineup.


Week 3 – Conference Champs

We host Cincinnati

Atlanta hosts Seattle

Is this going to be my first Super Bowl appearance with this generation of the Chiefs? Am I about to make it?

Nope

We lose 16-13.

Had to be Swift right? Well....21 of 39, 0:0, 215 yards ain;t amazing. Barrett rushed for a score, and Abrams had 18 for 101. 2 sacks by Cobb, no picks, no FF, no turnovers at all. Laird and Carlisle with 3 KRB each.

Weak game.

13-3 at the beginning of the fourth, but it was tied at regulation after Cincy scored 10 in the 4th to bring them to 13-13, and then a FG to win it. They willed it.

Atlanta 23, Seattle 7



Super Bowl

Atlanta vs Cincy

Atlanta wins 27-6

Alright, Season Awards?


Defensive Player of the Year: SLB Randall Flemming

All-Pro 1st Team: Flemming, SS Clayton
All-Pro 2nd Team: OG Laird

Fastest Man: WR Curtis Holbert


STATS!


Swift was an adequate starter. 3800 yards, 93.8 QB Rating, 27:12 TD:Int ratio. He was fine. I started Rhodes last year hoping he’d grow, but he didn’t but Swift had the QB spot from here until I can secure a real QB or a ufa that I was to try out as Otto Graham

Rushes –

Abrams – 203 for 878, 4.33 ypc, 4 scores
Barrett – 191 for 620, 3.25 ypc, 6 scores
Swift, 67 for 358, 5.34 ypc, 3 scores
WR Hatcher, 9 for 92 2 scores

We had a lot of yards with my Adams and Barrett committee, and Adams was injured too, if you’ll recall. Abrams is better, and I want to give him more of the ball moving forward though

CATCH:


Frederick really caught on as the receiver of choice for Swift this year. We had a lot of noise in the WR corp. With Rhodes, TE Perrone was the key receiver, but he’s not Swift’s. You can see the considerable drop in targets and catches, thus in yards and TDs. We use Hatcher like an athlete, with him as a returner, running reverses, and stretching the field. So he’s always a strong guy, and I like him for it. King was my 4th WR and got nothing. Swift had other targets and never cared. Holbert is the future of this receiving group.

K Fields was 33 of 43, long of 55, 45/45 PAT
P Michi, 90 punts, 46.3 avg, 43 in 20 almost half

Check out DEF STATS!


Flemming had 20.5 sacks. The next highest in the NFL was 13.5, so he led the league by SEVEN sacks. DE Benton;s 10 sacks, and DE Jacobs finally had a good season. I was afraid he might have busted after he had a poor rookie year, but he came back hard. DE Cobb with a down year, and Sterne looked good. Lane is ironic. He is a run stopping DE with a 26 pass rush tech, and 66 strength. But he got 4 sacks spelling others.


Pass cover!!!


5 picks by CB Felkner and 4 each bu Kaplan, Cortez, Flemming, and Jacobs was a solid year picking the ball. Genderson with 3? Crawford with 2? Clayton with 1? Shea with one? Good stuff. But I was surprised to see Clayton with an All Pro. Why? 1 pick? He led my team with 16 pasdef. And tied two others for most in the league. Just 2 FFs. I don’t know if that was enough, but I’ll take it. Cortez certainly fit in, with 4 picks and 1 returned for a score.


Blocking:

OG Laird – 40 KRB, 0 pancakes, 4 sacks allowed
OG Bodell – 28, 5, and 6 sacks
OG Guzy – 28, 0 and 2 sacks
C Carlisle – 24, 0 and 2
OT Raymond, 9 starts, 13, 0, and 7


Laird was 2nd in the league in KRB, and other than Raymond, reduced sack numbers too, which is nice to see

The Flemming Watch

Year 3, 3 Defensive Player of the Years:

338 solo tacks, 82 assists
35 sacks
8 locks, 23 hurries, 52 QBKD
12 picks, 35 pas def, 1 INT RT TD
10 FF, 2 FumRec, 1 FR RT TD





Alright, hello 2032 –

Team Perform – 83
Value – 69
Profit – 66
Roster - 68

Score – 71

Hall of Fame – Andrew Luck and OG Ali Marpet are it. Not sure why or how Marpet made it. Low KR numbers, no rings, just 3 All Pros


Value:

19th highest value
5th best roster
9th worst support
12th worst stadium
12th best economy

We made 63 mill
95.3% occupancy


Retirements

We have two. One I think we all saw coming, WR King. The other is OG Bodell, just 31, having a late career renaissance with me, not sure why he retired.

Here, let me show you what I mean with Bodell. Started in 2023. Did not start. In 2024 started 8 games, had 8 KRB. 2025, 16 starts, 21 KRB. Then just 12 the next year. In 2027, 19. Then I arrive in 2028. We have him with 32, 21, 36, and 28, and the 21 was an injury aborted season with just games. He was an All Pro with me in 2030, and never lost a step statistically. Not sure why he would retire at 31.

We’ll have to replace Bodell

Other retirements of note:

QB Dak Prescott, retured as Legend of the Game

RB Floyd Conley, 10836 yards, 75 TDs, 2 All Pros,

SE Blake King – 10417 yards, 3 All Pros, faded by the time I arrived, and just never had a good QB chucking at him. Was always a top 5 or 6 or 7 WR, sort of like a certain Larry Fitzgerald in Arizona.

SE Dustin Wright, 4 rings, former one of my Browns, 3 All Pros, 12874 yards, 86 scores – Hall of Fame? Probably

C Malachi Cortez, 4 All Pros, 414 KRb, 68 pancakes, 35 sacks allowed

DE Michael Carlisle, 135 sacks, 7 All Pros, Def Player of Year in 2024. Definitely Canton bound

SS Devon Reynolds, 6 time All Pro, Def Player of the Year 2022, 38 picks, 147 pasdef,

SS Brandon Carlisle, 5 time AL Pro, 41 picks, 85 pasdef

SS Scottie Kempthorn, one of mine for a while with Cleveland, got a few rings, retired

Coaches:

I send missives to raise and retain four of my staff

Coach Draft-

We pick 16. I skip HC, I do hire a new OC, Cameron Fleming an O Line specialist with better play calling and some other expertise. I hire AJ Smith as a better AC.


Alright, I have 40 players under contract with these UFas:

QB Snyder
TE Crawford, TE Browse
DE Lane
LT Anderson
C Carlise
ILB Sanderson
ILB Crawford
ILB Tubbs
ILB Lujan
DT Steussie

None of those are taggable.

It's a privilege to watch Randall Flemming play the game of football. He will go down as one of the all-time greats.

2032 Free Agency!

I open FA with 64 mill under the cap, room for 54. That is about to change....

Flemming – 5 years, 143 mill
Clayton – 4 years, 40 mill
DE Benton 3 years, 40 mill
DT Sterne, 3 years, 32 mill
CB Felkner, 4 years, 45 mill


I extend TE Gretsky by two more years, FB Bradford by one, LS Zirn, RB Barrett by 1 year, OG Laird by 1 year,

I am going to keep Kaplan, Henderson, Raymond, in their final year, in case we get better, or they drop in camp or something later

Swift wants real QB money. Nope!

Alright, let’s advance to week 2 and review FA and see what’s too see:

I need:

Starting QB or backup Qb
Backup RB
TEx2 backup
WR backup
Backup OG
OT Starter

I can start OG Duzy in Bodell’s spot. Now I just need an RT again.

Stud younger P only

Backup DE
Backup DT or DE

1 starter LB (Unless I want to move over 57/57 Danieles)
2-3 backup LBs
Backup CB

We have another apair pf studs on defense, CB Enrique Newton, 77/77 guy, and 74/74 DT Noah Downs, 6th year vet. Both in their primes

And we have a few players in their 60s – C, SLB, and MLB and such. Tons of 50s too.

And one feasible QB on the market, QB Arnold Nichols, 32, 56/56, from St Louis, Missouri, drafted by Jags, played there who career, only has 54 starts, and just stared 1 full season in 2029 when he had 3900, 22:11, and such. Never had a career year better than Swift. Sort of like Swift. 1st rounder, neve developed, but backup here and there for later talent to get drafted. Jax drafted a stud, but held onto Nichols as insurance and mentor for years,

He wants real, starter level cash, like 16 mill/year cash

No thanks

There are no good OTs. The best is 51/51 12th year, and then 49/49. I was hoping Bozeman would grow into a starter but he dropped post-draft. Similarly, OG Banks fell a bit again to 27/52. Otherwise I could have slid Guzy back to OT and started him.

I make an offer for 11 mill, 3 years, to RT Damian Valle

There are some better LBs, but they are trouble causers with my leaders, So I make an offer for Crawford to return – 2 years, 7.25 mill


I offer 3 years, 11.5 mill for DE Lane to return

I make an offer for 3 mill, 2 years, for OG Harvey Gibbons

By week 10 they have signed. C Cornelius went to San Francisco, Sanderson to Tampa, Tubbs to San Diego, Lujan to Tampa,

I know. I was seriously blessed by the Football Gods with him!

Wow, wow, wow, wow! Almost $30m a year for a linebacker?!

The 2032 NFL Amateur Draft

Now the big question is.....am I getting a QB in this draft? We have five I copped out that are solid. One hit, and four okays. At 30, are they making it to me?

Qbs go picks 1, 3, 6 and....?

That’s it. QB hungry teams don’t tend to draft down the chart. Now here are those I scouted still on the board:

QB Emmett Elliott – Hard to Read, 16 volatility, red core in screen, blue in smarts and agility. The 2nd smartest Qb in the draft, and 3rd fastest left. Bars? Ain;t great

QB Al Fields – As scouted, high 76 volatility, 0 listed accuracy, blue speed and agility, black everywhere else. Other than accuracy, and a low sense rush and read d, very well rounded bars.

Neither are amazing really. This is a very weak draft, so I may just want to take talent rather than a QB that sucks.

LT Axel Kelley? TE Whalen? RT Marquardt? DT Hixon?

I go with Kelley. He’s at need. Not quality, but he’ll work.

2nd round – C Carlos Germain? DT Donnie Newhart? TE Brooks?

A few folks are here I like. I’m going best available, DT Newhart, who looks good, with 4 blues, and a specialist for 3-4 NT stuff. So I take him as a useful backup or trade bait and such. Run stopping specialist.


3rd – CB Howard Mayes
4th – DE Desmond Roberson
5th - C Sandemeyer
6th Round P Derek Grandon – looks like a rock solid stud
7th Round – MLB Owens Miles? WLB Jaffe? I go ILB Orlando Newhart

When he's that good? Hell's yeah!

How much would you pay for JJ Watt in his prime? To be fair, the cap is 267 mill this year too.

B+ draft results

Alright, here are my early players:

OT Kelley, 23/67
C Sandmeyer – 26/69
DT Newhart – 33/71
P Grandon 60/69
DE Roberson 27/66
ILB Newhart – 20/48
CB Mayes – 22/39

So some good and some off

The later round ones that look good, like Sandmeyer, are showers not growers, and could be busts later. That’s true of a lot of people here.

This is a weak draft.

Here I will show you –

We gave 2 O Line with 80s – including C Carlos Germain. Should have grabbed him. And 5 more in the 60s. 7 total 60+, across 5 positions. We have two with Kelley and Sandmeyer. We gave 1 D Line in the 80s, 1 in the 70s, 3 in the 60s. We have two with Roberson and Newhart, but again, they may be showers that drop. We have just 1 LB with a 66 potential, no other 60 or higher LBs. We have 4 D Backs with a potential 60 or higher. No QB, other than the top pick, with a potential higher than 53. 1 Rb in the 60s at 62. No FBs. 3 TEs in the 60s. 1 WR at 62 and that’s it. Not what you might normally expect. But that’s what it is.

Two of these players are in my trick to find good talent. Review players who have no combine scores as they were not invited. There are always three or four that have great bars much higher than their rating would suggest. I like to interview them and see what we can see. Both C Sandmeyer and DE Roberson were without combine invites.

Next up:

2032 Late Free Agency:

Targets:

TE Roosevelt Hammers, 3 years, 5 mills

UFas:

Great P Zack Preston for competition

There’s nothing wrong with P Michi, but he is an expensive, 58/58 old Punter entering his 15th year as a pro. So if I can come across a replacement, especially in weak draft like this one, I;m all in.

RB Theodore Blackburn
MLB Miles Owens – I may have missed on not drafting him, with a 27/59 start
DT Trey Schmidtz
QB Nicholas Delgado
WLB Bryce Jaffe
FS Ben Campbell
RCB Reggie Stevenson
TE Randall Burden
WR Alexander Gardener
RB Dylan Rose


Week 2 – I bring in 7.

Week 3 – 3 more as well

Week 4 – Everybody else joins us

CAMPING!


We sell 42500 season tix

I cut RB Rose,



Much like Bodell, Laird has had a late career renaissance. He had two All Pros during my time here with the Chiefs. Now he is 32, 10th year in the league, and dropped to 50/50. He’s not even one of my top two guards, even with the retirement of Bodell. I can have Duzy, my best O Line guy, and signee OG Harvey Gibbons as my starters,a nd both are better. Laird is pricey, old, and just 50/50 these days, nothing special.

I cut Laird. It’s time. Thanks for your service!

One of the things I love about Mayes is that he can be my KR and PR specialist for both. Hatcher is getting older, so pulling him off that duty makes a lot of sense.

We finish the preseason 2-2, and we have a few injuries. RB Barrett, S Campbell, and C Tavin Lowe are out.

I cut P Luther Michi, P grandon won the Punter wars with 70/80 ability post-camp and playing. Good stuff from him

I cut disappointment OT Bozeman

Rookie Sandmeyer grew to 37/75 in preseason and I will start him moving forward.

Rookie DT Newhart is saucy with 36/67 left. Ah well. Sometimes showers boomed, like Sandmeyer, and others faded. And we have 35/63 DE Roberson who looks hot to trot too. I may have movement on my D Line later.

Undrafted FA LB Jaffe has risen twice to 34/60. Newhart fell to 23/40. Owens dropped to 28/47. I cut 7th round pick Newhart

I cut DT Schmidtz and FS Ben Campbell. In camp, FS Kaplan, a 10th year vet, dropped to 47.47, and I started FS Allen from last year’s draft, and he rose to 39/60. I’m going to start Allen this year.

I cut CB Stevenson and my QB and I head into the season with just 2 QBs on my roster, Swift and Rhodes. I also have one more D Line than normal with my 3-4 team, due to the recent talent invasion there.

Here’s Flemming in year 4, as with all players by current value. Flemming is the highest at 92. He is the best player in the league, period.

I extend:

K Elijah Fields by 3 years, 15 mill

Won’t be extending starters Raymond, Henderson, Kaplan, Swift or backups CB Tubbs, SE Whalen, or RB Willis

My prediction for this year?

12-4, #2 seed, make it to the Super Bowl and lose.

Note some talent has dropped, like TE Perrone or WR Frederick, as well as the new youth of FS Allen and C Sandmeyer and LT Axel Kelley.

Kelley may not have been the sexiest pick, and there may have been better players on the board, but getting a solid 60s Lt in the 1.30 spot is good value. We had some booming in camp with rookies, here let me show you, we were not the only ones:



Here are my rookies by potential. See the TE booms? Think I had a good draft? Check out Tennessee’s! They freaking broke this draft. Players on the board when I took Kelley included FS Henshaw, C Germain, TE Brooks, and such. Kelley is fine though. Other than QB Pancake, the stud in the draft taken 11, all fo the QBs in the draft fell and only one is at 50+ potential. Glad I went safe with Kelley there.

I can see Kelley being a potential long term starter for me at LT, as well as Duzy and Sandmeyer.

Week 1- Just like last year when we barely edged out our 1st week foe by a point, we do the same today, 24-23 over the Chargers. MOM is Swift with 23 of 31, 230 and 3:1. He his RB Abrams 2x and Frederick once for TDs. Hatcher catch 108 yards on the day. Pick by Cortez, FF by DE Cobb, and 4 KRB by Duzy.

C Devin Lowe returns from injury

Week 2 – We have a bad win. We’ll talk about this alter and the injuries that came with it. MOM is Flemming – 2 picks, 1 returned for as core, and 3 sacks. We won16-10 over the Bucs. Swift was 19 of 38, 188 and 1:2, and hit rookie FL Gardener for a TD> Pick by CB Felker too.

And injuries. These plaeyrs are out:

FS Allen
DE Lane
OT Raymond

Starting for them is Kaplan, no one he was a sub,and Lowe

Week 3 – We lose 23-20 in OT to the Bengals. Pick by Cortez, 4 KRB by Duzy, Swift was 25 of 34 for 234 and 1:2 and rushed for a score. He hit WR Holbert for the other.

Another injury. FB Bradford is out for 12 weeks. I deactivate him. I start TEs and RB Willis in his spots

Week 4 – We beat the Jets 28-17. MOM is Swif with 21 of 32, 215 and 4:0. He hits WR Curtis Holbert for 3 TDs and HB Abrams for 1. Abrams adds 19 for 109 on the ground, 2 picks by backup S Franz, and 1 by Flemming. FF by Shea, recovered by Sterne. 3 KRB by Sandmeyer, Gibbons and 4 by Duzy

No injury updates

Week 5 – We barely lose to Oakland 34-31 . MOM is DE Cobb with 4 sacks. Picks by Henderson and Cortez. 1 FF by S Kaplan, and another by LB Jacobs. Felker recovered one. Swift was 32 of 46, 310, and 3:2, hitting TE Perrone, RB Abrams, and WE Hatcher for scores. Abrams added a score on the ground. 4 KRB by Gibbons, 3 by Duzy

Week 6 – BYE FOLKS

RB Barrett is back from his injury. As is FS Allen.

Week 7 -We host and crush the previously undefeated pats 34-13. Swif, MOM, is 23 of 33, 246, 4:0, and hit Abrams, Barrett, Holbert and Hatcher for scores. Abrams had 24 for 110 on the ground. Picks by Felker, Jacks and S Allen. Just 1 sack on the day. 5 KRB by Sandmeyer and 3 by Duzy


Week 8 – We surprisingly manage to not lose vs 1 win Miami 26-21. MOM is Flemming with 2 sacks, 2 FF. Another FF by Jacobs, and a pick by Cortez. Swift? 21 of 31, 178, 2:1. Frederick and Holbert with the scores. Dana Abrams is 25 for 132 and 1 on the ground. 5 KRb by Lowe, 4 by Gibbons.


Week 9 – We have a big challenge coming up – the 6-1 Broncos. We win 20-17 in a very important game. Swift is MOM with 26 of 33, 237 and 2:1 and hit WR Fredericka ndn TE Hammers for TDs. CB Henderson and LB Crawford with picks. FF by LB Sam Danieles. 4 KRB by Kelley, 3 by Gibbins and Sandmeyer

Now we have a sad injury. Going into this game. DE Cobb was leading my team in sacks, but he was injured, and will be out for a few weeks. Rookie Roberson will start for him until his return.