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12-01-2000, 09:45 PM
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#1 | ||
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lolzcat
Join Date: Oct 2000
Location: Annapolis, Md
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The Ohio Players, 2028-
The Ohio Players
Career Thread, continued ad infinitum This thread continues the tales of the Ohio Players, my first FOF 2001 career. The scene has changed over the years, but the franchise keeps rolling along. We started out as an “empty cupboard” Browns team, then in 2021 we moved to Columbus, Ohio and adopted a somewhat steeper set of house rules. The lengthy narrative on this team to date stretches back quite a while: We started things off with then “Empty Cupboard Browns” here (2001-2009): http://dynamic.gamespy.com/~fof/ubb/...ML/000029.html Once we escaped the effects of the empty cupboard, the team shifted into a perennial player (2010-2014): http://dynamic.gamespy.com/~fof/ubb/...ML/000043.html The franchise extended its heyday through the teens (2015-2020) in this thread: http://dynamic.gamespy.com/~fof/ubb/...ML/000048.html The beginning of the Columbus years (from 2021 to 2024) are chronicled here: http://dynamic.gamespy.com/~fof/ubb/...ML/000061.html And the last few years (from 2025 to 2027) in Columbus are available here: http://dynamic.gamespy.com/~fof/ubb/...ML/000069.html Okay, now that you’ve read all that, we’re ready to get started with the 2028 season. Oh, you wanted a slightly more approachable version? Howzabout this:
That’s the nutshell—the ownership is quite pleased, as you might imagine. Now, as I play ahead, I intend to play by some house rules, which I will detail here. I’m stepping up the level of difficulty, as I have found all this winning to be a little bit tiresome. (But seriously, I want to be able to win, I just want more challenge and, uh, suspense…I think this will help.) Here are the rules I’ve been playing by since 2021: -No FA signings outside the 20-stage process, except 1yr deals with rookies -No extending contracts past the player's demands (esp 7yr deals to 2nd year players) -No renegotiating before the last year of a contract -I will initiate only one trade per season (but can respond to CPU trade offers) -All contract offers are realistic (no backloading, must have reasonable bonus if one is sought) -Ticket prices not league highest And now I am going to add: -No renegotiating or extending contracts, period -No intiating trades, period I’m also going to re-state one of my own rules, to make it easier on me: -If a free agent seeks a bonus, he must get one at least as big as the median year’s salary All told, I think this will up the stakes a bit. I honestly never found the whole process of renegotiating contracts to be very rewarding or interesting, anyway. It’s more fun to have some risk that you could lose a valuable player. I’ll still use the franchise tag, but that’s only one guy per year, as we all know. So, all that said—you’re caught up now. We are the defending Superbowl champions, and we enter the next season with a fabulous overachiever at QB, a very cohesive WR corps, a great O-line, a solid defensive front, and a young and emerging secondary. Oh, did I leave out running backs? Yes, it appears that I did… Did I mention that young and emerging secondary? See you in Columbus… |
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12-01-2000, 11:42 PM
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#2 |
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lolzcat
Join Date: Oct 2000
Location: Annapolis, Md
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2028 preseason
We’ll start, as usual, with the “background” stuff. The team was – surprise! – very profitable again last season, as we churned out nearly a quarter-B in profits. The home playoff run always helps. We sold to 75.5% capacity—still not great, but we’re making great leaps in a town that was not really ready to support an NFL franchise (despite what some razor-thin majority of Franklin County residents may have said at the last special referendum—we now know what a sham the whole “vote-counting” thing is anyway). Our scout and coach will stay for another term—it would be pretty cold to let either one go after a title year. My fabulous long-time scout Brad Mason is 58, so he still has another few years left in him. He’s tremendous—a big part of our success here. The coach, Mickey Arnold was handed the keys to the Ferrari last season, with one main objective—“don’t get everybody hurt like the last guy!” He did his job. His complete mismanagement of the RB position is a liability, but one I can live with for now. On the roster, we have two retirements. LB Matt Giles was a lifelong man of ours, drafted in the later rounds, he was our first bone fide “breakout” rookie. I kept him around ad his apparent talents grew, and he played solid football for us for a good 12 years. DT Christian Payton is a different story. Not that he didn’t play good football for us, but his tale is much shorter. He was only two years into his lucrative rookie contract when he suffered a blown out knee, from which he never recovered. He retired after last year, leaving me with a fairly serious issue up the middle. As far as who is on the roster, we have 32 players signed to contracts for this year. The salary cap is $204m, and I have $33.8m in room with which to sign 21 more players. With the cap at $204m, I will continue to employ my benchmark of about $10m as my practical spending “limit.” I usually use a benchmark that I won’t spend much more than 5% of my salary cap to sign a single player (other than a starting QB). There can be exceptions—a star RB, for instance—but it’s valuable to keep such a concept in mind, I think. Right now, I have four players whose salaries are at or above $10m—my QB Desmond Garner at a little over $20m, and three right around the $10m mark: CB Preston Gladney, WR Wesley Ingram, and WR Max Wiggins. Gladney is a foundation-caliber player (his only real knock is endurance) and WR Wiggins is very, very good. WR Ingram is overpaid—he’s really only my 3rd receiver, but I had a lot of surplus cash last season and I used it to lock him up—even though the deal wasn’t so great. I have several players heading to free agency. Center Cole Unsbee has been frustratingly difficult to lock up—he was a franchise player last season, but seems to want to test the waters. This year, he may well get his chance. 5th year DE Troy Karl would be my other logical possibility as a franchise player—he’s put up 16.5 sacks as our more-or-less starter at LE the last three years—he’s not spectacular, but he is pretty solid, and we know what the open market brings for solid starters at a position like DE. DT Victor Eschtruth and S Orlando Buzzanca are likely to leave us for greener pastures. With $34m to spend (probably to bump up soon), I try to consider a “budget.” If I can re-sign C Unsbee, that will likely cost me about $8m, and my draft is likely to go for about $12-14. Add in a pile of undrafted rookies (at least 6) for another $5 or so, and that about wraps up what I can do here—without making cuts or trades. With the loss of DE Payton, I now look to Dave Morton, a guy I took in last year’s draft, as my savior at DE. Hmmm… Jim Lee and Dave Morton… golly, have I moved my team to Idaho? How lily-white can you get? Re-signing DE Troy Karl is the way to avoid this, but the math doesn’t seem to work for me to hold on to both him and Unsbee. And I’m too enamored of my fabulous left-side line to let Unsbee go without a fight. Or a tag, as the case may be. Among younger free agents (restricted), I’m prepared to lose TE Dawyne St. John, who was a second-team all-pro last season. I lose several others, mostly forgettable. WR Wesley Rubble would be great to keep around, as he’ll develop pretty well—but he’ll probably ask for nine million dollars to go and catch four passes from someone. C Jay Jefferson is also intriguing—and he might be affordable. He was a training camp breakout last year, and I’m hoping he has a little more left in the tank. As I begin the FA period, my cap room bumps up to $35.6m—which will help. I get a trade offer of a 2nd round pick for my main LB Damon Peters. With the loss of Giles, my other stalwart, I can hardly afford to lose another backer. I have to pass, even though I love second round picks. Oh, I was wrong about WR Rubble—he wants eleven million. Regrettably, C Jay Jefferson is also smitten with himself, and he’s looking for $8m to play this year. Too bad I only signed him for one season after last year’s draft. This free agency is going to be rough—just watching everyone else spend their money. It takes until week three before any of my players show up on the bid list. DE Troy Karl will cash in with Pittsburgh, it would seem—they are offering him $27m for two years. He waits, and they bust their cap and withdraw. In week 4, DT Victor Eschtruth gets a call for over $14m a year. He listens for a while to Anaheim, while DE Troy Karl got his from Dallas and is gone. DT Eschtruth listened too long, and Anaheim busted as well. I make one signing—a modestly talented tackle who might be okay as a #3 or #4. I get Cole Unsbee back in the fold, a lot more peacefully than I had thought it might be. Carolina offers me the #1 overall pick in this draft, plus a nice young wide receiver… for QB Desmond Garner. I don’t think this is a deal that I do here. In the draft, I have my original seven picks, and that’s all. I probably need to add some LB depth, and maybe a high pick on a starter for this year. I definitely need to make some investment at the RB position—my only guy on contract is again Ellis, who clearly wasn’t enough last season. The defensive line needs depth—DE is always tough, but DT might be there in later rounds—at least a usable guy. Amateur Draft Report: Rnd 1 - Stan Stewart, RB, SW Texas St. Rnd 2 - Arnie Chiang, TE, North Carolina Rnd 3 - Renaldo Rendon, DE, Boston College Rnd 4 - Zack Douglas, LB, UCLA Rnd 5 - Artie Harlan, DT, Bowling Green Rnd 6 - Monty Reid, RB, Iowa Rnd 7 - Paul de la Rosa, CB, Mississippi What a dreadful draft. I blundered in round one taking the RB instead of the best LB—the RB class was pretty deep and there were decent guys at every level. However, the LB group went early, and I was left with far less palatable fill-ins there. I’m really not pleased with anyone—though LB Zack Douglas is pretty well ready to play with current ratings in the 37-56 range. I can only hope that he turns out like my other recent draftee LB Mack Boatright, who immediately jumped and showed room to improve. We fill up on undrafted rookies, and head into training camp. Then, the all-important post-camp inspection… My top two picks are fine, but DE Renaldo Rendon was a complete bust. He wasn’t all that hot to begin with, but he dropped from ratings in the 30s to flat nothing. LB Zack Douglas did, in fact, have a bit of a breakout in camp-- he now has grown a bit beyond where he was, and has some green lines where he had none. Definitely a pattern there. 5th round pick DT Artie Harlen was also a flat bust—he’s now zeroed out as well. Here’s our 53 for this time around:
My scout has been consistent about a few things. One—he believes that my center, Cole Unsbee, is my most talented player. Two- he is totally convinced that in time, Wes Branham will be an outstanding quarterback. This year, we took a real beating on our defensive line, and it’s become a fairly glaring weakness. We may have some trouble up the gut this season, as our DT combo is pretty green. Offensively, we’ll hope that young Stan Stewart will justify his millions, and that our passing game makes it a fairly lesser point whether he does. This ought to be a good team again this season, but I have trouble seeing 14 wins in their eyes. A repeat? Not out of the question, but I don’t think it’s odds-on. |
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12-02-2000, 09:46 AM
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#3 |
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lolzcat
Join Date: Oct 2000
Location: Annapolis, Md
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2028 season
A few comments as we get going here. S Jamal Powell has been a curious case to watch. He was a first round pick, with fairly high potential ratings. After his first camp, his numbers shaved down a bit—maybe around 10-15 apiece. I was desperate for a safety, and he was certainly playable, so he started anyway. He has produced very well on the field, especially in the clutch. After his second training camp, his ratings looked like they had been completely restored. After this year’s camp, he looks different again. Now, his “red” ratings are up a little more over last year’s (57/75/49) but he has seemingly lost just about all his potential for growth (only 7-8 points of growth each). He’ll still be okay, but I don’t think I’ve ever noticed a player change so much each year, all with the same scout. (He’s pretty well laureled – DROY, 2nd team all pro, Superbowl MVP) so he’ll stick around a while anyway. WR Weseley Ingram is becoming a troubled case. He makes a ton of money, his production has dropped off, his ratings are sliding fast, and he is livid about playing time. And now, he’s hurt for a couple of months. I suspect that Mr. Ingram will be finding work elsewhere come next season. WR Frank Willis is also hurt—also out for a month or two, and I find my WR corps in disarray. I have to pick up a waiver wire rookie to fill in, and we’ll be looking awfully thin this year, at least for a while. I’ve suspected that one of the things that Garner has benefitted from has been stability at WR—this year he’ll see some new faces. I start Marts at flanker, Wiggins at split end, and have three undrafted rookie FAs backing them up. At RB, I give Ellis the start, but his PT is set to 2 and Stan will get in there a lot. Ellis played better in the early preseason, but Stewart had a really nice game in our final exhibition game, putting me on the fence. As is tradition, we start out with a tough game against an NFC rival. This year, it’s Chicago—led by none other than Horace Forbes (the QB I drafted to be my “future,” who was beaten out by unheralded Desmond Garner). We beat the Bears 24-17, mostly behind a great running attack. Ellis gets 19-99 and a TD, while FB Morey gets into things with 9-36+TD and Stewart adds 5-15 and Reid 3-20. Horace Forbes throws two fourth quarter TD passes to try to get back into it, but our defense plays well and we win it. I beat Milwaukee, and the coolest highlight is that my punter is filling in for my injured kicker. The RB-by-committee works okay, and S Jamal Powell gets another int for TD. As we beat Jacksonville 24-10, Ellis has a nice game: 12-120+TD, with a 58-yard run in there. In week 4, we fall hard to Baltimore, 34-20. They are the first team to really run on us, and it hurt badly. Add in an interception returned for a TD and one 70-yard pass play, and the score got out of hand. Our running game failed, and Garner had a poor day. We unload our frustrations when we play Pittsburgh, and win 41-21. Garner makes lemonade out of the receiving corps he has, as he throwd 5 TDs to the guys he feels he can count on—WR Wiggins (or course) and emerging star TE Seth Miller. Pittsburgh, led by my old RB Spencer McKinnon and a solid QB named Brakepad Kelly, cannot keep up at all. We roll Tennessee, who had been only a half game behind us in the division race. Ellis has 12-94, and young Stewart steps up with 6-119, including a 68-yard scamper and a 33-yard TD. If teams need to fear our running game again, it’s all going to work out fine. We then hold our turf and kick Baltimore’s butt for some revenge—Garner hits a couple of walk-ons for long TDs. Pittsburgh stops our little roll, as they are led by a backup RB named Earnest Anderson, who totes it for 152 and 2 TD against our defense. The Steelers win 24-16 to earn the season split. At the midpoint, Garner is among the very top passers in the NFL, despite the loss of many of his favorite targets. His 2,120 yards are best, as are his 16 TDs. Chicago’s Horace Forbes, incidentally, is close behind in both categories (1,994 yds, 13 TDs). RB Monty Ellis has 514 yards, while Stan Stewart has a solid 311. WR Max Wiggins had 52 catches through the first 8 games, but he has pulled up lame as well, with a hip pointer that will keep him out quite a while. I activate the still-injured Wesley Ingram, who now gets the call at starting SE. I decide to try out Stan Stewart in the WR rotation—I up Ellis’s PT at RB, and move Stewart over to be our third wideout. We beat Oakland, and my kicker continues to suffer from a bad shoulder. My punter has been 9-of-14 on FGs and 25-of-28 on PATs. I finally decide enough is enough, and I bring in a new rookie kicker. After his first game at WR, Stan Stewart has a knee injury, and will sit out a couple of weeks. Wins over Tennessee and Jacksonville get us to 9-2, but we are stung by Detroit at home. They sprung a 75-yard run and an 80-yard pass on us to win 29-14. We get WR Willis back from his injury, and now have three solid guys to work with—Willis, Marts, and Ingram. RB Ellis is dinged up, and Stan Stewart steps in for his first start. We lose to Cinti, as Garner throws three picks and Cinti scores twice on defense to win it 19-16. At 9-4, we’re basically conceding the top AFC seed to 12-2 Cheyenne, who will win the East (?), but we’re still fighting for the division and the West teams for the other bye week. A big win over Anaheim helps, as Stewart and Reid split the RB chores and Garner throws 3 TD passes. We have a number of injuries to work through—most notably LB Damon Peters, who has a seriously broken leg, which may be career-ending. LB is very thin, and we are thanking our lucky stars for rookie Zack Douglas, who has stepped in to start all year, and now takes over at MLB for Peters. CB Preston Gladney is also hurt, and we give him a few weeks off. Fortunately, CB Jeremy Doyle has recovered from his injury from last season, and steps in now when we need him. We beat Miami with our reshuffled lineup, and the hold the fort against Cinti, 27-20. Our final record for the year is 12-4, and we take the #2 seed in the AFC, with a bye alongside surprising Cheyenne. The NFC picture is cloudy with Chicago and San Fran at 11-5 followed closely by a group at 10-6. Stat leaders: QB Desmond Garner: 4.072 yds, 58/1%, 7.21 ypa, 31/9, 92.2 – incredible year, took every snap RB Monty Ellis: 166-882 yds, 7 TD (5.3 ypc) – stepped up with some competition on roster RB Stan Stewart: 104-423, 3 TD; 28 PR-288 yds – filled roles well, showed some potential WR Dustin Marts: 45-783, 3 TD (47.8%, 13 drops) – decent surface numbers, but not very efficient TE Seth Miller: 47-477, 6 TDs (59.4%, 5 drops) – solid performance from emerging talent LB Zack Douglas: 81 tackles, 1.5 sacks, 2 hurries, 3 int – what a rookie year from our breakout DE Jim Lee: 10 sacks, 4 blocks, 6 hurries – solid production, playing through some minor injuries S Rob Tribble: 612 tackles, 4 int, 1 TD, 36.2 PDQ – caused “trouble” for opposing offenses Overall stats (Off/def/avg): Rushing: 4.2/3.9/3.9 Passing: 7.2/6.3/6.5 We were not a dominating team statistically, but we played well through our adversities. The running game’s step forward was a great addition, and certainly makes us tougher to defend. We get our WR corps back healthy for the playoffs, and we may be stronger for having lost guys for a while. In the postseason, Ellis will be our starter at RB, but we’ll use Spencer and even Reid in the mix, along with FB Morey, who had another quietly solid season. |
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12-02-2000, 10:55 AM
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#4 |
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lolzcat
Join Date: Oct 2000
Location: Annapolis, Md
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2028 postseason
For the playoffs, our offense is finally healthy and together. On defense, our one new injury is to DE Jim Lee, who is doubtful for our opener. I’m hoping he upgrades a bit—I lack much depth on the defensive line, especially after two colossal rookie busts. Seattle wins their opener to come visit Columbus. They are also a RB-by-committee team, but they do pretty well with it. Their defensive front is ravaged by injuries, and we hope to pound it on them early and often. It takes until our second possession in the middle of the first quarter, but we get a 3-0 lead. Toward the end of the first quarter we double it. We are getting killed by penalties—we have 187 yards of offense at halftime and only a 6-0 lead. We finally get a TD on our first possession of the second half, and I sense that the dam may break here. We don’t really get rolling, but we do score again and Seattle’s only score comes after the game is well settled—we take them 24-7. Monty Ellis ends up with 18-105 on the day. We face Cheyenne in the AFC title game, and have to head west. The Cougars are led by an incredible running back named Ronald Shepard, who had 1,953 yards this season, and has two of the league’s five 1,900 yards seasons. Our focus will be clear—try to stuff the run. We’ll be playing without FB Morey, who broke his wrist against Seattle and is out. We sputter first, then Shepard carries them to our 35 before they try unsuccessfully to coffin-corner us. He gets 44 yards on their first possession- not a good sign. We get a nice drive for a short FG, and take a 3-0 lead. Cheyenne takes a series of penalties, and faces third-and-40 from their 17. (They also lost a starting wideout, who was ejected) After we get it back, Garner is picked off, and they take over at our 49. On three plays, they run with guys other than Shepard—I didn’t notice if he got hurt, but that would be huge. On our next possession, Willis makes to big third-down catches to help set up a FG. CB Gladney gets hurt on the first play of their drive, but Mercury Germaine is ready to step in. Still no sign of Shepard. After a trade of punts, they get it back and Shepard is back in, but halftime stops everything. The third quarter is a field position battle, and we aren’t able to do much. Shepard has been kept mostly in check, but they are gradually winning the ground game. They miss a long FG in the late third quarter, and we get our footing back. In the middle of the fourth quarter, they complete two passes to get to our 33. They opt to go for it on fourth and four, and we come up with enough pressure to force a bad throw, and we take over. We get three first downs, and run the clock to 2:19 before punting to their 8. Our defense steps up, stops them on three plays, and they have no choice but to punt it back to us. We run the clock out with Ellis and Stewart, and take home a hard-fought 6-0 win. Shepard ended up with 22 carries for 91 yards, but we pitched the shutout to take it home. San Francisco beats Horace Forbes and his Bears in the NFC title game, denying us that showdown. Instead, we face off against the Niners who play tough defense, and run the ball. Their top rusher is Scott Whipple—a former Player who was a playoff fill-in a couple seasons ago when we suffered RB injuries. Both sides go three and out to start things off, and it looks like the defenses may be the big players here. I have activated DE Jim Lee, and he is starting despite a broken hand. After we fizzle near midfield, we punt them deep. SF QB Bert Ramirez connects once to get to their 40, but his next pass is picked off by my ballhawking safety Jamal Powell, who takes it 54 yards to the house. We lead 7-0. Gladney gets an interception in our territory to stall a mid-second quarter drive and keep the lead firm. SF has not been able to run on us at all, so they are strictly passing now, it seems. We’re sitting back and taking our chances. Garner throws on almost every play of our next drive, mostly to Marts, and he hits the TE Seth Miller for a 1-yard TD. The Niners respond with their best drive of the day, but settle for a 24-yard FG. The 14-3 score carries into the late third quarter, which we like. After we dig out of our deep territory, Stewart gets a carry and fumbles it to the Niners at our 28. They settle for a 27-yard FG, but it’s now within one possession. With 7:46 left, we set up for a 47-yard FG to make it am 11-point lead… it’s good, and we have a little breathing room. SF’s Ramirez throws them down the field with four completions, and they put it in with only two minutes ticked off the clock—it’s 17-14 after the two-pointer, and there is still 5:54 left. The Niners go for the onside kick, and they get it at their own 44. They get a first down at our 42, and then RB Whipple—who had been largely silent—takes an outside pitch and breaks through for the 42-yard TD. It’s suddenly 21-17, and we’re on the wrong end of it. We get the ball with 3:50 left. Garner to Marts gets us to the 31. Stewart runs 14 yards and out at the 45. We run an end-around to Willis for 7. Garner hits TE Miller for 9 more, and we have a first down at their 39 at the two minute warning. Ellie gets the call—they were expecting a pass—and he gets clear around the right side for a 22-yard gain. On the next play Garner smells blood, and goes for it all—Wiggins is in the end zone, but San Fran’s CB Doyle steps in an makes a one-handed pickoff. From their 20, SF needs just one first down to take this one home. They get one yard on first down, time out. Whipple loses 3 on second down, time out. Whipple gets the next carry… and hr breaks past the run-blitzing line and slices into the secondary, gaining 25 yards and planting the final nail. They get into the victory formation, and win it on the quarterback’s knee. Despite Whipple’s game-breaking plays down the stretch, he is denied the MVP award on account of his inability to do anything at all for three and a half quarters. Instead, my safety Jamal Powell gets it for his 7 tackles, 2 assists, and the game’s biggest early play—the interception return for TD. That’s his second straight Superbowl MVP award—a league first. We, of course, would much rather have the win and the ring, but we played pretty well and just lost out to a team that got hot at just the right moments. If there was going to be one former Ohio Player who would come back and sting me in the Superbowl, I can’t tell you how long I’d guess before I came up with RB Scott Whipple. On the awards board, we see Desmond Garner getting his due with a first-team laurel, plus P Lamar Stoffers (who did double duty for half the season, before getting hurt himself). That’s all the mention we get, however—a bit disappointing, but understandable (as we had a lot of rotations due to injury). A good season, not great. Had we won it all, it would have been a circumstance where “somebody had to win it.” We were certainly not the dominating team that we have sometimes had. However, I am pretty hopeful for next season, as we should be able to put out a quality lineup yet again, hopefully with a further developed RB in Stan Stewart. |
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12-02-2000, 01:41 PM
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#5 |
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lolzcat
Join Date: Oct 2000
Location: Annapolis, Md
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2029 preseason
The franchise is in fine shape. We profited another quarter billion last year, and all is well there. Among this year’s HOF inductees is QB Rodney Harden, who holds most of the career QB records, shading out my guy Jesse Morse in most areas. The debate may never cease—but Morse has four rings to Harden’s one—that works for me. My long-time scout has retired, a little bit prematurely, I think. He was fabulous across the board—now I’ll need to secure someone to try and fill his ample shoes. Wayne Shaner comes aboard, and I don’t think I’ll skip a beat. His lowest rating is a good in young talent—but he’s VG/EX everywhere else. Might make for some slightly shaky drafting, but at least I don’t feel any panic about one or more positions. On to the roster. I had feared that LB Damon Peters might retire after a bad injury—but he sticks around. My one retirement is WR Max Wiggins, who will truly be missed. I had halfway planned to deal away or cut my overpaid third/fourth WR Wesley Ingram—now I’m not sure if I can afford to do so. We have only 28 players signed to contracts, meaning a lot of holes to fill this season. To do so, we have $67m in cap room—just about a third of the $206.6m salary cap. Here’s a quick rundown of our main free agents, and my inclinations: UFAs DE Jim Lee – has been a leader, would be tough to let him go LB Dave Turner – unlikely to re-sign QB Desmond Garner – has to stay, will be VERY expensive FB Phil Morey – probably will go with cheaper youngsters T Winston Diaz – probably have to choose between him and 12th yr LT Bell G Otis Matthews – unlikely to re-sign RFAs QB Wes Branham, RB Monty Ellis, G Jared Shea, and LB Mack Boatright are also quality players—I’m unlikely to be able to afford any of them, except possibly LB Boatright. After a couple of mercy killings – cutting my two bust DL from last year’s draft—I have only 26 signed players, but $69.8m in cap room. My plan is to franchise QB Garner, of course—I hope to reel him in for $20m this season. I will pursue DE Jim Lee aggressively, and I mentally set aside another $12m for him. As for T Diaz, if I sign him will be paid for by releasing my long time T Bell, so that should be a wash. Counting another$20m for my draft and rookie fill-ins, that leaves me with another $15m or so to spend this season. Perhaps I can afford to retain both tackles after all… of, I could pursue a quality free agent player at a need position—perhaps a replacement starter at WR, or another LB starter. We start the FA period, and I get no trade offers at all. Cap room bumps up to $72m. I check the FA pool—it’s led by standout RB Ronald Shepard from Cheyenne. Someone will offer this guy a king’s ransom. (Or they should—this is exactly the problem, where this guy will get only about 10% more than the 5th best RB in the FA market, who only had 800 yards last year) The pool is full of positions I don’t need—QBs, TEs, centers, guards, etc. I cannot find anyone I want to pursue aggressively in the early stages, though I may go after a LB when things start to wind down—there are several passable ones available, and one or two usually fall through the cracks. I have a tough call at T. Currently, I have 12th year man T Vince Bell making $9m, with ratings of 68/47/40—he’s definitely sliding some. If I cut him I’ll take not hit—this is the end of his contract. T Winston Diaz—my 4-yr starter at RT, wants $12m a year or so, and his ratings are 45/69/60, and he’s easily the best young tackle available. I decide to go with Diaz, and I put in an offer of 4yrs, $51m to get him secured. I go 3yrs, $37m for DE Jim Lee, and I hope that I can hold on to these two trench warriors. I look through my roster, and really do not find a lot of other obvious need areas. It would be nice to add a solid WR, but their demands are so insane that it makes no sense—you simply cannot sign a “decent” WR in this game: either commit to a superstar at top dollar, or do nothing. After week one, it’s clear that I’ll need to up my offers to retain Diaz and Lee. T Diaz is hearing $16m a year and up from Baltimore—I just don’t see how I can follow that kind of a bid, it makes no sense. I was on the fence about $11 or $12m, but $16m is just ridiculous. If he wants to take the money, I’ll have to let him go. DE Lee is hearing $14m a year from his top suitors, which I think I can do. I bump to $28m over two years, which probably gets me out as he starts to really decline. A short aside, if I may… A nice case study here. RB Kim Newsome has played 4 years, started for two of them, and has 2,420 yards on 4.3 ypc. His ratings are all in the 40-50 range. A decent back, but as the colts decided, not a starter. Newsome is currently getting offers of $13m a year. By contrast, RB Ronald Shepard has played 6 years, staring them all. He has 9,729 yards on 5.1 ypc. He is a total stud- with two of the best running seasons in league history. His ratings are almost all in the 80s. Shepard is currently receiving offers in the $14m a year range. How totally cockeyed is that? Back to my FA period. After two weeks, I am not the highest bidder on either of my free agent players. I decide to make a bid for an outstanding safety available, even though my two young safeties are playing well. S Lamar Hall is a great specimen, and his 42.6 career PDQ looks awfully strong. He’s only a 6th year player, and since safety is a fairly low-paid position, I get a well-placed bid for only 4yrs, $34m. Powell and Tribble are both signed through next year, but Powell and Hall would be a much more formidable pair, with Tribble backing up as needed—I like it. After week three, still no signings. After week 4, my FB Morey signs with Tennessee for a surprisingly high $6.5 m a season. I’m still pending at the top offer to S Hall, but am still one in a crowd with DE Lee and T Diaz. In week 5, T Diaz signs with Baltimore for $65m over 4 years. S Lamar Hall signs with us, and so we make a big pickup in the open market. I up my offer to DE Jim Lee to 2yrs, $29m. He signs the next week—with Pittsburgh, for a 3yr deal worth $43.56m. I am suddenly in trouble on my defensive line. The best guy available is DE Van Brady from Miami—a 5th year guy who is better against the run than as a pass rusher, but looks pretty solid. I offer him a 3yr deal for $24m. He signs the next week—with Washington, who had not even bid before. They offer $8,100,000 for one year, and he takes it. There are officially no more veteran DE available- I’ll probably go pursue a second year player or two later in the FA period. This could be a real problem. I have $64m in cap room, and I have almost no place to spend it. I may be able ot lock up a few of my RFAs, but that doesn’t move us forward. In the later rounds, I pursue a very nice young LB with a 4yr offer, and then go after the best-looking DE I can find—Josh Cruz was a 2nd round pick last year who is available, and he listens to a 4yr, $19m offer. Both players sign fairly quickly, and should help at least in providing depth. At the tail end of the FA period, I put in to secure a decent backup safety with some return skills, and a backup center. I then talk to QB Garner, who is pretty accommodating, and accepts a deal for 5yrs, $87m. I want to re-sign LB Boatright, but he’s being stubborn—he prefers just to sign for one year, and then become an unrestricted free agent next season. I prefer to lock him up for a few seasons, but that will cost me pretty dearly. We’ll revisit this a little later, after I’ve signed my rookies. I finally knuckle under and put in an offer for the last veteran DL available—DT Anthony Gerhardt. I put in $13m over two years in the final stage, and he takes it. I am desperate at DL, and my own guy Mel Reid wants $9m and up. That ends the FA period—not a good one for me, as I was too tight-fisted with my money, even in a year where I had it to spend. I get two trade offers. A second rounder plus a wide receiver for CB Gladney, which I’ll pass on. And a third rounder for C Cole Unsbee—no thanks. I obviously would love a DE in this draft, but there is quite little to see. I find a couple guys worth drafting, but they will probably not slip to my pick at #35. This could be a tough season. When my pick comes up, the few DEs of value are long gone. The best BPAs are at RB, which poses a certain problem for us, needless to say. Amateur Draft Report: Rnd 1 - Robert Whittle, LB, Cornell Rnd 2 - Ty Ottesen, T, Kentucky Rnd 3 - Quinn Johnston, RB, Notre Dame Rnd 4 - Grant Humphrey, DT, Mississippi Rnd 5 - Will Falkenberg, WR, Florida Rnd 6 - Randy Glaser, DE, Northwestern Rnd 7 - Courtney Johnstone, WR, Arkansas LB Whittle looks like the real thing, and he doesn’t have the “shape” of a bust. T Otteson looks pretty solid, and RB Johnston is the second of the two guys I had considered in round one. The late picks are just fillers—I couldn’t find anyone who looked like a legitimate breakout candidate. I finally agree with LB Boatright on a deal—he gets just the one year he wanted, at about $6m. I figure that I’ll need LB depth, and Boatright may end up being a starter for me—at DE. I still have $18m in cap room available for this year, and I decide to pull the trigger on what’s been in the back of my mind for some time now. I go to backup QB Wes Branham, who is still on my RFA list, and I talk with him. We pretty quickly arrive at a deal—4 years, $63m. It’s a lot to pay, but he’s a high quality backup, and I have the cap room to sign him, for better or worse. I load up as much as I can with rookies, and then head into training camp. (Note to self: next season, cut all the one-year fill-in bastards with no hope of re-signing at the end of their first season, that way they won’t clutter your lineup the following season and prevent you from bringing in extra rookies for camp) Following camp, I await the word of my scouts. LB Whittle looks fabulous—he’ll be a great addition. My only busts are my 6th round DE (damn!) and a one-year pickup at FB- no loss there. WR Will Falkenberg might actually turn out to be better than I had thought—I got him mostly for his return abilities, but he’ll probably be my #4 WR this year. I complete the roster-fill process by picking up a few more rookies, and I’m ready to go. Hers is our list of 53 survivors:
My scout has finally bumped Cole Unsbee from the top of his list, and now says that FA safety acquisition Lamar Hall is our best overall player. We’ll see how it plays out. Things are going to be different this year—we will return the same battle-tested warriors who have comprised out left-side offensive line for years, and we have a group of guys to try to run behind that line. With the decay of our WR group, we may need to shift more to running the ball, especially if my young guys turn out to be fairly good at it. On defense, I don’t know what to do up front, but my current inclination is to use a LB as my starting RDE—probably Boatright. I will definitely stay in the 4-3, as I have throughout this career. This year, I think we’ll be right back in the hunt as a major contender. [This message has been edited by QuikSand (edited 12-02-2000).] |
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12-02-2000, 05:47 PM
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#6 |
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lolzcat
Join Date: Oct 2000
Location: Annapolis, Md
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2029 season
Uh... right. Three guards. I knew that. We make a minor adjustment, and we move on. In the exhibition season, we suffer a number of minor injuries, but we should get by. Backup TE Arnie Chiang is out for a couple months. We pack it up, and head into the real thing. Our cohesion stands at 80-87-62-64. Not surprising that we’re upended on our front seven, with all the patching and fill-ins we have around. Bringing in a new starter at S, along with CB Mercury Germaine earning the starting job over Jeremy Doyle caused the drop in secondary cohesion. Our opener is a big game against San Francisco—a Superbowl rematch. We win a shootout 37-31, behind Desmond Garner’s 26/34, 2 TD game. Stan Stewart runs for 86 yards and 2 TDs as well. We lose to Bakersfield in week 2, despite a good offensive performance. Our defense is looking rather suspect at this point. In our first division game, we edge Pittsburgh, 16-13. Desmond garner is dinged up, and I decide to put in Branham (might as well get something for that $13 million). We beat Baltimore 17-10, getting it done on the ground for 134 total rushing yards. We shut out Tennessee 27-0, and we see a flash of Quinn Johnston’s ability with a 63-yard TD run in the second half. We lose third CB Jeremy Doyle to a serious injury—he’ll be out most of the year now. Jacksonville nips us at home, and we fall even with them at 4-2. I re-summon Garner to the starting lineup, and he’s ready to go. I also ratchet the settings to give RB Johnston a few more carries—he’s been looking pretty good lately. We beat Baltimore behind a great rushing day from Stewart (76, 2TD) and Johnston (141, TD), but late in the game Garner gets hit and aggravated his bad knee—he’s doubtful for next week, and Branham gets the call again. Tennessee beats us—the same team that we totally flattened earlier in the year. Branham plays poorly, and throws an interception returned for the score that made the difference. When Kansas City beats us, we must get things together—5 and 4 is just not getting it done. We are wrought with injuries, but I’m not sure what to do—we need to win games, so sitting everyone who is questionable just doesn’t seem productive. I shuffle a little, but keep most of my best players in. QB Garner needs another couple of weeks before he’ll be ready. We whip Jacksonville, and pull into a 3-way tie with them and Baltimore for the division lead at 6-4. We nip Pittsburgh 17-14 to get to a more respectable 7-4. However, in week 13, Atlanta pounds us unmercifully, 39-3. Our running game was nonexistent, and Branham was only 7 for 32, as we got it handed to us. Branham is demonstrating to me that he is not the guy to run this team. We beat Cinti 17-7, as the defense steps up again. On offense, we’re back to nearly full strength. We are gradually getting healthier all around—and Desmond garner is ready to rejoin the club. Garner’s presence makes a huge difference—we run for 285 yards on Seattle, as Garner throws for 3 TDs and we win 31-10. Our week 16 game in Cheyenne is a big one. If we win, we’ll both be in a four-way tie for the top record in the AFC. If Cheyenne wins, they have the inside track and we drop into a fight for our division. Cheyenne takes it 27-16, behind a big day from their QB Rose. Cheyenne has recovered well from the loss of RB Ronald Shepherd (who is in St. Louis now) as they have evolved quickly into a much more balanced team without him. We beat Cincinnati to take the Central division, but 10-6 is not good enough to earn a bye week. Cheyenne at 12-4 and Denver at 11-5 will get the week off. We have to play Oakland in the opening week. Stat leaders: QB Wes Branham: 1,699 yds, 52.1%, 5.30 ypa, 10/6, 70.2 - adequate, but not the real deal QB Desmond Garner: 1,326 yds, 61.4%, 7.09 ypa, 14/2, 103.3 – strong numbers while playing hurt RB Stan Stewart: 254-1,164 yds, 10 TD (4.5 ypc) – productive in new role as featured back RB Quinn Johnston: 137-693 yds, 4 TD (5.0 ypc) – “home run hitter”with big play ability WR Frank Willis: 83-1,118 yds, 8 TD (59.2%, 9 drops) – first year starting at SE, did well WR Dustin Marts: 42-578 yds, 2 TD (48.2%, 7 drops) – just not good enough for this offense C Cole Unsbee: 37/104 KRBs (35.5%), 4 sacks allowed – a true anchor to this line S Lamar Hall: 86 tackles, 1 sack, 4 int, 33.2 PDQ – not pleased he’s my leading tackler, but good year DE Dave Morton: 8 sacks, 5 blocks, 7 hurries – best of a weak pass rusher group Overall stats (off/def/avg): Rushing: 4.4/3.9/3.8 Passing: 5.9/6.1/6.5 Ugh – our passing game took a beating, with the loss of Wiggins and the injuries to Garner, we had our least efficient passing game in years. Our running game is perhaps our biggest asset right now, and we may lean on Stewart and Johnston for any chance in these playoffs. Can we do it? Sure. Are we the best team in this league? Not the way we played during the season, that’s for sure… |
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12-02-2000, 05:47 PM
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#7 |
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lolzcat
Join Date: Oct 2000
Location: Annapolis, Md
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2029 postseason
Our opener is against a pretty balanced Oakland team. They will try to run on us, but our defense will hopefully withstand their efforts—we should be balanced on offense. We net 3 points on our opening drive. On our first two possessions, RB Stewart has about 60 yards rushing, though the second yields only a punt. In the second quarter, Oakland finally gets their offense in gear, mixing the run and pass, and drives for the game’s first TD. Stewart again carries the load as we move in for another short FG—but we need to convert these chances. It’s 7-6 Oakland at the half. In the third, we finally break through and get a TD on a Garner pass to Lewis. RB Stewart adds the two-pointer, and we’re ahead 14-7. We add another FG early in the fourth, and have a good lead at this point. Things heat up when the Raiders score another TD with 6:14 left, and it’s back within 3 points. Garner and Stewart take turns getting first downs, driving down to the Oakland 10. FB Springer punches it in, finally, and we’ve successfully eaten the clock and scored the insurance TD. We’re ahead 10 with 2:02 left. We shut them down, and wrap this one up. Stewart had 28-108 on the day, carrying a serious load. We head into Denver for our second game. They are a heavy passing team, but their offensive line is seriously limping. On or first possession, we march quickly and efficiently for a 17-yard TD pass to Marts. We are swapping punts until the early second quarter when S Jamal Powell makes a hard hit on the QB who was running a draw—the ball pops out, and my LB Damon Peters grabs the ball and rumbles 49 yards for the score. Denver responds with a good drive, passing their way to our 6 yard line. However, our defense toughens, and they are forced to try a 33-yard FG—which they miss. Their next possession, they don’t fail. It’s 14-7 our favor at the half, but we have been outgained by Denver nearly 2-1, and we don’t feel safe at all. In the third, we add a FG with a decent possession. Denver is now fired up, and they mow us down with a great drive for another TD. They have gotten two breakaway running plays, and now have over 130 yards rushing against us. We end the third quarter with the ball, and driving into Denver territory. We get another FG, and it’s 20-14. In the middle fourth quarter, leading by 6, we get just what we need. Four first downs, mostly on short passing, and we move into Denver territory and score the TD on a 21-yard run by Wesley Ingram. We miss the 2-pointer, but still are up 12 with 6:23 to go. Denver feels the heat, but they respond with a 50-yard pass play that sets up a short TD pass. It’s 26-21 now. We move the ball, but have to punt—but we do pin them back to the 4 yard line. We stuff them, and they have to punt and pray. Garner throws a play action pass to TE Miller for 19 yards, and we keep the clocks running. Stewart runs down to the Denver 4, and then Garner tosses it to Miller to put this one away just like we did the last game. It’s 33-21, and Stan Stewart again gets the game ball for 128 yards—he shares it with the offensive line. We get a bid to the AFC title game, and a chance to play Cheyenne again. They are tough—QB Dan Rose has stepped up to be the leader, and they have a stable of solid running backs. They are decent on defense, but we expect points to be scored in this game. Cheyenne gets it first, gets a big pass platy to set up a long FG, but they miss. Our balanced drive nets us a FG that is true, and we’re ahead 3-0. Through the first quarter, they are all pass—unlike last year, they have no running game against our front. In the second quarter, we add another FG to go ahead 6-0. Cheyenne gets a couple of passes to get in place just before halftime for a FG, and we get to the break at 6-3. Our first drive of the third quarter nets yet another FG. They miss their FG attempt, and right now the difference is FG accuracy—my undrafted rookie is 3-for-3, while their veteran is 1-for 3, and we lead 9 to 3. Our next drives fizzles at their 17, but we finally get the bug and miss our kick. Their drive ends at our 16, and their kick is true—it’s a battle of kickers, and we lead it 9-6. With 5:32 remaining, Cheyenne gets a 46-yard FG to tie the game at 9. This is agonizing, as neither team can really break out. We run some clock, and get into Cheyenne territory. With 2 minutes left, we have it on their 41. Garner throws to TE Miller down to their 27, with 1:19 left. A 5 yard run keeps the clock running, but on the next play after gaining the first down, we get penalized 15 yards for unnecessary roughness, and we’re back to their 29, with 0:49 left. We get 7 yards, then throw incomplete, and then set up for the kick. With 11 seconds, we set up for a 39-yard FG… and it’s good! We put this one in the books at 12-9. Our kicker, David Cook, has to get the game ball for this one. We get a trip into our third straight Superbowl, and we’ll take on St. Louis. The Rams made a huge free agent acquisition in RB Ronald Shepard, who join long-time star QB Howard Huffman for a very potent 1-2 offensive punch. They battled injuries through the season and only went 9-7, but now they are clicking and very dangerous. On their first possession, they have us on our heels. However, we recover in time to stop them at our 23, and we take over after the missed FG. On our first play, Garner hits his new favorite target TE Seth Miller, and Miler shakes the safety to rumble 50 yards down to the St. Louis 20. In three more plays, we’re in as Garner hits Marts for the score. Huffman’s first pass of the next possession is picked off by CB Jeremy Doyle, and we set up at the St. Louis 19 yard line. RB Stewart breaks it around the outside for the score, and it’s suddenly a 14-0 game. We force a punt, and they do the same, but the Rams’ return man gets loose for a 45 yard return for a TD. They kick off, and my WR Falkenberg breaks the kickoff return for a 103-yard TD, and we’re back to the 14 point margin. I almost don’t want to kick off. We get another turnover, and score again to make it 28-7 before the end of the first quarter. We are rolling now, and we rack up another drive for a TD in the second quarter. Huffman responds with a 44-yard bomb, and it’s clear that the smoke won’t clear until this is over. The pace slows down, until we add another TD just before halftime, and take a 42-14 lead into the break. In the third quarter, Huffman throws another TD pass, and the score is 42-21. While it seems like the game is over, I’m concerned because they have moved very effectively in their last few drives. Our margin holds as we stop their defense, but Garner is picked off in the late third quarter, and their return for a TD makes it 42-28. At the end of the 3rd quarter, we’re ahead by 14 but St. Louis is driving into our territory. We intercept Huffman to thwart that drive. They get it back with 9:05 remaining, at their 20. Huffman throws two straight long completions to get to our 4 yard line. They get in, and it’s a 7 point game with 8:27 left. We’re trying desperately to cling to our fragile lead. They tried an onside kick, and we recovered at their 31. (Bad move) Garner throws to Willis and Marts to get the score, and it’s back to 14 points at 49-35. Huffman gets them back into scoring position, and then hits Shea for another TD, to get the margin back to 7. This game has been unreal, and it’s 49-42, with St. Louis about to kick. At this point, St. Louis has 402 yards passing and 95 rushing. We have 204/174, having cashed in several opportunitites for short fields. With 4:33 left, we’ll see if they decide to onside kick again. They don’t but we don’t handle the return well, and take over at our 9. Stewart runs for a first down. FB Johnston gets 12 on another carry, as we pass the 200 yard rushing mark. Stewart gets 3, and the clock runs to 3:03. We finally have to punt with 2:16 remaining. They get it at their 26, with 2:06 left. They ran and lost three yards. Huffman dropped back again, but this time S Jamal Powell—“Mr. Superbowl”—stepped into it and made the huge interception. Our ball at our 46, with 1:51 left. We just need a first down or two to win it. Stewart obliges with a 22-yard gain on our first play. We run two more plays, taking theclock to 1:00 even, and then it’s 4th down with 19 seconds left at their 35. We line up Cook for the clincher, and he is true from 52 yards away. Final score: Players 52, Rams 42. With a shootout like that, any number of players have big stat lines. The Superbowl MVP award goes to CB Jeremy Doyle, whose two interceptions each stopped deep St. Louis drives. On the awards board, C Cole Unsbee gets first team honors, as I had expected. What I did not expect was that he would be our only representative, save Doyle’s game honor. I didn’t think that we had the stuff to get it done this year, but we stepped up with a vastly improved running game in the postseason, and that made a huge difference in each game. Stan Stewart carried a huge load, and gained 441 yards over the four playoff games. We should be able to dump a few of these stopgap contracts and make some noise in the free agent market next season, as frightening as that sounds. We want the back to back wins! |
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12-03-2000, 11:25 AM
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#8 |
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lolzcat
Join Date: Oct 2000
Location: Annapolis, Md
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2030 preseason
We come into this year realizing that we were just a fourth-quarter comeback away from having the NFL’s first three-peat.® We’ll try to keep the good fortune going—our “dynasty has been pretty impressive no matter how you look at it: 4 titles in the last 8 years, 5 in the last 11, 2 of the last 3. The balance sheet is again healthy, though we didn’t have a big run of home playoff games to pad things up. We still made $178m, and I haven’t touched ticket prices since we moved. Coach Mickey Arnold’s contract is due. I re-sign him for three more years, but not until I’ve flirted with the guy from New England, who looks fabulous. I’ll keep an eye out after five years, which the Patriots get him to take. On to the roster. We have no retirements this season, but we return only 26 players on contract. We have $83.4m in cap room, which is about 40% of the $214.8m total. Here’s the list of unsigned players as we head into free agency—as you can see, lots of holes:
Among the free agents, I’d really like to sign WR Frank Willis, as he is my only truly reliable wideout right now. I would like to keep him, and then cut my other two guys in lieu of free agents, though that might get very pricey. T Vince Bell only has a couple more years left—I’d like to keep him, but my young draftee might have to step in soon anyway. Much the same for G Jimmie Dowell—though RFA Seth Staggs is a high quality player, and might be worthy of a real bid as well. LB Damon Peters is getting old, too—but he’s been awfully solid for us. CB Preston Gladney is still worth keeping—he’s still my most gifted corner. DT Jurgensen would be a walkaway, but for the fact that I’m so desperately thing on my DL. CB Mercury Germaine and Jeremy Doyle are both solid—but I doubt I can afford both of them. I figure that I’ll be able to re-sign two CBs for about $25m, two OL for about $20m, and WR Willis for about $10m, adding up to about $55m. That should leave me ample room to play the field a bit, and perhaps try to retain one or two more guys for this year. I was overloaded at LB last season, so I’ll hold back on guys like Boatright and Greg Adam. I decide to use the franchise tag on CB Preston Gladney, and I’ll make a serious effort to re-sign one of the other two CBs. I get a trade offer—a third round pick plus a decent WR for TE Seth Miller. I love Miller, and apparently so does Garner, so I decline. I put in my initial bids: 3yrs, $36 for WR Willis; 3yrs, $24m for G Dowell; and 3yrs, (gulp) $55m for CB Germaine. Mercury Germaine is clearly the superior of my two younger CBs, and since their demands are identical, I put in the staggering bid on the better guy. He wants a deal that will rise quickly to $20m. I decide to wait out T Vince Bell, who is only one of several high quality tackles in this draft. I am also willing to make some cuts as need be. The best candidates would be WR Wesley Ingram ($10.4m), DT Anthony Gerhardt ($7m), and needless to say QB Wes Branham ($14.5m). I think I may be active in free agency this year, and I may have to break a few eggs along the way. I see DE Van Brady,a guy I pursued last season, who has been released by Washington. He looks to me like the best DE available, and I make an offer of 3yrs, $34.5m for his services. I then decide to pursue WR Cris Vernon, who comes off a 1,200-yard season for San Francisco. I offer him a deal matching my offer to WR Willis-- $12m a year. At tackle, I’m stuck. I have my own guy Bell, whose ratings (54/37/40) really don’t merit the big money he seeks—I expect him to fall through the FA period. I’d like to replace him, perhaps with 6th year T Sedrick Forsberg (73/59/36). I finally decide to offer a deal to Forsberg for $11m a year. I then decide to break my vow to sta out LB, and I put in an offer for an underused 5th year LB from Carolina, Gabe Thurgood. He’d be solid enough to build around, and would set me up for a while there. Though most of my FA pursuits have been younger players (my team is aging), I do go after one experienced veteran star. DT Joey Perkins is a 13th year DT from New Orleans, and had 105 career sacks. He’d be a great addition on our line, and I offer him $10m a year to finish his career with us. I also pursue a somewhat younger DT in T.J. Wedderburn, who is demanding more, and I offer $12m a year. For sdome reason, my own DT Jurgensen is demanding more than either of these guys—he’s a good run stopper, but is not the balanced talent that they are. I have a slate of nine star players with offers from me—this could be the biggest movement year this team has seen, if I even get six or seven of them aboard. Week 1 OH signings: WR Frank Willis, LB Gabe Thurgood. Looks like I’ll have to do better—a LOT better to get CB Mercury Germaine signed. I decide that he’s very important, and go to 4yrs, $80m—just ahead of Pitsburgh. I also bump DE Van Brady’s deal to $38m over three years. At this point, I’m the top offer pending with everyone except DE Joey Perkins. If I get T.J. Wedderburn, I won’t mind losing out on Perkins. Week 2 OH signees: DE Van Brady, DT Joey Perkins. That was a surprise, and a huge relief. My DL problems are looking a lot less troublesome with these two big additions. I am being outbid for G Jimmie Dowell, and increase my offer to match Atlanta’s $34m over 4 yrs. I bump my offer to WR Cris Vernon also. Week 3 OH signees: T Sedrick Forsberg, CB Mercury Germaine. G Jimmie Dowell takes the deal from Atlanta—one of those where he wouldn’t listen to any 4yr deal from me, but accepted theirs for the same average salary. The legendary left side of my line is now history, as LG Dowell is gone and T Vince Bell has just been replaced. I now lack the cap room to adjust my bids, and so I watch as WR Cris Vernon and DT T.J. Wedderbburn contemplate my bids, which are their top offers. I decide to release WR Wesley Ingram, as he is a $10.4m contract, he is unhappy and has not been too productive. This way, if both FAs sign at once, it won’t bust my cap. In week 4, DT T.J. Wedderburne signs, and we have completed a hijacking of the two best DTs available. I release my pricey fill-in from last year, Anthony Gerhardt, and we’re in good shape again. I also got a bid accepted for a decent fill-in tackle, Bruce Sutter. Green Bay has signed CB Jeremy Doyle, the Superbowl MVP. I still have yet to ink a deal with my own franchise player, CB Preston Gladney. It might become a fairly tight fit, especially if I sign WR Vernon. In week 7, WR Cris Vernon signs with us, and we have completed a huge spending spree. I do not have the cap room to sign my rookies, I’m sure. T Vince Bell has signed with San Diego, and LB Damon Peters appears to be headed to Buffalo. I get a series of trade offers—DT Joey Perkins (I refuse), RB Stan Stewart (I refuse), and QB Wes Branham. Saints be praised! The Giants are offering their first pick for Branham-- #14 overall. It’s perfect for me, and I jump on the deal. This leaves me with 32 players signed, and $21.4m in cap room—I will absolutely not have enough room to sign my franchise player, plus my rookie class plus enough post-camp rookies, I have to make a cut somewhere. The trade for Perkins is still sitting there, and certainly would help. I also currently have no guards signed to a contract, so getting a guy like G Seth Staggs signed (he wants $6m now) would be very positive. I’ve clearly overspent this year, but I still think it’s manageable. DE Josh Cruz is our first casualty—he was overpaid at $5m. I’ll replace him with a draft pick. I decide that taking the deal for DT Joey Perkins (and eating $6m in cap hit next year) is probably my best option, and I do it. This leaves me needing help at DT, but I can usually find decent DTs in the middle rounds of the draft. I’m now up to $34.5m in cap room—I decide to go ahead into the draft, and see what needs to be done once we have our hands on these rookies. Looking into the draft, I have some needs coming up. I would like to add a WR this year, and I need a decent DT and DE from this group. At safety, I don’t know what to do with Jamal Powell, who I would prefer to keep, but will be a free agent next season. My current situation at G is abysmal, so that’s another immediate need. My CB depth is now gone, so a third playable guy there would be an asset. Lots of target areas available. Amateur Draft Report: Rnd 1 - Darrin Coccione, G, Missouri Rnd 1 - Hunter Stanton, DE, Tennessee Rnd 2 - Levon Sierra, C, Texas A&M Rnd 2 - Bryan Huntley, DT, Wisconsin Rnd 3 - Leroy Norton, QB, Iowa Rnd 4 - Darryl Thomas, CB, Arizona State Rnd 5 - Leroy Popp, S, Duquesne Rnd 6 - Grady Chatman, DT, Hofstra Rnd 7 - Eddie Stewart, G, Pittsburgh My first pick at #14, DE Stanton, looks very good but does have the potential to bust (be has the general shape). However, I felt I couldn’t resist. I usually find G to be a position requiring forbearance, but G Coccione is very, very good and merited an early selection. C Sierra may well start at G for us this year, assuming he camps well. QB Norton is a pretty ready-to-go QB, a bit like Garner looked whan I drafted him. CB Thomas is a return specialist and modest coverage man. S Poppis my stab at a redliner—he’s got decent current ratings and no growth potential, it appears. DT Chatman and G Stewart were just decent picks at need positions. If DE Stanton comes through, this will have been a good draft. I get CB Gladney signed, and we have $26m with which to sign our rookies and free agent fillers. It turns out to be enough to get our rookie class in—with $6.2m to spare. However, we will have to pick up 13 more players at about $700k apiece—so we still need to make a cut or two to fill the roster. I did not acquire a WR in this draft as I had hoped, so that makes the release of a wideout a tough call. I figure that S Rob Tribble is my mot likely cut candidate—he’ll be #3 this year anyway, and will likely not re-sign with us. I cut Tribble, fill up to 50 players (after again forgetting to cut my one-year bums at the end of last season), and head into training camp. DE Hunter Stanton… big bust. His current ratings had been 37 and 32, now they are 10 and 3. Nobody else carries much surprise, for good or bad. The big bust of Stanton stings, though, and now I wish I had not already cut S Tribble—I would rather cut Stanton’s $5m salary. Curiously, I also see that there was another DE named Ted Stanton, who was a second round pick and also busted. I decide to release Hunter Stanton, and endure the massive $10m cap hit next year—adding to that from my trade of QB Branham, which will make next year very difficult. As it turns out, all I get from Branham’s trade is a $20m hole in my gut next year. Here are the 53 that escape training camp with us:
This year represented the biggest upheaval ever on this roster—we have a lot of new faces in key positions, and we ponied up big dough to retain others. The notion that Mercury Germaine is my highest-paid player seems ludicrous—he wasn’t even a starter but for injuries last year. I will suffer badly next year from my mistakes of this season. For now, I feel like this team is better on paper then it was last season. However, we have lost some quality depth, and that may hurt if we suffer an injury at QB, CB, S, or LB. Another wild card is the offensive line. If there was simply something magical about the cohesive group we had together for years, then we might well fall apart as the two left-side anchors have been replaced. This year, we obviously are making a run at the title again, but the team is more like a Petri dish than anything else. |
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12-04-2000, 10:16 AM
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#9 |
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lolzcat
Join Date: Oct 2000
Location: Annapolis, Md
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2030 season
I decide to use my backup TE Arnie Chiang as my starting FB, a reversal from my historical trend of having FB depth, and using it at TE. On the OL, I decide to use backup C Levon Sierra as my starting RG (he's quite good) for this year, ahead of late-round pickup G Eddie Stewart (who is also pretty solid). The line looks pretty good yet again-LT Forsberg, LG Coccione, C Unsbee, RG Sierra, and RT Ottesen (who developed very well this year). We lose cohesion and experience, but little in apparent talent. After the exhibition games, we have lost FB Preston Bertrand for 2-3 months, but he's definitely replaceable. We also have an injury to WR Vernon, which will cause him to sit out for a few weeks. At RB, I have an interesting issue. RB Stan Stewart has the starting job following a good year last time out, but backup Quinn Johnston is very tempting, as his ratings are very nearly as good, plus he has that elusive 99 in breakaway speed. I set Stewart's PT to 2 for starters, and I'll split time between two talented backs. We start out as usual, with a tough NFC opponent. We beat Philadelphia 21-14, with a late TD pass making the difference. We then beat the Giants 27-17, as Quinn Johnston breaks an 83-yard TD run and gas 135 on 76 carries. QB Wes Branham led the Giants fairly well, and they were in the game through the third quarter. We beat Pittsburgh handily to go to 3-0, but lose TE Seth Miller for a while. Now, our FB/TE situation is getting tricky. I decide to start TE Chiang at TE, and I'll use backup RB Monty Reid as my starting FB, as my remaining rookie there really cannot block or run. We win a fairly close game against Baltimore (30-21) and Garner comes out with an injury. Norton fills in a we go conservative, and he throws 7 or 9 with a TD pass to RB Stewart- but only gets 14 yards on the 7 completions. Garner is questionable for next week against the 1-3 Jags, and I decide to let him rest. The Jags murder us 37-10, as they totally stop our running game with an 8 or 9 man front. Garner is upgraded to probable-he'll go against the Titans next week. We handle Tennessee, and Quinn Johnson again outshines my starter Stan Stewart. I decide to flip them on the depth chart, and to try Johnson as my featured back. I decide, for some odd reason, to try using Stewart as my fullback-we'll see if this (using the two runners together in the same backfield) works any better than it has for the NFL teams who have dabbled with this nonsense. In our first game, things go well. We crush the Ravens, and Johnston gains 143 yards in his first real start. Stewart only gets one carry for 7 yards, and one catch for 6, and I decide to bump up the FB carries number to 60, to get him the ball a little more. We roll Jacksonville, and the running game takes off-Johnston gets 27-184 and 2 TDs, while Stewart gets 5-15 and one TD plus one catch out of the backfield. We win at home over Oakland, again behind a big day from Johnston (135, 3TD). He's rapidly become the focus of this team-looking a good deal like Corey Harper with his ability to score from anywhere. I put Stewart back into the backup RB slot, as TE Miller is healthy and TE Chiang is free to resume his upback duties. Stewart should still get carries, though. We get to 9-1 by killing the Titans again, and we have been awfully solid-unbeaten when Garner starts. W get a narrow 22-12 win in Pittsburgh, and stretch to 10-1. Stan Stewart's role is fading fast, as his 2.5 ypc simply doesn't compare to Johnston's eye-popping 6.3, as Johnston has eclipsed the 1,000 yard mark already and has 13 TDs. We've become a running team, and we are doing it behind a rebuilt offensive line. Arizona plays us tough on our field, and they get a punt return in the final minute TD to win it 27-24. We thrash Cincinnati to rebound, and at 11-2 practically have the top seed wrapped up. We win out to get to 14-2, and conclude a very impressive regular season. We head into the postseason very healthy, with dings to a few guys but no regular starter sidelined. This is the strong suit of my coach, and he delivered this time. Stat leaders: QB Desmond Garner: 3,145 yds, 65.3%, 7.21 ypa, 21/8, 94.9 - carried less burden with emerging run game RB Quinn Johnston: 240-1,455 yds, 17 TD (6.0 ypc) - exploded with huge season after gaining starter role WR Dusting Marts: 63-933 yds, 9 TD (63.6%, 4 drops) - great year as part-time starter and third wideout WR Frank Willis: 58-810 yds, 2 TD (56.3%, 8 drops) - solid, but below expectations C Cole Unsbee: 36/115 KRBs (31/3%), 5 sacks - another great year from outstanding talent LB Gabe Thurgood: 90 tackles, 4.5 sacks, 2 int, 2 TD - big playmaker fits MLB role perfectly DE Van Brady: 26 tackles, 13.5 sacks, 3 blocks, 2 hurries - great all-around play from big FA pickup CB Preston Gladney: 60 tackles, 7 int, 40.9 PDQ - another very solid season from my lock-down corner S Lamar Hall: 72 tackles, 6 int, 1 TD, 47.0 PDQ - great year from fabulous safety Overall stats (off/def/avg): Rushing: 4.3/3.8/4.0 Passing: 6.9/6.7/6.5 Interesting to see that our passing game's dominance slipped pretty considerably, measured by ypa. We don't turn the ball over much, so we were able to remain dominant this season (+15 TO margin, second best), and we generally made more big plays than our opponents. Our running game stats are a bit dubious-the 4.3 understates the true measure of our running game, which has really picked up behind Johnston. With that running game and Garner's poise, I like our chances in this year's postseason picture. |
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12-04-2000, 02:58 PM
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#10 |
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lolzcat
Join Date: Oct 2000
Location: Annapolis, Md
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2030 postseason
Miami beats Jacksonville for the right to travel to Columbus for their opener. The Dolphins are a running-by-committee team, and play a pretty balanced offense led by longtime QB Archie Thomas. They mix up the 3-4 and 4-3 defenses, but their front seven is the strength of the team. They have two star-caliber LBs and a rotation of solid DEs. On the first possession, we get a long pass to Vernon, which sets up a short FG. The Dolphins go three and out on their first, which is very encouraging. Johnston breaks a 30-yard gainer for the TD to put us up 10-0, and all the signs are there. In an important early possession, Miami responds and drives for a long FG. They keep their hopes alive by showing those signs of life. They stop us on defense, and then march for another FG. It's the middle second quarter, and they are right back into this game. They intercept Garner in our territory, and get another FG to pull within one point. Our momentum had all dried up, and we cannot move-we punt, they drive, and we have to pull of a 3-play goal-line stand to hold them to another FG. It's 12-10 Miami at the half. After an exchange of three punts in the third, we have the ball at the Miami 39 yard line. Our offense has been impotent since the middle first quarter, but this is a great opportunity. We get a first down, but settle for a 41-yard kick… which is good. My DEs come up with the big play next-Morton gets a sack and Brady falls on the ball, and we take over at the Miami 16. We go seven plays, but settle for a FG again. We stop Miami again, and our defense seems to be recharged. Garner finds TE Miller for 29 yards to get into Miami territory as the third quarter ends. However, a few plays later, he is intercepted at the Miami 15, cutting the drive short. We force a punt, but fumble the return, setting them up with great position at our 29, down by 4 points. Three plays get them two yards, and they set up for a 44 yard FG - it's good, and it's a one point game again. We again get tings going, but once again we fizzle out deep in Miami's side, and we kick a 19-yard FG to go ahead by 4 points again. They get it with 4:12 remaining, at their 20. On a key third down, Lamar Hall tackles their QB on a draw, forces a fumble, and DE Morton jumps on it. From the Miami 33, we have great position, and a chance to put it away. Johnston gets an 11-yard run, Willis a 22-yard catch, and the Johnston takes it in - finally, a TD. Miami launches a great late drive, and gets a 43-yard TD pass with a fill 55 seconds left. They are within 3 points, and the onside kick will be huge. WR Marts, on the hands team, comes up with the ball, and we just need to kill the clock. We do it, and take home a 26-23 victory-a hard-fought win. The Patriots are our foes in the AFC title game. They are an explosive offensive team, scoring the third most points this year, and featuring a number of good offensive weapons. Their QB, Colin Johnston, is very solid. We'll be without DE Brady, who was hurt late in the Miami game as will miss the rest of the playoffs. We get the ball first, and delight the home town fans with an 80-yard drive for a TD. We force New England to go three and out, and we are off to the start we sought. Of course, that wasn't a great foreshadowing of the last game, but we're pleased early. We add a FG on our next possession, going ahead 10-0. LB Douglas gets an interception, and cash it in for a 17-0 lead before the end of the first quarter. Johnston has been very active, with 9 carries and 4 receptions in the first quarter. The NE QB Johnston (no relation to my RB) is a playmaker, and he starts to roll out of the pocket to avoid pressure. The tactic works, and they build a nice drive on two big pass plays, and get in for the TD. We block a punt in the late second quarter, and net another FG. It's 20-7 at the half. The third quarter is a field position battle until we get fired up and get in for a TD pass to TE Seth Miller. AT 27-7, things look dark for the Pats. On their next possession, though, they get it together and march for the TD. They stop us, move in again, but have to settle for a FG, making it 27-17 with 7:53 to play. A tough decision, to settle for that FG, but it might have been the right thing to do. Our offense is shut down again, and the Pats get it back with 6:02 left, down tem points. We put a stop to their rally with a great defensive series, and take over after a punt. We run the clock to 1:59 before they get it back at their 19. They convert a 4th-and-5, then make a 55-yard pass play to our 1, and then punch it in. Once again, the onside kick here will be big. This time it's my third safety Popp who falls on the ball, but it's the same result. We run out the cloce to take a 27-24 victory-another hard fought win, eerily similar to the Miami game. In the Superbowl, we will face the Redskins. Their starting QB is out, so fill-in Nolan Harlan is in and will focus on the short game. Their key man will be RB Stan Connors-a one-time Ohio Player. They were 13-3 during the regular season, and the key was turnovers and special teams. They had a +13 TO margin, and they played opportunistic defense. It would be fascintaint ig S Jamal Powell made a big play again. He's in his fourth year in the league, and so far has played in three Superbowls. He was named MVP of the 2027 and 2028 Superbowls (even though we lost in 2028) and then made a key int for TD in 2029 last year, which I expected to get it for him again (it went to another DB of mine instead for his 2 ints). We'll see if "Mr. Superbowl" can come through again here. We elect to receive, and hope for a quick scoring drive. Instead, we get three and out. We get a great punt, a big defensive series, and a nice punt return to take over at their 35. Two plays, seven points. We force another punt late in the first quarter, and Thomas takes it all the way, 75 yards for the score. We get an interception on the next pass, and take over again at their 13. Three plays later, TE Seth Miller is in with a score. After one quarter, we have 79 yards of offense, but 21 points--looks like we've been the opportunistic team today. The Redskins don't roll over-they get good position and take it in for a score on a flanker screen, and it's 21-7. They have outgained us so far in the game. Another good defensive stand yields them a short field again, and they add another TD. Late in the second, we miss a 40-yard FG, but they cannot get things going. It's 21-14 at the half. On their opening second half possession, we get another interception, and LB Thurgood returns it to the Redskins 4. Seth Miller gets another score, and we take the lead 28-14. We get some yardage on our next possession, but the back-and-forth continues. A big pass to Willis plus a 22-yard run from Johnston set up a FG, and our lead stretches to 17, early in the fourth. Next play, the Skins go deep, but Gladney basically fair-catches the interception, and we take over again. So far, no word from "Mr. Superbowl," but his teammates are certainly picking up the slack. The drive that ensues is the back breaker. We eat about 5 minutes of clock, and we add another FG to go ahead by 20. Their desperation lets our players just pin their ears back, and we tack on ten insurance points to romp to a 44-14 final margin. For the fourth straight year, an Ohio DB is named Superbowl MVP. This year it was Lamar Hall, who has eight tackles and two interceptions. Reserve CB/WR Darryl Thomas also played big with a 75-yard punt return and two more returns over 15 yards. We only gave up one play over 15 yards, and no runs over 8. TE Seth Miller had 2 TDs, but left in the third quarter with an injured leg. A solid game for Garner, who didn't have to do much-as usual for him in the Superbowl. On the post-season awards lineup, we have several mentions. Our offensive line merits two first teamers in C Cole Unsbee and T Sedrick Forsburg (a FA signee). Our kicker gets first team mention as well, not bad for a URFA. CB Preston Gladney and S Lamar Hall both make the first team also. My right tackle, Ty Ottesen, is a surprise mention on the second team-he has developed very well. A few notes from around the league. Chicago QB Horace Forbes had his numbers drop off this season (3,151 - 19/14 - 76.6) in part because the Bears traded for a star RB and re-focused their team. NYG QB Wes Branham had a so-so season (2,007 - 12/9 - 78.4) battling injury troubles all year. San Francisco's RB Scott Whipple had 1,031 yards-the best of my numerous former RBs out there. Spencer McKinnon had 935 for Pittsburgh, Stan Connors had 786 for Washington, and Monty Ellis had 604 for Jacksonville. Incidentally, I had not even noticed, but apparently my old RB Corey Harper only played a short while longer after defecting to the Patriots-his career apparently ended in 2028. That wraps another powerful season from these Ohio Players, and very possibly my continuation of this career. 2030 seems like a nice stopping point, and we've clearly established this team to be world-beaters. I think I'll be more engaged playing a career under more rigorous rules of some sort. |
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12-04-2000, 05:20 PM
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#11 |
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High School JV
Join Date: Oct 2000
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QS:
Long time reader, first time poster in your career thread. Excellent narration BTW!! I'd hate to see you bag this career to launch a new one. You might just want to incorporate house rule changes into this career and keep it going. One thing I have noticed is that you tend to seek out the best staff possible. While this makes sense from a success standpoint, I think in part this may be the root cause for such a consistently successful run. Why not incorporate the McCaskey clause into your rules? Always make sure that your staff salary (coach & scout) are in the bottom 1/3 of the league. This should knock down the overall top-to-bottom quality of your roster and make it harder to reach the SB every year. It will also increase the difficulty score in the "Herb" ratings. It would almost be like a new, more frugal owner has taken over the team and is trying to cut costs where they can. If you want to take it a step further, you can add the stipulation that the team can't move or get a new stadium until your current one is the oldest in the league by 25 years!! I must admit, I've begun to root against the Browns/Players out of spite, as my own Bears are 0-for-3 in SBs. Envy is an UGLY thing!!  What ever you decide, you have a loyal reader here. Your narrative is very compelling and has helped kill a lot of "down time" at work for me. Thanks and keep up the good work!! PT |
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12-04-2000, 08:34 PM
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#12 |
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College Starter
Join Date: Oct 2000
Location: Pittsburgh, PA
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Quik,
2 Questions about your coaching methods: 1. In preseason do you bench your starters 2. From your comments about TE/FB and OL, I assume you play an active role in overwriting your scouts lineups. I have noticed that the scout places a lot of emphasis on current ratings and to start rookies (which really helps development) you must make that decision. Todd
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"It's a great day for hockey" - "Badger" Bob Johnson |
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12-04-2000, 10:22 PM
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#13 |
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lolzcat
Join Date: Oct 2000
Location: Annapolis, Md
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Todd,
I am generally a very hands-off GM/coach with my teams. My usual routine is to make some pretty modest adjustments to the suggested gameplan (like zeroing out a couple formations that I zeroed out in camp) and then I make a few modifications to my depth chart as it is set by my scout. I probably let 80-90% of the assignments of my scout stand, mostly because I'm pretty lazy. In preseason, I don't bother reshuffling an entire lineup-- I usually just bench my star QB for those games, then bring him back in for week one. Personally, the portion of this game I enjoy most is the development and management of the roster. I could really take or leave all the external financial stuff and the things like depth charting, though I recognize their role in the big picture. I must say that FOF 2001 has made depth charting more interesting for me, with the more specific abilitiy to do things like assign FB carries, designate your top CB as a lock down on the top opposing WR, etc. This is a fascinating game, but after playing so many seasons and careers, I just cannot get worked up over the minutae (as I see it) of altering game plans based on opponents, or tinkering with the other details in the game. |
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12-05-2000, 08:11 AM
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#14 |
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College Starter
Join Date: Oct 2000
Location: Pittsburgh, PA
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I would agree. I very rarely make changes to run/pass % by down and distance. I will make sure my D-Line bias is set 0/100 to 3-4 and will tinker with FB run % sometimes and zone vs man percentage but for the most part, game planning for each opponent is too time consuming.
As for the lineups, I used to bench starters on a rotating basis for the preseason but I think this is an unfair advantage because the CPU does not (too my knowledge). The big lineup decisions I make usually revolve around injuries. Todd
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"It's a great day for hockey" - "Badger" Bob Johnson |
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12-05-2000, 11:17 AM
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#15 |
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lolzcat
Join Date: Oct 2000
Location: Annapolis, Md
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I think I'll just chill out for a while and see how I feel. I'll be out of town for a couple of days (no net or FOF access) and thus I'll get a break whether I like it or not.
I really derive quite little pleasure from having a team that wins all the time. I'd much rather feel like I need to make the right decisions to field a winning team... and I'd like to have a sense of ebb and flow as the team has good runs and bad runs. As it is, my bad run is a season when we suffer a few critical injuries, and are not able to be completely dominant. That's just not too fun for me. A couple seasons ago, I blew it in free agency and left my team terribly undermanned at DL. I should have been ravaged for this-- my team should have suffered noticeably. However, in the FOF world, the level of competition is such that the CPU teams are so poorly run that my "100 roster" has plenty of wiggle toom to make big mistakes and still be the best out there. In FOF2, I eventually got to the point where the only way I played the game was in a "challenge" where my only real goal ws to eventually win one bowl. Once I did, I usually declared the challenge complete, and tried to package up what I learned from it. I feel like I'm faced with two un-palatable alternatives now: play with reasonable house rules and keep winning all the time, or else play with some bizarre, draconian, or otherwise phony rules and effectively cripple my team into losing sometimes. Neither one sounds too appealing right now. I'd like to play out and see how well guys like QB Desmond Garner, S Jamal Powell, and RB Quinn Johnston do over their careers. Is it worth the tiem and tedium involved? I don't know right now. I'm sorry to disappoint the folks who have followed these threads for a while-- I've enjoyed writing them and have, on balance, enjoyed this career a lot. I'm just pretty burned out right now. I'll see if I recharge by next week. |
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12-05-2000, 12:03 PM
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#17 |
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Grizzled Veteran
Join Date: Oct 2000
Location: Manchester, CT
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Quik, terrific career thread!
I don't know if this is something you would enjoy, but I found this to be challenging in my own career. After I have reached a level of proverbial "invincibility" I switch teams. Usually I will play out the careers of a couple great QB's, then I switch to the team with the worst record, terrible support, and no market value. I usually move the team and try to build them into a respectable franchise again. This is not always easy, especially if playing by a set of house rules where you must keep the new teams current roster until each contract runs out. It can be tough because the computer has signed some high priced, low talent players to multi year deals. Of course, over time the team can become dominant, but it may take quite awhile, and you will have your up and down seasons for the first 10-15 years I suspect. Then you can always change teams 20-30 years down the road. Another challenge I am trying (although I am not very good at detailing these challenges in a thread, so I don't) is the "Grizzled Vet's" challenge as I call it. The overlying priciple to this challenge is that all players on the team must have a certain number of years experience in the NFL. I usually use 7. The downside is there is no drafting, and a lot of people love the draft. But this is very challenging. Cohesion does not get too high usually, and most of the aging veterans are on the downside of their skills. Finally, another way that I tweak the game to add difficulty is to use a house rule where I cannot draft in the 1st or 2nd rounds, and cannot have anybody on my roster drafted in these rounds. You will find that your rosters will look much more like the computer's teams. I have had careers that were EXTREMELY difficult to win at, and some that in time became fairly easy to win. So it is a crap shoot. I just wanted to offer you a few suggestions, even though you are the reigning king of the challenge ideas. Whatever you choose, I am sure eventually you will continue/start again with another team, I am eagerly awaiting those career threads.
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81-78 Cincinnati basketball writer P. Daugherty, "Connor Barwin playing several minutes against Syracuse is like kids with slingshots taking down Caesar's legions." |
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12-05-2000, 12:29 PM
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#18 |
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High School JV
Join Date: Oct 2000
Location: Nova Scotia
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Of course Quik could always bring back the careers of INFORMED SOURCE, SUN VISOR et al.
Or have they all gone out to stud?
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It seems more like today than it did all day yesterday. |
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12-05-2000, 12:33 PM
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#19 |
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lolzcat
Join Date: Oct 2000
Location: Annapolis, Md
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Geez, Kevin - I practically forgot about "Hooves of Thunder" what with all the excitement about the new FOF and CM releases. Maybe I'll stoke those fires at some point as well... (sigh)
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12-05-2000, 12:40 PM
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#20 |
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lolzcat
Join Date: Oct 2000
Location: Annapolis, Md
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As for CM - I don't think anyone would want to read my career thread in that game so far...
- - - I finally figured out what a "cap" is today, and why my one Left Defensive Forward Middfielder Winger Fullback guy has one. I also signed a new young player named Zgrwfblrkempblmdthorne, costing me 18,913 units of a currency I don't understand, but he has ratings of 3/9/11/2/3/8/3/4/7/1/9/4/3... /4/5/6/2/7/3/8/10/1/4/3/3/6/2/4/8 in his primary skills, plus a few other ones that impressed me like his "9" in pasta-making ability and "14" in fit-pitching. My team played a game, I think, but I cannot tell what happened, except that all my guys have little yellow and red marks by them. now some "Chairman" guy is saying he wants to put me in a bag. I don't get it. - - - Not such good reading, I suspect. (Honestly, I've only spent token time with the game at this point, and I really don't have the foggiest idea what I'm doing) |
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12-05-2000, 12:40 PM
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#21 | |
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High School Varsity
Join Date: Oct 2000
Location: Richmond VA
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Quote:
I was thinking that exact same thing, Kevin... [This message has been edited by CubsFan915 (edited 12-05-2000).]
__________________
GO HOKIES!!! Running the Richmond Confederates of the FOBL into the ground since 2001. |
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