Topeka (KS) Lightning Franchise

[Metaljar]

2002 Topeka Lightning Franchise

The Topeka Lightning the NFL’s newest expansion team began its legacy by naming Jarrod Erdman the former GM for the Super Bowl champion Rams as their General Manager. Erdman then announced two major signings those being the teams new head coach and the teams head scout.b The teams head coach Ellis Heflin becomes the 2nd youngest coach in the NFL. HE most recently coached the University of Washington who won the Rose Bowl last year. In order to assure some degree of experience the team hired 64 year old Steve Atkins to be the lead scout; Atkins is a former NFL QB and was the QB coach for the Houston Oilers before being fired when the team moved to Tennessee. The Lightning will play in the AFC West where they will feud with their neighbors the Kansas City Chiefs.

The team now looks forward to the expansion draft where they will take the best players they can find according head coach Heflin. Looking for a few gems the team took former Chiefs QB Elvis Grbac and hopes he can fill the need at QB this year. The following is the roster after the expansion draft. A few renegotiations were made and a few players were cut but the team feels they found some quality players.

The following are the rules
1) Can only select one free agent in the first ten weeks and up to three additional free agents in the last 10 weeks
2) Can only make one trade per year
3) Can only pick up two free agents after training camp that played in the NFL last season. The remainder must be players who were out of football or are rookies.
4) No renegotiations until the last year of a players contract. Unless that player has been with the team for 10 years or is a fan favorite; or renegotiations after the expansion draft.
5) No trading fan favorites
6) Can use the franchise tag any time necessary but no player will be tagged 2 years in a row or more.
7) Only one seven year contract a year; all others must be 5 or fewer years.

Roster for the Topeka (KS) Lightning after the expansion draft

Name # Pos OnTm Ctrc Exp Stat Cap Cost
Grbac, Elvis 15 QB 2002 2005 10 ----- $15,000,000
Johnson, Anthony 47 RB 2002 2003 13 ----- $1,570,000
Maloney, Gary 45 RB 2002 2003 3 ----- $1,830,000
Henderson, William 46 FB 2002 2002 8 ----- $1,250,000
Santiago, O.J. 87 TE 2002 2002 6 ----- $2,000,000
Jones, Charlie 89 WR 2002 2003 7 ----- $850,000
Anthony, Reidel 81 WR 2002 2003 6 ----- $810,000
Graham, Aaron + 55 C 2002 2002 8 ----- $1,850,000
Beverly, Eric + 56 C 2002 2003 6 ----- $2,010,000
Blaise, Kerlin 62 G 2002 2003 5 ----- $2,020,000
Lane, Max 76 G 2002 2003 9 ----- $2,770,000
Smith, Brent 78 T 2002 2003 6 ----- $2,560,000
Odom, Jason 77 T 2002 2002 7 ----- $2,850,000
Landeta, Sean 17 P 2002 2002 18 ----- $560,000
Williams, Dan 98 DE 2002 2006 9 ----- $3,000,000
Jasper, Edward + 96 DT 2002 2002 6 ----- $750,000
Osborne, Chuck 92 DT 2002 2002 6 ----- $2,710,000
Colvin, Roosevelt 58 LB 2002 2002 4 ----- $2,020,000
Clarke, Phil 57 LB 2002 2003 4 ----- $1,130,000
McLaughlin, John 50 LB 2002 2002 4 ----- $560,000
Smith, Kevin 21 CB 2002 2004 11 ----- $2,320,000
Canty, Chris + 25 CB 2002 2002 6 ----- $2,910,000
Jackson, Calvin 34 S 2002 2002 9 ----- $1,930,000
Beckett, Rogers + 36 S 2002 2004 3 ----- $570,000
Kennedy, Kenny 24 S 2002 2004 3 ----- $450,000


______________________________________________
After cuts the roster prior to the draft is:

Position/Player Current Est Future Est Exp Sgnd
FB William Henderson 10 10 8 2003
TE O.J. Santiago 9 10 6 2002
S Calvin Jackson 9 9 9 2004
P Sean Landeta 9 9 18 2002
T Jason Odom 9 9 7 2004
QB Elvis Grbac 9 10 10 2005
LB John McLaughlin 8 8 4 2002
DE Dan Williams 8 9 9 2006
C Aaron Graham 8 10 8 2002
WR Reidel Anthony 8 8 6 2003
G Max Lane 7 7 9 2004
T Brent Smith 7 7 6 2003
CB Kevin Smith 6 7 11 2004
RB Anthony Johnson 6 6 13 2003
S Rogers Beckett 6 12 3 2004
DT Chuck Osborne 6 7 6 2003
WR Charlie Jones 5 5 7 2003
S Kenny Kennedy 5 11 3 2004
DT Edward Jasper 5 8 6 2002
LB Roosevelt Colvin 5 10 4 2004
RB Gary Maloney 5 6 3 2003
G Kerlin Blaise 4 9 5 2004
LB Phil Clarke 4 11 4 2004



[This message has been edited by Metaljar (edited 03-15-2001).]

[Metaljar]

Going into free agency we have needs at most positions so we will see what is available and then choose among the players that will work the best for us. Upon inspection it looks like we have our choice of WR Marvin Harrison, DE Tony Bryant, QB Kurt Warner, or S John Lynch. With Grbac on the roster Warner remains an option but is too high priced and we decide to go after WR Marvin Harrison. We offer him a four year 24.5 million and hope that is enough. In week seven Harrison signs and we must wait until week ten to continue signing players.

Week 11
Warner's deal feel through and he is still available in week 11 so we jump at the chance to sign him. We offer him a 23.7 million dollar three year deal. We also offer S Jay Bellemy a 3 year 9.7 million dollar deal and now we wait. BOTH sign the next week and we have a pretty decent team shaping up. We decide to pick up the rest of the players in the draft and that is it for free agency.
______________________________________________
Draft Info
We will go into the draft with RB being the biggest need. We could also use a #2 WR, and help on the defensive line or at CB. Hopefully we can fill these need through the draft.

With the first pick we see a WR who is one of the best I have ever seen. I can't pass him up so with the first pick we select WR Patrick Clarkson from Butler to step up and play right away and catches passes from QB Warner.

Round 2 we find a good S from Troy State named Rickey Chanthawong and take him to start alongside of Bellemy.

Round 3 Johnny Green RB, UNLV might start but hardly the long term answer at RB.

Round 4 WR Leaster Early, Purdue should be #3.

Round 5-7
J.T. Elliot, LB
Vinny Thornton, LB
Rico Covington, DT

Hopefully no busts we will fill out the roster after training camp

[Metaljar]

Free agents

Our two cut free agents are DE Willie Whitehead who we sign to a 4 year 12 million dollar deal and G Barry Sims who signs a 11 million dollar 4 year deal. The rest of the players were out of football last year or a rookies. Our roster is as follows:

Position/Player Current Est Future Est Exp Sgnd
QB Kurt Warner 13 15 5 2004
QB Elvis Grbac 9 9 10 2005
QB Ted White 5 5 4 2002
RB Anthony Johnson 6 6 13 2003
RB Gary Maloney 5 8 3 2003
RB Johnny Greene 5 9 1 2004
FB William Henderson 10 10 8 2003
FB Troy Kassotis 2 8 1 2004
TE O.J. Santiago 10 10 6 2002
TE Lawrence Buckley 3 9 1 2002
TE Donald Elmore 3 10 1 2004
WR Patrick Clarkson 15 18 1 2006
WR Marvin Harrison 14 14 7 2005
WR Reidel Anthony 7 7 6 2003
WR Lester Earley 7 7 1 2005
WR Charlie Jones 5 5 7 2003
C Aaron Graham 8 10 8 2002
C Ricky Koch 1 11 1 2004
G Barry Sims 11 12 4 2005
G Max Lane 7 7 9 2004
G Kerlin Blaise 5 8 5 2004
G Darrin Emerson 1 11 1 2004
T Jason Odom 9 9 7 2004
T Brent Smith 6 7 6 2003
T Warren Wilkins 1 7 1 2002
T Teddy Pearson 1 9 1 2002
P Sean Landeta 7 8 18 2002
K Dale Jarvis 4 9 1 2002
DE Willie Whitehead 13 13 4 2005
DE Dan Williams 8 10 9 2006
DE Darnell Long 3 7 1 2002
DT Edward Jasper 6 8 6 2002
DT Chuck Osborne 5 8 6 2003
DT Rico Covington 1 6 1 2003
LB John McLaughlin 8 9 4 2002
LB J.T. Elliott 7 9 1 2004
LB Phil Clarke 6 9 4 2004
LB Roosevelt Colvin 5 8 4 2004
LB Vinny Thornton 2 13 1 2003
CB Kevin Smith 6 7 11 2004
CB Ray Hill 5 8 5 2004
CB Zach Creamer 2 8 1 2004
CB Roman Branch 2 10 1 2004
S Jay Bellamy 11 11 9 2004
S Ricky Chanthavong 8 14 1 2004
S Calvin Jackson 8 8 9 2004
S Rogers Beckett 7 12 3 2004

[Metaljar]

This year I want to throw the ball early and often. Kurt Warner is one of the best QB's in the game and Johnny Greer is hardly a great RB so he will be used sparingly. Right now my starting lineup is

QB Warner
RB Greer
FB Henderson
TE Santiago
WR Clarkson
WR Harrison
LT Odom
LG Sims
C Graham
RG Lane
RT Smith
K Jarvis
P Landeta
LE Williams
DT Jasper
DT Osborne
DE Whitehead
LB Elliot
LB McLaughlin
LB Colvin
LB Clarke
CB Smith
CB Hill
S Bellemy
S Chanthavong

Hopefully we won't get blown out too bad year one but we will see.

[Metaljar]

Exhibition Season
2-2 some strong performances but we still only took 2 games.

______________________________________________Regular Season

We go 6-10 despite great playing from Warner; here are the key stats

QB Warner 4420 yards 24 TD's/17 INT's 83.3 RTG
RB Greene 236 for 676 2.8 AVG 7 TD's OUCH 2.8 AVG
WR Harrison 103 CTHS for 1946 yards and 9 TD's
WR Clarkson 80 CTCH for 1529 and 11 TD's

AWARDS:
DEF Rookie of the YR: Chanthawong
1st Team WR: Harrison
2nd Team FB: Henderson
2nd Team WR: Clarkson

Herbs Review
Score 49

Looking forward to next year when we will need a RB to carry the load and better defense to turn this team around

[Metaljar]

2003 Season

With the 2003 season underway the first thing to note is that backup QB Elvis Grbac has decided to hang them up. Grbac didn't have a big role with Warner on the roster healthy but we will need to find another backup since our other QB should not even be on a roster much less a backup.

Scout Steve Atkins is getting up there in age but will stay on at least for this season his ratings are:

QB:VG
RB,REC:EX
OL,K,DL,SEC,YT:G
LB:F

Our coach is not the best we try and get Sammy Hlyton who coached the Oakland Raiders last season. We lose Hlyton so we reduce our offer to coach Ellis Heflin and bring him back his ratings are:

QB:E
OL,YT,AI:VG
RB,DL,LB,SEC,MOT:G
DIS,OPC:F
REC,K,DPC:P

Free Agency

I need a running back but don't want to spend big money for one so I will probably look at the draft for one. Other needs are at all defensive positions but safety where I have a talented core.

Cuts prior to free agency
RB: Gary Malony
RB: Anthony Johnson
Both in the last year of their contracts and neither worth what I would be paying them

Franchise Tag: None; only a few marginal starters and backups are free agents so I won't use my tag this year.

Own free agents resigned
Warren Wilkens-T; will play a backup role at a cheap price
I also extend an offer to LB John McLaughlin who we will have to wait on to see if he resigns

Free Agent Signing for the first ten weeks
I offer LB Jerimiah Trotter a 3 year 14.56 millon dollar deal; he signs week 7 now I wait on my own free agent LB McLaughlin. McLaughlin signs week 8 and now I wait until week 10 to sign two more free agents.

Week 10+ Signings
I offer DT Grady Jackson an 11.18 million dollar 3 year deal
I also offer DT John Thorton a 16.51 million dollar 4 year deal
Both sign so I enter the draft with a solid team but already short on cap room I will look to make some more cuts to save the team cap problems.

I renegotiate with William Henderson since he is in the last year of his contract and he resigns
I cut WR Reidel Anthony and WR Charlie Jones both in the last year of their contracts because I can replace them with undrafted rookies. I also cut DT Chuck Osborn with two new DT's he is expendable with his 3 million dollar plus salary. LB Rosevelt Colvin is cut as well to save cap room and finally I cut S Calvin Jackson who was a backup at his position.

I now have 33 players and 17 million in cap room to fill out the roster and I now turn my attention to the draft. I have the seventh pick in rounds 1-7

2003 NFL Draft
With the running back I really wanted going to the Bears at #5 I draft RB Doug White out of Washington State with the #7 pick in round one. He should be good enough to carry the ball for us for years to come. Here is all rounds selections

Rnd 1 - Doug White, RB, Washington State
Rnd 2 - Kendrick Bovee, LB, Rice
Rnd 3 - Horace Anderson, C, Iowa
Rnd 4 - Glenn Warren, TE, Michigan State
Rnd 5 - J.B. Kaplan, P, Tennessee
Rnd 6 - Charles Connolly, WR, Auburn
Rnd 7 - Lionel Huntley, G, Minnesota

After a few minor cuts I go with rookies or guys who didn't play last season to fill out the roster to 46. Here is the 2003 roster after training camp. The only notable draft pick was round 2 Kendrick Bovee he should be a great player.

Position/Player Current Est Future Est Exp Sgnd
QB Kurt Warner 14 15 6 2004
QB Tommie Becker 2 11 1 2006
QB Jon Walker 1 11 1 2005
RB Johnny Greene 7 11 2 2004
RB Doug White 7 7 1 2008
RB Matthew Hughes 3 8 1 2007
FB William Henderson 10 10 9 2004
FB Troy Kassotis 4 7 2 2004
TE Glenn Warren 7 7 1 2005
TE Donald Elmore 5 7 2 2004
TE Allen Barkshadt 2 9 1 2005
WR Patrick Clarkson 15 18 2 2006
WR Marvin Harrison 13 13 8 2005
WR Charles Connolly 8 8 1 2005
WR Lester Earley 7 7 2 2005
WR Scott Shields 4 10 1 2005
C Horace Anderson 7 7 1 2005
C Ricky Koch 4 8 2 2004
G Barry Sims 11 12 5 2005
G Max Lane 7 7 10 2004
G Kerlin Blaise 5 6 6 2004
G Lionel Huntley 3 6 1 2004
T Jason Odom 9 9 8 2004
T Brent Smith 7 7 7 2003
T Warren Wilkins 4 8 2 2004
T Conrad Bailey 1 9 1 2009
P J.B. Kaplan 7 15 1 2005
K Dale Jarvis 6 7 2 2004
DE Willie Whitehead 13 13 5 2005
DE Dan Williams 8 9 10 2006
DE Irv Blanchard 3 8 2 2005
DT Grady Jackson 8 12 7 2005
DT John Thornton 7 12 5 2006
DT Rico Covington 2 6 2 2003
LB Jeremiah Trotter 13 15 6 2005
LB Kendrick Bovee 10 11 1 2005
LB John McLaughlin 9 10 5 2004
LB J.T. Elliott 7 7 2 2004
LB Vinny Thornton 5 10 2 2003
CB Kevin Smith 7 7 12 2004
CB Ray Hill 5 7 6 2004
CB Zach Creamer 3 5 2 2004
CB Roman Branch 3 7 2 2004
S Jay Bellamy 11 11 10 2004
S Ricky Chanthavong 9 14 2 2004
S Rogers Beckett 9 11 4 2004

[Metaljar]

The following is my starting lineup for the 2003 Season

QB: Warner
RB: White (A bust but still better then Greene)
FB: Henderson
WR: Clarkson
WR: Harrison
TE: Warren
LT: Odom
LG: Sims
C: Anderson
RG: Lane
RT: Smith
LE: Williams
DT: Jackson
DT: Thorton
RE: Whitehead
LB: Bovee
LB: Trotter
LB: Elliot
LB: McLaughlin
CB: Smith
CB: Hall
S: Chanthavong
S: Bellemy

Not happy with RB so look for Warner to take to the air again this season as we try and get this team some wins. The defense looks better then last year with new starters: Jackson, Thorton, Bovee and Trotter but we will see if they can improve this defensive unit.

Season Record 8-8

Season Stats
QB Warner 314/533 4417 yards 32 TD/ 13INT's 95.5 RTG
RB White 275 for 1188 yards 4 TD's
WR Harrison 1743 yards 12 TD's
WR Clarkson 1562 yards 14 TD's
LB Bovee 97 TKLS 4.5 Sacks

Offensive Team
Passing Yards Per Game 291.6 1st
Rushing Yards Per Game 93.6 24th

Defensive Team
Rushing Per Game Allowed 104.1 12th
Passing Per Game Allowed 258.6 1st (Horrible)

Turnovers +6 7th


Awards
Offensive Rookie of the Year: Doug White
1st Team QB: Warner
1st Team WR's: Clarkson and Harrison

Next season we should be even better. Despite our 8-8 record I think defense is our only primary need right now the offense looks solid.

[Metaljar]

Retirees:
None

Scout:
Steve Atkins 66 years old
Ratings
QB:VG
RB,WR:EX
K,DL,SEC:G
OL,LB,YT:F

NEW Head Coach:
Gleen Schwartz 41 years old
Ratings
WR,LB,MT,DIS,DPC:VG
QB,WR,OL,SEC,YT,AI: Good
DL,K,OPC:F

Ellis Heflin 14-18 record is let go because he is not getting the team as far as they should be Gleen Schwartz who has never coached professionally takes over for him.

Franchise Tag: None

Warner who was in the last year of his contract renegotiates a 7 year 90 million dollar deal to stay with the Lightning.

Position/Player Current Est Future Est Exp Sgnd
QB Kurt Warner 13 15 7 2010
QB Tommie Becker 2 7 2 2006
QB Jon Walker 1 9 2 2005
RB Johnny Greene 7 10 3 2004
RB Doug White 7 8 2 2008
RB Matthew Hughes 4 8 2 2007
FB William Henderson 10 10 10 2005
FB Troy Kassotis 4 7 3 2005
TE Glenn Warren 7 9 2 2005
TE Donald Elmore 5 10 3 2004
TE Allen Barkshadt 3 8 2 2005
WR Patrick Clarkson 15 18 3 2006
WR Marvin Harrison 13 13 9 2005
WR Charles Connolly 7 7 2 2005
WR Lester Earley 7 7 3 2005
WR Scott Shields 4 9 2 2005
C Horace Anderson 7 10 2 2005
C Ricky Koch 3 6 3 2006
G Barry Sims 11 12 6 2005
G Kerlin Blaise 5 8 7 2004
G Lionel Huntley 4 6 2 2004
T Jason Odom 9 9 9 2006
T Brent Smith 7 7 8 UFA
T Warren Wilkins 4 7 3 2006
T Conrad Bailey 2 7 2 2009
P J.B. Kaplan 7 11 2 2005
K Dale Jarvis 5 7 3 2004
DE Willie Whitehead 13 13 6 2005
DE Dan Williams 8 9 11 2006
DE Irv Blanchard 3 5 3 2005
DT Grady Jackson 8 12 8 2005
DT John Thornton 7 12 6 2006
DT Rico Covington 2 6 3 ----
LB Jeremiah Trotter 13 15 7 2005
LB Kendrick Bovee 9 14 2 2005
LB John McLaughlin 9 9 6 2005
LB J.T. Elliott 7 7 3 2005
LB Vinny Thornton 5 10 3 ----
CB Zach Creamer 3 9 3 2004
CB Roman Branch 3 5 3 2004
S Jay Bellamy 11 11 11 2005
S Ricky Chanthavong 9 14 3 2005
S Rogers Beckett 9 11 5 2006

After a few cuts and resignings of players in the last year of their contracts the roster appears solid except at CB where I cut both of last season starters looking to rebuild the CB position.

Free Agency First 10 weeks
Looking for a CB or DE to start right away and save the horrible Lightning defense from costing the team a shot at the playoffs.

Neither position is very good so I offer guard Soloman Page a 4 year 20 million dollar deal. He signs week 7 and now we wait for week 10

Weeks 10+
CB Juan McQuilken; will not be the answer but we offer him a 2 year 4 million dollar deal.
LB Jon Phillips 2 year 4.65 million should start next season at LB.

Draft
Rnd 1 - Conrad Page, C, Arizona
Rnd 2 - Brock McKenzie, WR, Maryland
Rnd 3 - Sherman Burge, T, Kentucky
Rnd 4 - Jamal Doyle, CB, Colorado State
Rnd 5 - Nicky Barton, FB, Oklahoma State
Rnd 6 - Chris Botello, QB, Texas - El Paso
Rnd 7 - Neil Roberson, TE, UAB

Still no help in the secondary this year could be very bad.

2004 Season

Only changes to starters are
RT: Warren Wilkens (Replaces Brent Smith)
C: Conrad Page (Replaces Horace Anderson)
LG: Solomon Page (Replaces Huntley)
CB: Doyle (Replaces Hill)
CB: McQuicken (Replaces Smith)
S: Beckett (Replaces Bellemy)

This season probably is not going to go well; our WR busted and Jamal Doyle is terrible but is the best corner we have. Our defense once again is going to destroy any momentum our offense gets.
Regular Season 9-7 (The best defense is a good offense)

Our first ever playoff berth in our third year not too bad but the defense really let me down this year. If we had a better defese we could have easily been 11-5 or even 12-4. We play the Titans in our first ever playoff game but here are the regular season stats.

QB Warner 335/612 5515 yards 40 TDÕs/ 16 INTÕs 96.1 RTG
RB White 236 for 1005 8 TDÕs
WR Harrison 125 for 2234 13 TDÕs
WR Clarkson 82 for 1735 17 TDÕs

Offensive
Passing yards per game 344.6 1st
Russing yards per game 79.8 28th

Defensive
Rusing allowed 125.5 2nd
Passing allowed 247.0 9th

Turnovers Ð2 20th

Playoffs
Titans (11-5) vs. Lightning (9-7)

We lose 37-10
We rush for 18 yards on 16 carries and our starting RB has Ð3 yards rushing. Warner rushes for 15 yards and leads the team but he only complete 14 of 32 passes for 200 yards with 1 TD and 1 INT. Miserable game.

Next year we need cover corners and a good DE to pressure the other team and get some much needed sacks for the team