Wyoming Wildfire 2022

This thread marks the progress of the Wyoming Wildfire, a franchise being operated under the GroupThink concept. This is the year 2022-year six of the fledgling expansion team's existence. Many of our original players are seeing their contracts expire, we really need to start making our run.

If you'd like to read through the details from our earlier years, including some helpful background on the concept and the rules involved, here is a link:

Wyoming Wildfire, 2017
Wyoming Wildfire, 2018
Wyoming Wildfire, 2019
Wyoming Wildfire, 2020
Wyoming Wildfire, 2021

The basic concept of GroupThink (a deliberately temporary name that seems to have stuck) is that we have several forum participants working together to manage an FOF 2001 franchise. Several people have defined roles, and some others are just ad-hoc contributors, which is welcome.

The principal managers of the team are:

Owner: QuikSand
General Manager: TheRoyalOne
Director of Scouting & Player Personnel(Veterans): RPI-Fan
Director of Scouting & Player Personnel(Young): Daimyo
Offensive Coordinator: FishFan
Defensive Coordinator: Subby
Special Teams Coordinator: TheDawgsAreOut
Salary Cap and Financial Advisor: ez
Director of PR & Marketing: Fritz

We've had very helpful participation from a number of others, and welcome more. The job of the people listed above manage the various input, as it relates to their field, and to implement things into a sound strategy.

We have sought to find one central location for the game files, but have instead seemingly settled on a one-step-at-a-time system, where each manager seems to post wherever it suits him best. I recommend searching through the most recently active threads in the main forum, where you will likely find a link.

Important: By downloading the file. You are agreeing to play by our rules. Chief among them is no simming ahead. If you want to join in and comment, fine-but do not interfere with everyone's enjoyment by violating this concept.

That said, we'll be having several different people manage their portions of the season, and we'll use this thread as a home for the reports and updates on our progress. Discussion and debate about team decisions and so forth will continue to be housed in the main forum, generally in threads labeled with the "WW:" or "GroupThink:" indicators.

There are two standing links, where our Offensive and Defensive Cordinators have posted an ongoing annitated depth chart, which might help focus and spur discussion. You may locate them here:

Wildfire Offense
Wildfire Defense

Feel free to read along, look around, and chime in-- your input is welcome…

Herbs Evaluation for 2021:
Team Performance 36
Franchise Value 52
Profit/Loss 26
Difficulty 73
Score 41

The salary cap has risen $8,100,000 to $206,800,000.

The league's minimum salary has risen $20,000 to $660,000.

No Retirements

We retain our same staff

We have 3 UFAs this year: OT Nathan Adler, CB Jay Stokes, LB Kevin Gunn. Since nobody has said they would like to tag any of these and considering our financial outlook for the year, I pass on the tag. Adler or Gunn might have been worthy, but if we want them, we can still pursue them.

We receive 5 trade offers. All but one passes our test.

LB McConnell to SF for 1(28) & CB Zach Dawkins

RB Ellis to Chi for 1(29) & WR Larry Bulger (Breaks our salary cap)

CB Alumbaugh to Phi for TE Caputo

C Stevenson to GB for 3(36)

DT Barton to TB for 3(10)

File is on FreeDrive, named "wildfire2022.zip"
User Name: GroupThink
password: wildfire

[QuikSand]

We haven't kept the dynasty thread up to date-- the details that are available are located in the main forum threads.

That said, here are the season standings-- the Wildfire have finally earned a postseason berth!

2022 Regular Season Standings

   

 AFC East               W   L   T   Pct   PF    PA    Div     Conf  

New England             11  5   0   .688  428   272   7-3-0   9-4-0     

New York J              11  5   0   .688  352   268   7-3-0   9-4-0     

Buffalo                 9   6   1   .594  398   344   8-2-0   9-4-0     

Miami                   6   10  0   .375  317   355   3-7-0   5-8-0     

Greenville              5   11  0   .313  252   381   2-8-0   4-9-0     

Indianapolis            4   12  0   .250  305   391   3-7-0   3-10-0    

   

 AFC Central            W   L   T   Pct   PF    PA    Div     Conf  

Cincinnati              11  5   0   .688  371   271   7-3-0   9-4-0     

Pittsburgh              11  5   0   .688  339   276   7-3-0   8-5-0     

Tennessee               10  6   0   .625  332   266   6-4-0   8-5-0     

Cleveland               8   8   0   .500  239   275   4-6-0   7-6-0     

Jacksonville            7   9   0   .438  317   349   4-6-0   6-7-0     

Baltimore               5   11  0   .313  261   321   2-8-0   3-10-0    

   

 AFC West               W   L   T   Pct   PF    PA    Div     Conf  

Seattle                 12  4   0   .750  426   302   9-1-0   11-2-0    

Kansas City             12  4   0   .750  452   281   9-1-0   10-3-0    

Denver                  7   9   0   .438  294   362   4-6-0   5-8-0     

Oakland                 6   10  0   .375  330   369   4-6-0   5-8-0     

San Diego               5   11  0   .313  281   363   2-8-0   3-10-0    

Los Angeles             5   11  0   .313  315   361   2-8-0   3-10-0    

   

 NFC East               W   L   T   Pct   PF    PA    Div     Conf  

Philadelphia            12  4   0   .750  350   251   7-3-0   9-4-0     

Dallas                  11  5   0   .688  303   287   7-3-0   10-3-0    

New York G              10  6   0   .625  390   310   6-4-0   9-4-0     

Arizona                 8   8   0   .500  292   344   5-5-0   7-6-0     

Washington              6   10  0   .375  272   314   3-7-0   4-9-0     

Richmond                3   13  0   .188  307   439   2-8-0   3-10-0    

   

 NFC Central            W   L   T   Pct   PF    PA    Div     Conf  

**Wyoming               11  5   0   .688  414   206   8-2-0   10-3-0    

Minnesota               9   7   0   .563  303   309   5-5-0   7-6-0     

Green Bay               8   8   0   .500  298   293   6-4-0   7-6-0     

Chicago                 7   9   0   .438  270   370   4-6-0   5-8-0     

Detroit                 6   10  0   .375  242   282   4-6-0   6-7-0     

Tampa Bay               6   10  0   .375  258   336   3-7-0   5-8-0     

   

 NFC West               W   L   T   Pct   PF    PA    Div     Conf  

New Orleans             9   7   0   .563  300   327   6-4-0   6-7-0     

San Francisco           8   8   0   .500  333   279   6-4-0   6-7-0     

Atlanta                 8   8   0   .500  316   407   5-5-0   6-7-0     

St. Louis               6   8   2   .438  352   368   5-4-1   6-6-1     

Carolina                7   9   0   .438  395   377   4-6-0   5-8-0     

Portland                6   9   1   .406  277   375   3-6-1   5-7-1     

[QuikSand]

Some stat roundup on the WW season:

Rushing offense:
4.1 ypc (3.8 avg) t6th
134.7 ypg (104.0 avg) 5th

Passing offense:
7.4 ypa (6.7 avg) t6th
262.8 ypg (224.4 avg) 2nd
(Wow - Buffalo had 300+)

Rushing defense:
3.3 ypa (3.8 avg) t2nd
79.7 ypg (104.0 avg) 1st

Passing defense:
5.4 ypa (6.7 avg) 1st
180.9 ypg (224.4 avg) 1st

Turnovers: 31/19 = +12 margin - t4th

QB sacks: 37/20 = +17 margin
20 sacks allowed is tied for league lowest

3rd down conversions:
89/237 = .375 = 11th

Penalties: 141 - 1,041 yds (8th most)

Red Zone efficiency:
55 appearances, 28 TD, 21 FG = 4.7 avg
(league average = 4.7)

Opponent red zone efficiency:
30 appearances, 15 TD, 12 FG = 4.7 avg

- - -

On balance, this was a pretty dominating team. We're 11-5 on the season (several close losses) but there doesn't seem to be a real juggernaut anywhere-- nobody is better than 12-4. We get a bye week and a home game... we'll see.