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12-18-2007, 10:29 PM
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#1 | ||
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College Benchwarmer
Join Date: Jun 2005
Location: San Diego
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FOF2K7: The Okie Gambit
In the long tradition of Oklahomans endeavoring to steal other cities’ sports franchises, this dynasty will chronicle my attempts to stock the state with a pair of teams, and win titles with each. With the number of seasons it takes to relocate, the luck involved in having stadiums approved, and the challenge of producing a championship team in a small market… odds are slim this goal will actually be realized, but if you can’t start a dynasty with absurdly unrealistic ambitions, you’re not even trying. (And maybe Jim will help things along by holding off until 2011 to release another version of FOF…) I’m really just looking to play deep into a career in a thoughtful and interested way, so hopefully this is helpful.
I’m starting in Kansas City with the Chiefs, and if all goes according to plan we should be picking up stakes and rolling the franchise on down to Oklahoma City as soon as possible. If things don’t go according to plan… it may take a bit longer (don’t screw this up you damn referendum voters). I won’t be playing with any house rules per se, other than a general commitment not to pull any completely egregious AI exploitations (hey, I’ve got the best roster in the league, you’ve got the worst, let’s swap 1sts!), but I may destroy the current shape of the team to get to a quicker feeling of “ownership” over things and that may involve some player and pick trading that might stretch conventional notions of realism. *Shurg* So here goes, I'll try to keep things moving at a reasonable pace… |
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12-18-2007, 10:59 PM
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#2 |
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College Benchwarmer
Join Date: Jun 2005
Location: San Diego
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We get a pretty lucky roll from the random number generator with this start. Not because the roster looks particularly stacked (more on that in a bit), but because the fine citizens of Oklahoma City have a healthy 69th percentile ranking in their desire for a new team. My hometown of Tulsa is positively dizzy over the notion of a franchise, coming in at the 80th percentile, but we'll leave the prodigal son plotline for the second act of this little challenge and stick with our initial focus of bringing the Chiefs to OKC and winning a title.
GM Huck Granger informs me that the Kansas City fans are extremely loyal (a nearly full red bar) and that we've sold 76,500 season tickets out of our 79,400 capacity at Arrowhead. The average cost for a KC family of four to attend a game is 9th highest in the league and the team is the 7th most valuable at $647M. It's likely these figures will face a steep decline in the coming years, so relish them now. He also introduces me to our coaching staff: Scout Scott Lehmann is 44 years old and is Very Good at assessing Young Talent. He is on a 2 year contract that pays him $550k/yr and appears to be a very solid all around talent evaluator. He is Good in most categories, Average in a couple, only Fair with Receivers, and a not too troubling Poor with the Nancy Kicker Boys. DC Brent Cobb is 57 years old and has 2 years remaining on a $1.4M/yr contract. He's Good with youngsters and Excellent with Linebackers, and pretty average everywhere else. OC Howard Freeman is the elder statesman of the staff at 60. He has 4 years left on a $2.11M/yr contract. He's only Fair at relating with younger players these days, but he's Excellent with the O-Line and Good with both Receivers and RBs. HC Gilbert Ellard is 52 years old and has 2 years remaining on a $4.69M/yr contract. He is Excellent at keeping his team healthy and his squads always exhibit Excellent discipline. He is an Average playcaller on both sides of the ball and only Average at motivating his players. I like that he'll keep our guys out of the trainer's room, as depth may be a problem as we take on the cost of building a new stadium in another city. |
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12-18-2007, 11:32 PM
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#3 |
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College Benchwarmer
Join Date: Jun 2005
Location: San Diego
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Can't complain too much about the staff, so on to the roster...
QBs Code:
Huard looks like the starter here, as the others look simply pathetic. Not that Huard looks like much himself, but he has at least fulfilled much of his mediocre potential so we'll let him toss the ball around for us this year. RBs Code:
LJ looks good obviously, and I'd look for him to put up some very nice numbers in an offense built around the WOOF's Ralph Ellard and his similar skillset. Nothing much else to write home about here, but don't be surprised if we see decent looking production from whoever ends up grabbing the number 2 back carries. WRs Code:
Tony Gonzalez will get some looks in our offense in the TE spot and he's rated very highly (but an 11th year guy with 5 years left on his contract, hmm). Other than that, we look completely bankrupt at the wideout spots. I know I've played some careers where Dwayne Bowe is a stud, guess the X-Factor Gods didn't smile on us here. O-Line Code:
Any talent we have here is aging, absolutely nothing to look forward to. D-Line Code:
Jared Allen looks to be our best lineman at 63/66 and there's reason to believe he's got a bit more upside than that with his experience level still at 8/10. With just a year left on his contract we'll make sure we get him extended shortly. The rest of these guys, well, they're here I guess. LBs Code:
We've got some solid contributors here. We definitely don't have anything close to the ILB depth I'd like to see to run my preferred 3-4, but that's ok, we'll just have to make due with the 4-3 for now. Johnson and Bell should be dependable for a few years at least. Secondary Code:
Law and Surtain are a perfect storm of awesomeness: serviceable, very old, extremely overpaid, and locked into long term deals. 2nd year FS Bernard Pollard might surprise. Our nickelback will have a current rating of 10, 5, 12, or 6. Yum. Last edited by MalcPow : 12-18-2007 at 11:34 PM. |
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12-19-2007, 12:00 AM
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#4 |
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College Benchwarmer
Join Date: Jun 2005
Location: San Diego
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I guess the nice thing about our roster is that a complete purge from top to bottom probably wouldn't violate our "general realism rule." Unfortunately, the not so nice thing is that I can't see this team scraping 3 wins together. But who's complaining? Should make it easier for the voters to cast a resounding rejection of my forthcoming superplex in the offseason.
We'll just run through this first season and take our lumps. I'll let GM Granger make some minor cuts and signings and put Head Coach Gilbert Ellard in charge of the depth charts. We'll run our offensive and defensive systems, but I can't see it making much difference... Code:
Well lo and behold, we start 6-2 largely on the strength of some very stout performances on the defensive side of the ball (47% passing allowed and only 13.9 points per game), but, of course, Ty Law blows his knee out in Week 9 and we go 2-6 from there on out. Losing Law really killed us (which is ironic, because I thought having him would be bad enough) as some teams just torched us over the last half of the season. Not sure what to make of this year. A closer look at the numbers shows we were very lucky to be an 8-8 team while averaging only 17 points a game and allowing 20, but that's probably due at least in part to the fact that we became an absolutely terrible squad in the second half without Law. I'm willing to take this as some measure of validation for our gameplans and look forward to bringing some talent in over the offseason. Law will be on the shelf for another 22 weeks and I wouldn't be surprised if this, his 13th season, ends up being his last. Also of note, we somewhat surprisingly ran the ball pretty poorly. We'll have to see what happens there as we get some more weapons in this offense. |
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12-19-2007, 12:21 AM
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#5 |
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College Benchwarmer
Join Date: Jun 2005
Location: San Diego
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End of 2007 stuff...
We reward DE Jared Allen for his 9.5 sacks and 8.6 PRRt with a 4 year extension. Probably overpay a bit, but when he's one of maybe four or five guys worth keeping on this team it's not really an issue. We extend 12th year C Casey Wiegmann as well. He's rated a 71/71 and really it's just to have one less spot to fill immediately this offseason. The AC West's Playoff representative San Diego (9-7) goes down in the Wild Card Round to Pittsburgh. (Yes, we were somehow a win away from taking the division and going to the playoffs with this bunch of crap.) New England beats Dallas 27-16 in a brisk Front Office Bowl in Knoxville. Tom Brady throws for 361 yards and a TD to take home MVP honors. No Chiefs get any award love. Peyton Manning takes home POY and OPOY, as well as 1st Team QB while throwing for nearly 5,000 yards. Brady puts up a 121 passer rating. Chad Johnson catches 19 TDs. Kevin Carter racks up 19.5 sacks. |
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12-19-2007, 12:23 PM
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#6 |
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College Benchwarmer
Join Date: Jun 2005
Location: San Diego
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We hit the End Season button to find that Ty Law, Donnie Edwards, and G Josh Welbourn have retired. Edwards had some solid ratings but played only sparingly, and poorly, for us, and Welbourn is another nonentity. Law hanging them up is not unexpected, but leaves another glaring hole on a team already full of them.
A few other notable retirements like Jason Taylor from the Dolphins. Four players from the '01 Bucs title team call it a career including Derrick Brooks and three guys from our division: John Lynch, Simeon Rice, and Warren Sapp. Bears WR Mushin Muhammad (Mooooose!) says enough Bad Rex is enough to do some more fishing, and Atlanta's Morten Andersen finally calls it quits after 20 seasons. Seau and Harrison go out with rings from New England. SkyDog favorite Mack Strong also bid farewell to the Seahawks. Jason Hanson ends his illustrious Nancying-around with Detroit and is somehow named Legend of the Game. We enter talks with a high quality construction firm to draw up plans for a new stadium. After making it clear that no expense should be spared, we present the city with an ambitious proposal for a retractable roof, natural grass, 99,000 seat capacity stadium, with 399 luxury boxes. Pricetag to the taxpayers comes to a mere $1.4B. The mayor himself called me to express his incredulity at the value we're getting. Mayor: "Um, there's gotta be some kind of mistake here. There's a one at the front of this number." Me: "Man I hear you. I thought this would come in at two or three billion at least!" Mayor: "Well, that's..." Me: "Yep, gotta run. Later gator." I'm certain the good citizens of Kansas City will also respond in a way that's favorable to our (real) plans after the draft. We roll into staff hiring with everyone under contract, and I'm tempted to keep the group that somehow turned water into Bud Light last season intact, but... Offensive Coordinator Howard Freeman's inability to coach up the young guys makes me wary. We send him packing and bring in 57 year old Herman Hernandez on a 5 year deal at 4.4M per (won't be able to afford that in a few years...). Hernandez is Excellent with the youngsters and Very Good with QBs, hopefully we can find somebody worth handing over to him in the draft this year. He's also solid everywhere else, and should be an asset developing what will almost certainly be a young offense this year. We send WR Dwayne Bowe off to Europe just because. He's currently rated a 25/27, but may have some more upside as he's only a 6 (assume I'm always talking about a 10 point scale here) with experience. Here's hoping "he may become a better player entirely" after a summer running escargot routes in Marseilles. FA button and Draft Class coming... |
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12-19-2007, 03:05 PM
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#7 |
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College Benchwarmer
Join Date: Jun 2005
Location: San Diego
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Very intriguing Draft Class, which I'll get to in a second, but even better, the FA pool looks very helpful for us. We've got close to $9 mil in dead space because of Law retiring and a few GM cuts last season, but we've still got close to $28m in space after accounting for new rookies.
FA Targets FS Eugene Wilson, 6th year, 74/74 - He wants $13.7m over 4 years, not all that bad really for a very solid upgrade to our secondary. We'll throw a bit more bonus at him than he's asking and see if we can land him early. CB Asante Samuel, 6th year, 71/71 - The second Patriot we're looking to poach this offseason. Samuel picked off 7 passes last year with an 85.6 PDPct. He wants big time money, $49m over 5 years, but the 1st season is pretty manageable before the contract balloons to $12m/per over the last few seasons. We'll pay an even bigger premium and hope to lock up a solid replacement for Law. LG Jake Scott, 5th year, 70/70 - Our line is crap and Scott's asking for $12m over 3 years. I'm willing to bump that up a bit to land a nice interior blocker on the early side of his prime. DE Terrell Suggs, 6th year, 60/60 - He had 15 sacks last season, an 8.5 PRPct, and looks to be a very strong leader. He wants $17m over 4 years, but I think we can afford him and pairing him with Jared Allen should give us a solid pass rush for the next few seasons. We'll throw some low money deals out at a bunch of other guys as well and see what happens. Hopefully we can avoid ever having a guy like Rashad Barksdale (our nickelback after the Law injury) on the field again for this franchise. He played remarkably in line with his 7/23 rating, and recorded the worse PDPct I've seen from a corner in a long time (maybe ever) at 68. |
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12-19-2007, 04:34 PM
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#8 |
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Head Coach
Join Date: Sep 2004
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This dynasty's making me laugh! Keep it up
__________________
2006 Golden Scribe Nominee 2006 Golden Scribe Winner Best Non-Sport Dynasty: May Our Reign Be Green and Golden (CK Dynasty) Rookie Writer of the Year Dynasty of the Year: May Our Reign Be Green and Golden (CK Dynasty) |
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12-19-2007, 04:41 PM
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#9 |
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College Benchwarmer
Join Date: Jun 2005
Location: San Diego
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Well things don't go quite according to plan in FA but we can't complain too much, through stage 10 we land the following players:
FS Eugene Wilson, 6th year, 74/74 - We targeted Wilson from the start and ended up securing him with a $17.7m deal over 4 years. He'll start immediately. DE Terrell Suggs, 6th year, 60/60 - We gave him a big deal ($21M/4yrs), but we grab a nice pass rusher and d-line leader. Our other two targets, Asante Samuel and Jake Scott, end up signing with other teams (Samuel for a monster deal with the Saints, and Scott for well below market to go back to the Colts), but we splashed out for a few other players we didn't necessarily expect to push for. SE Travis Taylor (9th, 55/55) in particular was a guy we overpaid for that happened to be sitting out their after a few stages. I'm not particularly thrilled with him, but he's a huge upgrade from the status quo. The rest: QB Tony Romo, 6th, 29/48 TE Jerramy Stevens, 7th, 48/48 WR Dante Hall, 9th, 44/44 LT Tom Ashworth, 6th, 42/46 MLB Dontarrius Thomas, 5th, 46/55 CB Drayton Florence, 6th, 54/54 All of these guys should help us immediately, and we pick them up pretty cheaply. Overall, a pretty nice haul for a team that needs all the help it can get. And now that we know a little more about what we look like, I'll hit the interview trail and build out a blueprint for our first draft... |
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12-19-2007, 04:50 PM
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#10 | |
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College Benchwarmer
Join Date: Jun 2005
Location: San Diego
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Quote:
Thanks, will do! |
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12-20-2007, 06:50 PM
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#11 |
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College Benchwarmer
Join Date: Jun 2005
Location: San Diego
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So onto the draft. We've done our interviews, and we're looking at some interesting decisions here. We've got some sentimental favorites and some nice looking value picks, and I'm thinking quite seriously about erring on the side of nancying sentimentalismness.
What do we really need though? We're picking at 14, and here are the top 25 adjusted rating players in the draft...  We're looking at a once in a lifetime moment with this draft class, and I have a feeling it's going to tear this front office apart. Here are a couple of the guys we're particularly intrigued by at the moment: QB Nate Banfield - He's the second highest rated QB on the board and Scott Lehmann is telling me he looks like he's 'As Scouted.' His bars are fairly middle of the road though, and I'd guess he'd come out as a guy about 20/60 and develop into a solid upper 50s rated player. The rub is, he's got ties to the state as a Tulsa graduate and there are some in the upper echelons of the organization who think an Oklahoma hero like Nate Banfield (who led the Golden Hurricane to back to back 7-5 seasons!) would go a long way toward galvanizing support among voters for a move and a new stadium. I'm skeptical, and would rather not waste the pick on a guy who really doesn't blow my skirt up. We've got the top rated QB, Manumablahblah, rated 'As Scouted' as well, but he's not a franchise guy and I'm sure he'll go very quickly. And before you even ask, Oklahoma State QB Lewis Greer is a total stiff, he shook our Magic 8-Ball at the combine and it said "Arena League in Your Future." The Top 3 DEs - I love me some pass rushers and we've got Casares as 'Very Underrated' and Emerson as 'Underrated,' and both are sporting some serious bars. We'd have to make a move up to grab one of them I'm guessing, and with Suggs and Allen, it just isn't really worth it. I just can't help looking. LT Edgar Campana - He's got nice bars, combines, and a 'Very Underrated' tag. We don't have much of an O-Line. Normally all this would add up to some strong attraction, but I just can't see him slipping all the way to us and there's nothing about him that really tickles me in those hard to reach places. We'll probably pass, but we'll follow his career. CB Gabe Irwin - GM Huck Granger is enamored with this guy and I can't really blame him. He's got good combines, great bars, and we have him 'As Scouted.' Corner is also a serious need position for us. But... I'm not sure I can stomach the prospect of opening this career by picking someone with his 'background.' I'd rather he have three red flags and an MCL tear than a diploma from Syracuse, but we still have to seriously consider him. GM Granger may go apeshit if he's available and we pass, but hopefully someone nabs him early to make things easy for us. DTs Cris House and Les Greiner - This is where I get a little woozy. There's something cosmic happening here that's never happened in the history of electrons coming together to generate fictional universes (and certainly not in any hitherto known reality): Georgetown has produced two stud football players. And not only that! But they both come from small towns in West Virginia and the potential for elaborate storylines involving their paths from high school competitors to college teammates to professional blahblahblahs is nearly unfathomable. If I were the sort of person prone to shaking, I'd be shaking. As it is, I'm not shaking, but... my left eyebrow IS raised in a way that makes it obvious I'm giddy with intrigue. There are a few guys we like for later picks as well, but I'll wait until we either nab them or figure out where they land before profiling them. I can tell you that ol Huck our GM just raised his eyebrow in an entirely different way after this exchange... Huck: "I really like Irwin, we should think about moving up. With Law gone, we're still very shaky in the secondary." Me: "It's a good point Huck. Have you read this background check on him though?" (Hands over bar napkin that reads "Irwin... Rapist(?)") Huck: "What is this?" Me: "Just something I came across. Can you imagine if the press got ahold of that? Scary stuff. Anyway, who's at #7? Houston? They need a running back don't they?" Huck: "Well, yes... Where did you get this again?" Me: "Trade secret pal. We'll talk later I've gotta run. If you're not busy though, why don't you take a look at the cap hit for moving LJ? Perfect. Ciao ciao and stuff." Last edited by MalcPow : 12-20-2007 at 06:54 PM. |
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12-23-2007, 01:05 AM
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#12 |
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College Benchwarmer
Join Date: Jun 2005
Location: San Diego
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So, big surprise, we go a little crazy and make some deals. We send LJ (hello giant cap hit next year) and our 2nd rounder to Houston to move up to 1.7, with them sending a 5th and a 6th this year back as well. We grab DT Cris House there, and then make a panic deal to move up to 1.10 when it looked like DT Les Greiner wouldn't fall all the way to 1.14.
All told, we give up or use: RB Larry Johnson 1.14 2.13 3.20 5.18 And we get back: 5.7 6.10 DT Cris House  DT Les Greiner  We had House as ‘Hard to Read’ and Greiner as ‘Very Underrated’ and I’d guess they both top out somewhere in the 65-75 range. I’m thinking we overpaid big time for a pair of guys who will be good starters for a long time, but by no means dominant. I’m ok with that. We’ve got two Hoyas at the heart of our defense, and if there’s one thing this franchise is committed to (other than deserting a fine city that has supported it for years) it’s making a lot of wild decisions for purely personal reasons. We’ll stick with these guys for their entire careers. In the end, I didn’t think LJ was going to produce in our offense at a level far superior to a replacement level back after his performance last season. An expensive, aging runner isn’t our favorite kind of asset (a young pair of novelty DTs on the other hand…). Anyway, we’ll look to pick somebody up during late FA or make another deal, but right now, runningback just isn’t our top priority. We actually had a fairly solid rest of the draft as well. We grab the following: 4.19 QB Emmanuel Cancilla  Cancilla is very raw, but we also had him as very underrated and he has some nice looking measurables. He comes in at 5/30 but I think he’ll get a bump and mentor Damon Huard should be able to help him along. 5.7 RCB Wesley Quinn – He’s a bit of a disappointment, coming in at 12/29, but he was also ‘Very Underrated’ and had respectable combines for a guy at this stage. We’ll see what happens, but the sad thing is, he’s good enough to play nickel for us even as he stands. 6.10 TE Walter Middleton – He shows up as a 31/50 and we had him as ‘Very Underrated’ but Scout Scott Lehmann’s one weakness is receivers, so this could be a bunch of smoke. If not, he has ok combines and he’s fairly developed so I can see him contributing for us in the 2TE sets. 6.17 G Kennedy Blake – A guy we didn’t interview. Comes in at 19/43, and we’ll see what we have here. He may get a chance to start because we just don’t have many options here. He had some solid combines. 7.16 QB Warren Ramsey – Another guy we hope Damon Huard can nudge along in development. Ramsey actually comes in at 8/37, a little better than Cancilla and we had him as ‘Very Underrated’ as well. We’ll see, might be a very nice pickup for us at the end of the draft. |
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12-23-2007, 01:09 AM
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#13 |
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College Benchwarmer
Join Date: Jun 2005
Location: San Diego
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The draft is over and the good citizens of Kansas City roundly reject our proposal 67% to 33%, but the mayor assures me the city is committed to supporting the franchise. He hopes I don’t take this as a referendum on the viability of football in KC. I let him know that in no way did the results of the vote alter the strength of our long term commitment to the city.
We also learn that QB Damon Huard has been suspended for the year. He tested positive for alcohol use, in violation of the league’s strict anti-substance policy. This really throws a bit of a kink into things. Not because we were looking to start Huard again this year, but we were really hoping to have him around teaching the kids some tricks. (Who knows what happens here? This goes even deeper than the active/inactive mentor question. A suspended mentor? An alcoholic suspended mentor? I should’ve known something was up when I noticed Huard appeared to be reading coverages through beergoggles all of last season.) We’ve reached out to Damon though, to let him know that we’re here for him, and that really, since his only freaking use to the world is as a mentor, he’s welcome to hang around the team complex while he gets his life in order. To which he replied, “You don’t know me… You think you know me? (long pause, crashing glass) Listen… Yeah listen hotshot… I’ll fight you right now!” After which the line crackled and went dead. It’s possible he was driving in a tunnel or something. (I don’t think I’ve ever had a player on my team suspended before, and certainly not my incumbent starting QB. Lot of exciting things happening in this career…) |
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12-23-2007, 01:10 AM
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#14 |
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College Benchwarmer
Join Date: Jun 2005
Location: San Diego
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We sign all of our rookies, with House and Greiner agreeing to 5-year deals after turning down our 6-year initial offers.
We bring in a pair of mediocre RBs in Justin Fargas and Artose Pinner, they’ve got some speed and not much else. We also sign Jeff Garcia to help Damon Huard mentor the young guys. We nab a pair of rookie Nancy-boys in kicker Bucky Burroughs and punter Gino Buchanan. We sign G Justin Smiley, who has nice ratings to go with a broken leg that will sideline him for the next 11 weeks. And we nab CB Brian Williams, a 7th year corner who is good enough to play for us and has some mentoring skills. |
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12-23-2007, 01:15 AM
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#15 |
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College Benchwarmer
Join Date: Jun 2005
Location: San Diego
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We hit the camp button
Code:
House moves up to 70/78, Greiner does a +3/-3 to go to 30/53. We’ll still start them both. Cancilla does a +4/+9 to go to 9/39 and we’ll have to think seriously about starting him as well. Romo looks solid though at 34/48, and probably gives us a better chance to win (which I'm not sure we're totally committed to...). The 7th rounder Ramsey took a -6 drop, so much for late value. A lot of veterans take their respective nosedives, including Damon Huard, whose recent attendance at AA meetings has taken a seriously toll on his poise in the pocket. (He also no longer has the Single-Malt formation listed on his playercard.) |
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12-23-2007, 01:30 AM
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#16 |
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College Benchwarmer
Join Date: Jun 2005
Location: San Diego
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We make it through the exhibition games without any real injuries. And even though Cancilla plays solidly, and Romo has a total meltdown game with six turnovers, we decide to go with Romo for the first four games and see what happens.
We make the move to Cancilla after 4 games. Romo is playing fine, but this is a flawed team, let’s see what the kid can do against 0-4 Oakland at home. We go back to Romo after two straight losses. And then back to Cancilla after we fall to 3-6… He then carries us down the stretch to a 4-12 record and we lock up a top 3 pick… Code:
DT House has developed to an 84/84 at year end, and Greiner progresses to 42/53. Neither is particularly productive though, each notching a pair of sacks and 30-40 tackles. Disappointing year in a lot of ways, but not so much in others. I think we’ll see what happens with Cancilla in next year’s camp, but if there’s a top QB available in the draft we’ll have to grab him. Drafting a guy who's only 4% developed is always a bit dicey, and even though I think Emmanuel has some good potential, it's probably just going to take him too long to get to a point where our offense isn't a total disaster with him calling the shots. We should've stuck with Romo, but, for our purposes, a top 3 pick to build around isn't necessarily a bad thing. We obviously missed LJ a lot as well, this offense did not really have any playmakers, a stud RB would've been helpful. So much for my "replacement level" theory... The Giants beat the Colts in an all Manning Front Office Bowl, with Eli outdueling Peyton and taking home MVP honors. Again no Chiefs love in the awards. Again Peyton takes home OPOY, POY, and 1st team QB, while Brady once again puts up a passer rating above 120. 2nd year Bucs DE Gaines Adams is flashing some serious talent with 20 sacks and an 11.1 PRRtg, he could be good for a long time. Onto next year... |
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12-23-2007, 04:51 PM
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#17 |
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College Benchwarmer
Join Date: Jun 2005
Location: San Diego
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It’s time to make our stadium proposal to the voters of Oklahoma City.
We ask for an outdoor, artificial turf stadium (the cheapest option) with a capacity of 50,000 and 50 luxury boxes. The stadium would have no club seats. It would also be the lowest capacity NFL stadium and have fewer luxury boxes than any other venue. Total cost comes to $492 million and we offer to split things down the middle (the max a team can offer) with a $246m contribution. I really think this is a proposal that SHOULD be accepted, but who knows, these things can get dicey. I really think the city’s desire for a team and fairly attractive other stats should mean this is well within their tolerance range though. We decide to stick with the current staff and lock them up long term. Scout Scott Lehmann gets a 5 yr contract. DC Brent Cobb gets 3 years as he’s getting a little older. And Head Coach Gilbert Ellard gets a nice 5 year deal as well. No one around the league really understands this, but I actually like our staff. I think the rookie QB and some serious cohesion weakness hurt us a lot last year, no reason to can these guys. Retirements hurt us. We lose TE Tony Gonzalez and CB Patrick Surtain. Surtain’s stats were horrid last year, so it’s possible this is a year late, but his ratings were still solid and this leaves us very vulnerable again in the secondary. Gonzalez takes away our one offensive starter rated pretty highly. Mentor Jeff Garcia retires as well, leaving us with only the beachwood-aged Damon Huard to tutor our youngsters. We send QB Emmanuel Cancilla to the summer league. I actually thought about sending Les Greiner, but only because I’m an idiot. |
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01-03-2008, 04:18 PM
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#18 |
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College Benchwarmer
Join Date: Jun 2005
Location: San Diego
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We go through into Free Agency and Cancilla has popped again from 13/39 to 16/45, a +3/+6. He’s obviously very intriguing but the draft class reveals three very good QB prospects as well.
Including this guy:  He's got an unadjusted bureau rating of 7.6, and frankly, he looks like he'd be the best QB I've had on my roster in recent memory. The other two top QB prospects are also attractive. Blake Robinson has a bureau of 6.5 and good bars, but my scout has him as Hard To Read and he's only 8% developed. Heath Mathis is Underrated, with good bars, no combines and a nice 47 Sole score, but he's only 12% developed as well. We'll have to give it some thought, but Hutcheson just looks too freaking good. I'll have to get a sense for what the cost would be, but (hopefully) it's not too often that you're in a position to make a move for a guy like this so I'm guessing it'll be worth it. The top of the draft looks like this:   We could actually use some O-Line help, and Cullen (Underrated) and Baillargeon (As Scouted) are attractive at the tackle spots. And TE Amos Landon is the sort of guy I've seen do destructive things in our offense. Scott Lehmann tells me he's Very Overrated, but Scott's one weakness is receivers, so I'm buying this guy's combines. I can't really see any way we could land him, but we'll follow his career. We'll revisit some of these guys after we move through free agency a bit and see where our holes are. |
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01-03-2008, 06:14 PM
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#19 |
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High School JV
Join Date: Nov 2006
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If you draft the guy from Temple it will continue your trend of using first rounders who didn't play DI college football.
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01-04-2008, 12:33 AM
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#20 | |
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College Benchwarmer
Join Date: Jun 2005
Location: San Diego
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Quote:
Good point. And I'm pretty sure Temple's team actually plays tackle football, so I'd be inching my way ever closer toward guys who have a clue about what the heck they're doing... |
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01-04-2008, 02:03 AM
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#21 |
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Mascot
Join Date: Feb 2007
Location: London
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This dynasty makes me laugh, so please continue it for as long as possible.
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01-05-2008, 01:48 PM
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#22 |
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College Benchwarmer
Join Date: Jun 2005
Location: San Diego
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We end up filling a few holes in Free Agency. No spectacular signings, but we fill out with some guys that will definitely contribute for us. Here's a look at some of our latest additions...
RB Michael Turner 54/54 - He's not going to be a gamebreaker, but he's an improvement over what we had last year. We won't expect him to carry us, but he's got good speed, great elusiveness, and some nice looking receiving skills. RB Jesse Chatman 48/48 - Chatman's just here to give us some depth. Our offense can see some nice production from a two back approach, and hopefully he'll be able to do some nice things for us spelling Turner. TE LJ Smith 54/54 - We try to replace Gonzalez here with a solid looking LJ Smith. His Route Running is pretty low, but he has some great other skills, including an extremely interesting 82 for Big Play Receiving. That's some serious downfield passcatching ability for a TE and we'll have to see if we can find ways to utilize it. SE Ashley Lelie 42/42 - I'm not that excited about him, but we grab him for a 1 yr deal to fill out our receiving corps. CB Ricky Manning 47/47 - He'll start for us, but that says more about our team than it says about him. We may have another year without answers in the secondary on our hands. Onto the draft... |
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01-06-2008, 02:42 AM
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#23 |
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College Benchwarmer
Join Date: Jun 2005
Location: San Diego
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We make a deal to go after Marvin Hutcheson.
Out goes: 1.3 2.2 3.3 In comes: 1.1 and we draft the man... Hutcheson hits the roster at 42/87, already our best QB. I think we've got an absolute superstar on our hands and I can't wait to see what this guy can do. Objective one from here on out will be to try to land him an elite receiver. If we can do that, and I'm willing to trade the farm next year if one is available in the draft, then I think we'll have a great offense for a long time. The rest of our draft plays out like this: 4.2 RT Jason Wolfe (VU) 19/42 - I'm shocked to see him sitting here when we finally get back on the clock in day 2. We like Wolfe a great deal, I only wish he had the frame to convert to an LT, but at 6'4" 295lbs it's probably a stretch. Wolfe also put up an elite 7.44 agility score that makes me optimistic about his future pass blocking abilities. 5.3 RG Ross Correia (VU) 24/37 - Another guy that I'm really surprised we're able to get. We had him Very Underrated and he's already got decent bars and good combines. I like the pick, and think he might be an immediate starter. 6.2 C Cedric Howe (O) 20/43 - We had him as Overrated, but still, I like his combines a lot and his bureau rating was pretty nice for a 6th rounder. 7.3 WR Butch Prescott - Crappy bars, but could be a big time return guy from his combines... Of note the Top 10 played out like so: Code:
Even though I knew we couldn't land TE Amos Landon after we decided to grab Hutcheson, it's still a bit of a shock to see him go #9. I can't remember seeing a TE go that high in recent drafts I've seen, but Landon may be worth it. We'll definitely keep an eye out for him. Last edited by MalcPow : 01-06-2008 at 02:47 AM. |
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01-06-2008, 12:23 PM
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#24 |
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College Benchwarmer
Join Date: Jun 2005
Location: San Diego
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Draft is over and...
Our move has been approved! The good citizens of Oklahoma City voted in favor of our stadium proposal by a resounding 50.9% to 49%! Obviously, this is helpful. The construction won't be complete until 2014, so we'll still have five more seasons in Kansas City, but that could be just about time for this team to go on a run of championships. I like to think the addition of Marvin helped stoke some interest in the team, and probably swung a few more votes our way. We begin late Free Agency to find that CB Drayton Florence is holding out. We also receive a trade offer for Tony Romo. It would seem to make sense to move Romo, but the Bills are offering a mere 6th rounder and I think he's worth more to me than that. If Hutch goes down, I'm not sure I want to try my hand with Cancilla again. Or worse, pass things over to Damon "Shaken not Stirred... eh, Fuck It, Just Give Me The Bottle" Huard (He would have been an XFL merchandiser's dream). Hutch accepts our 6 year, $45.5M offer. We're thrilled to lock him up. And everyone else signs as well. We bring in a few targeted UDFAs: C Skip Jackson 20/35 (VU) C Harry Marlowe 17/38 (U) RG Martin Burnstine 22/33 (VU) RT Nate Chandler 18/34 (VU) LT Chester Burton 9/53 RB Alonzo Bautista 27/51 LDE Justin Francis 21/54 (bumped +1/+4 just coming to the roster LCB Riddick Mathews 19/57 LCB Greg Tubbs 19/55 I actually like what we get here. We're obviously trying to get deeper and younger on the O-Line, and even though none of these guys look like obvious long term solutions, I think one or two will emerge as quality starter/solid backup players. DE Francis and the two corners also took some nice +3 or +4 bumps in potential just by joining the roster, let's hope that somehow continues into camp. (I'm fully expecting the CBs to nosedive in camp, but we just need bodies. If one of them holds potential I'll be thrilled.) Training camp coming up... |
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01-06-2008, 02:08 PM
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#25 |
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College Benchwarmer
Join Date: Jun 2005
Location: San Diego
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We have a very good camp.
Some of the highlights: Hutch does a +8/+1 to go to 50/88. He's the real deal. 4th round pick RT Jason Wolfe does a +10/+11 to go to 29/53. We're thrilled with this as I think Wolfe will grow even more and we may have a long term starter in the 60s out of a 4th round pick. LT Tom Ashworth has a very nice veteran boom in his 7th season of +15/+15 to go to 58/58. He's a very good run blocker but a bit weak in pass protection. This boom puts him about on par with current starter Damion McIntosh and has to make us seriously consider extending Ashworth, whose contract is up at the end of this season. 5th round pick RG Ross Correia has a nice +4/+7 to go to 28/44. He'll start for sure now. 7th round pick WR Butch Prescott bumps +5/+9 to 14/31. He still won't be much of a receiving threat but we're starting to see some of the return skills we suspected he had from his combines. Some lowlights: New signings LJ Smith (-12/-12) and Jesse Chatman (-9/-9) both take big hits. We weren't going to depend on either for much, but it's still disappointing to see them slip like that. Those undrafted CBs drop as expected, -8 and -6 respectively. Final verdict: We look like a decent team. A lot will depend on Hutch, but this could be a squad that finds a way to sneak into the playoffs. We'll see, if the rook doesn't kill us, cohesion might. (And for those following at home, Baltimore TE Amos Landon did a +3/-3 to go to 76/81.) Last edited by MalcPow : 01-06-2008 at 02:10 PM. |
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01-06-2008, 03:49 PM
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#26 |
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College Benchwarmer
Join Date: Jun 2005
Location: San Diego
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We change our minds and decide to shop Romo around to pick up a playmaker. This is the last year on his deal, and he's already listed as Disgruntled so he's not going to be a good backup solution. We might as well move him and see if he can be a valuable piece in a bigger deal.
The Bills are very interested in him, but there isn't much that makes sense except a deal for their first rounder and they want a lot of other picks to make that happen. It's still a somewhat attractive deal to us because the Bills are in a very tough division and are still a below average team, their first rounder would probably be around #10. We decide to look around at receivers as well. After looking at a few different guys we end up making this deal: QB Tony Romo 45/48 2010 2nd Rounder 2010 3rd Rounder 2011 3rd Rounder for TE Vernon Davis 83/83 Davis is going into his 4th season, he's fully developed, and he's got elite ratings to go along with good production the last two seasons. I see it as a deal where we get a guy who is better than the 1.9 pick this past draft for a 2nd, two 3rds, and a 4th (Romo). It's a good deal, but I also think it's reasonable (I get the feeling San Fran would've taken less, but this deal met my general fairness rule for both sides). Romo should help the 49ers this season, and he wasn't going to do much for us. We'll see if Davis really helps us that much, but we like the 2TE sets, and he'll either be productive or open things up for our receivers. Hutch I'm sure is happy to have a nice young target to build some rhythm with. (I don't seem to have much luck with 2nd and 3rd rounders, so this deal makes a lot of sense to prevent me from wasting them anyway.) |
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01-06-2008, 04:01 PM
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#27 |
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College Benchwarmer
Join Date: Jun 2005
Location: San Diego
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Here's a roster snapshot before we go into preseason:
Code:
I still think we can be a decent team, and possibly sneak into the playoffs. We shall see... |
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01-06-2008, 04:59 PM
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#28 |
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College Benchwarmer
Join Date: Jun 2005
Location: San Diego
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We go through the preseason undefeated (woohoo!) and Hutch twice picks up a Bad Cold on separate occasions. Let's hope Damon Huard doesn't recommend his favorite cough medicine...
We open up with Denver at home. We're heavy underdogs (I think because we have no FB, and the strange things that does to roster ratings this time of year) but we're excited to see how the team responds... We whip Denver 41-13 and get out to a 3-1 start and the division lead through 4 weeks. Then we split our next 4, with an absolutely horrid performance by Hutch against Oakland where he throws 4 picks and compiles a 10.7 rating. But we're sitting 5-3 after week 9, second in the division and in a playoff spot. (We're averaging 29.6 points a game, but the defense is allowing 27, we simply can't stop the pass...) We split again over our next four and we head into Week 14 at 7-5. Oakland is atop our division at 8-4, but San Diego and Denver are each 7-5 as well. It looks like only one of the three of us can make the playoffs as the Jets and Pats are both 10-2 and one of them will get a Wild Card. We close with three on the road, let's see if we can put a little run together to close things out. We start with a nice 24-17 win at 8-4 Dallas, and then follow it up with a HUGE 19-17 win in Oakland that vaults us to 9-5 and the top of the division. (Of course, Oakland is 9-5 as well, and San Diego and Denver are nipping our heels at 8-6.) Even bigger, we lose FL Travis Taylor to a dislocated shoulder, a big loss as he's been brilliant with Davis around drawing coverage. Losing him could really hurt us in the last two games. Wow, so much for that. We take on a 7-7 Washington team in Arrowhead and completely destroy them 52-0. Hutch goes 21-29 for 404 yards with 7 TDs and no picks. Unbelievable. Also Unbelievable is the fact that everyone else in our division is right behind us at 9-6. We close at San Diego and I think that if they beat us they will have beaten us twice, so they own the tiebreaker. And Denver and Oakland match up in the other division game. We beat Denver twice, so if we lose and they win, I think we're in as a Wild Card. But we split with Oakland, so if they win, I have no clue what happens. All the conference and division records would be equivalent... Well, San Diego manhandles us 27-9, with Hutch playing horribly. Thankfully, Denver whips Oakland, so we grab the Wild Card by winning the tiebreaker over the Broncs. Here's a look at the Team Summary for the season before our playoff game: Code:
We'll have more thoughts after the playoffs... |
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01-06-2008, 05:21 PM
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#29 |
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College Benchwarmer
Join Date: Jun 2005
Location: San Diego
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Despite leading 17-16 at the start of the 4th, we go down 26-17 in Cincy. Nobody plays particularly poorly, but we end up losing because, big surprise, we have no answer for the passing attack late.
Looking back at our season it's clear that we need to do whatever we can to bring in some help in the secondary. We shouldn't be as bad as we are back there with this gameplan, but we need to do something. We got better later in the season after swapping some personnel into different spots back there, but we're certainly not anywhere near talented enough to make it further than we did this season. We have to make a serious move to get a corner. Other than that, we have to be pretty happy with Hutch. He had some fumbling issues in the first half, but he didn't put the ball on the ground once over the second half of the season, so I'm not that concerned. Our offense was electric, and Michael Turner looked like Walter Payton. Apparently my "replacement level" theory can only be taken so far, and we just need a solid back to make things work. If we can land some secondary help though, a lot of reasons to be optimistic. Season Wrap-Up: San Diego ends up going down to New England in the AFC Championship. The Saints beat the Pats 27-14 in the Super Bowl with Drew Brees named the game's MVP. Hutch wins Offensive Rookie of the Year but no other Chiefs are recognized. LaDainian Tomlinson wins POY, OPY, and 1st Team RB with over 2500 yards from scrimmage. Brady takes home 1st Team QB. |
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01-06-2008, 07:17 PM
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#30 |
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College Benchwarmer
Join Date: Jun 2005
Location: San Diego
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Damon Huard retires. He lets us know he wants to "spend more time with my, um, family." It's too bad because we would've liked to see him stick around while Hutch and Cancilla were still developing. But who are we to come between a man and the pleasures of his family?
We make a questionable move to franchise LT Tom Ashworth. Ashworth had a great season, improving his pass protection and leveling defenders in the run game on his way to 12 pancakes. The LJ deal left us with a ton ($18M) of dead cap space, and we just didn't have enough to extend Ashworth any other way, but we certainly will hope to renegotiate him quickly to a more palatable deal. We end up letting CB Drayton Florence and MLB Dontarrius Thomas test free agency for similar reasons. We'll see if we can, or should, resign them when we see the lay of the land in FA1. |
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01-06-2008, 10:27 PM
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#31 |
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College Benchwarmer
Join Date: Jun 2005
Location: San Diego
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So the draft class and FA scrubs don't really look all that great for us. In fact, Drayton Florence is the highest rated CB out there and we've been there, and done that. So what's a GM to do?
Why not pull our 3rd annual ridiculous blockbuster trade? Well, ok then... We send: 2010 1.24 2011 1st 2011 2nd 2012 1st 2012 2nd The Jets send: CB Darrelle Revis 92/92 So we send three 1sts and two 2nds to get ourselves the best corner in the game. Revis is in his 4th season and has three very cheap years left on his contract when he joins us. He may not solve all our problems, but he helps, a lot, and I've got enough confidence that having him makes us a playoff team for the forseeable future that I can pull the trigger on a deal like this. We won't have a day one draft pick for three years now, but I think we have the pieces in place to grow despite that. At the end of the day, I like to grab difference makers (or guys who went to big name football powerhouses...) and the odds are high there simply won't be a corner like Revis available any time soon. We're stoked to have him. (Cue repetitive concussion syndrome in 5...4...3...) We have a bunch of cap space as well. So we grab the following: SS James Sanders 6th year, 64/64 - We grab Sanders from New England as step two of our secondary improvement plan. He's about the same as FS Bernard Pollard who we let leave this offseason from an overall rating perspective, but Sanders is a much better zone defender and run stopper and I think that will make him a better fite for our scheme. FL Mark Clayton 6th, 52/52 - This is something of a sentimental pickup, as Clayton is an OU guy and Oklahoma City native, but he was also the top receiver in FA and we need some insurance in case Travis Taylor loses a few steps this offseason. He has problems with drops, but otherwise, Mark is a good fit for us. SS Jerome Carter 6th, 52/52 - Just a solid backup for FS Wilson and new signing SS Sanders. We also are able to resign Drayton Florence (54/54) to play RCB as well as MLB Dontarrius Thomas to patrol the middle. SE Ashley Lelie also comes back on a 1 year deal. He didn't do much last year, but stepped up when Taylor went down. Our short drafting session nets us: 4.27 MLB Mitch Orellana 22/46 (O) 5.26 FL Buddy Hopper 24/41 (VU) 6.25 SE Nick Tate 15/35 (VU) 7.24 DE Lionel Crawford 13/17 (VU) And we grab TE Rondell Joseph 20/46 (VU) and K Leo Erickson 30/33 as undrafted rookies. We go through camp and don't get nearly as much good news as last year. We see drops from Travis Taylor (nice move picking up Clayton now), Michael Turner (still should get decent production, we hope...), and LJ Smith again. No real booms, except from 7th round pick DE Lionel Crawford who takes a +5 potential (but he's rated so lowly that it's nothing to get too excited about). |
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01-06-2008, 10:32 PM
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#32 |
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College Benchwarmer
Join Date: Jun 2005
Location: San Diego
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Preseason snapshot...
Code:
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01-06-2008, 11:29 PM
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#33 |
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College Benchwarmer
Join Date: Jun 2005
Location: San Diego
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We go through the preseason looking solid, but we lose Mark Clayton early to a Pulled Calf Muscle that will sideline him for the first 4 weeks of the season. We should be fine, but we open up at Oakland (we're 6 point favorites) and if last year taught us anything, it taught us that every divisional game matters in the AFC West.
We start out right with 27-6 smackdown of the Silver and Black, but then we drop one in St. Louis 21-16. We follow that up with a flashback to last season where New Jersey throws all over us in a 48-28 loss. But we rebound to beat the Titans 23-13. So we sit at 2-2 after four straight road games to open up, and, of course, San Diego and Oakland have jumped out to 4-1 records (although at least Denver has fallen on hard times at 0-4). We win our next four though, including another one over Oakland. We're sitting at 6-2, just behind San Diego's 7-1. The difference between this year and last year is entirely evident though. We're still averaging about 27 points per game on offense, but this year we're only allowing 19. And I think if you throw out that 48 point crapfest against the Jets we'd look even better. We'll see if we can hold it together, little nagging injuries are starting to crop up all over. We split to go to 8-4 after a tough stretch. Hutch is still having the occasional game where he just completely destroys us with 3 or 4 picks. Let's hope he can break that habit. We finish strong, even knocking off the Chargers at their place, and make the playoffs at 11-5. San Diego is the #1 seed in the AFC after going 13-3. We have to go on the road to play a 10-6 Cleveland team that won the North. It's not a terrible matchup for us, but we're a bit banged up with Kendrell Bell and DT Les Greiner Out for the rest of the season and a few other guys still slowed by a variety of ailments. Cleveland's favored by 4. They beat us 21-13. We get an uninspired performance from the passing attack. Not a whole lot to say really. |
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01-06-2008, 11:36 PM
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#34 |
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College Benchwarmer
Join Date: Jun 2005
Location: San Diego
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Season snapshot:
Code:
We were much better defensively, but our scoring actually tailed off a bit toward the end of the season. One thing that stands out is the difference in production between Travis Taylor a year ago and Mark Clayton this year. Both got their share of opportunities in the FL role, Taylor just seemed to make a lot more of them last year. We're still a receiver away (probably a few other players as well) from being able to do all the things we'd like. DT Cris House seemed to have a bit of a breakout year statistically with 9 sacks, nice to see. I'm sure it had something to do with the broken fibula of his best friend Les Greiner, and an inspirational bedside pact the two of them made in Greiner's hospital room. |
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01-07-2008, 11:40 PM
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#35 |
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Go Reds
Join Date: May 2001
Location: Bloodbuzz Ohio
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Time to convert Revis to WR
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01-09-2008, 11:03 AM
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#36 | |
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College Benchwarmer
Join Date: Jun 2005
Location: San Diego
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Quote:
Maybe I'll trade him for Cory Clements... |
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01-26-2008, 05:47 PM
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#37 |
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College Benchwarmer
Join Date: Jun 2005
Location: San Diego
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We get to the end of the year and Carolina knocks off New England in the Front Office Bowl. Tom Brady wins POY, OPOY, and 1st Team QB. We get some award love this year as LG Brian Waters is a 1st Teamer with a 25.2 OPct and DT Cris House does us proud with 1st Team honors of his own. Gaines Adams wins DPOY with another monster year and 15 sacks, he's definitely on an HOF pace with 57 through 4 seasons. Hutch is now a cool 91/91 and I'm thinking we might see him start to challenge Brady for these honors in the near term.
We hit the End Season button and C Casey Wiegmann, QB Kurt Warner, LG Brian Waters, and LT Damion McIntosh have all retired. Wiegmann and Waters were starters (and Waters an All Pro, see above) so we'll have to find some answers there. Warner was just helping Hutch along anyway and must've figured his work was done. Team finances improved quite a bit last year and we only lost $11m, which is actually pretty darn good considering we're saddled with a $50m stadium contribution each year. Looking the team over I actually think we're decent. We've only got 29 guys under contract, but we'll fill that out a bit. I also think we might be ready to make a switch to a 3-4 and see what happens. I like what I've been getting from my other 3-4 D's lately and I want to see if I can emulate that with this talent. |
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01-26-2008, 09:40 PM
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#38 |
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College Benchwarmer
Join Date: Jun 2005
Location: San Diego
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Fortune smiles on us and the FA class reveals two highly rated veteran receivers for us to pursue. We end up signing them both to cap busting contracts and fill out with some other decent pickups as well. Our new signings:
WR Bernard Berrian, 8th, 67/67 - He's just a very good all around receiver. We'll move him to split end and see what happens. WR Vincent Jackson, 7th, 63/63 - He'll play flanker for us. He's great at getting downfield and knows where the chains are on 3rd downs. These two guys are 7th and 12th best receivers in the league by overall rating and we end up going from a mediocre receiving corps to the top pair of starters in the league. Hutch is pleased. Other signings... CB Gary Coles, 5th, 58/58 - Coles was one of those undrafted guys who gets signed at the beginning of a new career and he's put together a nice career for himself. He's very cheap and is a definite upgrade for us, allowing the aging Drayton Florence to move into more of a nickel role. RB Ryan Grant, 5th, 50/50 - Michael Turner bolted in the first round of free agency and we're hoping the younger Grant can match his production. We should be fine, but the last time we lost our starting runner we turned into a bunch of jackasses... CBs Chris Gamble 49/49 and Kelvin Hayden 48/48 - Just more depth. They'll both be helpful if there are injuries or camp drops. TE Leonard Pope, 6th, 44/44 - With LJ Smith gone, we needed a reliable second target for the two TE sets. LG Adam Snyder, 7th, 36/36 - He doesn't look amazing, but we may trot him out there as a starter to replace the retired Brian Waters. WR Matt Jones, 7th, 33/33 - We've got way too many wideouts now, but Jones can help if we hit some injuries or if someone tosses a grenade into the receivers' film meeting room. We also pick up the following during the draft: 4th: SLB Kenny Hopkins 18/28, VU 5th: LDE Sammie Morton 17/44, VU 6th: QB Stan Flowers 12/48, VU 7th: SE Kendall Hartrick 12/31, VO I like all these guys for different reasons and Flowers just looked too good to leave on the board. If we can develop him a little, he may be a valuable trade piece down the line. |
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01-27-2008, 11:29 AM
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#39 |
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College Benchwarmer
Join Date: Jun 2005
Location: San Diego
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We go through camp and get the requisite bunch of drops that have become a yearly tradition. Nobody particularly crucial, although the nice -10/-10 from TE Vernon Davis takes him from being the star we traded for to simply a nice option. We do get a nice +8/+8 from 4th round SLB Kenny Hopkins. It only takes him to 26/36, but I might start him as the WLB in our new 3-4 and see what he can do, I like some of his skills for that role. Speaking of our new 3-4, another guy taking a ratings nosedive is veteran MLB Dontarrious Thomas who we had hoped could give us another couple seasons at SILB. We'll trot him out there, but we're weak in the middle, could be some minor difficulties stopping the run this year.
And speaking of the run, here's to new RB Ryan Grant who promptly dropped 5 points of his own this camp. The backfield's a bit shaky, but we'll still run the football. On that note, here we are, your Kansas City Chiefs! Code:
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01-27-2008, 01:56 PM
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#40 |
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College Benchwarmer
Join Date: Jun 2005
Location: San Diego
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We make it through the preseason with no injuries, which is great, and we're ready to kick off the '11 campaign with the Chargers coming into Arrowhead. Here we go...
We start things off right with a 41-21 win over SD. We then stumble to a 17-10 loss in Green Bay and Hutch picks up a sprained knee. We put him on the shelf because the last thing we need is to mess around with a knee injury. We don't regret it as Emmanuel Cancilla comes in and plays very well in a 33-21 road win over Indy. He's even better the next week at home against Jersey, going 23-26 for 385 and 4 TDs. Hutch is fully healed so we go to him for a week 5 tilt in Oakland (even though Cancilla has a 152.7 passer rating after filling in for two games), and he comes back to win POG and lead us to a 28-10 win. We then drop one in New England 27-16, fumbling the ball a bunch of times in a very similar performance to our loss in Green Bay. We bounce back in Miami with a 30-15 victory but Hutch plays poorly as we rush for 230 and Revis picks off a pair of passes. Hutch also picks up a strained rotator cuff in this one, and we decide to sit him down even though division leading Denver is coming to town. Cancilla is a little shaky with two picks, but we win 31-14. Halfway through we're 6-2 and atop the division because of the head to head tiebreaker with Denver. We're scoring 29 points a game and only giving up 17, but we've got a crappy -7 turnover margin because we're putting the ball on the ground too much. Ryan Grant is on pace for 2000 yards from scrimmage and Vincent Jackson is having a very nice season so far. Mark Clayton also seems a bit better suited for the slot role, averaging 16 yards per target so far. We bring Hutch back for our Week 10 home game against Buffalo even though he's still a week away from being fully healed. No real reason for it, but Buffalo's a tough team right now and Hutch responds with a big game in a 42-10 stomping. He's still listed as a week away from healing afterward, but we go with him on the road against a 1-8 San Diego team and roll to a 37-14 victory. He heals up, but we lose LT Tom Ashworth (Broken Foot, 4 weeks) and DE Terrell Suggs (Dislocated Knee, 8 weeks). We take down Detroit 45-24 but we lose another starter as CB Darrelle Revis goes down for 6 weeks with a broken wrist. Revis has been out of his mind so far this year with a 93.3 PDPct, 3 picks, and 27 PDs against 29 Catches Allowed (and in only 383 passing plays, I've never seen a ratio that high of "coverage responsibility plays" to overall passing plays for a corner). We'll miss him, and really hope we can grab a bye to get him back for the playoffs. It's a particularly tough loss as we face 10-1 Cincy in our first game without him and we go down 30-27 at home. We're at 9-3, still atop Denver because of the tiebreaker, and it looks like we'll be in the playoffs barring a monumental collapse. Our trainer's room also looks like the set of a World War II movie, if we don't get the bye I could see us going down early with a depleted squad. We don't help our cause by dropping a home game to mediocre Bears team, 10-6. Nobody plays particularly poorly, and statistically this one looks like many of our wins, but we miss some field goals, fumble at the wrong times, and just can't make it happen. Denver falls as well, so we're still atop the division, but we're fading down the stretch here. We face the Broncs in their place this week, and it's pretty much a must win if we want any hope at a bye or a first round home game. Revis is Questionable but with a very low risk of reinjury we bring him back for this one. He defends two passes and we roll 45-21, very big for us. We scratch out another win in Minnesota 23-17 with Hutch playing gawd awfully and Revis reinjuring his wrist to go back Out. We clinch the division though as Denver loses. Almost everything goes our way in Week 17 as we beat up on Oakland 40-19 and New England loses to clinch a bye for us. But Hutch also goes down for 5 weeks with a Strained Back, definitely not thrilled to see him pick up three injuries this year. We'll watch the first round and see where things stand before making a call on who gets the start for us in the divisional round. Jacksonville beats Cleveland in the Wild Card Round, and we'll be facing them at home. This is another break for us as we'd rather face the Jags than a very dangerous Pittsburgh team. We get Ashworth back from his foot injury and we'll play a questionable Revis. DE Terrell Suggs is probable after a long absence with a dislocated knee and we'll give him a go as well, but Hutch is still listed as Out. We'll go with Cancilla, he's been lights out so far this year, let's hope he can keep it going. We take care of business 23-14 with Cancilla playing well and the D picking off 4 passes. No new injuries, but Hutch is still Out and we have to go to Cincy to play a very tough Bengals team in the Conference Finals. We lose 26-20 as Cancilla falls apart. He throws 3 picks and musters a measley 36.4 passer rating. We're just not good enough to get it done. |
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01-27-2008, 02:06 PM
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#41 |
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College Benchwarmer
Join Date: Jun 2005
Location: San Diego
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The tale of the tape...
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Some very nice numbers there, but we forced surprisingly few turnovers. Ah well, we're a very good team, just ran into some injuries and a juggernaut Bengals squad at the wrong time. It's nice to see what we were able to do defensively with very marginal personnel. |
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01-27-2008, 04:57 PM
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#42 |
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College Benchwarmer
Join Date: Jun 2005
Location: San Diego
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Cincy falls to Dallas in the Front Office Bowl 21-13. This is particularly stinging because Dallas is led by third year QB Heath Mathis, the third QB selected and 4th overall pick in the 2009 draft. Hutch went number one that year, it's a bit chafing to see Mathis get to a title first. Mathis also won POY and 1st Team QB with a body of work that Hutch probably would've exceeded without the injuries. A lot of things for the bulletin board this offseason. Third year Guard Ross Correia, our 5th round pick that draft, is the only Chief to win any honors this season as a 2nd Team selection.
It's a little absurd that Darrelle Revis gets no love from the awards voters. He ended up with 3 picks, 30 PDs, 32 CAs, and a 93.2 PDPct in 417 pass plays. He missed three games and still had more passes defensed than anyone in the league. His PDPct was also four points higher than any other qualified player. All Pro or not, the guy had an incredible year. No Chiefs retire this offseason, and there are very few big names calling it quits around the league. Shaun Alexander heads up a fairly pedestrian class of retirees. We resign Defensive Coordinator Brent Cobb to a three year deal. We send SLB Kenny Hopkins to Europe. We decide to stay out of free agency this year for the most part. We've got 40 guys under contract and a decent enough core, we'll just sign our draft picks and target some UDRs. We do grab two outside linebackers in Lamar Woodley and Brandon Burgess who we'll move inside to give us a small skill boost. The draft reveals a top rated RB, Amos Vance, who looks like a total monster. We'll have to keep an eye on his career. We don't pick until late in the third, so we wait a bit. But then we net the following: 3rd: NT Corwin Matibag 24/40, VU 4th: RDE Rex Battaglia 15/32, HR (but decent combines) 5th: WLB Jay Jamison 18/35, HR (good combines, we immediately move him to WILB where we may start him) 6th: RCB Curtis Innis 12/35, O (we just liked him, *shrug*) 7th: TE Chris Manuwai 12/22, VU (a project, but I think he'll grow) RB Amos Vance went #1 overall to San Diego, who let LDT go this offseason. Looks like we'll get a chance to follow his career more closely than we'd probably like. |
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01-28-2008, 02:18 PM
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#43 |
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College Benchwarmer
Join Date: Jun 2005
Location: San Diego
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We go through camp and take our lumps again on the drops (the price of signing free agents), but it's nothing irreparably serious. We get some nice bumps in the +1 to +4 potential range from our rookies. My only real concern is at DE, where Jared Allen and Terrell Suggs are both on the backside of their careers and bleeding ratings. RB Ryan Grant lost 10 points, but he's also holding out.
Here's what we look like after camp: Code:
We'll go as far as Hutch takes us. |
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01-28-2008, 03:30 PM
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#44 |
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College Benchwarmer
Join Date: Jun 2005
Location: San Diego
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We make it through the preseason with no real injuries (except new linebacker Brandon Burgess, who'll play SILB with a sprained knee ligament for the next 8 weeks and is a near lock to go down for the year at some point).
We lose in OT at Denver in week 1. Then we drop one at home to Tampa Bay. Not a great start. We get back on track by beating New Englad 34-7 at home. Then beat Baltimore on the road 28-14. We get some revenge in week 6, whipping Cincy 33-7. Then we bounce back with an idiotic loss in Oakland. Which we follow up with a nice win over Cleveland. And then we go into Pittsburgh to beat a tough Steelers team 21-10. We're at 5-3, a game back of Denver for the division at the midpoint. Hutch has an absurd 22-0 TD to interception ration right now, and yet somehow, we're just 5-3. Strange season so far... We juuuust hang on to beat Denver 31-30, but we're behind them still on a tiebreaker. We then stomp SD 45-17 and move into first with a Denver loss. Hutch now has 29 TDs and no picks. So of course he throws one as we lose to 0-10 Carolina, and drop behind Oakland in a tie atop our division. We keep it together with a win over Jacksonville that moves us to 8-4, still tied but behind Oakland. Hutch has a 34-1 ratio right now, and we look like a statistical juggernaut. Too bad we're playing like an inconsistent bunch of morons. We take care of business 30-20 against a good Atlanta team. We then make a statement at home, 52-24, over Oakland to take sole possession of first, but lose Vincent Jackson to a concussion for a few weeks. We beat New Orleans handily and I just notice that at 11-4, we have the best record in the AFC. We close at home against a 6-9 Chargers team, and if we win we'll lock up homefield throughout the playoffs. Of course if we lose, we drop to a Wild Card slot behind the winner of the Denver-Oakland game (both teams 10-5) because of division record. So we'll be going all out, knowing this team, we'll find a way to lose focus. Or not. We win 38-3 and lock up homefield. Hutch finishes the regular season with a 114.5 rating and a 47-3 TD-Int ratio. Pretty gaudy, but it don't mean a thing if we can't keep it going. We face a 12-5 Tennessee team at home and the bookies are only favoring us by a point. Titans rookie RB Clarence Ellison, #2 overall behind Amos Vance, has been all over the field for them, including catching 79 passes for almost 700 yards. We play well and win 26-14. Hutch doesn't throw any TDs, but we make no mistakes, rush for 270, and dominate time of possession. Next up is a Jersey squad that looks like a mediocre version of us. I feel like we should beat them, but it's the playoffs, anything can happen. We give up a ton of yards, but win 34-14 to set up a collossal showdown with defending champ Dallas and QB Heath Mathis. We lose SLB Derrick Johnson to a pulled calf, and we'll miss him. The bookies have us tipped as four point favorites. Hutch badly wants to beat Mathis after watching him hoist the trophy a year ago. We get it done. Chiefs win 28-21. Hutch is the game's MVP running for a score and throwing two to Vernon Davis. Although not technically part of the "challenge," leaving the people of Kansas City with a title (or maybe two) to remember us by is kind of nice. Onto the recap... |
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01-28-2008, 03:43 PM
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#45 |
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College Benchwarmer
Join Date: Jun 2005
Location: San Diego
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Team summary...
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We still generate very few turnovers, but with Hutch's ridiculous season we only end up turning it over ourselves 10 times. Hutch wins MVP, OPOY, and 1st Team QB to go with his Championship MVP honors. DT Cris House and SLB Derrick Johnson are both 1st Teamers, and LT Tom Ashworth brings home a 2nd Team distinction. Very nice year for us. Hutch is never going to have 5000 yard type numbers in our offense, but he played extremely well. The defense was solid statistically, but there isn't a lot of talent left on that side of the ball. Having some early round picks again will be helpful. I'm somewhat wary this team may be peaking too soon and we may be on a bit of a down tick when we get to OKC, but we'll always be a contender with Hutch around. |
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