The Journey To The Superbowl-My Arizona Cardinals (HC09)

[CardinalsfffFan]

I have got this game in March and I absolutely LOVE it! I first started playing the career as the Colts, then in the middle of the season I found that it was too easy, so I started a new career with the Packers. In the 16^th week of the season, I felt it was still too easy, so I chose a harder team, the Arizona Cardinals. My goal is to lead this team to winning the Superbowl, like they almost did in the 2009 season.


A few notes for the readers, I am right now in my 15^th week of the season already, so I will only mention some important stuff from when I started to now. I promise you after week 15 it will be more detailed. Also please forgive me for my bad grammar & typos, I am still in the process of learning the English language.


So, no more trashtalk, let’s get this career started! I created my own coach. I chose the Guru personality. I kept the original playbooks for the Cardianls. As for skill selections, I had ambition first, then I selected the quarterback special skill, cuz I am a pass heavy person, so a good quarterback is very important to my team. And I saved the skill points left to add later.

I chose to start in the off-season. This way I can get some big name free agents and some talented rookies to add to my not so talented team. I went though the roster, released a few useless guys, put a few guys on the trade block, and just waited for free agency to come.
Here is a list of who I signed with during the free agent period:
LOLB C.Haggans for 6M/2Ys deal with 2.5M bonus
TE L.Smith for 20M/4Ys deal with 3.5M bonus
MLB K.Dansby for23M/4Ys deal with 3.5M bonus
I singed Haggans and Dansby because I need good LB running a 3-4 system, my current MLB sucked and I had no one at LOLB. I signed Smith for the same reason cuz I had only a backup at TE and I need a good one.



Now the next big event is the draft, as you already know, I have played 2 careers before. So I pretty much know most of the busts and sleepers in the draft. I just simed to the draft, made some trades during the draft, and here is a list of who I drafted:
QB B.Brohm 2nd/2nd
I needed a good longterm starting QB, and Brohm is a great player for the job. He has a very good 91 pot, and good learing too. The only problem is his durability. But it is not hoorible, and I think he is a great pick.WR D.Jackson 2nd/13th
I have two telented WRs in my roster, Fitzgerald and Boldin. But I only had 3 Wrs in total at the time, and Fitzgerald is overpaid with a huge bounus, so I will not be resigning him. Plus Bolding is old, so I really need a young telented WR. I found Jackson in the individual workout on my Packers career before, he has an incredible 96 pot and 98 speed! So I picked him with no hesitation with my 13th 2nd round pick.

DT D.Moore 2nd/18th
I had a good 89 OVR DT D.Dockett on my roster now, and since I am running a 3-4 system I won't need another starter DT. But I currently had no one on RE, so I'm thinking to convert him into a RE. His pot is 89, pretty good.

WR M.Manningham 3rd/17th
Same reason for choosing Jackson, A 94 pot.

CB Z.Bowman 4th/1st
CB is also one of my big needs this season, I have only 2 starters right now and I know I will not be resigning one of them this year, so I needed another CB badly. And from the experience of the Packers career, this guy is a great CB and also a good late round steel. He has a 88 pot, higher than both of my starting CBs.
I had no more draft picks due to the trade ups in the draft. But I think most of the needs are filled now, I don't need anymore picks anyways.


Going into the preseason now, I picked up a few starters from the training camp invites, like ROLB Flowers, he has a 87 pot, good man and zone coverage, and I also signed him cheap for 6 years.



I also made a few trades, here is a lit of the trades:Traded QB Kurt Warner to Ravens for their 2nd round and 2009 7th round.
I had 3 QBs on my roster, but I only prefered 2, and they are all making starter salary(execpt for Brohm, he's a rookie), so one of them has to go. I chose Warner because his durability is horrible, and he had little bonus(or no bonus, I forgot). A 2nd and a 7th is a pretty good deal.


Traded P Scott Player, 2009 2nd, and 2009 3rd to Dolphins for FS K.Hamlin.
I needed a FS, the one I have now has a OVR of 83, but his man cov. and zone cov. was horrible, and by my opinon, those are the two most important stats for a S. The punter was good, but he was very old and wanted to retire, plus I found a greater P on free agent. Now to think of it, a 2nd and 3rd wasn't really worth it for a 86OVR S with great coverage stats. But the trade is already made, the only thing you can do is move on.


Traded 2009 1st round and 2012 6th round to Bucs for LE A.Odom.
LE is the biggest hole left after the draft, I was hoping to find some gems in the camp invites, but couldn't, so now I have to look for a trade. A 1st and a 6th rounder to me is well worth it for this beastlike LE.


Traded LE C.Okeafor and 2010 1st round to Texans for MLB D.Ryans.
This is the best trade I've made. Ryans is better than all my MLBs and only have 460k against the cap. This is a player that should be drafted in the 1st round so I think it was worth it, and Okeafor is just a 79 OVR backup LE.
Up next, what I did in the 15 weeks of the regular season. Stay tuned!

[rdnk]

Sweet another head coach dynasty.
Looks good so far.

[CardinalsfffFan]

Quote: Originally Posted by rdnk

Sweet another head coach dynasty. Looks good so far.

Thx man. I just finished week 15, beat the Vikings27 to 24. The update should come in about a few hours.

[R1zzo23]

Good read so far. I'm excited to see how this one goes!

Quote: Originally Posted by CardinalsfffFan

Fitzgerald is overpaid with a huge bounus, so I will not be resigning him.

What?!?!?! He's one of the best WRs in the game. I would think a pass heavy coach like yourself would love to keep Fitzgerald around.

[CardinalsfffFan]

Quote: Originally Posted by rhs_rizzo

What?!?!?! He's one of the best WRs in the game. I would think a pass heavy coach like yourself would love to keep Fitzgerald around.

Yah I know he's good, but right now he's overpaid with like 8M, so I'm afraid when I resign him he's going to ask for even more. If he doesn't then sure I will resign him. But he still has 4 years left, so it will be a long time before I can decide. And he's gonna be 29 by then, that's another issue.

[CardinalsfffFan]

After the preseason matches, here comes 17 weeks of the important drive for the playoffs. Can my Cardinals make it? Actually, I'm not sure, I think on paper, this team look good, but on field it might be a different story.
So when my owner expected me to finish at .500 or below, I wasn't surprised. I wanted to promise to make to the playoffs, but I couldn't risk it, so I chose to finish above .500. I think that is a more reasonable expectation for my team.

The begining of the season wasn't very good for me. The first three weeks we went 1-2, lost 10 to 24 at the 49ers, won 17 to 6 hosting the dolphins, then lost again at the redskins 21 to 24. I was starting to wounder are we going finish above .500? Then worst news comes, my rookie QB, Brohm just got injured for 6 weeks! Great, I thought that we would be very lucky to finish at .500 this season. But I was wrong, My team went to a 5 game wining streak against the Jets, Bills, Cowboys, Panthers and Rams.
And Brohm came back at week 10(I had the bye at week 7), he then leads the team to win against the 49ers, and the Seahawks, adding the win streak to 7. But then got beaten by the defending Superbowl champions, the Giants. But we would not give up from that loss, Brohm leads the team again to a 3 game win streak against the Eagles, Rams and Vikings. Although he gets injured again after we beat the Rams. So now we are 11-3, have a great chance of making it into the playoffs and also a chance to get the first round bye. With the Patriots and the Seahawks left on the schedule, we are going to give it all that we've got!
Stay tuned for the game result against the Patriots and a list of my current roster.

[rdnk]

Hey, could you post your roster with the player's position and overalls. I don't know the Card's roster very well and all the people you brought in makes it more difficult for me.
Looks great otherwise.

[Sanchez_Mareno]

I wouldnt have shipped 1sts for odom or ryans