[FRANCHISE] Bad Bad Bears Begin Building

[killershrew]

I decided to start my first ever HC09 franchise by simming the first season and picking whatever team gave me a chance in 2009. In the end I picked the Chicago Bears because they had the first overall pick and I could also sign my own OC.

After reading through alot of threads on these forums I decided from the start I would play this franchise without using any exploits like trading all my stars for draft picks or using "motivator". I did not use any of the draft spreadsheets available. I also decided to truly embrace the role as HC. I would pitch in on philosophy and gameplanning and I would have final say on the depth chart but I would not meddle much in DC/OC play calling at gametime. I have played alot of HC 06 (but not owned a ps3 ntil now) and I know how quickly it gets boring if you redo drafts until you get what you want or use the "95% pass exploit".

I inherited a hopeless roster with very few upsides but 23M cap space. Our LE Adewale Ogunleye was OK and Tommie Harris is a good DT. We also had Devin Hester as a returner/WR. The QB crew was useless with Kyle Orton as the main man with a OV in the 60´s. Matt Forte was our best HB with 74 OV. The only excellent part of our team where the LB´s with Urlacher in the middle and Lance Briggs to the right. Nathan Vasher and Charles Tillman are solid at CB aswell.

Our biggest needs for FA and the draft where QB1,HB1,TE1. I decided to focus the first rounds of the draft on offense.

In FA I got Mike Vrabel as LOLB to really solidify that part of the team. Even if I didn´t use draft-spreadsheets two names had trickled through in all the stuff I read in the forum, English and James. Having the first overall pick I knew I would use it on Jack English so I didn´t go looking for a starting QB in FA but I wanted a solid veteran backup so I signed Chad Pennington, a surprisingly cheap signing.

I scouted thoroughly not wanting to pass up on any steals in the draft. Even though English and James where already on my list, scouted by you lot, that felt alittle like cheating so I scouted them both fully to make up for that.


The Draft:
Round(pick) - Player - height/weight/age
1(1) - Jack English QB - 6´3"/229/22
2(23)- Leron James HB - 5´10"/222/22
3(1) - Drew Goldman TE - 6´4"/255/22
4(1) - Mack Walker WR - 5´10"/181/23
4(23)- Russell Brooks CB - 5´10"/195/23
5(1) - Ronnie Lewis HB - 5´8"/211/23
6(1) - Richard Loucks DT - 6´4"/303/23
7(1) - Roger Alford WR - 6´4"/210/22
7(3) - Gerald Wilson CB - 6´3"/186/23

English and James need no introduction ofcourse and maybe not Goldman, a big, strong and very competent recieving TE with a 91 POT. As you can see I traded down in round 2 when I saw how many HB´s there where above James on the board. It worked out and I got an extra 4th rounder and a 2010 pick. According to my scouting Mack Walker was the best WR left in round 4 (POT 88) but I would prove myself wrong in round 7 when I got the steal of the draft, Roger Alford (POT 91). I consistently blew my GM off on thepicks (we agreed on English though) so I let him use my extra 4th rounder and my extra 7th rounder. Apparently he has a fetish for hopeless CB´s. He picked two of them none of wich made the final cut.


Undrafted FA´s woth mentioning.

I got a decent backup for now in LE Kareem Hasty (pot 83) and one decent WR backup, Willy Dwight. The real steal was our new backup QB, Harry Ricks with a 91 potential. If nothing else he might make good trade bait down the line. I also signed a CB, Jimmy Newsome, who beat out both my drafted CB´s for a roster spot.


Preseason roundup
We lost all four games in preseason but it didn´t really matter as we had a new OC, playbook and philosophy. True to my rules we run our OC´s West Coast offense but I added a few singleback TE-target pass plays.

Some of the noteworthy changes in preseason:
*Adewale Ogunleye was injured badly in the second game and had to go on IR. Tough loss for our D but Kareem Hasty stepped up and wasn´t completely useless. I signed Senario Singleton as a backup for Hasty who really earned his starting spot in preseason.

*Our only FB was Jason McKie but he had a bad preaseason and I knew we had to do something about that position. We ended up putting G-Reg in that spot. He´s an ok run blocker and a much muich better checkdown target when needed. He still play TE2 on double-TE-plays with Drew Goldman in the TE1 slot.

*With not alot of passing plays where we have a TE on the field we decided on putting Goldman as WR5 aswell as TE1. Depth on WR is: Hester, Bennet, Alford, Walker, Goldman, Dwight.



Regular Season
Wk 1 PIT W 23-20
Wk 2 WAS W 30-24
Wk 3 @CAR L 20-24

Week 1:
The rain was pouring down and the field was more mudbath than football field and the final quarter saw 4 fumbles one of wich gave us the opportunity to kick a winning field goal as the clock ran out.

PIT and Big Ben dominated completely as long as the field was playable at all and we were down 20-6 at the beggining of the final quarter. Jack English suddenly lit up the afternoon throwing his first 2 pro TD´s and tying up the game before PIT´s final and fateful fumble setting up our FG. English finished with 218 yds and 2 TD´s to 1 INT.

Week 2:
In stark contrast to week 1 this game was played in sunshine. Leron James scored his first two TD´s of short inside runs. Jack English had a breakout game with 388 yds and a TD (Alfords first pro TD). We were up 30-10 at one point with our backfield completely closing down WAS vertical passing game. But near the end we where in bad shape. With WAS QB Jason Campbell having completely unlocked our defense we knew we couldn´t give him the ball with 1:50 and 2 TO´s left so we managed a crazy 4th & 3 conversion on our own 38th yardline. Like the Pat´s you know? Only alot better...

Week 3:
I fully expected us to win against CAR, who also went 1-15 last season, especially since we had done so well in the first two weeks. Unfortunately this proved to be the kind of game that rookie QB´s sometimes have as English threw 3 picks and only 185 yds. Much of this was due to shear intimidation from CAR´s two beasts Peppers and Beason. Peppers finished with 15 tackles, 9 for loss, 4 sacks. Our defense scored both our TD´s (Tillman on int return, Briggs on fumble return). English has 3 TD´s to 4 INT´s after 3 games.

In this game I decided not to go for it on 4th and short. CAR had done nothing on their last four possesions and I thought we had them locked down. Matt Moore lead the game winning drive in the final minutes and scored with 33 secs left. We actually managed to get into the CAR half with our last effort but English threw his game ending 3rd pick on the CAR 20th yardline with 0:15 on the clock.

[Byron Yatch]

Gonna start by saying I know you arent using exploits and draft sheets and what not. Also, not trying to criticize you, just giving my personal philosophy when it comes to drafting...

You're first pick was the right one with my bears having no qb whatsoever. You could have gotten 5 others in this draft but Jake english is usually the only qb who will get to 99 potential so why not get him? Personally, I would have traded down twice or 3 times(if possible) and grabbed a guy around 20 just to save money and build up picks to trade up with..

All I gotta say though is leron james is a 5th round pick... Only reason he wouldnt be is if you scouted him which makes other teams scout him(so if you know you want someone, dont over scout or scout them at all).

Still, maybe he gets picked in the 3rd round earliest. Understand, the reason I bring this up is he's gonna ask for a contract thats in the top 5 cost wise for rbs in 4 years. Thats instead of being able to tender him as a 1st and 3rd as an rfa if you draft them between the 3rd and 6th. If no one gives you that, you pay him 2 million(instead of 5 or 6 at least) for another year and work on trading him by week 6 or resigning him for the long haul...

Thats not an exploit, just sound gming and knowing how the business of football works... You dont draft "sleepers" in the first 2 rds, you draft them 3rd-6th to tender them. If you're not gonna trade stars away for draft picks, you at least need to make sure your own draft picks are gonna be good, and get replaced by the cpu if they want to sign your players away from you after 3 seasons...

One last thing, Make sure who you draft(especially on the 2nd day) has a good player comparison. If you see a name you know, that means that player will USUALLY be very good(even with a low potential due to philosophy). Just check to make sure they have the size and physical ability to play their position before you draft them(cant teach height).

Hope it all works out, should be fine in a couple weeks once english knows all the plays. I'll be watching you ruin my favorite team.... I mean run!

[killershrew]

Thanks for the tips, much appreciated!

[Byron Yatch]

No doubt. And just so you know, keep the injury prone people as long as you can AFFORD them(dont resign of course but let them go in fa if possible instead of trading them away).

Soon enough you're gonna fire your trainer and get a good one if you didnt already when you got on the bears. In order for them(trainers) to improve, you need injury prone people, especially ones that go on ir.

Just dont go building up the stamina skill. You can up recovery if you want but you should be starting on special skills. You need stamina as low as possible(for your trainer) so more injuries will happen. After 3-4 years, you rarely have injuries(at least in my experience) and never get any points for them... Think its due to many fake players being extra durable, especially most sleepers(rds 3-6).

[killershrew]

Wk 4 @DET W 33-21
Wk 5 @GB L 24-40

W4
We came away with a good win against Detroit although we only scored 1 passing TD (English -> Alford again) and 1 rushing TD (James). Mike Brown scored a pick 6 for our third TD and we added 4 FG´s. We seem to have alot of trouble finishing once we get to the redzone.

W5
In week 5 we had a big rivalry game against Green Bay and the fans demanded a win. Unfortunately we couldn´t provide one. The game was tied 10-10 at halftime before it took off in the second half! We had the lead 17-10 before the mistakes started happening. The score ran away from us with a late pick 6 and a botched 4th and short at our 35th yardline. The good thing to take away from this game was English 3 TD´s (along with 2 picks) and Devin Hesters 185 yards recieving.

For the next game we will be moving Alford up to the second WR spot behind Hester to make more use of Alfords monster athleticism especially in redzone/clutch situations.
Alford: 6´4", SPD 93, ACC 97, AGI 99, JMP 95, ELU 99, SPIN 99, JUKE 93, TGH 91, STA 95

Kareem Hasty has been looking bleak lately and singleton will get the start next week.

[killershrew]

Let´s forget about the rest of the first season. We continued to do well until game 10. We were 5-5 at that point. Then came the inuries. We lost DT Harris, FS Brown, CB tillman and our best LT. Six games later we finished with a 5-11 record. I should point out though, that 8 of our losses where 1 score or less. The positives was that Alford turned out to have a superhuman ability to get first downs on thrid and long. Working from the slot on something like 3rd&14 he´d often catch an 8 yard pass, make two or three guys miss and take it for a first down or even a TD. He lead our recievers in recieving TD´s from primarily the WR3 spot.

My rating was 4. I was sure I was going to get canned but somehow they decided to let me have another season to prove myself (god knows why).

Offseason:

Coaches:
I didn´t like how my OC ran the offense especially at clutch situations. Partly because of the philosophy. I wasn´t as forgiving as the Chicago board and canned both my OC and the DC I inherited when I came to the Franchise. In their place I signed DC Bob Sardisco and HC Don Hessendorf. I had to give up surprisingly litte. I let the sack whoever they wanted from the staff and that was it. I didn´t have many worthwile coaches afterall. We filled up the coaching rosters with much better coaches. I gave up some control of the team for this but none that i coudlnt live with (mostly minimum roster req and such).

Players:
Alot of players wanted to leave because they were "tired of loosing" and I had to evaluate them first. In the end the only one I actually let go was Lance Briggs because he didn´t perform aswell as Urlacher or Vrabel. Besides, I could use his cap space. This left me with no ROLB´s. I resigned Urlacher but I let DT Harris go as a UFA because he wanted a monster contract and he spent half the season on IR. He was also the only intresting option for franchising but that would have been senslessly expensive.

This left us with some holes to fill. Most pressingly we needed some pressure on the edge. I wanted the best RE/LE available with my first pick (R1P5). Preferably a LE since Tony Bake at RE had a 85 OVR after all. Harris absence at DT needed to be adressed somehow. We also had only one mediocre LG but there was some real good ones in the draft. The void at ROLB had to be filled and

My draftboard locked like this:

Round 1-3:
LE Xavier Cox
DT Riko Kemp
DT Devin Gilbert
LG Trae Harris
[some other LG whose name escapes me]
Best ROLB unless star is available.

Round 5-7:
WR Jeff Murphy
Best DT
CB Torrance Traywick
Best DB

I knew that I would only be able to get one of Cox/Kemp/Gilbert. I thought about trading up to get Trae Harris but decided I could live with my backup pick in the second round if he didn´t make it. In the third round I would take the best ROLB unless some real star was left on the board.

For the final rounds I had my eyes on this WR who compared to Roy Williams. I found him after the regular season scouting of medium school WR´s for the later rounds and I scouted him fully to find that his pot was 95 but his OV only 68 making him a perfect sleeper. I also had my eyes on WR Jordan Baldwin who compared to LeRon McCoy thinking he´d make a good backup. I had signed an 83 OV DT in free agency but I wanted some depth with my second pick in the 5th round. for the final rounds I had found a 59 OV CB, Terrance Traywick, who compared to Ronde Barber. I hadn´t scouted him fully and I didn´t know his pot (actually I still don´t since I´m still in preseason). If he wasn´t still available I´d pick the best CB available.


Draft:
1(5) Xavier Cox LE 6´7"/276/21
2(5) Trae Harris LG 6´3"/315/23
3(5) Domisa Bomani ROLB 6´1"/245/23
5(5) Jeff Murphy WR 5´10"/188/23
5(6) DeMarcus Allan DT 5´11"/296/23
7(5) Torrance Traywick CB 5´10"/192/23

As you can see my plan came together almost too well. Cox slipped to #5. Trae Harris was still there for #37 although the player I had pegged as a backup pick went as #32. Bomani was the best ROLB available in round 3 (75 OV) and the judges are still out on him but he looked good in his first preseason game. DeMarcus Allen is the only pick I´m not fully happy with as he turned out to have a 76 pot nad Traywick is still not fully scouted but the comparison to Ronde Barber is encouraging.

Unsigned FA´s worth noting:
Jordan Baldwin WR 6´0"/206/23
Mason Ottis DT 6´4"/286/23
Jevon Sindle ROLB 6´0"/239/23

When I went to sign the undrafted player I found this ROLB, Jevon Sindle, at the very bottom of the ROLB list who compared to the player I had let go in offseason, Lance Briggs. I signed him as quickly as I could!

Preseason:
We started off against Cleveland at home and I was excited to see how this new batch of players performed. We had changed our philosophy to West Coast Pass Heavy in offseason and boy did we perform. Browns were one of our 3 big losses in reular season last year but we blew them away. 24-0 at half time and 33-7 final. Our WR crew is outstanding with 4 players between OV 86 and 90 and then there´s Jeff Murphy. Let´s not forget we have Jack English to throw to them. On defense Xavier Cox dominance was no surprise but it was hard to imagine beforehand the sight of this 6´7" beast with 97 speed chasing down the QB. On special teams he´s often the first to reach the returner and you can almost see them wet themselves when this rhinocerous of a man comes charging at them, 10 yards ahead of anyone else. Another standout in this game was second half performer Jevon Sindle. In his first 5 plays as backup ROLB he had two tackles for loss, a knocked down pass and hefinished his first defensive drive with a pick on his fifth play. Bomani preformed well in the first half and I seem to have a really pleasant problem to deal with at ROLB, a position I thought would belost to us this year.

[Byron Yatch]

Keep sindle as the long term backup for both sides(ROLB & LOLB). Just limit his playing time so he doesnt get too high in overall before you can sign him to a longer contract after the 6th week of the regular season. Use bomani as the starter as you drafed him in the 3rd for the next 3 years then tender him with a high request. When bomani becomes an RFA, you will have the ability to choose if you want to keep him or have him replaced by a 1st and 3rd rd pick while some other team picks up the tab. Sindle will never become a restricted free agent so he is much more valuable as a backup to you.

One other thing, Player comparisons are very important and usually any player compared to a great will be very good. HOWEVER, some of them have major downsides, especially later in the draft. Make sure to check their physical abilities(speed strength etc) and SIZE(height and weight) before you select them. That 5'10 wr may turn out to be amazing, but its gonna be harder for him to excel than a 6'4 or 6'5 guy with a good comparison.

Not saying 5'10 wrs cant be great, just saying you're making Jack english work harder to hit them. Same goes for lbs that are under 6'2, not saying they cant succeed, they can and do, become hall of famers even. But a 6'4 lb is gonna stop a hell of a lot more passes from going over him than a 6'0. Same with a 6'2 cb and 5'10 cb.

Overall though, I liked your draft(especially cox and bomani), even if I know you could have gotten trae harris in the 3rd round.... You're not ruining them after all...

[killershrew]

I would have preferred a bigger WR aswell but when I find a 95 pot WR sitting there in the 5th round I don´t care how short he is

Onto the season!

Wk 1 @NYG L 17-31
Wk 2 PHI W 30-13

Wk 1:
We went 3-1 in preseason and had to start the regular season of against last years conference finalists NYG and boy did we get a lesson in football. The 17-31 scoreline is actually flattering since we were down 10-31 with seconds to go when Jeff Murphy made a fantastic one handed catch in the back of the endzone. There´s not much to say other than that they ran us over.

Wk 2:
Jeff Murphy scored his second career TD just 3 plays after his first one although they were in different games. We took early charge of this game and never let it go. Mack Walker and Jeff Murphy, lined up at WR5 and WR4 respectively, combined for 16 catches, 296 yards and 3 TD´s (Walker 11-214-1). Jeff Murhpy has 3 TD´s in his first 2 professional games. Jack English was 24/35 for 368yds and 3 TD´s. In defense Bake and Cox combined for 9 TFL and 4 sacks while Cox also forced a fumble and caught an INT. English got player of the week for the first time!