Baltimore Beat Down: A Baltimore Ravens Dynasty

[thoro_headz]

I've been on the fence for a long time about posting a dynasty to the board. For years I have enjoyed following along those of others and gained a lot of knowledge by doing so. I feel like it's time to give back to the community that has given so much to me.

The dynasties that I have enjoyed most are the ones in which the author fully immersed the reader in their experience. That immersion goes beyond just sharing stats and outcomes. I plan to utilize the dynasty table generator to provide an abundance of information while also explaining the motivation behind my decisions. I also aim for realism. What's the fun in following a dynasty in which the author makes a ton of fantasy football type trades and drafts all of the good players? When building a quality team, the journey is what makes the payoff so special.

In each of my previous dynasties, I've watched with great sadness as the Ravens crash and burn because of drafting Joe Flacco. He is awful in this game and causes Harbaugh to lose his job after the first or second season. Harbaugh has too much potential in this game to get fired and be relegated to a career as an assistant and the Ravens are too good of a franchise to wallow in mediocrity. I feel funny saying all of this, given that I am a Steelers fan, but I respect the Ravens organization as a worthy competitor. Anyway, I'm going to take a crack a rebuilding the Ravens by redoing the 2008 draft and avoiding the Flacco fiasco.

[JDStang]

I have heard of the tools that can be used to format all of your dynasty stats and rosters but can't seem to figure out where they are or how to use could you give some assistance in that regard.

This sounds very interesting by the way, hope to see some more.

[thoro_headz]

No sign & trades
No special skills for assistant coaches
GM initiates and negotiates all trades with head coach's consent
GM negotiates all contracts with head coach's consent
GM signs free agents during the season
GM signs undrafted rookies
GM does all regular season scouting
Coordinators call all plays except for the 2-minute drill and run-out-the-clock situations, head coach is allowed to select from plays suggested by coordinators
Huddle will be broken with 31 seconds left on the play clock in order to mimic what the CPU does
All field goals and punts will be supersimmed

I know there are a lot and I hope that they shed light on my style. I'm sure that there are some that I'm leaving out and I will add them as they come to me.

As the head coach, I let me GM and coordinators do their jobs. As head coach, I have ultimate veto power as my neck is on the line for their decisions.

[thoro_headz]

I'll be using The God Switch aka (He who shall not be named)'s Essential Sliders with adembroski's penalty settings

Identical sliders for human and CPU

Offense
QB Accuracy 25
Pass Blocking 50
WR Catching 25
RB Ability 50
Run Blocking 75

Defense
Awareness 50
Knock Downs 25
Interceptions 25
Break Block 50
Tackling 25

Special Teams
FG Power 100
FG Accuracy 50
Punt Power 100
Punt Accuracy 75
Kickoff Power 25

Penalties
Offside 60
False Start 60
Holding 52
Facemask 52
Offensive PI 70
Defensive PI 70
KR/PR Interference 100
Clipping 52
Intentional Grounding 100
Roughing Passer 100
Roughing Kicker 100

[thoro_headz]

I don't know how many of you had the opportunity to read ShakaFlocka's "We Are Texans: Building a Program and Sustaining Success" thread but he touched on some really good ideas in terms of building a team. If you haven't read that thread, you should. Many of them resonated with me and I will borrow heavily in the rebuilding of the Baltimore Ravens.

The 9 Personalities That Make Up "The "53%"
1. Commander
2. Captain
3. Guru
4. Anchor
5. Ally
6. Loyalist
7. Analyst
8. Traditionalist
9. Titan

Learning means everything. If a player can't learn the system, he won't ever become the player we projected him to be. If a player is considerably more Athletic we can afford to give up some Learning. If the player possesses massive size(think 90+) we can afford to give up some learning also. If the player had both elite size and athletic ability but learning ability isn't quite up to par, he will be considered as a developmental prospect.

Generally, though, I feel that every player has to have at least a 75 in Learning and an 80 in Durability. I can't afford to have players incapable of learning our schemes or incapable of staying healthy. In order to see significant playing time, a player has to have at least 60 in awareness.

Free agent acquisitions will be kept to a minimum. This is a team that will win with homegrown talent.

[Aurabolt127]

Good luck, I'll be keeping an eye on the thread while I get my next dynasty up and running. Are you keeping Harbaugh and his playbooks? If so, are you going to roll with Smith or Boller or get a new QB?

[thoro_headz]

Thank for checking out my thread. I hope you enjoy following my career. I will be using John Harbaugh as my HC and the default playbooks. Like I mentioned in my first post, it sucks that Harbaugh gets the shaft in this game because of the drafting of Flacco. His ceiling as a HC is really high. Both of their playbooks are solid. Another thing that hampers this franchise, when operated by the CPU, is Harbaugh's control of the defensive playbook. I'll let Rex Ryan call his own plays.

[Aurabolt127]

Never did a franchise with a premade coach. Always thought about it with Gruden...maybe down the road after I see how it goes with you I'll give it a shot... Good luck!