So, putting everything together, I created my own playbooks. The offensive book is a modified version of the Patriots Air Strike. I have more running plays, more three-back plays, and more play-action. I trimmed down the number of short 4 and 5 wide shotgun plays for a more vertical attack. This playbook has 157 plays now.

On defense, I manipulated the Jaguars' 4-3 playbook to remove all CB zone plays except for dime prevent. In doing so my defensive playbook has 70 plays.

On both cases, I know it will take a ruthlessly long time for the team to learn the plays, therefore I will need to trim as I go when certain plays prove to be useless.

As for my head coach's skills, I purchased Ambition (I am a firm believer in this skill since I expect to save many points in purchasing expensive special skills like Leadership, Innovator, Motivator, etc.), Charisma (since I know my first year is going to be rough with a poor team that is injury prone and had a bad draft), and Charm (the precursor to Motivator, which I am working toward form the beginning). I did not purchase anything else and am going into the season with over 19000 points to be used. I need 34000 for Motivator. i hope to achieve this in season one.

Here are my positional philosophies:

QB - Field General
HB - Balanced
FB - Blocking
WR - Tall/Red-Zone Threat
TE - Balanced
T/G/C - Size/Strength/Mauler/Engulfer
DE - Prototype
DT - Runstopper
OLB - Prototype
MLB - Balanced
CB - Man Coverage/Ballhawk
FS - Prototype
SS - Prototype
K/P - Balanced

During the preseason, QB Jake Delhomme was injured for a few days after each of the first three games, leading to my trade for JT O'Sullivan. I won't lie, I went after him for two reasons. First is that he was the only 60's rated QB's with intangible, physical, and learning grades in the 80's. This made him perfect for the backup role to someone who is going to get injured frequently. The second reason was that I wanted to avoid seeing his name at the top of the MVP chart when he throws for 45 TD's and 5500 yards for the 49ers. No matter what slider set you have, JT will thrive for the 49ers to a silly level.

The bad news about this trade was that JT was injured in week one of the season after coming in for Delhomme. His injury of a broken wrist had him out 3-6 months. Of course, he had to take a seat on the IR. So, a trade option for Chris Simms came up and I dumped a 5th and 7th rounder for him to compete to be the backup with holdover Josh McCown.

Also during the preseason, a few undrafted rookies stepped up to claim important backup roles. HB Trevor Myers from FIU (75 OVR/84 POT) won the backup job over Deangelo Williams, behind Jonathan Stewart. LT Joey Pratt (80/82) won the backup spot over Kevin Sampson. DT's Hank Smithers (81/87)won a starting job next to Ma'ake Kemoeatu. RE Tony Bake (79/81) played well and was moved to DT to take over as one of the two backups. LOLB Angelo Craig (81/88), drafted out of Cincinnati had a strong preseason and was moved to ROLB to supplant Na'il Diggs, who was eventually let go. Unsigned rookie FS Marcus Griffin out of Texas (81/83) won the back up job behind free agent signee Jimmy Williams.

For those interested, my coaching staff started like this:

OC Jeff Davidson
DC Mike Trgovac
STC Danny Crossman
QB Mike McCoy
RB Jim Skipper
WR Richard Williamson
OL Dave Magazu
LB Ken Flajole
DB Tim Lewis
DL Sal Sunseri
GM Marvin Hurley
Trainer Doug Roberts

Up front, Davidson, Skipper, Williamson, Flajole, Hurley, and Roberts all need to go in the offseason. Each has potentials for playcalling, positional develpoments, and/or performance under 3.

I'll wait on see on some of the other coaches. I do like the prospect of promoting Tim Lewis to DC as every potential for him is 4 or above and he was the DC for the Steelers for quite a time years ago. On a personal level, I live him and his philosophies and may want to see him kick tail in my career. Every HC has a couple of guys that go everywhere with them, I think Tim Lewis may be my huckleberry.

Ok, so the end of year one...I didn't play a single down, I supersimmed every game and had a couple of odd outcomes. I was expecting bad and the season turned out pretty much that way; 5-11, scored 284 points, gave up 402.

The NFC south:
Tampa Bay 10-6
New Orleans 9-7
Atlanta 8-8
Carolina 5-11

Being a legit Falcons fan, it was nice to see them go 8-8 and not can Mike Smith after one year.

The playoffs looked like this:

AFC Wildcard
NYJ 13 - SD 10
Jac 34 - Cin 21

NFC Wildcard
Phi 35 - Sea 17
Dal 27 - TB 7

AFC Divisional
Ind 42 - NYJ 17
NE 31 - Jac 14

NFC Divisional
Phi 35 - NYG 23
Dal 20 - GB 17

AFC Championship
Ind 27 - NE 14

NFC Championship
Dal 44 - Phi 28

Super Bowl
Ind 35 - Dal 20

The award winners:
MVP - Tom Brady; 91.6 rat, 38/22 TD/INT, 4865 yards
Off POY - Reggie Bush; 204 att, 690 yrd, 21 TD, 106 rec, 1438 yrd, 5 TD
Def POY - Kawika Mitchell; 102 tkl, 2 TFL, 1 sack, 5 int, 5 defl, 5 ff, 5 fr, 0 td
Off Rookie - Darren McFadden; 241 att, 921 yrd, 10 td, 8 rec, 124 yrd, 0 td
Def Rookie - Brandon Flowers; 100 tkl, 0tfl, 0 sack, 8 int, 5 defl, 2 ff, 2 fr, 0td
COY - Hal Ophamer, 14-2

Award notes: the Chargers had the top three OL for OL of the year; Brandon Flowers was not in the top 5 for DB of the year; McFadden was not in the top 5 for RB of the year; I did not have a single player in the top five for any voting.

My individual stats:

Passing
Delhomme 68.4, 15/22, 3152
Simms 16.6, 0/3, 179

Rushing
Stewart 165, 541, 3.2 avg, 4 td, 5 fumbles
Williams 75, 192, 2.5 avg, 6 td, 0 fumbles
Myers 65, 128, 1.9 avg, 3 td, 1 fumble

Receiving
Steve Smith 58, 836, 5 td, 12 drops
Hackett 49, 860, 1, td, 4 drops
Muhammad 42, 573, 1 td, 17 drops
Jeff King (TE) 33, 503, 1 td, 9 drops

LB's
Jon Beason 126 tkl, 2int, 3 defl, 3ff, 2fr
Thomas Davis 101 tkl, 1tfl, 2 int, 9 defl, 1ff
Angelo Craig 80 tkl, 1 tfl, 3 int, 3 defl

DB's
Cedric Griffin 97 tkl, 4 int, 11 delf
Gamble 83 tkl, 5 int, 7 defl, 1ff,
Jimmy Williams 28 tkl, 1 int, 3 defl
Richard Marshall 36 tkl, 1 int, 4 defl, 2 ff, 2fr
Chris Harris 45 tkl, 2 tfl, 1 int, 3 defl, 1 ff, 1fr

DL
Jeff Charlston 22 tkl, 9 tfl, 3 sack
Bake 19 tkl, 8 tfl, 4 sack
Charles Johnson 16 tkl, 6 tfl, 3 sack
Jevon Kearse 12 tkl, 5 tfl, 2 sack
Hank Smithers 12 tkl, 3 tfl, 2 sack

Kicking
Kasay 22/26, long of 52, 30/30 XP
Baker 73 punts, 3054 yrd, 41.8 avg, 9 inside 20

Of note: No defensive players had a TD, no returners had TD, Delhomme had 1491 yards passing in three games (TB, TB, NO), Jonathan Stewart missed 6 games with injury ( no more than 2 consecutive at any point.



Summary:

Entering the season, as I said, I did not expect much but was hoping for some competitiveness. After beginning 0-4, I managed to trade Peppers and Jordan Gross for picks since I did not have a first rounder. I still did not obtain a 1st, but received 2-2nds, a 3rd, int his years draft and a 4th and a 6th next year from those two trades.

After the season, I fired everyone on the staff except my STC Danny Crossman and my DB coach Tim Lewis. The owner wanted me to can almost everyone, including Lewis. I actually promoted Lewis and my owner approval actually went up...I don't really know how to take that.

I ended up hiring; OC Chris Staymates from University of Florida, QBC Kyle Shanahan, RBC Bishop Harris, WRC Paul Hackett, OLC Mike Munchak, LBC Pepper Johnson, DLC Paul Pasqualoni, DBC Joe Woods, GM Gil Darnell, and Trainer Nick Rogers

I can tell you my new staff is outstanding. hiring Darnell certainly helped me hire who I hired without needed to lock any philosophies. The only person I immediately wish I could replace was Nick Rogers because his max potential for Fatigue recovery is 1.

So...to the offseason.

Ok...the offseason was between years 1 and 2 was very eventful. I managed a flurry of draft day trades to get out of the first round and stockpile picks. Here are the draft results:

2nd Round:
Jay Nedney, LE, Nebraska
Jamaal Frazier, CB, Mississippi Valley State
Franklin McLemore, C, Alabama
Jeremy Dahl, C, South Carolina

3rd Round:
Jake Boxer, S, Portland State
PJ Connor, S, Siena

4th Round:
Bill Benson, LOLB, UConn

5th Round:
Dana LouBeau, QB, Cornell

6th Round:
Austin Gabbert, HB, Yale

7th Round:
Storm Taft, DT, Vanderbilt
Rodney Taylor, LE, UNLV
Kirk Cox, LG, Nebraska
Brady Mathers, LT, Alabama A&M
Trent Shade, WR, Toledo
Deveo Cobb, WR, Colgate
Charles Redman, WR, Arkansas State
Jimmie Dixon, TE, Virginia Tech
Trey Clinton, ROLB, Penn
JaQuan Still, MLB, VMI (Mr. Irrelevant)

As for free agency, I made minimal signings. I picked up TE Ben Watson, who was released by the Patriots; DT Dre Moore; DT Athya Rubin; and CB Sheldon Brown.

In the pre-season, I signed a bunch of undrafted rookie kickers to replace retired John Kasay. In the end, Morten Andersen won out. Drafted rookies who made the team were: Nedney, Frazier, Dahl, McLemore, Boxer, Benson, LouBeau, Gabbert, Taylor, Cox, Shade, Still.

I moved Nedney to DT because Taylor turned out to be the second coming of Mario Williams (or at least I hope). McLemore was moved to RG, meaning Josh Sitton was relegated to the bench.
Gabbert solidified my backup HB spot, LouBeau turned out to be a pretty good QB, Still, Benson, and Boxer all have solid skills but are behind other talented guys. Frazier is a 4th string CB, but my main kick returner. Shade is a 6th WR and Cox is my backup LG.

Next up, the 2009 season.

The 2009 season was a wonderful surprise. I finished 10-6 and won the NFC South:

Panthers 10-6
Saints 8-8
Buccaneers 8-8
Falcons 8-8

I did have to play in the first week of the playoffs and managed a 24-21 win against the visiting Packers. In Round 2, I beat the Cowboys 21-20. In the NFC Championship game, I beat the Giants 27-24 in overtime. All of these playoff games were lead by my back up QB Dana LouBeau.

Then the Super Bowl...somewhere my team never should have been...against the Colts, with a stunning return to the field by Jake Delhomme (NFL leader in passer rating in the regular season), my Panthers got smoked 41-10.

Sad news....this also happened to be Delhomme's final game as he retired and left me hanging (after signing a new 3-year deal) with a second year Dana LouBeau and 3rd string superstar JT O'Sullivan.

Any way, I ignored the owner and kept my entire staff together (he wanted me to fire DC Tim Lewis), except for my trainer Nick Rogers. he was ousted and in his place, I signed Ian Baker. baker isn't bad, but he isn't the best. In my opinion, his improved fatigue recovery and special skills will help.

Now to the awards:

MVP Peyton Manning, QB, Ind
Off POY Peyton Manning, QB, Ind
Def POY Derrick Johnson, ROLB, KC
Off Rookie Vonnie Mendenhall, RB, Cin
Def Rookie Jerome Bartell, SS, NYG
Coach of the Year Tony Dungy

Stats:

QB's
Jake Delhomme, 178/281, 63%, 2694 yards, 22/7, 114.7 rating (started 8 games due to injury)
Dana LouBeau, 164/293, 55%, 2499 yards, 14/14, 80.3 rating

Rushing
Jonathan Stewart, 219 att, 792 yards, 12 TD, 3 fumbles
Austin Gabbert, 164 att, 483 yards, 10 TD, 2 fumbles
Deangelo Williams, 23 att, 52 yards, 0 TD, 0 fumbles

Receiving
Reggie Williams, 83 rec, 1741 yards, 7 TD, 9 drops, 20.9 avg
DJ Hackett, 74 rec, 1057 yards, 9 TD, 15 drops
Steve Smith, 39 rec, 642 yards, 7 TD, 7 drops
Ben Watson, 55 rec, 965 yards, 6 TD, 4 drops

DL
Rodney Taylor 24 tck, 8 tfl, 5 sacks, 2 defl
Charles Johnson 18 tck, 9 tfl, 3 sacks, 1 defl, 1 ff, 1 fr
Ma'ake Kemoeatu 14 tck, 5 tfl, 1 sack, 1 defl
Jay Nedney 15 tck, 9 tfl, 4 sacks, 3 defl
Dre Moore 7 tck, 2 tfl, 1 sack, 1 ff, 1 fr

LB
Jon Beason 95 tck, 1 tfl, 1 sack, 5 defl, 4 ff, 2 fr
Thomas Davis 78 tck, 2 tfl, 2 sacks, 3 int, 7 defl, 2 ff, 1 fr, 2 TD
Angelo Craig 77 tck, 1 tfl
Bill Benson 8 tck, 2 tfl, 2 sacks, 1 defl
JaQuan Still 21 tck

DB
Cedric Griffin 66 tck, 4 int, 11 defl, 1 ff
Sheldon Brown 99 tck, 8 int, 16 defl, 1 ff, 1 TD
Jamaal Frazier 10 tck
Jimmy Williams 24 tck, 2 int, 3 defl
Chris Harris 34 tck, 4 int, 3 defl, 1 ff, 1 fr, 1 TD
Jake Boxer 2 tck

K/P
Morten Andersen 19/22, long of 46, 42/42 XP
Jason Baker 58 att, 2351 yards, 40.5 avg, 15 inside 20

That's about it for year 2. I will post the offseason between years 2 and 3 soon.

So, this second off season was BIG. I made some serious trades...gave up some first and second round picks for some big players and had a very limited draft.

Losing Delhomme, I knew I needed to do something regarding the QB spot. What I was unable to do was find a quality guy to compete with LouBeau. I decided against signing an aging McNabb in FA because he was coming off a bad leg injury and his ratings had taken a big hit because of the injury. I also knew I couldn't get away with a 25th ranked D again and improved my defensive secondary.

I traded for Laron Landry at FS and Darelle Revis at CB. I gave up Cedric Griffin and a 3rd for Revis (Griffin was going into his last year of his contract and Revis is signed for 4 more). Griffin was a 89/89 and Revis is 91/94...I think a good trade. Landry, I had to give up Steve Smith, Chris Harris, and a 1st for, but as you have seen, Smith didn't fit my system and was getting buried on the depth chart. I took a $9 mil cap penalty because of Smith, but Landry is a stud. My initial intention was to move Landry to SS and keep Jimmy Williams at FS, but what I wasn't expecting was for a move by the Giants during the preseason (I'll get to this in the next post for chronology purposes).

Now, I signed Todd Heap to backup Watson at TE. I play a lot of two TE, so, I expect Heap to do well at his advanced age. I also signed Fred Bennett, CB, as my 3rd CB to move Jamaal Frazier down.

This was my draft, after trading my only pick in the draft #31 overall, to gain some picks (including their ovr/pot ratings after they were unlocked in the preseason).

3rd
Tim Keeler, K, Penn State 82/90

4th
Scooter Jackson, DT, Missouri 77/82

5th
Chuck Grant, TE, Arizona 73/75

6th
Brian Alford, DT, Mississippi State 75/85

7th
Xavier Ward, RE, Albany 79/81
Bennie Krause, WR, Bowling Green 75/82
Bo Fox, DE, UNLV 88/91
Joey Woods, QB, Henderson State 64/81

Unsigned
Bernard Mizell, CB, Bethune Cookman 73/86
Josh Hendricks, QB, Western Kentucky 61/70
Bret Zimmerman, HB, Boise State 73/85
Wayne Glaser, WR, Lambuth 58/62
J'Covan Carey, CB, Robert Morris 71/77

So, draftees TE Grant and QB Woods did not make the team. Woods Learning rating was 27, and Grant was fast and bad. I did end up keeping Mizell as an undrafted rookie. He'll be fighting for playing time as the #4 with Jamaal Frazier (who is staying because he is a superb kick returner).I also kept Zimmerman as my #3 HB because he is fast, an OK returner and has wonderful hands.

In the pre-season, nothing big went down...I had a tie game game with the Bucs (why am I playing them in the pre-season?) and I traded DeAngelo Williams for a couple of 4th rounders. The big move of the pre-season was DEF rookie of the year SS Jerome Bartell was cut after week 3 by the Giants. I IMMEDIATELY scooped him up, moved Landry back to FS, cut Marcus Griffin and giggled to myself. Bartell is 88/91 with a 90 learning rating. He's big, fast, smart, has solid intangibles, and above all, is young at 24 years of age.

Now, we're current. I'll post my current, year 3 roster, including OVR/POT and other interesting tidbits soon.

Just some notes...I traded a 1st and 3rd for WR Calvin Johnson and two 6th rounders for Brady Quinn between the pre-season and the regular season. I needed another big WR or I wasn't going to make up for the loss of Delhomme and all of my rookie QB's were terrible, so I needed another average QB to compete for the backup role behind LouBeau.

What happened, was LouBeau got injured and missed two games. Even thoguh I am supposedly calling a run-heavy playbook, my offense has taken a drastic left turn to being in the Mike Martz mold and I am todding the ball all over. Why you ask? Well, apparently 76 OVR, 80 POT Brady Quinn is had some JT O'Sullivan work done to him. After going 47/68, with 817 yards, 6 TD, 2 INT in the first two games, he is now 84 OVR and 91 POT. He pulled a Tom Brady and I don't think he is going to give the spot up.

Here is my week 3 depth chart:

Carolina Panthers Depth Chart - 2010
Regular Offense
	STARTER	2ND	3RD	4TH
WR	Calvin Johnson 87/94	Bobby Sippio 83/85	Deveo Cobb 75/82
TE	Ben Watson 87/87	Todd Heap 86/86	Dante Rosario 73/79
LT	Rusty McDonald 89/89	Torrin Tucker 82/82
LG	Travelle Warton 91/92	Kirk Cox 81/85
C	Jeremy Dahl 89/93	Ryan Kalil 85/87
RG	Franklin McLemore 91/92	Josh Sitton 86/89
RT	Jeff Otah 94/95	James Lee 82/85
WR	Marcus Colston 88/88	Bennie Krause 76/82	Terrell Shade 73/80
QB	Brady Quinn 84/91	Dana LouBeau 82/88	JT O'Sullivan 71/71
FB	Regan Mauia 84/84
HB	Jonathan Stewart 81/87	Austin Gabbert 80/85	Bret Zimmerman 76/85
Base 4-3 Defense
	STARTER	2ND	3RD	4TH
LDE	Charles Johnson 84/87	Dave Bailey 82/86
LDT	Ma'ake Kemeautu 88/90	Scooter Jackson 77/81
RDT	Jay Nedney 86/91	Byron Alford 75/85
RDE	Robert Taylor 89/91	Xavier Ward 79/81
WLB	Thomas Davis 85/87	Brian Kehl 79/82
MLB	Jon Beason 91/95	JaQuan Still 81/86	Dan Connor 76/87
SLB	Angelo Craig 86/91	Ben Benson 84/87
CB	Darelle Revis 91/92	Fred Bennett 86/88	Jamaal Frazier 80/83
SS	Jerome Bartell 88/91	Jake Boxer 84/87
FS	Laron Landry 91/92	Jimmy Williams 87/89
CB	Sheldon Brown 87/87	Bernard Mizell 73/86
Special Teams
	STARTER	2ND	3RD	4TH
K	Tim Wheeler 83/90
P	Jason Baker 90/96
H	Dana LouBeau
PR	Jamaal Frazier 92	Jimmy Williams 71	Bobby Sippio 59
KR	Jamaal Frazier 92	Jimmy Williams 71	Bobby Sippio 59
LS	Jeremy Dahl 89/93