OSFL Change In Scenery players

[Guest]

Do you know players in the OSFL that weren't great in their former teams and they turned around with another??

A question probably deserving of its own thread but what the hell I'll just post these here.

Let's start with the Quarterbacks, because everything always starts with the QB and because teams are always looking to improve this position these guys are always getting second (and third and fourth) chances.


QB - Jumbo Clements, the Hall of Famer

Taken by the Chicago reapers in the 4th round of the League's original allocation draft back in 2006. Clements would only play one forgettable season for the Reapers (2590 yards, 8 TD, 10 INT QBR 70.7) before departing as a free agent to Yuma in 2007.

I have no idea how this happened, I wasn't in the league at the time and looking at the history of other players taken in this draft they seemed to have longer than 1 year contracts. It doesn't look like he was cut. Weird. Anyway Clements would go on to have a legendary career in Yuma. Over the next 7 seasons he was consistently among the league's best passers and led the Aces to 3 championship games, winning one.

After being traded away in 2013, Clements would finish his career in Waco where he was never able to find the success he had in Yuma, but his legacy was could not be so easily diminished. After retiring in 2018 he, along with Dusty Galloway, became one of the first Quarterbacks enshrined Fame in 2022.


QB - Albert Garner, the hired gun

This is the second of three former Aces QBs who appears on this list, and the only one of the three to actually be drafted by Yuma.

Garner was the starting QB in Yuma for 7 seasons and led the team to the playoffs in 5 of those 7 seasons. But unlike his prestigious predecessors, Garner never made it all the way to the championship game and in an organization with as much history of success as the Aces he was a disappointment. The nickname "Wild Card", it seems, came from being seen as being that QB who was just good enough to get you in, but not good enough to win in all.

Garner would get the last laugh, however, as he would go on to earn 2 rings (one for Brooklyn and the other for Waco), an Offensive Player of the Year award, a Championship Game MVP and a League MVP after being traded away by the Aces in 2029.


QB - Ted Pleasant, the redeemed

Pleasant was the 3rd QB taken in the 2024 draft at #10 over all by a Portland team desperate to replace their star signal caller Eddie Castillo, who had famously sat out the 2018 Championship game citing "severe depression". (Portland would go on to lose 38-13)

However after 5 seasons watching Pleasant under center for the Phantoms it was the fans in Portland who were left feeling depressed. By the time he departed for Dakota, Ted's not so pleasant career consisted of just 72 TDs to 79 Interceptions and a miserable career QB rating of only 71.5.

Everything changed for Pleasant the moment he got stepped off the plane in Middleofnowhere Dakota Territory. Ted's play instantly improved and he led the Totems to a championship match with Utah in just his second year. He lost that match against Randy Boone and the Bees but just three years later he would earn a second, second chance. This time in his second year as the starter for Morgantown, Ted seized his opportunity and finally vanquished the Utah dynasty which had plagued the league for so long.

The Mermen would later trade Pleasant to Waco partway through the 2036 season where Ted's quality QB play would continue seeing him win 8 of 9 regular season games for the Warhawks and another trip to the playoffs before he was replaced by the above mentioned Albert Garner last year.


QB - Sammy Dillon, the journeyman

Dillon was taken with the #3 overall pick in the 2011 draft but after a somewhat disappointing rookie season was traded to Kalispel by new Port City ownership. Banished to the Montana hinterlands, Dillon still managed to put together 5 solid seasons before being traded again. This time to Yuma.

He only started four seasons for the Aces, but lead the team to the playoffs in each of those four years with his best individual performances coming in 2019 and 2020. Yuma would up losing in the title game each of those two seasons, once to Anchorage and the second time to his original team Port City.

Despite these losses, Dillon still managed to reinforce that impossibly high standard of success in Yuma that Albert Garner would later fail to meet. After this second title loss Dillon was traded for the last time to Los Alamos where he finished out his career mostly as a back up.


QB - Sammy Jennings, the late round surprise.

Slingin' Sammy was picked by the Chicago Reapers in the 5th round of the 2027 draft and turned out to be the surprise of that draft (although 7th round QB Nicky Stevens might care to disagree) after emerging from training camp as a starting quality QB.

Unfortunately for Jennings the Reapers were stacked at QB with the veteran Ethan Lepis and a former first round pick Stephen McMaster on the depth chart ahead of him. After two years of seeing no action outside of the preseason Sammy was finally traded to Phoenix where he not only became the instant starter but suddenly had his pick of stud WRs to throw to. Jennings would take the Riders to the playoffs 6 times including a trip to the title game in 2034.

Stephen McMaster, meanwhile, has now started 160 regular season games for the Chicago Reapers, the most ever for a QB who has never been in a playoff game (breaking Josh Bryant's old record of 158).



That was fun romp down memory lane, with rather frequent stops in Yuma, Waco and Chicago. I'll see if I can't put together another for some other positions here later tonight or maybe tomorrow.

[Aston]

Too cool a topic and post not to be the OP of its own thread

[Guest]

Very cool.

[Matt]

Nice writeup!

[irabowman]

I enjoyed it very much and I am sure the other new GM's will also.

[Guest]

I was pretty sure I wouldn't find as many examples of running backs doing better in for a new team than they did for their old as I had at quarterback. Running back's careers are too short for most of them to get a real second chance, and for the vast majority of them their best years come in their first 5 seasons.

There were a few, like Hugh Emerson or Martin Ogden who had their career best years with a team other than their first but these two cases, as in most, their career best wasn't actually all that much more impressive than any other year. For the bulk of the backs in this league their performance on their second team is markedly worse than that on their first.

Still, I found these five guys.


RB - Wesley Bornstein, the Hall of Famer

I almost didn't include Bornstein here, and honestly still I'm sure not sure he should be on this list. But in the end I couldn't resist mirroring the QB writeup and leading off with a Hall of Famer and one of the League's original players. Like Jumbo Clements, Wesley Bornstein was picked in the 4th round of the initial Allocation draft way back in 2006. Unlike Clements, Bornstein would go on to have a reasonably long and productive career with his first team, in this case, the Port City Steam.

Wesley proved to be a dual threat back, both running and receiving, and after 6 years in Port City Wesley he had amassed 8520 yards from scrimmage, scored 56 total touchdowns and even earned All League honors once. In his seventh year however, and with his numbers in a sharp decline the previous two, Bornstein was traded to the San Francisco Bayhawks for a 1st and 3rd and a 6th round pick.

Lining up behind fellow Hall of Fame QB Rico Whalen, Bornstein saw his career revitalized. He wracking up a career bests in yards from scrimage and touchdowns in 2012 and 2013. But even with his new change in venue Bornstein could not outrun old age. His numbers once again began to dwindle and two games into the 2016 season he was cut by the Bayhawks only to land back in Port City. Where he finished his career as a backup.


RB - Earnest Giang, the final piece in the puzzle

The 4th overall pick in the 2017 draft, Earnest Giang was by no means a disappointment with his first team. (once again, Port City) Although some may have been asking if his on field numbers justified his high draft position, Giang racked up up a respectable 7282 yards from scrimmage and 50 touchdowns in 5 seasons on a team loaded with talent. Meanwhile Port City consistently ranked among the league's leading offenses (top in scoring in 2020) and won one championship (also in 2020) during which Wesley's 168 yards and 2 TD in the title game proved pivotal.

But the Port City train had run off the tracks by 2022. WRs Dustin Burrell and Rico Lofton were gone (one by FA, one by trade) and Giang was injured in a preseason game. One week after coming back from his injury, and just before the trade deadline, Giang was shipped off to Utah for someone named Marcus Grueneich and a future first round draft pick. This pick would turn out to be be #31 as this was the trade which marked the beginning of the Utah dynasty.

Giang would only play just over four seasons for the Bees, but they were by far the best years of his career. He piled up 8977 yards from scimage and 71 touchdowns in Utah, well above his average per season numbers with the Steam. Meanwhile while Port City has manged only a handful of 1,000 yard rushers since then and only 1 trip to the playoffs since 2022 and we all still hate that guy who was running Utah at the time so much I heard he had to change his name and switch teams.


RB - Ronnie Wild, overshadowed by a TV show

Wild is almost certainly the best example of the change of scenery upgrade to a player's performance at running back. Drafted in the 3rd round of the 2031 draft by Washington, Wild failed to win a starting spot until his second season and failed to break 1000 yards or even 4.00 yards per carry in either of his two season with the Bombers.

In his third year in the league Wild was traded to Charlotte for a 5th round pick in a deal so uninteresting that the thread announcing the trade was derailed into a discussion about the HIMYM finale. Ignoring this, Wild would go on to set new personal bests in yards each of the next four seasons in Charlotte and played a key part in thier trip to a title game in 2036. Not bad for a third round washout who will now always be remembered as playing second fiddle to Ted and Robin.


RB T.J. Barlow, behold the Waco bump

A former 6th round pick by Las Vegas, Barlow managed 2 workmanlike seasons for the Outlaws before being released at the start of the 2034 off season. Waco swooped in to pick up Barlow, but T.J. was hurt in the preseason and he was limited to just 437 yards in his first year with the Warhawks.

Even though it looked like Barlow was going to be the next victim of the "second team curse" for running backs, Barlow would bounce back in a major way. He ran for 1431 yards and 10 TD in 2035, easily personal bests, and then bettered those numbers with 1826 rushing yards and 12 TD in 2036. Then, just when we though we had a firm grasp of Barlow's career trajectory, he reversed field again. Leaving by FA to Morgantown in 2037 where his productivity plummeted. He gained almost 1000 yards fewer than the season before and only found the end zone 4 times.

The Change of Scenery giveth, and the Change of Scenery taketh away.


RB - Ty Carlson, behold the Port City bump?

Carlson was an undrafted back signed by Ohio prior to the 2009 season. As a rookie and a backup for Ohio he managed pull together 541 rushing yards at an impressive 5.36 yards per carry. His yards per carry numbers were apparently good enough that Boston was willing to part with a future 4th round pick for his services.

In Boston earned the starting spot and went over 1000 yards for the first time in his career. Unfortunately all these new yards came the hard way and Carlson saw his YPC drop to just 3.99 under the extra workload. After the season Boston let him go via free agency. After three unimpressive years in Waco where he manged to start only 15 total games it looked as though Carlson's career was over. Then Port City happened.

For two brief years Carlson was reborn. Scoring 21 touchdowns and piling up nearly 3000 yards from scrimmage, his performance per season in Port City was better than either the Hall of Famer who preceded him (Bornstein) or the Hall of Famer who followed him (Giang). But then again both those players later went on to play better somewhere else, so who knows what any of this means?

As for Carlson, just as with Barlow, as quickly as it had come it was gone. Carlson left Port City to go back to Ohio to finish out his career. He only started 5 games that last season, amassing just 750 rushing yards at a career worst 3.95 YPC.

[Matt]

http://www.simgamingnetwork.com/foru...ight=charlotte

[Guest]

Excellent write ups rando! Great Job!

[Guest]

Great post!

Pleasant had some decent years for us and we went to a bowl game with him, but the development of Brian Douglas combined with the large contract I gave to him led to us trading him to Morgantown. He was the first QB I had since Parrish that I could win with, though!

[Guest]

Pleasant had some decent years for us and we went to a bowl game with him, but the development of Brian Douglas combined with the large contract I gave to him led to us trading him to Morgantown. He was the first QB I had since Parrish that I could win with, though!

Yet another QB castoff who does better in Morgantown.

Fun fact: I've drafted exactly one 1st round QB in my 20 seasons here and he flamed out, while castoffs Britt Meyer, Ted Pleasant and Norm Dakota have all done really well for me.

[Guest]

Yet another QB castoff who does better in Morgantown.

Fun fact: I've drafted exactly one 1st round QB in my 20 seasons here and he flamed out, while castoffs Britt Meyer, Ted Pleasant and Norm Dakota have all done really well for me.

I was jealous when you snagged Dakota, I was very high on him when he was drafted and he has a very tasteful name!

I don't think I've drafted a QB higher than Round 3 in this league. I only drafted one QB in round 1 in FOFL. It was a late 1st round reach and he flamed out.

The only decent QBs I've "discovered" personally in OSFL were Douglas, Walt Johnson, Nicky Stevens and Ralph Lehmann. The last QB I drafted was some autodrafted bag of garbage. :)

[Sharkn20]

Awesome write ups! Love it!

[Guest]

This is great stuff, rando.

For what its worth, Garner got the nickname "Wild Card" because of his penchant for meltdown games. He threw a lot of interceptions when he was with us, and eventually we just couldn't take it any more and decided to try and get someone better by trading him for draft picks. Didn't find someone better in the draft, but Sammy Dillon came along shortly thereafter and did a lot better.

With Jumbo Clements, he was a stud QB, but he wasn't performing for his original team, so I snagged him for reasonably cheap in a deal and the rest was history. The rest of the Aces were loaded in those days, and he proved to be the missing piece.

Now the fate of the franchise rests in the hands of young Camden Recker. He has huge shoes to fill but last year looked like a big step in the right direction and word is he is working this off season with Jumbo Clements again.