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Key Departures
QB- Martin Cothran (retired)
RB- Cedric Pint (retired)
TE - Nick Devitt (retired)
Martin Cothran is a team legend. Until the last week of the 2015 season he was the only starting QB our team had ever known. Needless to say he holds every single team passing record. He also retired with the 7th best all time QB rating, 3rd best Completion Percentage, and 11th overall in Passing Yards and Touchdowns. Oh, and he's the league's all time leading rusher from the QB position.
If Cothran is a team legend, then what does that make Cedric Pint? 1st all time Rushing Attempts, 1st all time Rushing Yards, 1st all time Yards from Scrimmage, 2nd all time Rushing touchdowns, 3rd all time All-Purpose yards, 4th all time Total Touchdowns. He may of gotten of to a slow start his first few years (he had only two 100 yard games before I took over the team in 2011), but Pint's career was a marathon not a sprint. He would go on to start every game for the Cutters since the league's inception, 176 regular season games in all (also, 1st all time) and ended up rushing for for 1520 more yards in his last four seasons than in his first four.
Although I do wonder if his slow and steady career path might diminish his legacy. He only lead the league in rushing once (2013), was only selected to two Pro Bowls (2013, 2014) and shockingly never made an All Pro team. When he broke Kenyon Heflin's all time rushing record in 2015 it had taken him 34 more games to get there (but it also took him 31 fewer carries).
Key Additions
RB - Burt Newman (drafted 1.12)
NT - Patrick Matthews (FA from MOR)
ILB - Dusty Krykhtine (FA from BAL)
OLB - Omar Smith (FA from STP)
Another fairly quiet off season, but I've never been one for the old "blow it up and start over" rebuilding plan. The sad truth is with all my division rivals run by the AI, I really don't need to do much year after year to compete.
Our biggest arrival this off season stands only 5'8" tall. Burt Newman is a little bowling ball of a running back from Norfolk State who, if nothing else, should be well rested having sat out all of last season after Saint Paul refused to sign him. Smith and Krykhtine should bring some much needed muscle and youth to what was an aging and undersized LB corps.
Offensive Overview
By the numbers our offense improved slightly last year over the year before, but the overall difference was minimal and our offense still isn't performing anywhere near our 2014 championship season level. In single player testing the offense I run showed very little change from 6.2 to 6.3 so I'll have to chalk this one up to a decline in talent. Since we won the Stevens cup we've lost our starting QB, RB, FL, C, LG, and RG to retirement, and we've have seen some big drops from those players still here.
This year's big addition is rookie RB Burt Newman. We traded up to grab Newman in hopes of replacing the league's all time leading rusher. No pressure rook, no pressure. Speaking of pressure, without Martin Cothran looking over his shoulder Casey Baumgartner is now officially the man at QB. Hopefully he can step up and perform more like he did in the 2015 playoffs and less like he did all of last season. We really don't have the luxury of benching again him if he continues to struggle with not turning the ball over.
Newman and Baumgartner are going to be the keys to our season offensively. If Newman can more consistently get us yards on first and second down and Baumgartner can get a handle on his turnovers we can get back to the grind it out ball control offense that helped us win it all.
Defensive Overview
Our defense looked solid again last year (a nice side affect of playing in division where no other team has finished above .500 since 2013) coming in 5th over all in Points and 12th in Yards with our pass defense in particular looking good. We were 1st in the league in Pass Rush Percentage, 3rd in Completion Percentage and Opponent QB Rating, 4th in YPA allowed and 7th in Passing Yards allowed. This success comes at a price, however, as our nickel and dime heavy defense gave up 4.79 yards per rush, 30th overall.
Personnel wise, on the defensive line free agent acquisition Patrick Matthews steps in as the new starter at NT, while changes at LB are a bit "bigger". Only former Defensive Player of the year Trent Woodfield is keeps his starting job while Gene Lane (5-11 238lbs), Antione Holmburg (6-0 225lbs) and Donny Solomon (6-0 231lbs) have been replaced by Todd Hamerleers (6-3 266lbs), Dusty Krykhtine (6-3 252lbs), and Omar Smith (6-5 258lbs). The only change in the defensive secondary is Leonard Johnson and Bernie Glendenning switching roles as starting RCB and nickel back. LCB Micky Terry had a particularly poor training camp and it seems I'll be looking for his replacement next year.
Defensively the big questions will be whether our improved front seven can make up for our diminished secondary and how much longer we can continue to ignore our opponents' running games before it comes back to bite us in the ass.
Special Teams
2016 was another solid year for our Specialists, we were 3rd in the league in Punt Return average, 5th Kick Return average, 4th in Punt Return average allowed, 1st in Kick Return average allowed (at just 14.4 yards per KR) and Kicker Brandon Liersch and return man Pat Garcia both made the Pro Bowl. The only additions this year are rookie return man Hardy Philcox and Sherman Ellison taking the place of Ian Ferotte at gunner. Any rumors that I only signed Ellison (the league's 3rd all time leading rusher) and put him on special teams to make sure he never gets close to Cedric Pint's records are completely unfounded.
Our Division
Baltimore - Another tough off season for that team from South Maryland. While they have a potential stud running back in Issac Staat and a handful of pretty good players on their offensive and defensive lines most of their team consists of guys who any other team would be at best back ups but more likely camp bodies. The Bulls will be lucky to win 5 games this year.
Boston - I picked Boston to win the division last year and they gave it their all, falling just short at 8-8. I still think the Irish are the most talented team in the NC East, particularly on defense, but it remains to be seen if they can turn that talent into wins. Boston should win 8 or 9 games this year, and if they can get above .500 they could take the division for only the second time in their history.
Brooklyn - Poor Brooklyn, the Hitmen have never had a winning season and I don't see that changing this year. They added the best free agent running back available this year (Nigel Clark) to go with their handful of pretty good linemen, a couple of decent linebackers and all their other schmoes. Although Brooklyn has what is probably the best pair of starting WR in the division, they both suck, but everyone else's just suck worse. The Hitmen will should be fighting with the Bulls for the top spot in the draft.
Prediction
Looking at our schedule it seem that all our toughest games are on the road. We need to start the season strong to win the division again, otherwise the brutal second half of our schedule will likely keep us out of the playoffs.
Record: 8-8
Wins: Boston, Denver, Charlotte, Las Vegas, at Baltimore, Brooklyn, Baltimore, at Brooklyn
Losses: at Pearl Harbor, at San Francisco, Yuma, at Dakota, at Phoenix, at Utah
QB- Martin Cothran (retired)
RB- Cedric Pint (retired)
TE - Nick Devitt (retired)
Martin Cothran is a team legend. Until the last week of the 2015 season he was the only starting QB our team had ever known. Needless to say he holds every single team passing record. He also retired with the 7th best all time QB rating, 3rd best Completion Percentage, and 11th overall in Passing Yards and Touchdowns. Oh, and he's the league's all time leading rusher from the QB position.
If Cothran is a team legend, then what does that make Cedric Pint? 1st all time Rushing Attempts, 1st all time Rushing Yards, 1st all time Yards from Scrimmage, 2nd all time Rushing touchdowns, 3rd all time All-Purpose yards, 4th all time Total Touchdowns. He may of gotten of to a slow start his first few years (he had only two 100 yard games before I took over the team in 2011), but Pint's career was a marathon not a sprint. He would go on to start every game for the Cutters since the league's inception, 176 regular season games in all (also, 1st all time) and ended up rushing for for 1520 more yards in his last four seasons than in his first four.
Although I do wonder if his slow and steady career path might diminish his legacy. He only lead the league in rushing once (2013), was only selected to two Pro Bowls (2013, 2014) and shockingly never made an All Pro team. When he broke Kenyon Heflin's all time rushing record in 2015 it had taken him 34 more games to get there (but it also took him 31 fewer carries).
Key Additions
RB - Burt Newman (drafted 1.12)
NT - Patrick Matthews (FA from MOR)
ILB - Dusty Krykhtine (FA from BAL)
OLB - Omar Smith (FA from STP)
Another fairly quiet off season, but I've never been one for the old "blow it up and start over" rebuilding plan. The sad truth is with all my division rivals run by the AI, I really don't need to do much year after year to compete.
Our biggest arrival this off season stands only 5'8" tall. Burt Newman is a little bowling ball of a running back from Norfolk State who, if nothing else, should be well rested having sat out all of last season after Saint Paul refused to sign him. Smith and Krykhtine should bring some much needed muscle and youth to what was an aging and undersized LB corps.
Offensive Overview
By the numbers our offense improved slightly last year over the year before, but the overall difference was minimal and our offense still isn't performing anywhere near our 2014 championship season level. In single player testing the offense I run showed very little change from 6.2 to 6.3 so I'll have to chalk this one up to a decline in talent. Since we won the Stevens cup we've lost our starting QB, RB, FL, C, LG, and RG to retirement, and we've have seen some big drops from those players still here.
This year's big addition is rookie RB Burt Newman. We traded up to grab Newman in hopes of replacing the league's all time leading rusher. No pressure rook, no pressure. Speaking of pressure, without Martin Cothran looking over his shoulder Casey Baumgartner is now officially the man at QB. Hopefully he can step up and perform more like he did in the 2015 playoffs and less like he did all of last season. We really don't have the luxury of benching again him if he continues to struggle with not turning the ball over.
Newman and Baumgartner are going to be the keys to our season offensively. If Newman can more consistently get us yards on first and second down and Baumgartner can get a handle on his turnovers we can get back to the grind it out ball control offense that helped us win it all.
Defensive Overview
Our defense looked solid again last year (a nice side affect of playing in division where no other team has finished above .500 since 2013) coming in 5th over all in Points and 12th in Yards with our pass defense in particular looking good. We were 1st in the league in Pass Rush Percentage, 3rd in Completion Percentage and Opponent QB Rating, 4th in YPA allowed and 7th in Passing Yards allowed. This success comes at a price, however, as our nickel and dime heavy defense gave up 4.79 yards per rush, 30th overall.
Personnel wise, on the defensive line free agent acquisition Patrick Matthews steps in as the new starter at NT, while changes at LB are a bit "bigger". Only former Defensive Player of the year Trent Woodfield is keeps his starting job while Gene Lane (5-11 238lbs), Antione Holmburg (6-0 225lbs) and Donny Solomon (6-0 231lbs) have been replaced by Todd Hamerleers (6-3 266lbs), Dusty Krykhtine (6-3 252lbs), and Omar Smith (6-5 258lbs). The only change in the defensive secondary is Leonard Johnson and Bernie Glendenning switching roles as starting RCB and nickel back. LCB Micky Terry had a particularly poor training camp and it seems I'll be looking for his replacement next year.
Defensively the big questions will be whether our improved front seven can make up for our diminished secondary and how much longer we can continue to ignore our opponents' running games before it comes back to bite us in the ass.
Special Teams
2016 was another solid year for our Specialists, we were 3rd in the league in Punt Return average, 5th Kick Return average, 4th in Punt Return average allowed, 1st in Kick Return average allowed (at just 14.4 yards per KR) and Kicker Brandon Liersch and return man Pat Garcia both made the Pro Bowl. The only additions this year are rookie return man Hardy Philcox and Sherman Ellison taking the place of Ian Ferotte at gunner. Any rumors that I only signed Ellison (the league's 3rd all time leading rusher) and put him on special teams to make sure he never gets close to Cedric Pint's records are completely unfounded.
Our Division
Baltimore - Another tough off season for that team from South Maryland. While they have a potential stud running back in Issac Staat and a handful of pretty good players on their offensive and defensive lines most of their team consists of guys who any other team would be at best back ups but more likely camp bodies. The Bulls will be lucky to win 5 games this year.
Boston - I picked Boston to win the division last year and they gave it their all, falling just short at 8-8. I still think the Irish are the most talented team in the NC East, particularly on defense, but it remains to be seen if they can turn that talent into wins. Boston should win 8 or 9 games this year, and if they can get above .500 they could take the division for only the second time in their history.
Brooklyn - Poor Brooklyn, the Hitmen have never had a winning season and I don't see that changing this year. They added the best free agent running back available this year (Nigel Clark) to go with their handful of pretty good linemen, a couple of decent linebackers and all their other schmoes. Although Brooklyn has what is probably the best pair of starting WR in the division, they both suck, but everyone else's just suck worse. The Hitmen will should be fighting with the Bulls for the top spot in the draft.
Prediction
Looking at our schedule it seem that all our toughest games are on the road. We need to start the season strong to win the division again, otherwise the brutal second half of our schedule will likely keep us out of the playoffs.
Record: 8-8
Wins: Boston, Denver, Charlotte, Las Vegas, at Baltimore, Brooklyn, Baltimore, at Brooklyn
Losses: at Pearl Harbor, at San Francisco, Yuma, at Dakota, at Phoenix, at Utah