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The Dakota youth movement finally began in earnest as the team aged and we had some nasty volatility/age rating drops. Predictably, they notched their first losing season under my tenure. Roy Parrish played one last year for North Liberty (and went 0-2 vs. Dakota!) Grant Giefeke, my first MP draft pick of all time was shipped off, as was Ricardo Dudgeon, Derrick Schwartz (not useful in my new 4-3 defense), and my #1 receiver for every season I've been here, Seth "Rabbi" Shapiro. Where do we go from here? UP! The team had a strong finish this year (4-2 down the stretch, I believe.) but it's going to need an influx of talent to compete.
QB - Nate Small finally got a chance to start, unseating Justin Zandofsky after two games, but failed to move the offense. It wasn't entirely his fault, as our receivers are very poorly suited for his short passing game. The good news is FB Ron Dabbs didn't retire, and will continue granting affinity bonuses to Zandofsky and Small. Thanks to this we have a chance to be competitive starting this season. Still, an upgrade at QB will be required to really get this team rolling.
RB - J.B. Trotter, who shares the backfield with Rob Wickes, had a down year. We're OK if not spectacular here, and we'll probably be trotting out the same group this year. Undrafted FA Roderick Pinard might not be back if we find a decent youngster to groom.
WR - Disappointing Pat Donaghy stayed healthy for a full season this past year, but he's somewhat miscast as a #1. The scenery at WR changed a lot, and while Bernie Jones performed well as a starter after being a #4 last year, an upgrade at WR is desperately needed. It's quite a motley crew I've assembled here.
TE - We've missed Nate Garrett in his glory years, as he made up for our ordinary WRs. Britt Peters has not been able to pick up the slack, but with Parrish gone our offense wasn't going to be so TE centric anyhow. We'll probably go into next season with everyone but trade bust Kelvin Douglas, whose age quickly caught up to him. Due a $3 million salary next year after notching around 16 catches all season, (7 and his only TD in the last game of the season), you'll be able to find him on your waiver wire.
OL - No one wanted J.T. Sandage, one of my better draft picks, in trade, so he stuck around to anchor the line along with greybeard OT's Andre Peterson and Lincoln Lewis. Peterson had a great year, but Lewis gave up 10 sacks in as many games, eventually being placed on the inactive list so Rufus Jaster could get some playing time. Former first rounder Dustin Chorak hasn't exactly lit the world on fire, but we're not going to do any better. Timothy Batchelor has declined fast and could be out of the picture depending on his training camp.
DE - We were very happy to get A.J. Hassett with our first rounder, so happy that we ended up passing on a trade we had in place for Max Montano. He would've been wasted on this team anyway. Since I drafted Jerome Howe I've wanted to switch to a 4-3, but failed attempts to land DE T. McElroy led to me delaying its implementation. Hassett didn't show much most of the year, but he flashed a little talent at the end. Underrated veteran Vincent Schroeder manned the RDE position and led the team in sacks. Fairly happy with this unit, so much that I'd consider it the strength of the team.
LB - We cobbled together a decent unit this season and we'll probably be keeping our new additions. Greybeard Orlando Sampson is probably on his way out, as age has really caught up to him.
DB - We have one CB under contract, I believe. We put together a CB depth chart from the scrap heap last year, and they performed surprisingly well. Roosevelt Dunn is another golden oldie who has stuck around because we have no better option, and might make the team again this year. Kevin DiBlasio was an absolute disaster in coverage, although I have trouble understanding why. Lamar Rivera has been a decent role player, but lacks the endurance to be a full time starter. (Fun Fact: Lamar Rivera was signed by the Utah Bees for their bowl game against Dakota, and then traded to us for a 7th round pick the next season!)
P/K - We went young here, parting ways with perennially disappointing but nicely nicknamed Stephen "Punt Train" Lane, and Nate Shelton, a placekicker who had a terrific run with us. Results from their replacements were mixed. Marcum, our new punter, had an up and down year, but we feel like he's a solid replacement long term. T. Matthews, our 7th round draft pick kicker got a volatility bump in TC but I have a feeling he'll be creeping down. He has accuracy issues, as indicated by his pathetic league low FG accuracy. He'll get another chance in training camp, but he's ON NOTICE.
Notable ex-Totem retirements: WLB Rich "Romancing The" Johnstone hung it up this year after he was cut by us in training camp. We brought him in as a pass rusher and he put together one decent season as a starter and one nice one with a 9.1% PR percentage. He rode the bench and was even inactive during our Bowl year, but when Derrick Schwartz went down in the playoffs he stepped up with some big plays. WE STILL LOVE YOU, RICHIE.
Probably the greatest Totem of all time, Roy Parrish, hung up his cleats after one last season with North Liberty. He's near the top in a lot of passing categories, despite playing with some very ordinary receivers during my tenure with the team. He had his worst season in our bowl year, when he threw a league leading 25 interceptions. He led a lot of great comebacks late in games, sometimes with his legs instead of his arm. We'll miss you, HAIL TO THE CHIEF!
QB - Nate Small finally got a chance to start, unseating Justin Zandofsky after two games, but failed to move the offense. It wasn't entirely his fault, as our receivers are very poorly suited for his short passing game. The good news is FB Ron Dabbs didn't retire, and will continue granting affinity bonuses to Zandofsky and Small. Thanks to this we have a chance to be competitive starting this season. Still, an upgrade at QB will be required to really get this team rolling.
RB - J.B. Trotter, who shares the backfield with Rob Wickes, had a down year. We're OK if not spectacular here, and we'll probably be trotting out the same group this year. Undrafted FA Roderick Pinard might not be back if we find a decent youngster to groom.
WR - Disappointing Pat Donaghy stayed healthy for a full season this past year, but he's somewhat miscast as a #1. The scenery at WR changed a lot, and while Bernie Jones performed well as a starter after being a #4 last year, an upgrade at WR is desperately needed. It's quite a motley crew I've assembled here.
TE - We've missed Nate Garrett in his glory years, as he made up for our ordinary WRs. Britt Peters has not been able to pick up the slack, but with Parrish gone our offense wasn't going to be so TE centric anyhow. We'll probably go into next season with everyone but trade bust Kelvin Douglas, whose age quickly caught up to him. Due a $3 million salary next year after notching around 16 catches all season, (7 and his only TD in the last game of the season), you'll be able to find him on your waiver wire.
OL - No one wanted J.T. Sandage, one of my better draft picks, in trade, so he stuck around to anchor the line along with greybeard OT's Andre Peterson and Lincoln Lewis. Peterson had a great year, but Lewis gave up 10 sacks in as many games, eventually being placed on the inactive list so Rufus Jaster could get some playing time. Former first rounder Dustin Chorak hasn't exactly lit the world on fire, but we're not going to do any better. Timothy Batchelor has declined fast and could be out of the picture depending on his training camp.
DE - We were very happy to get A.J. Hassett with our first rounder, so happy that we ended up passing on a trade we had in place for Max Montano. He would've been wasted on this team anyway. Since I drafted Jerome Howe I've wanted to switch to a 4-3, but failed attempts to land DE T. McElroy led to me delaying its implementation. Hassett didn't show much most of the year, but he flashed a little talent at the end. Underrated veteran Vincent Schroeder manned the RDE position and led the team in sacks. Fairly happy with this unit, so much that I'd consider it the strength of the team.
LB - We cobbled together a decent unit this season and we'll probably be keeping our new additions. Greybeard Orlando Sampson is probably on his way out, as age has really caught up to him.
DB - We have one CB under contract, I believe. We put together a CB depth chart from the scrap heap last year, and they performed surprisingly well. Roosevelt Dunn is another golden oldie who has stuck around because we have no better option, and might make the team again this year. Kevin DiBlasio was an absolute disaster in coverage, although I have trouble understanding why. Lamar Rivera has been a decent role player, but lacks the endurance to be a full time starter. (Fun Fact: Lamar Rivera was signed by the Utah Bees for their bowl game against Dakota, and then traded to us for a 7th round pick the next season!)
P/K - We went young here, parting ways with perennially disappointing but nicely nicknamed Stephen "Punt Train" Lane, and Nate Shelton, a placekicker who had a terrific run with us. Results from their replacements were mixed. Marcum, our new punter, had an up and down year, but we feel like he's a solid replacement long term. T. Matthews, our 7th round draft pick kicker got a volatility bump in TC but I have a feeling he'll be creeping down. He has accuracy issues, as indicated by his pathetic league low FG accuracy. He'll get another chance in training camp, but he's ON NOTICE.
Notable ex-Totem retirements: WLB Rich "Romancing The" Johnstone hung it up this year after he was cut by us in training camp. We brought him in as a pass rusher and he put together one decent season as a starter and one nice one with a 9.1% PR percentage. He rode the bench and was even inactive during our Bowl year, but when Derrick Schwartz went down in the playoffs he stepped up with some big plays. WE STILL LOVE YOU, RICHIE.
Probably the greatest Totem of all time, Roy Parrish, hung up his cleats after one last season with North Liberty. He's near the top in a lot of passing categories, despite playing with some very ordinary receivers during my tenure with the team. He had his worst season in our bowl year, when he threw a league leading 25 interceptions. He led a lot of great comebacks late in games, sometimes with his legs instead of his arm. We'll miss you, HAIL TO THE CHIEF!
Janis, Alfred, and you got NT Johns, too. Nice, haha.
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