Utah

[Aston]

past reports: (2018) End of the Wynn Era?, (2020) Draft Results, (2020) Bees Report, (2021) Utah Herald, (2022) Bumbling Bees, (2023) Ulmanac, (2024), (2025) like a dynasty, (2026) Bees Knees, (2027) and the Year of the Pelican, '28 Bees, UTA29, UTA30-for-30, UTA31

UTA32

This year's Bees loses relatively little from the previous squad — in-house replacements for both C Stephen Wells and S Brent Driscoll are already groomed. Age continues to catch up to the back end of the roster, but the offensive line is still extremely strong, and the weapons young and plentiful.

After heading off a potential holdout with a capout, the Utah QB is slated to make $7.36M this year and $8.63M next. One could say the whole tobacco withdrawal thing... was a huge 'Boone' for us.



Anyway, the good news for everyone is that we pretty much have nothing extra in the barrel with regards to draft picks. The bad news is we also have nothing we need anyway.

And so begins the campaign for 11.

[Guest]

[Aston]

2032New Bees

A look at the unusually high amount of new blood that's landed on the Bees in 2032, whether via free agency, trade, or the rookie draft.

NT Robert Shields, R (1st round, pick 32) NT2
Shields looks like a big climber who suffered a volatility setback in his rookie camp. He could be a quality cog in the line for years to come, but might end up primarily a nickel/dime rusher.

RB Merrill Lynch, 8th (FA) RB1
Lynch is a Top-5 talent in the league and after 8 seasons, is still going strong. He earns the start after coming in on a 3 year, $33 million deal, partly for his fit in the new backfield chemistry arrangement, and partly for being 20 points OVR higher than the next Utah back. Lynch can really carry the load, and he joins not one but two returning 1000-yard rushers from the 2031 Bees.

FB Randall Beecroft, 6th (FA) FB1/2
Replacing 11th-year Mario Evanswhite is Randall Beecroft, and it's about time. Utah paid a heavy price in the 2027 draft for being too stingy to select Beecroft before Edirash's SMD Jaguars could in Round 5, but our fullback/mascot/ST triple threat is finally here. He's the new leader in the backfield and replaces a player who was both long in the tooth and a red flag in the locker room.

LB Cole Porter, R (3rd round, pick 18) reserve LB
Originally envisioned as a WLB of the future, Porter looks like he may have just too far to go with his PRT to get there. He's been shuffled inside for now, although it's not clear what value he brings on the field. For now, he's hanging around as one of the multitude of affinity attachés of defensive leader Bryant Clancy.

LB Gary McIntyre, 7th (FA) ST gunner, reserve LB
The only of Utah's preseason injuries to be spared the IR list, McIntyre is a good, creeping backer who was brought in for his special teams skills. He fits the WILB role quite well, too. Also an affinity.

CB Jerry Drake, 11th (FA) CB1
Drake arrived in Utah on a $17.6M/yr deal at an excellent time. Rising star Bobby Plantilla was counted on as the team's best cover corner, but ate a highly premature -10 age drop in camp. Drake is a major talent who has had an outstanding career in South Maryland, and will make a run at Pro Bowl #6 this year.

S Buddy Hodges, R (4th round, pick 20) Reserve safety
Hodges pushed out 11-year Bee Lance Morris this year, and that's a move I may regret. It was awfully hard to keep Morris after Hodges' +6 camp performance, but for this year, Morris may have been more useful. Morris is as perfect as they come for a safety in either SS or FS roles and would have probably started a lot of games this year. Still, we had to bring in some form of youth.

TE Artie Summers, 9th (trade) TE2/FB1
Summers, like FB Beecroft, is another ghost from Utah Draft Misses past, finally landing in our slimy, greasy palms. At 32, he's still a premier player. I don't know how much gas he has in the tank, but I don't really care. We're going to keep him on the field as much as we can, whether that's as the second TE in a 2TE set, or as the FB in standard formations. He does have 20 points in OVR on Edwin Blades, but Blades keeps the TE1 role for his explosiveness and familiarity with the offense.

WR Buddy Collier, 12th (FA) Special Teams
Collier makes the team solely on his special teams merits, although the former top-10 pick has a loooot of receiving experience under his belt.

WR Dominic Foreman, 8th (FA) Team leader
Foreman & Boone are buddies in all the right and wrong ways, and Foreman has friends elsewhere on the team, too. That's the only reason he has a spot, as he appears to have few, if any, receiving skills. It's why we felt we had to keep a 7th WR in Buddy Collier, since Foreman isn't much of a 6th.

T Daryl Minevich, 6th (FA) Team leader
Minevich serves the same role as Foreman on this year's team. A good leader with no apparent value as a player.

CB Damon Earp, 4th (FA) PR, reserve CB
Earp is a young, quality, hard-hitting defensive back who projects well into the future as both a corner and a safety. He appears to be a significant creeper, as well as an affinity with secondary leader Butch McKinnon. However, he has some very big immediate shoes to fill. He succeeds the most prolific punt returner in league history, and will be expected to carry on a decade-plus-long tradition of special teams excellent in Utah.

That's 12 players, with only 3 rookies. We've never had a policy of relying on free agency, but that's exactly the circumstance that presented itself this offseason. With 2 gunners, 3 offensive team leaders, and four premier-quality players in Beecroft (50), Drake (57), Lynch (74), and Summers (83), this was an outstanding veteran haul. Hopefully it's enough. The Boone era is drawing to a close.

[Guest]

I hate that Earp wouldn't re-sign with me. And then he went to you. Great.

[Aston]

The 3TE Attack

Here's an interesting stat from this year's edition of the Utah offense. Edwin Blades (224R, 260P) and Artie Summers (219R, 264P) are manning the TE1, TE2, and FB spots between the two of them (# of plays in parentheses), but this arrangement is allowing for some field time for the team's third tight end, Marco Stewart (71R, 94P).

Stewart has been targeted 4 times in three separate games this year (Week 1-LA, Week 11-LA, Week 12-MOR). In these games he was on the field for 6, 5, and 7 pass plays, respectively - a 66.7% target rate. And he's caught 10 of those 12 targets for 187 yards, or 15.6 yards per target (and 2 touchdowns, both against Morgantown).

Way to make it count!

(The alternative to Stewart, the team's only nominal fullback Randall Beecroft, has caught all 5 of his targets for 106 yards and one score.)

[Aston]

The Utah 4-3

With Ike Arias sidelined by a sore thumb (????), the Bees have morphed not-so-seamlessly into a 4-3 front, inserting veteran DE Bryant Clancy (in lieu of rookie 'nose' Robert Shields) in at one of the DT spots.

Arias might be sitting out the remainder of the year, so this is going to give us some time to test out a variety of contingency plans. Our best (and only?) remaining pass rush 'backer is starting SLB Will Tyler, who has limited experience on the weakside but might be better than what we've got.

In the 4-3, apart from Clancy, there's Shields - who would have to sort of play out of position - and DT Jesse Carpenter, the former 1.32 pick of the San Francisco Bayhawks, whom we just signed this week. Carpenter was one of the top guys we were looking at that draft at that pick, before dealing it to SF and nabbing LB Tyrone Nelson at 2.15. That was an awful draft for top end talent.

[Sharkn20]

Awesome.... Nutah is the new Bellichick man... IS AWESOME!!!

[Aston]

A look back

This has been the most fun I've ever had in a FOF season, I think. Even counting the years when I was juggling around marginal receivers and watching Boone rock it. It's also been really cool making 11 of these Stevens Cups in a row. If we win this year, that'll be 8 rings fro Boone & co.

This little epoch in Utah history began with Boone, now in his 15th season, taking the reigns from the retiring Ellis Wynn. Although he struggled in year 1, the Bees made the playoffs, and he put the league on notice in year 2 with a 32-4 TD-INT ratio and a 38-13 upset of Columbus in Week 16. That win cost Utah their quarterback for the season, and a second early playoff exit was followed by a statistically dominant 2021...that ended without a playoff berth. By this time the pieces were already assembled, though.

The early seasons of the bowl run were carried on the shoulders of RB Earnest Giang, the hall-of-famer who arrived via trade in his sixth season and provided an elite dimension on a team that was already outstanding everywhere else. By several seasons in, however, the Bees were losing their sheer talent edge, but compensated by playing much better football, particularly on offense. The last several seasons have seen the Bees cash in on their once perennially ample draft stock to add mega-stars at the two positions we've come to realize are of dominant importance: WR and pass rush. If we can grab win #8, it'll be on the wings of receivers Bruce Perkins and Bob Hansen.

2022: The 14-2 Bees are nigh unstoppable, with Giang's power running and a season Boone wouldn't match for years. All that ended in a crushing defeat to the Dakota Totems in the bowl.

2023: Boone starts off the season throwing 2 picks against St. Paul, and never comes close to matching his previous year. Battered by Runner-Up syndrome, Utah goes 11-5 and, after a successful playoff run, marches to the Cup expecting to get battered by a Columbus team at the height of its power. Which they do.

2024: A new coach is hired. Overall, it's an unspectacular season, but the 11-5 Bees turn it on in the playoffs and finally score a bowl win against Las Vegas.

2025: The Bees go 10-6 in the regular season but somehow manage a return trip to the bowl, winning again. Earnest Giang has begun his decline, but posts up his best year as a Bee with 1823 rushing yards.

2026: By this time Utah's regarding pass rush / pass rush prevention as the key to the game. Jared Craig, one of the best pass-blocking guards we've ever had, assumes the starting role. The Bees are in full on transition, with heavy changing of the older guard. Matthew O'Donnell takes over the WLB job from Carlos Melnick late in the year, with a rookie class that welcomed TE Edwin Blades, T Max Reese, WLB Ike Arias, and SS Butch McKinnon - all stars on today's roster. Giang's last hurrah with the Bees results in a 14-2 regular season, but Boone still can't outduel Tubbs in the big game.

2027: It's really unclear to me how this edition of the squad went 15-1 and won a bowl. Boone has been consistently having good-but-not-great years, and Giang's exit deprived Utah of its extra dimension. The Ryan Green/Michael Glenn duo at RB was adequate, and both Alvin Foley and Colin Fletcher disappeared from the ranks of Bee WRs (Foley due to injury). Fun times with personal favorite Hunter Vandersommen and the frequently traded Bryan Sidharta at the helm.

2028: My second favorite season after this one. The advent of the modern Utah PAV takes Boone out of his high 90s QBRs and, despite the considerable aging of his weapons, he posts a 108 rating and his first 4000-yard season. The Bees comfortably win the top seed with time to spare, and the increase in long passing has rendered Utah nigh unstoppable.

2029: At this point, the blueprint for continuing the Utah run is clear. We spend most of our available currency to nab receiver Bob Hansen, and much to our surprise, WLB Ike Arias has evolved into a worthy successor for O'Donnell at the rush spot. These Bees were a little more than unstoppable. Hansen led the team in receiving as a rookie, Boone had a career-best 4440 yards, and Utah ran the gauntlet at 19-0. This team had perhaps the best offensive line I've ever fielded.

2030: Utah spends the remainder of its draft currency to lock up the team's future on both sides of the ball, grabbing DL Lincoln Cleaver in the top ten and plugging him in at end. For years, the Bees relied on pinpoint drafting, but Cleaver and Hansen arrive as elite-level mercenaries, and they don't disappoint. The party all ended at the start of the regular season, with Randy Boone announcing that he was entering rehab for a...tobacco problem. No problem; Roderick Sikkenga wins all but two games in his absence and Boone returns in time to lead the Bees to their fourth straight bowl win.

2031: Utah's looking a lot more like its pre-Giang days at this point, but older. After jettisoning Michael Glenn, the Bees employ a ragtag 6th round + UDFA combo at RB, but it works: both J.R. Talley and Josh Clovis run for over 1000 yards, and Boone, in a full season back and with yet another receiver in tow (Bruce Perkins, who grabs a team-record 13 TDs), the gunslingin' QB finally surpasses his QBR personal best previously set in 2022. And another bowl win, #5.

2032
...which brings us to today. The '32 Bees cashed all in to make a run for yet another season, splurging big to bring in veterans Merrill Lynch at RB, Jerry Drake at CB, Randall Beecroft at FB via free agency, and TE Artie Summers via trade.

Lynch has been a disappointment, but with Clovis (and Utah's power running game) going down early to injury, it's been necessary to lean on a much-less-than-stellar backfield. Drake, though, has been a revelation at CB, very amply replacing and even upgrading the position.

Boone, despite his TC decline, comes close to matching his 4440-yard output of '29, but he does set a new bar for QBR with 123.2. More importantly, he was sacked a career-low 7 times! Compared to 21 the previous year, on fewer dropbacks.

The affinities that Utah accumulated in 2031 were expanded on, and Boone was handed QB affinities for the first time in his career. With Hansen, Perkins, Blades, and Summers serving as the top four pass-catchers, Boone was able to post up 10.61 YPA, which I'm pretty sure is a league record, and my proudest achievement this season.

That, and shattering the scoring record by almost 4.0 PPG.

Now all that's left is legacy. Will Boone outduel the Totems in bowl games, or will they, like Columbus, always have the upper hand on the AC giants? Can Utah cap it all off with back-to-back threepeats? Stay tuned!

[Guest]

Dun dun dun!