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The proud Utah Golden Spikes franchise has been in a tailspin for a very long time now. We haven't won a championship since 2032 and havent sniffed at the playoffs since 2049, where we lost in the wildcard round. This has been a franchise without direction, without a steady hand or a consistent direction for a very long time. I took over this team mid-way through the 2053 season. Its fair to say that I've floundered the past 3 seasons, not really bringing in a lot of talent through the draft or free agency. However, this year (hopefully) is going to be different. Heres a recap of the 2056 off-season for the Utah Golden Spikes
2056 Notable Offseason Moves
Free Agency
Edwin Lowe (RB) resigned to a 5 yr, $140.5 Mil deal
Ezekiel Unutoa (DE) signed to a 1 yr, $19.05 Mil deal
Logan Newman (DT) signed to a 2 yr $25.53 Mil deal
Mickey Oates (FS) signed to a 1 yr, $9.9 Mil deal
Neil Masso (QB) signed to a 2 yr, $34 Mil deal
Notes:
Re-upping Lowe was a hard decision for me. On one hand, I don't think that any RB should get that much money. On the other hand, Lowe led the team in receptions, targets, yards and had almost 1600 yards from scrimmage, not to mention he was our primary kick returner. He is just so good and now that I am trying to get the team to focus on the run, I felt like we needed a top tier RB to lead our offense.
Neil Masso completely changes our QB room. We now have the best QB that we've had since I took on the team and hopefully, we can actually pass now.
Ezekiel Unutoa adds another pass rusher to our arsenal. We already had league DPOY Ben Cabral manning the other side but now we should have a deadly pass rush.
Draft
This is what really matters right here. It's all about the cheap labor and the draft is the best place to find it. Looking back, this has to be my best draft yet and I'm excited to see what everyone can
1.11 Reuben Abolofia (LG) 40/76
I was looking to beef up our interior and I had my eye on Canaves but he went 3 picks before I could nab him. Abolofia isn't a bad consolation prize however and I feel like with his elite future run blocking (35/90), he can be a stud on this line
2.10 Corbin MacDowell (LDT) 38/66
I was so happy MacDowell fell to me because I wanted to emphasize the trenches in this class. It was either MacDowell or Carlos Corbett for me here and I can't say I'm disappointed that I got MacDowell. I see him as a crucial rotational piece on the interior whos going to bully any offensive linemen he faces on passing downs.
4.6 Dan Davis (FB) 26/45
Davis's overall makes him look like a big reach on the surface, but Colombus took the FB that i really wanted to take and I wanted someone whos going to dominate on special teams and while run-blocking. Davis does exactly that with his 34/72 run blocking and his 78/96 special teams, plus he has some ok future route running bars so hopefully, he can catch some balls out of the backfield
4.15 Sammy Harden (WR) 24/35
Definitely feels like a bit of a reach here as there were some good receivers on the board but the thing that I wanted was a WR with courage because I want to transition to more of a slant, over the middle offense. Harden's 76/92 Courage and 60 Big play receiving can hopefully provide that for me but we'll see
5.14 Irv Morris (HB) 31/34
Not much to say about Morris, he has great hole recognition (73/38) and can handle a blitz. Maybe he can find a spot in a rotation, maybe not
6.13 Jerald Tolbert (TE) 23/31
Basically the same thing as Harden, I think that Tolbert can make big plays over the middle of the field and that's about it
7.12 Terrence Siegel (CB) 26/49
Great player here that I'm actually kinda excited about. He has decent enough bars that I think he can become a decent CB4 like my favorite aging CB on roster, Louie Marsh
All in all I think this draft provided some quality starting talent and some good enough role players. Its definitely an improvement over what I've done before and hopefully the class can help us break the streak of playoff misses this year.
2056 Notable Offseason Moves
Free Agency
Edwin Lowe (RB) resigned to a 5 yr, $140.5 Mil deal
Ezekiel Unutoa (DE) signed to a 1 yr, $19.05 Mil deal
Logan Newman (DT) signed to a 2 yr $25.53 Mil deal
Mickey Oates (FS) signed to a 1 yr, $9.9 Mil deal
Neil Masso (QB) signed to a 2 yr, $34 Mil deal
Notes:
Re-upping Lowe was a hard decision for me. On one hand, I don't think that any RB should get that much money. On the other hand, Lowe led the team in receptions, targets, yards and had almost 1600 yards from scrimmage, not to mention he was our primary kick returner. He is just so good and now that I am trying to get the team to focus on the run, I felt like we needed a top tier RB to lead our offense.
Neil Masso completely changes our QB room. We now have the best QB that we've had since I took on the team and hopefully, we can actually pass now.
Ezekiel Unutoa adds another pass rusher to our arsenal. We already had league DPOY Ben Cabral manning the other side but now we should have a deadly pass rush.
Draft
This is what really matters right here. It's all about the cheap labor and the draft is the best place to find it. Looking back, this has to be my best draft yet and I'm excited to see what everyone can
1.11 Reuben Abolofia (LG) 40/76
I was looking to beef up our interior and I had my eye on Canaves but he went 3 picks before I could nab him. Abolofia isn't a bad consolation prize however and I feel like with his elite future run blocking (35/90), he can be a stud on this line
2.10 Corbin MacDowell (LDT) 38/66
I was so happy MacDowell fell to me because I wanted to emphasize the trenches in this class. It was either MacDowell or Carlos Corbett for me here and I can't say I'm disappointed that I got MacDowell. I see him as a crucial rotational piece on the interior whos going to bully any offensive linemen he faces on passing downs.
4.6 Dan Davis (FB) 26/45
Davis's overall makes him look like a big reach on the surface, but Colombus took the FB that i really wanted to take and I wanted someone whos going to dominate on special teams and while run-blocking. Davis does exactly that with his 34/72 run blocking and his 78/96 special teams, plus he has some ok future route running bars so hopefully, he can catch some balls out of the backfield
4.15 Sammy Harden (WR) 24/35
Definitely feels like a bit of a reach here as there were some good receivers on the board but the thing that I wanted was a WR with courage because I want to transition to more of a slant, over the middle offense. Harden's 76/92 Courage and 60 Big play receiving can hopefully provide that for me but we'll see
5.14 Irv Morris (HB) 31/34
Not much to say about Morris, he has great hole recognition (73/38) and can handle a blitz. Maybe he can find a spot in a rotation, maybe not
6.13 Jerald Tolbert (TE) 23/31
Basically the same thing as Harden, I think that Tolbert can make big plays over the middle of the field and that's about it
7.12 Terrence Siegel (CB) 26/49
Great player here that I'm actually kinda excited about. He has decent enough bars that I think he can become a decent CB4 like my favorite aging CB on roster, Louie Marsh
All in all I think this draft provided some quality starting talent and some good enough role players. Its definitely an improvement over what I've done before and hopefully the class can help us break the streak of playoff misses this year.
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