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*Comparing the ISFL to the NFL - ddrector - 09-08-2020
ISFL Compared to NFL
As some of you might remember I had a fun series last NFL season where every ISFL team was compared to NFL teams and then I would see if the results from that week's games matched up. Well with a new NFL season upon us it’s time to do that again. This time I’m going to use my comparisons to predict the NFL games each week and see how it goes. Since there are 12 teams in the ISFL (I’m not adding in the expansion teams to this until they’ve each played a full season) and 32 NFL teams each ISFL team will be compared to either 2 or 3 NFL teams. This does mean that sometimes I won’t be able to use the ISFL to predict an NFL game, but that’s ok.
Note before starting: This is all just my dumb opinion, so please don’t be offended. If you think I got something way wrong politely let me know in the comments.
Colorado Yeti
Well the Yeti right now are clearly the top of the league. At 12-2 right now they are the top team in the NSFC and the entire league. This makes it easy to use the Kansas City Chiefs as one of their comps. The Chiefs are reigning Super Bowl champs and have a loaded roster and are favorites to win it all again. The other team that I picked for the Yeti is the Baltimore Ravens. The Ravens might be the second best team in the league if Lamar Jackson continues to get better. They always have a great defense like the Yeti and their offense can put up points as well.
Sarasota Sailfish
The Sailfish are currently at 10-6, which is the 2nd best record in the NSFC and the league. I’m not sure if they are actually the 2nd best player because they play a much easier schedule than the group of 8-6 teams in the ASFC. With that in mind the two teams I chose for the Sailfish are both teams that could end up being the best teams in their conference, but they could also get surprised early in the playoffs. The New Orleans Saints and the Philadelphia Eagles seem to fit this description the best. Some people think the Saints are the best team in the NFC and while I don’t agree they are definitely up there. The Eagles are a team just a few years off from winning the Super Bowl and they are still very good.
New Orleans Second Line
As a long time member and current GM of the Second Line this one was easy for me. Ever since I’ve been here our game plan has been run the ball and play good defense. Obviously with a young QB in Ben Slothlisberger that is more important than ever right now. With that in mind I chose two NFL teams that run the ball often and well as the backbone of their offense, and both teams have good defenses as well. Those two teams are the San Francisco 49ers and the Dallas Cowboys. The 49ers are coming off a season where they made it all the way to the Super Bowl and even looked like the better team for a good portion of it, but ultimately lost. The Cowboys had a disappointing season where they looked like one of the better teams in the NFC for a while and then crashed and burned and missed the playoffs.
Orange County Otters
The Otters right now are a team with a great defense and an old quarterback. I can think of a few teams that fit this description perfectly, and those are the Tampa Bay Buccaneers, the Indianapolis Colts, and the Pittsburgh Steelers. Other than the Saints with Drew Brees these are the three teams with the oldest quarterbacks in the league in Tom Brady, Philip Rivers, and Ben Roethlisberger. All three have good defenses as well, which makes all three teams great comps for the Otters.
Arizona Outlaws
The Outlaws are another team I didn’t have any problem pinning down their NFL comparisons for. The Outlaws have a great QB, some might say one of the best if not the best in the league. They have an overall good team, but not quite at the level of the top tier teams. The Seattle Seahawks, the Green Bay Packers, and the Buffalo Bills were my choices for the Outlaws. You might be thinking that the Bills comp doesn’t matchup with the Packers and Seahawks and while you might be right about that I think Josh Allen plays a lot like Jay Cue. I feel like any of these teams could surprise and make a nice run in the playoffs, but no one expects these teams to be in the Super Bowl.
Honolulu Hahalua
This one was tough for me because their record says they are up there with the other top teams in the ASFC, but their roster and TPE says something else. According to Average Effective TPE on the Tracker the Hahalua should be dead last in the ASFC, but they are obviously not. So I picked teams that no one really expects to be good this season, but could surprise. Not teams that are more than likely at the bottom of the league, but teams that would be surprising if they were in the Super Bowl. Those three teams are the New England Patriots, the Los Angeles Rams, and the Minnesota Vikings. The Patriots are trying to replace the GOAT with Cam Newton who hasn’t been healthy in 3 years, the Rams haven’t been the same since they lost that Super Bowl to the Patriots, and I just don’t think the Vikings can get it done with Cousins.
San Jose SaberCats
The SaberCats are sneaky little devils that you don’t see coming and then all the sudden it’s the fourth quarter and you’re down by 10 and can’t get the ball back. This was a hard one to figure out honestly as I feel like I don’t know much about the SaberCats other than they are sitting at 7-7 right now, which would be good enough for a playoff spot in the NSFC. I picked the Tennessee Titans, the Denver Broncos, and the Atlanta Falcons as my comps for the SaberCats. While the Titans made noise last year in the playoffs I don’t think anyone thinks they’ll be able to do it again. On the other hand I think the Broncos have been mediocre recently, but are ready to turn it around, and I feel the same way about the Falcons. Everyone wants to talk about whether the Saints or the Bucs will win the NFC South, but the Falcons could sneak in there and have a say in the outcome as well.
Austin Copperheads
What happened to the Copperheads? I thought they would be one of the better teams in the ASFC this season, but I was obviously wrong. They are in position to finish in last place in the ASFC right now with a 6-8 record. I picked a few teams that I thought people think will finish higher than they will and that is the Cleveland Browns, the Houston Texans, and the Las Vegas Raiders. The Browns had a horrible season last year, but I still think the masses see them as having a bounce back year in Baker Mayfield’s third season. The Texans are always up there as one of the favorites in the AFC South, but I don’t think they’ll be as good without DeAndre Hopkins after one of the worst trades I’ve ever seen. The Raiders have hype I feel like mostly because of their coach, but they won’t be very good this season.
Chicago Butchers
Who would have thought the Butchers would be sitting at 6-8 and be in third place in the NFC ahead of the Wraiths? I sure didn’t. For the Butchers I picked teams that I think have strong foundations and have the potential to be good in a few seasons. The Arizona Cardinals, the Chicago Bears, and the Los Angeles Chargers meet this criteria for me. The Cardinals made a great trade getting Hopkins, but I still think they have some work to do mostly on the defensive side of the ball as well as the offensive line before they can compete in the extremely tough NFC West. The Bears seem like they are a good QB away from being competitive, though they might need more than that on the offense. The Chargers are a pretty young team that have the talent to get better and compete with the Chiefs in the AFC West in a few seasons.
Yellowknife Wraiths
This is where I honestly just wasn’t sure what to do. I picked two teams for the Wraiths, and both have young quarterbacks and no one is really sure if they will be good in the future or not. Those two teams are the New York Giants and the New York Jets. Are the Wraiths going to be able to turn it around and return to their future dominance of the NSFC or will the other teams hold them down for a few seasons? I don’t see the Giants surpassing Philadelphia or Dallas anytime soon and the Jets might be the worst team in their division if Tua pans out for Miami.
Baltimore Hawks
They might have the same record as the Liberty, but the Hawks are the worst team in the league. At least the Liberty have a decent offense and a young group of players on the defense that will get better. These three teams I would put in the train wreck category of the NFL and have no idea if they will be good anytime soon category. The Jacksonville Jaguars, the Washington Football Team, and the Cincinnati Bengals fit this to me quite well. The Jaguars seem to be getting rid of all their players to tank for Trevor Lawrence, and I’m sure that will work out great for them. The Bengals just drafted a player who had one great season in college. Look what happened to the Bears when they did this with Mitchell Trubisky. I’m not saying that Joe Burrow is the next Trubisky, but I am saying don’t be surprised if he is terrible this season. Washington just hired Ron Rivera as their next head coach and while I like Rivera I don’t think he will be able to turn the team around to contend in the NFC East.
Philadelphia Liberty
The Liberty have had a terrible season, but yet I don’t think they are the worst team in the league. I think they have a few more seasons of good drafts and they will be competitive in the NSFC again. I think the Liberty have a good to great offense, but they have a terrible defense, and I think the same could be said about these three teams. The Detroit Lions, the Carolina Panthers, and the Miami Dolphins are those three teams. The Lions with Stafford always have a decent offense, but the defense holds them back. The Dolphins have Fitzmagic right now and he always does something crazy. Plus they have set themselves up with Tua to be a good team sooner rather than later. The Panthers will hopefully have a good offense, but it’s hard to say with a new coaching staff as well as a new QB in Teddy Bridgewater who hasn’t been a starting QB for a full season since his horrific injury. The Panthers defense on the other hand will be very bad, but we’ve got a lot of young pieces so I think the Panthers will be in good shape right around the time the Saints and Bucs are trying to find replacements for their retired Hall of Fame quarterbacks.
Well there you have it, I’ve compared every ISFL team with a few NFL teams. Now to predict the Week 1 NFL games based on this:
Texans (Copperheads) at Chiefs (Yeti): The Yeti won this matchup 32-17 and so I’m picking the Chiefs
Raiders (Copperheads) at Panthers (Liberty): The Liberty beat the Copperheads in Overtime, so I’m picking the Panthers.
Seahawks (Outlaws) at Falcons (Hawks): The Outlaws beat the Hawks 27 to 16 so I’m picking the Seahawks.
Jets (Wraiths) at Bills (Outlaws): The Wraiths beat the Outlaws at home 45 to 10, and while I would honestly probably pick the Bills I have to go with the comp so I’m picking the Jets.
Bears (Butchers) at Lions (Liberty): The Butchers beat the Liberty 27 to 10 in their first matchup of the season, so I’m picking the Bears.
Packers (Outlaws) at Vikings (Hahalua): The Hahalua have beat the Outlaws in both their matchups this season so I’m picking the Vikings.
Dolphins (Liberty) at Patriots (Hahalua): The Hahalua beat the Liberty 25 to 22, so I’m picking the Patriots.
Eagles (Sailfish) at Washington (Hawks): The Sailfish beat the Hawks twice this season, so I’m picking the Eagles.
Colts (Otters) at Jaguars (Hawks): The Otters beat the Hawks, so I’m picking the Colts.
Browns (Copperheads) at Ravens (Yeti): The Yeti beat the Copperheads this season, so I’m taking the Ravens.
Chargers (Butchers) at Bengals (Hawks): The Hawks and Butchers split this season with each team winning at home, so I’m picking the Bengals.
Buccaneers (Otters) at Saints (Sailfish): The Sailfish beat the Otters in a one point game, so I’m picking the Saints.
Cardinals (Butchers) at 49ers (Second Line): The Second Line beat the Butchers in a close one this season, so I’m picking the 49ers.
Cowboys (Second Line) at Rams (Hahalua): The Second Line beat the Hahalua in both games this season, so I’m picking the Cowboys.
Steelers (Otters) at Giants (Wraiths): The Otters beat the Wraiths this season, so I’m picking the Steelers.
Titans (SaberCats) at Broncos (SaberCats): Fuck, well I knew this was a possibility and bound to happen from time to time during the season. In this case I will always take the hope team, so I’m picking the Broncos.
I hope you are as excited as I am for the return of the NFL and I look forward to seeing how utterly terrible my picks are each week. Since these comps were based on how the teams were doing near the end of S24 I’ll keep using S24 to make my picks until the end of S25 when I can then add the two expansion teams and then I will shuffle everything around again.
RE: Comparing the ISFL to the NFL - Huskies311 - 09-08-2020
I normally don’t bite on these but I will.
Chika & Williams will have 1000 TPE next season. We also will have 3 players on the entire roster older than S21 & still have more tpe than Philly. Avery, Exilizer, Dagumpa, & Stackinpaper are S22 guys and will all be near 750+ TPE at the start of next season.
Rufio, Ytb, & Butters are great young WRs,jiggly is a max earner, and that doesn’t even hit Teyon, or the fact that we have 3 1sts in the next two seasons. Also, our TE is one of the most underrated players in the league as 620 TPE S21 guy who has ramped his earning up the past few seasons
Also, we were 1 game away from playoffs at 8-8 last season. Sometimes you have bad seasons but that was with this exact team.
RE: Comparing the ISFL to the NFL - Ben - 09-08-2020
As a long time dooter and niners fan I am very happy with this comparison
RE: Comparing the ISFL to the NFL - ddrector - 09-08-2020
(09-08-2020, 07:50 PM)Huskies311 Wrote: I normally don’t bite on these but I will.
Chika & Williams will have 1000 TPE next season. We also will have 3 players on the entire roster older than S21 & still have more tpe than Philly. Avery, Exilizer, Dagumpa, & Stackinpaper are S22 guys and will all be near 750+ TPE at the start of next season.
Rufio, Ytb, & Butters are great young WRs,jiggly is a max earner, and that doesn’t even hit Teyon, or the fact that we have 3 1sts in the next two seasons. Also, our TE is one of the most underrated players in the league as 620 TPE S21 guy who has ramped his earning up the past few seasons
Also, we were 1 game away from playoffs at 8-8 last season. Sometimes you have bad seasons but that was with this exact team.
That's good to know. As I mentioned I'll redo the comps at the end of S25, so by then my tune might have changed completely.
RE: Comparing the ISFL to the NFL - IsaStarcrossed - 09-08-2020
Its back!