Evaluating Rich Triplet's season


So the time has come for me to try to replenish the old ISFL war chest as it's not looking quite as strong as it has been of late, and in order to do so I'm forced to unfortunately go down a route that I didn't want to and start writing media again. When it came to determining what the fuck I was actually going to write about, given that my player is a rookie and playing kinda ass at the minute, I decided it might be more interesting to write a little bit about one of the biggest names in the ISFL, my teammate and the veteran cornerback Rich Triplet. Everyone knows Triplet as the man who should have won the Cornerback of the Year award a few seasons ago but was cruelly denied by the league, but he is so much more than that; one of the leaders of the Arizona Oultaws' defense and a big reason why the team has won all 9 of the games they've played so far this season, he represents everything that the team wants to achieve and it is only right that I talk a little bit about his season so far in order to try and pay back some of the mentorship and life lessons that he has given not just myself, but everyone who has had the chance to play on the same team as him. In order to make this article easier to write for myself I have decided to split my discussion out by the individual stats that are relevant for a player of Rich's position as I find that this makes it easier to talk at length about things and should mean that I am able to come to a full conclusion about his performance while maximising the money that I end up taking home from this article which is definitely a good thing, so without further ado I am now going to begin my discussion in full.

Interceptions
The first thing that strikes me when looking at the stats that Richard has put up this season is I'm surprised by his inability to get his hands on any passes. Known as a ball-hawking safety who loves nothing better than snatching an errant pass out of the air, to see Rich currently not have a single interception through the first 9 games of the season is definitely a big surprise. Not sure at all what's gone on there, but think it could be worth Rich trying a bit harder to like intercept a couple passes maybe? I dunno, just a thought, but might help the team a bit more if he did! I hadn't actually looked at any of Rich's stats before I started writing, but this initial look at a very important statistic for players at his position has made me think that we might not be seeing Rich's name called at any awards ceremonies this season. There is crucially still time to try and turn this around somewhat; the season is currently only 9 games in, with 7 to go and as we will see below, Rich putting up some good numbers in other stats. I definitely think that he will be able to get at least one or two picks in the next few games that the Outlaws play, but it is certainly not the type of return that someone who has had his level of success before would be hoping for, and I believe that he will be working super hard to attempt to rectify this going forward!

Tackles
Something that Rich can be a bit more proud of is the fact that he has the second most tackles out of all of the cornerbacks in the league! This is definitely a cool thing and it's nice to see your name nearly at the top of the list for any statistic you can because it's most definitely not an easy thing to achieve or accomplish. However, I must look a little deeper by nature of this article and question whether or not this stat is a good thing. Surely, for Rich to make the sheer number of tackles he has, he must be allowing a high level of completions to the receivers that he is supposed to be covering, otherwise how else are they going to have the ball for him to get his hands on. Definitely something that might not be good news for Rich, and someone more technically minded might be able to let us know exactly how many completions he's let be completed against the number of times he's been targeted. A potential cause for concern here Rich, stop letting your man get the ball so often! It could also mean that Rich is exceptionally utilised in the run game, but as I do not know I cannot say anything conclusive about this and instead I'm forced to wildly speculate about what has occurred.

Passes defended
This is another cool stat for Rich because he leads the entire league in terms of passes defended. Add this into my theory above about how many completions he's allowed and it begs the question, why are quarterbacks constantly targeting the player that Rich's covering to allow this many plays to be made by him? Kinda crazy, and you'd have thought that after a while teams might have slowed down a little bit but I guess his lack of interceptions is not putting the fear of a turnover into their heads and so they feel confident putting the ball into his area. But anyway, to lead all cornerbacks in passes defended is undoubtedly a positive stat, and tells everyone that Rich is making players work hard to get the ball when he's around, which is great. I think that Rich has historically been very good at defending passes and this is a stat that has always looked good for him, so to see that he has continued this season in the way that it has been is something that I think will make him very happy. My big constructive criticism for Rich is he needs to get better at getting his hands on the ball and keeping hold of it rather than swatting so many passes down; it's great to stop a completion from being made but once he has a legitimate threat of getting a turnover, teams are going to have to think twice about going anywhere near him with the ball and from there, it will really allow the rest of his game to elevate too! But I digress, certainly an area of Rich's game that he continues to show great aptitude in and something that going forward he can be incredibly proud of.

Fumbles
I have decided to lump in the two stats related to fumbles, those Rich has forced and those he has recovered, in together in order to save on time because I don't really think they're worth writing about individually, but they do add a nice bit of flavour to the discussion on Rich's performance so are worth talking about in some way for sure. Rich has been looking to make up for his lack of turnovers from interceptions by being a threat to force his opponents to lose the ball through fumbles, and so far this season he has already forced one fumble and been able to recover a fumble also. For someone who has struggled to bring in the picks, this is a nice add to his game that should go some way to keeping his coaches happy as he proves himself able to keep pressuring for a turnover in another way. While not leading the league in either stat for his position, it's a hard thing to do to generate these numbers as a cornerback so I have to concede that Rich has done a great job by even adding just one of each so far this season and he can be proud of what it is he's able to do. Hopefully he's able to add a little bit more to his total during the last 7 games of the season and we continue to see an underrated element of Richard's play shine through and elevate the rest of what he's doing out on the field even further.

Conclusion
For someone who has had success like Rich has had in the past, there is a high level of expectation about what you are going to be able to do in any given season. This one has not been the easiest for Rich, but he has still shown some impressive signs and can be considered among the better performing cornerbacks in the league, despite the lack of interceptions holding him back. I think for Rich to be in line for any sort of awards or Pro Bowl recognition at the end of the season, he's going to need to get his total pick numbers up by a good amount, something that's definitely not impossible for him to do but the sim will definitely have to start being a good bit nicer to him. We'll see where it all leads to eventually though, looking forward to seeing how Rich recovers during the last half of the season and what he's able to do to close out the campaign.