*Looking Ahead: How the ISFLs Best and Worst Can Build

*Looking Ahead: How the ISFLs Best and Worst Can Build - Printable Version

+- International Simulation Football League (https://forums.sim-football.com)
+-- Forum: Community (https://forums.sim-football.com/forumdisplay.php?fid=5)
+--- Forum: Media (https://forums.sim-football.com/forumdisplay.php?fid=37)
+---- Forum: Graded Articles (https://forums.sim-football.com/forumdisplay.php?fid=38)
+---- Thread: *Looking Ahead: How the ISFLs Best and Worst Can Build (/showthread.php?tid=35511)

*Looking Ahead: How the ISFLs Best and Worst Can Build - SouljaBoy2007 - 10-16-2021

With the season finished, two teams clearly separated themselves from the pack in a negative way. The Baltimore Hawks and Orange County Otters were both absolutely horrific this season and they have a lot of work to do in their long offseason. On the opposite end of the spectrum, the Copperheads and Yeti both sort of came from nowhere to win their respective conferences. While they fight through the playoffs, their GMs have to look to the future and think about how they should sustain this success. Without further ado, let’s look at where these teams succeeded and failed and what they need to do in this offseason.

Orange County Otters

Far removed from the days of their dynasty, OCO has been the worst team in the league this season. At the time of my writing this, they’re the only team who has scored under 20 points per game. If it wasn’t for Goat Tank, OCO would probably be scoring somewhere in the vicinity of 14 points a contest. This would put them in the very bottom tier historically. Suleiman Ramza, their veteran QB, has had the worst season of his whole career. It’s been hard to watch. This last season, he was the only QB with a negative TD/INT ratio while also having the league’s lowest passer rating. This is not entirely his fault, since he has the worst targets in the league. Not one of his receivers is over league average TPE for that position. It’s hard for him to succeed when his best target is a guy with just 1 1000 yard season. However, he makes it hard for me to defend him when he has games like week 16 against Austin. Throwing 4 picks is never the fault of bad targets. It’s upsetting to see one of the most entertaining QBs of the last few seasons become completely washed. A lot of their defense is also weak, but not nearly as bad as their offense. Despite their weak front 7, OCO has one of the best secondaries in the league, led by Richard Leaking and Eugene Smoothie. A lot of their bad defensive statistics are a symptom of their offense not being able to score. OCO led the league in punts, which signifies them losing the field position battle. Ramza’s turnovers also handed the opponent the ball in good spots. This is best seen in the Otters 57-17 embarrassment at home against Chicago. Each of Ramza’s 3 picks gave the Butchers the ball inside of field goal range. This made OCO’s defense easy pickings for rookie sensation Kazimir Oles Jr.

So Where Do They Go?

The first thing OCO has to do is get a young receiver to go alongside Sam The Onion Man, with Owen Holloway starting to regress and Garfield Despacito Jr. on his way out the door. I would think that they want to look into drafting Troy Barnes or Escanor Sama in the second round. They’ve both shown great development in their DSFL year and they absolutely have the talent to step into the spotlight right away. Both of these guys would be a huge steal in the second round, but with OCO tracking to get the #1 pick they need to make a huge splash. Fortunately for them, there is a superstar at a position of need sitting for the taking. That would be LB Pasta The Turtle. He’s been a superstar in the DSFL both as an earner and as a player. OCO desperately needs front 7 help and The Turtle has the talent to rush the passer, stop runners, and play in coverage. These draft moves should allow the Orange County Otters to open up a championship window around the last couple years of Goat Tank. That is provided that they can get a franchise QB. Ramza is nearing the end, as evident by his sharp statistical decline. The Otters need to either draft a prospect or get a position change. If they want to, they could look into selecting one of the three superstar QBs in the DSFL this year. With the roster they have, they might be able to have someone change positions in order to buy themselves a playoff appearance or two. It all just depends on whether the Otters want to rent some wins or completely blow it up. The end of the Ramza era is quite sad, but the Otters are really not in as bad of a situation as the stats would appear.

Baltimore Hawks

Baltimore and OCO mirror each other in several ways. For one thing, while OCO was a solid team last year that just crumbled this year, the Hawks were 4-12 last year too. Also, while OCO had one of the worst offenses in the league, Baltimore had one of the worst defenses. Their offense was somewhat respectable, with Gimmy Jarropolo Jr. being a bright spot by building off a solid rookie season into his first year with 5k passing yards. He has shown signs of being a true franchise QB, even if he doesn’t quite have the same following as his father. BMore also had not one, not two, but three 1000 yard receivers. While this all looks good it’s really just evidence of a larger problem in the Hawks team construction, that being their horrific defense. The Hawks gave up 34 points per game while allowing opposing QBs to average 312 yards per game. The Hawks patchwork secondary, made up of 4 safeties and 1 corner, was gashed all season which forced them to throw their way back into games. Jarropolo struggled with interceptions at times this year, but a lot of that is due to the sheer volume of passes he was throwing. BMore had the 2nd worst rushing attack because most games led to them abandoning the run after the first quarter. The Hawks did lead the league in interceptions, but everyone knows that turnovers aren’t sustainable. The Hawks desperately need help on the defensive side of the ball.

So Where Do They Go?

The Hawks are a very young team, filled with future stars. At least offensively they have Busch Goose, Luke Quick, Preston Parker, Dante King, and Makoa Mahi’ai all pretty far from their primes. Jarropolo will be in QB heaven as soon as his defense can consist of more than just a wet paper bag. For the Hawks, this upcoming offseason might allow them to cement themselves as a future dynasty. Free agent corners such as Juno Hu, Brandon Booker, and Anton Bruckner should all be priorities for Baltimore. In the draft, there is a wealth of defensive players. Modern Nazgul, De’Aaron Harper II, and LaDamien Beck are all first round talents at major positions of need for the Hawks. Overall, the Hawks are in an excellent position for how bad they were last season. Their failures on the field were less the result of a lack of talent than the result of a lack of experience. In 3 seasons I expect the Hawks to be challenging Sarasota for the rule over the NSFC.

Now that we’ve covered the rebuilds, let’s look at the teams who were on top this year and what brought them to that point.

Colorado Yeti

The Yeti were far from bad last year, finishing 8-8 in a hotly contested NSFC. This year was more of the same, but instead of failing to make the playoffs the Yeti managed to claim the first seed. They did this on the back of their air raid offense. Mattithais Caliban broke the single season passing TD record as he directed the league’s #2 offense. Raphael Delacour went from being a solid starter to the ISFLs best wideout and Cole Maxwell provided the perfect complementary target for Colorado’s gunslinger. While Caliban is used to slinging the living daylights out of the football seeing as he hasn’t finished a season with less than 700 attempts in the 16 game era, this was the year he finally put it all together. Despite this success through the air, Colorado’s offense was handicapped by their refusal to run the football. Drip Dad only got 168 carries all year. While he hasn’t been the best RB throughout his career, he was certainly good enough this year to warrant more than 10.5 carries a game. Sarasota, who finished with the league’s #1 offense, used a diverse rushing attack which let them leapfrog the Yeti for the top spot scoring-wise. The Sailfish’s ability to create a good rushing attack without a superstar is something the Yeti should look to recreate. The Yeti are a team that is very good at one aspect of the game and it’s yet to be seen if that is sustainable in the playoffs.

So Where Do They Go?

For the time being, the Yeti’s roster is absolutely stacked. They boast the 2nd highest average TPE in the ISFL and have stars pretty much across the board. One position of weakness for them is the offensive line. They start 5 user lineman and all of them are getting up there in age. Any prospect they draft is going to have to sit for a couple seasons but they should definitely look into drafting Mrs. “Stacks” McHits early in the draft. She has been very solid protecting Malcolm Savage for Norfolk and she could make a difference pretty early for the Yeti. Another solid prospect for the Yeti would be Garfield Despacito III, a defensive lineman to step in for the aging Immanuel Blackstone. Lastly, while I’m not a coach, it might be best for the Yeti to look into cutting down on Caliban’s workload and diversifying their offense more. This allows them to avoid games like week 2 against the Butchers. They had Drip Dad averaging 10 yards per carry but they continued to throw with Caliban, leading to a blowout where he finished with just 217 yards on 46 attempts. This inefficiency could possibly be avoided by following Sarasota’s RBBC model or just choosing to feed Drip Dad more.

Austin Copperheads

Austin was awesome this year. After last year's 11-5 finish, they were a common pick to make the playoffs again, but almost nobody could’ve seen their dominance of the ASFC coming. With Arizona still being stacked, Austin cruised to a bye as the only team with double digit wins. Jackie Daytona was wonderfully efficient while Zoe Watts and Jim The Vampire formed an excellent backfield. Videl-San was excellent as always, putting together her 3rd consecutive season with 1500+ yards. Defensively, Brach Thomaslacher and Maverick Bowie headlined one of the league’s best units. Going into the playoffs, the Copperheads have to be the favorite. Their versatility and talent is unmatched and they should have decent playoff matchups. The keys for Austin will just be not to get too cocky and to try and forget last year’s playoff result.

So Where Do They Go?

Austin is another team with a loaded roster, so the draft is less of a priority for them than player retention. A lot of their core is on options, along with Videl-San retiring. Their best route in my opinion is to try and grab a WR prospect in this draft, as they have the talent to fill Videl-San’s role while their young wideout develops. There are really only two great WR prospects in this draft, those being Troy Barnes and Escanor Sama. Either one of these guys would be great to draft and stash. Along with needing WRs, Austin needs a third corner. De’Aaron Harper and Modern Nazgul both had monster seasons for their respective DSFL teams and project well to the next level. Unfortunately for Austin, their hands are tied by having a late draft pick. They might be best off trading up for a prospect they want since for a team this stacked it’s better to grab one guy you really need instead of 3 guys who won’t ever play.

With this upcoming draft class being as good as it is, every team is going to be afforded an opportunity to make big strides provided they pick correctly. Even 30 picks in, there’s going to be big difference-makers coming off the board.

RE: Looking Ahead: How the ISFLs Best and Worst Can Build - King Jellyfish - 10-20-2021

nice read

RE: Looking Ahead: How the ISFLs Best and Worst Can Build - 37thchamber - 10-21-2021

(10-16-2021, 02:59 PM)SouljaBoy2007 Wrote: Raphael Delacour went from being a solid starter to the ISFLs best wideout