Prompt 8 Wrote:It’s always important to look forward to the future. Examine your team, and in 400 words or more, talk about how they can improve themselves to get a stab at trophy contention next year. Are you loaded with draft capital for the next draft? Do you have plenty of cap space to sign free agents? Go through the roster and note the different strengths and weaknesses, and how you think those will change over the next few seasons. How should your team adapt?
In a conference with every team finishing within 2 wins of each other and where the top 4 teams all had the same record, the Copperheads on paper don't need to improve that much to contend next year. We scored the most points in the conference and 3rd most in the ISFL. If we kept what we did well this year into next year but managed to be a bit luckier with turnovers, penalties, and the like, then we'd absolutely be a contender.
However, the reality is that the team isn't going to keep everything good we had this year. Austin has a mostly older offense backed up by a mostly younger defense, and regression plus retirements will be hitting hard next year. Retirements include
* RB1 Make Mendonca
* WR3/4 Rod Tidwell
* OL Edmond Beaver-Dantes
* K/P Alfredo "Thighmaster" Crisco
* S Takeda Okura
* S Awkward Sexjoke
plus the later years of regression for S16 players QB Cole, TE Larson, and CB Lavelle Jr., not to mention an expansion draft with 1 S20 and 7 S22/23 players protected. So, yes, on paper the Copperheads would be great contenders going into next year if we just did last year but better, but the odds absolutely do not favor that happening.
So, if running it back isn't the plan, what is? We are keeping a great core of high-earning defensive players along with two young receivers. We have S25 GM QB Jackie Daytona coming up in this year's draft as the future after Cole. We have just about $32 million of space for S25 according to the budget sheet as of 9/15. We have a trio of three great S24 players who were in the DSFL this year, the RB duo of Watts and Kitches plus sure-to-impact S Bowie. However, we don't have the best S25 draft capital after making some trades to contend last and this year. So realistically, I think the focus is going to be on making a push for contension in S26 and beyond with the new QB rather than going all-in on the last year of Cole. The expansion draft will also have a distinct impact here - S22 RB Jones and S23 CB McGullager are both unprotected, along with some in-regression players. If both younger players get plundered but all 3 vets remain, that increases the chances of contending in S25 but hurts S26 and beyond.
Given the amount of cap space, it's also possible that there's room to pick up one or mroe free agents to cover gaps. Having only one safety on the roster as of right now makes that the obvious area to look for an improvement on, but I could imagine there being upgrades available at OL, TE, or DT as well as they all look to have sub-400 TPE starters going into next year.
So to recap, I think the obvious strength of Austin is the younger defensive core going into S26 and beyond, but I don't see us having the resources and players to compete reliably with the top of the league given who we're losing.
Prompt 16 Wrote:Choose your favorite non-playoffs game of this season, whether your own team or another. Explain what was so special and why the winner ultimately came out victorious, including key players and moments.
For me, this is absolutely our week 4 game against the Second Line. After starting the year 0-2 and only narrowly edging out the Otters in week three by one point, a solid victory with both offense and defense performing well was a huge morale booster in the locker room. While it didn't exactly turn the season around, it did give us a lot of confidence going forward. Our QB Cole was amazing this game with 360 yards and 3 TDs, plus we had 199 rushing yards at a rounds-up-to 5.0 YPC rate. And our defence forcing 8 punts to go with 2 turnovers was a key part of the game too, giving up a lot of yards and time but not points.
Beyond that, this game was special to me personally since it was my first forced fumble and additionally first recovery in the DSFL or ISFL. I've been producing tackles/TFL at a decent rate along with the occasional sack, but this felt like a big impact play in a game that we really needed at the time. I've said before that TFLs are almost as good as sacks when it helps to shutting drives down, but obviously creating a turnover is the absolute best way to stop a drive. So, managing to do that for the first time this year really gave me a great reinforcement of impact on the game. Unfortunately, the game wasn't also our turning point into a Cinderella season of winning the Ultimus, but I still enjoyed it.
Affiliate League Wrote:PBE affiliate (T3 task)PBE championship week task
Draft Steal (retired S35 CB) - Profile/Update | Wiki
Troen Egghands (retired S22 DE) - Profile | Update | Wiki