Tier 2:12 - So this season sees us welcoming two new teams to the league in the form of the New York Silverbacks and the Berlin Fire Salamanders. This is an extremely exciting time for the league, and many of us will be looking to see what the new GMs can bring to the league with these exciting new teams. I want to give some thoughts on the two, and some ideas of what they might look to do in their first season.
I have to say of the two New York absolutely has my favorite branding. The color scheme is fantastic and unique… The green being a very different type to what we have already seen with the likes of San Jose. Likewise, they really outdid themselves on the logo front, the Gorilla is intimidating while also providing a strong image for the team.As GMs bot Woelkers and Westy are well qualified, and having both their players at defensive positions gives them a strong foundation to build from. Specifically having Westy at CB is a big advantage.
For the Berlin Fire Salamanders… I’m on the record as saying I’m not in love with the name. It’s a big of a full mouth to say, and doesn’t flow off the tongue as well as the Silverbacks.The logo is ok. Actually, probably better then I expected to be honest. The initial color scheme is a bit difficult to tie together I think, but the artist who put it together did a really nice job bringing the whole piece together. On the GM front, having GM’ed with him for several seasons in London, High is an excellent choice for an ISFL expansion team. I know a little less about Dewalt, but I know he’s put his time in, and the two seem to work well together. On the field, they’re an odd pairing, as both of them play wide receiver, a position that is easy to find value at in the league. It will be interesting to watch how they build around these two wide receivers. It would seem to me that finding a quarter back of the future would be the biggest challenge ahead of them currently.
Out of the gates I would expect both teams to struggle initially. New York has a young QB they are building around in Trautner, so the future is bright…. But he is a couple of seasons away from being ready. Berlin’s path to success is less clear, honestly it wouldn’t surprise me if they opt to have someone swap to QB to cover them the first couple of seasons and look to draft someone to be the QB of the future.
Tier 2:8 - Lets talk about some Colorado Yeti roster construction, and about how we’ve looked to improve the team over the offseason. Obviously this past season we had hoped to bring home the Ultimus, but sadly we weren’t able to claim the hardware, and the San Jose Sabercats brought home the trophy.
Having moved on from the game, we immediately began looking into the pending Free Agent class, and hoped to find some players who could dramatically improve the team moving forward. The premiere Free Agent was none other then Darrell Williams, a Running back formerly of the Baltimore Hawks. While he had a deal in place to return, we pitched him on Colorado, and were extremely excited to be able to eventually sign him to a contract. Williams is slated to be our RB1 for the foreseeable future, and we’re excited to be able to bring him into the Yeti family. Having him here through the peak of his player will be a huge value to us.
Having signed Williams, we began looking at the S25 draft class, and tried to find who were in our opinion the best users in the class. Over time we developed a list of 5 users we felt were the cream of the crop, and approached multiple teams about trading up. Eventually we were able to come to an agreement with the New York Silverbacks to trade up for the 5th overall pick, ensuring we would be able to get one of our 5 users. I can’t say the draft went exactly as we expected, but we’re extremely happy with the results, and feel we come away having had the draft class of our dreams. I’d say the two big ares we were looking to address in the draft were Defensive Line and Secondary. Both had a decent amount of depth in the class, and so we looked to find value with our picks, as most of them were later round picks.
Moving forward for the team the next big thing on our horizon is the transition from Wolfie to Caliban at the QB position. Currently we’re working to surround him with the best talent possible, but long term we hope to have an excellent offensive game in place for him, with the best defense in the league to back him up…. Thus far I’d say we’re doing a good job of accomplishing that. That said, of course only the sim knows…. So we’re basically fucked.
I have to say of the two New York absolutely has my favorite branding. The color scheme is fantastic and unique… The green being a very different type to what we have already seen with the likes of San Jose. Likewise, they really outdid themselves on the logo front, the Gorilla is intimidating while also providing a strong image for the team.As GMs bot Woelkers and Westy are well qualified, and having both their players at defensive positions gives them a strong foundation to build from. Specifically having Westy at CB is a big advantage.
For the Berlin Fire Salamanders… I’m on the record as saying I’m not in love with the name. It’s a big of a full mouth to say, and doesn’t flow off the tongue as well as the Silverbacks.The logo is ok. Actually, probably better then I expected to be honest. The initial color scheme is a bit difficult to tie together I think, but the artist who put it together did a really nice job bringing the whole piece together. On the GM front, having GM’ed with him for several seasons in London, High is an excellent choice for an ISFL expansion team. I know a little less about Dewalt, but I know he’s put his time in, and the two seem to work well together. On the field, they’re an odd pairing, as both of them play wide receiver, a position that is easy to find value at in the league. It will be interesting to watch how they build around these two wide receivers. It would seem to me that finding a quarter back of the future would be the biggest challenge ahead of them currently.
Out of the gates I would expect both teams to struggle initially. New York has a young QB they are building around in Trautner, so the future is bright…. But he is a couple of seasons away from being ready. Berlin’s path to success is less clear, honestly it wouldn’t surprise me if they opt to have someone swap to QB to cover them the first couple of seasons and look to draft someone to be the QB of the future.
Tier 2:8 - Lets talk about some Colorado Yeti roster construction, and about how we’ve looked to improve the team over the offseason. Obviously this past season we had hoped to bring home the Ultimus, but sadly we weren’t able to claim the hardware, and the San Jose Sabercats brought home the trophy.
Having moved on from the game, we immediately began looking into the pending Free Agent class, and hoped to find some players who could dramatically improve the team moving forward. The premiere Free Agent was none other then Darrell Williams, a Running back formerly of the Baltimore Hawks. While he had a deal in place to return, we pitched him on Colorado, and were extremely excited to be able to eventually sign him to a contract. Williams is slated to be our RB1 for the foreseeable future, and we’re excited to be able to bring him into the Yeti family. Having him here through the peak of his player will be a huge value to us.
Having signed Williams, we began looking at the S25 draft class, and tried to find who were in our opinion the best users in the class. Over time we developed a list of 5 users we felt were the cream of the crop, and approached multiple teams about trading up. Eventually we were able to come to an agreement with the New York Silverbacks to trade up for the 5th overall pick, ensuring we would be able to get one of our 5 users. I can’t say the draft went exactly as we expected, but we’re extremely happy with the results, and feel we come away having had the draft class of our dreams. I’d say the two big ares we were looking to address in the draft were Defensive Line and Secondary. Both had a decent amount of depth in the class, and so we looked to find value with our picks, as most of them were later round picks.
Moving forward for the team the next big thing on our horizon is the transition from Wolfie to Caliban at the QB position. Currently we’re working to surround him with the best talent possible, but long term we hope to have an excellent offensive game in place for him, with the best defense in the league to back him up…. Thus far I’d say we’re doing a good job of accomplishing that. That said, of course only the sim knows…. So we’re basically fucked.