Hello sports fans and welcome to this thing in this place where I'm doing what the title says. That feels....fairly straightforward. Let's do this, in order, so that way I don't have to do any sort of ranking that will require me to choose between minute differences or way way underrank my own player so that he can maintain the humility that he has and I don't.
What? I'm honest. As many notable historical figures have said, let's do the damn thing. We're gonna focus on round 1 in this installment. Just in case you didn't actually read the title.
COLORADO YETI
ANTONIO SANDOVAL
OL
People had a few things to say about this pick. Things like "wtf" and "lolYeti". To be fair to the Yeti, they had no idea what was about to befall them. They didn't know that they were going to lose their quarterback and they didn't know that the fucking cockroaches would abandon ship at this sign of trouble. They thought they had a near complete team ready to compete at the top. So they picked up an o-lineman that was already tied to the team and seemed like a sure thing. It's sort of difficult to judge them on that. And being an o-line player, it's difficult to judge how he did with minimal stats. He was average in terms of pancakes, and slightly above average in terms of how many sacks he gave up. It's hard to really give this pick any kind of grade now because it's easy to look back and point at a lot of players they didn't actually need at the time.
ARIZONA OUTLAWS
GODFREY KING
DT
The rich got richer with this pick. Godfrey King finished 4th in sacks. In fact, it can be easily argued that the reason Tuck led the league by such a margin is that defenses literally couldn't afford to double him with Goddy King was inside cleaning up so often. He more than justified his #2 pick here and there's no metric where you can call this anything but a success.
YELLOWKNIFE WRAITHS
BRICE BOGGS
LB
Well, they traded him to the Yeti before the season started. The details were as follows:
Brice Boggs, S4 3rd Wraiths, and S4 5th Wraiths
for
Wyatt Fulton, S4 2nd Yeti, S4 2nd Outlaws
So in essence, they gave up shitty picks in a shitty draft for better picks in a shitty draft and a promising rookie for a one year rental. Obviously there's more at play here. Boggs went in part to become AGM in Colorado (presumably his first move was congratulating his new boss on fleecing his old team). No matter how you slice it though, the Wraiths did not win here. This was overall bad for them. Now Boggs is anchoring Colorado's defense, and moving into the secondary. Let's just end by reminding everyone that on draft night Josh Garden lost his mind in excitement to have Boggs join him on the Wraiths. Before he was traded to Colorado. Josh Garden signed with Arizona over the offseason.
SAN JOSE SABERCATS
BENSON BAYLEY
CB
This one was a quiet pick that merited basically zero reaction. Sicne the Cats aren't a high profile defense, and his number weren't eye popping, Bayley spent his rookie season playing in that quiet bubble to the tune of 53 tackles and 2 INTs. However, he also had 16 PDs and finished tied for 9th. He established himself as a solid corner and I have a sneaking suspicion that Bayley Island is going to be a popular destination for San Jose residents for a while. This was a really solid pick with great long term value.
SAN JOSE SABERCATS
IYAH BLEWITT
K/P
And then this shit happened. They picked a kicker. In the first round. And people sort of lost their minds. Media pieces and podcasts and analysis were dedicated to how dumb this was. A year later I can safely say......ehhh. There were things they could've done differently, yes. They had a number of needs at the time. But the truth is that kickers just aren't as replaceable in the NSFL as what we think of them as. That sentence was a bit difficult to spit out. It's a viable pick at that spot. Blewitt was an average kicker and a top notch punter in his rookie season. He filled a valuable role and looks to grow to bigger heights for a team that has a relatively high powered offense that sometimes sputters. It's certainly not the worst 1st round pick, especially when you consider that other teams had made a bit of noise about drafting Blewitt before the Cats got another chance in the 2nd round. Call it a mild win.
ORANGE COUNTY OTTERS
JULIAN O'SULLIVAN
LB
I've said this more than once. For all the attention the Outlaws get for finding rookies who perform, the Otters are right there with them. Juliun O'Sullivan is a great example. He stepped into a somewhat underrated defense and dropped 10 PDs, 3 INTs, and 7 sacks. He also finished 12th in the league in tackles. That's a tremendous all around performance from the #6 pick. To come in and be everywhere on an already good defense says a lot. If you don't think this was a great pick for the Otters, I'm not sure what standards you're using to judge. He shows that he belongs in what has to be the best single draft round of defenders in league history.
BALTIMORE HAWKS
RICARDO SANDOVAL
DT
The second half of the Sandoval brothers joined a really good defensive line and elevated it to scary. He finished with 12 sacks (top 20 in the NSFL) and 61 tackles (5th among d-linemen) and absolutely made more than one offensive coordinator lose sleep at night. The Hawks improved an already great defense here and while a tiny bit of questioning could be asked about improving their offense, the Hawks are a defense first unit and they've gone to back to back Ultimus Cups.
ARIZONA OUTLAWS
FRANKLIN HARRIS, JR.
CB
The son of a disgraced NSFL legend came in with his father being everyone's focus. He joined the Outlaws and was tabbed as the weak link by teams looking for one. He finished the year with the league lead with 8 INTs, 2 of which he ran back for touchdowns. He also finished 3rd in PDs with 21. He showed that he was no weak link on the team or in this draft and things only look to get tougher on opposing offenses. To quote numerous people regarding the Outlaws.."they can't keep getting away with this".
So...this draft unleashed defensive hell across the league. Most of these guys could be DROY. The winner is no surprise though. The Outlaws picked up two bonafide shit wreckers in this round and that gets the nod over the rest of the field. The loser is an interesting question. The Legion traded away their pick here and didn't even draft anyone, but eventually ended up with one of the people traded for her, Wyatt Fulton. The Wraiths drafted, traded away their pick, and ultimately ended the entire round with a net two draft picks in a weaker draft. So probably them. All in all, it was a 1st round that would have great impact in Season 3 and most likely even greater impact on the seasons to come.
What? I'm honest. As many notable historical figures have said, let's do the damn thing. We're gonna focus on round 1 in this installment. Just in case you didn't actually read the title.
COLORADO YETI
ANTONIO SANDOVAL
OL
People had a few things to say about this pick. Things like "wtf" and "lolYeti". To be fair to the Yeti, they had no idea what was about to befall them. They didn't know that they were going to lose their quarterback and they didn't know that the fucking cockroaches would abandon ship at this sign of trouble. They thought they had a near complete team ready to compete at the top. So they picked up an o-lineman that was already tied to the team and seemed like a sure thing. It's sort of difficult to judge them on that. And being an o-line player, it's difficult to judge how he did with minimal stats. He was average in terms of pancakes, and slightly above average in terms of how many sacks he gave up. It's hard to really give this pick any kind of grade now because it's easy to look back and point at a lot of players they didn't actually need at the time.
ARIZONA OUTLAWS
GODFREY KING
DT
The rich got richer with this pick. Godfrey King finished 4th in sacks. In fact, it can be easily argued that the reason Tuck led the league by such a margin is that defenses literally couldn't afford to double him with Goddy King was inside cleaning up so often. He more than justified his #2 pick here and there's no metric where you can call this anything but a success.
YELLOWKNIFE WRAITHS
BRICE BOGGS
LB
Well, they traded him to the Yeti before the season started. The details were as follows:
Brice Boggs, S4 3rd Wraiths, and S4 5th Wraiths
for
Wyatt Fulton, S4 2nd Yeti, S4 2nd Outlaws
So in essence, they gave up shitty picks in a shitty draft for better picks in a shitty draft and a promising rookie for a one year rental. Obviously there's more at play here. Boggs went in part to become AGM in Colorado (presumably his first move was congratulating his new boss on fleecing his old team). No matter how you slice it though, the Wraiths did not win here. This was overall bad for them. Now Boggs is anchoring Colorado's defense, and moving into the secondary. Let's just end by reminding everyone that on draft night Josh Garden lost his mind in excitement to have Boggs join him on the Wraiths. Before he was traded to Colorado. Josh Garden signed with Arizona over the offseason.
SAN JOSE SABERCATS
BENSON BAYLEY
CB
This one was a quiet pick that merited basically zero reaction. Sicne the Cats aren't a high profile defense, and his number weren't eye popping, Bayley spent his rookie season playing in that quiet bubble to the tune of 53 tackles and 2 INTs. However, he also had 16 PDs and finished tied for 9th. He established himself as a solid corner and I have a sneaking suspicion that Bayley Island is going to be a popular destination for San Jose residents for a while. This was a really solid pick with great long term value.
SAN JOSE SABERCATS
IYAH BLEWITT
K/P
And then this shit happened. They picked a kicker. In the first round. And people sort of lost their minds. Media pieces and podcasts and analysis were dedicated to how dumb this was. A year later I can safely say......ehhh. There were things they could've done differently, yes. They had a number of needs at the time. But the truth is that kickers just aren't as replaceable in the NSFL as what we think of them as. That sentence was a bit difficult to spit out. It's a viable pick at that spot. Blewitt was an average kicker and a top notch punter in his rookie season. He filled a valuable role and looks to grow to bigger heights for a team that has a relatively high powered offense that sometimes sputters. It's certainly not the worst 1st round pick, especially when you consider that other teams had made a bit of noise about drafting Blewitt before the Cats got another chance in the 2nd round. Call it a mild win.
ORANGE COUNTY OTTERS
JULIAN O'SULLIVAN
LB
I've said this more than once. For all the attention the Outlaws get for finding rookies who perform, the Otters are right there with them. Juliun O'Sullivan is a great example. He stepped into a somewhat underrated defense and dropped 10 PDs, 3 INTs, and 7 sacks. He also finished 12th in the league in tackles. That's a tremendous all around performance from the #6 pick. To come in and be everywhere on an already good defense says a lot. If you don't think this was a great pick for the Otters, I'm not sure what standards you're using to judge. He shows that he belongs in what has to be the best single draft round of defenders in league history.
BALTIMORE HAWKS
RICARDO SANDOVAL
DT
The second half of the Sandoval brothers joined a really good defensive line and elevated it to scary. He finished with 12 sacks (top 20 in the NSFL) and 61 tackles (5th among d-linemen) and absolutely made more than one offensive coordinator lose sleep at night. The Hawks improved an already great defense here and while a tiny bit of questioning could be asked about improving their offense, the Hawks are a defense first unit and they've gone to back to back Ultimus Cups.
ARIZONA OUTLAWS
FRANKLIN HARRIS, JR.
CB
The son of a disgraced NSFL legend came in with his father being everyone's focus. He joined the Outlaws and was tabbed as the weak link by teams looking for one. He finished the year with the league lead with 8 INTs, 2 of which he ran back for touchdowns. He also finished 3rd in PDs with 21. He showed that he was no weak link on the team or in this draft and things only look to get tougher on opposing offenses. To quote numerous people regarding the Outlaws.."they can't keep getting away with this".
So...this draft unleashed defensive hell across the league. Most of these guys could be DROY. The winner is no surprise though. The Outlaws picked up two bonafide shit wreckers in this round and that gets the nod over the rest of the field. The loser is an interesting question. The Legion traded away their pick here and didn't even draft anyone, but eventually ended up with one of the people traded for her, Wyatt Fulton. The Wraiths drafted, traded away their pick, and ultimately ended the entire round with a net two draft picks in a weaker draft. So probably them. All in all, it was a 1st round that would have great impact in Season 3 and most likely even greater impact on the seasons to come.
Code:
1247 words