Task 7) Awards season is here! I was unfortunately thrust onto the ISFL Awards Committee this offseason, against my will. I will try hard to remain unbiased and not let my judgement be clouded, forcing me to fight for all of my teammates to win awards, haha. However, there are a few players that I think are deserving of a nomination, and possibly even a win. The biggest stand out player on the Chicago Butchers in my eyes is actually one of the lowest TPE players on the team, and that is Hingle McCringleberry. McCringleberry has 112 tackles, which is good enough for 11th among linebackers. That’s not *that* impressive, I know, but you need to look at the rest of the statline to get the whole picture. He also has one tackle for loss, also not great, but nobody with more tackles than him has more than 3 so that’s not too much of a knock on him. He also forced two fumbles and recovered one, and again, nobody with more tackles than him has more than two forced and one recovered. Here is where his stat line gets extremely juicy… He nabbed 8 sacks which is not bad at all. 8 sacks puts him at third place among anyone with more tackles than him. He also managed to snag two interceptions, which is two more than I had all year at cornerback. That seems impressive to me. What’s even more impressive though, is the 26, yes you read that correctly, 26 passes defensed. This is good for 2nd in passes defensed among *all players*. Only fellow Linebacker Derred De Ville, who plays for the Baltimore Hawks, has more passes defended at 29. It’s very hard to argue that Hingle McCringleberry deserves to win the Linebacker of the Year award when Mr. De Ville has bested or tied McCringleberry in every single stat. Basically the only argument is that Hingle McCringleberry was able to do this to help his team to the playoffs, which De Ville did not manage to do, as the Baltimore Hawks were on the outside looking in come time for the postseason. That’s really the only way to argue that McCringleberry should win. I’d also like to shout out some other players on the Butchers that I think should be in the conversation for a nomination. Those players are: linebacker Mike Hockhertz, wide receiver Sean O’Leary, and kicker punter Sam Sidekick. They may not win, but all of them had fantastic years at their respective positions. Those are my picks for possible award nominations from the Chicago Butchers! (431 words)
Task 8) I told you guys! I told you all. I did this same task last season and I talked about how we, the Chicago Butchers, were closer to competing than everyone thought we were. I don’t blame you considering we had the number one pick in the draft last season, but I knew what we were capable of. We got off to a pretty rough start this season. I believe we started the year 2-7, but we ended up making the playoffs and coming *this* close to upsetting the Sarasota Sailfish at home to advance. So, what can we do to improve our chance of finally hoisting that Ultimus trophy, you ask? Honestly, we can just wait. Only two of our players are going to regress this season. Expansion hurts, but our team is really young and full of great earners, so our team will most likely improve a ton by the end of next season. We should really all be hitting our stride since a lot of us are close to our effective cap. One thing that we can do is target a prospect in the first round of this draft that can contribute in year one. Obviously their player can’t be very useful to us, but there are a ton of great prospects in the upcoming draft that bring something to the table off the field. Whether that’s locker room activity, or sim testing, or what, there’s a lot that the top prospects are offering. It’s a reddit draft class, so the top of this class is just stacked to the brim with talent. Several of these guys have made big sim discoveries, or some people made apps or processes to streamline or min max sim testing even more than it already had been. We’re pretty tight on the budget, so I’m not sure that we will be able to bring in any free agents, but that’s possibly an option as well. Muford has proven himself to be an expert when it comes to luring free agents to the team. The offseason before last, he managed to bring in Tyler Oles Jr., who is one of the best players in the S22 draft class and a valuable war room member. Then last offseason, he lured the top free agent wide receiver to the Butchers in Paz (Bender B. Rodriguez), and one of, if not the, best running backs available in Baby Yoda. All 3 have been extremely productive for us. Whatever we do, I think we’ll be in a great position by the time that the next season rolls around. I trust our general managers to put us in the best possible position to win! (446 words)
Task 8) I told you guys! I told you all. I did this same task last season and I talked about how we, the Chicago Butchers, were closer to competing than everyone thought we were. I don’t blame you considering we had the number one pick in the draft last season, but I knew what we were capable of. We got off to a pretty rough start this season. I believe we started the year 2-7, but we ended up making the playoffs and coming *this* close to upsetting the Sarasota Sailfish at home to advance. So, what can we do to improve our chance of finally hoisting that Ultimus trophy, you ask? Honestly, we can just wait. Only two of our players are going to regress this season. Expansion hurts, but our team is really young and full of great earners, so our team will most likely improve a ton by the end of next season. We should really all be hitting our stride since a lot of us are close to our effective cap. One thing that we can do is target a prospect in the first round of this draft that can contribute in year one. Obviously their player can’t be very useful to us, but there are a ton of great prospects in the upcoming draft that bring something to the table off the field. Whether that’s locker room activity, or sim testing, or what, there’s a lot that the top prospects are offering. It’s a reddit draft class, so the top of this class is just stacked to the brim with talent. Several of these guys have made big sim discoveries, or some people made apps or processes to streamline or min max sim testing even more than it already had been. We’re pretty tight on the budget, so I’m not sure that we will be able to bring in any free agents, but that’s possibly an option as well. Muford has proven himself to be an expert when it comes to luring free agents to the team. The offseason before last, he managed to bring in Tyler Oles Jr., who is one of the best players in the S22 draft class and a valuable war room member. Then last offseason, he lured the top free agent wide receiver to the Butchers in Paz (Bender B. Rodriguez), and one of, if not the, best running backs available in Baby Yoda. All 3 have been extremely productive for us. Whatever we do, I think we’ll be in a great position by the time that the next season rolls around. I trust our general managers to put us in the best possible position to win! (446 words)