8. The Sarasota Sailfish finally broke out as one of the best teams in the league this morning, but came painfully short when they were unable to get past the Colorado Yeti in the NSFC championship game. In order to not just get back to that spot again next year, but to go even further, I think there needs to be some improvement on the team. In terms of organic progression, the team is in a good place with a core of players who earn and update consistently, and the GMs have been fairly active over the last few seasons in terms of going out and acquiring new talent to support what's there already. I think that as a team with an older quarterback however, it may be in the team's interest to make some big moves now in order to secure our chances at success now while the rest of the team is in its prime. I actually think also we came out of the expansion draft pretty well, so there aren't too many obvious moves that I can see the team needing to make to help secure things, but there are a few things that could probably help things. I liked the move last offseason to bring in Xavien Adams and help improve the team's secondary, but I think adding another elite option to the unit would really help. Jamie Nkiah is one of the highest TPE safeties in the league, so anything that can be done to support him would definitely help their chances of winning this season. On the offensive side of things, I think we don't have too many glaring holes that need to be addressed, besides strengthening the team's offensive line. We don't currently have any user OL as far as I can tell, so maybe if we were able to bring some into the team it would help provide some protection for Dexter Banks, which as he gets older and further into regression will definitely help him and the way he plays. I think the weapons that the team has provided for their quarterback are certainly good enough to win, but maybe another good option at tight end would help round things out completely. I really don't think we've been set up badly this offseason and probably have the fundamental pieces there to really make a run at things next season, but we could definitely add a couple of pieces to help push us over the edge.
12. First off, I think that expansion was definitely needed. The rapid recruitment the league had gone through in the last couple of seasons meant that there was a bit of a logjam for spots in the ISFL and so it was inevitable that we had to add some more roster spaces into the league. I really like the New York Silverbacks as a brand too, kinda cool riffing on the whole concrete jungle thing and King Kong going to New York and stuff too, it's kinda clever. I think the Berlin Fire Salamanders is probably the worst branding I've ever seen in a sim league though, it looks like it was generated automatically by Madden. The name is horrible to say, the branding is weak and generally just feels super thrown together and weak. I think it's definitely the only team in the league that stands out as being particularly shoddy which sucks but there we go. The balance of power could definitely get a bit more interesting now that we have two new teams added to the league though. With the expansion draft actually allowing teams to pick up some pretty useful players straight out of the gate, there's certainly the opportunity for both teams to be worth watching from the get go. I liked the move from New York to bring in a young quarterback straight out of the gate in Trautner's player, the kind of veteran presence in a league like this who can really help a new team out a lot and give them a stable foundation to build off. I think besides that, both teams look to have pursued a course of building progressively through the draft and free agency rather than going out and making big moves straight off the bat, which I think is probably the most sensible way of doing things. It would be really difficult for a new team to be a legitimate competitor in their very first seasons, so allowing some time for them to get their feet under them will certainly be a more measured approach. I think it will likely be at least two or three seasons before we see both teams really able to compete, but I think that it'll certainly make things more exciting in the league when they're able to do so, and if they are able to do well in the upcoming draft and free agency class they may just be able to surprise a few teams this upcoming season.
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12. First off, I think that expansion was definitely needed. The rapid recruitment the league had gone through in the last couple of seasons meant that there was a bit of a logjam for spots in the ISFL and so it was inevitable that we had to add some more roster spaces into the league. I really like the New York Silverbacks as a brand too, kinda cool riffing on the whole concrete jungle thing and King Kong going to New York and stuff too, it's kinda clever. I think the Berlin Fire Salamanders is probably the worst branding I've ever seen in a sim league though, it looks like it was generated automatically by Madden. The name is horrible to say, the branding is weak and generally just feels super thrown together and weak. I think it's definitely the only team in the league that stands out as being particularly shoddy which sucks but there we go. The balance of power could definitely get a bit more interesting now that we have two new teams added to the league though. With the expansion draft actually allowing teams to pick up some pretty useful players straight out of the gate, there's certainly the opportunity for both teams to be worth watching from the get go. I liked the move from New York to bring in a young quarterback straight out of the gate in Trautner's player, the kind of veteran presence in a league like this who can really help a new team out a lot and give them a stable foundation to build off. I think besides that, both teams look to have pursued a course of building progressively through the draft and free agency rather than going out and making big moves straight off the bat, which I think is probably the most sensible way of doing things. It would be really difficult for a new team to be a legitimate competitor in their very first seasons, so allowing some time for them to get their feet under them will certainly be a more measured approach. I think it will likely be at least two or three seasons before we see both teams really able to compete, but I think that it'll certainly make things more exciting in the league when they're able to do so, and if they are able to do well in the upcoming draft and free agency class they may just be able to surprise a few teams this upcoming season.
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