The Portland Pythons finished the second season of the DSFL with an impressive 11-3 record and is the top team heading into the playoffs against their Western conference rival, the Norfolk Seawolves. We’ll recap how the Pythons got to this point starting with season 1.
Season 1
In season 1, the Pythons finished last in the Western conference and tied the Tijuana Luchadores for the worst record in the DSFL. The team was 5th in the league in offense and 4th in the league in defense with Mitch Stars as the starting quarterback. Although he wasn’t the worst quarterback among those who started, he finished the season with 2,807 passing yards, 55.5% completion rate, and 16 touchdowns. The top receiver was Johnathon Shaloiko who finished the season with 84 receptions, 1253 yards, and 4 touchdowns. On defense, they had an amazing linebacker in Noah Goodson and a decent defensive line with Andreas Waiters sacking quarterbacks left and right. Goodson had the 3rd highest tackles in the league that season and Waiters finished with 18 sacks as one of the best defensive players in the DSFL.
So the Pythons weren’t in a terrible spot last season and had some core pieces that laid a good foundation. Goodson would end up going to the big leagues, but fortunately for the Pythons Waiters would come back to play another season.
New Leadership
Anti-Hype went MIA without any notice and RainDelay did his best to hold the team together, but it was difficult to handle it all alone so he decided to step down and find 2 new GMs to take over the Pythons. Enter PDXBaller and Cosbornballboy! PDXBaller was actually from Portland and Cosbornballboy’s been very active in the league since he joined so they were both great candidates for the job despite being new to GMing at the time.
Trades
The first thing the GMs of Portland wanted to do was get some new pieces to form an all new offense that would be fun to watch and exciting to play with. They traded quite a bit to get one of the best quarterbacks available in the DSFL…Jameis Christ. Christ was a former NSFL starting quarterback with a proven history of success and Portland wanted him to start over Stars. The next trade was also with San Antonio to get a new running back to start over Jack Stats so they ended up trading him for John Goose. Goose was the second best running back in the DSFL in season 1 and had the most rushing touchdowns that season. The Pythons weren’t done yet! They traded 2 picks in the S6 draft to Tijuana to get Hingle Mcringleberry to strengthen their linebacker group and then made a last minute trade with Chicago to trade offensive lineman Bernard Forthward to get another running back in David Turner.
Draft
The Pythons had 5 picks in the S4 DSFL draft after giving up a lot of picks to San Antonio. They drafted John Wachter with the second pick in the draft and this surprised everyone since they didn’t consider John a first round prospect. The GMs wanted Christ to have a strong receiver and John was really active before the draft so he was impressive from the get-go. Carlito Crush somehow ended up in the second round which was another surprise and Portland lucked out in picking him for their starting tight end. These 2 players would become the Python's best receivers.
In the 4th round, the Pythons picked safety Cameron Taylor to give their secondary a boost in defense. Taylor wasn’t widely known at the time and would turn out to be one of the more active players from the later rounds of the draft. For the last 2 picks, Portland picked up 2 cornerbacks in the CB heavy draft pool. These guys would help out in game, but didn’t end up being very active overall.
In the supplemental draft, the GMs wanted to upgrade the offensive line and defensive lines and picked up Otto Von Gerhardt, Francois LeMoreux, Tim Tebow, Crith Coalrange, and Busters Brownce. All of these guys were former NSFL players who were sent down and Portland was happy to have them. Portland also used their top position in the waiver wire to pick up a new player in Norman Bagwell for their starting defensive tackle.
Strategy Change
PDXBaller called this the “Strike First Strike Hard” era and wanted to make it exciting with an air based offense and slow gritty defense. They had the best DSFL quarterback to start the season with and 2 receivers in John and Carlito to make it happen. With an upgraded offensive line, the Pythons would be able to end the season with the best passing offense in the league with the most yards overall. On defense, they ended the regular season with the best defense in points, 3rd in the league for rushing defense and 4th in league for passing defense.
We’ll see how the playoffs go for the Pythons since it will be their first time heading into the post season, but they have home field advantage for the West playoffs and the championship if they make it there.
250k to @PDXBaller for helping with research please
GRADED
Season 1
In season 1, the Pythons finished last in the Western conference and tied the Tijuana Luchadores for the worst record in the DSFL. The team was 5th in the league in offense and 4th in the league in defense with Mitch Stars as the starting quarterback. Although he wasn’t the worst quarterback among those who started, he finished the season with 2,807 passing yards, 55.5% completion rate, and 16 touchdowns. The top receiver was Johnathon Shaloiko who finished the season with 84 receptions, 1253 yards, and 4 touchdowns. On defense, they had an amazing linebacker in Noah Goodson and a decent defensive line with Andreas Waiters sacking quarterbacks left and right. Goodson had the 3rd highest tackles in the league that season and Waiters finished with 18 sacks as one of the best defensive players in the DSFL.
So the Pythons weren’t in a terrible spot last season and had some core pieces that laid a good foundation. Goodson would end up going to the big leagues, but fortunately for the Pythons Waiters would come back to play another season.
New Leadership
Anti-Hype went MIA without any notice and RainDelay did his best to hold the team together, but it was difficult to handle it all alone so he decided to step down and find 2 new GMs to take over the Pythons. Enter PDXBaller and Cosbornballboy! PDXBaller was actually from Portland and Cosbornballboy’s been very active in the league since he joined so they were both great candidates for the job despite being new to GMing at the time.
Trades
The first thing the GMs of Portland wanted to do was get some new pieces to form an all new offense that would be fun to watch and exciting to play with. They traded quite a bit to get one of the best quarterbacks available in the DSFL…Jameis Christ. Christ was a former NSFL starting quarterback with a proven history of success and Portland wanted him to start over Stars. The next trade was also with San Antonio to get a new running back to start over Jack Stats so they ended up trading him for John Goose. Goose was the second best running back in the DSFL in season 1 and had the most rushing touchdowns that season. The Pythons weren’t done yet! They traded 2 picks in the S6 draft to Tijuana to get Hingle Mcringleberry to strengthen their linebacker group and then made a last minute trade with Chicago to trade offensive lineman Bernard Forthward to get another running back in David Turner.
Draft
The Pythons had 5 picks in the S4 DSFL draft after giving up a lot of picks to San Antonio. They drafted John Wachter with the second pick in the draft and this surprised everyone since they didn’t consider John a first round prospect. The GMs wanted Christ to have a strong receiver and John was really active before the draft so he was impressive from the get-go. Carlito Crush somehow ended up in the second round which was another surprise and Portland lucked out in picking him for their starting tight end. These 2 players would become the Python's best receivers.
In the 4th round, the Pythons picked safety Cameron Taylor to give their secondary a boost in defense. Taylor wasn’t widely known at the time and would turn out to be one of the more active players from the later rounds of the draft. For the last 2 picks, Portland picked up 2 cornerbacks in the CB heavy draft pool. These guys would help out in game, but didn’t end up being very active overall.
In the supplemental draft, the GMs wanted to upgrade the offensive line and defensive lines and picked up Otto Von Gerhardt, Francois LeMoreux, Tim Tebow, Crith Coalrange, and Busters Brownce. All of these guys were former NSFL players who were sent down and Portland was happy to have them. Portland also used their top position in the waiver wire to pick up a new player in Norman Bagwell for their starting defensive tackle.
Strategy Change
PDXBaller called this the “Strike First Strike Hard” era and wanted to make it exciting with an air based offense and slow gritty defense. They had the best DSFL quarterback to start the season with and 2 receivers in John and Carlito to make it happen. With an upgraded offensive line, the Pythons would be able to end the season with the best passing offense in the league with the most yards overall. On defense, they ended the regular season with the best defense in points, 3rd in the league for rushing defense and 4th in league for passing defense.
We’ll see how the playoffs go for the Pythons since it will be their first time heading into the post season, but they have home field advantage for the West playoffs and the championship if they make it there.
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861 words. Ready for grading.250k to @PDXBaller for helping with research please
GRADED
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