(S2) - Weekend PT #1 - Draft Prep

[Admin]

This PT will run for the weekend only.

Its almost draft time and teams are working hard in their war rooms! Dreams will be made on draft day.

Your Task:
Written: Put yourself in the shoes of an NSFL GM. What is going in in your war room? How are you preparing for the draft? Must be at least 200 words

Or

Grafx: Create a newspaper or magazie advertisement hyping up the draft

Gain
2 TPE for completing the task in full

Deadline: Sunday night, 11:59PM PST

[Bwestfield]

A GM’s job is never ending. Today we are focusing on the S2 draft. As a GM I am constantly reviewing and analyzing play by plays, player builds, and play activity. I have good feelings I know who will be where in each round and with each pick so I can better get the best deal for my dollar when it comes to drafting these talented rookies. Nothing is for certain though so I must do my due diligence on every player even if I don’t think he will even be there when it is my turn to draft. During this time I am working with my CO-GM and staff in order to get all these players in some sort of order. The war room is hectic, phones going off, people yelling, papers everywhere. Organization is clutch, but that doesn’t mean chaos wont rear its ugly head. All I know is that I want my entire organization to be on the same page once our draft pick comes up. We should all know who we want and where. No picking a guy too early or waiting too long and losing him. When the pick arrives and the commissioner tells everyone that we are on the clock, you will see our pick immediately. There will be no fancy show or long delays. The future of the team is in my hands and I plan on delivering.

Code:

235 words

[Noppadet]

[ErMurazor]

While other General Managers in the league are in full on panic mode I’m mostly just chilling. We got a head start on the process and have plenty of time to finish up our draft work. I have talked to the prospects, I’ve talked to our guys, I’ve made contact with some other key general managers in the league, and I’m pretty prepared. Sure I get a couple phone calls every now and then and I’m picking up and listening. But I think I’m going to take this weekend off. Sit back with some bourbon and a couple of Cubans, and relax. It pays to be proactive. I have a good idea of who I want to take, and next week I am going to be ready to hit the ground running. For now it’s all about keeping my ear to the ground and getting a little bit of R and R before the big event. I’m still returning calls, but I’m not reaching out to every prospect’s families to find out what they like to eat for dinner or how they put the toilet paper into the holder. It’s a long season and I know that to make it down the final stretch you’ve got to pace yourself. I’m not panicking, I know I will be ready come draft day.

[4D Chess]

If I were in charge of an NSFL franchise (and who knows, maybe one day that will happen) the feeling I’d get on draft day would be a hybrid combination of Christmas morning as a kid and a general watching his troops battle through the fog of war. The GMs (especially the 2 expansion teams) get the chance not only to selected talented prospects, but to build a culture and lay a foundation for their team in the season ahead. At this early point of the league’s history, you’d have to believe that General Managers will be going for the best prospect available regardless of depth of openings at each position. While some GMs will hesitate to draft a position where they already have users, my philosophy would be to draft talent regardless of position because you simply never know when a player may go inactive. If you have a chance to draft an active user (see: Kevin Cushing and C.A. Chess) you should hop on that opportunity, because while it’s fun to discuss builds and GMs have loyalties to some of their players the simple fact is nothing is a suitable replacement for hard work. The war rooms will be bustling, and while the GMs likely have a plan for what they’d like to do some team WILL make a shock choice in the early rounds, causing the entire draft to re-calibrate -- and it is in that moment is where the average GMs get separated from the legendary ones.

[DrunkenTeddy]

I don't envy the position the GMs are in, having to look at all these possible draft picks and coming up with some sort of ranking to use for picking your draft picks when the time comes. Personally I would be looking for character guys first, the guys who seem extremely active on the site and potentially in the locker room. The more active your new players are the more other players are encouraged to stick around and keep pushing through. After looking at activity you can take a look at how much work they've put in up to this point. Have they written large articles or made graphics to pad their bank accounts and are they completing as many tasks as they can to make sure they are earning the maximum TPE? Once you have this all down on paper (spreadsheet), you can work from there to come up with a ranking for the draftees. If it was me I would also be reaching out to as many draftees as possible and getting a feel for how they would fit in the room. You don't want to end up drafting someone who would divide your room and make for a bunch of drama. That's the kind of thing that would scare players off from signing with you in free agency or renewing their contracts.

[HalfEatenOnionBagel]

It’s draft day and your team is on the clock. You and your staff have spent months preparing for this moment; countless hours watching tape, interviewing players, pouring over spreadsheets full of measurables and statistics. Name, School, Height, weight, 40 time. Five minutes ago you were completely calm and collected, now those names and numbers buzz through your mind like a swarm of angry hornets. You can feel the sweat gather on your brow as a ringing in your ears drowns out the noise in the room. You glance to the top of your draft board and see one name that stands alone. It’s sitting there, it’s so easy. This is your guy; he checks all the boxes, he’s a can’t miss prospect! But…..what if he’s not? What if that injury comes back? What if he’s a bust? There’s so many people depending on you to make the right choice: your staff, your players, the fans, but maybe most of all yourself. You can’t afford to have another losing season. You turn to you head coach who’s sitting next to you and through the haze that fills your mind, his voice manages to come through like a foghorn, “What are you waiting for?” The clock is slowly ticking down, there’s not much you can do now. “Trust the process, trust the process,” you mumble to yourself, recalling the motto you and your staff have lived by this offseason. You take a sip of water and then reach for the phone with trembling hands to call in the pick.

[bovovovo]

“Um … Where is everybody?”

The Marriott hotel ballroom we had rented out to use as our draft war room was completely empty, save for four tables pushed up against the walls and a few chairs. Kevin Spuddington was there too, one of our “administrative interns.” (Really he just fetched us coffee and office supplies for free in return for “real world experience”). I knew the draft wasn’t for another hour, but I had asked all of my employees to arrive two hours before the draft. Not even Larry LeLamp, my co-GM, was here!

“I don’t know,” Kevin sheepishly responded.

“Well, we might as well get everything together.”

We pushed the tables together in the middle of the room. Kevin brought out two waterbottles for us and sat next to me at the mega-table we had just created as I read over my notes using my notepad and tablet. Fifteen minutes passed before I finally called Larry LeLamp to ask where everybody was.

“Larry, what do you mean you're at the Hilton? We’ve always done this at the Marriott!” I exclaimed.

“Sorry sir, the Marriott told us all of the rooms were booked! I thought someone told you?”

“They have our team logo hung up on the wall for us, we definitely have this room booked.”

As it turns out, Kevin had forgotten to tell us that he had booked the room already, so when LeLamp tried to book it himself the Marriott told him the rooms were all filled and he and the other scouts went to the Hilton instead.

“Looks like it’s just you and me, Kevin.” I wondered if this was the first time in NSFL history that a draft war room consisted of only two people.






(290 words)

[Admin]

The draft is the busiest time of the year for an NSFL General Manager. Pre draft scouting, interviews, and rankings will take up the majority of time for the 16 general managers this off season as they prepare to set their teams up for success with future superstars. It all starts right around playoff time. This is when new prospects start to catch these GMs eyes. From there begins hours and hours of interviews and scouting on these players. GMs got a chance to see many of these players during the prospects championship and it was an excellent opportunity for the prospects to show what they could do against the best of their peers. The scouting and interview process will be the majority of the work put in by the GMs, but once they have a good grasp on the prospects they then need to assemble rankings. Some GMs will set up a big board and others may just rank by position and then see which positions they feel they need most. The great GMs will take the time to do both, and may even set up tiers for their rankings. Once draft day comes all the work comes together and all of their work is put to the test. Which teams have prepared the best, and who will get tomorrow's superstars? We won't know until draft day but you can bet the GMs and prospects can't wait.

238 words

[PigSnout]

The key to a successful draft is putting together a strong big board. A GM must work for months ahead of the draft scouting each player and ranking them on a board. Players are evaluated based on their activity level and their fit on the team. Generally position is factored in to the rankings, with players at premium positions like offensive line being higher than players of similar skill at less needed positions. The big board helps maintain order and calmness in the war room. Despite the turmoil and craziness of the draft, the GM can simply stick to the board, which has been prepared through months of research, and gave a good draft. Having a board to stick to can help prevent disasters when the draft goes haywire. GMs can ignore crazy moves made by other GMs by sticking to their board and taking the highest player available. When trade talks inevitably arise, GMs can use their board as a guide to judge how much value they would gain or lose by taking the deal. Given how uncertain and surprising the draft can be, it can be a blessing for a GM to have one universal board that provides them with guidance to navigate the tumult of draft night.

210 Words