08-20-2023, 02:30 PM
(This post was last modified: 08-22-2023, 09:20 AM by lemonoppy. Edited 2 times in total.)
negs' Roster
The GOAT leads an Air Raid
QB: Wendell SailorThe GOAT leads an Air Raid
RB: Dante King
RB: Sam Torenson
WR: Bradley Westfield
WR: Tugg Speedman
TE: Borgo San Lorenzo
OFlex: Jake Fencik
OL: Swantavius Payne
DL: Fuego Wozy
DL: Daron Arnold
DL: Marlon Brando
LB: Austin Roenick
LB: Rumble Ronson
LB: Spicy Ron
LB: Ernest lover
CB: Rich Triplet
CB: Maverick Bowie
S: Mason Brown
S: Jasper Fontaine
K/P: Venus Powers
Strengths: QB, WR
Weaknesses: LB, RB, S
Every roster of this project has something that I consider a weakness. Negs got a bit unlucky, in that Mike Boss is a good enough substitute for Sailor for another pick to maybe be better, but also lucked out, in that their team gets to boast Wendell Sailor, who is just the best QB of all time. And he gets to pass to one of the best, if not the single best, trio of WRs that a team has access to. There's a couple other places that I think are nearly strengths; the CBs are great, Powers is great, and for picking DLine so late in the draft, it turned out really, really well, even if it's still on the weaker end. But this team does have significant flaws; there's no team with a worse RB1 than Sam Torenson or Dante King, and I'd argue only one other team has anywhere near as weak an RB group overall. And these 4 LBs include two of the worst in the entire draft, and lack any top tier talent in that are to make up for that. The Secondary is great, but suffers from their S1 actually being an LB, the passing offense is in my opinion the single best, but the weak front 7 and the poor RBs pigeonhole this team into one that is going to suffer in the two aspects that, to be fair, are the most reasonable aspects to overcome in a poor rush offense and a poor rush defense.
MobiasGrander's Roster
The Team Without Strengths
QB: Carter KnightThe Team Without Strengths
RB: Lalu Muhammad Zohri
RB: Busch Goose
WR: Jackson Kingston
WR: Nick Kaepercolin Jr
TE: Luscious Salem
OFlex: Danny Ndelko
OL: Jaja Ding Dong
DL: Medicinal Toblerone
DL: Carly Rae Jensen
DL: Nathen Meagher
LB: Bender Rodriguez
LB: Sheriff Woody
LB: Solace Avenger
LB: Carrisa Van Campen
CB: Andrew Witten
CB: David Rector
S: Regina Ferraro
S: Chim Rickles
K/P: Jacob Small
Strengths: None
Weaknesses: RB, DL, S
This team, to be fair, was close to having strengths. The CBs are one great player off, same with the LBs, if Jackson Kingston was better then the WRs would be a strength, Carter Knight is the best QB to not be the best QB of his generation, but as is this is what we're left with. Even with a strength of some sort this would still be a team full of holes. This is the worst group of RBs and in my opinion isn't boosted at all by choosing Danny Nedelko as the OFlex, as is the Linebacker corps is half great to good and half not, the safeties might be the worst pair that doesn't involve accidentally picking an LB in the process, and this is in my opinion the 2nd worst DLine in the entire group. I could be argued to pick a couple others instead, but suffice to say there's 3 different teams that are in the bottom tier of DLines and they are all a steep dropoff from the rest of the pack.
simo's Roster
One Different Pick and I might think this was the Best
QB: Mattathias CalibanOne Different Pick and I might think this was the Best
RB: Jay Cue Jr.
RB: Lonnie Jackson
WR: Taro Raimon
WR: Cole Maxwell
TE: Deshawn Penne
OFlex: Buster Bawlls
OL: Stumpy Jones
DL: Chuck Roth
DL: David Moyes
DL: Godfrey King
DL: Freezer Riposte
LB: Bam Bam McMullet
LB: Xavier Walls
LB: Glenn Smart
CB: Lip Gallagher
CB: Brandon Booker
S: Blackford Oakes
S: Orpheus Czargyros
K/P: Kulture Future
Strengths: DL, CB, K/P
Weaknesses: QB, TE
This comes down very much to the first pick of Simo's draft. Instead of picking Mike Boss, he picked Jay Cue Jr, a running back so legendary that I almost ended up giving simo's roster a strength in RB despite thinking that Lonnie Jackson is one of the weakest RBs that anyone ended up drafting. But, instead of Boss, or at least a QB who I don't hate, we have Caliban, who I think ends up as the 2nd weakest QB in the draft. The weapons he's throwing to are not the strongest in this group, either; there are much better receiving RBs than either Cue or Jackson, the WRs are fine but not excellent, and Deshawn Penne remains on the weaker end of TEs in this draft. The defense is great, albeit not the best; the safeties and LBs are more average than excellent, though the CBs and DLine are really strong. In the end, this just ends up feeling like a significant downgrade of a different team in this project. Not bad, per se, but not excellent enough to be in the top tiers.
Frostbite's Roster
The Closest Roster to one Without Weakness
The Closest Roster to one Without Weakness
QB: Mike Boss
RB: Goat Tank
RB: Dax Frost
WR: Trey Willie
WR: Carlito Crush
TE: Johnny Blaze
OFlex: Forrest Gump
OL: Byron Dolls
DL: Dan Miller
DL: HonkyTonk Haywood
DL: D'Pez Poopsie
DL: Grayson Kuusela
LB: Derred De Ville
LB: Boss Tweed
LB: Jack Banks
CB: Harrison Andrews
CB: Benson Bailey
S: Spike Daniels
S: Eugene Smoothie
K/P: Dean Jackson
Strengths: QB, RB,
Weaknesses: OL
No part of this lineup stands out immensely to me outside of Boss. The RBs and LBs are good, but in my opinion not the absolute best the league has; similar things can be said about the DLine, the WRs, and the TE. The choice in Kicker is great everywhere that is not in long field goal range specifically; in that area Jackson is the worst among every kicker drafted. But with that being said, outside of what is in my opinion the single worst OL drafted of the ten, this is a roster that feels almost flawless. That being said, while I wouldn't classify either the CBs or the Safeties as full on weaknesses, they're both below average for the league and mean that one of the other top tier passing offenses in this group could have a field day. That doesn't change that, at least in part due to getting Boss all the way at 4th, this is one of the best teams in the entire group.
Modern Duke's Roster
The Better Version of simo's Team
The Better Version of simo's Team
QB: Borkus Maximus III
RB: Marquise Brown
RB: Reg Macworthy
WR: Vinny Valentine
WR: Errol Maddox
TE: Paul DiMirio
OFlex: Apollo Reed
OL: Adam Mellot
DL: Jayce Tuck
DL: Immanuel Blackstone
DL: Lennay Kekua
LB: Harrif Ernston
LB: Raymond Vans
LB: Ian Bavitz
LB: Brian Mills
CB: Dermot Lavelle
CB: Willie Miller
S: Cuco Clemente
S: Lennox Garnett
K/P: Alex Dasistirklichseinnachname
Strengths: TE, CB, S, K/P
Weaknesses: WR, LB
Valentine and Maddox are a pretty poor pair of WRs. As legendary as Borkus Maximus III is, he's still on the weaker end of the QBs in this draft in my estimation. This is what I believe to be the 3rd weakest set of LBs among the 10 teams. And yet, with that in mind, I still voted for this team right after the draft finished because of how amazing Duke's defense is. I believe it boasts a DL right outside of the Strength range and the single best Secondary in the league. This is a team that doesn't have a strong passing offense, but is perfectly tooled to drag even the best down to its level. And it's not like Paul DiMirio isn't a weapon to fear even considering the relatively poor WR group.
Infinitempg's Roster
One Team for Old Men
One Team for Old Men
QB: Franklin Armstrong
RB: Owen Taylor
RB: Darren Smallwood
WR: Josh Garden
WR: James Bishop
TE: Austin McCormick
OFlex: Ashley Owens
OL: Giveusaffare Rubbe
DL: Brock Weathers III
DL: Eli Kamaka
DL: Nick Pierno
LB: Angus Winchester
LB: Mo Berry
LB: Alex Selich
LB: Quinton Bode
CB: Andre Bly Jr.
CB: Marc Spector
S: Walt Green
S: Shawn Dawkins
K/P: Micycle McCormick
Strengths: QB, LB, K/P
Weaknesses: DL, S
Franklin Armstrong is arguably the hardest QB to completely stop in league history; his passing is good albeit poor compared to the rest of the class, but his rushing is the best in league history. Which honestly makes the decision to take a 3rd RB with OFlex feel even less justifiable, especially considering I don't like Ashley Owens that much, and the WRs are very middling. But overall, this is a team that might have the best top end talent of the entire draft; Rubbe, the LBs other than Bode, Armstrong, Taylor, Garden, McCormick...but this team falls off a cliff in a few areas; most notably, this might be the single worst pair of Safeties in the draft, and added to a below average pair of CBs makes me think that this is one of the two worst secondaries of any roster. Also, this is what I believe to be the 3rd worst group at DL; it took significant drafting mistakes from a couple people to be worse. The major problem with Infinite's team is that well over half the defense is worse than the average player picked there from my perspective; the great LBs outside of Bode do not make up for that even if they'll be wonderful fantasy pickups.
Rusfan's Roster
At Least it has a Strength
At Least it has a Strength
QB: Cooter Bigsby
RB: Jamar Lackson
RB: Michaelangelo McTurtle
WR: William Lim
WR: Mark Walker
TE: Heath Evans
OFlex: Tychondrius Hood
OL: Beniri T'Chawama
DL: Tyler Montain
DL: Leonardo McTurtle
DL: Asher Montain
DL: Rapid Eagle
LB: Juan Domine
LB: Kahn Cussion
LB: Gary Goodman
CB: Quendyn Quarterstorm
CB: Albert Ruschman
S: Mason Blaylock
S: Dee Walt
K/P: Stephen Harris
Strengths: WR
Weaknesses: QB, DL, CB
The best thing I can say about this team is that it has 2 good to great WRs. That's about it. This team is the only one with a pair of CBs worse than mine, this team has a bad LB group that barely missed me classifying it as a weakness, it's got what I think is the worst DL in the entire draft, and to top it all off this team boasts what I feel is the single worst QB of the 10 drafted. He's inefficient, without the volume or playoff heroics of Maximus, his yards per carry is a mirage considering how little he actually carried the football, and he doesn't have the stats or the period dominance to make up for his own shortcomings.
Zayn's Roster
Peak over Longevity Incarnate
QB: Childish Gambino
RB: Tatsu Nakamura
RB: Jarvis Harbinger-Marjin
WR: Vladimir Fyodorovich
WR: Howard Miller
TE: Verso L'Alto
OFlex: Alexander LeClair
OL: Manhattan Project
DL: Bubba Thumper
DL: Christian Marciano
DL: Kurt Hendrix
DL: Brick Van Sanzo
LB: Galf Wilf
LB: Jonathon Saint
LB: Jaylon Lee
CB: Kalam Mekhar
CB: Dermot Levelle jr
S: Danny Grithead
S: William H. Harrison
K/P: Turk Turkleton
Strengths: QB, RB, LB, CB, S
Weaknesses: QB, K/P
This is what I think is the best team in the league for 2 seasons, will be reasonable one other season, and then will be profoundly awful for the entire rest of its existence. Gambino is notably the holder of 2 of the greatest seasons by Passer Rating in the Old Sim, and has the single highest Playoff Passer Rating in ISFL history. He's one of the highest players in terms of Passer Rating from the Old Sim, and is surrounded by what might be the single best offense in the league. In hindsight, I was WAY too harsh by rating Tatsu Nakamura a D in the first round; it made sense for Jay Cue Jr when Boss and Armstrong were still on the board, but after they went Nakamura was a fine pick. In the end, this is a team with one of the best TEs ever, three really strong wideouts, and 3 different defensive positional groups with arguments to be the best in the draft once you get past the below average but still serviceable DLine. So what are the weaknesses? A kicker who is, statistically, one of the lesser ones in this draft no matter how many awards he ended up getting, and the fact that Gambino played 4 seasons. One of those seasons was fine and managed to win the QBotY in a season with no outstanding competition, two of them as mentioned above were all time greats, and one was awful. After those 4 seasons, Gambino retired. And Gambino played only 5 playoff games, had less than 200 attempts, and thus it's a little harder for me to call him a legendary playoff QB than his stats seem to show at first. What this means is that Zayn will be the worst team in the league outside of the seasons he will be the best. So I ended up calling QB both a weakness and a strength.
DarknessRising
The S20s Wraiths and Friends
The S20s Wraiths and Friends
QB: Colby Jack
RB: Mathias Hanyadi
RB: John Huntsman
WR: Kai Sakura
WR: Nate Swift
TE: Mister Hogmally
OFlex: Mako Mendoca
OL: Bruce Buckley
DL: Nero Alexander
DL: Big Edd
DL: Raphael McTurtle
DL: Son Goku
LB: Julian O'Sullivan
LB: Zephyr Greywolf
LB: Douglas Quaid
CB: Antoine Delacour
CB: John Canton
S: Dan Schneider
S: Cameron Taylor
K/P: Swantavius King
Strengths: DL, WR
Weaknesses: TE, K/P
The user behind Kai Sakura decided to draft a ton of players who were around him on the best team of the 20s. This leads to a team that, in my opinion, is still on the weaker end of the group. It has a strong DL, a decent QB, a good pair of WRs, but I really don't like the secondary; Delacour and Schneider are great secondary picks, but Canton's only great in the context of being the last CB pick of the draft and is still well below the average for this draft, while Taylor legitimately is awful and basically singlehandedly prevented me from giving a duo with Dan Schneider as one of the safeties a Strength score. The LBs are basically average at best, Quaid's well below average by my estimation, and Swantavius King is by far the worst kicker in the group, though he's arguably the best punter so King is only profoundly awful from the distances of 40-49 yards out specifically. Also, while having the worst TE might be the most acceptable thing to be worst in, that doesn't change that Mister Hogmally is the worst TE of this entire draft. The RBs are fine but not exceptional, Bruce Buckley might be the best OL in league history but I can't really call it a strength when the dropoff from him to OL6 or so is so minuscule, and Colby Jack, funnily enough, is one of very few people in league history who might have been throwing to a better slate of WRs and TE than he ends up throwing to on this team. To say nothing of how Bruce Buckley wasn't the only OL on his line.
Let'splay's Roster
The Best Between the Hash Marks, the Worst Outside them
The Best Between the Hash Marks, the Worst Outside them
QB: Dexter Zaylren
RB: Zoe Watts
RB: Cobra Kai
WR: Kazimir Oles
WR: Saba Donut
TE: James Angler
OFlex: Ed Barker
OL: Icebox Riposte
DL: Leonard Taylor
DL: Joseph Reed
DL: Thorian Skarsgard
LB: Big Slammu
LB: Melvin Murder-Moose
LB: L'Gazzy Burfict
LB: don't draft
CB: Johnny Snuggles
CB: Dan Foster
S: Richard D'Attoria
S: Jaylen Broxton
K/P: Matty McDairmid
Strengths: DL, S
Weaknesses: CB, WR
I feel like calling my WRs a weakness might be catastrophizing a bit, I believe I'm bringing 3 HOF level WRs to the table and it's not like they're that bad of a weakness when they're being buoyed by the best WR-Cosplaying-As-TE ever in Angler and 2 great receiving backs as well. The real issue with my team is that it has the 2nd worst pair of CBs in the group; Dan Foster in particular is one of the worst CBs anyone picked, and Snuggles is just outside of the bottom 5 by my reckoning. The Safeties are amazing, especially for not getting one of the top tiers, the LBs are great and just outside the point where I'd call them a strength, this team has easily the best DL in the draft, and Zaylren is if nothing else more than a good enough QB to get this team to the playoffs and then tear it up. But this team is only saved from having the worst pass defense in the league via the strength of its Safeties and the strength of the DL.
Team Tier List:
A: Zayn w/Peak Gambino, Modern Duke, Frost
B: Infinite, Let'splay
C: Negs, Zayn w/out Peak Gambino, Darkness Rising, Simo
D: Empty
F: MobiasGrander, Rusfan
This project took a ton out of me but I'm very happy to have it done. Thank you for following along, and thank you for the support, comments, and salt that inevitably will come as a result of this article.