With the Season 28 ISFL draft coming to a close after a rough and rowdy Saint Patrick’s Day, let’s take a look back and review the safeties taken off the board and by what teams they were taken and how it all fits together. Overall there were six safeties selected in the draft, surprisingly by only five teams as the Colorado Yeti double dipped in the position pool. Another neat little fact to put in your pocket was that all six safeties were drafted in only two rounds, the second (which had four safeties taken) and the fourth (with the final two safeties drafted). It’s not particularly useful information, but kind of interesting nonetheless. For the team fit I will be looking at the active roster for the drafting team at the time of writing this, so any DSFL send downs won’t be included in the analysis, mostly because I don’t have time to dig around for that information, and mostly because I just plain don’t want to. I’ll look at the rostered players, their archetypes, TPE level, and season of creation to evaluate for regression, and beyond that there really isn’t much I can know as I’m not privy to the conversations between the teams and the players selected beyond what notes were left for the commentators in the draft stream. Also I don’t know the free agency status of the players on the teams, so if any of the actives are set to leave for another team I’ll have no idea and won’t be factoring that detail into my evaluations. So with that let’s go ahead and kick things off in the most logical order, by numerical draft position, because honestly how else would you do it, alphabetically? C’mon man, that’s just stupid.
Round 2 Pick 1 (15 Overall) Philadelphia Liberty - Romulus Roman - Tijuana Luchadors
Enforcer - 219 TPE - 49 tackles - 1 sack - 2 INT - 6 Passes Defensed
The Liberty had this to say about the selection: “Seeing Amulus fall to this part of the draft was absolutely stunning, we had a super high grade on him and with Joey advocating hard to actually take him 4th overall, we were excited that we could steal him here. He’s been a lot of fun to talk to and get to know and were excited to have him and Titan in the Locker Room together. Amulus is going to bring an exciting and enthusiastic presence to the locker room and were looking forward to the D&D games we can get out of him”
Considering the Liberty only have two active safeties, one of which is a Season 22 standout Ball hawk (Matt Cross) about to enter regression and the other a Season 23 all-around, which I don’t think is even an archetype anymore, who's been inactive since August of last year, there was a definite need for Philadelphia to get an active user. There is the additional benefit that they don’t have an active safety with the Enforcer archetype that Romulus uses, allowing for a new variation of player in their backfield and an advantage when played in the strong safety slot. Romulus has the second highest TPE total for the safeties drafted this year and was only behind Cole Maxwell by the slimmest of margins. With the clear personality match and future games of D&D on the line, this looks like a perfect match and good value for the first safety off the board, especially if he was truly in contention for the fourth overall selection.
Round 2 Pick 10 (24 Overall) Chicago Butchers - Tim Soulja - Minnesota Grey Ducks
Ball Hawk - 214 TPE - 68 tackles - 4 sacks - 3 INT - 5 Passes Defensed
The Chicago Butchers had the following commentary on their pick: “Painted is one of my favorite users in the whole class, I was actually working the phones trying to trade up for the last several picks to get him. He somehow ended up making it to us so I guess it’s good nobody accepted my trade offer. He was a member of my final draft class as Minnesota’s GM last offseason, he’s super fun in the locker room, he’s a good earner, he does media. We already have two safeties on our squad but Painted is clearly better than ThunderTitan so maybe we’ll just end up cutting him or something, I don’t know”
Obviously the idea of cutting ThunderTitan82 is facetious, as he is the team's highest TPE active safety. Which actually brings up a fairly interesting point in the Chicago backfield is fairly young with a Season 25 Center fielder (Damien Blackfyre AKA ThunderTitan) and a Season 26 Ball hawk (Evan Jones), neither of which are inactive or super low earners, which may make the path to the ISFL longer for Tim. With the effort Chicago put in trying to move up for Tim, this is a clear personality choice over positional need, which I think would generally work out very well for both parties as it shows a real desire to work together. Tim comes in as the draft’s third highest TPE earning safety, again by the tiniest margins behind Cole and Romulus. He was also one of the most productive safeties of the class, logging stats in multiple categories at near class leading levels in each, again indicative of his versatility. If he can continue to earn at the same pace he should be able to overtake Evan as the Ball hawk archetype TPE leader which would help see the field more often. The only downside I could possibly see would be that Tim uses Kirby as his render, and if that guy mains Kirby in Smash that’s a real low-class move, depending on which generation of Smash we’re talking about. I don’t know, I just looked it up and in the latest Smash Bros Ultimate tier list apparently Kirby kinda sucks now, which is weird because he was definitely OP in the original Smash. But enough of that digression. Again, a great fit at an ideal value as the Butchers were able to get their guy, even without the ability to trade up for him.
Round 2 Pick 11 (25 Overall) Colorado Yeti - Cole Maxwell - Dallas Birddogs
Center Fielder - 224 TPE - 31 tackles - 1 INT - 6 Passes Defensed
The Colorado Yeti gave the following notes on their first drafted safety: “He’s a little quiet, but a solid earner and a great guy. I have heard this probably ten times from various league people in regards to Alcott during scouting or even after we made this pick. And I have to be honest, this surprised me a lot. I had the pleasure of having an amazing conversation with Alcott leading up to the draft and honestly thought he had a chance of sneaking into the back end of the first so to find him here late in the second is fantastic value. We feel good in Alcott that we found a defensive cornerstone for seasons to come and look forward to seeing him continue to develop in the league”
With the Yeti also having two fairly young and active safeties on the roster, Season 24 Center fielder Joel Drake and Season 25 Ball hawk NationalSimulation FootballLeague, this is another pick determined by liking the user more than needing a player at the position. Obviously there’s always the chance of losing players to trade or free agency, but after my discussions with the Yeti GM it seems like there is a very high retention rate in Colorado, so this pick appears to be more forward thinking which reflects the statements made by the Yeti in the draft. Cole was the highest TPE earning safety in the Season 28 draft so theoretically if he can continue to match that pace he will be one of the first safeties to be pulled up to the ISFL, even with his counterparts on the team not entering regression for another couple seasons. And with the Colorado GM believing Cole could’ve been drafted as high as the first round, this seems like another great fit with excellent value.
Round 2 Pick 14 (28 Overall) Sarasota Sailfish - Kelvin Harris - Norfolk Seawolves
Enforcer - 199 TPE - 51 tackles - 4 sacks - 3 INT - 7 Passes Defensed
The Sailfish said the following about their selection: “His TPE is a little lower, but I absolutely loved my conversation with him while scouting. And we don’t have a lot of Norfolk representation in Sarasota and I like to keep us varied in users and I really just believe he’s going to be a good safety. I’m really happy to have him on the team”
Sarasota already has three active safeties on their roster, however both center fielder archetypes are already in regression (Season 20 Jamie Nkiah and Season 22 Cuco Clemente) and a fairly young ball hawk in Season 25 Teddy Utterstruzen. This definitely leads to a positional need on the Sailfish’s part. Kelvin is strongly in the middle tier of safety TPE earners for this class, but in a very good position to continue that growth at a steady pace and was statistically the most impressive safety throughout the year. His interception and pass defense numbers are especially impressive considering his archetype is more heavily tailored to defend the run rather than the passing game. With being an enforcer archetype, he will also provide Sarasota with an advantage in the strong safety position they do not currently have, which leads to an excellent positional fit with the team and again, great value at the spot selected. Plus being the reigning ISFL champions generally gives some leeway in drafting for the future.
Round 4 Pick 2 (44 Overall) Austin Copperheads - Chathack’rius Smith IV - Bondi Beach Buccaneers
Ball Hawk - 167 TPE - 48 tackles - 3 INT - 8 Passes Defensed - 1 Forced Fumble
During the draft, the Copperheads gave the following notes on their pick: “I actually personally scouted RockiesFan and had a really good conversation with them, a former PBE user and I believe that they’re only doing ISFL right now so this is another potential big steal. Can always use more bodies to beef up the defense, beef up the secondary. So yeah, Rockies Chathack’rius Smith, welcome to Austin, we’re glad to have you”
Similarly, the Copperheads also have three active safeties on the roster, however they only have one that is in the regression stage (Season 21 enforcer Gregor MacGregor). The other two are still in their relative peaks at Season 25 (enforcer Tony Yeboah) and Season 24 (Center fielder Maverick Bowie), both of which appear to be solid TPE earners as well. Chat, I’m going to call him Chat because honestly forget typing that name out more than once, is the lowest TPE earner of this safety class, but still managed a respectable amount in the season. There is also a good positional fit for Chat on the Copperheads as they are not currently rostering a ball hawk archetype safety, which can help give him the positional flexibility to be used in a variety of roles for Austin. With that and his other sim league experience, I think we have ourselves another good fit at a great value later in the draft.
Round 4 Pick 6 (48 Overall) Colorado Yeti - Lux Opal - Tijuana Luchadores
Enforcer - 172 TPE - 56 tackles - 9 sacks - 1 INT - 1 Pass Defensed
The second of the Colorado safeties drafted received these remarks during the draft: “We still have one name on our board we really wanted the chance to take but thought several teams might snap them up before we got a chance to draft again. After making some calls, we settled on this trade with New York to move up and get the user we wanted, packaging two late picks in this draft plus a third rounder in the next draft that probably doesn’t convey, and even if it does it’s probably an IA. It’s an absolute no brainer to move up for a user we really liked” and “Deep into the fourth round here and Lux was always the pick us and we were able to move up and get her. I absolutely loved Lux in scouting having had a fantastic discussion with her about her favorite documentaries as well as other things. When we took Paz in the third I thought our chances of getting Lux were all but gone, but she continued to drop and we called around trying to move up just to take her. Luckily we found a trade that worked and we’re happy to have her join us here in Colorado. To get an active so late into the draft feels great, but more so we feel strongly we've gotten a fantastic user here. Welcome to the Colorado animal farm Whale”
We already covered the current state of the Yeti defensive backfield, so no need to repeat that information here. A few things stand out from the commentary though, the first of which is obvious by now but clearly the Colorado GM had the most to say about the picks and what they meant to him. Second is that the Yeti really liked Lux by the amount of effort going in to trade up for a fourth round pick which are, by evidence of the trade commentary, largely the inactive leftovers at this point. Lux probably slipped through due to having the second lowest TPE total or maybe angering the other GMs with her preferences in documentaries, who's to say really? Either way, Lux should be an excellent fit for the Yeti as she is an enforcer archetype that isn’t currently rostered by Colorado and can give them an advantage in the strong safety slot, and appears incredibly adept at getting to the QB on blitzes already by those sack numbers, when she is finally called up to the ISFL. Beyond that it definitely sounds like there was another strong connection that helped get the Yeti to pull the trigger on her. Can’t have a good fit without support from the team and it sounds like the Yeti will definitely do everything they can to keep her around.
So there you have it, the next day's grade is that everyone did a good job and for the most part it’s hard to argue any mistakes were made. Could some players have been switched around and still made good drafts for everyone? Sure, that’s always a possibility, but it really seems like the teams got the players they really wanted. It’s hard to say for sure, especially because relationships seem way more important in a league that pays in fake internet dollars to be spent on fake player points and skills, leaving feeling valued and wanted as the most valuable currency. And I’ve only been in the league one season now, but I really think that the locker room fit has to come first, because in a league that is only played behind the keyboard you have to like the person you’re partnering up with or they’ll just leave as quickly as they can and find someone who they do like, or at least like better.
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Round 2 Pick 1 (15 Overall) Philadelphia Liberty - Romulus Roman - Tijuana Luchadors
Enforcer - 219 TPE - 49 tackles - 1 sack - 2 INT - 6 Passes Defensed
The Liberty had this to say about the selection: “Seeing Amulus fall to this part of the draft was absolutely stunning, we had a super high grade on him and with Joey advocating hard to actually take him 4th overall, we were excited that we could steal him here. He’s been a lot of fun to talk to and get to know and were excited to have him and Titan in the Locker Room together. Amulus is going to bring an exciting and enthusiastic presence to the locker room and were looking forward to the D&D games we can get out of him”
Considering the Liberty only have two active safeties, one of which is a Season 22 standout Ball hawk (Matt Cross) about to enter regression and the other a Season 23 all-around, which I don’t think is even an archetype anymore, who's been inactive since August of last year, there was a definite need for Philadelphia to get an active user. There is the additional benefit that they don’t have an active safety with the Enforcer archetype that Romulus uses, allowing for a new variation of player in their backfield and an advantage when played in the strong safety slot. Romulus has the second highest TPE total for the safeties drafted this year and was only behind Cole Maxwell by the slimmest of margins. With the clear personality match and future games of D&D on the line, this looks like a perfect match and good value for the first safety off the board, especially if he was truly in contention for the fourth overall selection.
Round 2 Pick 10 (24 Overall) Chicago Butchers - Tim Soulja - Minnesota Grey Ducks
Ball Hawk - 214 TPE - 68 tackles - 4 sacks - 3 INT - 5 Passes Defensed
The Chicago Butchers had the following commentary on their pick: “Painted is one of my favorite users in the whole class, I was actually working the phones trying to trade up for the last several picks to get him. He somehow ended up making it to us so I guess it’s good nobody accepted my trade offer. He was a member of my final draft class as Minnesota’s GM last offseason, he’s super fun in the locker room, he’s a good earner, he does media. We already have two safeties on our squad but Painted is clearly better than ThunderTitan so maybe we’ll just end up cutting him or something, I don’t know”
Obviously the idea of cutting ThunderTitan82 is facetious, as he is the team's highest TPE active safety. Which actually brings up a fairly interesting point in the Chicago backfield is fairly young with a Season 25 Center fielder (Damien Blackfyre AKA ThunderTitan) and a Season 26 Ball hawk (Evan Jones), neither of which are inactive or super low earners, which may make the path to the ISFL longer for Tim. With the effort Chicago put in trying to move up for Tim, this is a clear personality choice over positional need, which I think would generally work out very well for both parties as it shows a real desire to work together. Tim comes in as the draft’s third highest TPE earning safety, again by the tiniest margins behind Cole and Romulus. He was also one of the most productive safeties of the class, logging stats in multiple categories at near class leading levels in each, again indicative of his versatility. If he can continue to earn at the same pace he should be able to overtake Evan as the Ball hawk archetype TPE leader which would help see the field more often. The only downside I could possibly see would be that Tim uses Kirby as his render, and if that guy mains Kirby in Smash that’s a real low-class move, depending on which generation of Smash we’re talking about. I don’t know, I just looked it up and in the latest Smash Bros Ultimate tier list apparently Kirby kinda sucks now, which is weird because he was definitely OP in the original Smash. But enough of that digression. Again, a great fit at an ideal value as the Butchers were able to get their guy, even without the ability to trade up for him.
Round 2 Pick 11 (25 Overall) Colorado Yeti - Cole Maxwell - Dallas Birddogs
Center Fielder - 224 TPE - 31 tackles - 1 INT - 6 Passes Defensed
The Colorado Yeti gave the following notes on their first drafted safety: “He’s a little quiet, but a solid earner and a great guy. I have heard this probably ten times from various league people in regards to Alcott during scouting or even after we made this pick. And I have to be honest, this surprised me a lot. I had the pleasure of having an amazing conversation with Alcott leading up to the draft and honestly thought he had a chance of sneaking into the back end of the first so to find him here late in the second is fantastic value. We feel good in Alcott that we found a defensive cornerstone for seasons to come and look forward to seeing him continue to develop in the league”
With the Yeti also having two fairly young and active safeties on the roster, Season 24 Center fielder Joel Drake and Season 25 Ball hawk NationalSimulation FootballLeague, this is another pick determined by liking the user more than needing a player at the position. Obviously there’s always the chance of losing players to trade or free agency, but after my discussions with the Yeti GM it seems like there is a very high retention rate in Colorado, so this pick appears to be more forward thinking which reflects the statements made by the Yeti in the draft. Cole was the highest TPE earning safety in the Season 28 draft so theoretically if he can continue to match that pace he will be one of the first safeties to be pulled up to the ISFL, even with his counterparts on the team not entering regression for another couple seasons. And with the Colorado GM believing Cole could’ve been drafted as high as the first round, this seems like another great fit with excellent value.
Round 2 Pick 14 (28 Overall) Sarasota Sailfish - Kelvin Harris - Norfolk Seawolves
Enforcer - 199 TPE - 51 tackles - 4 sacks - 3 INT - 7 Passes Defensed
The Sailfish said the following about their selection: “His TPE is a little lower, but I absolutely loved my conversation with him while scouting. And we don’t have a lot of Norfolk representation in Sarasota and I like to keep us varied in users and I really just believe he’s going to be a good safety. I’m really happy to have him on the team”
Sarasota already has three active safeties on their roster, however both center fielder archetypes are already in regression (Season 20 Jamie Nkiah and Season 22 Cuco Clemente) and a fairly young ball hawk in Season 25 Teddy Utterstruzen. This definitely leads to a positional need on the Sailfish’s part. Kelvin is strongly in the middle tier of safety TPE earners for this class, but in a very good position to continue that growth at a steady pace and was statistically the most impressive safety throughout the year. His interception and pass defense numbers are especially impressive considering his archetype is more heavily tailored to defend the run rather than the passing game. With being an enforcer archetype, he will also provide Sarasota with an advantage in the strong safety position they do not currently have, which leads to an excellent positional fit with the team and again, great value at the spot selected. Plus being the reigning ISFL champions generally gives some leeway in drafting for the future.
Round 4 Pick 2 (44 Overall) Austin Copperheads - Chathack’rius Smith IV - Bondi Beach Buccaneers
Ball Hawk - 167 TPE - 48 tackles - 3 INT - 8 Passes Defensed - 1 Forced Fumble
During the draft, the Copperheads gave the following notes on their pick: “I actually personally scouted RockiesFan and had a really good conversation with them, a former PBE user and I believe that they’re only doing ISFL right now so this is another potential big steal. Can always use more bodies to beef up the defense, beef up the secondary. So yeah, Rockies Chathack’rius Smith, welcome to Austin, we’re glad to have you”
Similarly, the Copperheads also have three active safeties on the roster, however they only have one that is in the regression stage (Season 21 enforcer Gregor MacGregor). The other two are still in their relative peaks at Season 25 (enforcer Tony Yeboah) and Season 24 (Center fielder Maverick Bowie), both of which appear to be solid TPE earners as well. Chat, I’m going to call him Chat because honestly forget typing that name out more than once, is the lowest TPE earner of this safety class, but still managed a respectable amount in the season. There is also a good positional fit for Chat on the Copperheads as they are not currently rostering a ball hawk archetype safety, which can help give him the positional flexibility to be used in a variety of roles for Austin. With that and his other sim league experience, I think we have ourselves another good fit at a great value later in the draft.
Round 4 Pick 6 (48 Overall) Colorado Yeti - Lux Opal - Tijuana Luchadores
Enforcer - 172 TPE - 56 tackles - 9 sacks - 1 INT - 1 Pass Defensed
The second of the Colorado safeties drafted received these remarks during the draft: “We still have one name on our board we really wanted the chance to take but thought several teams might snap them up before we got a chance to draft again. After making some calls, we settled on this trade with New York to move up and get the user we wanted, packaging two late picks in this draft plus a third rounder in the next draft that probably doesn’t convey, and even if it does it’s probably an IA. It’s an absolute no brainer to move up for a user we really liked” and “Deep into the fourth round here and Lux was always the pick us and we were able to move up and get her. I absolutely loved Lux in scouting having had a fantastic discussion with her about her favorite documentaries as well as other things. When we took Paz in the third I thought our chances of getting Lux were all but gone, but she continued to drop and we called around trying to move up just to take her. Luckily we found a trade that worked and we’re happy to have her join us here in Colorado. To get an active so late into the draft feels great, but more so we feel strongly we've gotten a fantastic user here. Welcome to the Colorado animal farm Whale”
We already covered the current state of the Yeti defensive backfield, so no need to repeat that information here. A few things stand out from the commentary though, the first of which is obvious by now but clearly the Colorado GM had the most to say about the picks and what they meant to him. Second is that the Yeti really liked Lux by the amount of effort going in to trade up for a fourth round pick which are, by evidence of the trade commentary, largely the inactive leftovers at this point. Lux probably slipped through due to having the second lowest TPE total or maybe angering the other GMs with her preferences in documentaries, who's to say really? Either way, Lux should be an excellent fit for the Yeti as she is an enforcer archetype that isn’t currently rostered by Colorado and can give them an advantage in the strong safety slot, and appears incredibly adept at getting to the QB on blitzes already by those sack numbers, when she is finally called up to the ISFL. Beyond that it definitely sounds like there was another strong connection that helped get the Yeti to pull the trigger on her. Can’t have a good fit without support from the team and it sounds like the Yeti will definitely do everything they can to keep her around.
So there you have it, the next day's grade is that everyone did a good job and for the most part it’s hard to argue any mistakes were made. Could some players have been switched around and still made good drafts for everyone? Sure, that’s always a possibility, but it really seems like the teams got the players they really wanted. It’s hard to say for sure, especially because relationships seem way more important in a league that pays in fake internet dollars to be spent on fake player points and skills, leaving feeling valued and wanted as the most valuable currency. And I’ve only been in the league one season now, but I really think that the locker room fit has to come first, because in a league that is only played behind the keyboard you have to like the person you’re partnering up with or they’ll just leave as quickly as they can and find someone who they do like, or at least like better.
Word count: 2521