12.
The team I want to call out for as having a great season last year is none other than the New Orleans Secondline. Before the season started, I had personally given the Secondline no chance of making the playoffs and thought they would be the bottom dweller of the ASFC. Instead, the team surprised me with a very solid 9-7 record to conclude the year. They even gave New York a scare in the first round of the playoffs and wound up being the closest team to beating the future champions during their playoff run.
Looking at the statistics for the Secondline, nothing immediately jumps out in terms of overall offense or defense. Instead, a closer look is needed to see that the Secondline's strength comes from one area in particular, their wide receiver corps. The group was lead by Bodenheimer who had over fourteen hundred yards receiving as well as hitting double digits touchdowns with eleven. His teammate Ed Barker was right on his heels with thirteen hundred yards through the air and eight touchdowns of his own. Even the rookie Quinton crash put up solid numbers with six hundred yards and six touchdowns for the team. Overall, this potent unit allowed the team to make the playoffs and established themselves as one of the best in the league.
If there is one place that the Secondline can improve, it would be in the backfield at the running back position. While Rotchburns is not the worst back by any stretch of the imagination, there is still a little left to be desired for the Secondline. While the running back had over one thousand yards, his yards per carry were under four which is not where a team wants to be. Remus Roman was able to break the four yard a carry barrier, however it was not nearly on the same amount of touches and thus hard to gauge how successful he will be if carries are bulked up.
Overall, there is a lot the Secondline should be happy with for this season. A strong season could lead more players to being attracted to the team in free agency and the Secondline may be able to continue to build through the draft. I think the Secondline should be very happy with the outcome of this season and the rest of the league should take note of the strong performance turned in by the GMs and players of the team. The Secondline may be building something great in New Orleans.
13.
Expansion is something that is heavily talked about within this league, and it is something that I do not think yet think should happen. While I'm sure there are arguments to be made, logjams at QB, WR, and RB, I think there are equal arguments to be made that there are positions that are far less saturated and thus expanding the team pool could cause additional problems.
First and foremost, we just don't have the offensive line numbers yet to move one. While bots have filled in, it is an inelegant solution. Right now 46 offensive lineman are present in the ISFL. That would be just over 3 per team. This means on average, a team is using 2 bots on their offensive line. If we were to expand the league by the minimum of two teams, the average offensive line count would slip to just under 3 per team which is still quite far away from a desirable number.
Tight end is another position that needs to be considered before expansion is passed. Right now there are sixteen tight ends in the ISFL or just above one per team. If we look at real formations used in our simulation software, we will see there are plenty of plays that are run using a two tight end set. With only just over one tight end per team, this would suggest that another position, most likely a wide receiver, is running tight end in those sets. If we were to expand the league to sixteen teams, we would find exactly one tight end per roster. I do not think this would be ideal and the danger loom of less than one tight end existing per team or the need to have under max DSFL players joining main rosters.
Finally, I would like to point out the hypothetical log jam at Wide Receiver is not really as bad as many claim it to be. With 39 wide receivers at the ISFL level, there are less than 3 per team. Three wide receiver sets are incredibly common in the sim and thus most teams are unable to even fully run this formation and require the use of a tight end as a receiver. While I know that the TPE requirements for a wide receiver are high, I am not certain we are at the point where expansion is needed for this position. Overall, I feel receivers just need to accept being a 3rd wide receiver at the start of their career and possibly a 2nd wide receiver for a bit longer than existed previously within the ISFL.
I disagree that expansion is needed right now for the ISFL. I think we are still too short on a few positions and thus should focus efforts on making those positions more attractive for members. With all that said, I do think we are close to the need for expansion. Another large reddit class could push us over so the talk about expansion and how it would be best implemented should remain in the league so we are fully ready to go when the need is more apparent.
The team I want to call out for as having a great season last year is none other than the New Orleans Secondline. Before the season started, I had personally given the Secondline no chance of making the playoffs and thought they would be the bottom dweller of the ASFC. Instead, the team surprised me with a very solid 9-7 record to conclude the year. They even gave New York a scare in the first round of the playoffs and wound up being the closest team to beating the future champions during their playoff run.
Looking at the statistics for the Secondline, nothing immediately jumps out in terms of overall offense or defense. Instead, a closer look is needed to see that the Secondline's strength comes from one area in particular, their wide receiver corps. The group was lead by Bodenheimer who had over fourteen hundred yards receiving as well as hitting double digits touchdowns with eleven. His teammate Ed Barker was right on his heels with thirteen hundred yards through the air and eight touchdowns of his own. Even the rookie Quinton crash put up solid numbers with six hundred yards and six touchdowns for the team. Overall, this potent unit allowed the team to make the playoffs and established themselves as one of the best in the league.
If there is one place that the Secondline can improve, it would be in the backfield at the running back position. While Rotchburns is not the worst back by any stretch of the imagination, there is still a little left to be desired for the Secondline. While the running back had over one thousand yards, his yards per carry were under four which is not where a team wants to be. Remus Roman was able to break the four yard a carry barrier, however it was not nearly on the same amount of touches and thus hard to gauge how successful he will be if carries are bulked up.
Overall, there is a lot the Secondline should be happy with for this season. A strong season could lead more players to being attracted to the team in free agency and the Secondline may be able to continue to build through the draft. I think the Secondline should be very happy with the outcome of this season and the rest of the league should take note of the strong performance turned in by the GMs and players of the team. The Secondline may be building something great in New Orleans.
13.
Expansion is something that is heavily talked about within this league, and it is something that I do not think yet think should happen. While I'm sure there are arguments to be made, logjams at QB, WR, and RB, I think there are equal arguments to be made that there are positions that are far less saturated and thus expanding the team pool could cause additional problems.
First and foremost, we just don't have the offensive line numbers yet to move one. While bots have filled in, it is an inelegant solution. Right now 46 offensive lineman are present in the ISFL. That would be just over 3 per team. This means on average, a team is using 2 bots on their offensive line. If we were to expand the league by the minimum of two teams, the average offensive line count would slip to just under 3 per team which is still quite far away from a desirable number.
Tight end is another position that needs to be considered before expansion is passed. Right now there are sixteen tight ends in the ISFL or just above one per team. If we look at real formations used in our simulation software, we will see there are plenty of plays that are run using a two tight end set. With only just over one tight end per team, this would suggest that another position, most likely a wide receiver, is running tight end in those sets. If we were to expand the league to sixteen teams, we would find exactly one tight end per roster. I do not think this would be ideal and the danger loom of less than one tight end existing per team or the need to have under max DSFL players joining main rosters.
Finally, I would like to point out the hypothetical log jam at Wide Receiver is not really as bad as many claim it to be. With 39 wide receivers at the ISFL level, there are less than 3 per team. Three wide receiver sets are incredibly common in the sim and thus most teams are unable to even fully run this formation and require the use of a tight end as a receiver. While I know that the TPE requirements for a wide receiver are high, I am not certain we are at the point where expansion is needed for this position. Overall, I feel receivers just need to accept being a 3rd wide receiver at the start of their career and possibly a 2nd wide receiver for a bit longer than existed previously within the ISFL.
I disagree that expansion is needed right now for the ISFL. I think we are still too short on a few positions and thus should focus efforts on making those positions more attractive for members. With all that said, I do think we are close to the need for expansion. Another large reddit class could push us over so the talk about expansion and how it would be best implemented should remain in the league so we are fully ready to go when the need is more apparent.