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Following up on last season's initiative I'm posting a running commentary of Little Rock's 2033 Offseason. Comments welcome and hopefully it will prompt one or two others to do the same with their teams. Let's ramp up the GM participation!
COACHING CHANGES
I thought last season's staff did a decent job especially on offense where we finished 2nd in yards and points. With this group we did get to within 2 points of making it to the Front Office Bowl (thanks again for that StevenE!) but there were two problems that I wanted to fix for the 2033 season: Penalties and Defensive Playcalling.
With the franchise having the second best financial performance for the year we found ourselves with the 2nd overall pick in the Staff Draft and we had the opportunity, and scored, on one of those two priorities by signing Lou Howle as our new DC.
I've noticed a decent improvement on offense/defense in my other MP teams when the coordinator had a higher playcalling skill. Even though our former DC Jesus Stratton had an average rating in playcalling, Howle has a rating of about 80 and is better than Stratton (dare I say better than Jesus?) in both Player Development and Young Talent. Overall we think we got an upgrade here.
Unaddressed was the team's discipline issues. A league worst 117 penalties in 2032 for a league worst 888 yards. That's 7.31 for 55.5 yards per game if you're counting and while that's not as bad as the 2011 Oakland Raiders or the 1998 Kansas City Chiefs it was still way too many for my liking. Unfortunately for us Head Coach R.J. Rasmussen and his bottom-third Discipline rating will be with us for at least one more year.
SALARY CAP
Last year salary cap trouble forced us to deal standout WR Luther Baez to London and in 2033 we still have money issues with eight starters entering the final year of their current deals.
With so many players in the last year of their contracts and so little free space we can't sign everyone so the focus is on securing our younger talent to long term deals and letting those that we can't sign play out their final year with the full knowledge that they will probably be playing elsewhere in 2034.
TRADES
SILB Perry Fitzgerald (37/37)
Traded to Vermont for 5.18
Actually rated 41/41 by our scout, he played backup WLB for us earlier in the season when we ran a 34. Fitzgerald had a few good games for us but with persistent cap problems and a switch to a 43 he became expendable. The late pick we got for him might get us a backup, a special teamer or a chance to move up in another round.
SLB Justin Cole (69/69)
Traded to Boston for 2.3 and 2034 2.x
A great, great all-round player. He can cover, can blitz, can play the run, can play Special Teams and he consistently made plays for me over the last two seasons. He will be missed. But by trading him we saved over $10M this year which allowed us to sign extensions with LG Bo Aranha (4th yr, 81/81), SS Kelvin Fackleman (8th yr, 67/67) and CB Hayden Godfrey (4th yr, 62/62) and also leaves us free to use the franchise tag on one of three other players next year when we expect to have about $20M+ to spare.
Cole joins the Boston Freeze and immediately improves their team at a position of need while the trade gives us pick 2.3 this year, which will hopefully net us a starter at another position, as well as a 2nd rounder next year so while it is sad to have to deal him I think it's a win-win for both us and Boston on this one.
COACHING CHANGES
I thought last season's staff did a decent job especially on offense where we finished 2nd in yards and points. With this group we did get to within 2 points of making it to the Front Office Bowl (thanks again for that StevenE!) but there were two problems that I wanted to fix for the 2033 season: Penalties and Defensive Playcalling.
With the franchise having the second best financial performance for the year we found ourselves with the 2nd overall pick in the Staff Draft and we had the opportunity, and scored, on one of those two priorities by signing Lou Howle as our new DC.
I've noticed a decent improvement on offense/defense in my other MP teams when the coordinator had a higher playcalling skill. Even though our former DC Jesus Stratton had an average rating in playcalling, Howle has a rating of about 80 and is better than Stratton (dare I say better than Jesus?) in both Player Development and Young Talent. Overall we think we got an upgrade here.
Unaddressed was the team's discipline issues. A league worst 117 penalties in 2032 for a league worst 888 yards. That's 7.31 for 55.5 yards per game if you're counting and while that's not as bad as the 2011 Oakland Raiders or the 1998 Kansas City Chiefs it was still way too many for my liking. Unfortunately for us Head Coach R.J. Rasmussen and his bottom-third Discipline rating will be with us for at least one more year.
SALARY CAP
Last year salary cap trouble forced us to deal standout WR Luther Baez to London and in 2033 we still have money issues with eight starters entering the final year of their current deals.
With so many players in the last year of their contracts and so little free space we can't sign everyone so the focus is on securing our younger talent to long term deals and letting those that we can't sign play out their final year with the full knowledge that they will probably be playing elsewhere in 2034.
TRADES
SILB Perry Fitzgerald (37/37)
Traded to Vermont for 5.18
Actually rated 41/41 by our scout, he played backup WLB for us earlier in the season when we ran a 34. Fitzgerald had a few good games for us but with persistent cap problems and a switch to a 43 he became expendable. The late pick we got for him might get us a backup, a special teamer or a chance to move up in another round.
SLB Justin Cole (69/69)
Traded to Boston for 2.3 and 2034 2.x
A great, great all-round player. He can cover, can blitz, can play the run, can play Special Teams and he consistently made plays for me over the last two seasons. He will be missed. But by trading him we saved over $10M this year which allowed us to sign extensions with LG Bo Aranha (4th yr, 81/81), SS Kelvin Fackleman (8th yr, 67/67) and CB Hayden Godfrey (4th yr, 62/62) and also leaves us free to use the franchise tag on one of three other players next year when we expect to have about $20M+ to spare.
Cole joins the Boston Freeze and immediately improves their team at a position of need while the trade gives us pick 2.3 this year, which will hopefully net us a starter at another position, as well as a 2nd rounder next year so while it is sad to have to deal him I think it's a win-win for both us and Boston on this one.
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