IFL Secret Santa 2024?

[TheseBoots]

stampsanta.jpg







GMs signed up:

• joe - Tijuana
• Coyote Vice - State College
• Bylanta - The Empire
• Boots - The Rebellion
• Frankie - Orlando
• jzicc - Kansas City
• CBatts - Pittsburgh
• SweenDawg - San Antonio
• Mellman - Alaska
• Sabean - Las Vegas

I'm not sure if there has ever been one of these in the IFL, but have seen the idea around a few other leagues so thought I would test the water over here.

If you don't know already, the idea is that we have a list of GMs and their teams who sign up, then I will randomly assign a team from those participating to another GM who does a write up of that team's prospects for the coming season. Those reviews are sent to me via PM and I post them 'anonymously' to this thread. Once all the writeups are done each GM get's to guess who reviewed their team before the 'big reveal'!

Typically reviews include:

• how the team did last year
• what's changed on their roster? (draft, FA)
• outlook and prediction (2-14, 10-6, Championship, etc.)

But you can really go as deep as you like, and it is worth to spend a bit of time on it if you can.

I'll suggest that we try to get the writeups done by end of Dec 28 (1 week from now) so that the reveal is basically the last thing before the season kicks off! However, if enough GMs would like to participate but only with a bit more time then we can be flexible with it - but it's probably more fun to make the prediction before seeing how each team starts the season!

If you are interested to take part just post in this thread. If you want some examples of previous reviews just post here and I'll grab some from other leagues to look at.

Let's say post interest over this weekend and I'll see if we have enough GMs first thing Dec. 23

[joe the commissioner]

good idea. I'm in.

[CoyoteVice]

I’m in

[TheseBoots]

Thanks guys

[rode68]

As I told Boots when he proposed to run this, I'm really busy these days, so I will only participate if we have an odd number of GMs.

Big thanks Boots for doing this, and thanks also to all participants. You guys are making this league better.

[Bylanta]

in, lets see some of those examples Boots!

[FrankieStarz]

I'll hit it

[TheseBoots]

in, lets see some of those examples Boots!

Sure thing! The next couple of posts are examples copy pasted from the TFL website. For examples only - GMs can chose their own format as desired

[TheseBoots]

EXAMPLE ONE

St. Louis – 2030 Team Analysis
GM: BazookaJohnny

Coaching Staff:
No changes on this front with all of the St. Louis staff either having years left on their contract or being hired back in the Staff Draft. St. Louis runs a variation of the WCO and lines up in a 43U front on base down. Their coordinators have some scouting ability but their strength lies in their playcalling. HC Weis, who's been there since 2019, is known for tough discipline and motivating speeches. Unfortunately he's not known for winning with his last playoff appearance and winning season coming in 2019.

2029 Recap:
St. Louis finished 5-11 in a tough NFC West. Bright spots were had, with 6.08 YPR gained over the right side, good for 4th in the league. Meanwhile on defense they were stout up the middle, only giving up 3.92 YPR there, 5th in the league, and forcing 30 TO, tied for 2nd in the league. As the record implies though not everything came up smelling of roses, as the OL gave up a sack percentage of 6.3, 27th in the league, and the pass defence gave up 12.2 YPC and 7.17 YPA, good for 31st and 29th in the league, respectively.

Veteran Losses:
DT Jonathan Greenard (Trade to Houston)
CB Ryan Webb (Cut in FA)
FB Sergio Carlisle (FA signed by Tennessee)
S Damian Covill (FA signed by New York [A])


Veteran Additions:
N/A

Rookie Additions:
1.06 CB Derek Stingley Jr.
2.06 WR Tevin Lee
3.06 DE Omar Reed
4.06 CB Kaiit Elam
5.06 OLB DeAngelo Malone
5.31 RB Dennis Upshaw
6.06 Nik Bonitto
7.06 C Kristopher Wallace
UDFA QB Julio McDaniel
UDFA ILB Max Ulbrich
UDFA Norm Chachick

Offense:
This is an offense that seems to have all the pieces, but the picture just doesn't come through. Stacked with stars at QB, RB, a couple at WR, and a few along the offensive line. Add to that a 92 passing game cohesion (good for 3rd in the league at the time of writing) and it's hard to see how this passing game hasn't taken off. One note of concern seems to be an inordinate amount of passes occurring in the short areas of the field, accounting for 69.3% of attempts, 3rd highest in the league. This may be an attempt to account for the high sack numbers given up by an offense line still trying to come together as a unit, but one wonders if opposing defences have learned they can crowd the line and blitz extra without having to worry about a pass going over their heads. Many of their stars are aging into their twilight years and have expressed concern that their window may be closing.

Defense:
Each level of the St. Louis defence has its own set of stars and they have shown some real bright spots. As noted previously, they've been able to stymie run games up the middle and excelled at taking the ball away. A number of their stars are on the young side, so there is definitely optimism on this side of the ball for what the future holds. Increased time playing together and a full maturation of their skills should see this defence getting even better, but will it be enough as their offence starts to age out of relevance?

Summary:
Compounding some of the age and team building issues is St. Louis having just north of $8M in cap space remaining for the year, with only 45/53 regular season spots currently filled. A vast chunk of that money is dedicated towards their QB Frederick, who is a strong candidate to be on his final contract with the team, but there may be a sense of woosah when that situation finally is realized. With cap space, a strong young defence, and no pressure to maximize an aging asset, would this team be able to reinvent itself in a way that surprises those not paying attention to what's happening under the Arch?

Complicating their future plans is, again, that damn cap! Coming in only $34M shy of the current cap next year ($38M shy of the cap projected by sp0tr4c) two of their studs along that OL are in the last year of their deal along with 7 other veterans that will either need to be re-signed or replaced.

Outside of St. Louis itself, it's no secret that San Francisco has set up one helluva BBQ spot in the NFC West, and Rams, Cardinal, and Seahawks all are regularly recurring specials on the menu. Hell, you'd have to go back to 2025 to find the last time they lost a divisional game (p.s. loss was indeed singular). The Cards were able to put together a strong 3-1 showing in their division last year outside of that though, and have been able to at least split with LA and SEA for the last few years, so they have it in them to compete if they can get some wins outside of the division.

Prediction:
This team has all the pieces to compete at a high level, it's just a question of if it can all come together before the pieces start fading away. Unfortunately for them, the rest of their conference is stacked top to bottom, with only 5/16 teams falling below .500, as compared to 8/16 in the AFC. To make matters worse, this team will also face the NFC North, a division that has 3/4 of its teams scoring over 400 points in the regular season.

There's a lot of variability in what this team could do, but I'm going to go with an 8-8 record to finish 3rd in the division. I think Johnny's going to be able to make some progress this season, but I think he may be up against too tough of a slate to be able to take it further. That being said, I wouldn't be surprised to see this team finish anywhere from 6-10 to 11-5.

[TheseBoots]

EXAMPLE TWO

Tampa Bay Scout Report

2035 Recap

Overall record: 8-8 (4th place in the NC South)
7th rushing (2120 yards/5.04 average)
11th passing (4168 yards/6.64 average)
10th rushing defense (103.6 yards/game)
10th passing defense (232.5 yards/game)

Team Leaders

Passing: Pedro Shaw (3843 yards - 83.0 - QBR - 26TD - 13 INT)
Rushing: Joel Starks (859 yards - 4.50 average - 3TD)
Receiving: Van Stevens (1274 yards - 7.16 average/target - 5 TD)

Defensive front: L’Carpetron Dookmarriot (5 sacks - 6.5 PPct - 11.5 TkPct)
Secondary: Xavier McKinney (19(!) Defn - 88.5 PDPct)

Shaking it up

Over the last few seasons Tampa Bay has been a team on the wane and this season they have taken steps to shake things up by appointing new GM rgvicedo to step into the shoes of outgoing head of football ops bbriders. Despite declining fortunes Tampa can consider themselves unlucky not to have contested a bowl in the least 5 years, primarily due to their inability to overcome the 49ers in the conference game. Unable to retain their station as a regular playoff team, they have nevertheless stayed competitive, with no losing season in 10 years.

Coaching team

The only change to the coaching staff sees 16 year coach Jeff Saturday hired as the new Offensive Coordinator. So expect evolution rather than revolution down Florida way and a balanced style of offense; a power running game and some deep shots should bring the best out of 10 year starting QB Pedro “Vote for Me” Shaw. and likely a more diverse use of personnel on this side of the ball.

Significant off-season moves

Retirees

Tampa Bay lost only one player to retirement but what a player he was - future Hall of Fame Safety Xavier McKinney! He leaves the league as the reigning DPOTY, 5 All-Pro and 4 All-Pro 2 awards, as well 1st Tampa Bay All-Time INTs and 3rd Tampa All-Time passes defensed. A magnificent team player and will be nigh-on impossible to replace like-for-like.

Free Agency

GM rgvicedo has been pretty active in his first year in Tampa and his opening move was to lock down the offensive tackle duo of Kenyon Green and Donald Aguayo to new deals worth a combined 100M/3yrs. Both are experienced starters and excellent run blockers, like the rest of the oline, and this speaks to Tampa’s legacy as a running based offense.

In addition Tampa secured new deals for the Sawyer brothers; Glen, the starting corner and a top 10 corner league-wide, as well as pass rusher and DE Calvin. The defensive line was further strengthened by the addition of Jeffrey Ardrey from Houston. Ardrey is a versatile rusher and run stuffer, but comes with some character concerns and could have a better engine, so expect him to be used situationally. Despite that he’s a strong addition to an already excellent defensive front (see below).

In fact there has been a general injection of talent on the defensive side with no less than 15 new faces there heading into training camp.

Probably the biggest story of free agency, however, was the attempt to add some top tier talent to the running back room, alongside leading rusher Joel Starks leaving for the Bears. We’ll probably never know exactly what happened here, and it’s best to be sceptical about some of the stories in the sports media these past months. My sources tell me that Tampa did make sizable offers to both James Cook and Jonah Arndt, but ultimately were not willing to offer the guarantees that saw both players head to the Colts, themselves under a new GM who is renowned for his love of the run-first attack. Pity the other teams in the AFC South who have a significant new challenge to deal with alongside existing powerhouse Houston. By way of consolation Tampa has bought in 5 less talented backs and while no doubt one or two will be cut when trimming down to the final 3, it looks a certainty that it will be a running back by committee situation in Tampa this coming season.

The other significant addition on offense is the signing of 27 year old TE R.J.Stefani from Detroit on a ridiculously reasonable 24M/3 deal. Stefani has already proved his quality at the Lions and was a 5 year starter there. With D’Jasper Probincrux III and Teddy Perez already signed to long term deals in Tampa it looks like 2 and 3 TE sets are going to feature heavily in their offense going forwards, while the drafting of Tracy Coffey means they have one of the deepest rosters in the league at the position.

The Draft

Tampa was not awash with draft capital this year, but they made some solid additions.

1-15: S Jackmerius Tacktheratrix (formerly Tank Kirsch) - very promising safety will likely slot straight into McKinney’s role. A local boy, too!
2-14 WR Don Julio* - intriguing big body receiver with great separation skills.
4-15 RB Emerson Fletcher* - solid third down back with great hands, but questions about his ability to suit a power running game - most likely we’ll see more finesse running in TB under the new regime
5-14 TE Tracy Coffey* - promising tight end who many expect to exceed expectations in camp
7-15 OT Nickolas Brock - backup rotational oline player whose true position may well be at guard
* indicates a player of interest to your humble reviewer

Roster overview and season prospects

Despite the recent failure to make playoff runs this is a Tampa roster which has quality and depth pretty much across the board. QB Pedro Shaw is going into his 10th season with The Bucs and is a top 5 talent at his position (and is paid accordingly). Tampa also has a true number one receiver in Van Stephens who is also at the peak of his game. In combination with the aforementioned strength at TE and running options they are going to be able to move the ball on most teams. The question is, how long will it take to assimilate all the new faces? Tampa has an excellent line to facilitate running the ball, but they need time to build a relationship with the incoming players. If there is a weakness, the offensive line has shown itself to be vulnerable to technical pass rushers and Shaw will need to continue to make use of his manoeuvrability and willingness to make plays outside of the pocket when necessary.

On defense The Bucs have the potential to be one of the very best, and I’ll be looking for them to improve - significantly - on their 23PPG against from 2035. They are stacked with talent on the defensive line, and both the front and the secondary have excellent cohesion to enhance the talent of the individuals. Playing a 4-3 Under front they have two former first round picks at DT and a wide range of options to play DE. Linebacker talent has been improved through free agency, especially the outside positions, while their existing corp of corner talent has also been improved with some complimentary acquisitions through free agency. No doubt the other teams in the NC South will be hoping that McKinney’s retirement will destabilize this unit, but they seem to have sufficient talent and leadership to ride it out during 2036.

The third leg of the team is special teams, and they look to have enough contributors to earn the ‘special’ moniker. Kicker Bennett was rock solid last year, earning himself an All-Pro2 award, while GM Rick has been prioritizing solid ST contributors through UDFA.

So, what will 2036 hold for The Bucs? Well, probably the biggest limiting factor for their ambitions is that they play in one of football’s toughest divisions right now. Last year’s bowl winner New Orleans aren’t going away any time soon, and Atlanta have a stacked roster and talented game planning. Carolina are only two years out from a division win and time will tell if their small drop off last year was a sign of things to come, or a temporary blip. Nonetheless, they look like the first team Tampa Bay needs to target getting past as they seek to win the bowl which has eluded them in recent years. I foresee improvement but probably only a small step forwards from 2035 for now.

Prediction: 9-7 (3rd in the NC South)

[TheseBoots]

EXAMPLE THREE - shorter format

Jacksonville Jaguars

2035 Record: 9-7, 2nd place in the NFC West, Missed Playoffs

Leaders:

Passing: Rookie Bart Starr III - 2,417; 9 TDs, 13 INTs
Rushing: Asher Troutt - 833; 2 TDs
Receiving: Bryson Schulz 96 rec; 947; 1 TDs
Tackles: Deion Gagliardi - 90
Sacks: Karl Duffy - 5.5
Interceptions: Jeff Okudah - 4

Key losses:

CB Jeff Okudah
P Nolan Burns
LB Jessie Thornton
DT Barry Westbrook
TE Kendrick Bloedorn

Key additions:

CB Devonte Porter (PIT)
LB Bobby Garner (DAL)
RB Ken Patterson (SDO)
QB Shaun Heath (LAS)
T Tony Small (GBY)
TE Winston Grice (Waivers)
WR Troy Conley (IND)

Offense (16th rushing / 32nd passing in 2035):

We are a year out from Jacksonville trading the house (2035: 1-9, 3-13, 4-12
2036: 1st round, 2nd round, 3rd round, 2037: 1st round, 2nd round and QB Dean Burton)
for Star in the making Bart Starr III. Now this trade cost them a ton on an unproven
QB coming out Florida State. He seems to have all the tools, I mean just look at the lineage but there is always a But. His rookie season left a lot of questions. Having started in 12 games he had a 54.1 completion percentage, 2417 yards, with only 9 touchdowns and 13 interceptions. It all adds up to an abysmal 64.6 QBR. Now it isn’t all his fault, his helping cast wasn’t much help and none of them are anything to write about. I mean the top WR Schulz had 1 touchdown. Yeah he did have 96 receptions and 947 yards but 1 TD out of that… It tells me this unit needs HELP !! We hoped they could of added some quality players though the draft but that was prove difficult.

Defense (25th rushing / 17th passing in 2035):

If there was one bright spot for Jaguars in 2035 it was the defense. They were 11th in points against, well I did say one. Them, like the offense were under achievers and 2036 really doesn’t look much better unfortunately. With the 2035 heavy investment at QB there wasn’t much draft capital left for additions.


Conclusion:

The investment last season in Starr on paper looks more then worth it but his rookie campaign would scare the crap out of me and should Jacksonville. They attempted to add some player talent though free agency but it seems they are mostly hole fillers then game changers. Now for the Cherry on top there top receiving threat and their defensive leader are both holding out for the cash strapped Jaguars. It seems when it rains it pours.

Prediction: (7-9)

[jzicc]

i'll do one

[SweenDawg72]

I will give it a go.

[Mellman]

Sounds good, I'll give it a go too

[TheseBoots]

Awesome - i'm literally mailing out the teams now, Mell