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by Bid Daddy Lumpkin
Draft Junkie
The Phantoms appear to checked off a great many things on their list of team needs this draft:
1.5) RDE to fill in a hole in what will now make a bid to be the best DLine in the IFL
1.23) RG who should play by midseason and take the first steps towards removing the Phantoms bid for the worst OLine in the IFL
3.5) RT who could end up starting but most likely will be career backup - gamble based on need
3.23) MLB to learn behind newly apointed mentor Aaron Wilson
3.25) CB (SS in college) to provide depth and groom behind Lenhart. Strong Affinity with CB mentor!
4-22) RDE to provide depth
4-23) SLB to provide future depth after Tim Beatty retires.
5-23) DT depth
6-13) DT depth
I'll be doing individual write-ups if anybody's interested (or if I'm just feeling overly IFLish
) but the man to watch is 3rd round pick Clarence Stanton a safety out of Florida who will immediately be switched to CB and projects quite well at the position. Said GM Jester Blaze upon first viewing tapes of Stanton, "That dude's too athletic to be a safety!". (Side note: Lenny Kenny, soon to be in a Lansing uniform, was said to be the back-up plan if Stanton was selected by the 89th pick.) Rumor has it that Stanton and recently aquired CB mentor Eric Ferry are already getting along great! Enhanced by the fact this draft was apparantly very weak at the true CB position, many teams with CB problems will be wondering "what if?" in 3 seasons when Clarence is a legit IFL starter.
As the story goes the draft room of the Phantoms was holding their collective breath after taking Sedrick Stevenson with pick 3-23. "We had to really look at Newark's roster and make an educated guess on who they wouldn't take of our 2 guys", said GM Jester Blaze. "We REALLY wanted Clarence but thought Sedrick had a higher probability of being taken by Newark and the thought of him coming against us for two games per season instead of being with us wasn't pleasant. We gambled and it worked out!"
Well, it hasn't worked out yet. Only time will tell that...
*** RANDOM DRAFT THOUGHTS ***
Picking at #5: Picking at #5, while something I'd love to do every season, has a negative side. For one, nothing falls to 5. You get what's supposed to be there at 5. The top 3-4 picks of the draft usually go exactly as the list of graded players goes. Out of 31 "other teams", someone is going to be willing to trade up if the team in the top 3-4 doesn't want the the best player available. So you take what's there and hope he pans out, at which point you merely broke even... if he plummets then you've managed to give yourself a tighter salary cap for the next 5-6 seasons for nothing. So, you pay a high price (the #5 pick can always net something great in a trade) for a gamble which you can tie or lose... not a gambling mans dream. On the other hand there's....
Late 3rd rounders: I love late 3rd round picks! There are a lot of what I think of as "two and half round players", players who when the 3rd round comes around are still on the board and you wonder why until you look back at the 2nd round and see why... but they just seem to be better than what should be available at that point. I would say the biggest dropoff in draft attendance might be after teams' round 2 picks, when the value picks, although still there, are hidden amongst many other players who, if looked at by overall ratings, look similar. The ratio of time invested per best gamble pick goes way up and some GM's won't/can't invest it. Very good players can come out of the end of the 3rd round and they'll all be cheap contracts! So in the late 3rd for your moderate price of entry (a late 3rd isn't going to net you much in a trade) you get a gamble, which if you've done your research, has a very favorable chance to win, if you break even covers a back-up or lesser roster role, and if you lose only costs you only about $200k I believe in signing bonus after cutting player.
Draft Junkie
The Phantoms appear to checked off a great many things on their list of team needs this draft:
1.5) RDE to fill in a hole in what will now make a bid to be the best DLine in the IFL
1.23) RG who should play by midseason and take the first steps towards removing the Phantoms bid for the worst OLine in the IFL
3.5) RT who could end up starting but most likely will be career backup - gamble based on need
3.23) MLB to learn behind newly apointed mentor Aaron Wilson
3.25) CB (SS in college) to provide depth and groom behind Lenhart. Strong Affinity with CB mentor!
4-22) RDE to provide depth
4-23) SLB to provide future depth after Tim Beatty retires.
5-23) DT depth
6-13) DT depth
I'll be doing individual write-ups if anybody's interested (or if I'm just feeling overly IFLish
) but the man to watch is 3rd round pick Clarence Stanton a safety out of Florida who will immediately be switched to CB and projects quite well at the position. Said GM Jester Blaze upon first viewing tapes of Stanton, "That dude's too athletic to be a safety!". (Side note: Lenny Kenny, soon to be in a Lansing uniform, was said to be the back-up plan if Stanton was selected by the 89th pick.) Rumor has it that Stanton and recently aquired CB mentor Eric Ferry are already getting along great! Enhanced by the fact this draft was apparantly very weak at the true CB position, many teams with CB problems will be wondering "what if?" in 3 seasons when Clarence is a legit IFL starter.As the story goes the draft room of the Phantoms was holding their collective breath after taking Sedrick Stevenson with pick 3-23. "We had to really look at Newark's roster and make an educated guess on who they wouldn't take of our 2 guys", said GM Jester Blaze. "We REALLY wanted Clarence but thought Sedrick had a higher probability of being taken by Newark and the thought of him coming against us for two games per season instead of being with us wasn't pleasant. We gambled and it worked out!"
Well, it hasn't worked out yet. Only time will tell that...
*** RANDOM DRAFT THOUGHTS ***
Picking at #5: Picking at #5, while something I'd love to do every season, has a negative side. For one, nothing falls to 5. You get what's supposed to be there at 5. The top 3-4 picks of the draft usually go exactly as the list of graded players goes. Out of 31 "other teams", someone is going to be willing to trade up if the team in the top 3-4 doesn't want the the best player available. So you take what's there and hope he pans out, at which point you merely broke even... if he plummets then you've managed to give yourself a tighter salary cap for the next 5-6 seasons for nothing. So, you pay a high price (the #5 pick can always net something great in a trade) for a gamble which you can tie or lose... not a gambling mans dream. On the other hand there's....
Late 3rd rounders: I love late 3rd round picks! There are a lot of what I think of as "two and half round players", players who when the 3rd round comes around are still on the board and you wonder why until you look back at the 2nd round and see why... but they just seem to be better than what should be available at that point. I would say the biggest dropoff in draft attendance might be after teams' round 2 picks, when the value picks, although still there, are hidden amongst many other players who, if looked at by overall ratings, look similar. The ratio of time invested per best gamble pick goes way up and some GM's won't/can't invest it. Very good players can come out of the end of the 3rd round and they'll all be cheap contracts! So in the late 3rd for your moderate price of entry (a late 3rd isn't going to net you much in a trade) you get a gamble, which if you've done your research, has a very favorable chance to win, if you break even covers a back-up or lesser roster role, and if you lose only costs you only about $200k I believe in signing bonus after cutting player.
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