SimNFL Team evaluations

[kgreene829]

Arizona Cardinals:

The Arizona Cardinals are led by 80 overall pocket QB Patrick Johnson. At 33 years old entering his 11th year he is nearing the end of his career but on a 3 year deal the Cardinals are hoping he can be the guy for a little bit longer. On top of one of the best QBs in the league the Cardinals have 80 overall balanced RB Thomas Gesick entering year 7 as a 29 year old Gesick is a do it all back and despite 2 71 overalls at WR has the best hands on the team. Gesick is on the last year of his contract but the team should be able to afford to bring him back if they want to. The Cardinals are in win now mode with little draft capital this year and a lot of their best players are aging not just Patrick Johnson but both 71 overall WRs are 34 years old their 76 overall SS is 33 and they have a 77 overall CB who is also 33. All those players mentioned are under contract for 3 more years. They paid a price to keep them around to try and squeeze out a ring. 

The Cardinals are very strong almost across the board but they do have some sizable holes to fill. William Morin is a monster at CB but behind him is 60 overall 2nd year CB Adam Germen and then nothing else making CB a big hole. DE is a position where they have bodies but with none of their 3 DEs over 63 overall it’s another weak link on a relatively strong team. DT and ILB both have a strong 1 option with a 79 and 75 respectively but nobody is good behind them. FS is not a strength but they are strong enough not to be a weakness. They also have a good C, OG, OT but don’t have reliable options to fill in as the 2nd OG and OT. The last note on the talent of the roster is after the 2 71 overall WRs they only have 56 overalls and they don’t have any good OLBs or TEs on the roster. 

I feel if they really want to compete their needs in order of importance are OLB, DE, DT/ILB(interchangeable because they need at the very least a 2nd of either one), CB, OT, K, TE, P, DT/ILB(the other of the two), OG, and WR. The real theme is a strong team at first glance with a lot of high overall players but they lack the depth that they need to compete. They made a trade with the Broncos and while I feel they could have gotten more in return I think the idea of the trade was solid, sell off some of their higher caliber players to get more good players so instead of having the top player at a position you have multiple players that are better than average. If the Cardinals can find a way to trade on or both of their 71 overall WRs for a couple mid to high 60s guys to balance out the roster more I think they would be in a better spot. The Cardinals also have their 1st round pick at 28 along with a 3rd, a 4th, 2 5ths, 2 6ths, and a 7th this year I don’t know how much longer they are going to try to keep pushing for a Super Bowl but for this year if they really want to give themselves the best shot at a Super Bowl it could be worth it to move those picks to get players that can impact winning now instead of taking a risk in the draft. 

Outside of 3rd year 70 overall pass blocking OG Angel Loe the Cardinals don’t have amazing young talent FS Jake Campos could be good and also allow them to move on from one or both of their other mid 60s FSs but because of that they don’t have to worry too much about paying young guys big bucks to stay. Big contributors 79 overall DT Leon Payne, 78 overall C Anthony Helton, 75 overall ILB Dennis Jones, and 80 overall RB Thomas Gesick are all on the last year of their deal and with 59.12 mil in cap space at the end of the year they should have enough money to bring in some other good players maybe even take on some great players with bad contracts at a discount and still have money to resign all 4 I mentioned above. I think the Cardinals have a lot of options but the main thing they have to be careful about when to call it because trying to hold the team together for too long could set the franchise back a long way. 

Atlanta Falcons:

Next up is my favorite piece of sentient bread, the pokemon spirit of the greatest QB RB to ever live, and a member of the greatest SimCFB football conference. Talk about opposites Atlanta is everything that Arizona isn’t. The Falcons have a young team with several exciting young players and 6 top 75 picks in the upcoming draft as opposed to Arizona’s 1. The Falcons biggest needs are DT, OG, and K. The Falcons need a lot more than that but those positions I would consider worse than the rest. The main thing for the Falcons to improve is to continue doing what they are doing. The Falcons have been building through the draft and developing their guys and they have already come a pretty long way from where they were in the 1st season. 

The Falcons have a lot of young CBs and WRs and if just one or two for each position pan out, those positions will be in a good spot. 3rd year QB Chris Frazier is developing really nicely and 1st round pick last year WR Richie Igwebuike had a nice jump after his rookie season. The Falcons at the time don’t have a ton of long term strengths DE is great with 2 mid 70s but they are both on the tailend of their career and at least one of them will be off the team by the time they are ready to seriously compete maybe both so this is a position they may need to address soon. OLB is another position that is great for the Falcons and I think they are young enough that while they will be old they could still be contributing to winning when the Falcons are in a position to compete. As of now it looks like the Falcons plan on offense is to keep Chris Frazier in the pocket and move the ball off his arm talent while having a steady run game to take some pressure off and stop defenses from completely committing to stopping the passing game but they could lose an important piece to that plan this offseason when 77 overall TE Jin Zhong’s contract ends. 74 overall DE Todd Showalter and 74 overall RB Wayne Ricketts are also on expiring deals but other than those three the Falcons don’t have to worry about losing players to FA. 

I don’t have much more to say so I reached out to Falcons Owner Subsequent for comment. Subsequent said “We are finally moving to the phase of our management where we are looking for scheme fit.” This tells me the Falcons are or almost are done building their core and are now looking to fill the rest of the team with complimentary players that can fill in rather than more star players. While looking into the Falcons I heard rumors about a bit of a divide within the front office. It seems that after a rough sophomore season some higher ups are questioning if Chris Frazier can be the franchise QB while others are pushing back saying that they need to do a better job of surrounding him with talent before they can say if he can be the franchise QB or not. The Falcons have a couple young WRs but could use some more development from them. Also I heard that the Falcons are not happy with their D-line could this mean they are looking to overhaul that group. This is just speculation but if they are in fact looking to make some trades to improve their D-line on top of the vets they have at DE I could see them moving some CBs since they have a ton of young players at that position.

Baltimore Ravens:

The Ravens are at a bit of a crossroads when it comes to their timetable. The Ravens have a number of great players nearing the end of their prime and careers like 82 overall QB David Chop who is 30, 76 overall OT Robert Anderson who is 29, 75 overall DE Robert Jackson who is 31, and 75 overall RB Stanley Piper who is 32. At the same time the Ravens have talented younger players like 66 overall FS Matt Perez entering his 3rd season, 67 overall RB James Taylor entering his 3rd season, 65 overall WR Andrew Jones entering his 2nd season, and 70 overall TE Charles Tice entering his 4th season. 

The Ravens have several bright young stars who are contributing to winning but it might not be enough to help the old guard win a ring. While having more vets would help out the chase for a Super Bowl now the wealth of young talent allows the Ravens to know that the future is bright even if they aren’t good enough to challenge for a Super Bowl yet. With the Ravens placing Robert Jackson on the trade block it looks like they are leaning towards waiting at the very least 1 or 2 more years before trying to start challenging for the Super Bowl. Led by scrambling QB David Chop on offense the Ravens are an O-line away from being set with talented young WRs, a TE, a RB, and even a decent FB. After investing a 2nd and 3rd round pick into the O-line in last year's draft it looks like the Ravens found their pair of OGs in Chris Butera and Kam Wentz, a run and pass block specialist respectively with great strength and work ethic. With the IOL looking good OT is the last position of need on the offense for now. Defense is a bit of a different story led by 85 overall Jeffrey Jesse the best DT in the league at 28 years old the trenches are solid with 2 mid 70s flanking him. 

As I mentioned before FS is set with Matt Perez but the Ravens need to make some big improvements at ILB, OLB, and SS. The last major hole on this roster is punter 62 overall Kevin Clark is not getting it done and will likely be replaced before the start of the season. OT Robert Anderson, QB David Chop, and 61 overall OG Fidel Castro are the only notable FAs for the Ravens at the end of this season and if they can move off of DE Robert Jackson and his contract they should be able to make some splashes in FA and try to begin their quest for a Super Bowl.

Buffalo Bills:

The Bills have a talented team with multiple players over 80 overall but on top of great vets they have a lot of young talent too. The Bills CB room is good and really young along with QB Yusei Asencio who had a good sophomore season but I expect him to really break out this year with his best supporting cast yet having 2 WRs and 1 TE over 75 overall. The Bills biggest needs for this year are OLB, ILB, and DT. However the Bills have a lot of vets and expiring contracts so looking to the future their needs are OT, OG, C, DE, and RB. To me it feels like the Bills are trying to take 1 or 2 final shots at a Super Bowl before having to rebuild. They have some nice young pieces but as of now once the vets start to decline or retire they won’t be in a good spot.

Carolina Panthers:

The Panthers are one of my favorite teams in the league. They are just so fun with the amount of great young players. Young QB Dekoda Link, TE Don Scott, and promising WR Marco Thompson mixed with some more experience with RB Joseph Cale and for the most part a strong O-line the Panthers have a very exciting offense. However, don't sleep on their defense bringing in DE Aaron Stokes to play with DT Steven Kapfhammer and the young DT Caleb Suarez the D-line is a force to be reckoned with also having DT Marco Everett but they would be really scary especially if they can add a 2nd DE and that could be Marco Everett or someone they grab in the draft. The D-line is balanced but are better at stopping the run than rushing the passer. 

I was told to highlight their “awesome LB core” so I will try and do that now. At first look the Panthers LB room might look rough but after looking at them closer I can tell you for a fact that they have a total of 4 LBs and other than one of the OLBs having 2 years on his contract they are all on expiring deals. OLB Michael Naccarato is amazing in coverage and OLB Jerome Cook is great at stopping the run. Also how can you forget about ILBs Darrell Gray and Mark Hedrick who are both smart. I think that should be good enough. 

While talking to some members of the Panthers organization I heard that the Panthers are rumored to be looking primarily at using their two top 5 picks on the defensive side of the ball. Carolina really wanted to draft a player on the OL but was disappointed by the state of the top of the class. I think that they for sure will take an ILB and I think the other top 5 pick will be either SS or DE. 

I also was able to speak to some of the Panthers players along with the front office. Nobody I spoke to let me get a word in and just went on for hours so here are the most significant things said and for the ones that had context the little context each quote had. “‘The greatest NFC South team for 2024’ -SageBow by implication” -Jambo. Oh, you wanted me to say something. I don’t have anything to say. Next quote. "Dekoda Link is the best QB ever who has never thrown more TD than INT in a season" -Dekoda Link. Stop looking at me like that. He stared at me for hours in silence, said that and then walked away. "I'm fucked" -2023 starting RB James Ibach, on his standing on the team after the front office signed Joseph Cale in free agency. Ibach was the only player that had a normal conversation with me. He is probably on his way out but might be the only normal person on the Panthers. "What the fuck did you just fucking say about me, you little bitch? I'll have you know I graduated top of my class in the Navy Seals, and I've been involved in numerous secret raids on Al-Quaeda, and I have over 300 confirmed kills." -DE Aaron Stokes on his opinion on getting traded to one of the only teams that has had as little success as the Jets. I asked Stokes the question and he screamed that he kept going at which point multiple doctors, scientists, and Panthers personnel came in held him down and injected him with what I was told was 30 doses of elephant tranquilizers as I was escorted off of the premises. My conclusion? CTE is only fun some of the time. I was unable to speak to Caleb Suarez and never given a reason why but I assume they are in the process of deprogramming him from being a normal person. I was told by Jambo that DT Caleb Suarez dislikes the nickname Californiaeb because he's never traveled west of Missouri but the nickname just stuck after the commissioner accidentally announced his name that way at the draft. That's fun isn’t it. 

Look I am sorry but I have a good amount of more stuff to go over for the Panthers. I asked Jambo about how the team is run and how the roles are split and he responded with “We want good players while avoiding bad players. The roles are split between Jambo who is the GM and Sarge who people DM thinking he is the GM.” He followed that up by shouting “I believe that our education, like such as in South Africa and, uh, the Iraq, everywhere like such as, and I believe that they should—our education over here in the U. S. should help the U. S., uh, or, should help South Africa and should help the Iraq, and the Asian countries, so we will be able to build up our future, for our children.” I would like to point out I had said nothing between those two quotes. I then asked him if he had any thing to say to teams around the league who might be interesting in trading with the Panthers and he got really excited, ran around the room 3 times and told me “You should trade with the Panthers in general. It's fun and has never gone poorly for anyone.” We had a normal conversation for a while but when I brought up him trading out of the 1st pick he said “After we traded the first overall pick, before consummation of the trade, I secretly put a Carolina reversion bug into the code of the pick. On the night of the draft, to wheeler's shock, whoever he picks will actually automatically be announced as a Carolina player and will be on our team despite Tennessee having to pay for him.” For some reason I don’t think this is going to work out the way he expects it too. The last thing that happened before I left was Jambo shoving me out of my seat picking up my notepad and pretending to be me in which he asked himself “Do you have a location for a meeting to discuss an assassination attempt on @Spoof - CLEM/NYJ/SAC, @tsweezy - TENN/WAS or your least favorite SimFBA member.” He then ran back to his chair threw my notepad at me while I was still on the ground and answered with “Obviously the answer to this is subsequent and taking out multiple guys at once at the DC draft meetup at Tim Tebow's house.” That was very weird and I hope I don’t have to go through anything like that again.

Dallas Cowboys:

The Cowboys have a super young CB room with a ton of talent especially with star CB Amara Rodriguez who is only going into his 3rd season. The rest of the defense is pretty good too, a good defensive front 4 and secondary but they could use some help at LB. The offense is also good, Mr. Rocketman has done a great job really building his team out. Other than working on securing better depth the Cowboys only real need is OLB and SS. I am sure they would love for their CBs to be more developed and maybe they make a move and grab one in the draft but other than that you can’t complain if you're the Cowboys they just have a good well rounded team that is built to play the way they want to play. The Cowboys really have a chance to build an identity for themselves with a good year and if they can knock get past division rival Washington they could find themselves in the Super Bowl. 

Denver Broncos:

The Broncos are one of the top teams in the league and their roster doesn’t really have any holes they could use some more RB, another OLB, ILB depth, and a better K but that's really it. I reached out to Broncos owner Alexfall for comment about his team and he responded with “We're excited to announce a new naming rights and fan experience partnership that should be ready by the beginning of the regular season." 

He also wanted me to talk about the players on his team that they drafted in 2022 and 2023 so let's go through them. You can’t question the fact that C Jamon Ridley is on the team. He is right there as the backup to Timothy Gurganus. Drafted in the 5th round with the 159th pick in 2023. Ridley is a pass blocker with decent strength and is currently on the trade block so who knows how much longer he has. CB Danilo Shakir was picked in the 7th round with the 220th pick in 2022. Shakir is currently tied for the 3rd best CB on the Broncos with good man coverage skills but just like Ridley he is also on the trade block so again he could be on his way out. FB Craig Crosby was drafted in the 3rd round with the 94th pick in 2023. The receiving FB is the 2nd FB for them but like everyone I named before him is also on the trade block. Crosby is a decent blocker and receiver with decent speed and strength too and might actually reach the end of his rookie contract with the Broncos. In the 2nd round with the 63rd pick in the 2023 draft the Broncos drafted the best player that would still be on their roster with a week to go until the 2024 draft. K Elih Obada also is the only Broncos draft pick to start for them. Then in the 6th round with the 180th pick in the draft in 2023 they would draft OG Gregory Hannemann who is the 3rd OG for the Broncos he’s a pass blocker and is decently strong. QB Daurice Maile was picked in the 7th round with the 199th pick in the 2023 draft and guess what, he exists and is on the trade block. In the 5th round with the 133rd pick in the draft in 2023 the Broncos drafted Ball Hawk SS Weston McCoil. Mcoil is on the trade block and is the 3rd SS on the team. Route Runner WR Eric Graham was taken in the 4th round with the 105th pick in the 2023 draft. He is on the trade block and is tied for the 3rd best WR on the team. Now the final player, Possession WR Hunter Stauffer drafted in the 3rd round with the 95th pick in the 2023 draft is the 5th best WR on the Broncos. I am actually surprised they still have a lot of their own draft picks on the team. 

Now while doing research I heard repeatedly that Denver’s owner is looking to sell the team ahead of future financial obligations, but shareholders are going to make him eat the attendance losses in 2027 and 2028 while paying Charles Grady more than most team's franchise QBs. Along with that and of equal importance I found out that Peter London drives a leased Ford F-150 despite making 9 million a year. Isn’t that a bit quirky. I was also told Daryl Lee didn't play football until his senior year of high school. One of the coaches that taught health and PE saw him smack away a student's paper ball trash can shot and thought he might have the tools to be a great ball player. Turns out he couldn't play basketball for shit, but ended up making friends with a teammate that was also a corner on the football team and followed him to practice one day. Turns out he just loves clobberin'. Last little bit of insight on players I was told Danilo Shakir actually rode with Matt Howard on his infamous escapade to the Denver pro-day that involved several police departments and a car-jacking. Allegedly that is. 

When I asked Owner Alexfall how he runs his team he responded with “I'm always looking at what Tsweezy is doing and then just try to outdo him by mortgaging even more of my 'future assets' against my 'right now' benefit. That's a problem for future alexfall862 and that guy's an idiot, can't even stop me from screwing him over.” He also said that he is open to moving the draft rights to 2037 5* QB Brexton McKinley. He's just starting kindergarten, but shows tremendous arm talent among his peer group and he's going to be taken with the 2037 Denver 1st round pick. Brexton can be your next Future QB of the Future's Future if you want. What a great deal and great work by Denver's scouting department but we might want to keep a close eye on the 17 and under department. The two leads Josh Giddey and Karl Malone seem to enjoy their jobs a bit too much. 

For some reason owners keep telling me about plans to steal the #1 overall pick and Denver told me “I'm sure folks are going to come up with all kinds of elaborate plans, but nothing works better than the old parent field trip signature trick where you have two documents, and you slid one under the other just enough that they think it's the signature line for the first sheet. So I get an inside man in Tennessee to attend the contract signing, and slide a Denver contract under the Titan's one and once it's signed he's ours. (but actually not because it'd ruin my cap situation).” Now isn’t that fun. Also just like Jambo, Alexfall asked himself “Location for a meeting to discuss an assassination attempt on @Spoof - CLEM/NYJ/SAC, @tsweezy - TENN/WAS or your least favorite SimFBA member.” and responded with “I will not be party to advocating violence against other members, and especially not at the Tecumseh City Library at 170 Branch St on March 9, 3:00PM CT. in the Roosevelt Room.” 

Now before I left Alexfall went on a long rant and I will include the full thing below.

“Ok, so there's this thing in the sim that's been bothering me for a while. Y'know how in real life football sometimes a quarterback will get their first start, look towards the stands to see their family, but then the reserved seats in the 'player family section' still have the reservation card on them and their parents clearly haven't even bothered to show up?

Meanwhile they look to the right of those seats and there's the running back's adoptive family of 10 brothers and sisters and a talking dog and they're having a blast and throwing popcorn and eating snocones? They look to their left and see the parent's of their archrival teammate and captain at linebacker - and their parents have brought gifts for their son? 

But the QB's family isn't actually missing the big game due to not caring, but, because of a series of unfortunate and ultimately humorous-in-retrospect coincidences involving their mother's real estate business and their father's bespoke bracelet business?

Haha gotcha - you thought the mom would have the hippy-dippy side hustle and the dad would be the no nonsense bread-winner? Well no no no, this is 2024 and you need to wake up. Women can be jobs now too. In fact a good friend of mine is a women and I don't know why we can't just all get along in the world.

It's like we should all just hold hands and sing kumbaya since the one thing we all know is that each one of us gets just 1 limited lease on this rock. Actually where I grew up we had this guy who sold pet rocks? 

It was like way after the 1970's fad and everything, but I guess he must have done well, because he was still selling them well into the 2000's, and had turned his backyard (which faced the street) into a display space for various rocks. You see Chris Rock get slapped? That was crazy. 

I've never had Slap Ya Mama hot sauce and I kinda of feel like that product is a little disrespectful. I did make hot sauce once from peppers I grew in my own garden. I had to hang the cayenne peppers outside of the house because I first dried them indoors, but was literally producing pepper spray in the apartment and everyone was crying. 

Where was I? Oh right. So just like we were crying, we should have a mechanic that makes the QB cry because their family is missing their big moment, and maybe it's a malus of like 1-2 in FBIQ since they're distracted, and maybe 2-4 in accuracy since they can't see well past all the tears? Maybe they go into the transfer portal automatically and go to a D2 school where the pressure is way less and the commute to get to games isn't anywhere near as bad?

Anyways so this pet rock situation was kind of interesting because it's sort of like I kinda get it, because it's like tamagotchi before tamagotchi - you sort of add your stamp on the rock and keep in as an ornamental in a lawn or whatever and over the years it starts to kind of tell a story like a fun little yardscaping memento. That was a crazy movie man, like Brad Pitt is nuts in that movie and it turns out he was the guy who couldn't remember the whole time? I wish Brad Pitt would do more movies where he's just a side character. They always say he's a character actor in a leading man's body. Just brings such a fun energy to a lot of his roles, like Once Upon a Time in Hollywood.

Is there such a thing as a leading man in a character actor's body? Is that just basically calling people ugly in hollywood? Or is that basically Steve Buscemi? He was really good in Boardwalk Empire. I could never land on that spot anyways, I think getting the railroads is a better proposition, fwiw. Like yeah ok if you have Boardwalk and Park Place you could potentially bankrupt your opponents by them landing on it once, but I think the best way to win at monopoly is by controlling the railroads because that's what people did in the olden days for real. And then while everyone else is bickering over the real estate, just spill water all over the bankers' set-up and ruin the night. Ends the game early, which means we all win because Monopoly is a stupid game.

Turns out it wasn't Brad Pitt, it was Guy Pearce? I don't know why I thought it was Brad Pitt, maybe because Fight Club was also a twist movie from around the same era? Guy Pearce is such a funny name. Should have had a tattoo and piercing shop or something instead of becoming an actor. 

Pitt would have been really good in Memento though, like "What's in the box?! Wait what is a box?" haha. Tom Lennon was apparently in that movie too, but way before he was famous for improv/Reno 911. I've never been to Reno but they call it the armpit of Nevada I think.
Just had to clear up that apparently Brad Pitt wasn't in memento. Dunno why I thought that.”

Jacksonville Jaguars:

Ok the Jaguars don’t have a great CB room and is probably one of their biggest needs but since this draft class has several good CBs they should be able to improve on that a bit. Other than CB the Jaguars need DT, ILB, OLB, RB, and WR. The offense is a lot better than the defense so that should be the focus for them for the foreseeable future. One huge note is QB Steven Connolly is 34 and is on retirement watch so as soon as midseason we could see QB Matt Howard become the starting QB which is a move that the league and the world is not and probably never will be ready for. I think the Jaguars will look to upgrade the defense with a CB early in the draft and a WR a bit later to improve both sides of the ball in a huge way.

Las Vegas Raiders:

I am writing this in a bit of a weird order so I don’t know if it will be a trend in the reading order but for me they continue the trend of teams having great CB rooms and I can even extend that to their entire secondary. The Raiders have a good team, their biggest needs are DE, DT, OG, and OT. They, like a couple of other teams, could use some better depth pieces but they can add that in FA I think the main thing for them is waiting. This is tough because the majority of their best players are older but I just can’t see them keeping up with the other top teams with their current team. I think they either have to make some trades to compete now or stay the course but keep in mind that they might not be able to put together a great run just yet.

Minnesota Vikings:

Before I start this team description I would like to thank Ben Gosling of the Minnesota Vikings Insider. He was a big help with providing me with sources and quotes relating to the Vikings.

The Vikings are a bit of a fun team with a young offensive core of Christian Sinnock at QB, a good WR core that only has one player who has been in the league for more than 3 years, and a good O-line led by 4th year OT 81 overall Herman Knott. I did hear from a source close to the Vikings college scouting department that because of the poor on field results the scouting department has said they’ve been instructed to look into signal callers. I heard that a close eye is being kept on the continued development of Christian Sinnock. Source did not confirm whether that means they’ll look at QB this draft, or blow it all up for Savage should Sinnock not produce this year. I was told “It’s year 3 - it’s gotta work now, especially with the offseason upgrades to OL/TE Michael Vega coming in, or it’s gonna get messy”. Bundy doesn’t have a good track record with QBs in the college game (Kansas has benched the starting QB in every season thus far) and many are questioning the Vikings President’s ability to commit to a QB. On the defense some work needs to be done. The Vikings have a solid CB room but the stars are getting older and are nearing the end of their contracts. The D-line is pretty lackluster, especially with DE Paul Munford and DT Neil Henry on the last year of their contracts. They took DT/DE early in the draft last year, but from what I have heard don’t be surprised if they grab another DL early again, a source close to the team told me of all the losses in 2023, that one has stuck with ownership the most. I also heard that the Vikings “hated” the top of the ILB class this year and traded for Gordon Wilburn from Detroit specifically because of the Aaron Pool Eagles game last season. I expect them to go pretty hard on defense in this draft with RB being the most likely and maybe even only offensive position drafted outside of BPA. Another one of my sources told me “Ownership in Minnesota is getting antsy for a competitive playoff team while the fanbase is getting antsy for a winning season.” Could Bundy be preparing to blow this team up. I don't think that's the plan just yet since they have a lot of young players and have hit on a good number of picks in the draft but if the team doesn’t come together in the next 2 seasons that could be on the table. 

Also to talk about the RB position a bit I am going to include an excerpt from my friend Ben Gosling of the Minnesota Vikings Insider. “Vikings RB Aldrick Ynoa is obviously well known from his deep playoff run with Tennessee, but Milton Evans, signed as a FA from the Chargers, is looking to give the ground game in Minnesota new life. After struggling to get the wheels going with the Chargers (592 yards on 255 attempts in 2023), he enters 2024 as the Vikings RB2 - which thus far, has turned into the Vikings RB1 by the end of the year (Cooper McGough took over for Bruno Hanson in 2022, Aldrick Ynoa for McGough in 2023). Evans felt unheralded on a Chargers team overshadowed by every other AFCW team - but in the NFCN, he’s looking to help the Vikings take the division crown, whether that be RB2 or stealing Ynoa’s RB1 role.” 

I also got a brief moment to interview Vikings owner Bundy since he is a busy man I was allowed to ask one question. I asked how the roles are split between the front office and he responded with “https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wz-PtEJEaqY (Bellwood is Stan, Bundy is the kazoo player)”. It's a good thing I was only given permission to ask one question because I would not have been able to continue with the interview after that. Days after the fact I am still trying to process the fact that he just spelled out an entire youtube link mid conversation. 

As I was leaving I was able to hear Bundy yelling “Junior Ogbah is still one of the worst draft selections ever. People thought the Seahawks reached on Christian Carter in 2022 a few picks earlier, but Carter has done significantly better as the second fiddle ILB so far than Ogbah on a team/in a division a player of his draft position should dominate. He had a career year of 19/151 in Green Bay last year, and his quitting on the Kansas team in 2021 was just a precursor to his inevitable short career. Milwaukee and Madison area Packers season ticket holders likely have more allegiance to UW alum Alex Williams III, a MINNESOTA VIKING, than the Packers WRs, and it might have been better for GB to take a kicker in R1 than Ogbah’s sorry ass who gets jammed up by 5th string 50s ovr CBs. And none of this is a knock on GB’s front office - just a warning to any other CFB WRs (ahem, Paul Canha) who think they’re bigger than their on field results/team.”

New England Patriots:

The Patriots are in rebuild mode and I have been told by a member of their front office that they have a full trade block of players that are ready to contribute to contending teams. I was also told the rebuild is going better than intended and should be over faster than they first expected. Despite only having 1 pick in the draft they have locked in on their target and are willing to make trades to move up and grab them. Outside of that the team has several vets that they are trying to move but some nice young pieces that they are hoping can develop and become franchise guys for them. They are hoping their pair of DTs 1st round pick last year Miguel Peterson and Darin Edwards can be forces in the trenches that they can build their defensive identity around along with promising DE Phillip Calhoun. FS Bruce Puello is another one of the players the Pats are hoping they can build their identity around. His great zone coverage ability could really help the previous 3 players mentioned elevate their game with a FS that will make QBs think twice before making a throw. Also how can I talk about the Patriots without mentioning QB Rashaan Lyons his strong arm paired with a young WR room and receiving RB Fish Liggins will allow them to air the ball out and push the ball deep. The Patriots could use some help on the O-line or a 2nd DE. Also assuming more trades are coming they could be looking to take a CB or SS too.

New York Jets:

This dude in New York loves trades. After trading out of the 1st pick, trading for QB Luke Trahan, RB Stacy Moton, RB David Perrigin, and so much more they are looking to grab WR, LB, OT, DE, FB, and K. This guy Spoof is unhinged out of respect I will keep the rumor out of this description but when I asked him to confirm a rumor I heard he confirmed it and then asked me for my source saying “That person must be set on fire”. When I revealed that my source was Spoof he said “lol true” and then sent a gif of a guy sitting on a wavy jelloy substance on fire with flashing bitcoin logos. I also get the sense that he only actually considers trades 25% of the time and the other 75% of the time he just agrees to do a trade without thinking it through. I would love to go on but for fear of my own well being I will stop here and instead recommend a mental evaluation.

Philadelphia Eagles:

The Eagles are top 2 when it comes to other teams that I admire. I am such a huge fan of how Sagebow and Acewulf construct their team and the results that they have gotten in the draft. The Eagles have a couple positions they can address the biggest one on defense is LB. OLB Mark Soto and ILB Christian Palardy are promising young players but OLB Emory Hightower is getting older and they don’t have another ILB of any note. I heard that if they can’t find a good long term solution in the draft they could move SS Ryan Reininger to LB. His great coverage mixed with his amazing run defense and speed. This would lead to one of FS Sameer Vandersteen or Leonard Vaughn switching to SS leaving them with a good secondary and a great new LB. I have heard rumblings of the Eagles wanting to grab a DE in the draft but if I had to put money on one position that they are going to take it’s WR. The Eagles traded a WR recently for a DT and with all but 1 of their WRs on expiring deals they would love to get a player to develop into their next WR1. QB Aaron Pool is great but at 32 and with a couple of great QB classes coming up they might look to grab a QB in the 2025 or 2026 SimNFL Draft. The rest of the Eagles look really good and in my eyes they are looking for a couple final pieces to really start contending. 

I think the best part of the Eagles is their scouting. They have a super secret algorithm which I have not been able to confirm or deny is just a big old man sitting in a room forced to watch film and spit out scores and rankings that they pretend is an algorithm but I will keep digging. They just keep hitting on guys in the draft and with what little they would share with me their rankings are accurate to the info I have seen from scouting. The Eagles also are focused on building a team identity. I have been told on multiple occasions that they would rather have an ok player who can do their job and fit into their scheme than a great player that doesn’t fit their scheme. I don’t know how every other team runs but from what I know the Eagles are the most in depth and detail oriented FO in the league and are going to be a problem for a long time.

Seattle Seahawks:

The Seahawks are another team with a strong CB room. CBs Daniel Mendoza, Mike Hargreaves, and Rasul Miller are great and even Reggie Ladendorf has some great potential. The Seahawks also have a good D-line and I can’t wait to see what last years #1 overall pick DT Alejandro Rua can do in his 2nd season. I also can’t mention 4th year OLB 85 overall Brandon Schroeder an absolute monster with 95 pass rush, 93 tackle, 92 agility, 88 speed, 80 strength, 76 run defense, 79 zone coverage, 78 man coverage, and 75 football IQ all with A+ potential Schroeder could be the best player in the league in the near future. The Seahawks have a really strong defense but the offense still needs some work. QB Kemoko Allard is looking like a great pick in the 3rd last year but he has to keep building on it. With just an ok O-line and his RB, TE, and WRs aging Allard is going to struggle if the Seahawks can’t get some weapons around him in the next 2 or 3 years. The biggest needs for the Seahawks are C, OG, and OT and then in the near future RB, TE, and WR since like I said those players are really aging. With that being said with the amazing work they have done on the defense I am confident these birds can get it done.

Tampa Bay Buccaneers:

The Buccaneers need a center because as of now they are unable to snap the ball. Other than that they are a pretty solid team. With a great D-line consisting of a 74 and 79 overall DE and a 74 and 77 overall DT it’s going to be hard to run on them and they can get to the QB fast. With a solid secondary they will be a hard team to play because they are going to make you earn every yard with a 75 overall SS and 3 more 70s in their LB room. The offense is also good 85 overall RB Max Smith is the main offense for them. QB Gregory Taphorn who they acquired in a trade with the Patriots is a great QB but with a disappointing WR room and no TE it looks like the offense will rely on Max Smith’s and Taphorn’s legs with a little bit of FB Donald Johnson. Like I mentioned with no C or TE those are some of their biggest needs but they could also use FS, OT, OG, and as I also mentioned before WR. The Buccaneers are a good team but they need to make a couple big acquisitions before they can really contend and they might want to do it fast since 6 of their 12 70+ overalls are on expiring deals and with only 97.82 mil in cap space we may see the Buccaneers hosting a fire sale at the trade deadline. I don’t think a full rebuild is needed from them but they need to retool and trading in some of their top players to get a more balanced team could be the move.

Tennessee Titans:

The Titans have the 1st pick in the draft. The first thing you notice looking at the Titans roster is their CB room. The Titans CB is so skilled and has 2 bright young stars in Robert Canady and Kendal Shaffer. The Titans could use help at ILB and OLB the most but could also improve at WR, RB, and OT. Led by QB Wayne Reimer on offense the offense is good but not great. Reimer is a great QB, the Titans have an amazing group of OGs, and FB Danny Kipnis  is a beast but other than that nothing jumps out at you as special. The WRs, TE, and RBs are just ok and to me they look like a team with a ton of potential to be great but they need to fill the team out better. The secondary is great on top of the great CB room I already mentioned they have 2 great FSs, one experienced vet in Joshua Johnstone and a really promising player in Sergio Collins who was an absolute steal being grabbed at the 30th pick in last year's draft. With the 1st overall pick the Titans should get a huge boost no matter what they do adding a weapon on offense would make them a bit of a force and adding a game changer on defense would be huge since they will benefit from the great secondary. I can’t wait to see what they do.

Washington Commanders:

The Washington Commanders are a team that exists in SimNFL. End of summary.