South Maryland/Huntsville

[IrishGuy65]

In 2041, we'll be moving to Huntsville. Since we are still in South Maryland, I'm naming this thread South Maryland/Huntsville to avoid confusion.

We are going to basically restart this team in 2037, hoping to build up a championship team to take into Huntsville.

Currently, it's playoff time in the 2036 OSFL season, and we are trying to set up for the coming year. Our goal is to trade for as many future picks as possible. So, starting in 2037 the door is wide open to trade anyone and everyone. We like many of our players, and feel we have a good core group to build around, but we also feel like we aren't going to have much support in South Maryland from the fans, since we are moving out. So, instead of losing money for several seasons, we are looking to field a cheap team, hopefully a team that can be competitive. As we move towards 2041, we are hoping to build a young team that can grow together and bring in the fans in our new stadium in Huntsville.

We have decided to call ourselves the Huntsville Flyers, and we will use the colors orange and black. Here is our new logo:

Today, we are starting our rebuild, which we are going to try to work so that the finish of our rebuild coincides with our start in our new city and new stadium.

[Aston]

Cool! Do you happen to know/remember how I can update the logos for everyone?

[IrishGuy65]

Only one retirement over the summer. QB Floyd Sturdivant. He was mentoring our young QB Alexander Prescott. He did a fine job for us, considering what we asked him to do was help along Prescott.

Several guys we wanted to resign but got away from us.
- FS Ian Manculich for one. We couldn't get him to resign, and I don't think we'll try to get him in free agency.

- DE Perry Colclough. We got him after Boston let him go. He was going to be our main backup at DE, but because of injuries (which plagued our team last season), he ended up starting 9 games, and got 5.5 sacks.

- ILB Courtney Weaver. He held out early last year, and we have a pretty strict policy about resigning holdouts. So, he took exception and would not even consider an offer from us.

- WR Floyd Mallory. We really couldn't afford to resign him last season, and so he will be our franchise player this season. We are on the fence on whether to trade him or try to sign him long term... He is a monster return man and receiver... really a YOUNG franchise caliber player.

- DE Bradley Caldwell. A guy we really wanted to keep, but we are wary of his MCL injury last year. Like Mallory, and many other of our key players, he was injured for a large part of the season. These injuries really hurt our ability to win. We may go after him in Free Agency, depending on how doctor's feel his health is. He can be a dominant run stopper and is a perfect 3-4 DE. We'll wait and see on Caldwell.

These are the key players we are losing. If we decide to go into a full out rebuild, we won't bother with Caldwell and we'll trade Mallory for everything we can get. Doelle, Mitchem, Mallory, and Delgado are probably our 4 top trade pieces. Although, with a glut at DE, Delgado may not have the value we'd like, and we'll probably hold on to him.

[spot]

Like the idea, but the logo is a P. For Philly. Unless you are calling yourselves the Phlyers, which might be weird for Huntsville...

[IrishGuy65]

Aston, I have no idea how to update logos or change team colors for the whole league as Commissioner.

spot, as a fan of the team since BEFORE they won the Cup... way back when Mr. Snider first got the team off the ground, in fact, I understand the meaning, and I frankly don't care. To the fans of Huntsville, it will symbolize a wing on which the team will fly to victory.

[IrishGuy65]

Post Draft Press Conference

Owner, GM, Coach, and all around great guy IrishGuy65 steps on to the podium.

Well, boys and girls, it's been a crazy time so far this offseason, hasn't it? A lot of things going on. At the end of last season, we weren't able to work a deal with several players, which we noted in a previous press conference. With the beating we took last year, giving us the 6th pick in the draft this season, it was our initial intention to revitalize the team by packing off as many players as possible for draft picks. We thought we could start a 3 year rebuild with the many picks we felt we could get. But, as soon as we started working the phones to let people know that we were selling, several other teams in the league went into a selling frenzy also, flooding the market and making it a buyers market.

So, we changed our direction. I'll go through what we accomplished to this point in the offseason, then I'll take a few questions. We invited those of you who are here because you don't ask the tough questions, so remember that if you want to be invited back for more press conferences!

Before we could change direction, we had already had many offers for the former regimes 1.2 pick DT Donovan McEachern, so we traded him off to Ohio for a 2039 2nd and 7.32.

As everyone knows, we franchised our star WR, Floyd Mallory. We then put him on the market but had absolutely no interest, so we worked with his agent to resign him. He really, really wanted to be here, because he went ahead and signed the first offer we sent to him. I later became aware that the offer included 3 hookers a day charged to the team... so the contract is much, much larger than the numbers indicate, but he's worth it. We just hope he doesn't strain a hammy with all the extra work he's putting in... ahem.

We worked on signing a few of our younger RFAs that we brought to the team as rookie FA. These included FB Silas Wheeler, DE Louis Nelms Jr., and ILB Earl McDaniel, who had a very good rookie season as an undrafted rookie (81 solo tackles, 108 total tackles, 2.5 sacks and an INT).

At this point, we decided not to try to resign some of our older players that went into free agency. Instead, we combined the theories of rebuilding and creating a good team by getting younger, talented players and trading around in the draft to grab some good talent.

We were also trying to resign OLB Tito Siragusa, who shows a lot of promise at SLB. However, we found we had a good shot at getting one of two very good OLBs in the draft at 1.6, so we abandoned our negotiations with Siragusa.

TE has been iffy for us, and we need a little more offensive help for Mallory and Baker. So, we went ahead and traded a 6th round pick to Denver for Herb Hulbert. Not the greatest receiving TE, but a very solid run blocker who should help Doelle run the ball more effectively this season. With him and Loukas at TE, our run blocking on the outside should improve a bit.

Also trying to help the running game, we bid on, and ultimately lost the bidding war to Memphis, Johnnie Heatherly. We were far too cheap in trying to bring a quality lineman here to South Maryland. We now have plenty of excess cap, and we'll learn from this experience going forward.

To keep our ST strong, we resigned our ace Courtney Blair. He led the team with 20 ST tackles and also had a Forced Fumble.

With Kicker Pete Junkin getting older and asking for exorbitant amounts of money, we looked to add some quality by signing free agent kicker Vincent Woolsey. He's still young, and he's been successful over 82% of the time in his career kicking FGs. Plus, we liked that he's a mentor.

Speaking of mentors, we went out and signed FA QB Moe Spencer to continue to mentor Prescott, as Studivant did before he retired. Everyone should take notice... Spencer is backup and mentor. Prescott is our starter. There has been a lot of speculation in the media that there is a QB controversy here. Read my lips, there is no QB controversy.

With losing Heatherly, we decided not to be so cheap in finding a guard to work opposite Maciel, and signed Bryan Griffith to a 4 year deal. He's going to really help our running game. We like to run outside the tackles, and his quickness and strong blocking skills should really help Doelle succeed. We were in the bottom 25% in adjusted line yards last season, so hopefully TE Hulbert and G Griffith will help improve this.

We also signed 2nd year tackle Shaq Rae. While he's still very raw, we think he has good potential and we want to give him a try.

Finally, in the free agency period leading up to the draft, we resigned CB Luther Mason, another mentor and locker room leader. We hope he will be able to continue to help our young CBs develop.

Now, let's talk about the draft.

At 1.6, we selected OLB Reggie Wilkins. We had him rated as the top player in the draft. Getting him at 1.6 is a relative steal, we think. He'll most likely play SLB in our 3-4 defense. He had a great combine, and his weakest skill, as far as we can tell, is man to man coverage. Since we play mostly bump and run, and we blitz a lot, he should be just fine.

We make a trade with San Francisco, sending our 2nd in 2038 and our 3rd in 2039 for their 1st round pick, 1.29, where we get one of the top 3 safeties in the draft, Juan Cobb. Cobb will try to replace Manculich, who was overpaid by rivals in Boston. Cobb had a solid combine, and looks to be a strong run stopper and man coverage guy. At FS, he'll play a lot of zone which he also fares well at. I think our big concern will be his endurance. We'll also move him around from FS to SS a little and see how we can best utilize him. There's a good chance we'll end up using him at SS and Springer at FS.

Our next pick is 2.5, where we grab another TE in Robbie Brandon. Brandon is the 2nd best TE in the draft on our board, so we feel we have another score. He should be another good run blocker, and also a solid receiving TE, adding another weapon to our arsenal for Prescott to throw to. We need a guy to go over the middle and make the tough 3rd down catches, and we think he's going to be our guy. He also has very good speed and can get open deep for big plays.

We see another guy we really want, and look to trade into the 2nd to grab him. Eventually, we find a trade partner in North Liberty, getting 2.10 for our 2039 2nd and 4.7. We grab DE Earnest Knight. Knight was a very good run stopper in the Hoosier's defense, and we feel he will translate well here and be a good fit in our 3-4 defense.

We worked the phones trying to grab another late 2nd round pick, but couldn't get a hold of the Dakota GM to get FB Colin Erickson, whom they end up taking at 2.26. We felt he would be a good power RB and hoped we could bring him in and get him playing behind Doelle and learning how to be a professional running back. We failed to get a deal done, and lost out.

In the 3rd, we have 3.8 and we are able to get a young kicker in Joshua Montgomery. We initially had Reilly slated at 3.8, but since we already signed a kicker in FA, we decided we'd go with the guy that we thought had more potential. Whether he reaches his potential is another matter. But, he'll have mentor Vincent Woolsey to help him. If we didn't have Woolsey, Reilly would have been our kicker.

With 4 TEs on the roster, we end up trading former 6.6 pick Michael Lyon to Charlotte for their 7.31 pick. Lyon was not going to make the team this year, with our surplus of TEs, so we were lucky to get something for him.

We are very short at defensive line this offseason, so at 5.6 we get ourselves another DE in Robbie Baxter. He had a decent agility combine and did 31 reps on the bench press. We feel he'll fit well on our defensive line.

At 6.5, looking to bolster our ST, we add CB Rufus McIntyre. He's got all the qualities we look for as a ST guy, plus he covered well at Northern Colorado in both man and bump situations, and was a little bit of a ball hawk there. We hope he can come in on passing downs and be effective, but he's mostly here for ST play.

With 7.31, we find another ST guy, return man Marcus Fassnacht. While his combines weren't spectacular, they were on the positive side of average, and he showed a lot of skills that it takes to be a successful returner in this league. We have high hopes that he'll have some success returning kicks AND at WR.

With the 7.32 we got in the DT McEachern trade, we replace him with Abraham Farley. While he's small (6'1" and 278#), he never quits on a play and had a top notch career at Akron. Whether he will be successful here or not is unknown at this time. We know he is a hard worker, and that's a crucial piece to any project.

We still have a way to go, but we've got some young talent that we think we can turn into successful players.

Questions?

Q: Yeah, Sam Hill from Fox Washington. You said you have a lot of cap space left, are you looking to make a trade for a big name player?

A: Sam, good to see you here. To answer your question as simply as I can... yes.

Q: Jimmy Snuka from the Washington Times. You took two defensive players in the 1st round this season. Do you think your defense will play better with these new guys in the mix.

A: Jimmy, you've got me in a headlock here. We've got a pretty young defense at this point. Delgado is the only real veteran that's going to start this year. Our defensive line is going to be Delgado, Sharp (5th year), and rookie DE Knight. Our LBs will be Costa (4th year) and rookie Wilkins on the outside, with McDaniel (2nd year) and Riley (5th year) on the inside. Our CBs will be Hernandez (3rd year) and McCreadie (2nd year), and our safeties will be Springer (2nd year) and rookie Cobb. Not an experienced defense, so we expect many good things and many bad things. The really good news is that, if we keep these guys together for a while, chemistry should really kick in, along with their knowledge of our defense scheme. In 3 years, I expect our defense to be one of the top defenses in the league. Now, I expect a lot of inconsistency with the young guys making 'young guy mistakes'.

Q: Jim Bob Smith from the Washington Post. Me and my cousin, I mean wife, was talkin' the other day an' we was wonderin' how good your offense is gonna run this 'in year.

A: Well, Jim Bob, our offense is going to be better this year than it was last year. Doelle has a terrible season, our offensive line was not good, but Prescott had over 4100 yards passing and a 91.7 QB Rating. He's been studying all offseason, and we feel his INTs will go up and his completion % will go up. We also added a new guard to help Doelle run, two new TEs to help in the run and pass game, and we'll probably have 3rd year Center Gerald Hirschmann starting this year, so all that should improve the offense.


Guys, I gotta run. So little to do, so much time... um, scratch that, reverse it. But one more thing about ST. We've added some ST talent this season. While we lost a great kicker in Junkin, we have two in camp, and I think either one can do a very good job for us this year. We have several new guys that can return kicks, and several new guys who have very good makeup to play ST.

All three phases should be better this season. The guy who is really on the hot seat this season is going to be our strength coach, Gene Hicks. We had a lot of injuries last year, and that hurt our season a lot. If we have the same situation this year, don't expect to see him back next year.

[IrishGuy65]

I've decided to go with the Huntsville Bulldogs, as I've found a logo I really like:

[IrishGuy65]

Smaller image:

[IrishGuy65]

I wish Hoosier was around to make a helmet for me! He's amazing with that stuff.

[Guest]

The move finally went through in-game? When does that happen?

[IrishGuy65]

The move finally went through in-game? When does that happen?

2041, 3 seasons. I have been playing OOTP, and I have a team called the bulldogs. I liked the logo so much that I decided to go with it here also. Wanted to post now, while I'm thinking about it. Otherwise, I'll forget about it later.

[Guest]

Cool! Do you happen to know/remember how I can update the logos for everyone?

ban128.bmp after the move/change is made. You can update a zip that has them all and tell people to d/l it.

I think colors are frfoot.fcc. But a lot of them are wrong here. Someone should get bored and make a new one.