Apparently 7 weeks is fully scouted so you can easily scout between 30 and 40 guys depending on the scouting department you have. I can scout 48 plus this season after hiring a scouting agency, who hopefully can fill in the gaps that my old scouting team was failing to fill. After seven weeks, you learn nothing else about the guys from what I see and some of the players you won't get any information on in that time. Some guys when you see two of their reports bad (like hands and awareness for WR) then you should just stop scouting them.
There is a 77 overall rookie WR in the FA market and he has 99 speed, 99 accerelation but a 55 for hands and a 12 for awareness. Apparently he's naturally fast but dumb as a rock with stone hands. Had Aundre Allison not turned into a special teams GOD for me last year after I sent Orton to the Vikings then he'd been offered a special teams shot. Except of course, he wanted 5 million a year. Yeah, he's not getting signed.
But thanks to the scouting, I found a few steals. Got a starting center in the sixth round after he fell from the top of the heap down there (not sure why, all his stats are solid), grabbed a starting RG in the fourth (an 85! nice!) and still managed to get my targeted Middle Linebacker in the fourth but he was low because his run coverage is average at best. He has a speed of 95 though so yeah, he makes up the ground fast. A top ten offensive linemen fell to my hands at 22 but I found out why later. His agent was an ass who took me for 22 million and apparently a really fast DE making an inside cut leaves him baffled. But I needed a new LG as well and honestly, he was worth the cash considering.
For those having troubles with future cap, I'll tell you this much that I am playing Patriot games when it comes to signing. Shrinking older players to one year deals with my cap space (can also help if you need to trade them or release them sometimes) so they will be gone next year, finding reliable solid guys in FA to fill in holes (lot of the vets will take low end deals just to re-establish themselves or have one more shot at glory if you can offer it) and working the draft to my advantage by trading down when the guy I want isn't on the board for a bit. I'm currently at 15 million under the cap and I'll be clearing another 10 million next season to either bring back Champ or send him packing for a rookie CB to join my other one.
Around 31 the guys start to decline fast. They are good stop gap players at that point but its around then you should look to the draft and then turn them into 1-3 year deals and send them on their way. Most of the time if you don't sign them, they won't get touched in free agency and you can still bring them back on a year to year while a rookie develops.
As for the subs thing, yeah that is ruining some of my plans. I have three DT's and MLB's I want to get playing time together all game but that isn't going to be possible unless I do some depth chart work in the second half of each game. I guess I could use the pre-season to try what Old said since I don't care if I win or lose those games to begin with.
Oh and the Chargers Losman era ended fast. Ruptured ACL, career ending in the first game of the pre-season. I'm not sure who they have at QB now but I think it was Rex Grossman or some rookie they drafted at last check. Carolina somehow ended up with Rivers after Jakey retired. And Al Davis is losing patience with Russell, drafting the top QB in the draft after he fell to nine (that's right, teams ACTUALLY passed on a quarterback they didn't need! I love it!) for them. Guess Ja better make it happen this year or his Raider days are dead.
There is a 77 overall rookie WR in the FA market and he has 99 speed, 99 accerelation but a 55 for hands and a 12 for awareness. Apparently he's naturally fast but dumb as a rock with stone hands. Had Aundre Allison not turned into a special teams GOD for me last year after I sent Orton to the Vikings then he'd been offered a special teams shot. Except of course, he wanted 5 million a year. Yeah, he's not getting signed.
But thanks to the scouting, I found a few steals. Got a starting center in the sixth round after he fell from the top of the heap down there (not sure why, all his stats are solid), grabbed a starting RG in the fourth (an 85! nice!) and still managed to get my targeted Middle Linebacker in the fourth but he was low because his run coverage is average at best. He has a speed of 95 though so yeah, he makes up the ground fast. A top ten offensive linemen fell to my hands at 22 but I found out why later. His agent was an ass who took me for 22 million and apparently a really fast DE making an inside cut leaves him baffled. But I needed a new LG as well and honestly, he was worth the cash considering.
For those having troubles with future cap, I'll tell you this much that I am playing Patriot games when it comes to signing. Shrinking older players to one year deals with my cap space (can also help if you need to trade them or release them sometimes) so they will be gone next year, finding reliable solid guys in FA to fill in holes (lot of the vets will take low end deals just to re-establish themselves or have one more shot at glory if you can offer it) and working the draft to my advantage by trading down when the guy I want isn't on the board for a bit. I'm currently at 15 million under the cap and I'll be clearing another 10 million next season to either bring back Champ or send him packing for a rookie CB to join my other one.
Around 31 the guys start to decline fast. They are good stop gap players at that point but its around then you should look to the draft and then turn them into 1-3 year deals and send them on their way. Most of the time if you don't sign them, they won't get touched in free agency and you can still bring them back on a year to year while a rookie develops.
As for the subs thing, yeah that is ruining some of my plans. I have three DT's and MLB's I want to get playing time together all game but that isn't going to be possible unless I do some depth chart work in the second half of each game. I guess I could use the pre-season to try what Old said since I don't care if I win or lose those games to begin with.
Oh and the Chargers Losman era ended fast. Ruptured ACL, career ending in the first game of the pre-season. I'm not sure who they have at QB now but I think it was Rex Grossman or some rookie they drafted at last check. Carolina somehow ended up with Rivers after Jakey retired. And Al Davis is losing patience with Russell, drafting the top QB in the draft after he fell to nine (that's right, teams ACTUALLY passed on a quarterback they didn't need! I love it!) for them. Guess Ja better make it happen this year or his Raider days are dead.
