Regular Season Week 1

VS

Prior to our week one game against the Carolina Panthers I made a couple of moves that would better help our team in the future. 

The First move I made was that I traded our veteran Wide Receiver Vincent Jackson to the Kansas City Chiefs for a 3rd round pick. The reason I made this trade was because the Chiefs will have to beat two great teams in the Denver Broncos and the San Diego Chargers to win their division, let alone make it to the playoffs. So I'm hoping that they will fall to the middle of the round therefore giving me the opportunity to draft a solid player for the team. Also, I thought this trade would be logical because it would get my younger receivers time to play and gain more experience so when the inevitable Super Bowl run happens they'll be ready.

The next move I made was that I sent our 27 Defensive End, Micheal Johnson to the Chicago Bears for a 3rd round pick in the 2015 NFL Draft. The reason I made this transaction was pretty much the same reason I made the Jackson transaction but with trading Johnson, I was able to free up $8 Million in cap room. 

Game 1 Summary:

In week 1 we had a tough task ahead of us as we had to face the Cam Newton led Carolina panthers. Though it was a home game, we were still a very vulnerable team because Newton is a great dual-threat Quarterback. Being a dual-threat QB means that you are great at both passing and running the ball. This skill puts a great amount of stress on the defense because if you not only have to cover their great rookie Wide Receiver in Kelvin Benjamin, we also have to decide if we want to spy a line backer or a lineman to make sure that her doesn't escape from the pocket. 

So the game starts with the Panthers getting the ball first. They quickly drive down the field and are in prime position to score a touchdown until Newton overthrows a his receiver in the flats and is picked off by our young Strong Safety Bradley McDougald. 

Out comes the rookie QB Mike Glennon out for his first start in the NFL, hopefully its a great one. On our first drive our offense marches down the field and gets in field goal range but our kicker Patrick Murray misses a field goal that would've put us ahead by 3. 

Now the Panthers have the ball with great feild position and great offense ready to strike. The Panthers imediately march down the field and Cam Newton throws a TOUCHDOWN pass to Tight End Greg Olson. 

When we got the ball back we went three and out and the panthers once again marched down the field to score to make the score 14 to 0. After getting the ball back, we quickly got down the field a were about to score till Mike Evans fumbled a catch which let gave the Panthers the ball back. A couple drives later Newton throws another interception to the young Free Safety John Boyett who gets a 39 yard return and we get a good return out of it. We couldn't score a touchdown so we kicked a field goal. 

Fast Forward to the 4th quarter, we our down 28 to 12 and the panthers have the ball and the march down the field and kicked a field goal which gave them a 31 to 13 lead. So we got the ball back and went down the field and everything was going well till Mike Glennon went down with an injury with 3 minutes left in the 4th Quarter. Moments later we would find out that he had in fact dislocated his elbow and he'll be out for the next four weeks. Because of the injury, our backup QB Tyler Wilson came in finished the drive off with a touchdown pass. 

Anyway, we lost the game 31-23. 

Game One Standouts:

Though his stats may not say so, Mike Glennon in his first start was a stand out. Mike Glennon finished with 297 yards and completing 56 percent of his 44 attempted passes and ended up with an interception and a 68.0 QB rating. 

The next stand out was Mike Evans. I came into the season with high hopes for Evans. But apart from the fumble Mike had a great first game as he caught 8 balls for 107 yards and averaging 13.4 yards per catch. In the future I wouldn't expect Evans to consistently have these numbers because Glennon is down so I will just expect us to run the ball more. 

John Boyett had himself a PHENOMENAL game as he led the team in tackles and got an interception. 

Though allowing Cam Newton to rush for 65 yards, our defensive line only allowed 58 rushing yards to the panthers running backs.

When Glennon went down with the injury, I was worried if Tyler Wilson would be able to come in and do good job in relief. Wilson went completed 4 of his 4 attempted passes for 44 yards and a touchdown while posting a 152 QBR. Though its just a small sample size of what he can do, I am confident in Wilsons ability to hold down the QB position till Glennon is able to return. 

Wall of Mediocrity: week one edition

Welcome to the wall of mediocrity, this is the place where I shine a light on players, or a group of players that didn't play like a bum but didn't play like a pro bowler either.

Our first inductee is the offensive line, while they only allowed 2 sacks agains a stout Carolina defensive line, they also didn't provide a lot of rushing lanes for our backs to run through. As a matter of fact, I contribute Mike Glennons poor QBR to the fact that we were always in 3rd down and long situations where we were forced to throw the ball. 

Week Post Game:

After the game, I decided that I would start "Tanking". Tanking is when a team purposely loses in hopes of getting a high draft pick the following year. The reason I made this decision was because Glennon went is out with an injury so therefore we our most likely going to lose our first 4 games and in a division with teams like the Falcons, Saints, and Panthers it wot be easy to catch up with them after dropping so many games early on. 

To begin this tanking process, I decided to trade Logan Mankins to the New York Jets for a 4th round draft pick. The Jets play in a division with the Tom Brady led New England Patriots, the Miami Dolphins and The Buffalo Bills who have a great defense. Plus, the Jets have issues at the Quarterback position, so I am expecting that fourth round pick to be in the top 10. And besides, Logan Mankins is 32 years old and just takes up cap room that we'll need this off-season to get Free Agents so Itraded him now while he was wanted because in the off-season, he'll be 33 years old and less skillful and those are the worst two combinations a team wants in an offensive lineman,

Epic Fail!

While I was preparing for the regular season I made a lot of moves that would better my team for the future that I could spend days upon days talking about but i realized that I made a mistake earlier. My mistake was that I decided to relocate the team next season. The thing is, if I ended up winning the Super Bowl with the relocation team, it technically practically make what I'm trying to do because it would be winning the Super Bowl with the another team in another city. So I am going to re-start the franchise and  I'll try to make the moves that i did and my next post will be about the first four weeks of the REGULAR season. I won't be playing the regular season because I already know what I have in my team.

Preseason WK 1

So this week I went through the preseason and made some notable adjustments to the team based on their performances in the games.

 PS Week 1 

VS

Signings:

As noted in an earlier post, one of the teams most questionable positions is at Quarterback. So to fill this void I went out to free agency and signed former Tampa Bay Buccaneer Josh Freeman for $1.55 Million and Second year Quarterback Tyler Wilson for $920 Thousand. 

To fix our lack of depth and talent and depth on the offensive line, I signed 2 guards in Chris Snee for $2.6 Million and Jason Pinkson for $680 Thousand. After that, I signed Tackle Red Frage. 

Finally I signed Wide Receiver Trindon Holliday for $730 Thousand and Line Backer Pat Anger for $1.83 Million. Honestly I really didn't need to sign Holliday but he is FAST! So that means that he'll be tremendous in special teams. The reason I signed Pat anger was because he was a player that gave the roster depth. I might end up cutting him down the road though. 

Game 1 Standouts:

A stand out for the first game on the offensive side of the ball is Mike Glennon. Glennon played only the first quarter and completed 3 out of his 3 attempted passes for 49 yards and a 118.7 Quarterback Rating. Along with Glennon, I was also impressed with Tyler Wilson as Completed 60% of his 33 passes for 161 yards and a 72.9 QB Rating. 

Receiving the ball, Brandon Myers Led the team in Receptions with 6 and averaging 8.8 yards per catch. 

Game 1 Disappointments:

As expected, The main disappointment of  week one would be our defense. With the starters only playing the first quarter, they allowed the Jacksonville GAINED 662 YARDS OFFENSIVELY!! That performance is the epitome of terrible defense! I mean, I expected us to be bad but not as bad to allow the CHAD HENNE led JAGUARS! This goes back to my point that we need depth so i'll be seriously addressing that in the upcoming offseason.  

Another Dissapointment was Josh Freeman. When I signed Josh, I had high hopes that he could maybe challenge Mike Glennon for the starting job. But his performance quickly changed my mind because if he keeps playing the way he is I will cut him in a heartbeat because his roster spot could be easily given to a position player. The problem with Josh was that he completed 38 Percent of his passes in 13 Attempts. The main reason he was so bad was because I was trying to throw down the field with deep passes and he was very inaccurate and that is a huge red flag (no pun intended) because my plan with this team is to let throw deep passes to Mike Evans since his so big. 

Lastly the offensive line was as expected, concerning because they gave up 5 sacks and our quarterbacks were constantly under pressure. Though Doug Martin averaged 15 yards a carry, they didn't hold their blocks long enough for our back to find holes to run through. The reason Martin got 3 yards was because he managed to get a 63 yard run. 

Things I Failed To Mention:

Last week, I failed to mention that I will be taking over the team in Connected Connected Franchise mode as an owner. But after realizing some faults in the mode, I decided that i will be taking over the team as a coach. 

Decision Time

MY 20 TIME DECISION 

For my 20 Time i have decided that I'll take the worst team in the NFL, The Tampa Bay Buccaneers, to the Super Bowl in Madden 15.

In "real life" The Bucs went 2-14 and have the first pick in the NFL Draft this season. However I probably wont be blessed with that opportunity depending on how well my team plays.

DIFFICULTY:

To get the most realistic statistics I will be playing on custom sliders that I got from Operation Sports. I personally tested the sliders in 12 games and I've been pleased with the statistics.

THE ROSTER:

To no surprise, this team doesn't really have any strengths or depth at any key position but there are are a couple of players that will play a vital role to the eventual Super Bowl run. 

The immediate standout on offense is the rookie wide receiver Mike Evans. Evans is 6'5" and weighs 231 pounds and will be used as a deep threat due to his size and power. 

On the opposite side of the ball, we have a couple of  young players that are good but we don't have any depth so in the case they go down with an injury our defense would struggle,if they arent already, due to lack of quality backups.

Our key defensive players are Defensive Tackle Gerald McCoy, Outside Linebacker Lavonte David, Corner Back Alterraun Verner and Danny Lananah. 

POSITIONS THAT NEED WORK:

Quarterback: We only have two so I plan to be starting Mike Glennon and have Josh McCown as my backup. Depending on how well Glennon develops during the season, I plan to upgrade this position either through the draft or through Free Agency. 

Wide Reciever: Though we have  Mike Evans and Vincent Jackson, Jackson is getting old and his production will start to decline after this season so I'll need to build some depth by getting a lot of slot receiver.  

Project Execution:

This project shall be executed by playing 4 games a week and watching Madden 15 Connected Careers Videos on YouTube