Posts tagged Matt Waldman

The Guardian NFL Writer Cian Fahey’s RSP Writers Project Team

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“Revis, you’ve been traded to Fahey’s team. His defense might be better than mine personnel-wise. But I hope you can have 15 pick-sixes, because they might need it if his offense doesn’t step up.” Photo by Marianne O’Leary.

Cian Fahey covers the NFL for The Guardian and he also writes for Irish Central and at one time contributed for The Bleacher Report. Fahey is a Steelers fan and also contributes toSteelers Depot. If you’ve never read his work or followed him on Twitter, he’s not afraid to give his unfiltered opinion. You’ll see that as he reveals his roster below.

I like a lot of Fahey’s choices on defense. I opted for Darrelle Revis yesterday when I finally began my revised version of my team. The idea of shutting down an entire side of the field or plastering 95 percent of the league’s receivers into utter uselessness is appealing. Where we differ is that Fahey is opting for a 3-4 scheme and I’m a 4-3 guy. On offense, Fahey and I both took a chance on tackle Charles Brown, who was a second-round pick of the Saints two years ago but injuries derailed his developmental opportunity to flourish as a starter. His production for eight games in 2011 makes hm a player I agree is a bargain.

As for his take on Dwight Lowery? Well, I suspect there’s a lot of love at Bleacher Report for the Jaguars safety. It’s one of the follow up questions Continue reading →

Random News and Notes

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Brandon Lloyd is an artist when it comes to catching the football. See why he and Adrian Peterson kick of my Insanity Series at Footballguys.com Photo by Jeffery Beall.

Fantasy Football

At Footballguys.com, I kicked off my Gut Check column with what I’m calling the Insanity Series: Players that will drive you mad in 2012. You can find column at Footbalguys and I’ll also link to them on this page. The first two published pieces in the series are on Adrian Peterson and Brandon Lloyd.

2013 Rookies Continue reading →

Football Outsiders Columnist Ben Muth’s RSP Team

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Football Outsiders columnist and former All Pac-10 offensive lineman Ben Muth reveals his RSP Writers Project team and to my surprise, undrafted rookie Bobby Rainey is one of his primary backups. Photo by Daaka2.

Ben Muth is a former offensive lineman. He played at Stanford for five years, lettered for four years, started for two, and he was first-team All Pac-10 as a senior. But Muth is quick to point out – as any team-oriented player in a team-first sport that Stanford lost too many football games during his tenure. The Cardinals had three head coaches and four offensive coordinators.

After his college career, Muth was picked up by the San Diego Chargers. He was eventually released because according to Muth, “I was injured, and then not picked up again because I didn’t block that many people when I was healthy.” It’s this kind of humility that inspires fans to appreciate the game and those who played it.

Because he played in a lot of systems and recognizes a lot of difference schemes, it was an experience that Muth believes helps him with his Football Outsiders column Word of Muth. I’m fortunate that Muth was willing to lend his expertise to the RSP Writers Project both as a contributor and a consultant on offensive line player values.

Still want to know more? Continue reading →

Updated Writers Project Values and 5-ish’s Readers Team Roster

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I have a feeling Matt Stafford will be on a lot of RSP Writers Project Teams. Reader 5-ish, whose knowledge rivals several writers I know, debuts a team for us below with Stafford as his starter.

The RSP Writers Project has been a blast this week and there was a lot of fantastic feedback from writers and readers this week. After taking a quick time out this week to tweak the project, it is now back in full force with a lower cap, revised player values, and thanks to reader and Footballguys subscriber Donnie Smith, a spreadsheet that wasn’t created by someone who stopped learning how to use Excel in the early part of this decade.

Here’s where you can download the new spreadsheet, instructions, and questions.

5-ish’s RSP Writers Project Team

I’ve always been a big Bradshaw fan. It appears 5-ish has similar respect for the runner’s game. Photo by Ted Kerwin

One of the Footballguys.com staff’s favorite subscribers that frequent the Shark Pool message board is “5-ish.” He’s like many of our great subscribers, knowledgeable about the game, a good sense of humor, and always willing to engage in friendly debate.

5-ish submitted his RSP readers team Continue reading →

New RSP Writers Project Values Delivered Sunday

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Just thought I’d drop everyone a line and give them the news that we’re about 99 percent finished with the changes we’re making to the player values, salary cap, and spreadsheet. I’d like to thank Donnie Smith for volunteering to make the Excel spreadsheet behave like something it’s capable of doing in the past five years rather than my knowledge that stopped in 2005. You’ll see what I mean sometime on Sunday.

Enjoy the weekend.

 

 

Reads Listens Views 6/22/2012

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Happy Friday. Hope you’re as pumped as Tuck today. If not, don’t worry. The RSP Writers Project will be back within a day or two. Photo by Chris Pusateri.

RSP Football Writers Project Update

I got some additional input from Football Outsiders columnist Ben Muth on players values this week. – Muth, a former college and NFL offensive lineman whose popular column grades offensive line performance, was gracious enough to make some tweaks along with me and Rotoworld’s Josh Norris to get the values of the linemen aligned with the rest of the player values.

This isn’t to detract from the excellent work Matt Bitonti did. There were more tweaks to the values in addition to the offensive line. And for the most part, the issue wasn’t the values of the players that Matt set, but the skeleton of how linemen should be valued versus other positions.

Simply put, we needed a trial run to see where to adjust. Matt did a fine job of putting everything together with the expectations I communicated to him and if he hadn’t, we would have been able to present the project this week for what I’m calling a “trial run.” And judging by the response, Continue reading →

New Cap for the RSP Writers Project

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Ndamukong Suh, it was nice to have you on my team for all of a few days… Photo by beatboxbadhabit.

After looking at two rosters and consulting with a few more writers, I’m cutting the salary cap and asking the writers to start over. It’s not enough of a challenge. Even when I limit myself to prospects at skill positions, my offensive line and defensive line are too good. There’s no way I should have offensive and defensive lines this good or be able to field Victor Cruz, Miles Austin, and A.J. Green on the same squad with passable (or good) units in other phases of the game.

I don’t want this to be fantasy football in that sense.

I want to make the writers work at this and $160 million is just a fun time diversion for a few days. I’ve enjoyed it immensely, but I want to force everyone to really think about what they are submitting and agonize. I’m mean in that way.

So I’m dropping the cap from $160 million at least by $20 million, maybe more. I’ve informed the writers. They all groaned, but also laughed because many of them had teams they really liked and readily admitted it wasn’t realistic.

So if you still want to play the $160 million version, I’ll keep the spreadsheet up here. However, I’ll be out with a revised, writers version in a few days.

And I was so loving my Four Horsemen of the Apocalypse defensive line. I was dreaming up the poster of those guys riding Harley’s, dressed in black cloaks…

My First Draft RSP Writers Team – Offensive Line

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I have to protect this guy and give my runners every chance to succeed. I think my RSP Writers Project offensive line accomplishes that objective – and that’s an understatement. Photo by Angie Six

The Rookie Scouting Portfolio Football Writers Project is an all-star cast of football writers, former scouts, and draft analysts on the Internet. Their mission is to take a month to build a 53-man roster with a $160 million salary cap and present the team here. You can use the same information to build your own team (see the bottom of this post).

Last night, I unveiled the skill positions of a first-draft team. Today, I’m unveiling my offensive line. Remember, this is an initial draft and I will probably take a month to truly build my squad. However, I think it is valuable and entertaining to display a thought process behind building a team. Readers will hopefully gain this insight when I display other writer’s teams, but they won’t get the same process as I can offer leading to the final product.

I am already working on a second draft of the team I’m unveiling this week and there will be some major changes. However, I still think it is fun to show my initial version because it reveals a lot about building NFL teams. Why certain ideas are ingrained in the culture of coaches, general managers, scouts, and players.

If you didn’t read the skill position unveiling yesterday, Continue reading →

First Draft of My RSP Writer’s Project Team – Offensive Skill Players

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Sanu is just one of several hybrids on my skill player depth charts thus far. Photo by West Point Public Affairs.

The consensus opinion after 24 hours is that building a team for the Rookie Scouting Portfolio Football Writers Project is challenging and addictive (download the spreadsheet and instructions at the bottom of this post). By the way, there are more player value updates coming Tuesday afternoon for those asking about guys not listed on the original player spreadsheet.

I agree. I just finished my first complete roster and thought I’d share the starting lineup with commentary. This is an initial draft, Continue reading →

The Rookie Scouting Portfolio Writers Project Begins!

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Ready to build your NFL Franchise? C.J. Spiller makes a nice prospect for your team. Photo by Matt Britt

The Mission

Each of you has been given complete control over an NFL franchise. Your mission is to do the following by 11:59 pm Eastern Time, Friday, July 20:

  • Build a 53-man roster within the confines of a $160 million salary cap
  • Provide player-personnel analysis of your complete roster
  • Answer the questions listed in the Q&A document

The premise is that you are taking an Al Davis-like role with an NFL team and building an organization according to a specific football philosophy. The questions in the Q&A document will require you to demonstrate how you applied this philosophy to your organization, players, coaches, and strategy on offense, defense, and special teams.

Scheme, Strategy, and Coaching

Some of the basic things and owner will need to know by the time he or she finishes building a team:

  • Base personnel sets the team will employ on both sides of the ball
  • Situational Sub Packages the team will employ on both sides of the ball
  • Types of plays the team will employ on both sides of the ball
  • Types of blocking, blitz, coverage, and route schemes the team will use
  • The coaches and coordinators that would stylistically be a good fit with the organization
  • What type of players would stylistically be a good fit with the organization
  • The environment/city/stadium type that would be a good fit with the organization

Every owner should look at the team once it is build and decide what organization they could see as a home for it based on whatever factors the owner can provide in a cogent and entertaining manner.

Players, Depth Charts, and Rosters

The Player Values spreadsheet lists as much of the players in the NFL and assigns a value in millions according to their current position. We did the best we could to develop values that will hopefully make it improbable to build a team that, at least on paper, doesn’t have clear weaknesses in some phase of the game. Player values are based on these factors:

  • Age
  • Talent
  • Draft status
  • Injury history
  • Ability to fit with multiple schemes

The values are far from perfect, but that’s what should hopefully make this project fertile ground for intellectual debate.

FAQ on Building Rosters

How do I use the spreadsheet?

The spreadsheet is separated into positional tabs. Each tab lists players at those positions and his value (in millions). To the right the player value list is a depth chart table.

The tables are set up to accommodate the maximum number of players an owner can possibly have at each position. Copy and paste (or write) the players into that table and the name will automatically appear on the Final Roster Tab. The spreadsheet will tally the salaries to keep each owner at the $160 million limit.

Matt Waldman will crosscheck the accuracy of your roster upon submission and send it back if a team is over the limit.

In the Final Roster Tab, write some analysis about the players you’re choosing. It can be as specific and detailed as the owner wants, but should at its most basic level explain the player’s skills, talents, and fit with the system.

What if there is a player I want who is not listed on the spreadsheet? You need to contact Matt Waldman about that player and a designated committee of Sigmund Bloom, Jene Bramel, Matt Waldman, and/or Matt Bitonti will determine that value for that player. If one of us is the actual owner petitioning for a player value, another writer will be asked help with that decision rather than the petitioner help with the decision.

What about Special Teams?

The tables below the positional depth chart in each tab are for special teams duty. If an owner wants a player to contribute to the punt team and/or kickoff team, he copies and pastes the player name in both the position tab and the Final Roster Tab. This is the only time owners have to paste or type a player in that Final Roster Tab and the owners do not enter a salary a second time for players working special teams.  Players are already given a salary when entered in the depth chart.

What is the minimum number of players required for each positional depth chart?

Depth Chart Minimums
Offense

22
Quarterback

3
Running Back

3
Fullback and Tight End

3
Wide Receiver

5
Tackle

3
Guard

3
Center

2
Defense

19
Defensive Line

6
Linebackers

5
Defensive Backs

8
Punter

1
Kicker

1
Remaining Players (any position)

10
Total Roster Size

53


Can an owner place a player at a position where he’s not current used? Yes, but be prepared to defend that point with strong logic and his salary will remain the same regardless of the position he plays. Owners will need to copy and paste the player name and salary into the appropriate table for that position.

For instance, if an owner decides to use Mike Vick as a running back instead of quarterback, then he or she must copy Vick’s name and salary from the QB tab and paste it into the RB Depth Chart table on the RB Tab.

Can an owner have the same player work at multiple positions? Yes. Let’s continue the Michael Vick example. Say I decide I want to use Vick like Darren Sproles, but I also want Vick to be my backup QB.

In my offense, Vick will be my starting running back. And in three and four-receiver packages in my offense he’ll be the slot receiver and I’ll have Mewelde Moore as my back in these personnel packages.

What I would do is list Vick on my running back depth chart, my wide receiver depth chart, and my quarterback depth chart, but only paste his salary in one of those tables.

While this strategy might provide the team more personnel flexibility at other positions, if Vick is listed as the No.2 QB on the depth chart but works as the starting RB and sub package slot receiver then the I need to have a good explanation for what kind of depth I’ll have at RB and QB if the No.1 QB gets hurt or Vick gets hurt playing RB/slot receiver.

What if an owner wants to run an experimental/non-traditional system?

If an owner wants to be an innovator and try a 1-6-4 defensive system as its base unit, that’s okay, but the minimums for each positional depth chart will still need to apply and the owner will need to explain:

  • Conceptually how this system will work from an X’s and O’s standpoint
  • Its strengths and weaknesses versus opposing game plans
  • The type of personnel (skills and talent) that will fit into the system

Essentially, the owner needs to be prepared to show why it will work.

Who to contact with questions?

Matt Waldman at mattwaldmanrsp@gmail.com.

Wanna Play? The tools I’ve given our writers are below, you will also have until July 20th to submit a team to me. There is no guarantee that I’ll publish or evaluator your team in depth. However, I will post details of a contest or two within the week.

RSP Writers Project Player Values

Rookie Scouting Portfolio Writers Project Instructions

Rookie Scouting Portfolio Writers Project Qs