Posts tagged RSP Football Writers Project

RSP Writer’s Q&A: Matt Miller, Bleacher Report

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Matt Miller’s offense might be young and unproven in many respects, but Arian Foster and the offensive line should provide stability through any growing pains. Photo by AJ Guel.

Bleacher Report’s NFL Draft Lead Writer, Matt Miller is the founder of the NFL draft site New Era Scouting. Matt’s work has been featured in Madden 13, on ESPN radio, SiriusXM, NFL.com, SI.com, and USA Today. NFL, CFL and AFL teams have utilized his services. Matt was the secondary and special teams coordinator for the three-time league champion Joplin Crusaders of the Central Football League.

Miller went big and bad on defense and young and unproven on offense. I know that the edges of my offensive line will be severely tested if facing Miller’s team. In fact, if my team were fortunate enough to come away with a victory, even a 14-6 win might feel like a three-point loss.

However, it’s not fair at all  to characterize Miller’s offense as one that can only score six points. There’s some quality talent on this offense that could grow up fast. If they all transition at the same fast rate, this squad could have the positives of the Houston Texans offense and San Francisco 49ers defense. Continue reading →

Matt Waldman’s RSP Writer’s Team Q&A

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How do you make A.J. Green even better? Make him work against Darrelle Revis in practice. Photo by Wade Rackley.(http://www.flickr.com/photos/tnjn/5064947481/sizes/l/in/photostream/)

I will have two teams in this project because I had too much fun just building one. I’m also learning too much from the process to build just one. If you’ve tried building a team, I think you know what I mean. However, I’ll make this squad my official roster despite how much I like the other team I’ll share later this month.

Offensive System

I’m implementing a system with a streamlined playbook and simple concepts that complement each other while hopefully using variations of plays that don’t force additional complexity with my blocking and route schemes. I want my quarterback to have enough freedom Continue reading →

RSP Writers Project Q&A: DraftBreakdown.com’s Eric Stoner

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From a stylistic and football smarts standpoint, there might not be a better model player for Denarius Moore to learn from than Randy Moss. Draft Breakdown’s Eric Stoner pairs the two on his depth chart. Photo by Wade Rackley.

There was a lot of quality football knowledge emanating from the roster presentations and interviews last week. Former All-Pac-10 offensive lineman and Football Outsider’s columnist Ben Muth gave a mini clinic on assembling and scheming a power running game when presenting his team. The Guardian’s Cian Fahey demonstrated the confidence to take on a reclamation project at quarterback and arm him with young talent at receiver, and complement the offensive with a dangerous defense. And Dynasty Rogues writer Nick Whalen, a former high school quarterback with stints at four colleges as a quarterbacks, wide receivers, and defensive backs assistant coach, delivered the ultimate change-up and opted to invoke Mary Schottenheimer’s physical, run-based offense.

I didn’t intend it to happen this way, but DraftBreakdown.com’s Eric Stoner begins the week of July Fourth with the most explosive offense we’ve seen at the RSP Writers Project to date. Ironically, Stoner wanted Continue reading →

RSP Writers Roster: DraftBreakdown’s Eric Stoner

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Eric Stoner’s RSP roster includes “the moveable chess piece,” Aaron Hernandez, who might be the team’s least dangerous receiving threat when it’s all said and done. Photo by Patriotworld.

Eric Stoner is a legal assistant by day, and a writer and video guy for DraftBreakdown.com for the remaining hours he’s awake. He specializes in quarterback evaluation. His YouTube videos are a quality service for football fans seeking more than the typical highlight packages that fans put together of college stars. Stoner’s videos are actually more like Continue reading →

Dynasty Rogues Writer Nick Whalen’s RSP Team Q&A

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Dynasty Rogues writer Nick Whalen, a former QB/WR/DB coach and assistant student coach at four colleges, gets props for going against the grain and invoking the awesome Marty Schottenheimer as a big influence for his offense. Photo by Smart Goofy Dog.

Nick Whalen unveiled a team that wants to beat you up on both side of the ball. I love it. As with all the teams we’ve see thus far, there are discernible holes that could derailthis freight train offense and big, bad defense. However, I love the approach Whalen takes – giving the middle finger to the trendy approach of spread offenses. Continue reading →

Writers Team: Nick Whalen’s RSP Squad, Dynasty Rogues

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Nick Whalen’s RSP Writers Team

Eric Berry, Earl Thomas, and Patrick Willis headline a young and athletic defense for Ryan Whalen’s Readers Team. Whalen has assistant coaching experience with four different college teams. Photo by Wade Rackley.

Nick Whalen is a regular at the Footballguys.com message board and a guy I’ve corresponded with frequently over the years. He’s a writer at Dynasty Rogues. Whalen has a variety of experiences in football and he’s person I’ve enjoyed trading info.

A former high school quarterback, Whalen also has experience on coaching staffs as an assistant student coach with Drake University, Carthage College, and Montana State. He also spent two years as an assistant student coach with Western Kentucky. He has been a quarterback, wide receiver, and defensive back coach for three different high school teams.

His RSP Writer’s Team has one of the more Continue reading →

The Guardian NFL Writer Cian Fahey’s RSP Project Q&A

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You have to admire a writer with the sack to believe in a player others are ready to abandon. With a defense that Cian Fahey put together, he’s willing to give Colt McCoy a shot as a starter in what he believes will be a better offensive fit. Details below. Photo by Erik Daniel Drost.

Cian Fahey covers the NFL for The Guardian. He also writes for Irish Central and at one time contributed for The Bleacher Report. Fahey is a Steelers fan and also contributes for Steelers Depot. If you’ve never read his work or followed him on Twitter, he’s not afraid to give his unfiltered opinion. You can follow him on Twitter @Cianaf.

What I enjoyed about collaborating with Fahey on this project is that he took some risks and as a fellow risk-taker, I appreciate the things we all can learn from doing so. His interview and the discussion that ensues about his team is below. Continue reading →

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 →

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.