Fantasy World League Forum

New York Knights

Legendary Knights GM Adam McLane stepped down at the end of last season for various reasons.  Surely one was the frustration caused by his team who were the best during the regular season but had heartbreaking losses time after time in the playoffs.  The last 4 years NY have made the playoffs and are 1-4 in the playoffs.  Last year after sweeping the AFC East with an AFC best 12-2 record the team immediately went out of the playoffs due to a close loss to the San Antonio Riders.

In comes new GM Jon Houston, a rookie GM who inherits a very strong side.  Houston caused some controversy amongst Knights fans by mentioning that Phil Stambaugh might be available for trade.  Sounded crazy at first but Stambaugh could get some good trade value and backup Marcus Crandell has looked great in mini camp.  Stambaugh did have one of the greatest seasons ever last year with 23 td's and just 1 int !

At HB DeMario Brown had another great year but is getting up there in years, Brown rushed for over 1000 yards and 10 touchdowns and also caught 91 passes to be the key figure in the Knights offense.  FB Joey Dozier had a great year rushed for 500 yards and 8 touchdowns.

At WR ageless Jim Turner had a huge year for the Knights, TE Adam Young also had a great year but Bosley Allen seems to have lost any speed he once had.  With just 3 WR's on the roster the Knights have to get some more guys in.

Defensively the team ranked 6th overall , young DE Darrell Wright had a great year with 13 sacks and LB Bobby Brooks had a brilliant year with 10 sacks.  The team has some great young defensive players and whilst the offense is slowly aging the defense should be solid for many years.

GM Houston has a tough job on his hands, anything less then the FWL Bowl will be a disappointment to NY fans, after a 12-2 regular season record last year trying to improve on that will be tough.  Houston may make big changes or keep the wheels moving to see what he has with his team this season.  The Knights should win a lot of games again but with some key players on offense 7+ years above their time to do something big may be running out.

Orlando Thunder

The Thunder are the only team with a 1-2 punch in the front office.  Volker Sorge remains the GM but now has an assistant in Josh Roberts.  Roberts is an eager young assistant who at some point in the near future will be a GM for another team.

Orlando have a history of drafting 1st round QB's, they had 4 on the roster last year but Josh Heupel retired after getting no action for the Thunder.  Tony Romo will surely once again battle Thunder legend Jon Denton.  Denton is now in his 11th year but is still an excellent QB and has taken Orlando to two FWL Bowls previously winning one.  Romo looks great on paper but was outperformed yet again by Denton last year.  The QB position has to be sorted out and it would be a major surprise if Orlando picked another QB in the first round this year again.

At HB the team made a huge bold move by trading Ken Simonton, in return they picked up veteran Mike Green who has talent but like Romo doesnt seem to always show it on the field.  Green has played for a variety of teams and never seems to be able to stay in one spot.  Orlando will be his 5th team already !  At WR Marc Soumah had a huge year and Kofi Schuck played well as the WR2.  Shuck however seemed to have a poor offseason and might not start at WR1 or WR2 so look for a big drop off on his numbers. 

Orlando were 3-11 last year including a shocking 0-7 at home, that has to improve.  The offense ranked 5th overall but the defense was terrible at 17th and they struggled with the run and the pass.  On paper the defensive line looks good, they had two players have 10+ sacks on the d-line but the rest of the team are quite poor.  They intercepted only 3 passes, their LB's apart from Kazadi didnt make enough plays and their secondary needs more speed.  Kazadi had a huge year and was all over the field with 112 tackles and 4 sacks but he needs help, Byron Thwatt added just a sack and Chatham had just 3 sacks.

The secondary didnt make enough plays last year, they seem to have talent but need to be much faster and aggressive.

Orlando will score points on offense but they should stick to just one QB, defensively they need a lot of work and this unit hasnt been changed that much in the last 5 seasons.  If the Orlando coaches can inspire or get some new players in on defense they could win a few more games.

Ohio

One year after their surprise FWL Bowl appearance the Glory fell down to earth to 7-7 and missed the playoffs.  They played well all year and had some very tough losses, also had some great wins including the thrashing of Austria who went onto win the FWL Bowl. The offense slipped down a gear last year, they ranked 8th but their normally strong passing attack was the 3rd worst in the league.

QB Mike Pawlawski was one of the best ever trades for Ohio and their best QB of all time.  He had a great year all round but needs to throw the ball a bit more as he threw for just 3,326 yards.  At HB Jarrett Payton had some great games, he was a huge trade by GM Ross Mather to get the fan favourite but Payton played well rushing for nearly 700 yards and 10 touchdowns.  Fans and coaches expect more this season after he has a full training camp with the team.

At WR Adam Ziesel is coming into the prime years of his career and should have another 1000+ yard season, TE James Whalen is very underrated and quietly had an impressive 50 catch season.  The team needs a WR opposite Ziesel though, former 1st round pick Christopher Liess looked very poor with 30 catches at a terrible 9.2 average.  WR Jimmy Farris was even worse at 8.6  Perhaps a new offensive co-ordinator is needed as the passing attack looked less than impressive with short passes.

On defense the team fell to 11th, they could stop the run but not the pass.  DE Michael Josiah a former overall 1st round pick had a huge year with 17 sacks to lead the league and Rameel Connor who has also led the league in the past still had a great year with 11 sacks.  They have some good LB's, Drew Whalroos had 78 tackles and 3 sacks and Vinny Ciurciu 3 sacks and 96 tackles but the team would like to see more sacks from their starting LB's.

S Scott Connot had a great year with 76 tackles, a sack and 2 interceptions.  The secondary has a great mix of veterans and young players and should improve this season.

Birmingham

GM Michel Kremer has done a great job with his team who jumped from 4-10 a season ago to 8-6 and the playoffs and one game away from the FWL Bowl.  He has slowly built up a great offense featuring some young stars, QB Seth Burford had an excellent year at QB with over 3,700 yards but needs to throw more than the 11 touchdowns he threw last year.  Burford has talent however and won some excellent late games which helped his team to the playoffs.  The real talent is the rushing attack, Lee ReShard had -6 yards in Season 14 but last year as the surprise starter had over 800 and was a touchdown machine with 13 on the ground and another one in the air.  ReShard and the Fire are excellent at running the ball, FB Kernerk had 355 yards and former starter Clarence Williams had 221.

The passing game features Dante Hall who had a great year but scored just two touchdowns.   His partner Charles Jordan was disappointing with 54 catches for only 591 yards.  At TE Vincens Rodriguez had a great year with 50 catches but newly acquired TE Joel Jacobs is aiming to win the job.

With the offense ranking 2nd the defense ranked only 14th and needs some work.  The team had a lot of sacks but only one player with double digit sacks, DE Chartric Darby.  The defense has some talented players in Jerry Schumacher, Charles Drake but former Dragons DT Dan Peterson was disappointing after joining the team in a trade and has to improve.  Despite terrible speed Drake had a great year with 87 tackles to lead the team but its no coincidence that Drake is the slowest starting secondary player in the whole FWL and the Birmingham passing defense ranked 15th.  Drake should perhaps go back to the bench and improve in some training camps.

AFC East conclusion

On paper its New York all over again, they have a great team and should get to the playoffs again, but now the big job is to get them one step further and get them to the FWL Bowl which is a lot of pressure on a rookie coach.  Birmingham/Ohio should be fighting for the next wildcard spot, these teams should have a great battle all year.  On paper Orlando look to be the worst of the bunch, they have a roster which has hardly had any trades the last few years and are stagnant.  If they can decide on a QB and fix the defense slightly they could surprise.