TE Rod Trafford moves to Sacramento

[Paul-London]

Another TE moves to Sacramento.  Rod Trafford ( 88 88 88 83 90 81 76 76 ) has great skills for a young player and after a training camp in the Sacramento system he could challenge for the starting role.  Veteran TE Todd Winston has not been explosive since coming over from Amsterdam, backup TE Chip Pritchett is an 8th year veteran who has good skills but has always been a backup. 

With Sacramento slowly going towards a youth movement next year could perhaps see Trafford start for the Surge

[Niki]

But Paul, looking at the past, your QB has never been a big fan to use your TE! and his main goal is to use as blocker in the running game

[Paul-London]

Yeah i know, the main reason for this trade was Winston/Pritchett arent getting any younger and by getting Trafford i can put him through training camp and get his skills up, then when Winston retires/gets too old i'll start Trafford.

If by Week 10 or 11 i'm out of the playoffs for sure (And once Bouman gets his 3000 yards) then i'll start a whole host of young players

[Niki]

Now you know why I am so happy with McMullen and Prince! Winston is a great TE but I only had one, after the draft I still had not a TE that could see action so I had trade for McMullen (who is even better then Winston as a blocker) and then Prince was also available ....

When I look it from the funny side, two of my 4 best receivers are TE's

[Paul-London]

Yeah i cant remember what offense you use (i wouldnt say here anyway) but they love throwing to their TE's !  Ryan Prince is having a great year for you and has fitted straight in.

Winston started well in the first game for me but has been quiet since.

At the end of the day looking at the power rankings and Strength of schedule i dont think i have a bad team but looking at the schedule....

http://www.fwl.org.uk/sched.htm#T3

First 4 games i averaged 24 points, following 4 games 8 points.

Since my starting HB was gone for the year i've gone downhill.  Bit like the Jets this year, with Pennington gone the Jets are dead and buried.

No point me trading for a great back this year as then next year i'll have two backs when only one will get the majority of the carries.  Should have had a stronger backup though but thats my fault

[Niki]

to be fair I do not think any kind of offense will have influence on the number of catches that a TE will make. It has all to do with how fast are your WR. The faster they are the more chance you have they are open, if they are covered (WR1, WR2, HB1) the last player he will look at is the TE. Some playes are ofcourse used to use the TE, just like some kind of offenses use the HB as main WR. It is a shame we have no offense that makes use on regular basis of two TE's in the line up. I love to play that way

[Paul-London]

I'll have to check what offense you use and yeah you may be right.  Just that some offenses use the HB as a WR out of the backfield a lot (As Ohio used).  Out of the 30 offenses there will be a few which surely pass more to the TE etc ?

I would be interested in seeing anyone use the Raiders offense.  I presume there will be a lot of long bombs in that offense.  Remember the softwares based on the 1996 season so its useful to see who were the good offensive teams that year, and if you look further into it look for a team which matches your offense (eg good HB's, bad WR's, good TE etc) and try to use the offense which is suited to your style of team.

Theres one or two offenses that year in 1996 which were brilliant but i'm surprised no one has tried their gameplans. 

[Marco_Frankfurt]

Hi Niki,

if I remeber correctly the Houston Oilers played with 2 TE instead of a FB at that time.

Another interesting offense at that time was Atlantas 'run and shoot' they played with Jeff George as QB.

Both remarks without looking into the books, just from my memory ;-)

[Paul-London]

The Lions had the 'silver stretch' offense designed by Mouse Davis.  It was very similar to the run and shoot, that was when Andre Ware/Rodney Peete/ Bob Gagliano ran it, i think about 1989 / 1990

I actually entered TE Rod Trafford into the FWL because i had an email off the actual Rod Trafford !  Trafford used to play for the Claymores and has seen time with the Bills.  He emailed me a funny email saying 'hey make me a bit better so i'm not a FA !' so i did and Paris picked him up.

[jcompton-Orlando]

Another interesting offense at that time was Atlantas 'run and shoot' they played with Jeff George as QB.

The Lions had the 'silver stretch' offense designed by Mouse Davis.

The Davis-coached NY/NJ Knights played run-and-shoot too, didn't they?

[Paul-London]

Yep, i think that was one reason why Mouse Davis used it in the NFL.  I'm sure actually he used it after he coached the NY Knights, perhaps before .  My minds not that great now !

Bob Gagliano came from nowhere to have some half decent games though at times with Detroit.  Erik Kramer was another former Lion who came from nowhere to do well for himself at times in the NFL, after Detroit he had one monster year for Chicago

[jcompton-Orlando]

Yeah, Erik Kramer was quite all right. It's funny, though... with the Bears having had such ridiculous problems at QB post-Kramer, even he's been quoted as saying that basically there is no reason whatsoever why a guy like him should possibly own various all-time team passing records.

[Paul-London]

I know what you mean, i think that year everything just clicked, Curtis Conway had a great year and most people did on the offense. 

If you go back 10 years and say Rich Gannon would be NFL MVP and All Pro for 4 years straight you would laugh.  The Bears did okay with Jim Miller a few years back but he wasnt ever the type to throw for 3500 yards, he was more the old fashioned Bears type of QB.

At the end of the day give a team a good defense, WR's who have a career year etc and QB's like Kramer and others have brilliant years. 

To me Kerry Collins had a great second half last year, over the last 7 games he threw 16 td's and 5 ints but then threw 3 ints in the last game to finish with 16 td's and 8 ints.  Everyone slated him but with no rushing attack last year (32nd in the league) you cant blame him for throwing those ints etc

Too often people blame a QB when its not their fault.  Collins didnt have a great rushing attack nor a defense last year so opposing teams knew he would always throw the ball.  This year 7 td's 0 ints i think his stats are, the defense is playing better and he has a 'bit' of a rushing game