Biggest surprise

[Paul-London]

I think some players have surprised everyone..

WR Julian Granier - Raleigh - Former 8th round draft pick who had 96 catches last year and is a great WR

QB Todd Bouman - Unknown with Austria, i must admit i struck gold as he led me to winning seasons and an FWL Bowl win

WR Masato Itai - Unknown in Frankfurt, on his way to well over 100+ catches this year.  Had  26 catches the last 6 years (20 last season)

WR Maurice Bryant - Dont think Jason knew what he had in Bryant !  2 catches two seasons ago then a league leading 102 last year !

QB Stoney Case - Still stunned as to why Marco traded for him, decent stats but there were other good QB's out there.

QB Josh LaRocca - Back then LaRocca was just a backup, huge move by Mario to trade popular QB Dave Barr and to pick up unknown LaRocca.

[Mario ADK]

to me the biggest surprise is that ADK are still in the PO-race. no joke. When i took over i defenitely thought about ending 2-12 or so.....

[Paul-London]

Well yet again you proved that trading is essential if you want to take a dormant dead franchise to the next level.

Theres a handful of franchises out there who dont trade and thats why theyre not winning.  I can understand teams not trading if they are 10-4 every year but if a team is 4-10 but doesnt make any changes then they'll probably end up the same.

[Mario ADK]

Theres a handful of franchises out there who dont trade and thats why theyre not winning.  I can understand teams not trading if they are 10-4 every year but if a team is 4-10 but doesnt make any changes then they'll probably end up the same.

*applause*

[Niki]

But Paul if you think of that some teams do not trade and ending with a 4-10 record. In most real sports managers of those teams have to leave.

During the past years I have already noticed that some teams do not even do one trade in a year and I think it is a part of the game to trade. What would be the FWL be without trades

[Paul-London]

I do know what you mean and thats why every offseason i write 'friendly' emails to teams who dont do any trades and are constantly lingering at the bottom.

I mean lets not name names of other teams though but as a plus look at Mexico.  I always get roster changes, yes they've been bottom of the division for two years straight but Joe has built up a good young nucleus of players and in a season or two they should be very good . Difficult for him as hes in the hardest division

I sadly had to nudge Jonathan into retirement, sadly due to Uni etc he didnt have the time and thats fair enough

If i have some GM's waiting for teams believe me i'll nudge out the quiet teams but i dont really have many other people knocking on the door wanting to join you see.  Plus most people want to join after the season not halfway through one.

But on the other hand if we had 18 Mario's in the league then i probably couldnt keep pace with all the changes ! I think we have a good mixture of very active GM's (Mario for one), active GM's (many others), and not so active GM's.

But yes i do tend to 'talk' to the losing GM's of some particular teams but unless theres anyone to take over i would prefer to keep the older GM there

[Andrew-Neutral]

WR Masato Itai - Unknown in Frankfurt, on his way to well over 100+ catches this year.  Had  26 catches the last 6 years (20 last season)

Paul, would it be possible to get Itai's week-by-week receiving numbers for this season. I'd be interested to see them, as I didn't even start him for the first game or two.

[Paul-London]

When i have time i want to do a 'special feature' on some single seasons players had and some of the best ever seasons, eg Bobby Phillips, Dave Barr and his amazing season where he had something like 20 td's and 1 int.

I've got most of the week stats for this season apart from one week so not sure what happened there, just going through the play by plays doing a search for Itai and i think these are correct...

Wk1 vs AA: 4 QB Penkkii was WR2
Wk2 vs RF: 7  QB Penkkii was WR2
Wk3 vs OT: 13    QB Sauter for the rest, WR1 for the rest of the season
Wk4 vs BT: 9
Wk5 vs FG: 10
Wk6 vs BF: 10
Wk7 vs SC: 6
Wk8 vs BT: 8
Wk9 vs BD: 6
Wk10 vs Aus: 8
Wk11 vs Lon: 9

Somewhere i've gone wrong ! Have to do it week by week by hand you see.  That doesnt add up to 95 !  When i have time i'll do a proper sgames.htm week by week as at the moment i did a quick search by hand.

He has 95 catches in 11 games (8.6 catches a game).  The record is 123.  So he needs 28 catches in 3 games to tie the record , just over 9 catches a game.  Gonna be tough to beat !

Cologne are actually a good side, yes they are 3-8 but out of those 8 losses...

1 by 5 points
1 by 6 points (overtime loss)
1 by 1 point
1 by 3 points (overtime loss)
1 by 3 points
1 by 6 points
1 by 7 points

Only blowout was away to Berlin.

Add a big play here or there or a decent kicker (Kimrin is 15th in the FWL with just 16 of 27 FG's) and Cologne could easily be 7-4 etc if they got the breaks

Their offense is #5 overall (best passing offense) but their defense is 18th and having a nightmare year.  If Colognes defense is built better, maybe the o-line is upgraded to help the weak rushing attack (Shouldnt be bad with Robert Edwards back there) then Cologne could be one of the teams to watch next year.

[Andrew-Neutral]

When i have time i want to do a 'special feature' on some single seasons players had and some of the best ever seasons, eg Bobby Phillips, Dave Barr and his amazing season where he had something like 20 td's and 1 int.

I've got most of the week stats for this season apart from one week so not sure what happened there, just going through the play by plays doing a search for Itai and i think these are correct...

Wk1 vs AA: 4 QB Penkkii was WR2
Wk2 vs RF: 7  QB Penkkii was WR2
Wk3 vs OT: 13    QB Sauter for the rest, WR1 for the rest of the season
Wk4 vs BT: 9
Wk5 vs FG: 10
Wk6 vs BF: 10
Wk7 vs SC: 6
Wk8 vs BT: 8
Wk9 vs BD: 6
Wk10 vs Aus: 8
Wk11 vs Lon: 9

I'm pretty sure he had back-to-back games with 14 catches. Could be wrong, though! Do you save the sgames.htm files for every week?

[Niki]

you can check it by your self in the play by play, it is a lot of work to do but it is a way to find out.

example for week 1

www.fwl.org.uk/r12wk1.htm

week 2

www.fwl.org.uk/t12wk2htm

etc

[JH-SanAntonio]

Keep in mind that not everyone WANTS to trade much.

For example- I have this problem, I like to have guys to root for on my team- guys I like, check their stats every game, etc. Unfortunately, I can't watch enough games (college or NFLE) to keep up with who's who. So, I come to like certain guys by virtue of the fact I draft him, then nurture him up through a few seasons of camps, etc... so for the most part, I trade to get draft picks, and that's about it.

Added to that is the fact that my roster setup goes something like current starters, future starters, current backups, future backups.. it can be somewhat rigid, and I'm not likely to make trades to mess with the structure of the roster nor am I likely to start someone other than my starters.

All of this means that any given season I might make NO trades and NO roster changes aside from injury replacements- and if they are P-1 maybe not even that! I'm not a forum maven either, so I might be happy as a clam with a team ready to break out in 2 seasons just watching things unfold while the rest of the league thinks I'm inactive, but not so.

In fact, if I were to add something that automatically replied "WTF are you thinking?" to any emails Mario sends me that include the word "trade", I wouldn't have to even look at the site from the end of training camp to the release of retirements

JH

[Volker-Orlando]

I would not say that trading a lot will give you a better team per se. (Unless you scout and trade as much as Mario maybe).

I remember trading a lot in the first few seasons and my team was crap. I've been trading considerably less over recent seasons and my team is a lot more stable and better.

[Niki]

Trading is a nice way to equil your positions. If you have a lot of good WR's you can use one of them to increase on of your weaker positions during the season. But if you traded a lot in your first season and your team was worse after it you made some bad deals

[Volker-Orlando]

I agree.

But I have also found over the years that just because a player has good figures and did well on the other team, that does not necessarily mean that he will do well on your team. Maybe this was just my subjective experience, but it certainly adds some realism.

[Niki]

I know that during the years I solved some problems in my team during the year. Lats year I traded a 2nd pick for Reed who had a 1000 yds season, and if someone wants to have player of me which I not really like to lose to price will be high if he really wants to have it. ask Mario

[Paul-London]

I totally agree with you Volker

Yes its just a software simulation but it seems to do a very good job of realistically creating players and teams histories etc.

Look at DE Sid Kesey, was a terror in Rhein, moved to Cologne where hes been a bust.  Bit like Bruce Smith moving to the Redskins.

A fair few players will play better when they move teams or the same but you do get the odd few who just cant seem to settle down.

I mean of course this isnt in the software but look at Galaxy QB David Ward.  Took over from legend Stoney Case and you could imagine the fans expectations were huge (Look at Fiedler taking over for Marino), Ward was a bust in Frankfurt, moved to Birmingham where hes had a brilliant year before injury.

Its nice seeing a fair few low round draft picks do well who arent even sleepers, proves that if you get a low ranked player, keep him for a few seasons then he can develop into a starter.

One of the best trades was Andrew getting WR Masato Itai for practically nothing from Frankfurt.  Not sure what Andrew saw in him, maybe it was just luck.  Either way Itai who did nothing with Frankfurt has now became the best receiver this year in the FWL ! Amazing

[Andrew-Neutral]

One of the best trades was Andrew getting WR Masato Itai for practically nothing from Frankfurt.  Not sure what Andrew saw in him, maybe it was just luck.  Either way Itai who did nothing with Frankfurt has now became the best receiver this year in the FWL ! Amazing

I wouldn't say I got him for nothing - I traded my first and fifth round picks for Itai and Kesay. At the time, I needed a WR as Dawson was injured. It was lucky I got Itai, as Dawson retired at the end of the season. I drool about the thought of having Dawson and Itai both starting, but it wasn't meant to be  .

The trade was described by some as the worst trade in the history of the FWL. It doesn't look too bad, now. First round pick for Itai, fifth round for Kesay

[Mario ADK]

Yes its just a software simulation but it seems to do a very good job of realistically creating players and teams histories etc.

if that means that Anes will be remembered as a "never-broke-through" that would drive me nuts.

[Paul-London]

Yep i agree with you Andrew i thought it was a decent trade.

You were unlucky that Kesey never really broke through and did anything with you ( http://www.fwl.org.uk/alltime.htm#skesey ) , during his prime he was excellent with Rhein.

But you struck gold with Itai.  Amazing season hes had , i know i keep saying it !

http://www.fwl.org.uk/alltime.htm#mitai

6 catches in his first 5 years, this year over 100 !

[Andrew-Neutral]

Yep i agree with you Andrew i thought it was a decent trade.

You were unlucky that Kesey never really broke through and did anything with you ( http://www.fwl.org.uk/alltime.htm#skesey ) , during his prime he was excellent with Rhein.

But you struck gold with Itai.  Amazing season hes had , i know i keep saying it !

http://www.fwl.org.uk/alltime.htm#mitai

6 catches in his first 5 years, this year over 100 !

Didn't quite get the record for catches - despite the rest of team giving him help by fumbling in OT to prolong the game. Just needed three more catches to break the record. If he'd been WR1 all through the season, who knows? Still, Cologne now own the record for the most passing yards in a season  and for the most yards allowed in a season