London - Season Review

The team knew they would be rebuilding this year, they had a rookie QB, traded for a young HB early in the season and started many young players all over the side, aided by a late two game winning streak London finished 5-8-1 but showed a lot of potential.

Offense - 14th overall - rushing 16th, passing 6th

Overall number 1 pick Drew Henson started every game for London and despite missing some plays in just one game Henson had a great year and threw for nearly 3,700 yards 11 td's and just 1 int. In his last two games Henson completed 54 of 66 passes and finished the year with a 71.8% completion rate.

Henson despite the lack of a rushing game for most of the year had a brilliant season and shows a ton of hope for the future. He did fumble 4 times (recovering 2) but only threw one int and seems a perfect fit for the offense.

At HB young Joe Hall struggled to run the ball for most of the year and had just one 100 yard game. Hall did rush for over 700 yards but at a poor 2.8 average but scored 10 td's and is a threat near the goalline. He also caught a London HB record 94 passes for over 850 yards and scored another 6 td's in the air, a combined 16 ! If Hall has a good training camp, gets quicker and stronger then he could turn into an excellent back.

FB Ben Miller started on/off for most of the season, he needs to get better ST in training camp to make the FB position his own. Backups were Kevin Clemens who played well at FB and former starter Rashon Spikes who hardly saw the ball due to Hall starting all year.

At WR veteran Damon Savage had over 1000 yards again but had just one touchdown and some quiet spells in the second half of the year. His partner was young Triandos Luke who saw no action for Amsterdam last year but this year was a surprise starter for London. Luke had 56 catches and made some big plays and had just over 650 yards. In the final game of the season he started at WR1 but was very poor so Luke will probably be WR2 again next year and be a good second option for Henson.

Surprising rookie Aaron Hoshack did start a few games but failed badly and went back to the bench, Hoshack does have some skill but is very raw and needs more work. James Adkisson who shows a lot of potential didnt do much when given the chance and had just 8 catches on the year.

At TE Ryan Prince was the starter but lost his job to Jeff Nicholson. Nicholson on paper is a gangly light TE but hes a great catcher and and had nearly 600 yards at a great 16.4 average and 2 td's. Nicholson still needs work but training camp should help him.

The offensive line on paper looks to be very good, at C Tyler Lenda has great skills and is one of the best players on the line. At G John Feugill and Sammy Williams started most of the year, they were tried at Tackle in the final week of the season but no major improvement was shown. At T Dustin Keith and Michael Moore held off talented young Scott Huff but there could be a lot of changes next season as the Monarchs aim to improve their line.

Special Teams

Special teams was quite poor last year, rookie K Tyler Jones started all year and didnt have much strength in his leg, he had some good games and kicked some late game winners but also missed many kickers. However London feel confident in the young kicker. At P Brian Simjanovski who had a great rookie year has been very poor since but improved late in the year. Both players will need to have a strong camp.

PR Triandos Luke was average and Aaron Hoshack very poor as a kick returner.

Defense - ovreall 8th, rushing 6th, passing 10th

The defense was excellent this season against both the run and the pass. There were many new starters and some young players but the unit held its own and should improve even more next year.

On the d-line veteran DE Mark Word started the year off slowly, the switch to DT didnt work but once he was back to DE he played very well and 3 sacks in the final week of the season gave him 11 on the year to lead the team. His partner young Charles Hill had 9 sacks and also played some games at DT, Hill is a great pass rusher and a great partner to Word. Youngster Lorn Mayers started the final week of the season and had a sack and could be one to watch in the future.

At DT Junior Ioane is a huge player and had a great year in the middle of the line with an impressive 40 tackles and 9 sacks. His partner was raw youngster Eric Powell, Powell was tried at DE and DT and so far hasnt looked that good, Powell had 17 tackles and 2 sacks, he has amazing speed but needs work. Veterans Chartric Darby and Tim Beauchamp didnt see much action but both had a sack and both could take Powells job next year.

The LB's are one of the strong units of the team. Veteran Kinnon Tatum the all time leading tackler had a good season with 63 tackles, 2 sacks and 2 fumble recoveries. Next to him is John Leake who could be one of the top young LB's in the league, Leake had 72 tackles and 6 sacks in just his second season. Next to Leake is veteran Brian Rogers, an electric LB who at OLB had a great year with 81 tackles and 7 sacks. Finally the last option at LB is young Derrick Ford, Ford shows potential with 30 tackles and 1 sack but will find it hard to crack the starting trio.

The secondary was also another improved unit thanks to a trade for All-FWL CB Jeremy LeSeur. LeSeur led the team with 2 ints and finished second with 84 tackles. Hes an electric CB who was previously a safety but will be the Monarchs starting CB for the next 10 seasons. His partner was Devon Harper who has great skills and is a very good CB2, backup is former starter Marcell Allmond, an electric quick CB but who needs to bulk up more.

At safety Richard Yancy was traded for and immediately started at S1, Yancy led the team with 89 tackles and is a great all round player. His partner was rookie S Eric Hill Jr, Hill doesnt have great speed but is a hard hitter and made 61 tackles in his rookie year which is very impressive. Fellow rookie Antwan Rogers needs work next year in camp. Veteran Ray Perryman saw action with 33 tackles but might lose his job next year to Rogers.

Overall

Its clear the Monarchs have to get their rushing game improved, if Hall can improve in camp and the line also improves and gives Henson a 1000 yard rusher the offense should win a lot of games. Defensively the team have a lot of talent and only have a hole at DT2 which needs to be filled if Powell doesnt work out.

The team have a lot of young talent on offense and specially on defense but the key is to have a good training camp.