Season 42 Coach’s Interview w/ Phil-Broncos
The Mac Jones trade
Success in life hinges more on seizing opportunity than having everything go according to plan.
In response to the honourable Mr Tennant’s criticisms regarding the Mac Jones trade.
Despite his best efforts, Mr Tennant’s ‘analysis’ betrays a limited understanding of planning, risk minimisation and basic team building – I hope this response serves to educate and aid him going forward
Firstly, it’s important to lay out the facts and my plans up to now:
Facts
Wilson is a 35 year old QB who is set to have a cap hit of $53+ million for the remainder of the cycle.
After the 1st season he dropped from 88 to 85 ovr. Last season he dropped from 86 to 84 – despite me using the protect from regression coach perk.
Gunslinger is a useful ability, but not what it was – and his other abilities are meh to me.
Plans
I planned to amnesty Wilson at the end of this season and either trade or draft a replacement. I considered drafting the more likely scenario as I, as many of you know, am unwilling to trade away key starters which many users would require as part of the trade (important later)
I dedicated resource preparing for this – I used a couple of mid-round picks to draft QBs, hoping to get lucky, and obtained an extra 1st round pick.
My expectation, realistically, was to trade up as high as I could go at the draft and that I would likely end up with a ~70 ovr QB on a rookie contract, probably normal dev.
Opportunity
Mac Jones was put on the trading block with confirmation that picks would be accepted (no players necessary!!).
My options at this point were:
1. Run with Wilson for this season and hope a similar player is available for a similar price at off season or draft one
2. Trade for Mac now and move on from Wilson a year early with minimal down-side as Mac is the better QB
To me, this was a no brainer:
Option 1 is layered with risk and could put me in a scenario where I have a dire QB scenario next season.
Option 2, while not maximising Wilson’s value (as he will ride the bench this season and I ‘waste’ a season of him) puts me in a position where I fix my QB position and remove any doubt for the remainder of the cycle.
There’s no reason to wait until it is necessary to replace my QB if an opportunity can be seized that achieves it in a satisfactory manner.
Regarding Ben’s criticisms of the Broncos rosters – I don’t think he knows what he is taking about, and this is evidenced by what he has managed to achieve with one of the best starting rosters in Madden 23.
On offence; We have 1 starter below 80 ovr; and I’d consider the OL and offensive weapons top 5 in the league.
On defence; the team was a top 10 defence last season. We we lost no starters while adding Danielle Hunter and Taron Johnson and we have an average age of 26. I feel good about our defense, especially with how bought into the scheme some of the players are.
What was your offseason focus & do you believe that you achieved those goals? Primarily in regard to trades & FA itself.
My core goals this offseason were to:
– Get a solid FS (achieved through Taron Johnson)
– Get a SS OL with threat detector (achieved through Frank Ragnow)
– Prepare to replace Russell Wilson next offseason (achieved early through Mac Jones)
– Replace Adam Thielen (achieved with Michael Thomas….and Adam Thielen)
– Get an elite older CB to partner Surtain (failed at that)Failed at the CB part – but hoping McMillan can step up again this year after his rookie season took him from Normal -> Star.Overall, very happy with how the offseason went – losing Okweubegnam was a blow, but managed to obtain Hunter Henry as a replacement and then adding Danielle Hunter was a very pleasant surprise.Chase exposed some weaknesses in my team and play style that I believe I have now addressed.
What was your draft strategy & who should the league be on the lookout for?
Phil: I try to enter into draft withs as few needs as possible – and generally just pick up depth or make speculative picks for players with good physicals who could be turned into good starters.To that end, I drafted a few TEs who turned out to be duds, a couple of QBs and a FBI think only the FB is going to make the roster and he’s probably not worth looking out for.I am not too worried though as, overall, my team has no holes and i was only looking to maybe acquire a speedy TE to replace Okwuebgnam.
What is your realistic expectation for this season? Playoffs? Division Title? SB or bust?
The expectation is to compete for the division title against Tim this season – if I can make playoffs that would be fantastic, but I try not to worry about that until we get closer.1 game at a time.
If you had to name one breakout user for this upcoming season, who would it be & why?
Kumar is back and still has SFL & he’s going to upend the NFC South. That Bucs roster is still very good and he still has all the pieces that he needs to make a run.
Other than that, look out for King to make waves now that he has assembled the roster to his liking.
As per usual, Phil had a very well thought out plan for this offseason. Phil has been back in contention for what feels like two cycles straight now after some mixture of duds in M20/M21. I don’t see Season 42 being any different, he is ready to contend/compete for the division title. The AFC West just got interested after a Week One victory by the Raiders against BL GOAT Austin.