Year 5 Preview
Shamrock's Fans are talking next steps but Owner Matt has big personnel decisions on the mind
Hey friends, this is is a preview post to highlight some fun/interesting storylines heading into the year. This is a short little piece but hopefully something fun to get us amped for this season. We will be going live tonight at 7 PM EST on Twitch. Hope to see you all there, let’s go ‘Rocks!
Will they stay or will they go?
While the air of excitement among the fans in Dublin has never been more palpable, there is a sense of apprehension in the Front Office. The Shamrocks, after masterfully utilizing their cap for the past 5 years, now see it is time to pay the piper. They come into the season over the cap and have many of their young stars coming off their rookie deals. No pun intended, but this is simply something they can’t afford.
The ‘Rocks must now balance trying to find the last couple pieces for a Super Bowl run with getting rid of bloated contracts so they can hold the team together. One particularly vulnerable area on the team is their Defensive Backfield. A key part of the ‘Rocks climb to being the number one Defense in the League, their DBs are now aging and many are on the last year of their deals.
Landon Collins, the heart of the defense and the longest standing captain on the team, is on the last year of his deal and is still making a staggering 15.2 Million a year. He also lost his starting job in OTAs to Xavier McKinney, another player on his last year of a deal, and it’s become hard to justify keeping him on the roster.
Compounding that problem is the fact that Ronald Darby and Kendall Fuller are both on their last years as well and count 9.37 Million and 15.8 Million against the cap respectively. They are both still elite corners in the game but have become to regress and Darby has already been relegated to nickelback with the rise of CJ Henderson.
With former first round pick Francis Darby on the roster, and star Corey Brackett’s rookie deal expiring, how much money can the ‘Rocks really afford to spend on their aging Defensive Backs? If they invest too much there, does that mean they have to let veteran DT Matthew Ioannidis walk? How do you balance keeping the heart of the team together, while also knowing when it’s time to cut bait on guys who have put in years of loyalty?
These are the questions keeping Owner Matt up at night, and the questions that will go a long way towards determining the long term trajectory of this team.
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The Next Step
Kenneth “K-Dubs” has been the face of this franchise since it’s inception. He rewarded the Dublin faithful with immediate results, winning Rookie of the Year, but then saw his career begin to lull. Questions began to arise whether Owner Matt’s loyalty to Akron had led to too much loyalty to it’s favorite son. Owner Matt responded to those questions by pairing K-Dubs with offensive Czar Kliff Kingsbury and the two of them began to set the league on fire. K-Dubs was named to his first Pro Bowl but ended the season on a sour note, imploding in the NFC Championship match against the Seahawks and turning the ball over three times. K-Dubs has fumbled four times in the regular season his entire career but then fumbled three times in the biggest game of his life. That’s a hard pill for anyone to swallow.
The question is, what now? K-Dubs was penned to a long-term extension last season but we all know that in the NFL that means very little. If K-Dubs can’t take that next step into becoming a truly Elite QB, his job won’t be safe forever. On a team increasingly in Cap Hell, would the Shamrocks dare do the unthinkable and move on from their young young star?
Washington has thrown for 13,568 yards 88 TD and 49 INTs in his 4 year career at a 68% clip. He has also added 1,919 yards 11 TDs and 4 fumbles on the ground. Most Franchises would kill for that kind of production but at the same token the NFL is a different league these days. It is unforgiving and the pressure on QBs to break records every season has never been higher. Owner Matt and Kingsbury are as loyal to K-Dubs as ever on the surface, but if he has another playoff implosion one has to begin questioning how deep that loyalty lies.
Will the Shamrocks move on from their human highlight reel?
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Buckeyes at War
“It’s the way of the NFL man, I’m not backing down,” JK Dobbins said when questioned after the NFL draft. Coming off a career season where he broke the 1000 yards plateau, Dobbins had just watched his beloved Shamrocks take his potential replacement in the first round. This is a tough moment for any player to endure, but having the guy they draft be someone you once called “little bro” makes it a hell of a lot tougher.
Jamal Bacon came to Ohio State at the end of Dobbin’s career and was quickly taken under his wing. Despite only being at Ohio State together for one season, the pair stayed in contact and Dobbins would give the young back advice after each of his games. Bacon quickly garnered a name for himself and, despite Ohio State’s lackluster results on the field, he pushed for the Heisman his last couple seasons.
Now Jamal Bacon is the man pushing for Dobbins job and their relationship has no doubt gotten a lot more complicated. Jamal is younger and, according to reports in camp, has steadily outplayed Dobbins during training camp. As a receiving back Bacon is also a much more natural fit for the kind of offense Kingsbury likes to run. One has to ask if Dobbins regrets all the advice he used to give Bacon back in the day, because all that help might just cost him his job.