Year 6: The 'Rocks fight to get to the Super Bowl
Can they beat their hated rivals the Dallas Cowboys?
The Shamrocks sit on the precipice of glory, with only their long hated rivals the Dallas Cowboys standing in their way. The streets of Dublin have been filled with celebrations all week, the regular season collapse a distant memory. Analysts across the country are split down the middle about who will win the match and the general consensus is that there is no consensus. By all accounts this has already been a successful season for the Shamrocks, but they’re far from content. They want the championship.
This will obviously be a shorter newsletter but it is an exciting one all the same! Just a quick note that my schedule has picked up substantially with the business I’m starting which is why this write up was so delayed. I still plan to keep the same schedule, though the exact days may change, but the Newsletters will likely continue to be a bit delayed as I try to balance everything. That being said, I love this series and it ain’t going anywhere. I also plan to do more bonus pieces once things settle down a bit.
Now let’s get into it!
NFC Championship Game @ Dallas
No more hype is really needed for this game. Both of our regular season matchups with Dallas were settled by 7 points and this one looks to be no different. This very well may be the last chance at a title for guys like Ioannidis, Wagner, Johnson and Payne as their contracts begin outweighing their talent. Those guys deserve a title and their teammates no doubt want to deliver it to them. Even K-Dubs, the face of our franchise, knows how much this game could mean for his legacy. An NFC title could rewrite the book for many of these warriors and I’m excited to see them go get one! Watch the game at the link below
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Disappointment isn’t nearly a strong enough word. Great performances by K-Dubs and Steven Sims are absolutely wasted due to horrible play calling. Not to break the Meta, but this loss really falls at the feet of the AI which makes it so much more painful. Up two scores we inexplicably called a fake field goal, fumble the ball, and watched Dallas take it all the way back. Bad playcalling sees our offense refuse to get anything going, and then the Cowboys kick an unbelievable 61 Yarder to take the lead with seconds left on the clock. We have one last drive with almost no time left and insist on trying to run K-Dubs twice before throwing up a desperation heave. I’ve never been more dejected at the outcome of a game. Dublin deserved better.
Probably my favorite play we've ever seen
Recap
This was by far the most painful ending we’ve had to a season yet but we have to force ourselves to look on the bright side. This is our second NFC Title appearance in three seasons and we’ve lost those two games by a combined 8 points. We are getting oh so close Shamrock nation, but we gotta figure out what it’s going to take to get to that next level. We still have a plethora of young talent on this team but we are also beginning to lose guys to regression and retirement. Let’s take the time to appreciate this year though by acknowledging some of our standout performers.
We get snubbed in the award races oddly enough, but have quite a few guys in the running. K-Dubs finished fourth in MVP voting while Morris and Hoskins finish 2nd and 4th respectively in the ROTY race. Kenneth Murray also barely misses out on DPOY and LB of the year. Jimmy Carpenter, Brandon Scherff, Chase Young, Matthew Ioannidis, Kenneth Murray and Derek Lenz all make the Pro Bowl as our biggest class yet. Brandon Scherff announces his retirement shortly after the announcement and we tip our caps to the man. Scherff anchored this line for 6 years and his contributions will never be forgotten.
Some of the individual stats are pictured below:
We had some true stars with year and you could chose any one of them to highlight, but Bacon gets that nod for me. I tore into Bacon a year ago and was already mentally prepping to make the tough decision to cut bait, but damn did he deliver. Bacon put up over 1800 total yards and 6 total TDs in only his second year. If Bacon can continue to improve, and K-Dubs can at least hold pace as he begins approaching regression, we have a hell of an offensive tandem to work around.
Kenneth Murray also became the true star on our defense this year which was an amazing thing to see. While he’s not a young buck anymore, when you add his rise with the incredible play of rookies Hoskins and Morris this defense looks like it’s not losing its elite status anytime soon.
Finally you have to give it up to Kenneth Washington. He has a complicated legacy as someone who hasn’t always lived up to the moment, but damn did he have a year. This team still needs to score more TDs but K-Dubs put up some incredible yardage numbers. A few more TDs and K-Dubs would’ve found himself hoisting that MVP award.
The Draft
We attempt to make a couple signings in Free Agency but are ultimately outbid. We decide to focus our efforts on the draft so as to keep our Cap under control. We’re gonna have to start using Free Agency more aggressively once some of our stars retire, but for now we focus on the Draft where we have had a lot of success. Here are the number of guys from each draft that were still on our roster coming into the year
Draft 1: 5/7 Draft 2: 4/6 Draft 3: 3/6 Draft 4: 8/8 Draft 5: 8/9 Draft 6: 7/7
With a hit rate like that it’s no wonder we have stayed so focused on building through the draft. We don’t pick until the 30th pick in the first round but, as we watch the first few picks, we decide to make a move. We trade star DT Da’Ron Payne and some lower picks in exchange for the 18th Overall pick. It hurts to lose a star player but with Payne in regression we felt it was a move we needed to make for the long-term. Our two first round picks go as follows:
What a great haul for our first two picks! We’ve had a great hit rate so far with our first round picks, Francis has been the only real disappointment, and there’s no reason to think that won’t continue here. Pittman is 7 OVR lower than Payne was but will likely start right away and hopefully make up that gap within a couple seasons. With the regression of Wagner and release of Holcomb, Sims very well may start day one which could lead to him taking a Hoskins’s like leap in his rookie season. Picks like these really help stretch out our window. The rest of our picks go as follows:
Round 3: Kyle Robbins - SMU - 66 OVR WR
Round 3: Sean Hix - Wisconsin - 69 OVR LT
Round 4: Tobias Lester- Oklahoma State - 63 OVR WR
Round 5: Montrell Bullit - Nebraska - 54 OVR QB
Round 7: Zach Stamer- Washington - 72 OVR K
This was a weird draft that ultimately ended up being pretty solid. Our first two picks, and technically our 7th round pick, look to be day one starters while Hix should be a really nice backup option for us. Robbins and Lester will have a tougher fight for playing time and then poor Bullit is destined for the practice squad at best.
I’m gonna highlight the Akron draft picks in a separate piece, but the most exciting one in my mind is that WR Chauncey White went to the Giants with the 5th Overall pick. White was our dream target but we simply lacked the ability to go up and get him. Now he’s going to be terrorizing his former teammates Anthony Morris and Dee Sims for years. I’m excited at the storyline and also absolutely terrified.
Recap
After the draft we ended up making a couple moves to shore up some depth issues. We sign 78 OVR DE Nelson Archibald to a cheap one year deal which provides great depth for us on both the line and at LB. We also trade Cedric Todd and a low pick for maligned Vikings RB Jared Oliver. Oliver spent the past two years on the trading block for the Vikings, despite winning rookie of the year a few season ago, and so they were all to happy to gift us one of Akron’s favorite sons. He’s a 78 OVR HB, so equal to where Dobbins was, and also a 90 OVR KR.
We have a couple more moves we’ve debated in the Discord that we are likely to pull the trigger on tonight but here is how our lineup looks coming into the season for now:
We drop in overall from the previous season but that is largely due to scheme fit with the new young starters. Getting a star to fill in on the O-Line has become a big priority in next years draft as is getting a young WR. Both Sims and Billups are in regression now, with Billups likely being traded away tonight. The rest of our offense looks solid enough but the need for another infusion of youth is clear.
On defense Pittman gets the nod over Allen which likely makes Allen trade bait. Pittman and Hoskins should both hit the 80’s this season which will go a long way towards shoring up the young unit. If Sims can mimic Hoskins growth from a season ago he can land around a 78 OVR by the end of the season and Morris could be pushing 85 or 86 OVR. Everything else being equal, that would quickly put our defense right back into elite territory.
Our roster is in somewhat of an in between place but I really do believe in this group. I think as long as we can float around .500 for the first half of the year the improvement on this team can carry us to a strong second-half and another playoff birth. The future is now Dublin, let’s go ‘Rocks!
Thanks for reading my friends! Sorry for the worse than normal picture quality, as noted above I had to rush this one out a bit. We will be streaming the first half of Year 7 tonight at 7 PM EST on Twitch. Hope everyone has had a very Happy New Year and that we can start it off on the right foot with some big Dublin wins. I love you dearly Shamrock nation.