The NFL Greatest Teams Solitaire League Game of Attrition
 

Imagine having a 40 man roster with 160 grams total weight divided up between 40 players. That is an average of 4 grams per player.

Imagine you want to create the Steel Curtain in its own image. Well, right away, you go with defense. You have the option to play any player at any weight you want, provided it stays under 160 grams. Well, 5 of those players are on the Taxi Squad, so they don't really count other than to the total weight of the team.

For the Steelers, you want them to have a Top 5 defense. So you treat the base and player like draft picks. For the Steelers, I want Joe Greene at 8.0 grams, Ernie Holmes at 7.0 grams, LC and Dwight White at 7.5 respectively.

Well, already, the Steelers will have used 30 grams between 4 players. For the entire team left, there is 130 grams. Now, I want Mel Blount to be HOF-type so I make his weight come in at 6.0 grams. The LBs are gonna be 6 grams apiece. All the other DBs on offense is 4.0 grams. The total weight on this high priced defense is:66 grams between 11 players!

Injury
What if Joe Greene and Dwight White get injured for 3-7 weeks, that would be devastating! Then what if the playcalling dictating going through the Greene/White area but instead, Steve Furness weighs a meager 2.7 grams!

There will be bigtime repurcussions for this lack of strength.

Reg

A question :

Do you manage the weight choices comparing it to the real athlete weight, or comparing to his supposed strenght/speed/etc ?


thanks,

Dimitri

Neither Dimitri
 

This is what I am doing. I am trying to give each team it's own unique personality.

I categorize each team based on what I want to accomplish as a team. The great players get the greatest amount of weight. The team personality would be something like this:

Grading Scale
8 - Excellent
7 - Outstanding
6 - Very Good
5 - Good
4 - Average
3 - Deficient

Here's a sample of three teams with 3 different personalities:
1975 Pittsburgh Steelers
Offensive Line - 6.5
ray mansfield C 56 6.0 grams
jim clack LG 50 7.0 grams
gerry mullins RG 72 7.0 grams
jon kolb LT 55 6.0 grams
gordon gravelle RT 71 6.5 grams

Reserves would average 6.5 grams

Defensive Line - 8
Joe Greene - 8.5 grams
Ernie Holmes 8.0 grams
Dwight White -8.0 grams
LC Greenwood-8.0 grams

Reserves would average about 7.0 grams

WR and TE - 6.0
Swann 7.0
Stalworth 6.0
Brown 5.0

RBs and QBs - 5.0
Harris 6.5
Bradshaw 3.5
Bleier 5.0

LBs - 6.5
Ham - 6.5
Lambert - 7.0
Russell - 6.0

Secondary 5.0
Blount - 7.0
Thomas -4.0
Wagner - 5.0
Edwards-4.0

This would just be the makeup of 1 team. I like this makeup of this team this way because it puts great emphasis on the starters as the key players. This team had a lot of HOFs and they were "Super". So I try to create the team based on how I perceived that team as.

Another team, the 1973 Buffalo Bills would have an O-Line avaging about 8.0 grams, a D-Line averaging about 5.0 grams, RBs averaging 7.0 (Simpson would be about 8.5 grams), LBs around 5.0 grams, DBs averaging 3.5 grams, WRs, 4.0 grams. This was not a great defensive team so I want to make sure I did not make them so great like the Steelers.

The 1972 Dolphins would have each starter average about 6 grams across the board and then the reserves would drop off. This team would be the most consistent team as far as weight across the board, meaning no noticeable holes.

So each team would be created in its own image with some teams having decided weight advantages in some areas and others having strengths in other areas.

The "injury bug" would play a significant role to each other these teams because if your great players get hurt, you could go from a guy weighing 8.0 grams to 3.0 grams in a matter of a play. That play could be a season ending injury. So the team could not replace that player with free agents but only with guys who are on your Taxi squad.

When that happens, the war of attrition begins.

My Cleveland Browns will have Jim Brown and Ernie Davis in the backfield. This will be the strength of the Browns. Jim Brown will be the heaviest player in the league, weighing 8.5 grams and so will Ernie Davis. Davis would have been just as great as Brown if his life was not cut short. We are going to revive his spirit! So you know, the emphasis will be on the running of each back. They will have a great O-Line. But the D-Line will not be on the scale of the 85 Bears, Doomsday, the Steel Curtain, or the Purple People Eaters so the hope is that the Browns offense can carry this team. But injuries here or there could doom what Davis and Brown are able to do.
Essentially, the Browns personality will be built around their ground game.
The Steelers team will be built around a Top 5 defense and steady offense.

When going through each team, you go back to how you perceived those teams in history and try to make them accordingly. You do some tweaking but it will not serve as the most important aspect of the team. Every receiver does not have to run 100 yards in 3 seconds or an average back does not have to go around end 80 yards. That's not so important. Only the greatest players will be expected to do the greatest things. Everybody else will be just your average NFL player.

So in conclusion Dimitri, the answer is neither. It will just be based on what I perceive as the Greatest Teams strengths and weaknesses.

Reg

We will be ...
 

making a comeback in the very near future!!!

thmbsp$ ppcrn