The key to my RSP Writers Project team.
How does it work? We were asked to build a 53-man roster as if we were constructing our own NFL team. Each player has been assigned a salary and each owner is given a salary cap of $150 million. In addition to picking our players, we were asked to explain the logic behind makeup of our team, along with the schemes and the plays that we would use. You can download the instructions and the Q&A and submit your own team.
I went extremely heavy on offense (more on that tomorrow), spending $93.5 million of my salary on that side of the ball. You can view my full roster here, which lists the salary values and my short explanations for why I chose each player. But here’s a quick look at who I selected:
QB1 Peyton Manning LDE1 Shea McClellin QB2 Colt McCoy LDE2 Cameron Heyward QB3 Nate Davis DT1 Phil Taylor RB1 Kendall Hunter DT2 Jared Crick RB2 Pierre Thomas DT3 Terrence Cody RB3 LaMichael James DT4 Martin Tevaseu RB4 John Clay RDE1 Vinny Curry WR2 Victor Cruz RDE2 Adam Carriker WR1 Torrey Smith SLB1 Leroy Hill WR3 Anquan Boldin SLB2 Aaron Maybin WR4 T.Y. Hilton MLB1 A.J. Hawk WR5 Ted Ginn Jr. MLB2 Nick Roach WR6 Wallace Wright MLB3 Greg Jones TE1 Jimmy Graham WLB1 Jameel McClain TE2 Delanie Walker WLB2 Clark Haggans TE3 Matthew Mulligan LCB1 Morris Claiborne FB1 Charles Clay LCB2 Kyle Wilson LT1 Jonathan Martin SS1 Eric Berry RT1 Todd Herremans SS2 James Butler LT2 Levy Adcock SS3 James Ihedigbo RT2 Vlad Ducasse FS1 Ryan Clark LG1 Charlie Johnson FS2 Dwight Lowery RG1 Chad Rinehart RCB1 Ike Taylor LG2 Robert T Griffin RCB2 Will D. Allen RG2 Robert Turner C1 Max Unger K1 Ryan Longwell C2 Kris O'Dowd P1 Kevin Huber
Let me know what you think, and consider submitting your own team or view other rosters here. Tomorrow, I’ll add my comments on why I chose the players I did.
{ 4 comments… read them below or add one }
I commented over at Matt Waldman’s blog, but I’ll go ahead and say sort of the same thing here: I think it’s interesting how different your roster is from what I did, considering that we are both following essentially the same philosophy and chose the same central player (Peyton Manning). The only players we had in common were Manning, T.Y. Hilton (whom I forgot earlier), Nick Roach, Kyle Wilson, and Dwight Lowery.
Looking at it again, I’m surprised you spent so much on running backs. I had sort of wondered how it was that you spent $12 million more on your offense than I did, and I just realized that’s where most if it is. It will be interesting to hear your explanation/comments tomorrow.
I absolutely love the Cruz-Smith-Boldin group at WR. Explosive and versatile.
Kyle Wilson… ugh.
I think the one thing you’re clearly missing is a really big, yough wide reciever. Presumptively, you would use Jimmy Graham in that role, but i don’t know how well that strategy for the WRs would work out in reality. As for the HBs, running by committee seems to be the big thing right now, and I don’t know that I can disagree with that. I’m not hugely fond of the defense, but it still looks fairly solid. Overall, I like this team. I’m eager to try my hand at this now.
I posted some comments over on the website I thought I’d chime in and add the team I made below All comments welcome
QB: Aaron Rodgers, Stephen McGee, Nate Davis
RB: Trent Richardson, Javon Ringer, Jason Snelling, Montell Owens
WR: Calvin Johnson, Matt Slater, AJ Green, Golden Tate, Austin Pettis
TE: Rob Gronkowski, Aaron Hernanez, Tony Moeaki
T: Todd Herremans, J’Marcus Webb, Ryan Cook
G: Harvey Dahl, Kevin Boothe, 3rd guard at .5 I cant remember off top of my head
C: Jason Kelce, Doug Legursky
3-4 Defense
DE: Stephen Bowen, Terrance Knighton, Corey Peters, Cameron Heyward, Corey Liguet
DT: Paul Siolai, Terrence Cody, Earl Mitchell
OLB: Von Miller, Clay Matthews, Cris Carter, Bryan Thomas
MLB: Brendon Ayanbadejao, Heath Farrell, Larry Grant, Chase Blackburn, Darryl Sharpton, Patrick Willis
CB: Darrell Revis, Keenan Lewis, Cortez Allen, Ras I Dowling, Kyle Wilson, Brice McCain(I counted Matt Slater as a DB to save .5)
S: Earl Thomas, Glover Quin, Craig Steltz, James Ihedigbo
K: Ryan Longwell
P: Kevin Huber
My approach is pretty blatant here; create the best core of receiving talent for the passing game possible and go with a star heavy type roster. I don’t think its a stars-scrubs model because hte guys that came cheap arent scrubs in my opinion, they can develop into decent players or they are already. NFL teams don’t have that luxury of just hand picking cheap guys at the back end of a roster who can actually be legitimate contributors. I did took advantage of it and I think if NFL teams could they would load up on stars like I did. I love my passing game and I have a great RB prospect so I think the running game is a viable threat here(Im a believer the RB makes up the run game alot more than a top offensive line). On defense, I wanted to create multiple very dangerous pass rushers on the outside, get a good interior linemen cheap(Siolai) as well as some solid cheap guys who can develop into solid players. Then allow Patrick Willis to clean up a lot of whatever mess there might be and let a number of cheap young corners battle it out for the CB2 spot while letting Revis do his thing and Earl Thomas develop into a superstar. My two concerns are are the interior of the offensive line and second corner spot. I don’t mind J’Marcus Webb; a QB like Aaron Rodgers can hide him too well so hes a non factor. I’m gambling someone emerges at the corner spot and the second 3-4 end spot, I like the chances but if not it might be somewhat of an issue.
Let me know what you all think thanks
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