It was a topsy turvey season for fans of the Los Angeles Rams as the team underwent multiple coaching changes and endured the franchises worst season since the 2011 St. Louis Rams lead by Steve Spagnolo went 2-14.  Despite all of the turmoil, the Rams appear to have steadied the boat with the hiring of Kurt Warner, best known to Rams fans as the quarterback of the Greatest Show on Turf.  Under Warner, the Rams won their final two games of the season against division opponents as the team rallied around the new coach.

Despite the losses, there were some bright spots in the past season that we want to highlight in our annual team awards ceremony.

Pro Bowlers

The Rams only managed to have a single player named to the Pro Bowl, Wide Receiver Brandin Cooks. Cooks put up his 5th straight 1k yard season as he finished the season with 1,110 yards on 53 receptions, the fewest reception total since he also posted 53 his rookie season with the Saints.  He also hauled in 8 touchdowns among the 53 catches.  If you can't tell by the numbers, Cooks was a terror on the deep ball all season as his 20.9 yard per catch average smashes the next best season he's had which was only 16.6 YPC.  His 20.9 YPC ranks 5th in the league among players with at least 40 receptions.

Offensive MVP

Quarterback Jared Goff is the easy choice here for team MVP, despite an offense that finished mediocre among the league, we saw Goff take the next step as a quarterback.  His numbers aren't as good as his first two seasons under Sean McVey, but he progressed in his ability to come off of his first read and manuever in the pocket to extend the play.  Goff's 3,777 passing yards ranked 7th in the league, and his 25 touchdown passes rank 8th in the league.  Goff also finished the season very strong under Warner's playcalling and with his enormous contract extension kicking in next season, this should help ease the pain for Rams fans who have to hope for elite QB play next season to justify the cap hit Goff will carry over the next 5 seasons.

Defensive MVP

Once again this award is a no brainer, Defensive End Aaron Donald was yet again his dominant self.  His 42 solo tackles lead the team, and when including assisted tackles his 68 total tackles was only one fewer than team leader FS Eric Weddle.  Donald also notched 10 tackles for loss, second only to OLB Samson Ebukam's 17 TFL, but where Donald set himself apart was his 23 sacks, a number that would be an NFL record had the record not been demolished by 9 other players this season. Donald's 23 sacks rank tied for 2nd (with JJ Watt) for sacks among an interior rusher, 2.5 behind Bengals DT Geno Atkins.

Stay tuned for more Rams news as we take a look at the off season outlook next!

After a shocking and sudden retirement by Adam Gase, the New York Jets were left reeling and had little choice but to turn to Associate Head Coach, Shawn Jefferson.  Jefferson, also the Wide Receivers coach, will take the reigns of the Jets on an interim basis.

Jefferson, a former NFL receiver, is in his second year with the Jets after joining Gase's coaching staff for the 2019 season after previously serving under the same role for Gase in Miami.

Offensive Coordinator Dowell Loggains and Defensive Coordinator Gregg Williams will maintain their current roles through this upcoming season.  It is expected that the Jets explore all options after the upcoming season, barring a miraculous season in which the Jets make the playoffs this will likely be Jefferson's only season as Head Coach.

The Jets open the season on the road against the Houston Texans.

Dom E. Nader is making a big change from consultant to the league office, to General Manager of the New Orleans Saints.

The New Orleans Saints hired Nader as their new general manager on Monday, the team announced. After moving on from their previous GM earlier on Monday, Nader's name quickly surfaced as the ideal candidate due to his previous experience as a Coach/GM and his work with the MSPA league office.

Saints Head Coach Sean Payton extended the job offer to Nader just hours after the interview in which Saints owner Gayle Benson was also in attendance.

With the Saints off to a hot 3-0 start to the season, its not expected that Nader will do much to rock the boat of a ship that is sailing on smooth seas.  However once the season ends, the Saints may be in for a bit of a roster overhaul as Nader is known to prefer a 3-4 defense to the 4-3 scheme run under Defensive Coordinator Dennis Allen.  Nader has been known to implement a wide array of offensive schemes, typically tailored for his personnel so any potential change to the offense is sure to hinge on whether superstar QB Drew Brees hangs up his cleats at the end of the season.

Next up for the Saints they take on the 2-1 Dallas Cowboys on 9/17 at 12 pm EST.

Click the link to download the combine results.  All players projected in the first 4 rounds are included.  http://goo.gl/5fytmo

Draft Recap/Season Preview

Week 4 Report

Midseason Report

2016 TGL Sim State of the League Address

First off I would like to welcome our new members for the year, Justin will be taking over the Arizona Cardinals, Donyell will be taking over the Buffalo Bills, Tru will be taking over the New Orleans Saints and Shaun will be taking over the Saint Louis Rams.   Please welcome these guys into the league, we hope you will all stay for many seasons to come.  We are always looking for more quality members so if you know of anyone interested in joining let me know.

The 2015 season went by smoothly for the most part. Keep doing a good job scheduling the games you have against users and getting your CPU games done in a timely manner.  If we keep the pace we did this past season we will keep everyone in the league interested,  even if you have a bad season you know the off season won't take forever to arrive.

There are a few things that I do need to address.  First off I know most of us like to user control a defensive lineman on defense.  There is nothing inherently wrong with this, but please be mindful of the number of sacks you are getting.  I do not want to see the same guy having multiple 6 or 7 sack games in a season.  If you get a handful of sacks with a guy in a game, sub him out or user a different player. If they continue to dominate even without your user control you must sub them out. Not doing so is stat padding and I do not want to have to take further action to prevent this.

Offensively I do not want to see any running back average 30 carries a game. This is extremely unrealistic and will not be tolerated.  If you want to run the ball 40 times a game you starter should be seeing 25-28 carries at most with your backup getting 10-15 and 3rd string getting the rest. I am taking action to fight this for the upcoming season. The fatigue slider is going to be increased slightly, and there will be am auto subs guideline that everyone must follow. This will also help alleviate the sack issue on defense.

The other thing that needs to be addressed is running up the score/stat padding.  If you are winning big in the second half,  please take out your starters and play your backups.  There will be zero tolerance for this. Any users found to continue to play starters in a blow out when the game is in hand will be subject to a suspension of the offending player (s) as well as be forced to go on AP for their next user game. This is stat padding at its worst. This will be enforced for games against the cpu as well as against another user.

We didn’t have any issues with SuperSim last season but just a reminder that you are to play both sides of the ball.  There should be no SuperSim used.  Failure to comply with this rule will put your team on AP for a week after the first offense.

Finally, this season I would like to encourage everyone to  broadcast their CPU games via Twitch and for one user to broadcast user vs user games. Please make sure your Twitch account is set to archive your broadcast. 

-The fatigue slider is being bumped up to 68 from 65

-The injury slider is being lowered from 53 to 50

-CPU Tackline is being raised to 50 from 43

The following auto subs settings are the minimum that you must use.

You may have any autosub setting higher than listed above, but not below.

Your Commish,

Dominic

Download the 2016 TGL Sim Draft Combine Results from the following link  http://goo.gl/i0VfPU

Halfway through the 2017 season the Denver Broncos have a 6-2 record and sit in third place in the difficult AFC West.

While the Broncos escaped week 9 with a win against the struggling Dolphins, it didn't come without a cost.  They lost defensive leader Vonn Miller for the rest of the season with a broken shoulder.  After also having lost Brandon Watts a few weeks prior this leaves the linebacking corps severely weakened.  Rumor has it Coach Marschinke has been having the defense practice playing a 4-3 instead of the 3-4 that they have been playing so far this year.  Rookie running back Jarred Curry returned from his shoulder injury in week 9 and had a breakout performance running for `42 yards and 2 touchdowns and rookie quarterback Everett Moses had a big game filling in for the injured Felix Harris as the Broncos beat the Dolphins 40-14.

The surprise bright spot for the Broncos so far has been their defense which as a unit rankes 4th in the league in total defense.  The defense has been stingy against both the run and the pass so far, surrendering 185 yards through the air and 76 yards on the ground per game.  The schedule only gets tougher in the second half of the season as the Broncos have the Giants, Patriots and Titans left on the schedule who are all ranked in the top 5 of total offense.

Defensive end Dee Ford leads the defense with 10 tackles for a loss, including 9 sacks, and defensive tackle Joshua Hernandez has contributed 6 sacks as well to a defensive unit that has excelled at getting pressure on the quarterback.  Veteran cornerback Aqib Talib and rookie corner Mario Burns have been the beneficiary of the strong play of the defensive line as they have 4 and 5 intereceptions respectively.  

Coming into his second year in the league, there were high hopes for quarterback Felix Harris, but his season so far has been a mixed bag.  Harris has looked the part of a superstar quarterback at times, however most of the time he has looked lost in Coach Marschinke's new offense often overthrowing receivers or trying to force the ball into tight coverage which has resulted in him throwing 8 interceptions to only 10 touchdowns.

Harris isn't entirely to blame for his poor performance this season, the offensive line that has excelled at run blocking this year leading to a 5.5 yard per carry average by Denver running backs, has been very shakey in pass protection allowing 18 sacks and numerous pressures forcing Harris out of his comfort zone as a pocket passer.

Rookie quarterback Everett Moses had a good game in relief of Harris after the later suffered two broken ribs against the Chiefs, and followed it up with a 414 yard and 2 touchdown performance against the Dolphins.  Only time will tell, but the Broncos may have a quarterback controversy when Harris is expected to be cleared to play in 3 weeks,

The worksheet is color coded and has your name where you need to scout.  Everyone is in for 230 scouting points.  Once you have done your scouting, save the worksheet with a new name and email it to thedom21 at gmail.com.

Worksheet can be downloaded from this link http://goo.gl/b3Q0UG

We didn't complete the sheet, but the most filled out version can be downloaded here http://goo.gl/CjQ34z