Alternate Reality Game 1: Chiefs

[Rain Man]

The original post is below in blue, but let's summarize it here based on the past few years.

1. If you're a new player, start with the current Chiefs roster. If you've been playing for a while you'll have your own evolved roster.

2. You can add any free agent that the Chiefs add.

3. You lose any free agent that the Chiefs lose, but only if they were on the Chiefs' roster when you began playing.

4. You can accept or reject any trade the Chiefs make as long as any Chiefs player involved is currently on your roster.

5. You do not get players that the Chiefs draft. You draft your own players, using the same draft picks that the Chiefs have.

6. You can trade down ONE time before the draft or after the draft. If you trade down before the draft, you get up to full value for your pick according to this chart: http://sports.espn.go.com/nfl/draft0...ory?id=2410670. If you trade down after the draft, the value of the picks you trade must be discounted by at least 35 percent. Any trade down must involve only the picks of one NFL team, and you cannot receive more than two picks more than you give up. (In other words, if you trade away one draft pick you cannot pick up more than three in return.) The other team's picks also must be picks that they held prior to the opening of the draft.

6. You can trade up ONE time before the draft or after the draft. If you trade up before the draft, you get up to full value for your pick according to this chart: http://sports.espn.go.com/nfl/draft0...ory?id=2410670. If you trade up after the draft, the value of the picks you trade must be discounted by at least 15 percent. Any trade up must involve only the picks of one NFL team. The other team's picks also must be picks that they held prior to the opening of the draft.

7. By the beginning of the season, you must reduce your total roster to include only 53 players.



Original post: You can ignore this now.


Okay, having tested the waters I think we've got enough interest in this. There will be two other games as well that I'll announce soon.

The concept of this game is to, over a series of years, see which Chiefsplanet members are best at building a team. We can have an unlimited number of players, and this game will take very little time on your part - just a little bit of time and some voting.

Here's how the game will work.

Step 1. First, you have to locate your team in a city. It cannot be in a city that has an existing NFL team, so you must pick from the following cities, which are the largest cities that don't have an NFL team, but ensuring that there's at least one city in every state. If we have more than 100 players I'll add to this list. (List deleted for brevity. If you start playing, just pick a city.)


Step 2. Once the NFL draft is complete on April 26, owners will select players who were available with each Chiefs selection (i.e., do their own draft) and add these people to their roster. If the Chiefs make any draft day trades, the player may choose to accept or reject the trade and act accordingly.

Step 3. After training camp, each owner selects 40 (Edited up from 35) Chiefs players who are "their" players who will make up their roster. The remaining 13 positions will be filled by a generic "scrub".

Step 4. At the end of the season, the person will provide an overview of who started at each position over the course of the year, providing the number of starts at each position by each player. Edit: the rules for doing so are discussed in Post 285.

Step 5. At the end of the season, we will have a Survivor-style vote among the general Chiefsplanet population to determine who had the best team that year, including impacts of injuries and other issues.

Step 6. In Year 2 (and beyond), the player starts with his/her core of 40 players, adds new players through the draft, and can then pick another core of players from the following pool: their 40-player core, new drafted players, and any new free agent that joins the Chiefs

If the Chiefs make a trade that includes draft picks, each owner can choose to accept or reject that trade on their own team. If the Chiefs make a trade involving a player on the Chiefs roster, the owner can accept that trade ONLY if his/her own roster includes that player.

There will be no trades between owners, and no implications of the salary cap.

I realize that in the first season we'll have a lot of players with similar rosters, but they'll diverge over time and that's where it'll get interesting.

So...if you're interested in playing, claim your city and name your team.


Teams As Of Post #113:


Alaska (Anchorage) Watchmen (cdcox)
Austin [name to be determined] (Hound333)
Billings Snake Filets (KCChiefsman)
Cheyenne Buckshot Cheneys (banyon)
Des Moines [yet to be named] (Hoover)
Duluth Normans (Rain Man)
El Paso The Courvoisier (DeezNutz)
Fargo Rape (SNR)
Fort Wayne Dancers (Chiefs=Good)
Fresno Refugees (Adam)
Harrisburg Beer Farts (Otter)
Hartford Manticores (Crush)
Honolulu Craters (Sully)
Knoxville Nukes (Patteeu)
Las Vegas Hitmen (Bowser)
Little Rock Reapers (doomy3)
Los Angeles Cobras (chiefscafan)
Madison Beers (Spicy McHaggis)
Memphis Jackals (Ultra Peanut)
Oklahoma City Boom (Sanka)
Omaha Streakers (speak24)
Orlando Beakers (ChiefsCountry)
Reno Sheriff Department (MWagg72)
San Antonio Scorpions (truebigdog)
Scranton Paper Packers (bdeg)
Sioux Falls Slackers (pestilenceaf23)
Spokane [yet to be named] (Mr. Flopnuts)
Springfield (Missouri) Cashew Chickens (H5N1)
Wichita [yet to be named] (jwazzie)
Winston-Salem Warlocks (ArrowheadHawk)
Worcester Sauce (unothadeal)

Added Rules and Reminders:

1. Remember that you can draft undrafted rookies, so you don't have to select only guys who were drafted.

2. Anyone can change their rookie draft selections at any time, UNTIL we reach ten days before training camp. At that point, all picks will be locked in.

3. Each team can do ONE trade of draft picks if they like, using this chart:http://sports.espn.go.com/nfl/draft0...ory?id=2410670. However, if you're trading up, you have to pay 15 percent more than the stated value of the picks you're obtaining. If you're trading down, your pick's value will be discounted by 35 percent.

For example, if you want to trade up from the 20th pick in the 1st to the 10th pick, you can see from the chart that the 20th pick is worth 850 points. The 10th pick is normally 1,300 points, but by paying 15 percent more, it will cost you 1.15*1,300, or 1,495 points.

For example, if you want to trade down from the 20th pick in the 1st and pick up the 10th pick in the 2nd, your 20th pick would normally be worth 850 points, but in this game it will be worth 553 points. The 10th pick in the 2nd is worth 480 points, so you can get 73 points back from the other team.

You can do only ONE draft-pick trade up and ONE draft-pick trade down, and in each case you can only trade with one other team for their own picks. (In other words, you couldn't take the 73 points in the above example from a third team.)

[wazu]

WOOT! My 7B pick for 2012 is a starter already. For the Bengals, but still.

http://profootballtalk.nbcsports.com...r-the-bengals/

[Rain Man]

My offense is actually looking pretty good. I may have to replace Tony G and I could use a fourth WR, but overall my offense is pretty decent.

My special teams is good, so no problem there.

On defense, my linebackers are now pretty decent with the emergence of Zach Brown. They're good. However, I need a free safety, a #2 cornerback, and nickel back, and my defensive line is a disaster.

I'm debating whether I'll get another QB with my 1st pick or not. I may just go all defensive line and defensive backs in this draft. Sheesh.

Originally Posted by Rain Man

My final roster is as follows.

My big news is that I'm going to give up and switch to a 3-4. I'm having all sorts of problems in my front seven on defense, and I think they'll fare better as a 3-4 unit.

My offense is coming together very well, but my defense is struggling.

QB
Russell Wilson (Seahawks)
Mark Sanchez (Jets)
Jimmy Clausen (Panthers)

I may have a starting quarterback. (Two of them, actually.)

HB
Jamaal Charles
C.J. Spiller. (Bills)
Shaun Draughn
Nate Eachus

I like this situation with two speed merchants on top of the chart. Spiller should be increasing his carries in Buffalo.

FB
Peyton Hillis

Hillis was a nice pickup.

WR
Dwayne Bowe
Kendall Wright (Titans)
Steve Breaston - WR
Leonard Hankerson (Redskins)
Greg Salas (Rams)

Wide receiver is really coming together for me. Wright, Breaston, and Hankerson can man my #2 spot. Wright is a rookie 1st rounder who will start in Britt's absence in Tennessee, and Hankerson is a 2nd string guy expected to get lots of action in Washington. Salas is a third-stringer in St. Louis.

TE
Tony Gonzalez (Falcons)
Kevin Boss - TE
Steve Maneri - TE

Set here with Tony and great depth.

OT
Branden Albert
Eric Winston - RT
Bruce Campbell (Raiders)

Our free agent tackle helped a lot. We have young depth, too. I'm happy. Bruce Campbell was traded to Carolina and is a backup tackle there.

G
Brian Waters
Jason Pinkston (Browns)
Alex Boone (49ers)
Lilja, Ryan
Wade Smith

We're going deep on the roster here because we have five NFL starters with Alex Boone blossoming in San Francisco. Pinkston and Boone are both starting.

C
Rodney Hudson (Chiefs)

Not much depth. Hopefully Hudson does well.

K
Alex Henery (Eagles)

Great shape here. Henery is a good kicker.

P
Dustin Colquitt

Great shape here.

FS
Kendrick Lewis
Travis Daniels
Charles Mitchell (Falcons)

Deep, but not scary, and Lewis is hurt. Mitchell is a rookie 2nd stringer with Atlanta.

SS
Reshad Jones (Dolphins)
Abram Elam
Tysyn Hartman - DB

Jones is a starter for Miami, so I'm okay here and have depth.

CB
Brandon Flowers
Stanford Routt - CB
D.J. Moore (Bears)
Alphonso Dennard (Patriots)

This unit went from being deep to being very thin. Moore is a nickel back in Chicago, and Dennard is a rookie who made the Patriots but is deep in the depth chart.

OLB
Tamba Hali
Chris Carter (Steelers)
Zach Brown (Titans)
Dekoda Watson (Buccaneers)
Andy Studebaker

I'm moving Hali back to his great OLB spot in the 3-4. On the other side, I'll put Chris Carter, I guess, who's backing up James Harrison in Pittsburgh. The other non-Chiefs are NFL second-stringers, Brown as a rookie and Watson in his third year. I have depth, but I need someone to step up beside Hali.

ILB
Derrick Johnson
Rey Maualuga (Bengals)
Brandon Siler - ILB

Going back to a 3-4 lets me move Maualuga back to his natural position, and I'm strong here even if I lack depth.

DE
Glenn Dorsey
Ropati Pitoitua
Ronnell Lewis (Lions)
Jonathan Massaquoi (Falcons)
Da'Quan Bowers (Buccaneers)

Another big problem area. Lewis and Massaquoi are both rookies, and Lewis is a second-stringer. Massaquoi is buried on the chart, though he's gotten some good reviews. Neither is big enough to be a 3-4 end, which may mean they're screwed in the long run. I invested a high pick in Bowers in my 4-3 defense and he's out for the year, most likely, with an offseason injury. I'm not sure how he'll fit even if he comes back. So Glenn and Ropati will be my guys.

NT
Ron Edwards
Anthony Toribio
Alex Carrington (Bills)

Well, Ron Edwards is starting in Carolina, so he and Toribio will split snapes at NT. Carrington was moved by Buffalo from DE to OLB and now to DT. Not sure what's going on there, but he's not a NT, so I'm not sure what to do with him in the long run.

[wazu]

Originally Posted by Rain Man

My offense is actually looking pretty good. I may have to replace Tony G and I could use a fourth WR, but overall my offense is pretty decent.

My special teams is good, so no problem there.

On defense, my linebackers are now pretty decent with the emergence of Zach Brown. They're good. However, I need a free safety, a #2 cornerback, and nickel back, and my defensive line is a disaster.

I'm debating whether I'll get another QB with my 1st pick or not. I may just go all defensive line and defensive backs in this draft. Sheesh.

Russell Wilson? You beautiful bastard.

[Rain Man]

Originally Posted by wazu

Russell Wilson? You beautiful bastard.

I had a good, good draft, putting new starters in areas of need.

Kendall Wright in the first looks like a strong starter alongside Bowe.

Zach Brown in the second got 5.5 sacks and 3 ints as a rookie and claimed a starting job for me at OLB.

Russell Wilson in the third gives me a QB.

Alphonso Dennard in the seventh got half a dozen starts and three interceptions, which may be filling my hole at #2 CB.

I think my offense is pretty darn good now, and I've got four solid linebacker starters. My defensive line is the thing that I can't solve at the moment, along with free safety.

[wazu]

Really, Russell Wilson may be "checkmate" on this whole deal for awhile. I'll most likely be going with Geno this year, maybe Tyler depending on where they each land. But damn. Well played. Not even sure if there is a point to posting a poll in the Lounge this year.

[Rain Man]

Originally Posted by wazu

Really, Russell Wilson may be "checkmate" on this whole deal for awhile. I'll most likely be going with Geno this year, maybe Tyler depending on where they each land. But damn. Well played. Not even sure if there is a point to posting a poll in the Lounge this year.

We never really got much participation in the polls so I figured it would really be more just an internal thing at this point.

The more interesting poll, which I'm considering this year, is a "did these teams show better drafting than *****" poll. It'd be kind of interesting, but we might all benefit from some intense dislike of anything *****.

I'm really not sure if I'll ride the Wilson ship or if I'll draft Geno anyway. I figure it can't hurt to have depth at that position.

[wazu]

Originally Posted by Rain Man

We never really got much participation in the polls so I figured it would really be more just an internal thing at this point.

The more interesting poll, which I'm considering this year, is a "did these teams show better drafting than *****" poll. It'd be kind of interesting, but we might all benefit from some intense dislike of anything *****.

I'm really not sure if I'll ride the Wilson ship or if I'll draft Geno anyway. I figure it can't hurt to have depth at that position.

I think that would be a good approach. I'm disappointed with my own drafts, but still smile when realizing I spent about 30 minutes researching each year and still think I beat Scotty.

Looking forward to keeping this rolling and watching it continue to evolve.

[chiefscafan]

Ok I liked this ill base on what I thought last year I'll be honest the only two picks I'll change are Wilson and burfict in seventh. I still need to find my roster but lets do this again this year.

[Rain Man]

Originally Posted by chiefscafan

Ok I liked this ill base on what I thought last year I'll be honest the only two picks I'll change are Wilson and burfict in seventh. I still need to find my roster but lets do this again this year.

Hmm, I'm pondering the best way to get you back in. We need to be strict about the rules of having no hindsight and documenting our picks, so we have to have the teams in place before the season starts.

How about this? Take your last roster, and from there you can add the Chiefs' drafts and free agents until you get caught up. I think that's the fair way to go, and now you can start again with the upcoming draft.

Wazu and patteeu, does that seem fair?

[wazu]

Originally Posted by Rain Man

Hmm, I'm pondering the best way to get you back in. We need to be strict about the rules of having no hindsight and documenting our picks, so we have to have the teams in place before the season starts.

How about this? Take your last roster, and from there you can add the Chiefs' drafts and free agents until you get caught up. I think that's the fair way to go, and now you can start again with the upcoming draft.

Wazu and patteeu, does that seem fair?

I'm good with that.

[Rain Man]

Originally Posted by wazu

I'm good with that.

Cool.

I had another thought about stuff as we get ready to go into the draft. I don't think this affects anybody yet, so it's a good time to decide it.

If we draft a player from a team other than the Chiefs, what do we do if they leave their team via free agency? We remove Chiefs who leave via free agency, so it seems fair to do it to others. For example, I have CJ Spiller. If he moves from his team via free agency, it seems like I should lose him, too.

However, it may be a hassle to do that unless we have people do it on their own teams via the honor system. I'm not sure there's a great way to do it because I can't really track every player as our rosters diverge. Should we remove them ourselves for our own teams, or just leave them be?

I also recognize that we have an inherent disadvantage in not being able to sign our own free agents, so perhaps the advantage of keeping our drafted free agents merely offsets this disadvantage. (I'm rationalizing, of course.)

[Rain Man]

As prep for the draft, changes to everyone's rosters so far due to free agency are as follows. Lots of changes this offseason.

Trades

Option to trade a 2nd this year and a future pick for QB Alex Smith. Prior to the draft, report whether you accept or reject this trade.

These players were all cut, but you have the option to keep them.

release OT Eric Winston
release WR Steve Breaston
release TE Kevin Boss
release TE Steve Maneri
release QB Matt Cassel
release K Matt Szymanski
release OLB Andy Studebaker
release OG Rich Ranglin

You can add these players to your training camp roster for the upcoming season.

sign CB Dunta Robinson $15m/3 years
sign S Hasain Abdullah
sign WR Mardy Gilyard
sign DT Marcus Dixon
sign TE Kevin Brock
sign TE Anthony Fasano 4 years
sign QB Chase Daniel 3 years
sign DE Mike DeVito $12.6m/3 years
sign WR Donnie Avery 3 years
sign CB Sean Smith $18m/3 years ($11m guaranteed)
sign OT/OG Geoff Schwartz
sign FB Ryan D'Imperio
sign LB Chad Kilgore
sign LB Frank Zombo
sign OL Tommie Draheim

[wazu]

One note on released Chiefs players - if we draft somebody that the Chiefs also draft, do we at least get to keep them regardless of whether or not the Chiefs do? I don't think it's come up yet, but just thinking. Seems like we should be able to.

[wazu]

Originally Posted by Rain Man

Cool.

I had another thought about stuff as we get ready to go into the draft. I don't think this affects anybody yet, so it's a good time to decide it.

If we draft a player from a team other than the Chiefs, what do we do if they leave their team via free agency? We remove Chiefs who leave via free agency, so it seems fair to do it to others. For example, I have CJ Spiller. If he moves from his team via free agency, it seems like I should lose him, too.

However, it may be a hassle to do that unless we have people do it on their own teams via the honor system. I'm not sure there's a great way to do it because I can't really track every player as our rosters diverge. Should we remove them ourselves for our own teams, or just leave them be?

I also recognize that we have an inherent disadvantage in not being able to sign our own free agents, so perhaps the advantage of keeping our drafted free agents merely offsets this disadvantage. (I'm rationalizing, of course.)

Okay, missed this post. I would like for us to be able to keep players we draft regardless of what team they are on. I think it is a fair way to offset the fact that we don't get to choose the Chiefs free agent signings.

[Rain Man]

Originally Posted by wazu

One note on released Chiefs players - if we draft somebody that the Chiefs also draft, do we at least get to keep them regardless of whether or not the Chiefs do? I don't think it's come up yet, but just thinking. Seems like we should be able to.

Originally Posted by wazu

Okay, missed this post. I would like for us to be able to keep players we draft regardless of what team they are on. I think it is a fair way to offset the fact that we don't get to choose the Chiefs free agent signings.

If that's the case, then we should start treating drafted Chiefs (2009-) the same as players drafted from other teams. No free agent losses.

Honestly, I'd prefer to have free agent losses on all sides, but it'll just be a pain to track so I'm fine to no longer lose free agents. It might give us a bit of a net advantage, but probably not much when you consider that we can't use free agency to fill our own gaps.

So henceforth, no free agent losses unless it's a Chief who was on the team prior to 2009.

Oh, wait. Are you thinking about cuts, too, e.g., Eric Winston?