CowboyinAmerica

The PBP got not-sober me nervous. But we pulled it out! Love those 3 TDs

New York

Spectacular presentation! Really enjoyed coming through late and reading through the drama. And now, onto Memphis. Time to go for #3 Wisconsin!

Broke my own personal record, now 22 TDs on the year with a game remaining

Athens getting it done! Would've loved the Manchester loss, but it all comes down to this final week against Trenton anyway for second.

1500+ words, somehow. For the weeks ending 10/23, 10/30 and 11/6 (one day later in VHL)

S31 EFL Mock Draft Last season in my mock draft, I made sure to highlight the fact that the draft was actually deeper than I thought. There were active players worth exploring into the second round, and every team with a pick could guarantee that they were getting a contributor for the coming year. It was a sign of the ECFA’s strength, and the strength of the EFL as a whole. This is, well, not that. The S31 Draft enters with four fully active players, one of whom is a GM player. There are a few others who have updated once or twice this season, or could hypothetically come back. But there’s a good chance that if you’re a playoff team this season, you’re not going to be able to pick up a major contributor in the draft. Best of luck in S32. The order for this draft is at the time of this writing, which actually could be totally wrong because there’s four teams tied at 6-8 in the West but I’m rolling with it. I'm also not 100% sure of the draft picks because the tracker hasn't been updated in a while, but I think this is right post-trades. The whole of the West and spots 2-4 in the East could change a lot by the time the end of the season rolls around, but if we’re being honest, there’s diminishing returns for the fighting beyond who gets pick 3 (and even then, it's three Minnesota picks and the New Orleans GM selection). 1. Minnesota Frontier: RB Potato Salad, Athens Carnage @Kelsier There’s not much to smile about when going winless in the regular season, but for a Minnesota team in desperate need of talent, you can’t argue with the top pick in the draft. After taking Fetu Tagaloa in the first round last season and nabbing Rayz Funk Jr. in S29, the Frontier has the beginnings of a remade defense. But outside of sophomore QB Frank Funk Jr., the team is desperately in need of young offensive skill position players – their starting RB and WRs this season were all in regression Y7, Y8 and Y9. As a one-cut back, Potato Salad offers a whole lot of versatility at either RB or WR, where he’ll be a centerpiece to the Frontier’s future. This one seems easy to me, and the only way it could be the other Salad is if the Frontier are sold on the offensive talent later in the draft and want to go a different direction here. 2. Toronto Skyhawks: SS Macaroni Salad, Manchester Lookout @Kelsier Essentially, the Skyhawks will take whatever Salad the Frontier don’t select. If it’s the RB Potato Salad, the Skyhawks will be more than happy to pair him with last year’s Curtis Taylor selection for a potent one-two flex RB/WR receiver punch. But of the two, Macaroni Salad might actually fit the Skyhawks’ needs even better. Third-year safety JD Boom is the only active player on the Skyhawks defense outside of regression, meaning that an infusion of talent is needed immediately. Macaroni Salad would slot in as a starter from day one in the secondary alongside Boom, McBride and an aging Aardvark, with the expectation that he’ll be alongside Boom for a long time to come. 3. Minnesota Frontier (from San Antonio ) RB Robbie Burnett, Biscayne Bay Pirates @ChefCook33 This pick could be the one from San Antonio or the one from Seattle, but lucky for Minnesota, they have them both. Either way, Burnett seems like an absolute slam dunk here. He’s easily the most active player available at this spot, and while I don’t see him jumping into the top two, I don’t see him falling beyond here either without a major upset. Everything I said above about Potato Salad also applies here, and I think Burnett could pair with Potato Salad well with one playing RB and the other playing WR. If the Frontier don’t feel Burnett is a fit, I think it’s more likely they’d try and trade this selection for a future first rather than go down the draft board for somebody. 4. Minnesota Frontier (from Seattle ) WR Deonte Carter, Death Valley Rangers @carnation199 Well, I said up top that the Frontier needed offensive skill position talent, and in this draft, they’re getting it in spades. Carter would be a slot receiver for the Frontier off the top, with the hope that he could develop into something more given enough time. Carter’s topped the 200 TPE mark and has updated with welfare and sim attendance in recent weeks, so the ability to still develop is certainly there. The Frontier would hope that work ethic is consistent if they put Carter in a starting receiver role, and with that work he could develop into a solid #2 receiver on the rebuilt offense. 5. Minnesota Frontier (from Los Angeles ) LB Fo Ur, Anchorage Storm @soneuser Fetu Tagaloa joined the team to be the centerpiece of the Frontier defense going forward, but one player does not make a linebacking corps. Neither does Raj Krishna or Hank Greening, both linebackers that aren't updating and will be under 500 TPA at the start of next season. Ur’s not looking like a future star at this current rate, but he’s an easy plug as a third starter rather than a bot player next season. Plus, with coming back to update last week, there’s a hope you can get some consistent production from him moving forward. 6. New Orleans Kraken: RB Andrew Hamilton, Anchorage Storm @Latti If there were ever a season to have a GM selection, this is it. Hamilton would probably be in contention for the first pick in the draft if he weren’t tethered to the Kraken, so they’ll be happy to pick him up here. And particularly with his addition, the Kraken are looking extremely dangerous on the offensive end moving forward. Eden Empire II has been a revelation in his rookie season as a workhorse back, Johnny Utah is a solid young QB beginning to move into his prime, and Raheem Mustard offers a solid young number two receiver for the offense. Add in Hamilton as Utah’s top option of the future, and the Kraken offense is looking bright. 7. New York Herd: WR Wowthisalotofcha Ractersforaname, Anchorage Storm @soneuser Whoever finishes in fourth of the tough East foursome could also land the last non-filler player above 200 TPE as of this writing. The wonderfully named Ractersforaname profiles as a slot receiver in the EFL, which he’d certainly be in New York if the team holds onto Joseph and Markstrom for another season. If the Herd does start to rebuild in another couple of seasons, though, I wouldn’t be surprised to see him as a stopgap starter in the interim. And that’s all for the non-filler players above the 200 TPE threshold. It’s possible that someone like @Tater_Tot or @Underclass_Hero come back to update, but that’s a bit like throwing darts blindfolded to try and predict. I’m also not particularly interested in where fillers like Macho Man or Rodknee Willicams end up, because they’ll be pretty inconsequential to the league long-term. With that said though, a few final thoughts: - Loading up on future firsts is always a dangerous game, because you want to make sure that when you do it, you’ll surely be able to get the talent to set you up for the future. When Rayzor did it in the VHL with the Helsinki Titans, the S80 and S81 Drafts turned out to be good bets. When he did it in the EFL with Minnesota, however, the S31 Draft may turn out to be not as great of a bet. Either the Seattle or San Antonio pick will likely end up as Burnett, with the other (and the L.A. pick) a player not currently above 210 TPE. The San Francisco first they acquired, as of now, is in filler territory. That’s probably not the return they envisioned when tearing down even further last offseason to get five firsts in this draft, but it’s unfortunately the way the cookie crumbled this time. - San Francisco received a lot of guff last draft for trading their S31 first and fullback Leroy Leroy v2 for the pick that ended up being kicker King Leonidas. I defended it at the time, though, taking a look at this draft class and figuring that as long as San Francisco made the playoffs, Leonidas would be better than anybody else the team would get with their first. That’s looking like a smart bet, given that the Frenzy are second in the West as of this writing. - Generally, the lack of depth in this draft class isn’t great. I think that’s pretty obvious to any outside observers. But I’m not as worried for a couple reasons: 1. There’s a lot of players sitting around 199 TPE in the ECFA, with many set to enter the draft next season. This isn’t a new norm taking place. 2. This obviously was an off-year for recreates with none in this draft at all. That makes this draft look even worse than it is, and while you would like more first generation players here, that’s going to ebb and flow with time. 3. I actually find it interesting from a meta standpoint how teams are going to react when it’s near impossible to get fully active players at every position. What are teams going to prioritize? Will tanking really be a viable strategy, as Minnesota is figuring out this offseason? What will be the optimal mix of older and younger players moving forward? There’s going to be a lot of team construction questions for GMs moving forward, moreso than in most leagues where you’re trying to slot in super active players in every position. I’ll be very curious to see how the EFL GMs work it out.

1. That's pretty much home field throughout for the Brigade, barring home losses to both Minnesota and Toronto at home to end the season. Really nice to have in this ridiculously tough Eastern playoffs this season. 2. The West is such a clusterfuck

WELP

Rough, but wasn't expecting to come out of the rough stretch unscathed. If we play Miami again, hope it's different with a home game.

San Francisco

Another game where Wisconsin scores too much and it knocks the receiving stats off the page. Definitely not gonna complain.

Somebody needs to fix TurnerBot, because all I see in the headline is "Player has r" and I think every person getting a contract bonus is retiring.

The #1 pick bowl! Where the loser gets their choice between Macaroni and Potato Salad

Big Wisconsin win! A great way to start our tough four-game stretch.