I also think you may have missed dthompso8. He has had a good team for a long time. He hasn't had a losing season since 2044.
Also, it's great that I have to play 2 of the top 3 GMs on both your lists twice a year (Rob and Julio). Great challenge and lots of opportunities to learn from watching them.
Joel... here's the thing... you really have no experience with me so you really don't know me and I understand you think you're better than me and can't live with the thought a new player can be better than you. I'm not going to argue any of that. I really don't know where I stand in the world of FOF at this point, and I haven't really proven anything. I still have so much more to learn, and I'm always reading, testing, talking to people, etc. So I really believe I'm NOT that good at this point.
I WILL argue this... my game plan, my philosophy, what I try to do to win... will mean I'll have a LOT of 1 score games. I'll win 75% of those games with the right players and usual gameplanning. I'm never trying to blow people out. I'm trying to wear them down with running and short passing, while playing very good defense. That's my goal, that will result in a lot of close games. Finally, notice the games. Many of those one score games ended with a late game score by my opponents, so I was way ahead and just playing the prevent or whatever defense against YOUNG DBs who have little cohesion and are still not fully developed. Also, I had a lot of problems offensively in the red zone early that took me time to learn to fix, which resulted in us not scoring the points we SHOULD have scored... I have improved this aspect, by the way
-Denver 19-13. Up 19-0 in the 4th quarter. You see a 1 score game, I see a team skating in the 4th quarter with a big lead.
-Chargers 13-9. Close game, could have gone either way, my defense just played better (302 to 225 yards offensively) which is one of my team's goals.
-Kansas City 28-21. KC touchdown with just over 2 minutes left. Again, up by two TDs late in the game and gave up a TD. Wasn't as close as the score indicates.
-Pittsburgh 17-10. DOMINATED the game in every way but score. 397-223 in yards gained. Another dominant defensive performance.
-Jacksonville 10-7. Didn't gameplan this game, because I was thinking Mikey wasn't even around so I didn't need to. We were up 10-0 late in the 4th, and again a late game score with the 2 min drill.
-Seattle 27-19. 8 points is really two scores, but we'll consider it one. Seattle's roster is so much better than mine, in so many ways. I am near the bottom of cohesion. I have a bunch of young, undeveloped guys starting. My special teams is no match for his. With Rex, we should never come within 10 points of Seattle. But we won based on my players being in the right place at the right time, due 100% to game planning. I won because Nick did basically nothing different or unexpected. And, ask Nick if it is easier or harder to gameplan against my offense or Joel's... Then ask him WHY. That's the key question.
-Baltimore wins 23-20. We were completely outplayed, yet still tied 20-20 until 5.33 left in the game.
-Arizona 20-13. Another game where we did all the things we want to do. Keep our opponent under 20. 9/18 on 3rd downs. Over 34 minutes time of possession. No turnovers. 5 yards a run. This is a typical Cleveland game, and we will win 75% of these games. Score looks close. Solevision does not.
-Cincinnati tie 23-23. Can you really count this? I had my rookie 16/29 QB starting, my star RB was deactivated, as was my top pass rusher, etc.
So overall, my team played better than a cursory glance at my schedule would make you think. Most of those 1 score games were not really one score games. If a 'dice roll' were put in favor of my opponent, the whole game would have changed because the 2 minute drill or the running out the clock offense would have happened differently, etc. etc. When we score 30+ points, that usually means one of two things. Either I got some dice rolls, or players went all out to stop the run. The 46-26 win against Baltimore is one of those games (play action fade vs. Press-1 for a big gain, play action Post vs. Press-1 for a big gain...)
Pride.. I agree Nick. I will NEVER feel like I shouldn't try or don't want to try to win. I want to win EVERY week. In week 17, we had the bye week clinched and put in some backups to protect my starters... and I still put in hours of gameplanning to try to win with them. I didn't just Rex and hope it worked out. And if I do feel like I don't care if I win, I will probably just quit playing... what's the point to play when you don't even care?
It's easier to gameplan against the passing game. If it was easier to gameplan against a running or balanced offense, then teams like New England, Indianapolis, Atlanta, Seattle, etc. would not be regularly seen in the playoffs year after year. Plus, as I've said before, you have decided to run a lot more since you've seen how inconsistent pass first offenses are between 2049 and 2050. I also disagree that it's harder to gameplan against Rex. Rex has very STRONG tendencies, and it's easier to gameplan against them than a guy who knows how to mix it up. There's so many little nuances to game planning, just like there are MANY little nuances to roster building (which I'm still learning and haven't decided not to try to learn). Also, how you scout makes a world of difference in how you game plan. Most of my game planning success comes down to scouting and a good playbook that can take advantage of any weaknesses I can find.
Finally, I'd like to address Simon. When I took over Cleveland, I said the team was very good and better than their record. With Rex the team should have won 8 or 9 games. I saw two problems with the team after evaluating the last 5 games of the season. #1 - Defense. While there were many players with good overall ratings, the defense had no focus or goal. Every guy was not good at the same things. It's like having 3 strong guys pulling in a tug of war against 3 weak guys, but the three strong guys are pulling against each other, so they can't win. You need all the guys pulling in the same direction. I revamped the defense to be able to do that... pass rushers to go against Rob's obvious love of the passing game, and CBs that could defend in two modes successfully (Man to Man and Bump and Run). So I can run defenses successfully in either mode. Finally, I got safeties that could play zone. I wish I could have resigned Erickson but he wouldn't sign so I'll probably lose him in FA, and he was a big part of our defense this season. Anyway, you have to get guys to work together, which brings me to #2... Playbook. 90% of the playbook was 113, which many people do (although not so much in all one formation), and most of the plays were just the same play over and over again. 65% of the plays were out passes. It's not hard to defend when you just do one thing over and over again. You need a more varied playbook so you can take advantage of defensive weaknesses. And you need to gameplan in a way that forces teams to do things that will create weaknesses for you to take advantage of. I run the football a lot. People try to stop the run. I often get a long pass against Cover-1 or Press-1. That's why we were #1 in the league in Avg yards per long pass attempt (12.28) this season, and why Brewer, who everyone thinks is terrible, had a 93.2 QBR (#2 in the league). You need a varied playbook that you can do many things with. The playbook in Cleveland when I came here was awful, and it's why you never got as much as you should have out of the team you had offensively. In any case, I agree with what Nick said when he said you were better than average at drafting and building a roster (at least offensively since you had one of the best offensive rosters in the league). But you missed the little things that make a team go and you need to learn those things if you want to improve, rather than ignoring when people try to teach you something. I try to learn everything I can. You should too. You are easily the most active person on the forum when you are part of this league. You bring a ton to this league. You just need to stop talking a LITTLE bit and listen more. Just my two cents in hoping to try to help you, FWIW. Because, honestly, I'd like to see you back in this league full time.