Las Vegas Legion
2-12
Fourth (Last) in ASFC


The Good

The Legion continue their trend of being the first cab off the rank for the season in review. Much has been made of the Legion’s roster building strategy, and although it hasn’t been smooth sailing, these areas were the highlights of the Legion in Season 3.

Number One: Keeping it Close: If the Season 3 Legion can be commended on one thing, it’s their ability to keep games close throughout the season. The Legion had 4 losses this season by one score or less. By keeping games close the Legion are doing a great job of keeping themselves in games late. With a couple of 50/50 calls going their way, and a little bit of tweaking you could easily be seeing a 6-8 Legion season this year, and these results are surely going to go their way at some point. One of the biggest factors in the Legion being able to keep games close is the improvement in their passing attack this year, improving from 181.2 Passing Yards per Game in Season 2 to 226.4 Passing Yards per Game this Season. The ability to move the ball in the air is giving the Legion a better chance at third down conversions, and allowing the Legion to move the ball into scoring range.

Number Two: A Strong Season 3 Draft: Much was made of the Legion’s decision to trade away their high draft picks in favour of building their roster through other means. Using the draft picks they had remaining we saw a few players come in and contribute straight away, which could easily explain the increased production of the Legion offense. The introduction of Wallace Stone (Pick 18) and Crith Coalrange (Pick 49) the Legion upgraded their offensive line immediately, and the Legion have seen the benefits so far this season with a massive spike in Pancakes against ever improving defences. The biggest surprise of the Legion draft class has to be Connor Tanner (Pick 41) made the position switch from Wide Receiver to Tight End and was inserted immediately into the Legion’s line up. Tanner is 2nd in the NSFL amongst all Tight Ends in receiving TDs, and 4th in Yards, all while playing 4 less games than his competition. Tanner should be amongst considerations for a Pro-Bowl nod and he looks to be a star of the future.

Number Three: Alexandre LeClair: Although held back by the inconsistent arm of Bercovici, LeClair has developed into one of the strongest receivers in the game in Season 3. LeClair has improved his game significantly since Season 2. Hauling in an impressive 71 receptions for 1168 yards and 7 touchdowns, which see LeClair increase his numbers by 17 receptions, 425 yards, and 2 touchdowns. LeClair has been mentioned in several ranking lists as one of the best receivers this season, and the Legion will need to use pieces to bring talent around LeClair to give him incentive to stay at the end of next season.

The Bad

When it comes to the Legion it can be hard to figure out where to start with The Bad, however, the first point I believe is the most important if the Legion want a positive record any time soon.

Number One: Consistency: The Las Vegas Legion have holes in their roster for sure, however the most heartbreaking thing to see week-in, week-out, is the complete randomness the Legion turn up to play with. In Season 2 they rolled into Colorado and shoved a dagger through the hearts of the Yeti, sinking the team’s play off hopes. Season 3 saw a similar storyline, the Legion, fresh off a 9 loss streak, roll into San Jose and win a shootout against a significantly improved SaberCats.

How can a team who wins big games against strong opposition on the road, drop so many games consistently at home? This season the Legion have won a single home game against the hapless Yeti. The Legion will need to figure out how to turn the Strip into a fortress.

Number Two: Pressuring the Quarterback: In Season 2 the Las Vegas Legion rode Ramrio and Cox to 51 Sacks with the two defensive tackles providing 58% of the teams sacks through pressuring the middle of developing offensive lines. Without pressuring the quarterback, the few talented defensive members of the Legion team are left exposed by lackluster pressure, and quarterbacks having all day in the pocket to tear them apart.

Trading Ramrio has had an incredible effect on the figures for the Legion. Bringing down opposing quarterbacks only 44 times in Season 3, with Blaster Blade racking up 29.55% of the teams total Sacks for the year. The Legion took one of their biggest strengths, an exciting and dynamic defensive duo, meddled with a trade and now are back to square one. This leads me to;

Number Three: Roster Strength: The Legion have a roster problem, or several roster problems if we’re being fare, and while the Legion did improve some areas in the draft, most notably patching holes along the offensive line, it’s difficult to see where the Legion are going to look for talent this coming offseason. Another concern will be the amount of expiring contracts this coming offseason, with all three starting linebackers coming off contract, including the aforementioned Varga. While locking up Shoate for another two seasons resolves one starting spot at corner, both Maddox and Morgan are off contract, and whilst they are serviceable inactives, the Legion need players who are going to improve this roster. The next question is, with so many OG rookies coming off contract in the coming seasons; how can the Legion possibly attract the kind of talent which will help them elevate their results? They’re going to need to overpay to attract talent, and they are paying a premium to keep the few stars they have; with the arrival of Kevin Cushing in Season 5, the Legion are going to need to put pieces into place to ensure he’s not just a one and done. I don’t have an answer for the Legion faithful out there, and this leads to;

The Future

It’s going to be a long couple of seasons for the Las Vegas faithful. It’s hard to admit that a team could so easily write themselves off being competitive for so long, so short into their existence. The Legion have gaps to fill, and will need a few off seasons to right the ship. The problem with the Legion is the team is paid like a team who is gearing up to compete for an Ultimus crown, with only $2m in the kitty to play with. Las Vegas will need to make some serious moves to either find themselves rebuilding, or find themselves competing. I’m going to make a long winded analogy here which I hope you can follow with me. The Las Vegas Legion are the seminal classic 2003 film The Room by Tommy Wiseau. The film opened and it suffered widespread critical panning. In time, the Room gained traction as a cult classic, much like the Legion have a groundswell of support of fans who simply want the worst team in the league to have that Cinderella story. The moral of this analogy is this; expect the Legion to make the playoffs around Season 8 or 9. That’s my hot take, and I’m sticking with it.

In Summary: