So in Part 1 we went over the ASFC’s top half. Now it’s time for the NSFC crew to have their moment in the sun. While many have argued over the years that the NSFC is the little brother conference (surely I’ve never participated in such slander myself though) it can’t be denied that the gap has been closing. And Colorado and Sarasota especially shot right through that hole and combined for less losses than any of the teams mentionined in the previous article. In fact, in a fun note, both Colorado and Sarasota beat the ASFC’s #1 Seed San Jose and both did so on the road. Late game heroics by both teams showed that they were able to come up clutch in difficult situations. Rounding out the group we get Chicago, who cost me $75 Million by being better than I expected. I’m not saying they did anything wrong, I just wanna bitch about it. So, that said, let’s get into each team’s situation.
Colorado Yeti
Greedy Sly S S23 620 TPE
Mo Magic OL S22 646 TPE
Richard Gilbert RB S22 675 TPE
William Lim WR S22 754 TPE
Immanuel Blackstone DE S21 962 TPE
Adelie dePengu LB S23 599 TPE
Rotticus Scott CB S21 810 TPE
Louisiana Purchase CB S18 1226 TPE (20% Regression incoming)
The Best 5 Unprotected:
Jackson Kingston WR S23 583 TPE
Dick Thruster OL S23 OL 427 TPE
Leeroy Jenkins WR S22 644 TPE
Warren Stephens LB S20 725 TPE
Thor Kirby S S20 587 TPE
The Facts:
Colorado finished the season 14-2 and has secured home field advantage throughout the playoffs. Colorado has all of its draft picks. The team lost its CoGM to expansion GM’ing and as such had 9 protection slots. They sold one to Chicago, allowing them only 8 but meaning they still only lose one more player.
The Analysis:
I’m trying to imagine going back in time to like S15 and explaining to myself that Colorado is one of the more controversial teams. And one of the more dominant, too. Funny how those two things always seem to dovetail. Beyond the players I tend to focus on, they have a cadre of veteren stars to hold the line while these younger pups come up. And boy are they doing that. There were other players I could’ve added to the unprotected list. This is another team that’s barely gonna feel the loss between their deep roster and DSFL stashes. Motherfuckers have TWO kickers. So who do they lose? Well, it depends on the strategy of the expansion team in question. Want a war room ready member in addition to a young target? Jackson’s the pick. OL + big LR presence? Grab that Dick. It’s okay. He agreed. Stability? Jenkins is signed through S27. Or…...you take door #3...errr...6 in this case. What is door #6 my sweet children? Well..it’s breaking my plan of taking nobody in or at regression for a special purpose. That purpose is none other than S16 unprotected QB Wolfie McDummy. He has just over 1k in TPE, pre regression. He will be a serviceable to solid QB for about 2 more seasons. Exactly the right time to bring up a new QB. If you’re a team has none (especially when your fellow expansion team now somehow has two) this can potentially buy you a few seasons. It’s certainly something worth looking into if you’re Frankfurt. And then Colorado slides their brand new QB right in. Mattathias Calaban is extremely raw as of yet but will cross 500 TPE before next season starts. With a strong running game to take the load off (3 RBs who’ll hit next season with 700+, 600+, and 450+ will do that) the young QB could step in and the team will barely miss a beat.
The net result is that Colorado becomes a second tier contender for about two seasons and then goes back up. And if it doesn’t the bump in Colorado’s chance of a reign of dominance is a bit smaller. As if by magic...after I initially wrote this section, someone twigged to this McDummy idea and noted the possibility for New York due to the somewhat incestous nature of the former GM taking the former GM. Instead, New York decided they were the only thing in life they could control and went hard on a blockbuster trade made it an idea that was only useful for one of the teams. I’m still claiming credit. You’re not required to believe me if you don’t wanna. It’s okay. Colorado is going to bounce back no matter what happens here. They’re going to be making Yeti Noises for a while. Incidentally, after doing upwards of 10 seconds of research, Yeti Noises sound a lot like John Goodman just making random noises. Now you know.
Sarasota Sailfish
Dexter Banks II QB S17 1123 TPE (25% Regression incoming)
Jamie Nkiah S S20 898 TPE
Cuco Clemente DT S22 769 TPE
Haha Mango-Panda LB S22 752 TPE
James Angler TE S22 735 TPE
Fawn Dillmiballs LB S22 691 TPE
Raphtalia Chan RB S21 978 TPE
Michael Witheblock WR S22 760 TPE
The Best 5 Unprotected:
Mike Karpassi DE S23 436 TPE
Son Goku DE S23 615 TPE
Eric Richards S S23 496 TPE
Clark Boyd TE S22 579 TPE
Big Edd DE S22 510 TPE
The Facts:
Sarasota finished the regular season 12-4, good 2nd in the NSFC and will host Chicago in the Wildcard Round. If Sarasota makes it to the Ultimus they will have home field advantage over any ASFC team. They do not possess their 3rd round pick, having traded it to Orange County, but they do hold the remainder of their first four. Sarasota can lose two players.
The Analysis:
“Yeah? An expansion draft? The fuck outta here. Like I care. Have you seen my roster?” Sarasota is so packed that I had to work to figure out who to put on the unprotected list. They’ve got a fair amount of talent sitting in the DSFL as well, including their next QB. There’s a reason this team is threatening to beat my 5 year mark to the Ultimus. They’ve got their shit together. Granted….that’s still a marlin in the logo. But pobody’s nerfect am I right? Somebody just airbrush some extra fins in. Sarasota had to make some tough calls on protection and as you can see they went for a balanced approach. A playmaker at each level of offense and defense. Didn’t catch that did you? Go back and look. QB, RB, WR, TE, DT, LB, S. Nice. This is a team that’s building through many avenues and their expansion protections reflect that. As do the numerous people on their roster I didn’t add to the unprotected list. Notably a 1k WR who’s not quite in regression, an active young kicker, a young RB, etc. This team is in a good position is what I’m saying here. So. Let's focus on who they lose.
I think the first player that teams will try to snatch up is Son Goku and I expect him to go quickly. At which point the team will likely protect either Karpassi or Edd. Then I think a team takes whichever isn’t protected. That said...I think a team could surprise me here. Richards and Boyd can both bring a lot to a franchise that may already have its D-Line ducks in a row. And if the expansion teams simply don’t like the interviews, it can go that way as well. All of these players are good and young so there’s so much leeway here. Teams could consider all sorts of factors given the depth of quality. Like Edd and Boyd being signed for like a bazillion years on fresh contract. And that’s assuming no one gets fancy and takes aged, decrepit, barely moving WR Rayne Gordon. This joke brought to you by: enjoying making RainDelay confused as to why he’s getting random scatterfire. He’s not even that old, really and probably has like 3 more elite or near elite seasons in him. But don’t tell him I said that. Also in reality I’m assuming he probably would like to stay with the team he helped found. Plus, I’m focusing on youth movement for the most part.
Regardless of whether an expansion team overthinks this pick or not, they’re going to get quality out of Sarasota because Sarasota has plenty of it to give up. I don’t expect Sarasota to miss a single beat after this expansion draft. They’re a strong contender to win an Ultimus in the next few seasons before their window briefly closes and then probably re-opens. Like a gill. See what I did there? There was nothing fishy about this joke. Either way, it feels like the only thing that could stop Sarasota right now IS Sarasota (or the MLB’s legal team but who’s counting). However, I wouldn’t get too comfortable if I were this team. The competition around you is quite clearly getting tougher and your secondary and receiving corp especially are both going to need an injection of youth as fast as you can get them. If you want to avoid throwing away your shot in several seasons when you’re surrounded by teams that are building to step in as your current window closes, you’re gonna have to get on that now.
Chicago Butchers
George O'Donnell QB S21 838 TPE
Baby Yoda RB S21 881 TPE
Osiris Firestorm-Fjord CB S21 906 TPE
Tyron Shields CB S22 587 TPE
Luca Scabbia WR S23 563 TPE
Hamish MacAndrew S S22 669 TPE
Benson Bayley Jr OL S22 665 TPE
John Smirh DT S22 798 TPE
Daymond Brooks DT S22 613 TPE
The Best 5 Unprotected:
Griff Oberwald WR S23 441 TPE
Hingle McCringleberry LB S23 478 TPE
Von Hayes TE S22 620 TPE
Julian Tirtawidjaja RB S22 612 TPE
Mario VonPebbles DE S22 678 TPE
The Facts:
Chicago is 7-9 and secured the 3rd playoff slot. They purchased an extra protection slot in a recent trade, allowing them to start with 9. They possess their own 1st rounder, 3rd, and 4th round picks and two additional picks in the 3rd round in the upcoming draft. Honolulu owns their 2nd round pick. Chicago may lose two players.
The Analysis:
Look at Chicago sitting at the adult’s table right now. Here’s the interesting thing. There were young players I had to keep out of that top 5 list. AND they have multiple active players sitting in the DSFL waiting to come up. And they’ve got their contract situation worked out as much as any team I’ve looked at thus far. At least as far as what I can tell from the currently discombobulated budget sheet. Chicago is ready to take the next step forward. And getting that slick little extra protection slot was the sign of some solid forward thinking. The GM of the Year Award is right around the corner with what’s happened here. Looking at what’s in front of me, I’d argue STRONGLY that this year would be a good time. Now, I get that they probably won’t get it. Some will point at records or any of that to say it can’t be this year but the simple truth is that this team went from an absolute dumpster fire that was WORSE than the infamous Legion debacle. I would then argue that Chicago turned that incredibly detrimental situation into a stacked young team rapidly moving towards a breakout. One could even argue that this IS a breakout season already. Compared to last season they’ve already added 2 more wins and scored 13 more points in 3 less games. Last year? 11 double digit losses. This year? 6. This team has improved exponentially. Seriously I wanna remind people where this team was a couple seasons ago. Retirements. An absolutely gutted roster. Actives in the single digits. An honest to goodness Coup. A possible relocation to get away from the name (and/or a potential rebrand in the city). Draft picks traded away for multiple seasons at a time. I was up for that job myself so I had a long hard look at exactly what was there. It was a burn and rebuild. This was three seasons ago. THREE. Get past the record (unless you’re gonna compare it in context) and give Chicago the fucking award. This is quite frankly the best turnaround in league history, all thanks to some patience, planning, and a little OG Doot magic. This team went from Peggy to Eliza real fast and they’re built for a run at Angelica.
This team will likely lose VonPebbles or Julian T first. I imagine whichever isn’t picked will be the next protected. Too young and too good to pass on barring the expansion teams not liking the interviews. After that I’d imagine Oberwald or Hayes going. Defense in this class is so so so so very stacked and LB just isn’t as high a need as other positions. Both expansion teams have their QB situation sorted so expect them to grab big young targets once the tasty DE is either taken or protected. This team already made me regret taking that $75 Million bet that they wouldn’t get to 6 wins this season. Because they got to 7 just to thumb their nose at me. I mean...it likely had nothing to do with me (as things occasionally don’t) but their Twitter did have seem to have fun with me complaining about it on my Twitter so I’m counting it. And the future looks full of potential. This is what stability and patience does. That said...they don’t have any true game breaking players yet and with their strategy of getting those long term contracts in, they can’t be big players in any potential free agency. They’re committed to the wide array of good players they now have, and the hope that several of them will develop into great players over the next few seasons. As a strategy it certainly beats the hell out of setting the floor on fire and throwing first round picks at it to see if it’ll go out. But I think it’s safe to say the Chicago curse is officially broken and they’ve gotta be a favorite for an Ultimus in the near future. Also, because I have no way to organically work it in, Daymond Brooks should be nicknamed Fighter of the Nightmond.
There you have it. Three teams who are in varying stages of their runs but all three of whom are clearly tooled up to be a real threat in the near future. You can’t really look at any of them and say there’s a weak link in the near future. The top half of the conference is going to be a bloodbath going forward and I for one (as someone who has always believed in the NSFC and definitely never made fun of it at all) am extremely excited by the possibilities that lay here in the immediate upcoming seasons. The key for all the franchises though is going to be whether or not they can build what they are now into a sustainable force that stands the test of long term. Building is easy, young teams. Sustaining is harder.
Colorado Yeti Greedy Sly S S23 620 TPE
Mo Magic OL S22 646 TPE
Richard Gilbert RB S22 675 TPE
William Lim WR S22 754 TPE
Immanuel Blackstone DE S21 962 TPE
Adelie dePengu LB S23 599 TPE
Rotticus Scott CB S21 810 TPE
Louisiana Purchase CB S18 1226 TPE (20% Regression incoming)
The Best 5 Unprotected:
Jackson Kingston WR S23 583 TPE
Dick Thruster OL S23 OL 427 TPE
Leeroy Jenkins WR S22 644 TPE
Warren Stephens LB S20 725 TPE
Thor Kirby S S20 587 TPE
The Facts:
Colorado finished the season 14-2 and has secured home field advantage throughout the playoffs. Colorado has all of its draft picks. The team lost its CoGM to expansion GM’ing and as such had 9 protection slots. They sold one to Chicago, allowing them only 8 but meaning they still only lose one more player.
The Analysis:
I’m trying to imagine going back in time to like S15 and explaining to myself that Colorado is one of the more controversial teams. And one of the more dominant, too. Funny how those two things always seem to dovetail. Beyond the players I tend to focus on, they have a cadre of veteren stars to hold the line while these younger pups come up. And boy are they doing that. There were other players I could’ve added to the unprotected list. This is another team that’s barely gonna feel the loss between their deep roster and DSFL stashes. Motherfuckers have TWO kickers. So who do they lose? Well, it depends on the strategy of the expansion team in question. Want a war room ready member in addition to a young target? Jackson’s the pick. OL + big LR presence? Grab that Dick. It’s okay. He agreed. Stability? Jenkins is signed through S27. Or…...you take door #3...errr...6 in this case. What is door #6 my sweet children? Well..it’s breaking my plan of taking nobody in or at regression for a special purpose. That purpose is none other than S16 unprotected QB Wolfie McDummy. He has just over 1k in TPE, pre regression. He will be a serviceable to solid QB for about 2 more seasons. Exactly the right time to bring up a new QB. If you’re a team has none (especially when your fellow expansion team now somehow has two) this can potentially buy you a few seasons. It’s certainly something worth looking into if you’re Frankfurt. And then Colorado slides their brand new QB right in. Mattathias Calaban is extremely raw as of yet but will cross 500 TPE before next season starts. With a strong running game to take the load off (3 RBs who’ll hit next season with 700+, 600+, and 450+ will do that) the young QB could step in and the team will barely miss a beat.
The net result is that Colorado becomes a second tier contender for about two seasons and then goes back up. And if it doesn’t the bump in Colorado’s chance of a reign of dominance is a bit smaller. As if by magic...after I initially wrote this section, someone twigged to this McDummy idea and noted the possibility for New York due to the somewhat incestous nature of the former GM taking the former GM. Instead, New York decided they were the only thing in life they could control and went hard on a blockbuster trade made it an idea that was only useful for one of the teams. I’m still claiming credit. You’re not required to believe me if you don’t wanna. It’s okay. Colorado is going to bounce back no matter what happens here. They’re going to be making Yeti Noises for a while. Incidentally, after doing upwards of 10 seconds of research, Yeti Noises sound a lot like John Goodman just making random noises. Now you know.
Sarasota Sailfish Dexter Banks II QB S17 1123 TPE (25% Regression incoming)
Jamie Nkiah S S20 898 TPE
Cuco Clemente DT S22 769 TPE
Haha Mango-Panda LB S22 752 TPE
James Angler TE S22 735 TPE
Fawn Dillmiballs LB S22 691 TPE
Raphtalia Chan RB S21 978 TPE
Michael Witheblock WR S22 760 TPE
The Best 5 Unprotected:
Mike Karpassi DE S23 436 TPE
Son Goku DE S23 615 TPE
Eric Richards S S23 496 TPE
Clark Boyd TE S22 579 TPE
Big Edd DE S22 510 TPE
The Facts:
Sarasota finished the regular season 12-4, good 2nd in the NSFC and will host Chicago in the Wildcard Round. If Sarasota makes it to the Ultimus they will have home field advantage over any ASFC team. They do not possess their 3rd round pick, having traded it to Orange County, but they do hold the remainder of their first four. Sarasota can lose two players.
The Analysis:
“Yeah? An expansion draft? The fuck outta here. Like I care. Have you seen my roster?” Sarasota is so packed that I had to work to figure out who to put on the unprotected list. They’ve got a fair amount of talent sitting in the DSFL as well, including their next QB. There’s a reason this team is threatening to beat my 5 year mark to the Ultimus. They’ve got their shit together. Granted….that’s still a marlin in the logo. But pobody’s nerfect am I right? Somebody just airbrush some extra fins in. Sarasota had to make some tough calls on protection and as you can see they went for a balanced approach. A playmaker at each level of offense and defense. Didn’t catch that did you? Go back and look. QB, RB, WR, TE, DT, LB, S. Nice. This is a team that’s building through many avenues and their expansion protections reflect that. As do the numerous people on their roster I didn’t add to the unprotected list. Notably a 1k WR who’s not quite in regression, an active young kicker, a young RB, etc. This team is in a good position is what I’m saying here. So. Let's focus on who they lose.
I think the first player that teams will try to snatch up is Son Goku and I expect him to go quickly. At which point the team will likely protect either Karpassi or Edd. Then I think a team takes whichever isn’t protected. That said...I think a team could surprise me here. Richards and Boyd can both bring a lot to a franchise that may already have its D-Line ducks in a row. And if the expansion teams simply don’t like the interviews, it can go that way as well. All of these players are good and young so there’s so much leeway here. Teams could consider all sorts of factors given the depth of quality. Like Edd and Boyd being signed for like a bazillion years on fresh contract. And that’s assuming no one gets fancy and takes aged, decrepit, barely moving WR Rayne Gordon. This joke brought to you by: enjoying making RainDelay confused as to why he’s getting random scatterfire. He’s not even that old, really and probably has like 3 more elite or near elite seasons in him. But don’t tell him I said that. Also in reality I’m assuming he probably would like to stay with the team he helped found. Plus, I’m focusing on youth movement for the most part.
Regardless of whether an expansion team overthinks this pick or not, they’re going to get quality out of Sarasota because Sarasota has plenty of it to give up. I don’t expect Sarasota to miss a single beat after this expansion draft. They’re a strong contender to win an Ultimus in the next few seasons before their window briefly closes and then probably re-opens. Like a gill. See what I did there? There was nothing fishy about this joke. Either way, it feels like the only thing that could stop Sarasota right now IS Sarasota (or the MLB’s legal team but who’s counting). However, I wouldn’t get too comfortable if I were this team. The competition around you is quite clearly getting tougher and your secondary and receiving corp especially are both going to need an injection of youth as fast as you can get them. If you want to avoid throwing away your shot in several seasons when you’re surrounded by teams that are building to step in as your current window closes, you’re gonna have to get on that now.
Chicago Butchers George O'Donnell QB S21 838 TPE
Baby Yoda RB S21 881 TPE
Osiris Firestorm-Fjord CB S21 906 TPE
Tyron Shields CB S22 587 TPE
Luca Scabbia WR S23 563 TPE
Hamish MacAndrew S S22 669 TPE
Benson Bayley Jr OL S22 665 TPE
John Smirh DT S22 798 TPE
Daymond Brooks DT S22 613 TPE
The Best 5 Unprotected:
Griff Oberwald WR S23 441 TPE
Hingle McCringleberry LB S23 478 TPE
Von Hayes TE S22 620 TPE
Julian Tirtawidjaja RB S22 612 TPE
Mario VonPebbles DE S22 678 TPE
The Facts:
Chicago is 7-9 and secured the 3rd playoff slot. They purchased an extra protection slot in a recent trade, allowing them to start with 9. They possess their own 1st rounder, 3rd, and 4th round picks and two additional picks in the 3rd round in the upcoming draft. Honolulu owns their 2nd round pick. Chicago may lose two players.
The Analysis:
Look at Chicago sitting at the adult’s table right now. Here’s the interesting thing. There were young players I had to keep out of that top 5 list. AND they have multiple active players sitting in the DSFL waiting to come up. And they’ve got their contract situation worked out as much as any team I’ve looked at thus far. At least as far as what I can tell from the currently discombobulated budget sheet. Chicago is ready to take the next step forward. And getting that slick little extra protection slot was the sign of some solid forward thinking. The GM of the Year Award is right around the corner with what’s happened here. Looking at what’s in front of me, I’d argue STRONGLY that this year would be a good time. Now, I get that they probably won’t get it. Some will point at records or any of that to say it can’t be this year but the simple truth is that this team went from an absolute dumpster fire that was WORSE than the infamous Legion debacle. I would then argue that Chicago turned that incredibly detrimental situation into a stacked young team rapidly moving towards a breakout. One could even argue that this IS a breakout season already. Compared to last season they’ve already added 2 more wins and scored 13 more points in 3 less games. Last year? 11 double digit losses. This year? 6. This team has improved exponentially. Seriously I wanna remind people where this team was a couple seasons ago. Retirements. An absolutely gutted roster. Actives in the single digits. An honest to goodness Coup. A possible relocation to get away from the name (and/or a potential rebrand in the city). Draft picks traded away for multiple seasons at a time. I was up for that job myself so I had a long hard look at exactly what was there. It was a burn and rebuild. This was three seasons ago. THREE. Get past the record (unless you’re gonna compare it in context) and give Chicago the fucking award. This is quite frankly the best turnaround in league history, all thanks to some patience, planning, and a little OG Doot magic. This team went from Peggy to Eliza real fast and they’re built for a run at Angelica.
This team will likely lose VonPebbles or Julian T first. I imagine whichever isn’t picked will be the next protected. Too young and too good to pass on barring the expansion teams not liking the interviews. After that I’d imagine Oberwald or Hayes going. Defense in this class is so so so so very stacked and LB just isn’t as high a need as other positions. Both expansion teams have their QB situation sorted so expect them to grab big young targets once the tasty DE is either taken or protected. This team already made me regret taking that $75 Million bet that they wouldn’t get to 6 wins this season. Because they got to 7 just to thumb their nose at me. I mean...it likely had nothing to do with me (as things occasionally don’t) but their Twitter did have seem to have fun with me complaining about it on my Twitter so I’m counting it. And the future looks full of potential. This is what stability and patience does. That said...they don’t have any true game breaking players yet and with their strategy of getting those long term contracts in, they can’t be big players in any potential free agency. They’re committed to the wide array of good players they now have, and the hope that several of them will develop into great players over the next few seasons. As a strategy it certainly beats the hell out of setting the floor on fire and throwing first round picks at it to see if it’ll go out. But I think it’s safe to say the Chicago curse is officially broken and they’ve gotta be a favorite for an Ultimus in the near future. Also, because I have no way to organically work it in, Daymond Brooks should be nicknamed Fighter of the Nightmond.
There you have it. Three teams who are in varying stages of their runs but all three of whom are clearly tooled up to be a real threat in the near future. You can’t really look at any of them and say there’s a weak link in the near future. The top half of the conference is going to be a bloodbath going forward and I for one (as someone who has always believed in the NSFC and definitely never made fun of it at all) am extremely excited by the possibilities that lay here in the immediate upcoming seasons. The key for all the franchises though is going to be whether or not they can build what they are now into a sustainable force that stands the test of long term. Building is easy, young teams. Sustaining is harder.
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![[Image: brooks.png]](https://i.ibb.co/JW13P77m/brooks.png)
