(S25) - Ultimus Week

[Asked Madden]

22)
Pope Francis is a blue chip prospect coming out of Vatican city. Slotting in at the defensive end position he will no doubt fill a large need on one of the many isfl Rosters.
At 6ft5 and 300lbs Pope Francis has been seriously packing on weight since leaving his position as voice of God. He is a formidable tackler and all around demon on the field and polite preacher off the field.
In the gym he has really focused on strength and speed. Ensuring he will be able to break down an offensive line and rush the QB.
Francis has had an average amount of TFLs and Sacks but his best moment of the year came against Tijuana - 5 points down in the 4th quarter. The birddogs had put up a great defensive set. Here comes Pope Francis through on the punter the hand of god outstretched to block the punt. Putting them in great field position eventually leading to a game winning TD.
In my humble opinion Pope Francis will likely be a mid round guy. This is mostly down to his sporadic updates. Whilst he has shown a lot more activity than a good number of players in the class his TPE gains have been fairly sedentary when compared to the top of the class.

14)
Trial by fire is a great way to describe the S25 season for the Dallas Birddogs. The class of S24 had a huge amount of talent from the large reddit draft class and judging by previous years numbers, the majority of them would get to stay down for a second year to hopefully challenge for the ultimini. Alas midway through that season the expansion was announced. Meaning a huge talent drain would open up in the DSFL and a large number of prospects would be moved straight up to the big leagues.
The birddogs were hit harder than a lot of other teams by call ups. Losing stalwart RB Zoe Watts, their top 2 Dlinemen in Thebaw and Crowder, scrappy safety Roberts and both tight ends in hex and
skiuuup to name but a few.
This coupled with a rather small draft class culminated in a very bare bones team and bots in positions you wouldn't want them.
Of course this led to Dallas losing 6 straight games and drawing ridicule from a number of articles and twitter posts. Ranked dead last in every ranking thread the birddogs kept going. The locker room was still full of happy cheerful people a much different attitude than you'd expect from a team performing so poorly.
The team built on this positivity and relief heavily on watts replacement. Cobra Kai who lead the league in most rushing metrics.
Week 7 against the SeaWolves saw the teams first luck strike. Mark callous put in the performance of a lifetime scoring a receiving and return TD lighting a fire underneath the team.
The birddogs went on to win 3 more of their remaining games cementing them above Norfolk to ensure they didn't finish last. Some great individual performances from Leaking slammu Kai and Berto spurned the team on. And the hand of God from the Pope himself helped to keep the birddogs alive in their most impressive win against Tijuana, the future champions.
Whilst 4-10 may not look like a good season, the adversity this team faced really highlighted just how well they performed. New GM Kya and incumbent GM Lim should be proud of the team and environment they've built in this locker room. They really harbour growth and engagement in their team and that was the key to the turnaround.
With the draft just around the corner the birddogs will secretly hope for more send downs than last year and will need to find another couple of diamonds to really help out the team.

18)
My favourite game of the season happened to be one I played in. Week two of the ISFL The San Jose Sabercats hosted arch rivals the Arizona Outlaws in a bitter contest.
There were a number of reasons this was my favourite game but the key reasons were - this was my first win as an isfl player. I registered a sack against our largest rivals,
whom a number of their players had been running their mouth off before the game. I registered my first forced fumble of my career this one from Jay Cue helping hault a drive but most importantly it was the start of another winning season for San Jose.
Key Players
Matthew McDairmid - ever reliable with the boot. Kicked 9 points for the Sabercats.
Nate Swift & Jamar Lackson - each scoring pivotal touchdowns.
Brackenridge - defensive captain leading by example with 2 Sacks and an interception.
But the key play of the game happened late in the 3rd when arizona had the ball trailing by 1. Jay Cue threw a wayward pass which Rashad Hilliard returned for a touchdown and putting the team 8 points ahead.
The Sabercats ended up winning 27-9 and kicked off their season with a bang