03-19-2020, 05:22 PM
(This post was last modified: 03-19-2020, 05:42 PM by IsaStarcrossed.)
I’d like to start this by saying while I wrote the article and did the roster comparisons, @TomHanks actually took the time to add the S9 New Orleans Second Line to a sim file and he did all of the sim work. He spent a decent chunk of a morning devoted to this cause. If the grader could consider sending a bonus his way, that’d be great.
To those who want to skip the preface and go straight to the simulation results, search simulation.
With New Orleans starting the season off 5-0 and fielding a stacked roster who is becoming a favored contender this season, there has been talks and whispers behind the scenes with one question in particular rising. Is this the scariest New Orleans team in league history? To grasp that concept, first one must consider their forefathers and take stock of who the greatest team in New Orleans has been. Without question or hesitation, almost everyone will unanimously say it was the team the franchise fielded in S9. A loaded roster, a ton of future hall of famers, a 12-2 record, and an Ultimus trophy to top it all off. This team was dominant and terrifying and they ripped through the league at rapid pace with one of the best defenses the league has ever seen and a high flying offense that relied heavily on their passing game. The 530 points they scored that season was the most by any team in NSFL history and no team has ever matched that mark. They were an all time great team, but how do they match up against this new age team? This is a team that is similar to the S9 Second Line on defense, but they play offense differently as they rely more on a dynamic rushing attack than passing.
PS. Please forgive any text based errors in this article. I threw this together today while half asleep and drowned by allergies. That said, the sim testing done to get the final results was 100% accurate as the S9 team was put together by the efforts of Bex and TomHanks.
Let us dive in first by comparing the players these two teams are fielding. To do this, we tracked down the S9 depth charts buried in the archives of JCINK so we could make our comparisons.
The Teams
Offense
QB
S9 Borkus Maximus: 99 Overall
Superior Stats: Agility
Tied Stats: Accuracy
S21 Stan Francisco: 99 Overall
Superior Stats: Strength, Arm, Intelligence, Endurance
Tied Stats: Accuracy
Conclusion: On close inspection of their builds, it looked like Maximus focused a little more on his ability to rush than he did on his ability to push the ball down the field. That has never really been a part of Stan’s game, so as he has entered regression he has made sure to keep his ball skills in top shape. Both of these guys are in near peak form though and it is hard to truly say one is better than the other.
RB
S9 Darren Smallwood: 94 Overall
Superior Stats: Agility, Intelligence (Over Tōriki only)
Tied Stats: Strength, Speed, Hands
S21 Forrest Gump: 98 Overall
Superior Stats: Agility, Intelligence, Endurance
Tied Stats: Strength, Speed, Hands
S21 Marcella Tōriki: 88 Overall
Superior Stats: Endurance
Tied Stats: Strength, Speed, Hands
Conclusion: This is where one of the strengths of the S21 Second Line really shine. S9 was heavily focused on the run, so they did not need an absolute top of the line RB. Smallwood was good where it counted and that is all they needed. That said, the S21 Second Line rely heavily on their two star running backs. Gump himself is a better overall runner than Smallwood almost across the board and Tōriki isn’t far behind. For that reason, they field an explosive running back committee where you never know for sure where these guys will line up. One game you may have Gump getting the majority of the carries with Tōriki making her presence known in the slot while the next game they may switch it up a bit. Both are speedy dynamic playmakers who share the load like few others can. Their efficiency says it all as the two combined average 4.65 yards per carry on the season to Smallwood’s 4.2 in S9. Mix this in with their lethality out of the slot as both have been known to put up 100 yard receiving games and this is where a lot of S21’s mismatch comes in.
TE - Side note on this one. The S9 team sported two insane TEs with Paul DiMirio and Ardie Savea. The difference was that DiMirio was used in passing situations more often and Savea was held in to block. Because you can only field 11 man rosters, I’ll only be listing DiMirio here as he was used more. That said, BOTH players were included when we ran the sim testing as we did entire rosters for both teams based on the submitted depth charts.
S9 Paul DiMirio: 96 Overall
Superior Stats: Agility, Pass Block
Tied Stats: Speed, Hands, Run Block
S21 Austin McCormick: 86 Overall (He’s listed at 86 as TE, 70 as FB for some reason)
Superior Stats: Strength, Intelligence, Endurance
Tied Stats: Speed, Hands, Run Block
Conclusion: On paper, this initially looks like a massive mismatch. DiMirio has the far superior overall due to massive leads in both pass blocking and agility. It made DiMirio the better overall tight end, but his partner in crime Savea was used for blocking far more often. For this reason, we have to look at the receiving side of things because this is where both DiMirio and McCormick shine. When you look on that end it is hard to consider DiMirio the vastly superior player. They match up pretty well here. Now in run focused formations, S9 definitely had the advantage. With their passing game though, you didn’t see those formations often.
WR
S9 Dustin Evans: 92 Overall
Superior Stats: Agility, Speed (Over Jones), Intelligence, Hands, Endurance
Tied Stats: Speed (With Podolak)
S9 Mayran Jackson: 86 Overall
Superior Stats: Agility, Intelligence, Hands, Endurance
Tied Stats: None
S9 Charlie Law: 94 Overall
Superior Stats: Agility, Intelligence, Hands, Endurance
Tied Stats: None
S21 Jed Podolak: 82 Overall
Superior Stats: Speed (Over Jackson and Law)
Tied Stats: Speed (With Evans)
S21 Bona’beri Jones: 85 Overall
Superior Stats: Speed (Over Jackson and Law)
Tied Stats: None
Conclusion: And this of course is where S9’s dominance really shows. I’ve been talking about it for the whole article, but this team was absolutely electric through the air. They had three high flying, explosive receivers who were really able to stretch the field and make things happen when they got their hands on the ball. Their third receiver was better than S21’s best as the only place S21 could match them is in speed. The S21 receiving corps would be insanely outclassed here, but luckily they use their running backs to help open up their passive game a bit. That is where these two teams diverge in philosophy though. The S9 Second Line were second in the league in pass attempts. S21 is currently ninth in the league in pass attempts. Two very different approaches and as such, the S21 receivers do exactly what they need to.
OL - I know for some of you, talking about offensive line is blasphemy. That said, New Orleans relies heavily on our offensive line and our two human players make a huge difference on this team. The numbers, research, and stats are out there. Human offensive line make you a better team and for that reason, it has to be listed here.
S9 Generic Lazy Bot Boys: 86 Overall
Superior Stats: Speed, Endurance
Tied Stats: Strength, Intelligence (Bots only)
S21 Three Bot Boys: 87 Overall
Superior Stats: Agility, Run Block, Pass Block
Tied Stats: Strength, Intelligence (Bots only)
S21 Givussafare Rubbe: 92 Overall
Superior Stats: Agility, Intelligence, Run Block, Pass Block, WEIGHT!!!!
Tied Stats: Strength
S21 Brave Ulysses: 91 Overall
Superior Stats: Agility, Intelligence, Run Block, Pass Block, WEIGHT!!!!
Tied Stats: Strength
Conclusion: The S9 Second Line cared little for fair rubs. So little that all five of their offensive line bots were exactly the same. They made no effort to adjust stats to position or swap anything up at all to make each member better at their jobs. Just mindless drones for the S9 war machine. Meanwhile, the S21 Second Line are all about their fair rubs. Even the guys they do have as bots are custom made with minor stat differences between them as they were made specifically to be in peak form. This is shown by their emphasis in blocking abilities like agility and pass/run block rather than the speed focus S9 did. When you mix this in with the two human offensive line who not only have superior stats almost across the board but also have superior weight to the bots, then you have an offensive line that is vastly better than the one in S9. When your emphasis is running the ball, you need to make sure you have something to run behind and these S21 boys are the best of the best. They’re likely the best offensive line in the history of the league and they put the mindless drone bots of S9 to shame. All jokes aside, say what you will but this is massive. All of the numbers and research point at human tackles being overwhelmingly positive for win percentages. New Orleans has two of them.
Defense
DL
S9 Joseph Askins: 94 Overall
Superior Stats: Strength, Agility (Over Arianlacker and Tu’inukuafe)
Tied Stats: None
S9 Godfrey King: 85 Overall
Superior Stats: Strength (Only Arianlacker and Tu’inukuafe), Agility (Over Arianlacker and Tu’inukuafe)
Tied Stats: Strength (Only Faux and Ironside), Tackling (Only Tu’inukuafe)
S9 Jayce Tuck: 96 Overall
Superior Stats: Strength (Over Arianlacker and Tu’inukuafe), Agility (Over Arianlacker and Tu’inukuafe), Tackling
Tied Stats: Strength (Only Faux and Ironside), Tackling (Only Tu’inukuafe)
S9 Fuego Wozy: 88 Overall
Superior Stats: Strength (Over Arianlacker and Tu’inukuafe), Agility (Over Tu’inukuafe)
Tied Stats: Strength (Only Faux and Ironside), Speed (Only Ironside and Faux), Tackling (Only Tu’inukuafe)
S21 Bjørn Ironside: 93 Overall
Superior Stats: Agility, Speed (Over King and Askins), Endurance, Tackling (Over Wozy, King, Askins)
Tied Stats: Strength (Only Wozy, Tuck, and King), Speed (Only Wozy and Tuck)
S21 Alex Faux: 96 Overall
Superior Stats: Agility, Speed (Over King and Askins), Endurance, Tackling (Over Wozy, King, Askins)
Tied Stats: Strength (Only Wozy, Tuck, and King), Speed (Only Wozy and Tuck)
S21 Ben Tu’inukuafe: 88 Overall
Superior Stats: Speed, Endurance
Tied Stats: Tackling (Wozy, Tuck, King)
S21 Mack Arianlacher: 92 Overall
Superior Stats: Agility (Over King), Speed, Endurance, Tackling (Over Wozy, King, Askins)
Tied Stats: None
Conclusion: This is very, very close across the board. Both teams sport monstrous defensive lines, but it looks like the S21 defensive line edges out the S9 line by just a smidge. While the defensive ends are very close with the S9 guys focusing strength off the edge and the S21 guys focusing on speed, the defensive tackle pairing of Faux and Ironside are an incredible duo who simply managed to edge out their opposites and ultimately. The S21 line fields a beautiful combination of strength and block shedding up the middle and blazing speed around the edge. More than that, they are better tacklers almost across the boards than the S9 group. These guys are crushing against the run and they’ve shown it so far in S21. The S9 guys may have been a smidge bit better in pass rushing, but it wouldn’t be by much at all.
LB
S9 Brian Mills: 88 Overall
Superior Stats: Strength (Over Adams), Speed (Over Bode), Agility (Over Adams), Tackling (Over Adams),
Tied Stats: Strength (Only Bode and Slothface), Speed (Only Slothface), Intelligence (Slothface, Adams),
S9 Julian O'Sullivan: 93 Overall
Superior Stats: Strength (Over Adams), Speed (Over Bode), Agility (Over Adams), Tackling (Over Adams),
Tied Stats: Strength (Only Bode and Slothface), Speed (Only Slothface), Intelligence (Slothface, Adams),
S9 Vincent Sharpei: 88 Overall
Superior Stats: Strength (Over Adams), Agility (Over Adams), Intelligence (Over Slothface, Adams), Tackling (Over Adams),
Tied Stats: Speed (Only Bode)
S21 Quenton Bode: 94 Overall
Superior Stats: Strength (Over Sharpei), Agility, Intelligence, Tackling, Hands, Endurance
Tied Stats: Strength (Only Mills and O’Sullivan), Speed (Only Sharpei),
S21 Johnny Slothface: 96 Overall
Superior Stats: Strength (Over Sharpei), Agility, Tackling, Hands, Endurance
Tied Stats: Strength (Only Mills and O’Sullivan), Speed (Mills, O’Sullivan), Intelligence (Mills, O’Sullivan)
S21 Xavien Adams : 88 Overall
Superior Stats: Speed, Hands, Endurance
Tied Stats: Intelligence (Mills, O’Sullivan)
Conclusion: This is one of the biggest differences on defenses between these two teams. Yes, I know Adams is a cornerback, but he fills the nickel slot and plays as the team’s third linebacker when called upon. He was the only player I could put here for a three to three comparison. Surprisingly enough, because of this the two linebacker corps line up against the opposite teams quite well stylistically. The S9 group were strong, heavy hitters that really seemed to emphasize playing close to the line. Going up against S21’s run game makes this fitting. Meanwhile, the S21 group seems much more focused on pass coverage and forcing interceptions, especially so with Adams in the group. This makes them match up incredibly well against S9’s high flying circus. It is the clear difference in the two groups and it just happens to work against the other.
CB
S9 Vladimir Fyodorovich: 93 Overall
Superior Stats: Speed (Over Rector), Tackling (Over Rector)
Tied Stats: Speed (Only Taylor), Strength, Hands (Only Taylor)
S9 Benson Bayley: 98 Overall
Superior Stats: Speed (Over Rector), Agility, Tackling (Over Rector)
Tied Stats: Speed (Only Taylor), Strength, Tackling (Only Taylor), Hands (Only Taylor)
S21 David Rector: 92 Overall
Superior Stats: Intelligence, Endurance (Over Fyodorovich), Agility (Over Fyodorovich), Hands
Tied Stats: Speed (Bayley, Fyodorovich), Strength
S21 Deon Taylor: 97 Overall
Superior Stats: Intelligence, Tackling (Over Fyodorovich), Endurance (Over Fyodorovich), Agility (Over Fyodorovich)
Tied Stats: Strength, Tackling (Only Bayley), Hands (Fyodorovich, Bayley)
Conclusion: This is another insanely close position group with the best and the worst from both teams being narrowly apart. The biggest differences between the two seems to be intelligence and speed. Rector is the slowest of the group with his speed at only 95, but he makes up for it with superior hands and intelligence. He may get beat deep from time to time, but he is a turnover machine in clutch situations. Meanwhile the other three corners in this group play very similar styles with Taylor focusing more on intelligence than his opposing number. All four corners here are incredible play makers and when you put them side by side, both pairs make an elite unit.
S
S9 William Harrison: 85 Overall
Superior Stats: Agility, Intelligence (Over Blaylock) Endurance (Over Andrews),
Tied Stats: Tackling (Only Blaylock)
S9 Blackford Oakes: 96 Overall
Superior Stats: Strength (Over Andrews), Agility, Intelligence, Tackling (Over Blaylock), Hands (Over Andrews), Endurance (Over Andrews)
Tied Stats: Speed, Strength (Only Blaylock), Hands (Only Andrews)
S21 Mason Blaylock: 87 Overall
Superior Stats: Speed (Over Harrsion), Strength (Over Harrison), Hands (Over Oakes), Endurance
Tied Stats: Speed, Strength (Only Oakes), Tackling (Only Harrison)
S21 Jordan Andrews: 91 Overall
Superior Stats: Speed (Over Harrison), Intelligence (Over Harrison), Tackling, Hands (Over Oakes)
Tied Stats: Speed, Hands (Only Oakes)
Conclusion: This one is a mixed bag for S9. Their best of the pair is better than the best of S21’s pair. That said, their worst is worse than the S21 pair. When you average them out, they end up about equal across the board. It doesn’t always work out that way though. Oakes was clearly a superior player at the peak of his play and he easily outclasses either Blaylock or Andrews man to man. He really stands out in this defensive backfield. Meanwhile, Harrison was the weak length on this entire team. He brings the lowest overall of either defense to the field and could be potentially exposed. Meanwhile, both Andrews and Blaylock are young players entering their primes and they make a steady pairing. They're both faster than Harrison was, which was the most crippling part of us game. If I had to give one side the advantage here though, it would be Oakes simply because of how much better he was than any other safety here.
K/P
S9 Iyah Blewit: 89 Overall
Superior Stats: Everything
Tied Stats: None
S21 Herbert Prohaska: 76 Overall
Superior Stats: None
Tied Stats: None
Conclusion: If there was a single monumental lead to give the S9 team, it would come in the form of kicker. Blewit was simply a generational kicker who was a completely different breed. He had maxed out his craft and was enjoying his prime while Prohaska is just getting started. This is a monstrous mismatch.
What does it all mean?
Okay, so that is a lot of information. It’s a lot of numbers, it’s a lot of comparisons, and it is all there to simply say these two teams are very close together. One focuses the run, one focuses the pass. Both have highly elite defenses. The starting 11 on offense for S9 average out at an overall of 90.09 per player while the starting average on offense for S21 comes out to 89.18 per player. On defense we see S9 lining up an average of 91.27 overall per player against S21’s 92.18 overall per player. All of this to say? The numbers are hella close yo. These teams are nearly identical in overalls and as such were likely nearly identical in TPE. Both teams assembled insane rosters, but we are here to find out which was better. Who is the head honcho? Well there was only one way to truly figure this out.
Simulation
To make this as fair as possible, TomHanks went digging into the depths of JCINK. We had burning questions that needed answers and he was willing to dive in for us. What he found was the S9 NOLA depth charts posted by NOLA legend Bovo all the way back on August 14th, 2018. He then yeeted Baltimore off the planet and replaced them with the Legacy New Orleans Second line. I’m not sure Baltimore would have been my choice, but I won’t judge him for his loathing of our yellow bird friends.
![[Image: Borkus_5e73defb731f9.png]](https://imagehost.com.au//d7amw0Kd9r/Borkus_5e73defb731f9.png)
As you can see, he went into extreme detail. He included all heights and weights to make it as accurate as humanly possible. He started by doing two singular sims just to see game stats and what they would look like. His very first sim had S21 at home!
![[Image: S21%20Home_5e73dfb59ff31.png]](https://imagehost.com.au//d7amw0Kd9r/S21%20Home_5e73dfb59ff31.png)
His second sim had S21 on the road!
![[Image: S21%20Away_5e73dff16439e.png]](https://imagehost.com.au//d7amw0Kd9r/S21%20Away_5e73dff16439e.png)
After a bit of playing, he finally ran 500 simulations of S21 away and 500 simulations of S21 at home.
Away results:
![[Image: 500Away_5e73e02f1511c.png]](https://imagehost.com.au//d7amw0Kd9r/500Away_5e73e02f1511c.png)
The away results has S21 winning almost 46% of the games on the road while only being 1.4 points worse.
Home results:
![[Image: 500Home_5e73e0816949b.png]](https://imagehost.com.au//d7amw0Kd9r/500Home_5e73e0816949b.png)
Meanwhile when S21 is at home, they win 63% of the time and on average were a 5.8 point favorite.
Conclusion:
With these sim results, it looks like this S21 squad is in fact marginally better than the one fielded in S9. It does in fact make S21 the scariest New Orleans team to ever take the field. Just barely though. I'm going to go ahead and credit the insane effort of our offensive linemen for this victory. Those guys are game changers and their impact can't be overstated.
That said, both teams had insane amounts of talent on both sides of the field. How these two teams were assembled is mind boggling and is a testament to the GMs who were involved with both teams. I always like looking back at the teams that came before my time in New Orleans and I’ve always heard legends of the S9 squad who won it all. I have all the respect in the world for them and I know multiple players there will be soon entering the NOLA Hall of Fame. I'm insanely excited about this team and hope we can follow in the footsteps of that S9 team and finish the job. Lets bring the trophy back to NOLA.
This was a fun little side project to compare the two and I hope everyone enjoyed this little dive into the two most talented New Orleans teams in history! Doot Doot!
To those who want to skip the preface and go straight to the simulation results, search simulation.
With New Orleans starting the season off 5-0 and fielding a stacked roster who is becoming a favored contender this season, there has been talks and whispers behind the scenes with one question in particular rising. Is this the scariest New Orleans team in league history? To grasp that concept, first one must consider their forefathers and take stock of who the greatest team in New Orleans has been. Without question or hesitation, almost everyone will unanimously say it was the team the franchise fielded in S9. A loaded roster, a ton of future hall of famers, a 12-2 record, and an Ultimus trophy to top it all off. This team was dominant and terrifying and they ripped through the league at rapid pace with one of the best defenses the league has ever seen and a high flying offense that relied heavily on their passing game. The 530 points they scored that season was the most by any team in NSFL history and no team has ever matched that mark. They were an all time great team, but how do they match up against this new age team? This is a team that is similar to the S9 Second Line on defense, but they play offense differently as they rely more on a dynamic rushing attack than passing.
PS. Please forgive any text based errors in this article. I threw this together today while half asleep and drowned by allergies. That said, the sim testing done to get the final results was 100% accurate as the S9 team was put together by the efforts of Bex and TomHanks.
Let us dive in first by comparing the players these two teams are fielding. To do this, we tracked down the S9 depth charts buried in the archives of JCINK so we could make our comparisons.
The Teams
Offense
QB
S9 Borkus Maximus: 99 Overall
Superior Stats: Agility
Tied Stats: Accuracy
S21 Stan Francisco: 99 Overall
Superior Stats: Strength, Arm, Intelligence, Endurance
Tied Stats: Accuracy
Conclusion: On close inspection of their builds, it looked like Maximus focused a little more on his ability to rush than he did on his ability to push the ball down the field. That has never really been a part of Stan’s game, so as he has entered regression he has made sure to keep his ball skills in top shape. Both of these guys are in near peak form though and it is hard to truly say one is better than the other.
RB
S9 Darren Smallwood: 94 Overall
Superior Stats: Agility, Intelligence (Over Tōriki only)
Tied Stats: Strength, Speed, Hands
S21 Forrest Gump: 98 Overall
Superior Stats: Agility, Intelligence, Endurance
Tied Stats: Strength, Speed, Hands
S21 Marcella Tōriki: 88 Overall
Superior Stats: Endurance
Tied Stats: Strength, Speed, Hands
Conclusion: This is where one of the strengths of the S21 Second Line really shine. S9 was heavily focused on the run, so they did not need an absolute top of the line RB. Smallwood was good where it counted and that is all they needed. That said, the S21 Second Line rely heavily on their two star running backs. Gump himself is a better overall runner than Smallwood almost across the board and Tōriki isn’t far behind. For that reason, they field an explosive running back committee where you never know for sure where these guys will line up. One game you may have Gump getting the majority of the carries with Tōriki making her presence known in the slot while the next game they may switch it up a bit. Both are speedy dynamic playmakers who share the load like few others can. Their efficiency says it all as the two combined average 4.65 yards per carry on the season to Smallwood’s 4.2 in S9. Mix this in with their lethality out of the slot as both have been known to put up 100 yard receiving games and this is where a lot of S21’s mismatch comes in.
TE - Side note on this one. The S9 team sported two insane TEs with Paul DiMirio and Ardie Savea. The difference was that DiMirio was used in passing situations more often and Savea was held in to block. Because you can only field 11 man rosters, I’ll only be listing DiMirio here as he was used more. That said, BOTH players were included when we ran the sim testing as we did entire rosters for both teams based on the submitted depth charts.
S9 Paul DiMirio: 96 Overall
Superior Stats: Agility, Pass Block
Tied Stats: Speed, Hands, Run Block
S21 Austin McCormick: 86 Overall (He’s listed at 86 as TE, 70 as FB for some reason)
Superior Stats: Strength, Intelligence, Endurance
Tied Stats: Speed, Hands, Run Block
Conclusion: On paper, this initially looks like a massive mismatch. DiMirio has the far superior overall due to massive leads in both pass blocking and agility. It made DiMirio the better overall tight end, but his partner in crime Savea was used for blocking far more often. For this reason, we have to look at the receiving side of things because this is where both DiMirio and McCormick shine. When you look on that end it is hard to consider DiMirio the vastly superior player. They match up pretty well here. Now in run focused formations, S9 definitely had the advantage. With their passing game though, you didn’t see those formations often.
WR
S9 Dustin Evans: 92 Overall
Superior Stats: Agility, Speed (Over Jones), Intelligence, Hands, Endurance
Tied Stats: Speed (With Podolak)
S9 Mayran Jackson: 86 Overall
Superior Stats: Agility, Intelligence, Hands, Endurance
Tied Stats: None
S9 Charlie Law: 94 Overall
Superior Stats: Agility, Intelligence, Hands, Endurance
Tied Stats: None
S21 Jed Podolak: 82 Overall
Superior Stats: Speed (Over Jackson and Law)
Tied Stats: Speed (With Evans)
S21 Bona’beri Jones: 85 Overall
Superior Stats: Speed (Over Jackson and Law)
Tied Stats: None
Conclusion: And this of course is where S9’s dominance really shows. I’ve been talking about it for the whole article, but this team was absolutely electric through the air. They had three high flying, explosive receivers who were really able to stretch the field and make things happen when they got their hands on the ball. Their third receiver was better than S21’s best as the only place S21 could match them is in speed. The S21 receiving corps would be insanely outclassed here, but luckily they use their running backs to help open up their passive game a bit. That is where these two teams diverge in philosophy though. The S9 Second Line were second in the league in pass attempts. S21 is currently ninth in the league in pass attempts. Two very different approaches and as such, the S21 receivers do exactly what they need to.
OL - I know for some of you, talking about offensive line is blasphemy. That said, New Orleans relies heavily on our offensive line and our two human players make a huge difference on this team. The numbers, research, and stats are out there. Human offensive line make you a better team and for that reason, it has to be listed here.
S9 Generic Lazy Bot Boys: 86 Overall
Superior Stats: Speed, Endurance
Tied Stats: Strength, Intelligence (Bots only)
S21 Three Bot Boys: 87 Overall
Superior Stats: Agility, Run Block, Pass Block
Tied Stats: Strength, Intelligence (Bots only)
S21 Givussafare Rubbe: 92 Overall
Superior Stats: Agility, Intelligence, Run Block, Pass Block, WEIGHT!!!!
Tied Stats: Strength
S21 Brave Ulysses: 91 Overall
Superior Stats: Agility, Intelligence, Run Block, Pass Block, WEIGHT!!!!
Tied Stats: Strength
Conclusion: The S9 Second Line cared little for fair rubs. So little that all five of their offensive line bots were exactly the same. They made no effort to adjust stats to position or swap anything up at all to make each member better at their jobs. Just mindless drones for the S9 war machine. Meanwhile, the S21 Second Line are all about their fair rubs. Even the guys they do have as bots are custom made with minor stat differences between them as they were made specifically to be in peak form. This is shown by their emphasis in blocking abilities like agility and pass/run block rather than the speed focus S9 did. When you mix this in with the two human offensive line who not only have superior stats almost across the board but also have superior weight to the bots, then you have an offensive line that is vastly better than the one in S9. When your emphasis is running the ball, you need to make sure you have something to run behind and these S21 boys are the best of the best. They’re likely the best offensive line in the history of the league and they put the mindless drone bots of S9 to shame. All jokes aside, say what you will but this is massive. All of the numbers and research point at human tackles being overwhelmingly positive for win percentages. New Orleans has two of them.
Defense
DL
S9 Joseph Askins: 94 Overall
Superior Stats: Strength, Agility (Over Arianlacker and Tu’inukuafe)
Tied Stats: None
S9 Godfrey King: 85 Overall
Superior Stats: Strength (Only Arianlacker and Tu’inukuafe), Agility (Over Arianlacker and Tu’inukuafe)
Tied Stats: Strength (Only Faux and Ironside), Tackling (Only Tu’inukuafe)
S9 Jayce Tuck: 96 Overall
Superior Stats: Strength (Over Arianlacker and Tu’inukuafe), Agility (Over Arianlacker and Tu’inukuafe), Tackling
Tied Stats: Strength (Only Faux and Ironside), Tackling (Only Tu’inukuafe)
S9 Fuego Wozy: 88 Overall
Superior Stats: Strength (Over Arianlacker and Tu’inukuafe), Agility (Over Tu’inukuafe)
Tied Stats: Strength (Only Faux and Ironside), Speed (Only Ironside and Faux), Tackling (Only Tu’inukuafe)
S21 Bjørn Ironside: 93 Overall
Superior Stats: Agility, Speed (Over King and Askins), Endurance, Tackling (Over Wozy, King, Askins)
Tied Stats: Strength (Only Wozy, Tuck, and King), Speed (Only Wozy and Tuck)
S21 Alex Faux: 96 Overall
Superior Stats: Agility, Speed (Over King and Askins), Endurance, Tackling (Over Wozy, King, Askins)
Tied Stats: Strength (Only Wozy, Tuck, and King), Speed (Only Wozy and Tuck)
S21 Ben Tu’inukuafe: 88 Overall
Superior Stats: Speed, Endurance
Tied Stats: Tackling (Wozy, Tuck, King)
S21 Mack Arianlacher: 92 Overall
Superior Stats: Agility (Over King), Speed, Endurance, Tackling (Over Wozy, King, Askins)
Tied Stats: None
Conclusion: This is very, very close across the board. Both teams sport monstrous defensive lines, but it looks like the S21 defensive line edges out the S9 line by just a smidge. While the defensive ends are very close with the S9 guys focusing strength off the edge and the S21 guys focusing on speed, the defensive tackle pairing of Faux and Ironside are an incredible duo who simply managed to edge out their opposites and ultimately. The S21 line fields a beautiful combination of strength and block shedding up the middle and blazing speed around the edge. More than that, they are better tacklers almost across the boards than the S9 group. These guys are crushing against the run and they’ve shown it so far in S21. The S9 guys may have been a smidge bit better in pass rushing, but it wouldn’t be by much at all.
LB
S9 Brian Mills: 88 Overall
Superior Stats: Strength (Over Adams), Speed (Over Bode), Agility (Over Adams), Tackling (Over Adams),
Tied Stats: Strength (Only Bode and Slothface), Speed (Only Slothface), Intelligence (Slothface, Adams),
S9 Julian O'Sullivan: 93 Overall
Superior Stats: Strength (Over Adams), Speed (Over Bode), Agility (Over Adams), Tackling (Over Adams),
Tied Stats: Strength (Only Bode and Slothface), Speed (Only Slothface), Intelligence (Slothface, Adams),
S9 Vincent Sharpei: 88 Overall
Superior Stats: Strength (Over Adams), Agility (Over Adams), Intelligence (Over Slothface, Adams), Tackling (Over Adams),
Tied Stats: Speed (Only Bode)
S21 Quenton Bode: 94 Overall
Superior Stats: Strength (Over Sharpei), Agility, Intelligence, Tackling, Hands, Endurance
Tied Stats: Strength (Only Mills and O’Sullivan), Speed (Only Sharpei),
S21 Johnny Slothface: 96 Overall
Superior Stats: Strength (Over Sharpei), Agility, Tackling, Hands, Endurance
Tied Stats: Strength (Only Mills and O’Sullivan), Speed (Mills, O’Sullivan), Intelligence (Mills, O’Sullivan)
S21 Xavien Adams : 88 Overall
Superior Stats: Speed, Hands, Endurance
Tied Stats: Intelligence (Mills, O’Sullivan)
Conclusion: This is one of the biggest differences on defenses between these two teams. Yes, I know Adams is a cornerback, but he fills the nickel slot and plays as the team’s third linebacker when called upon. He was the only player I could put here for a three to three comparison. Surprisingly enough, because of this the two linebacker corps line up against the opposite teams quite well stylistically. The S9 group were strong, heavy hitters that really seemed to emphasize playing close to the line. Going up against S21’s run game makes this fitting. Meanwhile, the S21 group seems much more focused on pass coverage and forcing interceptions, especially so with Adams in the group. This makes them match up incredibly well against S9’s high flying circus. It is the clear difference in the two groups and it just happens to work against the other.
CB
S9 Vladimir Fyodorovich: 93 Overall
Superior Stats: Speed (Over Rector), Tackling (Over Rector)
Tied Stats: Speed (Only Taylor), Strength, Hands (Only Taylor)
S9 Benson Bayley: 98 Overall
Superior Stats: Speed (Over Rector), Agility, Tackling (Over Rector)
Tied Stats: Speed (Only Taylor), Strength, Tackling (Only Taylor), Hands (Only Taylor)
S21 David Rector: 92 Overall
Superior Stats: Intelligence, Endurance (Over Fyodorovich), Agility (Over Fyodorovich), Hands
Tied Stats: Speed (Bayley, Fyodorovich), Strength
S21 Deon Taylor: 97 Overall
Superior Stats: Intelligence, Tackling (Over Fyodorovich), Endurance (Over Fyodorovich), Agility (Over Fyodorovich)
Tied Stats: Strength, Tackling (Only Bayley), Hands (Fyodorovich, Bayley)
Conclusion: This is another insanely close position group with the best and the worst from both teams being narrowly apart. The biggest differences between the two seems to be intelligence and speed. Rector is the slowest of the group with his speed at only 95, but he makes up for it with superior hands and intelligence. He may get beat deep from time to time, but he is a turnover machine in clutch situations. Meanwhile the other three corners in this group play very similar styles with Taylor focusing more on intelligence than his opposing number. All four corners here are incredible play makers and when you put them side by side, both pairs make an elite unit.
S
S9 William Harrison: 85 Overall
Superior Stats: Agility, Intelligence (Over Blaylock) Endurance (Over Andrews),
Tied Stats: Tackling (Only Blaylock)
S9 Blackford Oakes: 96 Overall
Superior Stats: Strength (Over Andrews), Agility, Intelligence, Tackling (Over Blaylock), Hands (Over Andrews), Endurance (Over Andrews)
Tied Stats: Speed, Strength (Only Blaylock), Hands (Only Andrews)
S21 Mason Blaylock: 87 Overall
Superior Stats: Speed (Over Harrsion), Strength (Over Harrison), Hands (Over Oakes), Endurance
Tied Stats: Speed, Strength (Only Oakes), Tackling (Only Harrison)
S21 Jordan Andrews: 91 Overall
Superior Stats: Speed (Over Harrison), Intelligence (Over Harrison), Tackling, Hands (Over Oakes)
Tied Stats: Speed, Hands (Only Oakes)
Conclusion: This one is a mixed bag for S9. Their best of the pair is better than the best of S21’s pair. That said, their worst is worse than the S21 pair. When you average them out, they end up about equal across the board. It doesn’t always work out that way though. Oakes was clearly a superior player at the peak of his play and he easily outclasses either Blaylock or Andrews man to man. He really stands out in this defensive backfield. Meanwhile, Harrison was the weak length on this entire team. He brings the lowest overall of either defense to the field and could be potentially exposed. Meanwhile, both Andrews and Blaylock are young players entering their primes and they make a steady pairing. They're both faster than Harrison was, which was the most crippling part of us game. If I had to give one side the advantage here though, it would be Oakes simply because of how much better he was than any other safety here.
K/P
S9 Iyah Blewit: 89 Overall
Superior Stats: Everything
Tied Stats: None
S21 Herbert Prohaska: 76 Overall
Superior Stats: None
Tied Stats: None
Conclusion: If there was a single monumental lead to give the S9 team, it would come in the form of kicker. Blewit was simply a generational kicker who was a completely different breed. He had maxed out his craft and was enjoying his prime while Prohaska is just getting started. This is a monstrous mismatch.
What does it all mean?
Okay, so that is a lot of information. It’s a lot of numbers, it’s a lot of comparisons, and it is all there to simply say these two teams are very close together. One focuses the run, one focuses the pass. Both have highly elite defenses. The starting 11 on offense for S9 average out at an overall of 90.09 per player while the starting average on offense for S21 comes out to 89.18 per player. On defense we see S9 lining up an average of 91.27 overall per player against S21’s 92.18 overall per player. All of this to say? The numbers are hella close yo. These teams are nearly identical in overalls and as such were likely nearly identical in TPE. Both teams assembled insane rosters, but we are here to find out which was better. Who is the head honcho? Well there was only one way to truly figure this out.
Simulation
To make this as fair as possible, TomHanks went digging into the depths of JCINK. We had burning questions that needed answers and he was willing to dive in for us. What he found was the S9 NOLA depth charts posted by NOLA legend Bovo all the way back on August 14th, 2018. He then yeeted Baltimore off the planet and replaced them with the Legacy New Orleans Second line. I’m not sure Baltimore would have been my choice, but I won’t judge him for his loathing of our yellow bird friends.
As you can see, he went into extreme detail. He included all heights and weights to make it as accurate as humanly possible. He started by doing two singular sims just to see game stats and what they would look like. His very first sim had S21 at home!
His second sim had S21 on the road!
After a bit of playing, he finally ran 500 simulations of S21 away and 500 simulations of S21 at home.
Away results:
The away results has S21 winning almost 46% of the games on the road while only being 1.4 points worse.
Home results:
Meanwhile when S21 is at home, they win 63% of the time and on average were a 5.8 point favorite.
Conclusion:
With these sim results, it looks like this S21 squad is in fact marginally better than the one fielded in S9. It does in fact make S21 the scariest New Orleans team to ever take the field. Just barely though. I'm going to go ahead and credit the insane effort of our offensive linemen for this victory. Those guys are game changers and their impact can't be overstated.
That said, both teams had insane amounts of talent on both sides of the field. How these two teams were assembled is mind boggling and is a testament to the GMs who were involved with both teams. I always like looking back at the teams that came before my time in New Orleans and I’ve always heard legends of the S9 squad who won it all. I have all the respect in the world for them and I know multiple players there will be soon entering the NOLA Hall of Fame. I'm insanely excited about this team and hope we can follow in the footsteps of that S9 team and finish the job. Lets bring the trophy back to NOLA.
This was a fun little side project to compare the two and I hope everyone enjoyed this little dive into the two most talented New Orleans teams in history! Doot Doot!
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