Ah finally football season is here. And of course THE football game even the pro players play. So without much further ado here's my roster and my comments after 4 games of regular season play thus far.
QBs
Brady
Cassell
Bramlet
No surprises here. Brady is one of the most accurate passers in the game and is great for racking up lots of points. Cassell is not ready for prime time. I shudder about thinking of starting him if Brady gets hurt. Then again I think Madden underrates Cassell.
RBs
Dillon
Maroney
Faulk
Maroney has already taken over the majority of the workload for me. He's getting about 2/3 the carries and I use Dillon as my goal line and power back. Most of the time I'd rather have the breakaway game speed that Maroney brings to the table. My bread and butter play is the counter after I've set it up with a few dive and OT plays. The counter can get me some HUGE yardage!
I've rarely used Faulk because 3rd and long I'm usually passing.
Once my running game gets going I can also goto the play action pass which Brady is great at pulling off.
FBs
Patrick Pass
Ho humm, he is a blocker and the only reason I keep him is Madden requires 1 FB.
WR
Chad Johnson
Chad Jackson
Reche Caldwell
Troy Brown
D. Gabriel
J. Mathis
My big prize acquisition here is Chad Johnson. I shipped off Deion as I figured he is not long for New England. Then I acquired D. Gabriel from the Raiders for some spare parts and a pick. This WR lineup is wicked.
Chad Johnson can torch em deep and Jackson has hands like stickum as my numero 2. Between Jackson and Johnson defenses have their hands full and Brady lights up the D for big yardage.
J. Mathis is my
PR/KR which is the only reason I acquired him. Surpsingly with Mathis' speed he also is a troublesome matchup for defenses in the slot position. I also kept Troy Brown as my backup
PR but I think he's probably retiring after this season since he's not getting much action.
TEs
Watson
Graham
Thomas
Watson won the camp competition for starter and this guy is just a freak. He can outrun linebackers and he will outjump safeties. He is the potent #3 weapon for my offense and he dominates the middle of the field. He's especially effective on seam plays to tear up those zone coverages. I'd like to spread the ball around to see what Thomas can do but with J&J there's just enough spare balls to go around Watson's way and that's about it.
OL
Matt Light
L. Mankins
Koppen
Neal
Diem
Kaczur
Britt
Hockstein
I sent Gorin packing as RT was a weakness imo. I acquired Diem from Indy to become my other bookend tackle. He has outstanding passblocking and strength so the bullrush won't beat him. Unfortunately Big O'C was not in the game so that's how I built the line. I'm thinking of replacing Neal next season but the OL is looking very solid.
DL
Seymour
Wilfork
Warren
Green
Sullivan
Smith
I left the DL starters untouched since they are already so strong. Wilfork has become a man beast for me as he is also racking up a nice amount of sacks while plugging the middle. Sullivan has also been surprisingly good. He's pretty strong and has already nailed a few QBs. He comes out to play when I goto dime coverage, and with the leads i build, I actually get to use him fairly frequently.
OLB
Colvin
TBC
Hillenmeyer
Roach
Colvin is doing fine. TBC is ok but I'll probably look to upgrade his spot next season.
ILB
Bruschi
Vrabel
Beisel
The inside unit is rock solid. So long as I don't get injuries. I guess I should acquire Seau to back em up but I figure he is retiring next season so I should be ok.
Surprisingly the linebackers have been a pretty solid unit.
CB
N. Vasher
A. Samuels
W. Peterson
E. Hobbs
E. Warfield
R. Gay
Vasher is a young lockdown corner to lead the secondary. Peterson was a free agent pickup who is working out pretty well for me. He's also one of the fastest guys on the unit. Believe it or not Hobbs has racked up over 10 sacks for me already. Well that might be because I love to zone blitz and corner blitz. Blitzing is very effective with this team and the Pats are averaging about 10 sacks per game with about 2 picks per contest.
Too bad it's not as easy to trade for good young players in real football as it is in Madden Football.
And believe it or not my team is still 25M under the cap even with all these additions.
Safeties
E. Wilson
Harrison
T. Jones
Sanders
Unchanged. A good group of guys. Harrison is the intimidator out there. I love the way he comes up to stop the run and he lays a big pop on any WRs foolish enough to catch a ball in his vicinity.
Kicker
Gostkowski
You have to cut Gramatica and hire Gost as a free agent to get him. Weird... Gost is an average kicker hopefully he gets better. But rarely do I need a FG to win the game when I'm averaging over 50 pts per contest LOL.
Well I signed him to a 7 year contract so I've got plenty of time for him to get better I guess.
I tried trading for Neil Rackers but Madden doesn't let you trade for kickers for some reason...
Punter
Miller
He punts. It's all good. I rarely use the punter more than once or twice a game.
Overall the Pats are a very fun team to play. With the addition of Chad Johnson the offense is now high octane enough to challenge and beat Indy for the offensive scoring Crown.
I think that even without Branch this team would still be really good with the kind of running game I can field and the emergence of Watson as a goto receiver.
The defense is monstrous. I can't say enough about that DL. I can put pressure on the QB just rushing 3 or 4 and when I blitz watch out because a sack, a hurry up, or an interception will probably be in the cards.
Stats racked up so far (Through 4 games)
Brady 1,471 yards 17 tds 4 ints
Maroney 448 yards 8 tds 6.6 avg
Dillon 125 yards 4 tds 4.0 avg
C. Jackson 553 yards 6 tds 25.1 avg
C. Johnson 397 yards 7 tds 26.4 avg
Watson 380 yards 18.0 2 tds avg
So how do you guys like my team. And how did you set up your Madden franchise?
Toughest Challenge so far:
Denver Broncoes - Their high quality OL makes em tougher to stop than other teams and their receivers are decent. Plummer will scramble for first down yardage if you leave him uncontained.
Most ironic win:
Beating up on the Bengals. It's somehow deliciously ironic when you pound Dillon into the endzone against them.
Strongest division rival:
The Phins are 3-1 and in second place so far. I'm looking forward to squishing the fish personally and quelling their pitiful attempt to wrest the division crown from us.
OT:Share your Madden 2007 roster!
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