NEWS

Postcards from Camp: Fightin' Mallards

Steve Dugas, YFFL.com Draft Guru


August 19, 2013


Summary

The Mallards put together another terrific year in 2012 but fell just short of making it back to the Super Bowl as they came out on the wrong side of a kicker duel in the NFC Championship game. The Mallards were able to seamlessly replace Turner and Jackson with Ridley and Spiller as they kicked the window to win a title back open. Calvin Johnson might have been the only player to not exceed expectations as he struggled to find pay dirt all year long; he was tackled 5 times at the one yard line. Kyle Rudolph was probably the biggest surprise for this team as he caught a pile of TDs, but also mixed in a handful of zeros. After getting off to a brutal start in the YFFL, marked by terrible personnel decisions and some bad luck, the Mallards were able to finally claw their way back to .500 in franchise history by winning the final game of the regular season.

C.J. Spiller "If we're tossing CJ Spiller's bloated, distended corpse through the B-Gap for first downs in the fourth quarter, then you know we're doing something right," remarked new Bills offensive coordinator Nathaniel Hackett.

Critical Question

Who to cut? The Mallards are flush with talent and would love to keep everyone not named Mason Crosby. Edelman, Bell, Austin, Brown, Walsh, and Allen are all staging a training camp battle for the last two spots. Currently Austin and Brown are in the lead but things could change as the deadline to cut down looms.

Player to Watch

CJ Spiller, RB BUF - Spiller has finally ascended to the top of the Buffalo depth chart and his new offensive coordinator has stated that he will feed Spiller the ball until he is vomiting on the field. Spiller isn't the biggest guy on the field so it will be interesting to see if he can hold up to the workload.

Lineup

Matt Ryan, Steven Ridley, CJ Spiller, Calvin Johnson, Randall Cobb, Kyle Rudolph, Kicker, Steven Jackson

Outlook

The Mallards are locked and loaded for another run at the championship and will battle it out all season with the Chickens for NFC supremacy. They have great depth at every position and should be able to overcome the loss of Michael Crabtree for the YFFL regular season. Steven Ridley is expected to shoulder a lot of the load in New England and he will look to have a 100 point season for the Mallards. The Mallards are also looking forward to Steven Jackson landing on a good offense for the first time in his career. Will it be too late and is Jackson now too old? Vincent Brown has ascended to the top of the WR pecking order in San Diego and if he can stay healthy (unlike his teammates), he might finally be ready to contribute to the Mallards franchise. While the competition in the NFC has improved, the Mallards should remain on top of the NFC East.

Projections

10-3; 680 Points; 1st Place NFC East