Running a team in the IFL is an arduous task that requires hundreds of hours of research a year, understanding player values, other GM tendencies and a little bit of luck. The rankings are based off just the first two-plus years of results and moves. Participation was not considered but is just as important as roster management.
These are easily my most controversial, polarizing teaks I’ve written in awhile. I am confident many GM’s will have negative feelings after reading their blurb. This is nothing personal, just an analysis of your GM performance to date.
GMs 32-17 are broken down here and 16-1 will come out shortly.
32. Washington Tiffany
Tiffany has only been here for a couple weeks and we have no idea how she will be as a GM. It takes an entire year to gauge where a GM is at in terms of ability and being in the IFL is a different beast than any other league. Tiffany will go through a lengthy transition process but came on board with a roster that has adequate talent to put together a playoff caliber roster. Let’s see what she can do.
31. Denver David
David and Nate are also new GMs, but David has been the more polarizing GM of the two that joined together. David has been shit on for various moves that he’s made. Including trading Danny Trevathan for mid-late round picks, Zach Ertz for Sean Davis, the 2.06 and a 2019 1st, Zach Brown for Shaq Thompson and a 2019 1st, and many more. David did bring in Le’Veon Bell for 2 2019 1sts and DeAndre Hopkins. David started with a team that won the AFC West two year in a row. Let’s see where he stands after 2018.
30. Detroit Nate
The last of the newbies, I’ve been a vocal proponent of Nate. He took me to the cleaners receiving Derek Barnett and Budda Baker for BJ Goodson and Nick Kwaitkoski. He’s also traded for Le’Veon Bell and Zach Brown, grabbing cornerstones on both sides of the ball. The Lions had the worst roster in the IFL sans the Jets, Panthers and 9ers before the takeover. Now he should contend for the wild card. Let’s see how he drafts and capitalizes in free agency.
29. New York Aaron
There is no team as rudderless as the Jets. Stuck in a tough spot in the beginning, I stated early on it would be tough for Aaron to be competitive in a division with 3 veterans in this fantasy format. Aaron has exceeded my expectations, in that he’s been utterly incompetent in roster building and clearly has no idea about player evaluation. It’s clear he does not put in the time for a league like this and when prompted by me in the 2017 draft process about why he thought Leonard Fournette was the best prospect, he responded with, ‘Because he’s good.’ After that, I bet he would finish last in the AFC East until the turn of the decade and so far I’m 1 of 3. With the worst roster in the conference and no improvement in sight, Aaron will be hard pressed to improve upon his 2017 6-10 record. (This was written before Aaron quit)
Should have drafted a black quarterback… that Watson fella was pretty good last year and wasn’t Russell Wilson the #1 QB?
28. Oakland Prendo
Originally I had Prendo around 20, until I took a deeper look at his roster and what he’s done since joining about a year ago. He’s shown flashes of competence at times, but seems to be a bit directionless. An owner of horrid contracts that include Ameer Abdullah ($12 million), John Brown ($3 million) Donte Moncrief ($8 million) and the albatross Sammy Watkins ($20 million), Prendo’s team has ascended into the purgatory of sadness. Since joining about a year ago, Prendo has shown little to nothing to show he knows what he’s doing since he’s arrived. I feel it takes about a year to get a grasp of how to run a franchise in this type of league. If Prendo put in the time to learn how to run his team and know player values, he could be competitive in the West with Odell Beckham, Luke Kuechly and Landon Collins.
27. Philly Chris
A newbie to the IFL and Mordor format 5 seasons ago, Chris came in with an uphill climb to learn how to be competitive in a full-scale IDP league. The results have been well below average, having failed to ever make the playoffs. While never being a league worst team, Chris has never hoisted a playoff caliber team sans the 2016 squad that was built with a ceiling of a fringe wild card team. Now heading into year 3 of IFL, Chris has the worst roster he’s held since the league’s inception and is headed for a full scale rebuild. While in the worst division in the NFC, Chris has the opportunity to turn the team around quickly, but hasn’t shown the capability to formulate a quality roster for the future. It will be a challenge for Chris to be competitive within the next couple of years.
26. Arizona Jai
The 2016 Shitbird Medal of Fail winner, it was clear from the get-go Jai’s squad has the looks of a loser. A failure of a veteran draft, free agency period and never an adept trader, Jai struggled to gain success early on with Will and Josh fielding playoff caliber teams. With the dumpster fire season behind him, Jai went to work in the 2017 draft, bringing in talent like George Kittle, Jabrill Peppers and Alvin Kamara. 2018 is another year Jai boasts significant draft capital. Let’s see if he can build off last year’s success. His defense is devoid of talent and tends to leave millions of salary cap on the table annually. In a down NFC West, this is the year Jai could take a step forward.
25. Cincinnati Danny
I could copy and paste what I said about Jai. Danny has done nothing to build a competent roster and is poised for another dumpster fire of a season. Little to no talent on defense and only a couple of offensive studs, Danny is looking like a last place finish in the AFC North is in the cards. Like the veteran GMs before him, I don’t think Danny puts in the time to really evaluate talent and understand how to play in this format in a competitive way. A strong draft and aggressive free agency is a necessary step for a fledging franchise that will compete with New York Aaron for the AFC’s worst.
24. Jacksonville Nate
Nate has some success, starting off well both seasons after the double headers. What places Nate so low on the list is his mind blowing strategy of a lack of moves. You will notice that teams that don’t make adjustments are at the bottom and the worst teams in the league. That is not a coincidence. Nate made 7 trades in 2016 AND 2017. Heading into 2018, he’s at the bottom of a tough division although he has the potential to build a team worthy of a wild card spot if he can fill the lack of depth on both sides of the ball.
23. Atlanta Floyd
I’m not here to speak about what Flod will become, but what he’s been. Flod will be the first person to admit he was overmatched in a division with three killers. It was a new format upon joining IFL in 2016 and it showed year one. With ample draft capital and cap space, many project the Falcons to be a division contender and compare him to Nic coming off his 8-8 season in 2016. I’m not ready to anoint him to that pedestal yet, but the upside is definitely there. The biggest moves Flod will need to hit on? What he does with his cap space, the selection with the 1.04 and what sort of adjustments he will do during the season to make his team a true contender. I think the third will ultimately be his biggest challenge.
Hooker is coming for the South!
22 Kansas City Curt
Chittay! After a mediocre 1st season, Curt wanted to take the next step and win the roulette west. Instead, his team was crushed by injuries and Curt did nothing to adjust to help his team remain competitive after a tough start. Curt is one of the beautiful minds of the league, creating some of the best content, and if this was a content creation ranking, he would be near the top. But this is just a GM skill ranking and hooker it’s hard to say you have the right strategy to consistently compete.
21. LA Decker
It’s pretty sad all four AFC West teams are in the bottom 11 GMs and 3 of the 11 them are new, but sometimes turds attract turds. Decker’s strategy of acquiring young talent is solid in theory, especially when rookie contracts are so cheap. But Decker’s complete disregard to blending those rookie contract with stud veterans the last two years has left him with an incomplete roster full of holes. Decker’s mission right now should be the same as it was this time last year, get mother fucking veteran studs to pair with your rookies. It’s easier said than done, but GMs will give up talent to acquire cheap contracts, especially this time of year. Will Decker acknowledge a pivot in strategy is necessary and will Decker be able to make in-season adjustments if things need changing? It will be interesting to see if Decker can finally put something competitive together.
20. Josh.0
A part of me wanted to place Josh back further than this, but I couldn’t overlook a 9-7 year one. Josh was undeniably competitive in 2016, just 10 points away from a playoff berth. He had a competent team that could have won a playoff game or two. Can’t take any of that away from Josh… Ok if this was just a 2017 evaluation of a GM, Josh would easily be my lowest in the entire IFL. Delusional from the very beginning of the season, Josh did nothing to fill his lack of talent on the defensive side of the ball. (I was ready to bet $5,000 he wouldn’t make the playoffs after a 2-5 start) For some reason, Josh feels IDP is random and doesn’t need to address it in a league that has over half of his starting lineup IDP players. Starting subpackage guys like Dante Fowler is not a way to score points, even if IDP had no predictive measures. After the tanking debacle, which was just sad beyond all recognition and damaged his integrity, Josh hasn’t done much to repair his lack of depth on both sides of the ball. With just four startable assets on his entire team (two are quarterbacks), Josh seems destined for another tough year. While an amazingly charismatic individual that can provide innovative stats and wow the fantasy community, it’s time to change his IFL narrative with another competitive season.
19. Cleveland Kyle
Kyle’s a bit of an enigma. He reminds me a bit of Prendo in that I don’t know if he has a strategy for his team. Like Josh, Kyle is an owner of one fringe playoff team and a dumpster fire season. One move that sticks out in my head is donating Tom Brady to division rival Matt, who led his team to a 15-1 season. Heading into 2018, Kyle has impact players at almost every position, but still is lacking depth across his team. Kyle may be ready to take the next step in a weak AFC North, but it will take a savvy draft and aggressive free agency.
18. Minnesota Wade
Results wise, Wade at 18 doesn’t make sense. Rarely sniffing success, Wade’s two seasons of below .500 probably deserves a spot near 25. But something that I’ve seen in the last two years is the clear growth of a GM’s knowledge on how to play in this format. Wade was new to this type of league upon joining and there was some growing pains. In year two, Wade became stingy, and it became apparent he understood player values much better than he did in year one. Wade trades for value, like a trade at the beginning of the offseason that netted him Julio Jones for a 2nd round pick. Wade has a tough division that houses the NFC champ, a 2-time playoff team and an ascending team in the Lions. If Wade isn’t careful, he could find himself at the bottom of the North. But he could just as easily find himself in his first playoff berth.
17. Pittsburgh Spencer
I don’t know what to think of Spencer. He’s been decent, but not able to put it all together. Winning a playoff game in year one was a major boon in Spencer’s GM rep, something no other GM in the AFC North can state. Another strong 2017 saw Spencer take a step forward record wise, but he just missed the playoffs via tiebreaker. Heading into 2018, Spencer had a decision to make, invest a huge portion of his salary cap in David Johnson and Le’Veon Bell or diversify his assets and trade one or both of them away for lesser talent and draft picks. He chose the latter, and while I vehemently disagree with the decision, I understand investing so much in two players is scary. Spencer is a conservative owner and that matched his GM style. I think Spencer will have another solid 2018, but may have trouble taking the next step where he stands now.
Girl, there was shade, candor, and potential for growth in this group. How many GMs will take a step forward in 2018?