It's been a traumatic off season for the franchise as they were uprooted unceremoniously without warning. They left Kathmandu under the cover of darkness with the Mountaineers becoming the Heroes. MFN Troubleshooter Autolol was brought in to take the team through free agency, the draft, late free agency and pre-season.
Auto is all set to leave the franchise following the next turnspin. Here's his scouting report on the team.
QB: Not currently a position of strength with
Shuler likely to start the season with the job but back up
Huff may be given a chance at some point as he looks to be the future of the franchise. It may be another season or two before he's ready.
BACKFIELD: Second year RB
Mark Carter carried the franchise in what was a rough year for the franchise. 1,000+ yards as a rookie is not to be sniffed at. Carter was the #4 pick overall last year and his understudy this year will be a 6th round rookie
Kevin Jordan. Jordan had a good camp, but has failed to turn that into yards in pre-season. He's a little raw but should develop into a solid backup.
At Full Back the team have a pair of solid players who should be able to run the ball, pass catch and block.
Puente will take 3rd round draft pick
Ricardo Neuman under his wing. Neuman has everything in his armoury - except pace.
TIGHT END: 35th pick overall
T Bone Haynes has all the tools to become one of the best TE's in the League. He'll likely start on day one with
Jimmy Orr and
George Ramirez set to back him up.
RECEIVERS: In an Offense dominated draft, the Heroes took three wideouts and look to have some deep threat targets now. With the 3rd overall pick Ulaanbaatar's first ever pick went on
Hector Mendoza out of Georgia. The Colombian born flyer was known as 'Speedy' in College, although it's unclear whether that was because of his blazing speed or extra curricular activities.
The WR well was a deep one and the team returned in round five to take possession receiver
Bryan Ortiz and then again in round seven for
Peter Hill who is likely to become a Slot receiver at some point.
With Franchise star
Willie Hayes, the rapid
Robert Marin and 'Soule Man'
William Soule the Heroes are now stacked at the WR department.
O LINE: With the team focusing on the D in free agency and skill positions in the draft, the OL remains a patchwork quilt. This is the area of most concern for any potential new owners. The good news is that the drop off from starter to backup is small, the bad news is that the starters are possibly the worst OL in the League.
KICKING AND PUNTING: The team are reasonably well set on Special Teams but Kicker
Guadalupe maybe only has a season or two more before he'll have to be moved on.
DEFENSIVE LINE: This was the main area of improvement in free agency, with a lot of decent depth added to back up the mainstays
Bryan Sutliff, Dirk Bagley and Harry SistoLINEBACKERS: It's a bit of a 'mish-mash' unit that I would be looking to improve asap. Much will depend on Mountaineer stalwarts
Fred Beck and Nate McNair. The rest are made up mostly of converted Secondary and DL. It remains to be seen how this unit comes together this season.
SECONDARY:
LEO BOOK is the Defensive Captain of this rag-tag bunch of under-rated DB's. I think they'll outperform expectations and keep the team in games where they should be outclassed.
The team have so much that's been thrown together in the off season that it may take a while to come together. Much remains to be done but I'd say a solid platform is now in place. The Offense have a lot of pieces in place but are going to be held back by the paper thin OL.
The D are solid, stout and largely under-rated with a couple of studs to hold it all together when times get tough - as they almost certainly will this season.
My prediction is 4-6 wins for the season, I would say anything approaching .500 would be over-achieving. Likely to be drafting in the top 10 again next season but looking like a team on the rise.
Last edited at 5/30/2021 7:15 pm
