Today I, Robbert Graaf, visit the newly crowned superbowl champions(Broekwater Patriots), for a talk on teambuild and teammanagement. As winners they must know something about this. Here we are, sitting in comfortable chairs, and a nicely decorated office. Its not too big or flashy as we are in a small fishing village. Ofcourse I am served shrimps cocktail. As bghandras takes his time for this interview it will be a long one, so dear reader. Put your legs up, open a drink of your choice and read about the the team to beat this season.

RG: Firstly. How do you outline your positionals?

BGH: Generally the catcher is the least priorized position on my team. I want to field 1 ogre, 2 throwers, and 4 blitzers all the time, and the rest is mostly lino.

Blitzers: I prefer having 2 killers, so that if either is eliminated i still have one. I field both of them, but they are really backing up each other. Anyway, 2 blitzers with killer instinct, and 2 other with support (guard) roles.

Ogre: Ogre is a massive punchbag for my scheme. I dont sign up to the sacking ogre theory, although that could win some games. So for ogre i prefer skills that make him more reliable, and harder to remove, harder to push around.

Throwers: I prefer Agility on them first and foremost, but that is hard to get by. In that sense season3 builds was different from season4 build. I had 2 AG4 throwers in season3, but could not get one in season4. If i have 2, then they are backup up each other. If i have one only, then i need another ag4 player at catcher or blitzer or lineman position as backup, and the other thrower fills in another role.

Catchers: They are roleplayers. Backup ballers, quick scorers, 1turners, defensive catchers, or pure offensive weapons.

Linos: 'Agility wins games, but good linos win championship!'. This is one of the teams motto. There are 2 main roles, guard and LOS duty. Other roles are possible, but I value guard on them in any case. The unit is as good as ever, but it has always been the strength of the franchize.


RG: We had a chat the other day about blitzers, and you didn't get very deep other than they are used both on offence and defence, but do you have a special position for them?

BGH: Blitzers are simply the best positionals in the game. They come with natural advantages over other positions. Some games are decided by the blitzers, and them alone. So i want to field all 4 of them for maximum effect. They have speed, resiliency, they can block, assist, and hit hard. They can do it all really. Most of them are not agile, so cant rely on a single blitzer to do the job, but i expect the group of 4 blitzers to get it done. Whoever is closest the threat should deal with it.


RG: Can you pick 3 players that are key to your team and explain why they are key, in a team so full of stars?

BGH: Bortles, Mack, Winston - they are the players who make the most plays. I could give credit to most players, like Clifton, Jernigan, or Smelter for their roles. Really, every player needs to do their job well, within the team scheme. If they make a mistake, then the other players will pay for it. They all need to deliver, and they all need to do their job reliably. But if you ask who needs to do the most, and expected to deliver the most, then the big3 is my choice.


RG: You have talked about having backups on every position. But with Glennon on LoS because of drop to ST3 and AV10, who is your backup if Bortles get hurt?

BGH: With the injury to Glennon he is out of the QB depth chart, but he adds to the LOS depth chart. Actually that was a position of need until the injury, so it opened up other roles organically. Bortles backup right now is Smelter. It is of course not a 1:1 exchange, the team would behave in a different way. Having speed but no STR means different protection schemes, but both work nevertheless. The team is more resilient with Bortles, and more explosive with both, but there is enough backup with 2 +AG catchers on the roster.


RG: Do you have like a 2-3 seasons draft plan layed out, or do you more roll window by window?

BGH: Yes, I plan ahead, there is a plan for 2 seasons in advance, but those plans can be scrapped. In fact i have more than one plan, and contingencies built in. In fact, the team might change during the season, I think teams morphing is implied. We at Patriots never sit back and just enjoy. I like being a moving target.


RG: Your team is known to be the 2-1 boring grind team, even letting your opponent score a fast TD so you can control the rest of the game. How is your take on this?

BGH: The team was pretty one dimensional in season1 and 2, which meant the grind the only way. Season4 squad was more formidable, and season5 squad is multidimensional. I dont promise no grind, but i will have more options to attack opposing teams. It is all about matchups, what my team can do well, what the other team is capable of, and the situation on the pitch and on the standings. It is a very complex question to ask, as sometimes the result is secondary compared to having a full team for the playoffs. But the biggest factor is probably whether i can break the other team, and how likely are the 1turning options.

And this concludes the interview. I hope you got some insight to how the Broekwater Patriots work and think. Or maybe even an idea, or something you would do different yourself. Note, that this is no recipe for succes, but one way to go about it all. It did take Patriots 4 season to win it all