Winning the Offseason

The FCS never really sleeps. However, this time of year is probably the most mundane that we have. The 2025 season is in the rear view mirror and we await the lottery and the opening of our offseason trading period. In a league that never sleeps, the offseason is a wild ride. It lays the foundation for the next year. Between the lottery, the rookie draft, RFA, the diamond draft, and trades, owners are tasked with scouting talent in so many aspects to make sure their rosters are where they need to be when the NFL season kicks off. 

I’ll get the disclaimer out of the way. You can not win a Victor Bowl in the offseason. That said, it is my opinion that you can lose a Victor Bowl in the offseason. Lineups will change during the year, but finding impact players in the offseason is crucial to contribute to your team and to have trade bait at your disposal. The purpose of this article is to identify who is best at identifying and acquiring impact players during the offseason. 

So, what constitutes an impact player? For the purpose of this article an impact player is a player who finished the year in one of the following categories:

-A top 4 QB

-A top 12 RB

-A top 15 WR

-A top 4 TE

I decided to scavenge the Intel Sheet and approach things through a hindsight perspective. Take away in-season trading and waiver wire adds. Whose offseason scouting process is best? I looked at the end of the past five seasons and found out what team had each impact player Week One when the season gets started. Some of the results are sure to raise some eyebrows. Let’s start with the onesie positions.

Impact Tight End Rankings

Rank	Team	Number of Impact Players
1	NOR/BSC	4
2	KEN/BRX	3
3	LRC	2
3	REN	2
3	TUC	2
3	DCA	2
7	NAS	1
7	TCB	1
7	CHA	1
7	POR	1
11	VBR	0
11	COL	0

I can hear people now. “Makes sense, the mayor loved Travis Kelce”. That certainly helps the BSC/NOR cause. That said, he also had a couple of years of Kittle. Give credit where credit is due. Dana Daniel had the TE spot on lockdown. I also think it is fair to question if having an impact TE is actually that impactful. After all, the top two franchises are both now out of the league and, historically, have been mediocre franchises. My opinion is that it is too narrow of a way to think. We are on the heels of a year where the Victor Bowl champions heavily relied on an impact TE in Trey McBride. In fact, three of the past five champions began and ended the year with impact tight ends on their roster. Having the positional advantage at tight end has proven to be a worthwhile strategy. It will be interesting to see if our newbie owners prioritize that as much as their predecessors did.

Impact Quarterback Rankings

Rank	Team	Number of Impact Players
1	LRC	4
2	DCA	3
2	POR	3
2	VBR	3
5	REN	2
5	TCB	2
7	KEN/BRX	1
7	NAS	1
7	CHA	1
10	NOR/BSC	0
10	TUC	0
10	COL	0

This position appears to matter a bit more than TE. FCS royalty is atop this list in two-timers Little Rock and DC. Little Rock takes home the prize of “QB Whisperer”. That ranking is spearheaded by three years of Josh Allen, but Miller should also be credited with finding a gem in Jayden Daniels in the second round of the rookie draft. The three second place teams should receive credit as well for identifying three different impact QBs. DC: ‘23 Hurts, ‘23 Prescott, ‘25 Maye; POR: ‘21 Brady, ‘22 Hurts, and ‘24 Lamar; and VBR: ‘21 Herbert, ‘22 Mahomes, and ‘23 Lamar. Similar to tight ends, three of the past five champions began and ended the year with impact quarterbacks on their roster. An interesting team at the bottom of this list is the defending champion Tucson Javelinas. Prioritizing the QB position in the offseason has not appeared to be a strategy for Daniel in the past. It makes you wonder if living the Josh Allen experience in 2025 is enough to change that mindset. 

Impact Running Back Rankings

Rank	Team	Number of Impact Players
1	REN	7
1	NAS	7
3	LRC	6
3	KEN/BRX	6
5	NOR/BSC	5
5	TUC	5
5	TCB	5
5	CHA	5
9	POR	3
9	VBR	3
9	COL	3
12	DCA	2

This one is bizarre from the top down. I think most would consider the running back position the most important in our league. With how important they are, I did not expect the top scouts of our league to be two franchises that are not exactly known for their success the past five years. It's worth noting that Reno and Nashville both are the only franchises to identify three impact running backs in one year. The 2023 Riflemen started the year with Henry, Mixon and Pacheco while the 2022 Cutthroats started the year with Henry, Pollard, and Jamaal Williams. My working theory is that Reno and Nashville do an excellent job of identifying the old vets that still have value. Our league is obsessed with finding the shiny new toy at running back, and sometimes the “ole reliables” do the trick. Maybe more surprising than the teams at the top of this list is the team in the basement– the DC Anarchy. Massey’s Anarchy are the gold standard of our league, yet he really struggles to identify talent at the running back position. If you want to spin it in a positive direction for DC, I think it speaks volumes to how great he is with his opportunistic approach to fantasy. This man won a Victor Bowl while starting Chubba Hubbard and Jerome Ford in his RB2 spots for Week 16 and 17. 

Impact Wide Receiver Rankings

Rank	Team	Number of Impact Players
1	LRC	10
2	TUC	9
3	REN	8
3	KEN/BRX	8
3	NOR/BSC	8
6	TCB	5
6	CHA	5
6	COL	5
6	DCA	5
10	NAS	4
10	POR	4
10	VBR	4

The best of the best when scouting wide receivers are two great franchises in Little Rock and Tucson. However, they both accomplish this feat in different ways. Little Rock has slipped a bit in their WR scouting the past few years, but they boast two years in which they had three plus impact WRs in the same year (2021- Diggs, Lamb, Chase, and Mike Williams; 2023- Diggs, Lamb, and Pittman). Meanwhile, Tucson has been a pinnacle of consistency in scouting the position with having two impact WRs four of the past five years. Nipping at their heels are our two new franchises. NorCal in particular should be highlighted with scouting four impact WRs in his first year as an owner (Adams, London, Egbuka, and Wan’Dale Robinson). To put Little Rock’s and NorCal’s four impact wide receivers in one season accomplishment into perspective, Nashville, Portland, and Virginia Beach have scouted four impact wide receivers total the past five years. Ouch.

Overall Team Breakdowns

1) Little Rock Capitals- The King of scouting. Miller really deserves a lot of credit for his ability to identify talent in the offseason. The QB whisperer and a WR expert. He has also proven his worth as a very capable running back scout. His ability to identify talent has shown up in the box score with his recent success in three Eastern Conference Championships and two Victor Bowls in the past five years. If he contacts your line in the offseason wanting a player, just know they have a pretty good chance at being an impact player.

2) Reno Cutthroats- I did not expect to see Reno this high. Maybe I should have. He does have a Western Conference Championship under his belt from 2024, but he has not been able to sustain success with the Cutthroats. Gairhan has been elite in scouting the most important positions– running back and wide receiver. The running back position, in particular, has been his lynch pin. This exercise has caused me to look at the Cutthroats in a different light. If he keeps scouting at this level, I believe the success is inevitable.

3) Kentucky Bolters- Reno was surprising, but this one was downright shocking. I know that Dominion owner, Tanner Barnes, was infamous for the fast start and inevitable late season implosion, but to see the data is still jarring. I think the most surprising part is the consistency across the board positionally. As for Cole Walker and his Bolters, here is a little nugget: The Bolters boasted five impact players in 2025 which is the most of the five year sample for the KEN/BRX franchise. The positive way of looking at that is that Walker appears to be a great scout. The negative way of looking at that is that Walker is keeping the longstanding “fast start, slow finish” tradition going for his franchise. 

4) NorCal Goldeneyes- Yet another surprise. Digging into the numbers on this one was pretty fascinating. The Mayor and Beamont appear to have stark contrasts in their scouting profiles. The Mayor found great success in scouting the TE position. The Goldies appear to have turned their energy toward the more premium WR position. An encouraging sign for the new ownership: similar to the Bolters, the Goldeneyes boasted the most impact players (six) in their inaugural year than any other year out of the five year sample size. They appear to no longer be bound by the shackles of mediocrity. If there is one hole in the BSC/NOR scouting profile, it is the QB position where they have not scouted one impact player the past five years. 

5) Tucson Javelinas- Something that feels weird to say– the Javies scouting profile is very similar to NOR/BSC. Daniel does not appear to have an eye for QB talent. Where he makes up for that is his ability to scout wide receivers. Tucson is also pretty consistent in his holistic ability to see impact players. Some teams show fluctuations from year-to-year, but Tucson has been “Steady Eddie”. By year from 2021 to 2025, Tucson has scouted three, two, four, three, and four impact players. Obviously, Tucson has seen recent success, but he also appears to value sustainability (despite what 2024 may have told us).

6) Twin City Bootleggers- This is a pretty boring profile (No offense, Sam). The Bootleggers do not appear to have a unique scouting advantage at any position. In their defense, there really doesn't appear to be a significant weakness anywhere either. Here’s where they rank in the league by position: TE- seventh, QB- fifth, RB- fifth, and WR- sixth. One potential good sign is that the Boots past two years were their most successful of the five year sample, so things may be trending up in the scouting department.

6) Nashville Riflemen- Coming in tied with the Bootleggers is Jared Brown’s Riflemen. This profile is interesting. In a league where finding talent at the premium positions is everything, Nashville is great in doing so in one, and bad in doing so in the other. The RIflemen have no issues finding running back talent, but finding wide receiver talent is not his “cup of tea”. Nashville also appears to fluctuate in his ability to identify impact players in the offseason. He has identified three plus impact players in three of five years, but the other two he was only able to identify one impact player per year.

8) Charleston Bombers- This profile is strikingly similar to Twin City’s. When I say strikingly similar, I mean the exact same at every position, except for one less quarterback. So, I will reiterate, this is a pretty boring profile (no offense, AJ). No real strengths, but no real weaknesses. The real difference between the Boots and Bombers profiles is the trend of scouting. Unfortunately for Enloe, a really somber stat is that the 2025 Bombers were the only team across the entire five year data sample that did not have a single impact player scouted. Nowhere to go but up this offseason.

8) DC Anarchy- I did not expect to see DC coming in at eight, but here we are. As 

previously stated, the Anarchy really struggle to scout the running back position. Given their undeniable success, seeing them struggle at a premier position is pretty odd. On the bright side, Massey has an eye for identifying quarterbacks. The Anarchy have three playoff appearances and one title over the five year sample size. If they can improve in their scouting, while still utilizing their opportunistic approach, watch out.

10) Portland Rippers- Alright, I feel like I have danced around the fact that the Rippers are not great in the scouting department. So here is me saying it, “The Rippers are not great in the scouting department. Quarterback scouting is the strength, but struggles at both premium positions are apparent. Similar to the Anarchy, the past five years has really been the golden age for the Rippers– making the playoffs four out of five years and accumulating two Western Conference Championships. However, Portland is known for not getting over the hump. Maybe that could be attributed to struggles to identify talent in the offseason.

11) Virginia Beach Rovers- Quarterback scouting is where the Rovers are owed their flowers, but that's really where the credit stops. Virginia Beach is ranked dead last and second-to-last in the three other positions. Maybe the scariest trend is the fact that Neese’s squad has been consistently bad in scouting the past five years. By year from 2021 to 2025, Neese has scouted one, three, two, two, and two impact players. The Rovers have really had their success come in “down years” for the league. They really need to make improvements in the offseason to become a consistent threat in the FCS.

12) Colorado IceCats- The IceCats take home the dreaded dreg of scouting. In five years, the IceCats have yet to identify one impact player at the onesie positions. In Chris’s defense, I don’t believe that is due to a lack of trying. For instance, they acquired Lamar Jackson this past RFA with an FCS record $45 contract, but the Colorado injury curse reared its ugly head, yet again.I actually think the injury curse across the board is a huge reason for the struggles. That said, excuses can only go so far. There simply has to be improvements if the IceCats want to compete in the loaded Western Conference. It's 

now been 6 years since their magical Victor Bowl run and they have slowly morphed into an FCS afterthought.

For a year-by-year rundown of the data behind scouting impact players, check out this link:

https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1M764CqLcdNHqtJLCV00pODwslPMIxWbtfs2NfpjONmQ/edit?usp=sharing