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Las Vegas GM TurfToe made himself available for a brief interview earlier today. Here are some of the sound bites courtesy of KLAS - Channel 8 in Las Vegas. Sideline reporter Stu Pidasol had the rare pleasure of sitting down with a very reflective TurfToe...
[b052e545]Stu[/b052e545]: So TurfToe, what are your thoughts following Vegas' 2018 Championship?
[b052e545]TT[/b052e545]: Well Stu, it was nice to accomplish some of our goals last year. The biggest being a CFL Title but we have unfinished business to take care of this year.
[b052e545]Stu[/b052e545]: What sort of business is that?
[b052e545]TT[/b052e545]: For starters, we would really like to win the Ring of Fire Divisional Title. We have had years where we had the best division record and have even won a CFL Bowl yet we don't have a division title to show for it. In order to do so we must knock Tucson off of their pedestal.
[b052e545]Stu[/b052e545]: So this is a personal thing?
[b052e545]TT[/b052e545]: No, Stu Pidasol, this is about goals. There have been a lot of questions asked of our franchise, both by fans and football people. My strategy has been questioned publicly and privately, yet here we stand as the defending CFL Champions. The rapid rebuild project I started a few seasons back was about getting young, getting good, and doing both fast.
[b052e545]Stu[/b052e545]: Well, it's hard to argue with the results but you have to admit it sure seems like a non-stop game of mortgaging the future for instant gratification.
[b052e545]TT[/b052e545]: It's a strategy Stu. The end result is instant gratification. It's about winning a championship. Ask any GM out there what they would be willing to give right now for a championship during one of the next three years. The answer might just surprise you.
[b052e545]Stu[/b052e545]: You say it's a strategy but there are too many variables, too much risk...
[b052e545]TT[/b052e545]: Look, I tried it the old fashioned way - build through the draft and supplement via free agency. We had some success but there were not significant enough gains to be made. There was a surplus of cap space that went largely unused and a dwindling/overpriced free agent talent pool. So, I made moves to get as many blue chippers as I could using the unused cap space to afford them. Yes, it may have appeared as though I mortgaged my future but I still had a large collection of young, good football players.
[b052e545]Stu[/b052e545]: What happens when their second contracts come due?
[b052e545]TT[/b052e545]: I'll be managing the cap to make sure I can keep those players I want to keep. Again, I chose to spend my cap dollars on young developing talent instead of old declining talent.
[b052e545]Stu[/b052e545]: What about the future?
[b052e545]TT[/b052e545]: Looks bright to me. We are in the middle of "the window", the window every team wants to be in. This year was the last of my mortgaged picks and our championship made the previous trades more valuable as they translated to the 32nd selection of their respective rounds. We had all our picks next year and beyond except for a 4th we used to land Dever last year.
[b052e545]Stu[/b052e545]: You had all of them. So Why trade two 1st rounders to acquire a guard?
[b052e545]TT[/b052e545]: Well, like I said, we are in the window and going after more 1st round picks doesn't help us right now. Our front seven and secondary were not the best units in the league last year but they had the best cohesion. A couple of seasons ago our offensive line was in the top 3 for cohesive units. With LG Brandon Austin and C Broderick Sganga in their 8th years, last year's addition of LT Daniel Brandon and the recent trade for RG Nolan Rauch, we will have a highly-skilled offensive line while we try to do more damage in that window leaving us with a fairly highly-skilled unit with a high cohesion when we make our next run. I don't expect lay persons like yourself to understand the process but the football guys know exactly what we are trying to accomplish in Vegas. I'll lump you in the same category as certain draftniks who don't understand what we are doing with our O-line. If it was good enough to protect the QB position long enough to produce the league's receiving yardage leader (Terrell) and the league's second best rusher (Vandersommen) you can imagine what it can do over the next few years.
[b052e545]Stu[/b052e545]: That's all fine and dandy but it's just an offensive line. What about skill position players?
[b052e545]TT[/b052e545]: Some day you will learn something about football and understand the complete idiocy of that statement. Yes, it is just the offensive line and that's why we did it. The skill position guys are still here. Once Dever, Vandersommen, and Terrell are taken out of the game by an opponent, they only have to worry about Lochtefeld, Leibert, Hutchinson, Shergalis, Ah Yat, and Lowe on the other side of the ball.
[b052e545]Stu[/b052e545]: What are your plans in the 2019 draft?
[b052e545]TT[/b052e545]: I'm going to draft some players, sign them to contracts, and get this bitch rolling in camp. What are you going to do for a career? That's 10 minutes of my life I'll never get back. Ciao Stu...
[b052e545]Stu:[/b052e545] This has been an exclusive Stu Pidasol interview with Las Vegas Rounders' GM TurfToe. We'll see you on the sidelines.
_________________ ROF Division Champions: 2039 - 2043, 2045, 2047, 2054, 2056 - 2060, 2063, 2066-2067
WFC Conference Champions: 2018, 2041, 2042, 2057-2058, 2060, 2062-2063
CFL Champions: 2018, 2041, 2057-2058, 2060, 2062
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