Meet
If the Utah Jazz Were a Football Team
Posted by: Adam on September 4th, 2010
The author's views are entirely his or her own and may not reflect the views of the Utah Jazz.Right now is the beginning of a 3 day weekend with Labor Day and I have found a few moments to put my books down and enjoy a bit of free time here in Provo. At this present time in September, the NBA is very boring and there is nothing to talk about unless it is the FIBA World Championship. The interesting part of the offseason is over and the only signings left to be made will be very minor ones, but for the most part we are in training camp mode, which is very good for the Jazz team, but boring for us fans. However, I am currently far from bored because Football season has begun. The last of the NFL preseason games have been played and we are days away from the NFL season kicking off. College football started already and I enjoyed my Thursday evening with the Pitt-Utah game and the USC-Hawaii game amongst others. My mind is in football mode and the NBA and the Utah Jazz are afterthoughts right now. However, with all this football stuff going on, I still managed to jump on this site tonight and the two ideas (Utah Jazz and football) merged in my head and I wondered, what would the Utah Jazz look like if they were a football team instead of a basketball team, but yet still had the same players?
So lets test the idea. First off, lets set some standards. Use only the Jazz players that are currently signed with the Jazz and Fesenko. No other Free Agents or NBA players. That means these players: Mehmet Okur, Kyrylo Fesenko, Al Jefferson, Paul Millsap, Andrei Kirilenko, Jeremy Evans, Gordon Hayward, CJ Miles, Raja Bell, Othyus Jeffers, Deron Williams, Ronnie Price, and Sundiata Gaines. That means you have 13 players to work with. Every player plays offense and defense, which means you will have 11 starters on each side of the ball, with two bench players. Assume that every player is healthy and will remain healthy. Formation-wise, on offense you get 1 QB, 1 HB, 1 FB, 1 TE, 2 WRs, 1 C, 2 Gs, & 2 Ts. Defense you can either use the 3-4 or the 4-3, which would be either 3 DLs (1 NT & 2 DEs) & 4 LBs (2 ILBs & 2 OLBs) or 4 DLs (2 DTs & 2 DEs) and 3 LBs (1 ILB & 2 OLBs). Either formation would include 2 CBs, 1 FS, & 1 SS. On both offense and defense, you have 2 bench players that you can assign to any position you deem necessary. If you aren’t familiar with those football abbreviations, I apologize, but that was the easiest and shortest way to write it. One position per player. No Josh Cribb type players that do anything and everything. And don’t worry about special teams, unless you really want to. Any questions, comments, concerns, random emotional outbursts, or confusions? If not, let’s begin. I’ll be the guinea pig and go first.
Offense:
QB: Deron Williams
HB: Ronnie Price
FB: Raja Bell
TE: Jeremy Evans
WR1: CJ Miles
WR2: Gordon Hayward
LT: Al Jefferson
LG: Mehmet Okur
C: Kyrylo Fesenko
RG: Paul Millsap
RT: Andrei Kirilenko
Bench 1: Sundiata Gaines – HB
Bench 2: Othyus Jeffers – WR
Defense:
RE: Al Jefferson
NT: Kyrylo Fesenko
LE: Mehmet Okur
ROLB: Andrei Kirilenko
RILB: Paul Millsap
LILB: Raja Bell
LOLB: Jeremy Evans
CB1: CJ Miles
CB2: Ronnie Price
FS: Gordon Hayward
SS: Deron Williams
Bench1: Sundiata Gaines – CB
Bench2: Othyus Jeffers – ILB
There we go. I think that would make a pretty good team. Many of those can be interchangeable, but I think those positions they are at work best as a whole for the team. Now it’s your turn. Be creative and put together your own Utah Jazz football team. See what you can come up with. Who can put together the best team that would win the most football games? Go!
Replies: 12
Views: 395
12 Responses
raiders are taking it all the way
UTES BCS CHAMPIONS
UTAH JAZZ IF THERE FOOTBall team they would superbowl every year
I have to admit, some of those made me laugh. Can you imagine Evans playing TE or LB? He’d get crushed by EVERYONE!!! What is he? 7′6″ 113lbs? lol. Seriously though, I like D-Will at QB on offense, but I’d put him at MLB on D cuz he can see the whole field better than anyone else, and run it from there… and he’s stout. I like the D line. I’d say you got it about 80% right. Just my opinion.
P.S. Raiders? David, are you kidding me? Nobody likes the raiders, and its because they’re no good… and they have creepy fans. lol. 49ers all the way baby! And BYU! I can’t wait til the BYU vs. Utah game! I like both teams (which I probably shouldn’t say… generally if someone is a fan of one, they have to hate the other… not me.) but when it comes down to it, I have to go for the Y.
Ok Adam, give me your thoughts. I have a post similar to this in the draft position, meaning I have written part of it but not finished it off. The premise is similar but different in many aspects. Should I add to the comments here, it would be very long, publish it anyway and be accused of stealing someone else’s thunder or just forget about it? I am trying to be concilatory not sarcastic. The post was great, my only real problem would be Fes at center on a football team. Does he count the same way or in the same language as D. WIll?
Deb- Uh, well, that’s hard to say. I don’t mind long comments. If your blog is about the Utah Jazz being a football team, then post it here, but if it has slightly different twists to it and you feel it would do better as it’s own blog, then go ahead and create it as it’s own blog and I promise I won’t complain. If it’s football related, maybe you could make some sort of reference to this blog and it will give me more views and comments here. Oh, and I put Fes at Center because he is the biggest Jazz man and needs to be somewhere in the middle of the line. Maybe Memo would work better at Center and we can throw Fes in at Guard.
Joseph- Yes, Evans would make a very skinny TE and LB, but if he put on some weight, then he could pull it off because from the very little I’ve seen, he seems like a very athletic, aggressive player, despite only being 200 pounds. Deron at LB could work great. Being that he is a 210 pound PG that naturally defends the perimeter in Basketball, I put him on the outside of the defense on football. However, him at SS seemed to work because the SS is the DB that typically is more aggressive, blitzes more, and gets more tackles. It’s common for an NFL team to move a SS to LB. Thomas Davis is a good example. He was a SS in college that was moved to LB in the NFL shortly after getting drafted by the Panthers, so either spot would work.
David- Raiders? Alright, I too believe that they will surprise people, but 7-9 or 8-8 is the MAX for them this year. They just may be at the top of that division in 2 or 3 years down the road if things work out. They are going in the right direction.
i agree with adam my favorite team in the nfl is the raiders
but i agree with you they probarly go 7-9 or 8-8
Joseph- u hate the raider because of their fans there are not creepy (ok maybe they are sometimes) but they will be better the the 49ers this year. and utes will and always be better the byu (ok well not always) but right now they are
I think you oughta switch Evans out for Gaines on that linebacker.
gonna go play my madden 11 on my PS3 not xbox because its sucks and make the utah jazz
Glad I inspired you to create the Utah Jazz on Madden, David. Question about the 49ers, though. If they do worse than the Raiders, who wins that division? Rams suck. Seahawks are old and have many holes. Cardinals have quarterback issues. The 49ers are currently the best team in that division and the way is paved for them to run away with it and I think they do. 49ers will win 9-10 games this year.
Kelt- Gaines would work good at linebacker. Not a bad thought.
Raiders better than the 49ers? Sorry dude, you’re dreaming. Too many holes. As for the U being better than the Y? I don’t think so. But we’ll find out soon enough.
After watching both games, I’m confident that the Y can beat the U this season.
wow its to hard to make the jazz in madden i only made three players so far