Hawk Talk Ep 1

In the first episode of HawkTalk, Mike Hawk of the IFA Network introduces his new podcast. He discusses the need for an IFA podcast and the excitement of starting something new. He plans to recap the 2022 IFA season and look ahead to the 2023 season in future episodes. He mentions the slow start of the Parker-Packboros and the Bloomington-Bison, who took different paths throughout the season. He highlights promising rookies and discusses the Pacific Palisades Ponies and their strong roster. He also mentions the Cincinnati Warthogs, the Dinkytown Dinosaurs, the Georgia Geese, and the Gotham City Rogues. This is HawkTalk. Hey guys, welcome into the very first episode of HawkTalk. Really excited to finally start this podcast. As always, my name is Mike Hawk of the IFA Network. And yeah, just really excited to, you know, start something new. You know, we've had a lot of IFA fans out there, you know, talking about how they wish there was an IFA podcast or someone to talk about the IFA. You know, there's, I've got my Twitter account, you know, that I try to keep going. But there needed to be something more, something people could listen to outside of Twitter. You know, just putting your headphones when you're, you know, working out or whatever. So yeah, I decided I'd start HawkTalk right here on Spotify. You know, I hope you fans like it. But, you know, with everything said, let's get into the first episode. So today I just thought I would, you know, kind of recap the IFA 2022 IFA season, as well as start to look ahead into the 2023 season. I'm not going to give my power rankings. I'm planning on giving those in Episode 2. So this is more of just an attention grabber episode. You know, I want to draw the audience in, make you guys wait, make you guys get excited for Episode 2 when those first power rankings of 2023 come out. But yeah, all things said, let's get into the wrap-up, recap, I should say, of the 2023, or sorry, 2022 inaugural IFA season. So to wrap, to recap, basically, year started out, we saw the two teams start very, very slow. It was the Parker-Packboros and the Bloomington-Bison, the two teams to start 0-3. After that, both teams went very, very different paths. Collin Veen and the Parker-Packboros, they decided to sell their team and not get much in return. You know, they sort of tanked in a way. You know, decided to rebuild. They decided they didn't have the team, and, you know, it showed the rest of the year were not able to put a lot of wins together. As they finished, I believe, with two wins on the year, and then they got one in the postseason to get the number three overall pick. The Bison, on the other hand, they actually were buyers at the trade deadline. After losing three, they strung together six wins and then finished the year at 8-6. Made the playoffs, snuck in by winning their last game of the year against the Himalaya Yeti. It was a huge banger Sunday night football game. But, yeah, so that was kind of, you know, the two polar opposites, you know, seasons we saw. In addition to that, we saw some really promising rookies. Brees Hall, he kind of got thrown around the league, but he really showed his mark for the first quarter of the season before his unfortunate ACL injury. We saw Kenneth Walker break out for the Port Royal Pearls. Jack Stusie showed that he knows how to draft. You know, maybe one of the more underrated 2022 IFA drafts probably came from Stusie and the Pearls as, you know, they ended up with the top quarterback duo in fields and hurts as well as getting Kenneth Walker. And, yeah, so trying to think of some other rookies. Garrett Wilson showed out for the Dinkytown Dinosaurs. Probably missing one. Someone's, oh, I forgot one of the greatest. Big Cock Brock Purdy looked phenomenal in his few games that he played at the end of the year replacing Jimmy Garoppolo. Moving on just to some more recap. You know, we saw the start of what could be a really great team in the Pacific Palisades Ponies. They fell short in the semifinals to the Bloomington Bison. However, they really showed promise this year. You know, a fantastic wide receiver duo in Tyreek Hill and Stephon Diggs. Led, of course, by Joe Burrow who's QB2, QB3, QB4, whatever he is, he's one of the best. And, yeah, they've really built a really solid roster. Their weakness was clear. You know, they relied heavily on the Cowboys running backs, Tony Pollard and Ezekiel Elliott. You know, this year we'll see where Ezekiel Elliott plays and he may not see playing time for the Ponies. But, yeah, you know, they're going to have to go with Aaron Jones and Tony Pollard this year. It will be interesting to see. But, yeah, I don't want to get too far into 2023 yet. We're still wrapping up 2022. I would say the team that probably got hurt most by injuries was Top 40 and the Cincinnati Warthogs. You know, they just looked real good at the start of the year, but it just seemed like they couldn't stay healthy. You know, they had Jamar Chase go down. I believe they had Brees Hall when he went down. I can't remember. I might have to get fact-checked on that. And, yeah, it just seemed as though they couldn't get healthy. But they went out and they got A.J. Brown this offseason, so they should have, you know, if not the best wide receiver duo in Chase and A.J. Brown. Which will be very interesting to watch. Moving on to the Dinkytown Dinos. They were a fun team to watch this year. Nearly coming up with the number one pick outright, they ended up trading for it to get Bajon Robinson. But, you know, they were a fun little team. They had Lamar Jackson and they had Deshaun Watson who got to play when he got out of prison. But, yeah, you know, they were a fun team. You know, Jack Daggerberg, he drafted a lot of young talent. And, you know, it was pretty clear from the start he didn't care about winning now. He cared about building that future and he did a great job. Travis Etienne was a great pick. Garrett Wilson was a great pick. Drake London was a great pick. T.J. Hawkinson was a great pick. I could go down the line. And now he's added Bajon Robinson and replaced Lamar Jackson with Trevor Lawrence. That is a phenomenal, phenomenal offseason for the Dinosaurs. He was trying to put Dinkytown back on the map after, you know, it's been taking some hits recently. But, yeah, moving on to another team who played for the future. We got the Georgia Geese. Georgia, you know, they really played for the future. They stacked up their draft picks. They didn't draft any running backs. They kind of left their roster wide open. Just kind of left their team ready to be beat as many times as they could last season so that they could position themselves for Bajon Robinson, which they were able to do. Traded the pick away and got a haul back. But, yeah, their roster has, you know, since the season ended, changed quite a bit. You know, they've traded a lot of those picks that they stacked up and they've kept a good core of young talent but kind of mixed in guys who are going to help them win now. So they should be one of the best teams set up for the next five to ten years. I'm really excited to see the Geese really in year one of what could be a dynasty there. You know, traded for Herbert, traded for Brees Hall. Surprised everyone taking Gibbs at number four. You know, and then they traded, obviously, one of the big ones was Travis Kelsey, who already has one ring. And, you know, people might say he's ring-chasing, so we'll see about that. And then, obviously, Kirk Cousins, the GOAT. But, yeah, and then let's move on. Let's move across the pond over to Romania. You know, they really decided last year that they were going to get who they viewed as the best asset in the league in Josh Allen and build around him. And for the most part, they've done a pretty good job of building around him. They were pretty slow to doing that last year. They came alive towards the end of the season, but for the most part of the year, they just struggled to get any sort of production outside of Allen. But, you know, they've had a pretty, pretty busy offseason. They traded some of their draft capital to acquire the likes of Christian McCaffrey, who's possibly the best running back in the IFA. They acquired Jalen Waddell, who's a great young wide receiver. You know, really excited to see what they can do with Allen, McCaffrey, and Waddell. It's a really exciting trio of talent. And then an underrated thing that they did is they had Daniel Jones just sitting on that team when he kind of broke out towards the end of last year. The Giants obviously gave Daniel Jones a big contract so he won't be going anywhere. They're building around him in New York, and they're building kind of around him in Romania. So excited to see what can happen there. Let's see. I don't know. There's a couple more teams I'll cover their 2022 seasons. The Gabagool Gobblers. They had an interesting year. You know, at certain times, they looked like an unbeatable team. They looked like the best team in the IFA. And then other weeks, they just couldn't put up points. Probably the most inconsistent team in the league last year. And they were unable to make the playoffs. They really did try to build a team that would win last year. And unfortunately, they came up short. So it's going to be an interesting path to see if they can sustain winning. I mean, I don't know if you can call it sustaining if they didn't win all that much last year. But, you know, see if they can win more with the same guys. You know, Jared Goff, you never know what he's going to do. He had his career year last year. Mixon has been in trouble. Ramondre Stevenson, kind of another guy. You just don't know if he can sustain what he did last year. So that will be interesting. They do, however, have two picks in 2024 in the first round. So, you know, you never know what those can turn into. You know, one pick that I think went a little bit under the radar was when they picked Jonathan Mingo this year. Really excited to see what he does over in Carolina with Bryce Young. And I think, you know, he could be a type of guy who kind of jumpstarts the growth of this Gobblers team. And then lastly, I don't think I've touched on them yet, the runner-up, the Gotham City Rogues. You know, they're a really, really talented team. The best trio, excuse me, going into this year, they'll have the best trio of running backs. Last year, they had the best duo in Henry and Nick Chubb. And, yeah, they're really trying to build a team that can win now. You know, they really gave up a lot of draft capital. They don't have much left. But after that, they're not going to have another first-round pick until 2027. So it's kind of like win this year, win next year, or bust for Gotham City. They made a big trade for Aaron Rodgers. They got Jordan Love, and they got Austin Eckler. They're really trying to load up that roster to try and make a run this year in year two after coming up oh so short last year. And that kind of brings us to, I guess I should maybe wrap up the 2023 recap for those who didn't follow the IFA last year. Kind of giving my props to the Bloomington Bison for going 0-3 and coming all the way back to win the inaugural IFA championship. Mike Evans, he had a 50-piece, a 50-piece in the title game. It is obviously a record in year one, but I don't know if anyone's breaking that record anytime soon for points in a championship game. But yeah, he basically looked like his teammate Tom Brady in the Super Bowl last year. So yeah, props to them for really digging deep to get that W, to get the wins when it mattered. They had to win four in a row to get there. They had to win their last regular season game to just get into the playoffs. And then they had to win three more to win, obviously, the IFA championship game. So yeah, props to them for doing that and for winning when it matters. So yeah, that is our IFA 2022 recap. I'm just going to give you guys a little bit of my insight kind of into 2023. I don't want to take too much of that away from next week's episode where I kind of go into my power rankings. And I might give some predictions. I might give some hot takes. I haven't decided yet. That's a next week thing to figure out. But a little bit of insight into next week. You know, I really believe that there's ten teams that I could possibly win the title next year. That's Gotham City. That's Himalaya. That is Port Royal. That is Phoenix. That is Romania. That is Gabagool. That is Zinci. That is Dinkytown. That is Georgia. And that is the Pacific Palisades. I think any of those teams could win it next year. You know, I don't see the Bloomington Bison running it back. That's pretty obvious at this point. They've essentially traded most, if not all, of their championship roster. I think Keenan Allen and Brock Purdy might be the only guys they haven't shipped yet. But, yeah. Also, reading that list, I don't know if I went over the Himalaya Yeti quite yet. Yeah. So, I'll talk about their 2022 season. I apologize to Commissioner Master Andrea and his phenomenal team that he built last year. But, yeah. They've got the best player in the IFA in Patrick Mahomes. And right after that, they've got a lot of talent. And they're built to last. They haven't traded too much draft capital. They've got young talent to go along with their studs. But, yeah. I mean, you look at this roster. Mahomes, Barkley, Jacobs, Adams. I mean, I don't know if there's a better core four players than that. Geno Smith is going to be kind of a wild card for 2023. We're going to find out if he can repeat. Russell Wilson was a little bit of a disappointment for the Yeti last year. However, very excited to see what he can do with Sean Payton now. And then, obviously, the Yeti drafted Quinton Johnston to hopefully kind of slide into that flex spot at some point this season. And maybe even that wide receiver two spot behind Devontae. But, yeah. They were a phenomenal team. They had some really, really great weeks where they were putting up 180 plus points. Unfortunately, they weren't able to make it to the title game. Fell just short. But, overall, that team was ridiculously good. Obviously, a team to watch out for in 2023. And then, let's see. I don't know if I touched on the Phoenix Fire Ferrets either. So, I apologize to Winston Law and everyone over there in the Phoenix area. But, yeah. They're a fun team. I mean, they're a really fun team. You have Jonathan Taylor, now Lamar Jackson. But they had Trevor Lawrence last year. They were a fun team to watch in 2022. Obviously, above all of them, they have Jay Jettas, the gritty king. He was grittying all over defenses last year. And I don't see that stopping anytime soon. They were a team. They were really good all year. They snuck into the playoffs, you know, really ahead of their time. I think a lot of people thought they were a year early to the playoffs. But that's just to show how talented this team is. And, you know, there are a lot of young players on that team. You know, you talk about Kyle Pitts being their tight end of the future. You talk about the trades they made. They got Lamar Jackson instead of Trevor Lawrence. So, they did get a little bit older at quarterback. But, you know, Lamar could be an upgrade for them. That's really a toss-up. But, yeah, you know, they're going to be a scary team this year. They've got plenty of picks as well. Probably the number one or number two overall pick in 2024. So, they may be adding Caleb Williams to kind of be the complement to Lamar Jackson, which is really exciting. But, yeah, obviously having any pick that has the name Burrow attached to it is really gold in this league. That's what owners are always looking for. But, yeah, so sorry for those managers. I really hope I didn't miss anyone else. I do think I touched on just about everyone. But, yeah, I suppose we'll do a quick, you know, kind of preview. I just kind of started by telling you guys the teams I think have a chance. But, you know, let's kind of like start. I want to start talking. I kind of mentioned them in these team recaps on the 2022 season. But, yeah, I kind of want to talk about the big moves that have been made, the big changes to teams. And let's start with the Bloomington Bison. Let's start with the champions. Obviously the biggest roster overhaul we have seen so far. The guys, the notable players that they traded away were Kirk Cousins. They traded away Christian McCaffrey, Dalvin Cook. They traded away Deebo Samuel. They traded away Travis Kelsey. So they really gave away a lot of players. And, you know, they've got a lot of rebuilding to do. And, you know, you really have to commend the front office there in Bloomington. You know, they really had a tough choice to make this offseason. They definitely had the talent to run it back, to potentially run it back. But, I mean, a Cinderella story is not likely to happen twice. They really just evaluated and decided it's worth getting the highest value they can from those players right now as opposed to trying to wait a year and, you know, maybe make another playoff run. But if you don't win it, it's really not worth it. So, you know, kudos to them for all they did to overhaul the roster. You know, they drafted C.J. Stroud, who fell into their lap at pick number five. They drafted Devonte Chain, who I think might have been the sleeper pick in this draft. I do think they reached for him at pick number 10 and might have been there in the second round. But, you know, he was the guy that they liked at the Combine, and so he's the guy that they got. They also drafted Josh Downs and Sam Laporta. So four big names that they're able to pick up in the draft. And then other guys they traded for, they traded for Mack Jones and then Baker Mayfield. So trying to add some quarterback depth. And then, you know, they just racked up those draft picks. So just really exciting stuff to see what the Bloomington Bison are doing. But, yeah, really excited to see what they'll do. And I'm trying to think the next big team to talk about. We'll go over to Dinkytown. Big trade, obviously, Lamar for Trevor Lawrence. Moving on from Lamar, that's an interesting decision. I like going to Trevor Lawrence. I think he's a more reliable player. He's probably not going to be as injured. You know, he might not run the ball like Lamar, but he sure can outthrow him. And, you know, he's going to be a solid 20 points per game guy. And really a guy you can count on, especially in that explosive Jacksonville offense. I also really like what they did getting Bison. You know, obviously, he's the top running back to have in the league at this point in time. So, yeah, really excited for what they did with those two moves. You also have to think of Deshaun Watson almost as an ad. He didn't really play last season. Now he's just a brand new guy, basically, to this roster. So, yeah, they're doing a lot of stuff. And I really expect a huge jump for Dinkytown in year two. Yeah, I think the next team we will talk about is the Parker-Packboroughs. The Burroughs, their big move was getting Tua and Anthony Richardson as their brand new quarterback duo. Two big time risks, and they could pay off as potentially two top five to seven quarterbacks in the league for years to come. But that is yet to be seen. They also went out and got a veteran wide receiver with championship experience in Mike Evans. So, yeah, really some stuff to be excited for. They've got Javonte Williams coming back off of injury, so they should be quite improved from last year. I don't know if it's enough to get them over the hump into the playoffs, but I think they can expect three or four wins. Let's see, another team, I just sort of talked about them, the Phoenix Fire Ferrets. Obviously, they traded for Dalvin Cook, Debo Samuel, and Lamar Jackson. So they're making moves, they want to win this year, but they're also set up very well for the future. So there's not too many worries. And I haven't even talked about Bryce Young. They added Bryce Young, super exciting for them. That franchise, you know, they were solid last year, and they just got better. Let's see, another big, big moves that were made in the offseason. Let's see here. Kind of go through my list. Let's see here. Yeah, we saw the Port Boyle Pearls, they drafted Jackson, Smith, and Jigba, so that's pretty big for them. And additionally, they sent away Jordan Love and Rondale Moore to get, sorry, that's to get Jackson, Smith, and Jigba. Get the pick that ended up being Jackson, Smith, and Jigba. And then they also, let's see, what else did they do? Well, they had a big move. Right, they traded away Alvin Kamara, kind of just a salary dump right there. And then here's the sweet spot, this is the one I was looking for. I knew who was involved, but I didn't remember the details. But this was, and this will segue into the next team we talk about a little bit, but, you know, they traded away Austin Eckler. They traded away Muth, and they got Godert and Amun-Ra St. Brown. So the Rogues is now who we'll talk about a little bit. You know, some big moves, and I guess I kind of touched on their big moves a little bit earlier. But yeah, they made some big moves. They added Rodgers, they added Love, they added Eckler, like I just mentioned, they added Fryer. So they're trying to win them now. Obviously, they also added Jordan Addison in the draft. So some exciting stuff for the Rogues. I believe that's a lot of the big moves. Also the Robos added Christian McCaffrey, we talked about that. They also added Waddle. Yeah, so I think that kind of will wrap up our first episode. I just kind of wanted to thank you guys for kind of coming along, learning with me as I record my very first IFA Network podcast on HawkTalk. I'm really excited to see what this can become. I'm going to try to record an episode a week over the rest of the offseason. It might be tough. I might run out of things to talk about. Hopefully, owners can be active in the trades and in the waiver wire until the season starts, because otherwise there may not be much to talk about. But yeah, I'm just really excited for this IFA season year two, see some changes to rosters, see some teams trying to win with the same team from last year who came up short. It's really going to be an exciting year. I think it will be even more exciting than year one. So yeah, just really excited for this season and really excited to see where HawkTalk can go. But yeah, thank you guys for listening to HawkTalk. Catch you guys next week.