After Offseason Moves, Back to Business for Rush
Jeff Sims
Friday January 14, 2005
But after hearing that the Nashville Kats were once again fielding a team in the Arena league, All-Arena OL/DL James Baron decided to make a call. Baron has family in the Nashville area and owns a business there that he runs during the offseason.
“JB called both myself and Coach Hohensee [Chicago Rush head coach] and asked if we could possibly swing a deal that would send him back to Nashville,” said Chicago Rush General Manager Mike Polisky. “The difference between being a GM in this league as opposed to other leagues is that with only a $1.8 million salary cap, you care about the players that play for you. And after speaking with him, we wanted to help accommodate JB the best that we could.”
Now I certainly cannot disagree that in this league and specifically on this team that the players are cared for. The teams in the AFL consist of players that want to play football and want to help their teams win a championship, or otherwise they would not play for a much smaller salary than their counterparts in the NFL. Specifically for the Rush, players like working with the coaching staff and feel that they are playing for a class organization.
After just recently completing a Sports Management course, I liked the concept that the Rush would accommodate a player that has helped them create a presence both on and off the field, but what about the reality that running a professional sports team is a business and the team’s goal is to win championships and make money?
In the regular business world, managers and executives have to prepare to lose employees and have a plan in order to maintain their edge, continue to operate effectively, and continue to remain profitable at the same time.
The same can be said for football. In the current age of free agency, players have more control over what they do and where they play. Similar to regular business, teams need to be prepared for the “what if” in order to maintain their programs.
‘There are moves that you have to make sometimes due to salary cap reasons,” said Hohensee. “I don’t know if JB would have come back even if we didn’t trade him. That is a chance that we were not willing to take (Baron would have been a free agent after this season). For him to sit out a year, go somewhere else next year, and have us not get anything in return just didn’t make any sense to us.”
“As the process went on,” continued Hohensee, “we had the chance to see the players that were going to be available in the expansion draft, guys like Charles Pauley and Russell Shaw, guys that are up and coming that I think can be stars in this league. Also, we thought some of the money we had been using for JB can be used to not only get some good young football players, but also to secure some of our guys that we may be losing to free agency next year, guys like (John) Moyer and (Ray) Philyaw.”
Now to me that makes sense. The staff saw what their needs were and have looked to go out and strengthen those positions as they look to compete once again for an ArenaBowl title. The team returns 18 players from last season’s team including most of it’s powerful offense that averaged 52.9 points per game last season. The team has resigned FB/LBs Jamie McGourty and Bob McMillen. OS Jeremy McDaniel will be returning for a second season with the Rush. WR/LBs Etu Molden and Lindsay Fleshman also return alongside QB Raymond Philyaw, who is set to return after completing an extensive rehabilitation program to repair his knee that was injured during the semi-final playoff game last season against San Jose.
Offense on the Table
The WR/DB position has taken the biggest hit in the post-Baron age. As a result of the James Baron trade, the Rush used its selections in the expansion draft to improve at this position. The team drafted Pauley, who played with the ArenaBowl champion San Jose Sabercats last season, and Shaw, a four-year veteran who has spent his career with the Los Angeles Avengers. To add depth to the position, the Rush have also signed Chris Day, a rookie who spent the summer in training camp with the Green Bay Packers. The coaching staff felt that an upgrade was needed in this area to increase the speed of the offense.
“We were not very fast last year,” said Hohensee. “We did not make many mistakes and we were tough. But we were not faster than anybody. We just played good, methodical, sound football. This year hopefully, we can still play sound football, but we will play it faster and just as physical.”
The addition of Pauley is thought of as a major move for both the offensive and defensive sides of the ball.
“We watched film on him and saw a lot of good things that he has done,” said Hohensee. “He was a wide receiver in college and he comes into this league and makes a name as a defensive guy (in his first season on a championship team with San Jose). Now all of a sudden, you have a great built-in two-way player. There are not many good WR/DBs anymore. I think he can be the next great two-way player.”
On the Flip Side
On defense last season, approximately 12 different players were the carousel that was the DS position. Free agents Hamin Milligan (Dallas) and Corey Sawyer will not be back this year and was felt to be the key position that needed to be addressed during the off-season. They landed their main guy when they signed Jeroid Johnson to a two-year contract.
“Jeroid Johnson was our number one guy,” said Hohensee. “We feel that he is one of the top four safeties in the league. Playing safety is one of the most difficult things to do in football, indoors or outdoors – and now we have one of the best handling those duties for us. He may not be big, but he is extremely tough. He has played for Coach Schwartz before in the secondary, so it won’t be that big of a transition for him to come here.”
Joining Johnson on the defensive side will be Tony Lukins. The Rush originally signed Lukins back in 2002 and he has been on the exempt list the past two seasons having played stints in the NFL for the Seattle Seahawks and in the World League allocated by the Oakland Raiders. Lukins brings speed to the Rush secondary after impressing the coaching staff with a 4.3 second 40-meter dash.
With the key new additions to the defense, the goal will be for the coaching staff to bring this team together prior to the start of the season.
“I think since free agency came in in 2001, the most important aspect of Arena Football is keeping your coaching staff together and having good teachers,” said Hohensee. “And I think we have that here.”
The Baron Bones of It
And then last but not least, how do you replace a six-time All-Arena lineman in order to maintain the outstanding line that the Rush had with James Baron?
“You want to find a guy who is hungry,” said Hohensee. “That is what we did with Chad Pegues. Is he going to be James Baron? No, but he might be better in some aspects. We just might be different with some of the things we do up front both personality-wise and scheme-wise.”
Pegues has spent the past three seasons as one of the top linemen with the Dallas Desperados. Prior to his Arena experience, Pegues played in the defunct XFL for the champion Los Angeles Extreme before joining the AFL and the Los Angeles Avengers at the end of 2001. He also spent time in the NFL playing on the practice squad for the Cincinnati Bengals.
So overall, James Baron is happy to be in Nashville and the Chicago Rush feel as if they have improved their team and their chances of getting back to the playoffs in an attempt to reach their goal of an AFL title. But the Rush coaching staff is not ready to book its ticket to Las Vegas just yet.
According to Hohensee, “There is a lot of promise out there. As much as there is great expectation for this football team, there are also a lot of question marks. They are not question marks where we definitely do not have the answer, but question marks where we think we have the answer, but we won’t know until we put them all together.”
If each guy comes in and does his job, business could be picking up in Chicago.
Jeff has been writing for ArenaFan.com since 2004. Originally from New York, Jeff has been living in the Chicago area for the past ten years and is an avid football fanatic. He holds a BA in communications from Hofstra University in New York and a sports management certificate from Loyola University in Chicago.