Maassluis Merchantmen, take 3 (FOF MP) [Archive]

MIJB#19

11-17-2018, 06:47 PM

2004 - 2019 The Louie Flannery era

In professional football, every franchise strives for success. One way or another, long periods of success are usually determined not just by how the team is ran, but the arrival and continuing excellence of a franchise quarterback can lift a team from a usual suspect playoff team to a championship winning franchise. The Maassluis Merchantmen thought the 5th pick of the 2006 draft was the place to get this player. Louie Flannery was his name, 6'4" tall out of Middle Tennessee State. The story of the Merchantmen started two years earlier. The International House of Football kicked off in 2004 with the Maassluis Merchantmen as 1 of 32 competing teams.

The 2004 season turned out to be a false start for the Merchantmen, posting their first victory in week 3, but failing to beat any other opponents, to 'clinch' the #1 overall pick in the 2005 draft. Before the draft class was revealed, the Merchantmen made a truckload of trades, finishing the draft with 4 first round draft picks, including QB Leonard Lyon. But as the general management was unconvinced by Lyon's skills, despite seeing the team improve to a 7-9 record. Lyon had to fight off management's favorite Fumblin' Justin McDavid, whom blew out his knee with a career devastating injury. McDavid came back after a long recovery and played a backup role for 14 seasons.

Lyon's stint was terminated after just 1 season. The Merchantmen told Leo to pack his bags and try to win the starting gig of the Springfield Isotopes. But that was just the beginning of another crapload of trades that eventually had the Merchantmen able to move up to the #5 overall slot and select Louie Flannery. Unlike Lyon and despite the love-hate relationship with fan favorite McDavid, Flannery was designated the opening day starter. Flannery became the centerpiece of the Merchantmen offense, helped by a strong defense anchored by defensive tackle Charles Gomez (Maassluis' 1st round pick in the 2004 league draft) and linebacker Cody Cluff. In 2007, Flannery got the top-notch left tackle he wanted in Indestructible Ivan Jacques and repaid the team with their first AOC Championship appearance.

The 2007 AOC Championship game turned out to be the highlight of Flannery's career. Gomez retired after the 2014, Jacques and Flannery's favorite target tight end Jim Reiser retired after the 2015 season. In 2016, Flannery finally posted his first 4,000-yard season and in 2016 he was at last rewarded with a top-notch wide receiver Gabe Springer out of Ohio, taken #8 overall, the Merchantmen's first 1st round pick since Louie Flannery 10 years earlier, as the Merchantmen made a habit of trading their top pick in prior off-seasons for over the hill veterans. Springer burst into the league receiving All-IHOF 2nd team honors as a rookie. But Flannery to Springer turned out to not be a winning combination, the Merchantmen posted 6-10 records in three straight seasons after Springer's impressive rookie campaign. Even the acquisition of all-league cornerbacks Randall Allen and Ben Greer in the 2019 off-season for the #9 overall pick and a triplet of second round picks didn't improve the team.

2004 1-15 (16th in the AOC)
2005 7-9 (12th)
2006 8-8 (9th)
2007 13-3 (2nd) conference finalist
2008 9-7 (4th) wild card round
2009 8-8 (11th)
2010 6-10 (12th)
2011 11-5 (3rd) wild card round
2012 10-6 (6th) conference semifinals
2013 8-8 (9th)
2014 9-7 (8th)
2015 8-8 (9th)
2016 8-8 (11th)
2017 6-10 (11th)
2018 6-10 (13th)
2019 6-10 (10th)

MIJB#19

11-17-2018, 06:50 PM

2020 - 2034 The 'Rusty' Harrison era

Going into his 15th season, Flannery was confronted with a battle that he was bound to lose. The Maassluis Merchantmen traded the #6 overall pick and their 2021 1st round pick for the #1 overall pick. Quarterback Russell Harrison out of Navy was selected. Flannery hung around for 2 more seasons, but like his precedessor, Harrison was announced as the opening day starter and from there on didn't look back, at least for a the first 10 seasons... The Merchantmen posted a 7-9 record in Harrison's rookie season and followed up with a disappointing 5-11 campaign in 2021 and 2022.

The 2023 off-season, things drastically changed. The Merchantmen traded down from the #5 pick to the #9 overall in two steps and there took wide receiver Terry Thomason. The added value was used to pick linebacker R.J. Knight at #15 overall and the 2024 and 2025 first round picks were also traded, to select defensive tackle Andy Cottle at #20 overall and former #1 overall running back Stanley Givens respectively. With Harrison, Givens, Thomason and a rejuvinated Springer, the Merchantmen became the top scoring team in the league, breaking the magical 500-point barrier. Harrison struggled with injuries, gaining him the nickname Rusty as he became accustomed to playing through pain, while backup Patrick McDonnell stepped in for 7 games. The Merchantmen quarterbacks combined for 4,580 yards and 46 touchdowns passing, until then unheard of from a defensive minded franchise. The Merchantmen crashed in the wild card round, but with this fabulous foursome on offense and Cottle and Knight anchoring the defense, the Merchantmen were a force to reckon with. Despite losing Harrison on the first drive of the 2024 season, the Merchantmen rotated between quarterbacks, mostly relying on McDonnell and still won the European division with an 11-5 record.

In following seasons, the Merchantmen saw Harrison struggle with injuries more often, but despite the retirement of Givens after the 2026 season, the Merchantmen reached (and lost) the 2027 AOC Championship game. Springer retired after that game, but the Merchantmen still managed to post a 12-4 record in the 2028 season. It turned out to be the end of a strong stretch of seasons of 11-5 or better records. In 2029, the Merchantmen missed the playoffs with a 9-7 record, while getting outscored by their opponents. The Merchantmen management and Rusty Harrison's agents failed to agree terms of a new contract in the 2030 off-season and the Merchantmen made the drastic decision to trade him to the Rochester Lake Monsters. In retrospect, the Merchantmen turned down an offer from the Tucker Tigers that could have included the eventual 2031 #1 overall pick, which the Tigers used to acquire quarterback Jackie Collier, the best and most succesful player in IHOF history.

Instead, the Merchantmen acquired Fort Wayne Fury's 3rd year pro Jay McGee as their new quarterback. Despite the arrival of left tackle Kerry Zumdahl, linebacker Fred McCorkle and safety Thurman Hopper in the 2031 draft, followed by running back Darrin Keegan, guard Ricky Castillo and cornerback Tito Close in the 2032 draft, McGee failed to return the Merchantmen to the playoffs. In the 2033 off-season, Rusty Harrison made a surprise comeback to Maassluis. Initially traded from the Lake Monsters to the Syracuse Mohawks, Harrison was traded a second time in the same off-season and returned home. Plagued by injuries, Harrison missed 12 regular games in his last two seasons before retirement and the Merchantmen failed to reach the playoffs for six straight seasons. With Harrison hanging up his cleats, it was back to Jay McGee for the Merchantmen.

2020 7-9 (12th)
2021 5-11 (13th)
2022 5-11 (16th)
2023 12-4 (4th) wild card round
2024 11-5 (3rd) wild card round
2025 11-4-1 (4th) wild card round
2026 10-6 (5th) conference semifinals
2027 11-5 (3rd) conference finalist
2028 12-4 (2nd) conference semifinals
2029 9-7 (7th)
2030 5-11 (15th)
2031 9-7 (7th)
2032 9-7 (8th)
2033 6-10 (12th)
2034 9-7 (7th)

MIJB#19

11-17-2018, 06:52 PM

2035 - 2039 Jay McGee period

With Harrison no longer in front of him, Jay McGee looked like a better version of himself. The running game of Keegan behind Castillo, Zumdahl and veteran center Shawn Hudspeth, supported with the defense anchored by safeties Thurman Hopper and Percy Walker, gave McGee the freedom to lead a run-heavy offense. 2035 was the start of an unprecedented period of double digit victory seasons combined with victories in the playoffs. In the 2036 draft, the Merchantmen first acquired the #20 overall pick from Paris and then packaged it with the #26 overall and a bunch of 3rd round picks to be able to move up to #6 overall to select wide receiver Terry Haskell as a replacement for just retired Terry Thomason. They then traded their 2037 and 2038 1st round picks to be able to draft defensive tackle Jerome Tyson at #26 overall and linebacker Wesley Devine in the second round. Set to step into Andy Cottle's shoes, Tyson turned out to be a bit of a bust. Devine quickly became the centerpiece of the defense, setting new standards for what a Merchantmen middle linebacker should be like. Haskell started his career with a 1,000-yard season and earned rookie of the year honors. Albeit failing to top 4,000 yards, McGee continued to improve from season to season, still leaning heavily on that running game and defense. Especially in the 2037 season, when the Merchantmen allowed only 188 points all season. Three times in four seasons, the Merchantmen were beaten by Jackie Collier and the Tucker Tigers in the playoffs.

In the 2039 off-season, cap problems piled up and the Merchantmen became a trading house once again. Castillo and Zumdahl together where shipped to the Tucker Tigers for basically all of their 2040 draft picks. Darrin Keegan was traded to the North Plainfield Plague for a fourht rounder. The craftly acquired quartet of second round picks were pacakged with the #30 overall pick for a move up to #12 overall to be able to select wide receiver Vincent Cox (he turned out to be a major bust and left the team after just 4 seasons with just 80 receptions for 938 yards and 5 touchdowns). After all was set and done, the Merchantmen running game seemed to be gone. But the contrary turned out to be true. Third year pro former fifth round draft pick Donald Terry became a sensation. Terry ran for a league leading 1,489 yards and 5.6 yards per carry from behind a line anchored by former third round center B.J. Samuels. The Merchantmen once again had to face Jackie Collier's Tucker Tigers, but this time finally broke the trend and advanced to the IHOF Bowl for the first time. While Terry played like he did in the regular season, McGee struggled against the Chesapeake Chitterlings. The Merchantmen had no answer to them and fell 23-10, never really having a chance.

2035 11-5 (4th) conference semifinals
2036 10-6 (5th) conference semifinals
2037 13-3 (2nd) conference semifinals
2038 13-3 (2nd) conference finalist
2039 12-4 (2nd) conference champion

MIJB#19

11-17-2018, 06:54 PM

2040 - 2044 Perry Coleman period

The IHOF Bowl loss still fresh in mind, the Merchantmen found themselves in another cap strapped situation. Contract negotiations with Jay McGee proved to be difficult. In the 2040 draft, the Merchantmen bolstered the defense with Cornerback Mark Crum and linebacker "Double D" Daniel Duncan. The Merchantmen also traded for Brooklyn wide receiver J.T. Pritt, who came off his third 1,000-yard season and the Merchantmen acquired quarterback Harvey Corbett from Snapfinger for a third round pick. The latter to fill an unexpected gap: the Merchantmen found no suitable trade partner and released McGee shortly after the draft and before training camp. McGee managed to find gigs in Iowa and Paris for the next two seasons, but IHOF Bowl XXXVI turned out to be his last game as a starter.

The opening day starting quarterback was Stanley Bissel, initially signed from Gothenburg to have enough quarterbacks going into training camp. Bissel's season ended after just 1 pass attempt in the second game, ending the season on injured reserve. Sixth year pro Harry Osborne stepped in and guided the Merchantmen to a 7-0 start. In week 9, surprisingly Corbett took over and continued the streak to 8 wins with just 65 points allowed. The Merchantmen flip-flopped between Osborne and Corbett, eventually settling for Corbett and crashed out in the playoffs 24-0 at home against the Atlanta Vipers. To this day, everybody in and around the Merchantmen organization kept thinking "what if Osborne was giving the start?"

The quarterback controversy ended in the 2041 off-season. The Merchantmen signed veteran quarterback Perry Coleman to be their starter for a handful of seasons. Injuries plagued Coleman in his second and fourth season in Maassluis, resulting in short comebacks for Osborne. Bissel was cut in that 2041 off-season, Corbett in the 2042 off-season. The Merchantmen once again improved their defense, sending their 2042 first rounder to Minnesota for cornerback Mark Pomato. The defensive line was improved with the signing of Dennis Lucas as their new pass duo with Eugene Johnstone. The defense continued to be impressive, keeping opponents below 300 points for 8 straight seasons from 2040 to 2047. Linebacker Fred McCorkle was past his peak, but otherwise the team remained pretty much unchanged for Coleman's reign. In 2042 the first round picks of the next two drafts were traded to draft running back Harold Riley, to take over from early over the hill Donald Terry, and to draft tight end Irving Clark, in hopes to improve the passing game.

In 2044, Coleman's season was cut short and with Osborne failing to get the confidence from the staff, second-year undrafted pro scrambling quarterback Malik Weaver was thrown in. In spite of the woes at quarterback, the Merchantmen still managed to finish the 2044 season with 7 wins, leaning on that all-star defense and seeing Terry Haskell have his best season to date. Still, after 9 seasons the streak of double-digit wins and playoff visits was over. After the season, Thurman Hopper retired, one year after his fellow safety Perry Walker.

2040 13-3 (2nd) conference semifinals
2041 11-5 (5th) wild card round
2042 10-6 (6th) wild card round
2043 11-5 (5th) conference semifinals
2044 7-9 (8th)

MIJB#19

11-17-2018, 06:56 PM

2045 - 2056 The Bryson Chow era

And then there was Bryson Chow. Without hesitation, the Merchantmen started the 2045 off-season with a blockbuster trade. Result of the worst season in quite some time, the Merchantmen held the #12 overall pick. The Merchantmen packaged their 2045 draft picks and first and second round picks in 2046 for the #1 overall pick. Everybody in the IHOF knew one thing for sure: quarterback Bryson Chow was the top prospect and a hall of famer in the making. Chow was the Merchantmen's new man under center. As early as training camp 2045, the Merchantmen started to realize that Chow wasn't a generational player, but still had the potential to be a starting quality quarterback. Chow struggled in his rookie campaign, but despite having future hall of famer Coleman still around, the Merchantmen committed to Chow. His rookie season turned out to be the only losing season of the Merchantmen with Chow on the team.

In 12 seasons, Chow had to work with wide receivers far below the franchise's standards as 2047 first round pick Marvin Badger and 2051 first round pick wide receiver Braxton Carter both turned out to be a disappointment. Despite sticking around for 10 and 11 seasons, they combined for just 2 1,000-yard seasons. Luckily, in his first couple of seasons, past his prime Terry Haskell continued to be a force. In 2046, Chow posted his first winning season, division title and a victory in the playoffs over the Bordeaux Vineyards. In 2047, the Merchantmen started the season 1-4, with their only victory being a 52-24 hammering of the Tucker Tigers. But starting in week 7, the team was off for a monstrous series of 11 straight victories, only once winning by less than 10 points and somehow earning the #1 seed in the playoffs. They beat the Houston Mustangs, but fell to the San Antonio Tidal Force in the AOC Championship game.

In 2048 the Merchantmen traded their first round pick for veteran defensive end Andrew Matthews, but even more importantly they sent their 2049 first round pick to Snapfinger for running back Norbert Talley. With Talley, the Merchantmen returned to a run-heavy approach. At the same time, one by one, the other stars of the team quit the game and the Merchantmen failed to find replacements of similar quality. Terry Haskell and Wesley Devine retired in the 2049 off-season, Daniel Duncan in the 2050 off-season and Dennis Lucas, Marc Crum and Mark Pomato in the 2051 off-season. In 2049 the Merchantmen took linebacker Jeremiah Collier, but he failed to reach the standards of Devine and Duncan. In 2052 the Merchantmen drafted cornerback Everett Heiser in the second round, who turned out to be the best cornerback since Randall Allen and Ben Greer from 29 and 34 seasons earlier.

The Chow-Talley lead Merchantmen set a new standard for mediocrity, finishing at 8 or 9 wins season after season. The rare 11-win season in 2051 was a rare feat, but the Merchantmen still managed to miss the playoffs. In 2055, Chow finally posted his first 4,000-yard season and repeated that in 2056. That season, former fourth round pick running back Fernando Scott had taken the place of Norbert Talley. Talley finished his career after the 2055 season as the all-time IHOF leader in rushing attempts and second overall in rushing yards. 2054 first round pick wide receiver Kai Oburn had ended the trend of bad receivers and had 105 catches for 1,520 yards in 2056. The Merchantmen posted three impressive victories in the last three regular season games and sneaked into the playoffs at 9-7 as the last AOC wild card. The streak continued as the Merchantmen posted close victories in Gothenburg and North Plainfield to reach the AOC Championship game in Toronto. In a shootout, Chow threw for 295 yards, but was unable to avoid the 42-34 deficit. At last, Chow had managed what the hall of famers Louie Flannery and Rusty Harrison also achieved: to reach and lose with the Merchantmen in the AOC Championship game.

2045 7-9 (12th)
2046 10-6 (3rd) conference semifinals
2047 12-4 (1st) conference finalist
2048 9-7 (4th) conference semifinals
2049 8-8 (8th)
2050 8-8 (7th)
2051 11-5 (7th)
2052 9-6-1 (7th)
2053 9-7 (4th) conference semifinals
2054 8-8 (8th)
2055 8-8 (11th)
2056 9-7 (6th) conference finalist

MIJB#19

11-17-2018, 06:59 PM

2057 - 2064 Lester Lowe period

In the 2057 off-season, all signs were the Merchantmen wanted to build on the 2056 success with Chow still as the starter. The Merchantmen used their 2058 first rounder to move up from #29 to #14 overall to select wide receiver Riddick Stanley and in that trade also acquired quarterback Lester Lowe from Augusta. In the fifth round the Merchantmen drafted defensive end Jordan St. Pierre, who became a day one starter. Chow guided his team to a 3-2 start, but off-season acquisition Lowe was forced into action in week 7 as the new starter. Following a 23-30 loss to the Lake Monsters, the Merchantmen won 8 games straight, including a four game stretch where they averaged 43 points per game. They lost the last 2 regular season games, but by then had already locked up the division title and #3 seed in the playoffs. In the playoffs, Lowe guided the Merchantmen past North Plainfield and they followed up with upset victories at Toronto (37-31) and Tucker (34-30) to reach IHOF Bowl LIV. In a close game, the Merchantmen eventually came short to the Williamsburg Colonials (34-27 loss).

As undisputed Chow had been for so long, Lester Lowe had taken over. With Riddick Stanley, Kai Oburn and the tight end tandem Jorge Juruvicius and Emmanuel Forbes (2056 first round pick), Lowe had four stellar receivers. In the 2058 draft the Merchantmen added wide receiver Bubba Ellard to the mix with their late second round pick. The Merchantmen passing game kept improving and the Merchantmen became an elite offense. In 2058 they posted a 13-3 record after an 8-0 start, but as #2 seeds fell flat 17-14 to the San Antonio Tidal Force. Bryson Chow retired after that season. In 2059 the Merchantmen seemed unstoppable. The Merchantmen posted a 15-1 record, scoring 562 points and allowing only 254 points, leading the league with those figures by large margins. Shockingly, the Merchantmen crashed once again in the playoffs, losing 31-17 at home to the Atlanta Vipers, becoming arguably the best team to go one and done.

In 2060 the team quickly regrouped and despite scoring only 383 points, they went into the playoffs with a 12-4 record as the #3 seeds. Following a home victory over San Antonio to avenge the 2058 defeat, they followed up with a 24-21 shocker in Tucker. By virtue of facing the #4 seeded Atlanta, they hosted the AOC Championship game and had yet another payback moment, winning 34-17 to reach IHOF Bowl LVII. The Chicago Norsemen and Merchantmen made it a close game. Chicago with their run heavy approach and Maassluis with their quintet of receiving threats for Lowe. The Norsemen played it cooler though and came out of it victorious (17-14).

In 2061, Jurevicius was the first of Lowe's targets to retire. The Merchantmen once again started strong (10-1) and despite a 3-game losing streak still claimed the #2 seed. Their old playoffs nemesis Tucker Tigers handed them another one and done. In 2062 the Merchantmen started the rebuild of the defense. Defensive tackles Shaun Hartman (first round) and Preston Urquoila (fourth round) were drafted, while defensive tackle Brian Tyler was signed as a free agent to mentor those two. Urquiola spent the season inactive, but Hartman immediately made an impact teamed up with Jordan St. Pierre and Brian Tyler. The Merchantmen offense struggled with how the game had changed. The offense scored only 294 points, seeing the team miss the playoffs for the first time since Lester Lowe took over.

In 2063 the Merchantmen fell even further, posting a losing record for the first time in 18 seasons. They actually had a chance to win the division, but choked in week 17. The 2064 season started even worse, but after a 2-7 start, they regrouped and won 7 straight to miss the playoffs on tie-breakers. Some of the credit went to the class of 2064. Trades in previous off-seasons had them going into the 2064 draft it with first rounder picks from Colorado, Outer Banks and their own. After additional wheeling and dealing, the Merchantmen used the #10 on cornerback Peter Tucker, #12 on linebacker Gabe Hamilton and #16 on linebacker Edward Ross. Second round pick cornerback Kendrick Stewart busted (just 1 season in the league), fourth round pick Bradley Gutsche never became a full time starter and fifth round defensive tackle Spencer Rousseau was a career backup, but they also used a sixth round pick on wide receiver J.T. Rivera and in the seventh round selected Daquan Strugielski.

2057 11-5 (3rd) conference champion
2058 13-3 (2nd) conference semifinals
2059 15-1 (1st) conference semifinals
2060 12-4 (3rd) conference champion
2061 12-4 (2nd) conference semifinals
2062 10-6 (7th)
2063 7-9 (11th)
2064 9-7 (8th)

MIJB#19

11-17-2018, 07:01 PM

2065 - 2072 Alfred Hickman period

With Lester Lowe coming off his worst passer rating, the Merchantmen sent their 2066 first round pick to Hanalei for quarterback Alfred Hickman. The draft resulted in #16 overall taken center Tom Anaya. With the loaded defense, Hickman basically just had to make sure the offense scored enough points to get ahead and maintain the lead. Given the game plan on offense, it proved to be difficult for Hickman. Aside from his first season in Maassluis, Hickman threw for 20 or more interceptions in each of the 2066 to 2069 seasons. He did throw for 4,367 or more yards in 5 straight seasons. Contract disputed forced the Merchantmen into cutting Hickman prior to the 2070 training camp. He returned in 2071 after the Merchantmen went through the 2070 season with Robbie Rhoades at quarterback. With Hickman, the Merchantmen seemed to be able to turn any wide receiver into a 1,000-yard receiver. Bubba Ellard (2065-2067), J.T. Rivera (2068), Riddick Stanley (2068), Gerald Cook (2069), J.R. Mills (2070-2072) and Rusty Andrade (2071) all topped 1,000 yards in a 5-season period. Cook was a 2063 third round pick, Andrade an undrafted rookie signing in 2066 and J.R. Mills Maassluis' 2069 first round pick. But we're getting ahead of ourselves.

In 2065 the Merchantmen returned to the elite, posting a 12-4 record and losing to Houston in the conference semifinals. In 2066, the Merchantmen had some struggles, but at 10-5-1 still were European division champions. Hickman even posted more interceptions than passing touchdowns, a rare feat for a Merchantmen quarterback. Yet, leaning on the extremely talented defense, the Merchantmen cruised through the playoffs. Bordeaux (21-18), North Plainfield (31-23) and Houston (31-20) were beaten, the last two on the road. The Merchantmen had reached IHOF Bowl LXIII. Despite going into the game as underdogs to the 13-3 Texas Sharks, the Merchantmen defense took control early on and paved the way to a dominating 33-3 victory. Fittingly, defensive tackle Shaun Hartman received IHOF Bowl MVP honors, achieving what Charles Gomez never did. Moreover, the Merchantmen finally reached the top, they were IHOF champions!

Their championship defense campaign was a typical struggle. With a 5-6 record, they looked done, but after a 5-game winning streak, they claimed another division title with a 10-6 record. Victories over Snapfinger (24-17) and at Houston (29-24) gave then an opportunity to become back-to-back 10-win conference champions. But despite hosting the AOC Championship game against the North Plainfield Plague, they lost a back-and-forth game 35-32. Moreover, the victory at Houston turned out to be the last victory in a playoff game for a long time.

Despite the apparent ability to turn any receiver into a 1,000-yard receiver, the selection of J.R. Mills as the #9 overall pick (traded up from #24) in the 2069 draft marked the arrival of the third elite wide receiver in Maassluis after Gabe Springer and Terry Haskell. In the 2071 draft, the Merchantmen selected offensive tackle Oscar Meadows #14 overall, moving up from #21 overall, having acquired that pick from Texas a draft prior. At #19 overall, moved up from #24, the Merchantmen selected quarterback Robbie Howe, despite having re-acquired Alfred Hickman as a free agent. Unlike with previous first round pick quarterbacks, the plan was clear to bring Howe slowly, banking on Hickman to stick around for a couple of season and likely ending up in another money dispute to force him out of Maassluis again. The 2072 draft saw the arrival of wide receiver Brody Stevens, giving Maassluis a wide receiver duo with more talent than any previous tandems. Stevens' rookie campaign was underwhelming, but the prospect of having Howe to throw to Mills and Stevens, with 2069 third round pick running back Lance Blackwell toting the ball from behind Anaya and Meadows, the Merchantmen figured that their stretch of 10-6 or better seasons wasn't going to end soon and the lack of victories in the playoffs was soon to be over.

2065 12-4 (3rd) conference semifinals
2066 10-5-1 (3rd) IHOF champions
2067 10-6 (3rd) conference finalist
2068 10-6 (4th) wild card round
2069 10-6 (6th) wild card round
2070 11-5 (3rd) wild card round
2071 12-4 (3rd) wild card round
2072 11-5 (5th) wild card round

tzach

11-18-2018, 06:24 AM

this is wonderful stuff, mijb. great read for those of us that are relatively new to the league. i hope you find the motivation to continue writing about one of the most traditional franchises in IHOF.

MIJB#19

11-18-2018, 09:33 AM

2073 - 2077 Search for franchise quarterback continues

In the 2073 off-season, the Merchantmen anticipated the upcoming decline of their star player defense. Linebacker Antonio Battle was taken with the #12 overall pick after a trade up from #23. It turned out to be necessary as Gabe Hamilton appeared to be the first of the stars to fall apart. At the same time, the Merchantmen management and Alfred Hickman's agents were once again on opposite sides of the table. Just like in the 2070 off-season, the two parties failed to find an agreement, as Hickman rightfully so felt like he was a playoff caliber quarterback and the Merchantmen felt he didn't deserve that kind of money. With Robbie Howe far from ready to take over, the Merchantmen rang the Oakland Black Panthers and acquired their veteran backup quarterback Winston Buckner. It turned out to be a good decision. Despite losing star wide receiver J.R. Mills in week 3 for the season. Buckner proved to be capable of running the gun slinger passing game the Merchantmen have made their style. With 13.35 yards per catch and 35 touchdowns, Buckner had some numbers that resembled a winning quarterback. The Merchantmen started the season 7-2, but a couple of closely contested home losses and an unnecessary 40-34 loss at Gothenburg put them in a must-win-and-still-need-help situation. The Merchantmen rolled up Williamsburg and Bordeaux, but despite the 10-6 record missed the playoffs on head-to-head tie-breaker to Gothenburg.

Buckner's stint in Maassluis was short, as the Merchantmen failed to even offer him a contract extension before week 1. With Mills back fully recovered and Brody Stevens expected to finally break out, the Merchantmen thought they had the weapons to make any quarterback play well. As a result, the Merchantmen committed to their first round pick from 2071 Robbie Howe in his fourth season in the league. The Merchantmen improved their pass protection on the line with rookie left tackle Louie Murray, which also meant Oscar Meadows would be able to move back to his natural position at right tackle. Against all odds, Howe played admirably well, nearly reaching the 4,000-yard mark and throwing 26 touchdown versus 20 interceptions. Howe flip-flopped from good to bad games and in the last six games was held under 200 yards 4 times. Apparently the 51-yard showing in week 17 20-16 loss at home against the Paris Musketeers, in which a victory would have actually put the Merchantmen in the playoffs, was the moment the Merchantmen management decided to look for a new quarterback in the 2075 off-season.

The Merchantmen found their new quarterback in Erick Loera, who lead the Tucker Tigers to the last four IHOF Bowls, with one victory. Loera was out of contract and decided to see what he could do away from the team that picked him in the third round of the 2063 draft. Loera had the mobility and strong arm that should make him capable to succeed in the Merchantmen offensive game plan. Howe's respectable performance made his agents think Howe deserved starting money and as the Merchantmen decided to not pay it to him, Howe decided to hold out. The Merchantmen were unimpressed and cut Howe, choosing their 2074 sixth round pick Ellis McAlister to stick as the primary backup. The overhaul of the defense continued. Shaun Hartman and his sidekick Preston Urqouila both stepped away from football, while two-time Solecismic Defensive Player of the Year Daquan Strugielski made the team in a role as the fourth defensive end. Gabe Hamilton retired as well. The Merchantmen invested with the #15 overall in cornerback Dylan Small and swapped the #20 overall for defensive tackle Glen Stiegler, whom the Rochester Razorbacks had taken at #16 overall, despite not really wanting him. The demise of the defense became apparent, as the Merchantmen gave up over 400 points for the first time since the 2020 season. Stiegler proved to be too green to make an impact, while Small turned out to be a complete bust.
Nevertheless, despite falling from a 6-4 start to an 8-8 finish, the Merchantmen were the beneficiary of widespread mediocrity in the league and snuck into the playoffs. They were no match to the Atlanta Vipers in the wild card round.

The 2076 off-season marked the departure of three more potential hall of famers. Defensive end Daquan Strugielski, linebacker Edward Ross and cornerback Peter Tucker all retired, as did linebacker Gabe Hamilton, who had missed the 53-men cut in Maassluis in the 2075 pre-season. It felt right that the Class of 2064 retired altogether. Rumor has it that the release of Hamilton prompted the decision of the three remaining stars to step away from the game. The Merchantmen did little to fill the gaps, even cutting bust Dylan Small, sticking just to filling the void on the offensive line by taking guard Harvey Hank with the #20 overall pick in the 2076 draft. The Merchantmen felt Loera to Mills and Stevens was enough to keep the offense going. After a 6-2 start with an easier second half schedule, the Merchantmen thought they were back in business. But despite stumbling into a 8-5 record, the wheels cam off in the last three regular season games, dropping them to 8-8 and far away from the playoffs.

The 2077 off-season marked the arrival of quarterback Sammy Erickson. He was brought in to challenge Loera for the starting role. On defense, the Merchantmen selected linebacker Glenn Brewer #30 overall in he draft, after moving down from the #16 slot. The Merchantmen also invested in defensive backs who excelled in one or two pass defense schemes and are weak in the other(s). It backfired and the Merchantmen defense gave up 446 points, just 4 short of tying the worst figure in team history. The defense also ranked last in rushing yards and total yards allowed. Despite all that, 2077 became the season of J.R. Mills. Sammy Erickson won the quarterback battle over Erick Loera, throwing for a career high 4,731 yards, but it also turned out to be a blessing for Mills. With 13 100-yard games, Mills racked up the yardage, ending the season with 225 yards and 3 touchdowns in a 44-21 trashing of the Paris Musketeers. Mills finished the season with 2,228 yards receiving, the third highest figure in league history and breaking Gabe Springer's franchise record by 559 yards. Despite the worst defense in the league, the offense still managed to outscore the opponents by 6, but it wasn't enough to avoid the first losing season since the 2063 season.

2073 10-6 (7th)
2074 8-8 (10th)
2075 8-8 (6th) wild card round
2076 8-8 (8th)
2077 7-9 (11th)

MIJB#19

11-18-2018, 09:35 AM

So, that wraps up the history lessons. The 75th season of IHOF has begun with the off-season. Training camp is upcoming, I'll get y'all up to date what we did in the off-season.

MIJB#19

11-18-2018, 10:00 AM

2078 Pre-training camp report: quarterback situation
Going into camp, the situation looks awesome in the short run. We've managed to persuade Bennett Morris from Orlando to play in Maassluis. Morris was second in the league with 4,747 passing yards last season. Yes, that was just ahead of our own Sammy Erickson (4,731 yards). Due to Morris' massive cap figure, it was necessary to release Erick Loera in the off-season. We've also brought a bunch of young unproven quarterbacks to camp. Let's take a look at the scouting report:
<table border=1><tr><td>cur/fut<td>name<td>age<td>strengths<td>weaknesses
<tr><td>74/74<td>Bennett Morris<td>35<td>Too many to list<td>3rd down
<tr><td>48/48<td>Sammy Erickson<td>27<td>short passing, deep passing<td>medium passing, 2-minute offense
<tr><td>34/42<td>Ellis McAlister<td>26<td>long passing, mentor<td>mediocre sense rush, 2-minute offense
<tr><td>19/36<td>Kerry McAdams<td>23<td>potential long passing<td>2-minute offense
<tr><td>17/31<td>Jamal Radford<td>24<td>sense rush, scrambler<td>long passing, 3rd down, 2-minute offense
<tr><td>10/29<td>Jamie Holmes<td>22<td>kick holder<td>just a kick holder
</table>
Usually, I bring only 3 quarterbacks into the regular season, never have I felt right with just 2, but 4 is also uncommon. We actually had 4 last season, with Radford and McAlister both looking decent enough to have a chance to break out. Holmes is very likely to make the final 53-men roster, I demand my team to always have one of the best holders and Holmes looks like he's in the top5 in the league. So, that means we might actually cut both the talented guys after pre-season. Same applies to McAdams. If one of them breaks out, 4 quarterbacks could ne an option, or a trade of Erickson.
Actually, Erickson has already proven he can play and Morris gives us our best quarterback since Rusty Harrison (in pure talent). It will be tricky to keep Erickson happy, he's the best backup we've had since Jay McGee was backing up Harrison. If we can keep Erickson happy, he should be able to take over once Morris feels like it's enough. But with quarterback you never know when that is. This will be Morris' 13th season, it could be anywhere from 1 to 6 more seasons.
Traditionally, I've been one to draft the franchise quarterback (Flannery, Harrison, Chow), but it has proven to be worthwhile to look around for quarterbacks that fell out of favor with their owner either due to lack of performance or because they've been replaced by a young gun. In a way, I've always been able to find a quarterback through trade or free agency, but having both Erickson and Morris is a luxury.

MIJB#19

11-18-2018, 10:27 AM

2078 Pre-training camp report: offensive line
Sure, the game lists the skill players above the offensive line, but I'll take a look at this unit first. If you take a look at our team in more detail, you will see quarterback with high sense rush ability. My philosophy is that pass rush pressure is about 40% on the quarterback's sense rush, 40% on the line's pass protections skills and 20% on having a hard to guess game plan. We've got a talented unit here, let's take a look at the scouting report:
<table border=1><tr><td>cur/fut<td>pos<td>name<td>age<td>run<td>pass<td>notes
<tr><td>74/74<td>RT<td>Oscar Meadows<td>28<td>++<td>+++<td>
<tr><td>66/66<td>C<td>Tom Anaya<td>38<td>++<td>+<td>age
<tr><td>66/66<td>G<td>Carlos Webb<td>27<td>+++++<td>--<td>low endurance
<tr><td>66/66<td>G<td>Harvey Hank<td>23<td>+<td>+++<td>low endurance
<tr><td>51/51<td>LT<td>Louie Murray<td>26<td>---<td>++<td>
<tr><td>41/44<td>C<td>Steven Houshmandzadeh<td>25<td>avg<td>avg<td>low strength
<tr><td>28/40<td>LT<td>Richie Coughenour<td>25<td>-----<td>+<td>
<tr><td>27/27<td>G<td>Bryson Hamilton<td>29<td>-----<td>--<td>
</table>
In principle, I used to be able to find my starting linemen in the 3rd, 4th and 5th rounds. The current unit only in part is like that as Anaya, Hank and Meadows are all 1st round picks. Webb was a 3rd round pick and Murray a 6th round pick. I consider them both as prototypical at their positions. Usually I want my LT to be a great pass blocker, don't care too much about run blocking. Second, the center has to be rock solid in run blocking. At right guard, I want a run blocker, making him and the center together be a better than average duo in that area. I want the RT and LG to support in both areas, the LG leaning towards being a pass blocker and the RT to a run blocker. The current quintet fits in my style quite well. Depth is non-existent. Houshmandzadeh is half-decent, we lost our tackle backup due to lack of playing time and I fully expect Hamilton to be even worse after pre-season.
Anaya and Webb are due a new contract, being in the final year. I will wait until after the pre-season volatility rolls and age effect revelation to see whether Anaya is worth extending and Webb is still the top-notch guard that he looks like now. I'll have to find about $10M of cap space for Webb though, which could be tricky.

MIJB#19

11-18-2018, 10:50 AM

2078 Pre-training camp report: backfield
In the recent draft, I picked Walt Blair with the #13 overall pick. Surely this is out of character for me (and the team), because for years I've been able to find decent runners with later round picks, or traded for an elite running back (Givens, Talley). I cut Lance Blackwell in late free agency, our main ball carrier of the last 9 seasons. I suspect he'd be about 4.0 yards per carry worth next season, which doesn't make him worth the $15M he'd cost. Let's take a look at the scouting report:
<table border=1><tr><td>cur/fut<td>pos<td>name<td>age<td>player type
<tr><td>49/67<td>RB<td>Walt Blair<td>22<td>speed back
<tr><td>40/40<td>FB<td>Gilbert Taliancich<td>29<td>run blocker
<tr><td>33/33<td>RB<td>Deion Connell<td>28<td>power back
<tr><td>32/39<td>RB<td>Raul Curie<td>26<td>power back
<tr><td>29/36<td>RB<td>Jose Smoot<td>24<td>speed back
<tr><td>29/35<td>RB<td>Ronald Graham<td>23<td>speed back
<tr><td>25/37<td>FB<td>Donald Latschaw<td>25<td>run blocker
<tr><td>23/23<td>RB<td>Dean Meadows<td>28<td>return specialist
</table>
In the backfield, I look at 3 types of players: a run blocking fullback, a power back and a speed back. The first one seems to speak for itself: a fullback with very high run blocking skills. Taliancich is that kind of player. Latschaw has the potential to be that, but there's no guarantee his potential is enough to make the 53-men roster, we cut him in pre-season last season. The power back to me is a player with power inside and third down running ability. In the past we've had fullbacks capable of playing this role, but it should preferably be a running back with low elusiveness, to minimize the number of runs for a loss. Connell and Curie will fight is out for that role, where Connell does have the edge in cohesion value and having superior hole recognition.
The speed back is a running back with high hole recognition and breakaway speed, while having low elusiveness. Blair, Smoot and Graham are all high on the first two. Graham is low on elusiveness, while Blair and Smoot appear to be about average. It's also important to have endurance, because we want this player to be our 1st and 2nd down rusher. Blair does have the endurance, while Smoot and Graham don't, which means these last two are basically change of pace material at best.
Every now or then, a player comes around that can play both the power back and speed back role, Hall of Famers Givens and Talley played that role for us in old times. We tried Lucas Blackwell to play it recently, with mixed results. In the end we let Blackwell alternate formations with a true speed back.
Last but not least, I believe in cohesion being a factor for a running back to be successful. As a result, I try to draft linemen and running backs a season before they become starters. Lately it's become harder to keep that going, which means linemen are thrown in there as rookies and rookie running backs do get carries. That's why the selection of Walt Blair is atypical.
After pre-season, I will likely keep Blair, either Connell or Curie for third down duty, either Smoot or Graham for the change of pace role and Dean Meadows will make the team if he ends up being the best punt returner or kickoff returner. And if I think I can keep up with his fumbling habit.

MIJB#19

11-18-2018, 11:08 AM

2078 Pre-training camp report: receivers
Awesome, we drafted the fastest player in the league: Rico Techen! Well, we all know that's not worth a lot if you can't turn that speed into football skills, but a 6th round pick is worth that gamble. We're coming off a season where J.R. Mills played a season that we thought impossible to ever see happen. 1,500 yards was considered the golden standard for excellence, but after a 2,200 yard season, anything below 1,600 yards will be a disappointment. Techen is the only new face in camp, with nobody of the 2077 roster disappeared. Let's take a look at the scouting report:
<table border=1><tr><td>cur/fut<td>pos<td>name<td>age<td>strength<td>weakness
<tr><td>60/60<td>WR<td>J.R. Mills<td>31<td>route running, big-play ability<td>drops, endurance
<tr><td>59/59<td>WR<td>Brody Stevens<td>28<td>big-play ability, no real weaknesses<td>no real strentghs
<tr><td>57/57<td>TE<td>Monty Elliott<td>24<td>good blocker, ok receiver<td>big-play ability
<tr><td>50/50<td>WR<td>Dennis Nadell<td>24<td>route running<td>endurance
<tr><td>42/42<td>TE<td>Randal Curtis<td>30<td>ok blocker<td>route running, endurance
<tr><td>41/41<td>TE<td>Branden Schwirzke<td>29<td>good receiver<td>can't block, endurance
<tr><td>36/36<td>WR<td>Patrick Henry<td>30<td>cohesion<td>no real strengths
<tr><td>23/30<td>WR<td>Rico Techen<td>22<td>big-play ability<td>route running, cohesion
<tr><td>23/23<td>WR<td>Mickey Allen<td>30<td>big-play ability, cohesion<td>declining
<tr><td>21/21<td>TE<td>Markell Ellison<td>29<td>ok run blocker, cohesion<td>lack of receiving skills
</table>
At tight end, it's nice to have a guy that can run block and be a force in the passing game as a receiver. But with the rules of the game demanding teams to carry at least 3 tight ends, it's cheaper to have some run blocking experts and have some receiving type players. Thankfully we landed Elliott in the 6th round of the 2076 draft, making him still a cheap player for the near complete tight end that he is. Schwirzke is the better receiver and Curtis can catch a short pass on third downs or in the end zone. Curtis is also our second best blocker, which is great for third down situations. Ellison has proven to be able to play third down tight end. But most likely he will spend the third straight season inactive.
At wide receiver, Mills is our best guy, by far. Stevens has been up and down, being down last season, eventually making me put Nadell second in the pecking order. Nadell's route running appears to also be a double team magnet to liberate Mills, but that's not by design at all. It will be interesting to see if Techen will be good enough to replace Allen as our fifth receiver on the roster.

MIJB#19

11-18-2018, 11:27 AM

2078 Pre-training camp report: special teams
Traditionally, I have strived to have an above average punter and kicker, supported by top5 talent at long snapper and kick holder. Additionally, I want above average to top5 talent at both punt returning and kickoff returning. Given all that, it becomes slightly harder to find a good number of other players with above average to very good special teams skills. I strive to have at least 2 excellent guys, but it's no guarantee. Depth at other positions can come with their sacrifices. We lost our long time long snapper to retirement in the off-season and found a decent enough replacement in Chris Bertolone as a free agent. Let's take a look at the scouting report:
<table border=1><tr><td>cur/fut<td>pos<td>name<td>age<td>notes
<tr><td>67/67<td>P<td>Tito Hornsby<td>30<td>top10 talent punter
<tr><td>57/57<td>K<td>Dave Eiermann<td>24<td>top10 talent kicker
<tr><td>20/20<td>LS<td>Chris Bertolone<td>29<td>top10 talent long snapper
<tr><td><td>QB<td>Jamie Holmes<td>22<td>top5 talent kick holding
<tr><td><td>RB<td>Dean Meadows<td>28<td>top10 punt returner, top10 kickoff returner
<tr><td><td>WR<td>Brody Stevens<td>28<td>top35 kickoff returner
<tr><td><td>CB<td>Amari Lavelli<td>23<td>top20 punt returner
<tr><td><td>CB<td>Bart Lahnum<td>27<td>top10 kickoff returner
<tr><td><td>CB<td>Tyrus Kirkpatrick<td>25<td>top15 kickoff returner
</table>
This collective comes close to what I desire. I'm undecided on whom to assign the starting roles in the return specialist roles. Meadows has fumbled a bit more than I'd like to see him do. Lavelli has been even worse (sample size be damned) fumbling 2 times on 4 returns. Lahnum and Kirkpatrick have been without fumbles so far. Kirkpatrick was an end of season signing.
In the 'other' department, we have a mixed bag of players capable to play special teams:
90+ LB Turner, S McIndoe
80+ WR Stevens, RB Connell, LB Foster, DE Morrish
70+ LB Nason, TE Elliott
60+ RB Curie, S Kornbluth, WR Allen, CB Kirkpatrick
50+ DT Stevens, DT Stiegler, FB Latschaw, FB Taliancich, RB Blair

MIJB#19

11-18-2018, 11:32 AM

I may or may not continue with a longer write down of the defense, time dependent.

Most importantly, I suspect our horrible display on defense was in part a result of the large change over in players recently. Cohesion usually is a strength of the Merchantmen defense, but last season both the front seven and secondary ranked in the bottom third in that area. That won't work with a team that's usually designed to be filled with players that are one-trick or two-trick type of players. Our linebackers are an exception to things, but especially the defensive line is loaded with players that should be excellent pass rushers, but need the cohesion boost to go from a good DL to the top3 pass rush that we have been for quite some time with Shaun Hartman, Daquan Strugielski and linebacker Edward Ross out there.

MIJB#19

11-18-2018, 11:37 AM

Additionally, aside from the historical stuff, I hope to find time for a bunch of player stories of players that have been the face of the franchise, are hall of famers, should be hall of famers or will likely be hall of famers a couple of seasons down the road. I've kept my record of players that I think belong in a Merchantmen ring of honor. Or maybe just an all-time Merchantmen selection of 53 names to honor the 75th anniversary.

tzach

11-19-2018, 02:14 PM

i'll be following this, mijb. pretty thorough report of MAA's status.

MIJB#19

11-19-2018, 03:09 PM

2078 Pre-training camp report: defensive line
We lost our sack machine Craig Ford, who had been part of the support cast of Hartman and Stugielski for quite some time. Posante was drafted in the second round in anticipation of a decline of Turner or Stevens.
Let's take a look at the scouting report:
<table border=1><tr><td>cur/fut<td>pos<td>name<td>age<td>run D<td>pass rush<td>other notes
<tr><td>60/60<td>DT<td>Glen Stiegler<td>26<td>+<td>+++<td>
<tr><td>52/52<td>DE<td>Arnie May<td>28<td>---<td>++++<td>some endurance
<tr><td>42/50<td>DE<td>Todd Clinton<td>24<td>=<td>+<td>low endurance
<tr><td>42/42<td>DE<td>Herb Crane<td>28<td>=<td>++<td>low endurance
<tr><td>38/44<td>DE<td>Max Lyons<td>24<td>-<td>+<td>no endurance
<tr><td>36/36<td>DT<td>Willie Turner<td>30<td>=<td>=<td>
<tr><td>31/51<td>DT<td>Chandler Posante<td>23<td>-<td>=<td>no endurance
<tr><td>27/27<td>DT<td>Marc Stevens<td>30<td>=<td>+<td>low endurance
<tr><td>23/35<td>DE<td>Avery Morrish<td>24<td>--<td>---<td>special teamer
</table>
It should be obvious, but the report supports it: I like defensive linemen with pass rush technique. More over, I really like to have a bunch of guys capable, to nullify the lack of endurance a lot of these guys usually have. Stiegler is basically the only all downs player, the rest will be playing in a couple of package formations, based on whether we use that formation in run oriented or pass oriented situations. Clinton, Lyons and Posante look like the obvious running downs guys, with May, Crane and Stevens the pass rush support. Marrish might fail to miss the cut, moving him to linebacker is an alternative.

MIJB#19

11-19-2018, 03:26 PM

2078 Pre-training camp report: linebackers
I love Battle and Brewer. They could be the best linebacker duo in the league. Let's take a look at the scouting report:
<table border=1><tr><td>cur/fut<td>name<td>age<td>run D<td>pass defense<td>other notes
<tr><td>76/76<td>Antonio Battle<td>29<td>+++<td>+++++<td>complete LB
<tr><td>56/66<td>Glenn Brewer<td>23<td>=<td>+<td>complete LB
<tr><td>49/49<td>Roosevelt Dees<td>26<td>+<td>+<td>tackler
<tr><td>40/40<td>Stan Foster<td>23<td>-<td>++<td>zone defender
<tr><td>24/37<td>Abel Gonzalez<td>22<td>--<td>---<td>run stuffer
<tr><td>23/23<td>Chance Nason<td>27<td>--<td>----<td>special teamer
<tr><td>1/1<td>Alexis Turner<td>29<td>-----<td>-----<td>gunner
</table>
Yes, Battle and Brewer. They stepped into a long tradition of top-notch linebackers playing on the Merchantmen defense: Cody Cluff, Mike Kershner, Bernie Surry, R.J. Knight, Oliver Drake, Fred McCorkle, Wesley Devine, Daniel "Double D" Duncan, Jeremiah Collier, Edward Lyons, Gage Hamilton and Edward Ross. What some of those names missed, and Battle and Brewer do have, is being a complete linebacker, capable of anchoring the run defense, covering opposing receivers and quick enough to blitz he quarterback.
Foster and Dees have been in supporting roles last season, Foster has a slight edge on passing downs, while Dees is a much better option on run oriented formations. Gonzalez was a rookie free agent, longshot to make the team. Nason and Turner are special teamers.

MIJB#19

11-19-2018, 03:49 PM

2078 Pre-training camp report: secondary
We signed a couple of okay prospects at the end of the 2077 season and picked them up for the 2078 training camp. Glenn and McIndoe came on the team in the same fashion a couple of seasons ago. We have a young group that needs to develop cohesion.
Let's take a look at the scouting report:
<table border=1><tr><td>cur/fut<td>pos<td>name<td>age<td>schemes<td>other notes
<tr><td>59/59<td>CB<td>Alonzo Hitchcock<td>27<td>M2M, BnR, Zone<td>ballhawk
<tr><td>49/49<td>CB<td>Ezra Slocum<td>29<td>M2M, BnR<td>can't play zone
<tr><td>46/46<td>S<td>Maurice Harkleroad<td>28<td>Zone<td>all-round ok
<tr><td>43/43<td>CB<td>Herman Glenn<td>28<td>Zone, BnR<td>
<tr><td>39/48<td>CB<td>Amari Lavelli<td>23<td>BnR<td>punt returner, can't play zone
<tr><td>35/39<td>CB<td>Giovanni Morton<td>26<td>Zone<td>
<tr><td>35/35<td>S<td>Rex McIndoe<td>26<td>Zone<td>play diagnosis
<tr><td>35/35<td>CB<td>Bart Lahnum<td>27<td>uhm...<td>kickoff returner
<tr><td>33/33<td>S<td>Ben Gilbert<td>28<td>Zone<td>
<tr><td>32/32<td>CB<td>Tyrus Kirkpatrick<td>25<td>BnR<td>kickoff returner
<tr><td>29/29<td>S<td>Jonah Harden<td>30<td>Zone<td>ballhawk
<tr><td>20/29<td>S<td>Ricardo Kornbluth<td>26<td>Zone<td>some M2M potential
</table>
First and for most, Hitchcock and Harkleroad are fine players, but not in the realm of start that I would prefer to play as the shutdown corner and at strong safety. Hopefully Slocum or Lavelli will grown into shutdown ability in the right schemes. We've got enough players that can play a zone defense role well, with most of them also decent enough to catch a ball if it comes in their way. But, based on how awful we played last season, I'm not so sure we've got what it takes to play well in the current game...

MIJB#19

11-20-2018, 02:52 PM

2078 Training Camp Report
Eight players made good progress (+4 or more current), my theory is this level of progress is a sign of being starting quality. 14 others made at least some progress.
+7 LB Brewer
+5 QB McAlister, DE Lyons, CB Lavelli
+5/-1 DT Posante
+4 LT Coughenour, DE Clinton
+4/-1 LB Gonzalez
+3/+2 QB Holmes
+3 S Kornbluth, QB McAdams, FB Latschaw, RB Blair
+3/-1 CB Morton
+2 QB Radford, DE Morrish, RB Graham, RB Smoot, RB Curie
+1/+1 WR Techen
+1 G Hamilton
+1/-2 C Houshmanzadeh

But we all know that pre-season will reveal the declines of aging players, give a new look to the young players like they were never scouted before and some randomness.

Post Camp transactions
We released QB Kerry McAdams, RB Jose Smoot and CB Tyrus Kirkpatrick.

McAdams was a long shot to begin with. He was a 53-men cut casualty previous season and signed during the playoffs with the prospect of being a restricted free agent (and getting a cohesion boost). His sense rush is decent, as is his long passing. But we've got enough other options. His training camp was okay.

Jose Smoot started 3 games for us last season. That figure is mostly based on what formation we used on the first play from scrimmage, he was more of a short-term change of pace back that we used in 3 games on a couple of formations. With some time on the team he could grow into a 4.5 yards per carry back, but the competition was too heavy.

Tyrus Kirkpatrick was another soon to be restricted free agent playoffs signing. Quality kickoff returner, but I decided we should go with Lathum, Meadows and Stevens as the three options.

MIJB#19

11-21-2018, 12:48 PM

2078 Pre-Season, first two games
Alright, pre-season is here! Finally we're got to see some football. We went into the first couple of games with the intention to mostly play the youngsters and keep some starts off the field. Most notably quarterbacks Bennett Morris and Sammy Erickson have been saved for the second couple of games.

Despite the backups being in action, we managed to win both of the first two pre-season games. QB Ellis McAlister was in his usual pre-season form, completing 17 of 29 for 247 yards and 1 touchdown in the 19-12 win at the Oakland Black Panthers. How about the rookies? RB Walt Blair was inactive. RB Ronald Graham ran for only 4 yards on 6 carries. WR Rico Techen had 2 catches for 6 yards. DT Chandler Posante was on the field only 29 times, his endurance issues are already imminent? LB Abel Gonzalez lead the team with 3 passes defended.

The pre-season home game against the Arizona Miners wasn't nearly as close as the 31-24 score suggests. Arizona came back within 7 with only 14 second to play. We outgained them and actually forced turnovers. QB Ellis McAlister was even more impressive, completing 23 of 32 for 359 yards and 4 touchdowns. Two of those scores went to J.R. Mills, who wasn't supposed to see a lot of action, but still gained 101 yards on 5 receptions. Rookies: RB Blair was still inactive. RB Graham ran for 26 yards on 5 carries and had 1 catch for 29 yards. WR Techen had 2 receptions for 36 yards. DT Posante played on only 26 downs, this doesn't bode well. LB Gonzalez had 3 tackles.

Abel Gonzalez is one of six casualties of the first series of cuts down to 53. He was an undrafted rookie free agent signing and had an impressive training camp, but we're too deep at linebacker for this kid to make it without any special teams skills.

Veteran defensive tackle Marc Stevens is the biggest name of the six cuts. He was a starter the last 3 seasons, but never lived up to his pass rush potential.

Quarterback Jamal Radford was our 2077 5th round pick. We kept him inactive for the majority of his rookie season. His sense rush ability suggest he might be better than '31 overall', but behind Morris, Erickson, the emerging McAlister and kick holder Holmes we have no roster spot available.

Dean Meadows played 4 seasons with us. On paper was a starter in his third season, but gained only 2.7 yards per carry. He did win DogBytes Special Team Player of the Year honors as he scored 2 punt return touchdowns and 1 kickoff return touchdown. But his fumbling (18 on 528 touches) makes him a liability.

Safety Ricardo Kornbluth and defensive end Avery Morrish were both signed during the 2077 post-season. We gave them a training camp and 2 pre-season games to show their ability. But their odds to make the team were slit to begin with. Kornbluth does have the potential to be an excellent zone defender, but right now we'll prefer the cohesion other guys at safety give us. Morrish was only an option to make the team as a pure special teamer and I decided to stick with Alexis Turner and other long standing guys for that unit.

That leaves us with 54 guys signed, just 1 too many. We've got 3 starting quality quarterbacks, with Morris in the top5. Perhaps I should go onto the market and try to find a new home for Erickson or McAlister.
I'm also mulling over which running back should be our 3rd down back: Connell or Curie. First things first: two pre-season games to see what Morris with Mills, Stevens, Nadell, Elliott and Schwirzke might be capable of.

MIJB#19

11-22-2018, 04:53 PM

2078 Final pre-season games
And then there were 4 victories. The Maassluis Merchantmen fans should be ecstatic. Moreover, our key players all looked in tip top shape. In the past, it has been considered a jinx to go 4-0 in the pre-season. But seeing what they guys did, we should feel comfortable.

We rolled up the Hanalei Dragons 43-17 on the road. We were 27-14 up after the first quarter with touchdowns on all four of our possessions. Bennett Morris completed 11 of 13 for 158 yards and 1 touchdown. In relief, Sammy Erickson completed 15 of 29 for 173 yards, 1 touchdown and 1 interception. J.R. Mills caught 8 balls for 155 yards and 1 touchdown. Antonio Battle received game MVP honors due to his 3.5 sacks. Rookies? RB Walt Blair had 12 carries for 66 yards and 3 touchdowns, that's the kind of red zone play we've lacked in recent seasons. WR Rico Techen was invisible (active on 0 plays). DT Chandler Posante underwhelmed again with 1 lowsy tackle on just 13 plays active. QB Jamie Holmes won the kick holder role. RB Ronald Graham was inactive.

The home game against the Iowa Cobbers was closer, we overcame 2 interceptions to win 17-14 on a late game touchdown to come back from behind. Bennett Morris completed 12 of 19 passes for 209 yards, 1 touchdown and 1 interception. J.R. Mills had 7 catches for 200 yards and 1 touchdown, I think our main is in shape. RB Walt Blair had 8 carries for 46 yards (5.7 yards per carry). DT Chandler Posante woke up: 3 tackles, 1 assist and 1 sack, on 29 plays (progress!). WR Rico Techen was once again active on 0 plays.

Did I mention yet that Battle and Brewer have quickly become my second, maybe third, or form now perhaps fourth, most favorite linebacker duo. I mean, The Class of 2064 with Ross and Hamilton was super awesome. Devine and Double D were phenomenal in the roaring '40s, they even teamed up with Fred McCorkle for 3 seasons. R.J. Knight had Oliver Drake on his side for 5 seasons, but that defense struggled in general. Cody Cluff had Mike Kershner and later on Bernie Surry. But Battle and Brewer are so complete, they should be able to be all over the field and make it fun to watch our defense.

Incidentally, we agreed terms with Antonio Battle on a new contract, extending it by a season and making his cap figure $60.2M next season. The important part is that it frees the cap room required to finally make an offer to our all-IHOF second team guard Carlos Webb to keep him from becoming a free agent in the next off-season. Center Tom Anaya and linebacker Roosevelt Dees also extended their contract, making them signed for the next season.

But the core of the team is the offense. Bennett Morris has just played 2 pre-season games, but he's shown flashes of why we consider him the second most talented quarterback to ever wear the orange-white-and-blue. And that guy ahead of him was so brittle and Rusty, we decided to trade him to the Lake Monsters. Mills looked slightly slower in pre-season than we were used to, but the numbers suggest otherwise. Rookie Blair could be the other missing piece. He's going to run behind a line with Tom Anaya probably playing like he's on a mission to block himself into the top 10 all-time in key run blocks. No, not the Merchantmen's, the IHOF's.

MIJB#19

11-26-2018, 10:37 AM

2078 Regular Season, week 1
Expectations were sky high going into the season opener against the Bordeaux Vineyards. In a nearly sold out Oranje Haven, the Merchantmen and Vineyards performed one of the most sensational starts to a game. Bordeaux' Joel Stargell returned the opening kickoff for 94 yards and a touchdown. Bart Lahnum replied with a 34-yard return. Bennett Morris then got strip sacked on the first play from scrimmage by the blitzing Bordeaux linebacker Deron Newman, losing possession. Bordeaux' quarterback Ike Woodhouse tried to go for the endzone on their first play from scrimmage, but saw it get picked off by Alonzo Hitchcock. And on the next play, Bennett Morris connected with J.R. Mills on a medium distance pass that Mills ended up running all the way for a 94-yard touchdown. After just 1:14 minutes of game time, the score was tied Maassluis 7, Bordeaux 7!

From there on, the Merchantmen took control of the game. Bordeaux saw their next drive stalled on a 3rd and 16 attempt that went for 15 yards. Maassluis replied with an 80-yard drive ended by a 7-yard pass from Bennett Morris to Walt Blair, the two new faces in Maassluis showed their fans what they're capable of. The Merchantmen defense replied with a three and out, anchored by Glen Stiegler sack, and the Merchantmen offense finished the first quarter with Walt Blair running for a first down to the Bordeaux 9-yard line.

Walt Blair scored his second touchdown of his official debut on a 2-yard run. Dave Eiermann missed the extra point making it a 20-7 lead for Maassluis. The third Bordeaux drive was cut short after 4 plays, this time with a key sack from Arnie May. Another 80-yard drive for a touchdown was the Merchantmen answer, with Bennett Morris connected for 29 yards to J.R. Mills for the 27-7 lead after the PAT. Bordeaux kicked a 46-yard field goal, which set the half time score at 27-10 in Merchantmen advantage.

Maassluis was stopped early despite a 19-yard run from Walt Blair, setting Bordeaux up for a 93-yard drive, mostly consisting of no less than five 8 to 13 yard runs. Maassluis responded with a touchdown drive of their own, in which Bennett Morris ran on a crucial 3rd and 6 situation, completed for 10 yards to Monty Elliott on 3rd and 9 and found Branden Schwirzke in the end zone from 2 yards out for the 34-17 lead.

In the fourth quarter, Bordeaux was stopped near midfield, while Maassluis next pinned the Vineyards back at their 7-yard line. Ike Woodhouse completed for 19 yards to Avery England, for 22 yards to Monty Salinas and finally for 41 yards to Middlemarch Crackel to make it a two-score game (34-24 Maassluis). The Merchantmen responded with a time wasting drive that finished on another catch and run masterpiece from Bennett Morris to J.R. Mills, this time for 35 yards and a touchdown. Bordeaux drive all the way to the Maassluis 9-yard line in an attempt to comeback, but the drive ended in the end zone on Alonzo Hitckcock's second interception of the day. A 9-yard run on second down from Walt Blair was enough to make Bordeaux burn all their time outs and see Bennett Morris knee drop to the 41-24 victory!

Bennett Morris completed 17 of 27 passes for 297 yards and 5 touchdowns for a league leading 140.0 passer rating. J.R. Mills caught just 4 passes for a league leading 176 yards and 3 touchdowns. Walt Blair ran for 161 yards and 1 touchdown, ranking him 2nd in rushing yards. Offensively, that's pretty much all you can ask for, with touchdowns on 4 of the first 5 drives of the game.

The defense fell apart in the second half of the game, eventually giving up 142 yards rushing (7.9 per carry, 2nd worst in the league), with the majority coming from Bordeaux' non-scrambling quarterback. The pass defense played well, with Hitchcock's pair of interceptions and the team's 4 sacks and in total 14 of 43 plays broken up by the pass rush.

Despite the victory, the Merchantmen management tried to temper the optimism. Last season started with a similar 51-20 trouncing of the Gothenburg Giants, but the Merchantmen won just 3 of their next 12 games, with just 1 victory at home. This season continues with road games at the Hanalei Dragons and San Antonio Tidal Force, both finished last season with a 7-9 record. Today the Dragons went into an overtime game against the Colorado Cutthroats, which ended up tied 26-26 after both teams missed a game winning field goal in regulation, yet both scored a field goal in overtime (Clarence Rivera scored an impressive 58-yarder for Hanalei), leaving too little time left for either team to have a game winning drive.

MIJB#19

11-27-2018, 07:16 AM

2078 Regular season, week 2
And then we lost. We kicked 4 short field goals from our 4 red zone visits, costing us a lot of points that we needed against a decent Hanalei Dragons team that we outgained by 102 yards (413 vs 311) in a turnover free game where neither team had a field position advantage. Bennett Morris threw for 247 yards, 127 yards went to J.R. Mills, including a 24-yard touchdown. Rookie Walt Blair ran for 142 yards. Mills and Blair lead the league in receiving yards and rushing yards respectively, both with a 303 yards figure. Morris has the highest passer rating.

European Division
1 Paris 2-0
2 Maassluis 1-1
3 Gothenburg 0-2
4 Bordeaux 0-2

Next up, San Antonio Tidal force on the road. Like us, they are 1-1 with a divisional victory and a loss on the road against an NAC team.

MIJB#19

11-28-2018, 06:56 AM

2078 Regular season, week 3
The Maassluis Merchantmen returned home after a smooth 27-3 road victory over the San Antonio Tidal Force. The Merchantmen defense received accolades for keeping the Tidal Force to 184 total yards, with the only three point allowed coming after a drive that started at the Merchantmen 24-yard line. Linebacker Antonio Battle received player of the game honors.

Despite 425 total yards on offense, the Merchantmen struggled for the second week in succession to get points on the board from within the red zone. Rookie Walt Blair ran 28 times for 135 yards and 2 touchdowns, although he did record his first career fumble. Bennett Morris completed 20 of 32 for 264 yards, 1 touchdown with 1 interception. J.R. Mills caught 6 passes for 90 yards. Brody Stevens caught a pass for his first touchdown of the season.

The defense held the San Antonio running backs to 37 yards on 15 carries, while keeping quarterback Colin Clemons to completing 9 of 32 passes for 107 yards and 2 interceptions. His replacement Max Guffey completed just 1 of 11 passes for 12 yards. The Merchantmen pass rush disrupted 16 of 46 passing plays, with Antonio Battle leading the way with 2 sacks and 2 hurries. The pass defense deflected 10 passes and made 2 interceptions, while allowing 10 catches.

The victory puts Maassluis in the lead for the AOC's second wild card, behind the undefeated Rochester Razorbacks, the current virtual first wild card. Victories for the other three European teams mean the ranking of teams within the division remain status quo.

European division:
1 Paris 3-0
2 Maassluis 2-1
3 Bordeaux 1-2
4 Gothenburg 1-2

Morris' first interception drops him to third in passer rating. Mills' 90 yards drop him to second in receiving yards. Blair remains at the top of the league with 146 rushing yards per game. The offense and defense both rank 3rd in the league in total yards and both rank 5th in points scored or allowed. But after just three games, that means very little...

MIJB#19

11-28-2018, 09:36 AM

75th season anniversary: 50 Legends, introduction
With the 75th season of IHOF in full glory, I felt it would be fun to make a list of players that were either cream of the crop at their position, or otherwise were a popular figure with me for whatever reason. To do this, I've decided to cut the 75 season of the Merchantmen into 25 periods of 3 seasons and select the 2 most notable players on the 53-men regular season roster in any season in that timespan. I've mulled over the method of finding a list of players, the process to get there went through various options and the number of names, but after coming up with many complicated calculations, 50 sounds like a nice round number and with 75 seasons, 2/3rd is the magic number to apply. But let's kick off with 25 also-rans, near-legends, or quite simply players that (in some cases just barely) missed the cut.

RB #28 Randy Harris 2004-2010
League draft pick. Harris was the leading rusher of the Merchantmen in the first 7 seasons. Had 1,000 yard performances in the first 4 seasons. Ranks 5th in rushing yards for the Merchantmen.

TE #86 Jim Reiser 2004-2015
League draft pick. Ties for 10th most receptions for the Merchantmen, tied most for a tight end. Was the favorite target of Hall of Fame quarterback Louie Flannery.

CB #32 Myron Stevens 2006-2013
Undrafted rookie signing. Played mostly at nickelback. Was lowly rated overall, but was a zone defense specialist with decent interceptions skills. Favorite player of Merchantmen management.

LB #56 Bernie Surry 2008-2017
5th round pick. Rookie boomer. Fit well in the zone defense scheme used in 2007-2012.

CB #39 Warren Pennell 2015-2023
Undrafted rookie signing. Primarily kickoff returner, with 5 touchdows, rarely fumbled. Played in a dimeback role early in his career, but later on became a pure special teamer.

QB #12 Patrick McDonnell 2022-2026
Off-season free agent signing. With Russell Harrison formed the spectacular quarterback tandem of the 2023 season. 14-6 record as a starter when Harrison was hurt, with 43:14 touchdown to interception ratio.

DT #75 Tyrus Willis 2022-2032
Undrafted rookie signing. Primarily pass rush specialist, but was a full time starter for several seasons.

LB #57 Oliver Drake 2026-2030
In-season trade acquisition. Defensive Player of the Year season before joining Merchantmen. All-round linebacker.

CB #36 Walt Wheatley 2026-2032
In-season trade acquisition. Highest pass defense rating for Merchantmen cornerbacks with 2000+ pass plays active. Franchise's 11th most passes defended, despite short stint in Maassluis.

LB #51 Fred McCorkle 2031-2042
1st round pick. Complete linebacker. 6th most forced fumbles.

RB #26 Darrin Keegan 2032-2038
1st round pick. 1,000-yard back in all 7 seasons with Merchantmen. Broke 10,000 yards after being traded by Merchantmen. 3rd most rushing yards for Merchantmen and 4th most rushing touchdowns.

QB #7 Perry Coleman 2041-2045
Off-season free agent signing. Hall of Famer.35-18 record as a starter. 84 touchdowns versus 34 interceptions in 55 games with Merchantmen. Threw for 4,117 yards in only regular season with 16 games played.

P #12 Malachi Pennell 2044-2058
2nd round pick. Considered to be best punter in franchise history, pending how current punter Tito Hornsby does.

G #70 Bryant Huffman 2044-2054
5th round rookie. 3rd most key run blocks in franchise history. All-round skilled guard, despite being undersized.

TE #89 Jorge Jurevicius 2049-2060
3rd round pick. Pro-bowl caliber receiver. 50 receiving touchdowns, second most for a Merchantmen tight end.

WR #84 Kai Oburn 2054-2064
1st round pick. With 7 1,000-yard seasons ranks 6th all-time in Merchantmen receiving yards. Has 5th most receptions and 5th most receiving touchdowns (with J.R. Mills quickly closing in).

S #44 Lonnie Razo 2054-2064
2nd round pick. 4th most tackles for a defensive back, 3rd most for a safety.

RB #23 Fernando Scott 2055-2062
4th round pick. With 6 1,000-yard seasons has the 4th most rushing yards and 5th most rushing touchdowns for Merchantmen. With 5.0 average has highest yards per carry of all Merchantmen running backs.

TE #18 Emmanuel Forbes 2056-2065
1st round pick. Pro-bowl caliber receiver. 53 receiving touchdowns, most for a Merchantmen tight end.

DT #97 Preston Urquoila 2062-2074
4ht round pick. Drafted and retired in the same off-season as Shaun Hartman. Has 3rd most tackles and 8th most sacks amongst Merchantmen defensive tackles. 3-time All-IHOF first or second teamer.

RB #23 Lucas Blackwell 2069-2077
3rd round pick. Had 6 1,000-yard rushing seasons. Ranks 2nd in rushing yards in franchise history. Also ranks 2nd in rushing touchdowns, 1 shy from tying the record. Still active, but unlikely to return to Maassluis.

CB #30 Alonzo Hitchcock 2072-2078
2nd round pick. Complete cornerback. Recently grew into being an elite corner with 7 interceptions in 2076 and 20 defended passes in 2077. Still active.

DT #96 Glen Stiegler 2075-2078
Trade acquisition shortly after being taken in 1st round pick by other franchise. Successor to Shaun Hartman and Preston Urquiola. All-IHOF second teamer in his 3rd season with 65 tackles, 6.0 sacks, 15 hurries.

G #74 Carlos Webb 2075-2078
3rd round pick. All-IHOF second teamer in his 3rd season with 48 key run blocks and 9 sacks allowed. 48 key run blocks is tied 2nd most in a single season for a Merchantmen player.

QB #16 Bennett Morris 2078-2078
Off-season free agent signing. First season on team, already making a good impression. Potentially Hall of Famer.

RB #26 Walt Blair 2078-2078
1st round pick. First season on team, already making a good impression.

MIJB#19

11-28-2018, 11:12 AM

75th season anniversary: 50 Legends, Louie Flannery era
To celebrate the 75th season of the Maassluis Merchantmen, I selected 50 players that I consider the legends of that time span from 2004 until the start of the 2078 season. I split the list of players into 5 groups, each being a time period of roughly 15 seasons. We'll start with episode 1: the Louie Flannery era.

DT #78 Charles Gomez 2004-2014
Charles Gomez was the first selection of the Merchantmen in the league draft in 2004. A 25-year old defensive tackle, Gomez was the whole package: strong, fast, endurable. Gomez was text book example of what should be expected from the position. For 11 seasons, Gomez was the center piece of the fearsome Merchantmen defense. He kept linemen busy to make room for the defensive ends to make the sack and on running downs forced opponents to go outside tackle a lot, but surely running up the gut wasn't an option. In 169 regular season games, Gomez made an astonishing 706 tackles and 254 assists, 72.5 sacks and 206 hurries. Gomez ranks 2nd all-time in the IHOF in tackles amongst defensive linemen (the number one was moved from linebacker to defensive end late in his career). From 2005 through 2010 Gomez was an All-IHOF 1st or 2nd team selection. To the disappointment of the Merchantmen management, Gomez wasn't selected into the Hall of Fame.

QB #3 "Fumblin'" Justin McDavid 2004-2017
Justin McDavid was the 9th pick of the Merchantmen in the 2004 league draft. Then considered a rookie, 23-year old McDavid was the most promising, or perhaps the least dreadful option as quarterback for the Merchantmen in 2004. Despite sitting out week 1, McDavid was considered the first starting quarterback for the franchise. He quickly earned the dishonorable nickname "Fumblin' Justin" leading the league that season with 13 fumbles. In his second season the quarterback battle with 1st round pick Leonard Lyon was initially won by McDavid, but eventually a career devastating injury determined his faith as a career backup. In 2008 he made a two-game comeback to replace injured Louie Flannery. From there on, McDavid was demoted to third string, later on in a mentor role to young backups to Flannery. McDavid got one final play in week 16 of the 2016 season, knee dropping for the victory.

LB #50 Cody Cluff 2004-2016
Cody Cluff was the Merchantmen's 13th pick in the 2004 league draft. Then considered a rookie, the 23-year old Cluff immediately made a name by earning Defensive Rookie of the Year honors. Cluff was mostly a run stopper, teaming up with Charles Gomez in the middle to force opponents to run outside tackle. Cluff wasn't much of a pass rusher, but usually stayed behind to support the pass defense by covering tight ends or picking up on receivers from the backfield. Cluff made 23 interceptions (currently tied for 10th within the franchise) and forced 25 fumbles (third most amongst tMerchantmen players), making him one of the best turnover forcing players in Merchantmen history. He finally earned All-IHOF honors in his next to last season. Cluff was also the first player to break 1,000 tackles and as of the start of the 2078 season ranks 9th all-time in the IHOF in tackles.

S #46 Lincoln Gilmore 2004-2014
Lincoln Gilmore was the Merchantmen's 23rd pick in the 2004 league draft and only 23 years back then. Behind Charles Gomez and Cody Cluff, as the strong safety Gilmore was the last resort for the Merchantmen to stop the run. On top of that, Gilmore was a reliable pass defender, supporting his cornerbacks where ever needed, or picking up on the tight end if Cluff was otherwise occupied. Gilmore ranks 2nd in Merchantmen history in pass defense rating for players with over 2,000 pass plays, and 6th for those with at least 1,000 pass plays.

K #8 Al Bettis 2006-2019
As a 23-year old, Al Bettis went through the draft without being selected. However, after the draft the Merchantmen decided to give Bettis a chance to make the team as an exclusive kickoff specialist, with Cary Coles sticking around for field goals and extra point attempts. Bettis impressed enough to make the team and ended up sticking around for as many as 14 seasons in that role. Only in his rookie season did he once get a chance to show his points racking skills, nailing his only field goal and extra point attempts. Bettis built a tremendous reputation as a kickoff specialist, racking up the touchbacks and being a crucial element in the Merchantmen's field position battle strategy of having elite special teams specialists. Albeit stats have gone lost over time, Bettis used to be all-time best in kickoff distance and touchback percentage.

QB #14 Louie Flannery 2006-2021
The first franchise quarterback in Maassluis, 24-year old Louie Flannery was the Merchantmen's 5th overall choice in the 2006 draft. Struggling with interceptions, Flannery never had the accuracy or determination to be considered amongst the best amongst his peers. Despite that, Flannery racked up the numbers, being the full-time starter for 14 seasons in Maassluis and still sticking around to mentor successor Russell Harrison for 2 more seasons. Flannery guided the Merchantmen to their first AOC Championship game in 2007 and despite his gun slinger reputation rarely threw for more interceptions than touchdowns. His 327:223 touchdown to interception ratio supports that. Flannery had 4 4,000-yard seasons. Despite never getting any All-IHOF honors and a 115-102 record as a starter, Flannery was inducted in the league's Hall of Fame.

LT #63 "Indestructible" Ivan Jacques 2007-2015
After an unimpressive 3-year stint with the Brooklyn Fightin' Bums, the Merchantmen saw their chance to acquire Ivan Jacques in the 2007 off-season through trade. The 27-year old Jacques was hired to be the left tackle of Louie Flannery and stuck around as the starter in that role for 8 seasons. Despite being brittle, as Jacques missed at least 2 games in 7 of 9 seasons in Maassluis, he was called "Indestructible Ivan" in Maassluis after allowing only 1 sack in 12 games in his first season in Maassluis. He continued to be reliable, never allowing more than 4 sacks in a season. Jacques was a complete lineman though, getting credit for key run blocks more often than the guards he played with and being on par with the center. Never an All-IHOF selection, but Merchantmen fans knew what to expect and when he was in the field, Jacques was there to protect his quarterback and make room for the running backs to do their job.

WR #81 Alfredo Bass 2012-2014
Before coming to Maassluis, Alfredo Bass was an All-IHOF first or second team selection 4 times. The Merchantmen acquired Bass aged 32 through trade in 2012 from the Minnesota Miners, hoping to give Louie Flannery a true WR1 to throw to. Bass quickly became Flannery's favorite target always having at least 80 catches for 1,000 yards and 9 touchdowns. Bass was an All-IHOF second teamer in his first season in Maassluis, being the first to have a 1,000-yard receiving season in franchise history. His stay in Maassluis was shorter than hoped, as Bass retired in the 2015 off-season, months before celebrating his 35th birthday.

WR #83 Vince McAlister 2015-2018
Then 26-year old Vince McAlister was acquired from the Boulder Blizzard in the 2015 off-season. The former 3rd round draft pick had been in a backup role for 2 seasons, making just 2 catches for 31 yards in that 2nd season. Despite not being highly rated by scouts, the Merchantmen saw potential in McAlister's speed and agility, even hoping to have a suitable replacement for recently retired Alfredo Bass. McAlister surprisingly delivered, making 77 catches for 1,116 yards and 7 touchdowns in his first season in Maassluis. He missed some time in the second season, but in the third season, despite playing opposite Gabe Springer, McAlister set new personal records with 78 catches for 1,191 yards and 10 touchdowns. In week 9 of the 2018 season disaster struck, McAlister blew out his knee. He was released in the 2019 off-season and spent a couple of days on the training field in the 2020 season, but never saw the field at game time again. He retired from football at the age of 30.

MIJB#19

11-28-2018, 02:58 PM

75th season anniversary: 50 Legends, Rusty Harrison era
To celebrate the 75th season of the Maassluis Merchantmen, I selected 50 players that I consider the legends of that time span from 2004 until the start of the 2078 season. I split the list of players into 5 groups, each being a time period of roughly 15 seasons. We'll continue with episode 2: the Rusty Harrison era.

WR #86 Gabe Springer 2016-2027
In the 2016 draft, the Merchantmen traded up to select 24-year old Gabe Springer at #8 overall in the draft. Springer jumped into the league with an exceptional season, catching 128 passes for 1,574 yards. He continued to be top-notch in what quickly became a pass-happy era, initially with Louie Flannery throwing the ball and from 2020 onwards as Russell Harrison's favorite target. In 2018 he scored a then franchise best 16 receiving touchdowns. A lingering injury cost Springer the lionshare of the 2021 season, but he bounced back strong. Springer managed to top 1,000 yards no less than 9 times, missing that opportunity twice due to injuries. Despite his regular season success, Springer didn't manage to carry his skills to the post-season, with just 406 yards on 36 catches in 8 games. The 2027 AOC Championship game was his last game in IHOF as Springer retired after his first season in the WR3 role. Springer received All-IHOF honors 4 times and ranks second for the Merchantmen in catches, receiving yards and touchdowns (both receiving and total). In 2032, Springer was enshrined in the Hall of Fame.

CB #27 Randall Allen 2019-2023
In the 2019 off-season, the Merchantmen thought they were a couple of shutdown cornerbacks away from being a power house. Fairbanks' 33-year old Ben Greer turned out to be a single season acquisition. Randall Allen was coming off back-to-back All-IHOF 1st team seasons when the Merchantmen traded for the then 29-year old cornerback. In 5 seasons, Allen made only 13 interceptions, but did defend 61 passes in that timespan. Allen peaked early in his career, winning an IHOF Bowl ring with the Rochester Lake Monsters as a rookie. It doesn't take away that he was the most talented cornerbacks to wear Maassluis' orange-white-and-blue.

QB #5 Russell Harrison 2020-2034
With the first overall pick of the 2020 draft, the Maassluis Merchantmen selected Russell Harrison out of the Navy. As a 23-year old rookie, Harrison burst into the scene and earned Offensive Rookie of the Year honors. But from the 2023 season onwards, in which Harrison threw for 26 touchdowns in just 9 games, it became apparent he was injury prone and got the nickname "Rusty". Harrison missed all but 2 plays of the 2024 season and from there on went from one minor injury to another. In 2027, Harrison guided his team to his only AOC Championship appearance. After a disappointing 2029 season, in which the Merchantmen went 9-7 and Harrison threw for only 17 touchdowns, it was decided that Harrison was the odd man out in the cap hell and he was traded to the Rochester Lake Monsters. In a surprise twist of events, Harrison went through two trades ending up back to Maassluis. He played two more injury plagued seasons in orange-white-and-blue, posting a 9-11 record. Harrison ranks 3rd in the Merchantmen history in passing yards and passing touchdowns. He was enshrined in the Hall of Fame in 2039.

S #48 Jimmy Chellino 2020-2031
In the shadows of Russell Harrison's spotlights, Jimmy Chellino was the Merchantmen's third round pick in the 2020 draft. The 24-year old was a day one starter, although he did miss some time due to injuries in his rookie campaign. Chellino turned out to have interception skills the Merchantmen were unknown to at that time. As a strong safety, he was also a key contributor to stopping opposing runners and receivers that escaped their cornerbacks. Despite all that, Chellino came short of All-IHOF honors at various occasions and eventually had to settle for becoming the all-time Merchantmen interceptions leader. His 36 picks today rank him tied for 3rd in franchise history.

WR #80 Terry Thomason 2023-2035
At the age of 23, Terry Thomason was the 9th overall pick in the 2023 draft, taken by the Maassluis Merchantmen. As a rookie he became part of an extraordinary offensive quartet in 2023 with Russell Harrison, Gabe Springer and shortly after the draft acquired running back Stanley Givens. In his rookie season, Thomason scored 12 receiving touchdowns, which turned out to be a career high. Thomason turned out to be a WR2 type, a fast wide receiver with great yards after catch skills. Opposite Springer, he was a 50 catches for 800 yards receiver. With Springer out of the picture, Thomason improved to 80 catches per season and had 4 1,000-yard performances, but never managed to match Springer's production. Thomason ranks 4th all-time in receptions for the Merchantmen, 5th in receiving yards and 4th in receiving touchdowns.

RB #20 Stanley Givens 2023-2026
In 2023, after two disappointing season of each barely over 1,000 yards and just 1 rushing touchdown, former #1 overall pick Stanley Givens was no longer considered capable of carrying the Neverland Ranch Hands. The Maassluis Merchantmen jumped into the opportunity, sending their 2025 1st and 2nd round picks for the 30-year old running back. A steep price for a player of his age and position, but Givens became part of a sensational 2023 offense in Maassluis. Givens ran for 1,319 yards and 12 touchdowns, while catching 55 passes for 574 yards and 7 touchdowns, all enough for All-IHOF second team honors. He followed up with 180 rushing yards and 2 touchdowns in the ensuing playoff game. It all proved worthless, the Merchantmen went one and done and were unable to continue their 2023 magic. Givens missed half the 2024 season due to injury, but returned with 1,206 rushing yards and retired after a 1,530-yard season and his first and only season with a playoff victory. In 2031 Givens was elected into the Hall of Fame, being mentioned as a Maassluis Merchantmen.

RB #29 Mark McConnell 2027-2035
23-year old Mark McConnell was the Merchantmen's 5th round pick in the 2027 draft. After the retirement of Stanley Givens, the Merchantmen still needed a fast change of pace back and backup behind recently acquired veteran Jimmie Burns. McConnell was that, with his speed and hole recognition. McConnell remained in that RB2 role for three seasons, but after Burns' retirement in 2030 improved to the starting role. It turned out to be his breakout season with 1,067 rushing yards and 10 touchdowns, with a 5.1 yards per carry average. Lack of endurance and power to run up the middle kept McConnell in a time sharing role. In 2032 he had one exceptional day, running for 277 yards on 35 carries in a losing effort against the Tucker Tigers. He ran for 134 yards in the next game, but his legs soon after fell off. In 2036, McConnell didn't survive the post training camp cuts. He hung around for a while, hoping to get one more phone call from another IHOF team, but it never came.

MIJB#19

11-29-2018, 02:29 PM

2078 Regular season, week 4
Bye week. Annoying how we always have these this early in the season. With 28 other teams active, we improved to 2nd in total yards on offense and also 2nd in total yards on defense. We're 3rd and 6th in scoring. Walt Blair is still 2nd in rushing yards, J.R. Mills ties for 4th in receiving yards.

Paris and Gothenburg won (ugh!), but Bordeaux lost (yay?).

European division:
1 Paris 4-0
2 Maassluis 2-1
3 Gothenburg 2-2
4 Bordeaux 1-3

Next up is a trap game at the winless North Plainfield Plague. Last time they were 0-3, in 2075 they beat us 44-37 in our own place. When they sucked even worse in 2072, they humiliated us 21-9 (they lost 10 straight afterwards) in their place. Last time we actually beat them was in 2070.

MIJB#19

11-30-2018, 02:03 PM

2078 Regular season, week 5
Yup, we lost. Against the Plague. Somehow, they find ways to beat us when they're down. We raced to a 14-0 lead, but from there on it was all done, over, gone, nothing to be happy about. Granted, we scored 10 more points, but found a way to play opposite from what we did in the first three games. We lost 25-24 and actually deserved to lose by more. Bennett Morris somehow completed 17 of 25 passes for only 153 yards. The defense gave up 399 yards for 7.0 yards per play. Nope, that wasn't the second ranked defense that we feigned to be.

Gothenburg also lost, the French teams were on their bye week.

European division:
1 Paris 4-0
2 Maassluis 2-2
3 Gothenburg 2-3
4 Bordeaux 1-3

After three straight road games, we're getting three home games. Nothing to get too excited about as of yet, we're hosting the 3-2 Rochester Razorbacks first. We can only hope their 28th ranked defense continues to struggle.

MIJB#19

12-01-2018, 05:30 AM

2078 Regular season, week 6
The Maassluis Merchantmen continue to flip flop, posting win number three of the season, beating the Rochester Razorbacks 20-10 in a sold out Oranje Haven. Rookie Walt Blair continues to impress as he ran 25 times for 163 yards and 1 touchdown. Merchantmen fans are getting flashbacks from the days Norbert Talley wore orange-white-and-blue, the only player with 8 or more 100-yard games in a single season for Maassluis.

J.R. Mills isn't completely out of the picture, he was crucial in the Merchantmen passing game with 7 catches for 108 yards. Bennett Morris completed 18 of 26 passes for 215 yards, 1 touchdown and his 2nd interception of the season. On the other side of the ball, the Merchantmen defense sacked Rochester quarterback Brian Sams 5 times, yet at times struggled to disrupt that passing game.

Elsewhere, the Paris Musketeers ran into their first deficit, getting clobbered 38-10 in Toronto. The Gothenburg Giants didn't trip over the North Plainfield Plague and posted a 16-13 road victory to stay in pursuit of the Merchantmen. The Bordeaux Vineyards stumbled into a 16-16 tie with the also 1-win Harlem Apollos.

European division:
1 Paris 4-1
2 Maassluis 3-2
3 Gothenburg 3-3
4 Bordeaux 1-3-1

Morris has dropped to 4th in passer rating at 104.0. Blair moved back into the rushing yards lead, despite having a played a game less than the six next best. Mills has dropped to 6th in receiving yards.

Injury of the game came on the game clinching field goal with 31 seconds left. Holder Jamie Holmes hurt his elbow and is expected to miss at least the next game at home against the undefeated Toronto Lake Monsters.

Those Lake Monsters are the only team with a perfect record at this point. Their throw on first, on second and on third approach has done well in recent seasons. Clay Andrews has thrown for 6,731, 5,987 and 6,081 yards with 48, 47 and 62 touchdowns in the last three seasons. It got them the IHOF Bowl victory last season. It will be hard to stop them, but the Merchantmen staff is locked up in the film room, with one task only: to figure out a game plan that can stop that seemingly unstoppable passing game.

MIJB#19

12-03-2018, 03:37 PM

2078 Regular season, week 7
Bennett Morris has won the hearts of the Maassluis Merchantmen fans in Oranje Haven. With a near perfect performance, Morris lead the Merchantmen to comeback from 13-0 to a 24-16 victory of the previously undefeated Toronto Lake Monsters.

After a three and out by the Lake Monsters defense, the Merchantmen defense struggled with the Lake Monsters passing game, until they held them a couple of yards short from the end zone to force a 19-yard field goal. A Merchantmen drive stalled at midfield was then followed by long Lake Monsters drive, this time held outside the end zone by the Merchantmen pass rush to force a 29-yard field goal scored early in the second quarter.

After two short drives, the Merchantmen saw their star player J.R. Mills fumble near the Toronto 30-yard line. This fumble remained without troubles, but on the next Merchantmen drive, a strip sack of Bennett Morris set the Lake Monsters up for a very short field and they put the first touchdown on the board for a 13-0 lead with 24 seconds to go. A 37-yard run from Walt Blair then set up Dave Eiermann's 49-yard field goal for a 13-3 half time score in Toronto favor.

Toronto started the second half with a 32-yard pass from Clayton Andrews to O.J. Baker, but despite a missed 46-yard field goal, they improved to 16-3 on their next drive with a 30-yard field goal. Walt Blair struggled, but a huge 22-yard run from Raul Curie kept the drive alive on 3rd and 4 to shift momentum. Bennett Morris went from big throw to big throw and with just over 2 minutes to go in the third quarter he found J.R. Mills for 28 yards to trim the deficit to 16-10.

Pinned deep at their own 6-yard line, the Merchantmen saw Morris orchestrate a strong comeback. He completed passes to Mills for 18 and 24 yards to bring his team to midfield and then found Monty Elliott for crucial 3rd down and a 24-yard pass. Morris then ran on 3rd and 6 into the end zone to give Maassluis a 17-16 lead. Rookie Chandler Posante made a crucial third down sack to force three and out. Morris then continued his unstoppable passing, finding Mills for 17 yards, Dennis Nadell for 16 yards, Brody Stevens for 10 yards and Randall Curtis for the last 10 yards. With just over 2 minute to go, a 24-16 lead was Maassluis' game to lose. Toronto punted on 4th and 7, not realizing they would come a time out short to keep the Merchantmen from knee dropping to victory.

Bennett Morris completed 23 of 26 passes for 290 yards and 2 touchdowns, while running for a crucial 6-yard touchdown as well to overcome his fumble. Walt Blair was held to just 69 yards on 20 carries, the first time he failed to get over 100 yards. J.R. Mills overcame his fumble with 7 catches for 114 yards and 1 touchdown.

Elsewhere in Europe, the Paris Musketeers crushed the North Plainfield Plague 39-14, while the Bordeaux Vineyards won 21-20 at the Gothenburg Giants.

European division:
1 Paris 5-1
2 Maassluis 4-2
3 Gothenburg 3-4
4 Bordeaux 2-3-1

Next up an early all or nothing game as the Paris Musketeers will visit Maassluis in week 8.

MIJB#19

12-04-2018, 12:40 PM

2078 Regular season, week 8
Maassluis ise on fire. With a convincing 57-25 victory, the Merchantmen crushed the Paris Musketeers to take the lead in the European division. The Merchantmen offense had a records breaking day, setting new franchise records in passing yards (473), total yards on offense (650) and seeing J.R. Mills tie the league record singe game receiving touchdowns with 5 scores.

The pieces are quickly falling together in Maassluis. The additions of Bennett Morris and Walt Blair to the offense are becoming more than just a good move. Veteran quarterback Morris has improved the passing game from respectable to impressive and so far is exceeding his own previous bests. Rookie running back Walt Blair notched his sixth 100-yard game takes advantage of a cohesive line and a balanced game plan. J.R. Mills today came back from the shadows of the two off-season acquisitions and needed just 9 catches to tie the legendary Terry Haskell (and a quartet of players without Merchantmen ties) with a 5-touchdown game.

European division:
1 Maassluis 5-2
2 Paris 5-2
3 Gothenburg 4-4
4 Bordeaux 2-4-1

The Merchantmen season now continues with trio of road games. Despite their 1-5-1 record, the Harlem Apollos are not to underestimated. Especially their ability to force turnovers is something to be wary about...

MIJB#19

12-04-2018, 12:57 PM

2078 Regular Season, roster moves
Shortly before the home game series against the Toronto Lake Monsters and Paris Musketeers, the Maassluis Merchantmen put quarterback Jamie Holmes on injured reserve. Holmes hurt his elbow on a field goal attempt while holding the ball. Dave Eiermann converted the kick, but Holmes was unable to play in the crucial games against the then top two teams in the conference. The Merchantmen signed undrafted rookie punter Santiago Hitchcock from South Carolina as his replacement and placed Holmes on injured reserve to make a roster spot available.

MIJB#19

12-04-2018, 02:37 PM

2078 GM Notes, week 8
Wow. Morris to Mills and Blair as the diversion. I think I haven't been this enthusiastic about our offense since the 2023 season (when we had that spectacular collective with Harrison/McDonnell, Givens, Springer and Thomason) and more recently the 2059 season (when we were light years ahead of the rest of the league in every aspect of the game, purely on cohesion). It also makes me skeptic, because both times the team fell apart in the playoffs and went one-and-done. Heck, we are barely over 30 points per game, on pace to come short of the 500+ points those teams scored.

In the off-season leading up to this regular season, Morris to my surprise was unprotected by the Orlando Talons. When I saw him available on the open market, listed at the top of the "grey sheet", I knew I wanted to take a stab at it. It wasn't easy though, we went into the off-season $25 over the cap. Despite having Erickson (3rd in passing yards last season), Loera (still skilled enough to play) and McAlister (in that range of being 30-35th best QB in the league), I figured Morris could improve the offense to a higher level.

First, we released Loera, saving close to $20M, and renegotiated with a bunch of expensive players to get more space: $4.75M on QB Erickson, over $13.5M on J.R. Mills, almost $7M on OT Oscar Meadows and $17.5M on linebacker Antonio Battle. Then we offered Morris a massive, yet respectable, 4-year deal, with a $25M salary this season, $55M in the following 3 seasons and a $75M signing bonus. And he took it, right at the stage he wanted to sign in.

It gives Morris cap figures of $43.75M this season and $73.75M in each of the next three seasons. The salary cap is $433.8M. It's huge. But I think we'll manage. I fully expect to be able to get him to sign for much less next season, worst case having to go the Cap Out route, to trim his figure to $39M next season (-$34M to what it is scheduled to be). Heck, if we win a title, it'll all be worth it. With Erickson and McAlister as the backup plans, we're not quite a team that should immediately drop from first to worst.

Still, I didn't expect to sign Morris. I hoped we would (and we did), but I fully expected somebody else to make an even better, maybe shorter, offer. Other quarterbacks around the league aren't that far away from $43.75M though, Morris' cap figure is only 9th overall amongst quarterbacks:
65.08M Ashton Turnbull (North Plainfield, 55-rated overall)
57.82M Cesar Small (Iowa, 65-rated)
56.57M Brian Sams (Rochester, 82-rated)
53.62M Clayton Andrews (Toronto, 61-rated)
49.59M Brandon Riley (Augusta, 73-rated)
48.65M Ike Woodhouse (Bordeaux, 67-rated)
46.19M Derek Barge (Moontown, 83 rated)
45.94M Logan Bradford (Fairbanks, 76-rated)
43.75M Bennett Morris (Maassluis, 74-rated)
40.03M Gerald Matthews (Snapfinger, 65-rated)

What about Blair? It was quite uncharacteristic for me to take a running back in the first round of the draft. Before Blair, we picked 9 running backs in the top 100 picks of the draft:
2008 #51 Scott Bagley
2013 #99 Brenden Boone
2030 #85 Courtney McCormick
2032 #20 Darrin Keegan
2042 #29 Harold Riley
2056 #78 Dakota Giles
2058 #64 Scottie Buckner
2066 #91 Nicky Hayes
2069 #82 Lucas Blackwell
2078 #13 Walt Blair

Keegan, Riley and Blackwell, so far, were the only ones that became full time starters. We actually cut Blackwell this off-season. He played well, but I didn't have faith in him carrying the ball 25 times a game or still be useful as a 3rd down back. With Blair, we have a guy that can carry 25 times and do it well. Raul Curie is good enough as a 3rd down back, with the endurance and special teams skills to not have to worry about him not contributing. But Blair so far is actually exceeding expectations. Having the #1 ranked OL in cohesion might help there, which for a great deal will be on our 14th year center Tom Anaya. Re-signing guard Carlos Webb to a 5-year deal with very cap out friendly terms was also important. Right tackle Oscar Meadows is on less cap friendly 3-year deal, but a cap out next season is still possible.

All in all, we're projecting to be $64M over the cap going into the 2079 off-season, with 47 players signed. But a lot of that is on the 9 players with a base salary of 10M+, they combined for $188M of cap costs, just on those base salaries. As mentioned already, we can save $34M on Morris alone, we should be able to save $18M on linebacker Antonio Battle, $10M on defensive tackle Glen Stiegler, $9M on Carlos Webb, $6M on wide receiver J.R. Mills, $8M on wide receiver Brody Stevens and $6M on cornerback Alonzo Hitchcock, that's roughly $100M, a lot more than we will need.

On the bad side of things, we've actually collected an excess of draft picks for the next off-season. We've got the 2nd round picks of Chicago, Texas and Williamsburg, as well as a 5th from Chicago, on top of our own 7 picks. The cap cost of those picks might be trickier than the contract renegotiations of those mentioned above and extending a majority of the 31 players that will be in their last year of contract...

MIJB#19

12-07-2018, 03:11 PM

2078 GM Notes, week 9-11
Against all odds, we continued our season with 3 road victories, making us the hottest team in football with 6 straight victories. Harlem (currently 1-8-1), Bordeaux (2-7-1) and Gothenburg (5-5) were the opponents beaten. We've successfully maintained the division lead with a decent tie-breakers lead on Paris and slowly moved into second place in the conference, 1 win behind the Toronto Lake Monsters. Paris is currently in the second wild card slot.

Division standings
1. Maassluis 8-2
2. Paris 7-3
3. Gothenburg 5-5
4. Bordeaux 2-7-1

Bennett Morris struggled a bit in Harlem, completing just 47 percent of his passes, but he continues to lead the league with the best passer rating, result of second best yards per pass attempt and arguably the best touchdown to interception ration (24:5). He needs 208 yards per game in the last six to get 4,000 yards passing for the season. Interestingly, Morris leads all quarterbacks in rushing touchdowns (4), despite being only 15th in yardage.

J.R. Mills is already at 1,155 yards receiving, making him 3rd in the league, with 11 touchdowns (2nd in the league).

Walt Blair's awesome season came to a painful halt, suffering a concussion in Gothenburg to most likely end his season early. With some luck, he might be recovered in time for the IHOF Bowl... His rookie of the season worthy performance has ended at 1,213 yards rushing (4.97 per carry) with 6 rushing touchdowns and 1 receiving touchdown.

To replace Blair, all eyes will be on third down back Raul Curie (112 yards and 1 touchdown in Gothenburg) and Ronald Graham (inactive in the first 10 games, 30 yards on 11 carries in pre-season action) to carry the ball. Graham's endurance isn't sufficient to take over Blair's number of carries, while Curie's respectable performance means he deserves a shot at playing in an increased role.

MIJB#19

12-07-2018, 03:38 PM

In response to the sad news about Buccaneer (Brother Buccaneer- fuck cancer - Front Office Football Central (https://forums.operationsports.com/fofc/showthread.php?t=95536)), I'd like to add here that he was one of the 32 owners in IHOF's first season. Leading up to the kickoff of IHOF, I remember how Steve's suggestion for a logo inspired my decision making towards picking Merchantmen for the team mascot.

*sigh*

MIJB#19

12-08-2018, 04:26 PM

2078 Regular season, week 12
The Maassluis Merchantmen rock on. With a convincing 46-6 victory over the Oakland Black Panthers, they maintained the division lead and second place in the Atlantic Ocean Conference. J.R. Mills (2 catches for 22 yards, 1 touchdown) had a rare off day, but Bennett Morris (throwing for 255 yards and 3 touchdowns) picked up the Merchantmen offense, the team scored on seven straight drives. In the absence of Walt Blair, fellow rookie Ronald Graham ran for 78 yards and a score on 17 carries. Brody Stevens was the leading receiver with 6 receptions for 71 yards. The defense forced 5 turnovers while holding the Black Panthers to field goal in their two red zone visits. With their 9th win, Maassluis is guaranteed to have their first winning season after a 4-season stretch of 8-8 and 7-9 records.

The Paris Musketeers all passing approach got them to a 23-20 victory at Fairbanks Northstars on a field goal in overtime, after late game field goals went them from winning to tie game to winning after all. The Gothenburg Giants snuck into beating the Colorado Cutthroats 31-20 on a fourth quarter comeback. The Bordeaux Vineyards lost 26-23 in overtime at the Hanalei Dragons on a 62-yard field goal. This eliminated the Vineyards from contention for the playoffs.

European division
1. Maassluis 9-2
2. Paris 8-3
3. Gothenburg 6-5
4. Bordeaux 2-8-1

Maassluis and Paris current hold the 2nd and 5th seed spots. 8th ranked Gothenburg trails the 6th ranked Tucker Tigers by 1.5 victories. Those Tigers will be visiting Maassluis in week 13, while Gothenburg will host the 7th ranked Orlando Talons, putting them in a must-win situation. Paris will visit the already eliminated Houston Mustangs. Bordeaux will visits the 3rd ranked Atlanta Vipers. The top ranked Toronto Lake Monsters, 1 win ahead of Maassluis with inferior tie-breakers, will visit the Snapfinger Jazz, who at 5-6 are in a must-win situation I they want to keep any hopes for the playoffs going.

MIJB#19

12-14-2018, 06:09 PM

2078 GM Notes, week 13-17
We're limping, but we're still in the race for IHOF Bowl LXXV. We've lost three of the last five games, two of those losses came in our own Oranje Haven. Bennett Morris was having an MVP worthy season, but Walt Blair may have made an even stronger case in his absence. These last five games haven't been cut and dry though, it's been quite the rollercoaster.

Week 13, at home versus Tucker Tigers
We lead 21-10 at half time and improved to 28-10 on our first possession after the break. Then a couple of interceptions help Tucker back into the game, setting them up for a 32-28 lead. In the last 4 minutes, we drive all the way to the Tucker 6-yard line and get stopped on fourth and goal from the 2-yard line. Tucker 32, Maassluis 28

Week 14, at home versus Fairbanks Northstars
We trail 16-7 at the break as Morris tossed an early pick and we missed a 49-yard field goal in the first quarter. Fairbanks improved to 23-7, but on the touchdown pass we take down their quarterback Logan Bradford. Our defense finally shows up, forces and recovers 2 fumbles to help us into a 24-23 lead. With only 9 second left, they go for the hail mary from our 49-yard line and succeed (the 2-point conversion was moot as time had ran out). Fairbanks 31, Maassluis 24

Week 15, on the road at the Paris Musketeers
In the crucial game for the division title, we storm to a 9-0 lead. Paris scored on an 80-yard pass play from Neil Poling to Raul Marsh, but we quickly reply with a 47-yarder from Bennett Morris to J.R. Mills. Paris gets the ball back and manages to go into the half time break leading 21-15. On their first possession after the break they improve to 28-15 and we reply with a 34-yard field goal. An interception in our red zone keeps Paris from scoring and the comeback is initiated. Dave Eiermann finally converts a crucial kick after several bad misses in back to back games and a fumble recovery in Paris' red zone sets us up to tie it at 28-28 early in the fourth quarter. Paris goes ahead 35-28 on their next drive, we both get stopped and in the last two minutes we somehow manage to advance just enough to see Morris connect with Mills (who had a career day with 265 yards receiving) for 36 yards and the game tying touchdown as regulation expires. In the overtime, Paris stops us early, but linebacker Antonio Battle saves the day with a pick at our 33-yard line, which eventually is followed up with Morris finding Dennis Nadell for the game winning 23-yard touchdown pass. Maassluis 41, Paris 35 (OT)

Week 16 on the road at Colorado Cutthroats
After the rollercoaster games, confidence was supposed to be back, but instead we have a complete meltdown in Colorado. We allow three touchdown passes from Benjamin Kolodziej to Emmett Schwartz for 58 or more yards to put us down 21-3 after just 19 minutes. A characteristic, yet in this game rare, Bennett Morris to J.R. Mills long touchdown pass, followed by a pick six for both teams put us 28-17 down at half time. The second half was hideous, with Morris throwing two more interceptions and Colorado converting a field goal more to hand us our only loss by more than 1 score. Colorado 34, Maassluis 20

Week 17 at home against Gothenburg Giants
With the offense somewhat back in swing, even a couple of Morris interceptions couldn't stop them, we go ahead 24-3 quickly enough to make Gothenburg pull their star quarterback Tre Lynn halfway the third quarter. We actually struggle to keep up, but do stumble into the victory. Maassluis 26, Gothenburg 14

European division
1. Maassluis 11-5
2. Paris 10-6
3. Gothenburg 9-7
4. Bordeaux 5-10-1

Next up: Paris at Maassluis in the wild card round. Elsewhere in the AOC, Tucker (12-3-1) will visit Atlanta (9-6-1). Toronto (14-2) and Augusta (13-3) picked up the byes.
The NAC saw Moontown (14-2) and Hanalei (12-3-1) pick up the byes. Capital City (9-7) will visit Williamsburg (12-4), while Outer Banks (8-8) will visit Iowa (12-4).

After the late struggles, we finished the regular season with 490 points scored (2nd in the league) keeping us from the magical, but cursed 500-point mark. We gained 420 yards per game (3rd in the league) on offense, defensively we ranked 11th with 346 yards per game and 349 points allowed.

Looking across the league, we should be considered amongst the second tier teams. Eight teams outscored their opponents by 100+ points: Augusta +210, Williamsburg +158, Toronto +152, Maassluis +141, Iowa +140, Moontown +138, Tucker +130 and Hanalei +124. Remaining playoffs teams: Atlanta +70, Capital City +44, Paris +41 and Outer Banks -9. Gothenburg at +47 is the only team that really deserved to be here, but will miss the party.

Bennett Morris' bad form in the last 6 games dropped him to 3rd in passer rating at 101.9, far away from the 110-mark he was on pace for. He completed 335 of 535 passes for 4,459 yards and 37 touchdowns versus 13 interceptions. The 37 touchdowns is 2 behind the franchise record of 39 by Lester Lowe.

Walt Blair finished 11th in rushing yards with a 1,213 figure, despite playing 6 1/2 games less than everybody in the top 10. Blair will likely lose Offensive Rookie of the Year to Atlanta quarterback Santiago Lester. Blair had 8 100-yard games, only 4 other players managed to have 8 or more, all being at 9 or 10 centuries.

J.R. Mills scored 17 receiving touchdowns, making him 1st in the league ahead of a duo with 15. He finished 3rd in the league in total touchdown, behind a couple of dual threat running backs. Mills finished at 98 catches for 1,756 yards (4th in the league). The 17 receiving touchdowns is 1 behind the franchise record of 18 set by Terry Haskell.

Brody Stevens behind Mills had 78 catches for 1,037 yards and 8 touchdowns.

Dave Eiermann missed a league high 5 extra points. Combined with the 4 missed field goals, with 138 points scored, he came short of the franchise record of 150.

Linebackers Antonio Battle and Glenn Brewer, defensive tackle Glen Stiegler and cornerback Alonzo Hitchcock collected enough numbers to be potential All-IHOF selections.

But enough about the individual stuff already, it isn't worth a thing without a ring. The loss of Walt Blair felt like a disaster and I'm worried it was the crucial element in these last 6 games where we stumbled in all kinds of weird results. Before losing him, we shockingly stopped Toronto and rolled up Paris in back to back games, ran into a freak loss at North Plainfield, lost a nail biter at Hanalei but otherwise played solid football. It isn't the same thing with Raul Curie and Ronald Graham sharing the carries.

MIJB#19

12-16-2018, 11:58 AM

75th season anniversary: 50 Legends, Jay McGee period
To celebrate the 75th season of the Maassluis Merchantmen, I selected 50 players that I consider the legends of that time span from 2004 until the start of the 2078 season. I split the list of players into 5 groups, each being a time period of roughly 15 seasons. We'll continue with episode 3: the Jay McGee period.

FB #20 Albert "The Shovel" Shalon 2029-2039
Albert Shalon, fullback out of Oklahoma State. In the middle of the 4th round of the 2029 draft, the Merchantmen decided to make that name announced. Shalon was a big backfield player, who was scouted to be a top-notch power inside and the mentality to jump into the third and short situations. At the same time, he was fierce enough to support the run blocking on first and second down. As a rookie, Shalon immediately was thrown into the 2-back and short yardage situations. A couple of times per game, the Merchantmen would be in a short yardage situation and about once per game, they needed a big bulldozing player to breakthrough the melee of offensive and defensive linemen. Shalon turned out to be exactly that and quickly got nicknamed "The Shovel". For 10 seasons, Shalon played that role. After perhaps his best season, the Merchantmen decided to dismiss Shalon and promote second-year fullback Greg Brass into that role. Brass was a better blocker, but was unable to reach Shalon's 68 percentage conversion rate, the best in Merchantmen history.

QB #7 Jay McGee 2030-2039
Jay McGee was the 2030's surprise trade addition for the Merchantmen. When they were finalizing the blockbuster deal that would send Russell Harrison to the Rochester Lake Monsters, the Merchantmen rang the Fort Worth Furty, whom had put fourth year McGee on the trade block. The former first round pick had lost the starting role in 2029. McGee turned out to be a dependable and safe quarterback. In his first three seasons, McGee threw for 65 touchdowns with only 29 interceptions, but failed to guided them to the playoffs once, twice missing out with a 9-7 record. On Harrison's return to Maassluis, McGee was demoted to a backup role for 2 seasons, but after the man of glass retired, McGee upped his game and quarterbacked the Merchantmen to the playoffs for 5 straight seasons, with at least 10 wins each season and 4 division titles. Despite having a reputation of played bad in the post season, McGee has a 5-5 record in the playoffs, leading the Merchantmen to the 2038 and 2039 AOC Championship game. In 2039 he threw 4 touchdown passes there to lead the Merchantmen past the Tucker Tigers into IHOF Bowl XXXVI. After throwing for just 159 yards in the 23-10 loss against the Chesapeake Chitterlings, the Merchantmen decided that cutting McGee was the best move to get out of cap hell. McGee ranks fourth all-time for the Merchantmen with 31,422 passing yards, 255 touchdowns and 106 interceptions in 139 regular season games. Curiously, despite not making it into the Hall of Fame, with a 92.5 figure, McGee has a highest passer rating than the three Merchantmen quarterbacks who did get elected. McGee saw limited action from the Iowa Cobbers' bench in 2040 and after spending the entire 2041 season on the Paris Musketeers' bench he decided to retire.

S #42 Perry Walker 2030-2043
Perry Walker from West Viriginia was the Merchantmen's fifth round pick in the 2030 draft. In Merchantmen tradition, as a rookie Walker played mostly in a dime back role and promoted to nickel back in his second season. Things got really interesting in his third season, when he was promoted to strong safety as the reign of Hopper & Walker began. Walker was a hard hitting safety, able to walk all over the field. As a result, in 14 seasons, Walker made 895 tackles, 333 assists and forced 19 fumbles, more than any other safety in Merchantmen history. With 23 interceptions and 88 defended passes, he's managed a 81.1 pass defense score.

LT #60 Kerry Zumdahl 2031-2038
Kerry Zumdahl was one of three first round picks for the Merchantmen in 2031. Coming off a disastrous 5-11 season, the Merchantmen held the 6th overall pick and decided to grab Zumdahl as the new left tackle for quarterback Jay McGee. As a rookie, he was throwing into that role from the start. It turned out to be a tremendous decision. Zumdahl would never allow more than 5 sacks in a season while wearing the orange-white-and-blue uniform. Moreover, Zumdahl also turned out to be a contributor to the running blocking duties of the offensive line and was an All-IHOF first team selection for 3 straight seasons from 2032 to 2034. In the 2039 off-season, to get out of cap hell, the Merchantmen decided to trade Zumdahl after 8 seasons to the Tucker Tigers, the team that held the Merchantmen out of the IHOF Bowl in 2038. His first encounter with the Merchantmen was a 47-7 victory, but in the rematch in the 2039 AOC Championship game, Zumdahl saw his previous quarterback torch the Tigers' secondary. Zumdahl would continue his stellar play for 6 seasons in Tucker, winning 3 IHOF Bowls and eventually getting elected into the Hall of Fame.

S #49 Thurman Hopper 2031-2044
Thurman Hopper was one of three first round picks for the Merchantmen in 2031. They gave up a second round pick to trade up from 24th overall to 15th to be able to pick Hopper. The Merchantmen defense ranked 26th in yards allowed the season prior. Hopper had to work himself up in the pecking order, despite being a first round pick. Hopper became a fulltime starter late in his second season, establishing the Hopper & Walker partnership at safety, which would stick together until Walker's retirement in the 2044 off-season. Hopper was the ball hawker of the two. With 42 interceptions and 105 defended passes, he has a 82.5 pass defense rating. He ranks in Merchantmen history in interceptions. An injury kept Hopper sidelined for basically the entire 2039 season, also meaning he had to miss the Merchantmen's first participation in the IHOF Bowl, but otherwise he appeared to be near unbreakable in an era where safeties played the most injury prone position in football.

G #71 Ricky Castillo 2032-2038
Ricky Castillo became the Maassluis Merchantmen's 2032 first round pick. The guard out of Ohio State was immediately thrown into the starting lineup, to play side by side with second-year pro Kerry Zumdahl and became the primary run blocker of the line for Darrin Keegan. For 7 straight season, Castillo was a building block of the Merchantmen offense. Castillo earned All-IHOF first team honors in 2032 and 2034, while being a second teamer in 2033. In the 2039 off-season, the Merchantmen put Castillo on the trade block to get out of cap troubles. Castillo was traded to the Tucker Tigers, the team that beat the Merchantmen in the 2038 AOC Championship game. Castillo was on the losing end in 2039 again, this time against Maassluis. After 5 decent seasons in Tucker, he was a cap casualty there and played his final IHOF season for the Moontown Darksiders. Despite petitions from the Merchantmen fans, Castillo hasn't been elected into the Hall of Fame.

WR #83 Adam Brautlacht 2034-2044
Adam Brautlacht was drafted in 2034 by the Merchantmen high in the third round. He came in with high expectations, as the Merchantmen thought they had acquired a fast, agile receiver who could also be used as a punt returner and special teamer. Notoriously, the Merchantmen stadium announcer would by pronouncing his last name as if it was Dutch, making it sound very similar to how his German ancestors would pronounce it. In his second season, Brautlacht maneuvered himself into the WR2 role, ahead of the underperforming veteran Travis May. After the arrival of Terry Haskell, Brautlacht bounced around on the depth chart, but still managed to total 207 catches for 2,702 yards and 29 touchdowns in his first six seasons. The highlight came as he was a starter in the IHOF Bowl XXXVI loss. In the 2040, he got buried deep on the depth chart, spending most of the season inactive. Albeit getting a bit more action in the next 4 seasons, his role in the offense was limited to 4th or 5th receiver. After being the primary punt returner in the 2044 season, and occasionally getting the "Brautlacht!" chants going around in Oranje Haven, he retired in the 2045 off-season.

WR #89 Terry "The Gasket" Haskell 2036-2048
Terry Haskell was the main acquisition of the 2036 off-season for the Maassluis Merchantmen. As the incredibly talented receiver fell outside the top 5 picks, the Merchantmen picked up the phone and struck a deal with the Neverland Ranch Hands, sending them the 20th and 26th overall picks, as well as a couple of third round picks. The Merchantmen management and coaching staff were ecstatic, they finally got a successor to Hall of Famers Gabe Springer. Haskell broke into the scene with Offensive Rookie of the Year numbers, starting a stretch of 11 seasons in which he missed the 1,000-yard figure just once (the injury plagued 2041 season). Unlike Springer, Haskell remained to be in a starting role through his final season (2048), in which he barely broke the 15,000-yard career mark by a single yard. Haskell received the nickname "The Gasket", suggesting he was a safety measure to keep the Merchantmen from turning over the ball, by making crucial third down catches and remarkable catches that were about to be intercepted. Haskell is the all-time Merchantmen leader in receptions, receiving yards and receiving touchdowns, as well as receiving touchdowns in a single season. Unsurprisingly, he was elected into the Hall of Fame.

LB #55 Wesley Devine 2036-2048
Wesley Devine made the 2036 draft even more awesome after the selection of Terry Haskell. The Merchantmen into the 34th overall, sacrificing their first round pick in 2038 to make the move. Devine was expected to, and turned out to be, a complete linebacker. The three-time All-IHOF selection was a key part to the Merchantmen pass defense and run defense for 13 straight seasons. Devine became the second Merchantmen player to get 1,000 tackles, then ranking second behind Cody Cluff (with inflated number due to special teams tackles being included) on the all-time list. Devine started 200 regular season games for the Merchantmen, still ranks third in tackles and in defended passes amongst all Merchantmen players, and tied for first with 28 forced fumbles. To the pleasure of Merchantmen fans, he was the first Merchantmen linebacker elected into the Hall of Fame.

WR #87 Jack Money 2037-2046
Jack Money was a late seventh round pick in the 2037 draft. The Merchantmen decided to take a shot at the possible dual threat return specialist. It turned out to be a great pick. Already in his rookie season, he leads the league in kickoff return average and ranked third in punt return average, despite boosting his numbers with any touchdowns. In fact, his first touchdown came in his 92nd game for the Merchantmen. It didn't turn out to be a single season miracle though, Money would continue to impress as a return specialist for 7 straight seasons. He lead the league in kickoff return average 6 times and ranked 2nd in 2041, while being in the top five punt returners 6 times. The downfall came hard in the 2044 season, when it became apparent Money had lost some of his speed and agility to make big plays, seeing him get demoted to second in line in both return specialties. Despite that some called him that, he wasn't a Jack-of-all-traits. Money had only 5 receptions in 160 games for the Merchantmen, as he wasn't very useful on the offense. Money retired after 10 seasons, ranking 1st all-time with 33.8 yards per kickoff return, more than 2 yards per return ahead of the second highest figure.

RB #29 Donald Terry 2037-2044
Donald Terry was yet another fifth round product of the Merchantmen. Grabbed in the 2037 draft, the Merchantmen saw a lot of promise from the fast and smart running back. In the change of pace role, Terry saw his first action from the get go. In 2039 he took over from Darrin Keegan, who was traded to the North Plainfield Plague in the off-season. Terry ran for 106 yards and a 5.0 average, setting the tone for the rest of the season. Despite a couple of stinkers, Terry proved to be a worthy replacement, even with the two best linemen (Ricky Castillo and Kerry Zumdahl) from recent seasons also traded away. Terry finished the season running for 1,489 yards and 12 touchdowns, leading the yardage and an impressive 5.6 yards per carry. He was a rare bright light in the IHOF Bowl XXXVI loss, running for 102 yards and the team's only touchdown. Terry remained the starter for two more season, racking up two more 1,000-yard seasons. In 2042 he was demoted to the change of pace role and in 2043 to third string. After just 7 carries in 2044, it was all over. Terry ranks 10th all-time in rushing yards for the Merchantmen and tied for 8th in rushing touchdowns.

MIJB#19

12-17-2018, 05:44 PM

2078 Wild Card Round
"Maassluis is surely providing us with the most entertaining games of the season," said the owner of the Toronto Lake Monsters after the hail mary pass loss in week 14. Today the Maassluis Merchantmen hosted the Paris Musketeers in an all-European wild card round game. And boy, was it an entertaining game, especially for the neutral football fans.

The first quarter started with a run heavy drive from the Merchantmen. Raul Curie ran for 12 yards, which was followed up by Ronald Graham for 16 yards from around midfield and then a 35-yarder for the 7-0 lead. Paris' first drive ended at the Merchantmen 27-yard line, where Maurice Harkleroad intercepted a deep pass from Neil Poling. On the ensuing drive, Bennett Morris found J.R. Mills deep for a 52-yard gain and a couple of plays later Branden Schwirzke in the end zone for the 14-0 lead. Paris did something back on their next drive, leaning heavily on their passing game to see Poling find Arnie Janis for an 11-yard touchdown pass. Morris then found Brody Stevens for 53 yards (with a long run after catch) to set up a 39-yard field goal for the 16-7 lead after the first quarter.

A field position battle began in the second quarter. Paris pinned Maassluis at their 4-yard line, only to get pinned back at their own 3-yard line as a reply. Maassluis thought they got the better of it, but a holding penalty kept them outside the red zone. Neil Poling then found Corbin Houston for 35 yards to guide the Musketeers into Merchantmen territory to setup a 43-yad field goal. Paris three-and-outted the Merchantmen and gained just enough ground to be able to kick a 53-yard field goal to go into the break with Maassluis leading 16-13.

Paris started the second half with a 41-yard pass from Neil Poling to Corbin Houston, but a strip sack inside the Merchantmen red zone saved the Merchantmen. Maassluis advanced to midfield and pinned Paris back at their 4-yard line. Anchored by a 38-yard catch and run from Poling to Horace Pickett, the Musketeers marched into the red zone and kicked a 29-yarder to tie the score at 16-16. Bennett Morris saw his pass intercepted on the first play of the drive and brought Paris back into the red zone. The Merchantmen pass rush forced a three and out, but could not stop Shaun Dole from scoring his fourth field goal of the day, putting Paris 19-16 up. But just before the third quarter ended, Bennett Morris found Monty Elliott for 29-yard and 24-yard passes to give Maassluis a 23-19 lead going into the fourth quarter.

The Musketeers drove all the way to the Merchantmen 36-yard line, but were forced to punt, pushing Maassluis back to their 3-yard line. Three short Raul Curie runs later, Maassluis had to punt and Paris took full advantaged of the field position battle. A big 35-yard pass from Poling to Raul Marsh put Paris 26-23 up, with 8 minutes to go. Bennett Morris found Brody Stevens (24 yards) and Ronald Graham (25 yards) to march into the red zone, but Paris held ground there and a 25-yard field goal scored by Dave Eiermann brought it to 26-26 with just over 3 minutes remaining. Paris went three and out, Maassluis got the ball back at their own 6-yard line. Raul Curie converted a crucial third and short to maintain possession at the two-minute warning. Bennett Morris used his legs to convert on third and 7 to keep the ball. With 18 ticks on the clock, Morris then found J.R. Mills for a 17-yard catch at the Paris 38-yard line and time out was called with 3 seconds to go. A 55-yarder was by no means a gimme, but Dave Eiermann pulled it through: Merchantmen win 29-26!

Oranje Haven exploded: the 7-game losing streak in the playoffs finally ended after 11 years.

Bennett Morris completed 19 of 33 passes for 336 yards, 2 touchdowns and 1 interception, while also running for 29 yards.

Ronald Graham ran for 114 yards and a score, becoming the third Merchantmen running back with a century this season (after Walt Blair and Raul Curie).

J.R. Mills caught 5 passes for 100 yards, Brody Stevens caught 5 for 93 yards and Monty Elliott caught 4 for 73 yards and a touchdown.

J.R. Mills picked up a nasty groin injury, it's doubtful he'll be able to play in the next round. Monty Elliott played through a deep thigh bruise. Walt Blair is still out with a concussion, the medical staff is still unsure if Blair will be recovered in time for IHOF Bowl LXXV, if the Merchantmen actually make it that far.

Next up the Augusta Greenjackets, on the road. Augusta went 13-3 in the regular season, this ought to be a challenge for the Merchantmen. The Toronto Lake Monsters will host the Tucker Tigers. In the NAC the Moontown Darksiders host the Williamsburg Colonials, while the Iowa Cobbers visit the Hanalei Dragons. These are the 8 teams with the best regular season records, the Merchantmen actually have the worst record of these remaining teams.

MIJB#19

12-20-2018, 04:20 PM

2078 Divisional Round
And then the Merchantmen were where they wanted to be: the elite eight. The trip to Augusta was all worth it, because the Merchantmen had show in the regular season they can play with the best and beat some of the best: up next the 13-3 Greenjackets. Walt Blair still missing and J.R. Mills limping. It was all on Bennett Morris.

The Merchantmen drew first blood, kicking a 42-yard field goal set up by a drive with Morris finding Mills for 21 yards followed by rookie Ronald Graham running for 15- and 10-yard gains. Neither team scored on their next drive, but Augusta finally did on a long time consuming 80-yard drive that ended in a short pass from Brandon Riley to George Hayes for a 7-3 lead and the end of the first quarter.

The Merchantmen struggled on their next drive, but pinned the Greenjackets at their 9-yard line. Riley immediately replied with a short pass to Bo Charron, that turned into a 42-yard gain. A couple of plays later Isaiah Hickman missed a 48-yard field goal attempt. The Merchantmen still struggled and Riley connected for 23 yards with Greg Kudo on the second play of the Augusta drive. Slowly, but firmly, the Greenjackets gained ground and eventually Riley found Hayes from 12 yards out for the 13-3 lead after the misses extra point. With the final 2 minutes of the first half to go, Maassluis was stopped quickly and Augusta saw Riley throw to Frankie Knispel for another catch and run play with good yardage. Hickman got a chance to make it 16-3 in the final seconds, but 54 yards was too much to ask. Augusta did lead 13-3 to finish the half.

The second half was barely started and Augusta already found themselves in good field position as Riley found Hayes for a couple of 27-yard gains. Few minutes later, Riley connected with Charron on 3rd and 25 for a 35-yard touchdown. Hickman stood up and made it 20-3 for the home team. Maassluis responded with a couple of strong plays, Raul Curie ran for 21 yards and Morris found Mills for 22 yards, but eventually they had to punt, Tito Hornsby nailed the Greenjackets at their own 1-yard line. Augusta seemed to get out of that hole, until Riley got hurt and was replaced by Mason Ruiter. On his first pass attempt, he got picked off by Maurice Harkleroad, who ran it back for 91 yards and a stadium silencing touchdown. 20-10 Augusta, but Maassluis was back in business, sort of. Riley regrouped and connected with Scott Dembek for 19 yards, then Hayes for 16 yards and eventually Hickman kicked the 42-yard field goal to give Augusta a 23-10 lead with a minute to go in the third quarter.

Maassluis was stopped quickly on the first drive of the fourth quarter, while Augusta thought they were drive for a game winner. Instead, Alonzo Hitchcock intercepted a short pass of Ruiter near midfield and Maassluis got the momentum they needed. Morris ran and threw, the red zone was reached. A crucial third down conversation was followed up by a sneaking 7-yard run by Curie to trim the deficit to 23-17. Missing their quarterback, the Augusta offense struggled, but still got into field goal position with 3:33 on the clock. Hickman missed the 51-yarder and Maassluis quickly marched into Augusta territory. Just after the two-minute warning, the inevitable Morris to Mills big play finally took place: Mills grabbed a long pass and had to gain the last 3 yards to give Maassluis the 24-23 lead. Augusta had to go for it, on fourth and 6 at around midfield, Ruiter was unable to complete the pass to Hayes. Morris knee dropped for the 24-23 Merchantmen victory!

Morris completed 16 of 26 for 220 yards and 1 touchdown.

Curie ran for 66 yards (6.0 per carry) and 1 touchdown, Graham for 48 yards (4.8 per carry).

Mills had 5 catches for 130 yards and 1 touchdown.

Walt Blair is still out, J.R. Mills will continue to limp and Antonio Battle picked up an injury, but was said to be ready in time to play at and against the Toronto Lake Monsters in the upcoming big challenge in the AOC Championship game!

MIJB#19

12-20-2018, 05:14 PM

2078 Atlantic Ocean Conference Championship Game
After the arguably lucky victory in Augusta, the Merchantmen found themselves amongst the last four teams standing, interestingly enough the four teams with the most points scored in the regular season. Second best the Merchantmen, fourth best the Toronto Lake Monsters, the AOC's top seeded 14-2 juggernauts, the hosts of the AOC Championship Game.

After a quick three and out for the Merchantmen offense, the first Lake Monsters drive turned into a dragging, yet advancing experience, resulting in a 39-yard field goal for a 3-0 lead. Bennett Morris found Monty Elliott for 32-yards on a third and seven play on the next drive, but all it did was keep Clay Andrews and his gazelles off the field for about 3 minutes. Andrews and his gazelles stayed on the field for more than 5 minutes, getting first downs one anoter another to eventually see Andrews find Jamal Meteer for a short throw wide open to run into the end zone and a 10-0 lead.

"Morris deep to Mills, 15, 10, 5 touchdown!" The first play of the second quarter saw Morris find his man J.R. Mills for a 61-yard touchdown pass, still trailing 10-7, but Maassluis was back in business. After another steady, but not sturdy drive, Toronto kicked a 27-yard field goal to improve to a 13-7 lead. The Merchantmen responded with their own slow but solid drive, eventually seeing Morris find Randal Curtis in the end zone for a touchdown and taking a 14-13 lead. The Lake Monsters were a bit overwhelmed, yet pinned Maassluis back at the 6-yard line for their next drive with 3 minutes to go in the first half. Morris found Brnaden Schwirzke for 25 yards on second and long, but eventually the drive was halted at midfield. Toronto then came time short to get deep enough in Maassluis territory to score, giving Maassluis the 14-13 lead at half time.

On their first drive of the second half, it were a bunch of unusual running plays that gave the pass happy Lake Monsters their big gains. After 4 minutes of decent gains, Andrews once again found Meteer for a touchdown, this time to put Toronto 20-14 up. The Merchantmen got three and outed and things seemed to be going downhill fast for the orange-white-and-blue. Andrews kept throwing and running, until a throw in the red zone got disruptingly picked off by Giovanni Morton. Morris got him team moving, but a holding penalty got a crucial first down taken back. Toronto got the ball back to end the third quarter.

The Lake Monsters then got stalled quickly, with a crucial strip sack on third down, yet the fumble was recovered by one of Andrews' bodyguards. Maassluis got the ball back at their 41-yard line, but their faith quickly turned as Morris was tackled on a scramble, lost the ball and Dashawn Kaminski ran it all the way for a Toronto touchdown and a 27-14 lead. On the next drive, Raul Curie fumbled and it gave Toronto the ball at the Merchantmen 45-yard line. 3 plays later, Avery England ran it in from 20 yards out. 34-14 Toronto, that got ugly fast for the Merchantmen. Another quick three and out gave Toronto the ball back. A time consuming drive finished by a goal line stand and a 19-yard field goal gave Toronto a 37-14 lead with 3:28 to go. The Merchantmen waived the white flag, pulling their man of the year Morris and giving Sammy Erickson some playing time. Promtply Erickson threw a 41-yard bomb to Dennis Nadell on third and 10, but 4 plays later, Erickson was rushed and his pass was uncatchable for Brody Stevens. Toronto let England run and after converting third and one, knee drops wiped away the last minute of game time. A 37-14 defeat ended the Merchantmen season.

All eyes are on the 2079 off-season. Maassluis expects to get Walt Blair back safe and sound, but moreover will have to hope Bennett Morris is inspired just enough to not quite hang up his helmet and return for a second season teaming up with J.R. Mills. With the offense sniffing at 500 points for the 16-game schedule, the Merchantmen defense will be the unit needing some work, back to back 500-yard games to end the season don't bode well...

MIJB#19

12-21-2018, 02:18 PM

2079 Off-Season: Morris and Anaya retire
Tears aplenty amongst Merchantmen fans, two big men announced their retirement from football: Bennett Morris and Tom Anaya.

Quarterback Bennett Morris played just one season in Maassluis, but without doubt was he the right man at the right place at the right time, almost. Signed in the 2078 off-season, Morris quarterbacked the Merchantmen back into business. 11-5 in the regular season, 490 points scored, two wins in the playoffs, the Merchantmen are back in the picture of the premier IHOF franchises after 11 long seasons without a victory in the post-season. Morris threw for 4,459 yards and 37 touchdowns versus 13 interceptions, with 4 rushing touchdown to add. Morris walks away with $100M for his single season in Maassluis...

Center Tom Anaya was the Merchantmen's 2065 first round pick. He played 14 seasons in Maassluis, playing in 213 regular season and 18 post-season games. Anaya made 487 key run blocks and allowed just 54 sacks. He ranked 8th all-time in the history of the IHOF in key run blocks in the regular season. He was the leading run blocker for the Merchantmen 12 times, including his rookie season, twice earning All-IHOF First team honors. Unsurprisingly, he's the all-time leader for the Merchantmen, 92 key run blocks ahead of Cristian Sampson, a starter for the Merchantmen in the '50s.

MIJB#19

12-21-2018, 02:28 PM

2079 Off-Season: Shaun Hartman inducted into IHOF Hall of Fame
Defensive tackle Shaun Hartman has been inducted into the IHOF's Hall of Fame. He was one of seven players inducted, getting the highest voting percentage. Hartman was an 11-time All-IHOF selection, 7 times a first teamer and was the IHOF Bowl LXIII MVP anchoring the Merchantmen's sole league title. Hartman played 13 seasons for the Merchantmen, made 577 tackles, 252 assists, 116.5 sacks and forced 22 fumbles. He ranks 2nd for the Merchantmen in sacks, behind his long-time sidekick Daquan Strugielski and 16th in IHOF history, being 1st amongst defensive tackles.

MIJB#19

12-21-2018, 02:46 PM

2079 GM Notes, start of the off-season
Well, things haven't gone exactly as hoped, some kid named Morris decided to quit playing football. The man of $100M for 19 games. Let's take a look at my notes from mid-season last season.
2078 GM Notes, week 8
It gives Morris cap figures of $43.75M this season and $73.75M in each of the next three seasons. The salary cap is $433.8M. It's huge. But I think we'll manage. I fully expect to be able to get him to sign for much less next season, worst case having to go the Cap Out route, to trim his figure to $39M next season (-$34M to what it is scheduled to be). Heck, if we win a title, it'll all be worth it. With Erickson and McAlister as the backup plans, we're not quite a team that should immediately drop from first to worst.We've got three options now:
* Sammy Erickson
* Ellis McAlister
* get yet another new quarterback
The ne result of the retirement sadly costs us more money that anticipated. We're currently at $45.28M lost cap space, of which only $4.24M is left over from last season. There's also Anaya's retirement costing us 3.54M, which means Morris is counting for $37.5M towards the cap. The fourth season of signing bonus apparently doesn't count towards the cap.
2078 GM Notes, week 8
All in all, we're projecting to be $64M over the cap going into the 2079 off-season, with 47 players signed. But a lot of that is on the 9 players with a base salary of 10M+, they combined for $188M of cap costs, just on those base salaries. As mentioned already, we can save $34M on Morris alone, we should be able to save $18M on linebacker Antonio Battle, $10M on defensive tackle Glen Stiegler, $9M on Carlos Webb, $6M on wide receiver J.R. Mills, $8M on wide receiver Brody Stevens and $6M on cornerback Alonzo Hitchcock, that's roughly $100M, a lot more than we will need.We're projected $43.03M over the cap, but that included draft picks that cost us $25.12M. It'll be less once you factor in that we have 11 picks and 45 players signed, which means only the 6 most expensive picks will actually cost us cap space. It does mean there will have to be a round of renegotiations with the guys mentioned above with potentially $55M to save.
2078 GM Notes, week 8
On the bad side of things, we've actually collected an excess of draft picks for the next off-season. We've got the 2nd round picks of Chicago, Texas and Williamsburg, as well as a 5th from Chicago, on top of our own 7 picks. The cap cost of those picks might be trickier than the contract renegotiations of those mentioned above and extending a majority of the 31 players that will be in their last year of contract...Let's not get ahead of things, the draft class will be announced later, but holding the 1.29, 2.12, 2.17, 2.26, 2.29, 3.29, 4.29, 5.14, 5.29, 6.29 and 7.29 picks, we've got a lot to work with. The most surprising part probably is that we actually earned the worst of those second rounders by our own record. Chicago shockingly gave us the 2.12 and 5.14 picks, Texas the 2.17 pick. Teams that were 10-6 division champions in the 2077 season. It shouldn't surprise you to read that we've announced a desire to package some of those 2nd round picks and the 1.29 to move up in the draft.

MIJB#19

12-22-2018, 02:19 PM

75th season anniversary: 50 Legends, Bryson Chow era
To celebrate the 75th season of the Maassluis Merchantmen, I selected 50 players that I consider the legends of that time span from 2004 until the start of the 2078 season. I split the list of players into 5 groups, each being a time period of roughly 15 seasons. We'll continue with episode 4: the Bryson Chow period.

LB #54 Daniel "Double D" Duncan 2040-2049
Daniel Duncan, linebacker out of Penn State, was the Merchantmen's first round pick in the 2040 draft. Technically the second one that draft, taken one pick behind cornerback Mark Crum, but Duncan was taken with the pick corresponding to the IHOF Bowl losing team. Duncan was part of the rebuild of the defense, stepping in as the successor of still playing Fred McCorkle. Teaming op with Wesley Devine, for an exceptional all-around linebacker tandem. Duncan was the second linebacker on team with a last name starting with a D, which combined with his initials were an easy step to his nickname "Double D". His career began with a false start, missing most of his rookie campaign due to injuries. The trend continued, as he missed a total of 20 regular season games in the first 3 years, but in his first full year he broke out with a bang, becoming the 2043 Defensive Player of the Year. Duncan made 101 tackles, 7.0 sacks, 3 interceptions and defended 15 passes. In 2046 he co-lead the league with 8 interceptions. Battling injuries more often, Duncan decided to call it a game after 10 seasons. Despite that, he ranks 9th in tackles, 5th in interceptions and in defended passes for the Merchantmen.

DL #56 Dennis Lucas 2041-2050
Dennis Lucas was a free agent signing in the 2041 off-season. The Oakland Black Panthers decided to let him walk after his 3-year rookie contract, being unable to afford an extension in the final year. The Merchantmen snagged him up and made him their pass rush specialist extraordinary. Lucas played all over the defensive line, rarely listed as a starter, but usually playing his fair share of downs in relief of the tired starters. He was the Merchantmen sacks leader 5 times and earned an equal number of All-IHOF selections, albeit mostly from being listed as a defensive tackle, while seeing a good portion of his playing time at defensive end. Lucas couldn't be bothered and kept making sack after sack, retiring in the 2051 off-season with 100.0 sacks exactly, of which 85.0 were for the Merchantmen, at that time the highest figure in franchise history, surpassing the legendary Charles Gomez. Lucas' pass rush excellence impressed the pundits enough to get him inducted into the Hall of Fame.

WR #84 Scott Dupuis 2043-2053
Wide receiver Scott Dupuis joined the Merchantmen in the 2043 as a trade acquisition from the Texas Sharks for a future third round pick. Dupuis was seen as a backup in a crowded receivers corps, but also as the successor to kickoff return legend Jack Money. Dupuis was active, but barely on the field that first season in Maassluis. But from his second season and onwards, Dupuis was a key figure. Dupuis moved up to the WR3 role, but more importantly lived up to the expectations of becoming an elite kickoff return specialist. In 11 seasons with the Merchantmen, Dupuis scored a franchise high 7 kickoff return touchdowns and ranked first in kickoff return average 4 times, and 5 more times in the league's top three. With 32.0 yards per kickoff return, he ranks second for the Merchantmen and would have ranked equally high in league history if his Texas' numbers weren't included. With those added, he ranks 6th all-time in kickoff return average and tied for 11th in most kickoff return touchdowns.

QB #1 Bryson Chow 2045-2058
"With the first overall pick of the 2045 draft the Maassluis Merchantmen select quarterback Bryson Chow out of Illinois." He was listed at the top of the mock drafts all around, Chow was going to be a franchise quarterback, going to challenge Jackie Collier as the all-time best player in league history. The Merchantmen traded up from the #12 overall slot to get Chow. It quickly became apparent that Chow was a talented player, with the legs to potentially be a dual-threat quarterback, but not quite the all-time best player. He made good progress, but didn't have the talent Collier had. It didn't stop Chow from becoming the Merchantmen starter and remaining that for 12 seasons, leading them to the AOC Championship game twice. In 2057 he lost the starting role despite guiding his team to a 3-2 start. His last pass attempt for the Merchantmen came in garbage time. Chow retired with 192 starts for a 116-86-1 record, throwing for 43,006 yards and 321 touchdowns versus 184 interceptions, ranking second in yardage and touchdowns for the Merchantmen. The cream on the pie came in the 2063 off-season, when Chow against all odds was elected into the Hall of Fame.

C #79 Cristian Sampson 2047-2059
Center Cristian Sampson was just a fourth round draft pick for the Merchantmen in the 2047 draft, but after a season on the bench, Sampson saw the arrival of Norbert Talley as the new running back. As a true center, Sampson became the anchor of the run blocking unit. For 10 seasons straight, 30 key run blocks was his minimum, getting to 40+ six times. He peaked in 2053 with 52 key run blocks to co-lead the league, including 10 in a single game versus the Snapfinger Jazz, still a seemingly untouchable franchise record. Sampson was the All-IHOF center 3 times and with 395 key run blocks became the Merchantmen all-time leader, only recently being surpassed by Tom Anaya for second place. IHOF Bowl LIV was Sampson's last game as a starter, despite 6 key run blocks that day.

RB #25 Norbert Talley 2048-2055
Running back Norbert Talley was the #12 overall pick in the 2045 draft, originally the Maassluis Merchantmen's pick. The Merchantmen had traded the pick to the Snapfinger Jazz to be able to get quarterback Bryson Chow. In the 2048 off-season, Talley at last joined the Merchantmen after three decent, but non-spectacular seasons, sending the Jazz the Merchantmen 2049 first round pick. Talley joined a team of lowly drafted, yet coherent and talented guys, with a hard to guess game plan, but more importantly brought his own talent. Talley ran for 1,622 yards in his first season in Maassluis, but things only went up after that. In 2051 and 2053 he topped the 2,000-yard mark, scoring 15 and 17 touchdowns in the process. After just 1,249 in the 2055 season, Talley retired. For years he had battled with Oakland Black Panthers' Nolan Money for the rushing title: he finished second in 2049, 2050, first in 2051, second in 2052 behind Snapfinger's Fred Kwan, first in 2053 and fourth in 2054. Talley broke the all-time carries record with 3,882 and ranks second all-time with 17,399 rushing yards. Talley ranks first for the Merchantmen with 14,027 yards and 76 touchdowns rushing. He ranks fifth with 86 total touchdowns. Talley was inducted into the Hall of Fame in 2060, whilst his jersey number 25 got retired by the Maassluis Merchantmen.

LT #64 Roman Torrez 2051-2063
Left tackle Roman Torrez was the Merchantmen's late second round pick in the 2051 draft. Joining an established line with Norbert Talley running from behind it, he had to work himself up in the ranks. He was a starter in his second season filling in for injured guard Sean Schwimmer, but finally became a full-time starter in his fourth season on team. Albeit being volatile in his performance, Torrez was usually a reliable body guard to the quarterbacks and also supported the running game. He peaked with 34 key run blocks and 3 sacks allowed in 2056, earning his only All-IHOF selection. He started at left tackle in IHOF Bowl LIV and LVII, being on the losing end both times.

CB #39 Everett Heiser 2052-2062
Cornerback Everett Heiser was the Merchantmen's second round pick in the 2052 draft. Without hesitation, the Merchantmen decided to throw Heiser into a starting role. It took him a couple of seasons to establish himself as the premier pass defender on the team, making 5 interceptions and 13 defended passes in the 2054 season. In 2057, a divisional round playoffs game at the Toronto Lake Monsters was his moment of fame, as Heiser intercepted 4 passes, being crucial in the 37-31 victory. In 2060 he returned an interception to seal a 34-17 victory against the Atlanta Vipers. He was a starter in IHOF Bowl LIV and LVII, combining for 0 catches allowed, but as the opposing teams threw away from him, the Merchantmen lost both times. After 11 seasons, Heiser retired with 36 interceptions and 112 defended passes on his resume, which rank him third (tied) and fourth respectively in Merchantmen history. With 7 interceptions in the playoffs, Heiser ranks tied for 5th in IHOF history.

MIJB#19

12-24-2018, 06:49 AM

2079 Off-Season: New center, dozens of renegotiations
Party in the Merchantmen front office: today the Merchantmen signed center Nicky Sherman from the IHOF champions Moontown Darksiders and struck new deals with all 21 players that were at the table with the Merchantmen management. Not a single player turned down the contract offered, a rare feat.

Sherman is a 31-year old center, played 9 seasons with the Moontown Darksiders after being traded by the Outer Banks Ospreys in his second season. Sherman has been a tremendous player for the Darksiders, allowing just 19 sacks and making 322 key run blocks for what has been a state of the art offense since the Darksiders drafted Derek Barge. Sherman has three IHOF Bowl victories on his resume and has been a guarantee for 35 key run blocks, aside from last season when a 4-game absence due to a wrist injury made him miss about a month of action. Sherman signed a 3-year deal, worth $95M, with a $40M bonus and a $5M base salary this season, escalating to $25M salaries in the second and third season. The signing of Sherman is bad news for Steven Houshmandzadeh, who was expected to step in as the new center after the retirement of Tom Anaya.

The Merchantmen found the cap space to be able to afford Sherman through no less than 21 renegotiations, all accepted by the players. That list of players: tight ends Randal Curtis and Branden Schwrizke, wide receivers J.R. Mills, Brody Stevens and Dennis Nadell, linemen Carlos Webb, Oscar Meadows, Louie Murray and Steven Houshmandzadeh, punter Tito Honrsby, defensive tackle Glen Stiegler, linebackers Antonio Battle and Glenn Brewer, cornerbacks Alonzo Hitchcock, Ezra Slocum, Herman Glenn and Bart Lahnum, and safeties Maurice Harkleroad, Rex McIndoe and Jonah Harden.

The Merchantmen will need some of the new cap space to work out contract extensions with tight end Monty Elliott and guard Harvey Hank, as well as giving contracts to restricted free agents running back Ronald Graham and defensive end Max Lyons. Four players are unrestricted free agents: wide receivers Mickey Allen and Patrick Henry, and linebackers Chance Nason and Alexis Turner.

Biggest question mark remaining in Maassluis is the quarterback situation. Retirement of Bennett Morris has the Merchantmen looking at Sammy Erickson and Ellis McAlister as the alternatives. An attempt to trade for a quarterback looks like it has little chance. The Merchantmen already had one team reply their quarterback is not available for trade. The top draft prospects look like misfits for the Merchantmen as Alvin Engelberger and Hugh Gaines are said to lack the agility to fit their game plan. Top free agent Ike Woodhouse might be too expensive with the current cap situation in Maassluis...

MIJB#19

12-24-2018, 05:41 PM

75th season anniversary: 50 Legends, Class of 2064 period
To celebrate the 75th season of the Maassluis Merchantmen, I selected 50 players that I consider the legends of that time span from 2004 until the start of the 2078 season. I split the list of players into 5 groups, each being a time period of roughly 15 seasons. We'll finish with episode 5: Class of 2064 period.

C #76 Zack Whelan 2056-2067
Center Zack Whelan joined the Merchantmen as a second round pick in the 2056 draft. The plan was to make him the future replacement of Cristian Sampson, but Whelan was forced into action five times. It was quickly clear that Whelan had the talent to grow into being the best run blocker up the middle in the league. In 2058, Whelan became the full time starter and in his first three seasons he had a minimum of 44 key run blocks, earning back to back All-IHOF Second team honors. Whelan was a backup for IHOF Bowl LIV and misses IHOF Bowl LVII due to injury. A suspension cost Whelan the 2064 season, an in retrospect cut his career short. The Merchantmen drafted a replacement in 2065 in Tom Anaya, but injuries across the line got Whelan back on the field after all. His role quickly got smaller, although he was activated for the IHOF Bowl LXIII victory. As a result, Whelan is one of three players on roster for 3 IHOF Bowls, but to his own disappointment, he got to start in none of them. After spending the entire 2067 season inactive, he wasn't re-signed in the 2068 off-season. Despite the gaps in his activity, Whelan retired with 296 key run blocks, 5th highest in franchise history.

QB #8 Lester Lowe 2057-2065
Quarterback Lester Lowe joined the Merchantmen through trade in the 2057 off-season. Initially considered exchange money in a trade up with the Augusta Greenjackets, from #29 overall to #14 overall to get wide receiver Riddick Stanley while sacrificing a first round pick next draft, Lowe was suddenly promoted to the starting role ahead of Chow after decent, but underwhelming play in the first 5 games. Lowe started with a loss, but followed up with 5 straight victories without interception and continued to impress en route to the IHOF Bowl LIV, which the Merchantmen lost 34-27. The Chow era was over, Lowe time had began. He followed up with three 4,000-yard seasons, and four with 32 touchdown passes. Interceptions started to pile on, but Lowe did well enough to guide his team to IHOF Bowl LVII, a close contested 17-14 loss. The 2064 season turned out to be his last as the starter. The demise had kicked in and prior to the 2066 season, after a season with just 14 pass attempts, Lowe decided to retire. Lowe retired with a 89-40 record 29,690 passing yards and 239 passing touchdown, 5th in Merchantmen history.

WR #83 Riddick Stanley 2057-2068
Wide receiver Riddick Stanley joined the Merchantmen after a trade up from the #29 to the #14 overall pick in the 2057 draft. Stanley's quarterback was also acquired in that trade, as Lester Lowe became the starter from week 7 in that season. Stanley broke out in his sophomore season, catching 102 passes for 1,536 yards and 14 touchdowns. From there on his performance slowly went down, aside from a spike up in the 2068 season, his last season in Maassluis before joining the Iowa Cobbers for his last two seasons in the IHOF. Stanley was a key player in the offense for Maassluis, outlasting many changes on the opposite side of the field and the switch from Lester Lowe to Alfred Hickman. Stanley was the top receiver for a team that reached IHOF Bowl LIV, IHOF Bowl LVII and finally got the Merchantmen's only title in the IHOF Bowl LXIII victory. He's one of just two Merchantmen players active in all three bowl games and the only one to start in all three of them. Stanley retired with Hall of Fame worthy numers. With 13,511 receiving yards and 100 receiving touchdowns, he retired ranked third for the Merchantmen in all three going into the 2078 season. J.R. Mills surpassed Stanley in receiving yards in the 2078 season.

DE #92 Jordan St. Pierre 2057-2067
Defensive end Jordan St. Pierre was a low fifth round pick in the 2057 draft for the Merchantmen. An afterthought, given a chance to make the team as a rotation backup for the pass rush. Against all odds, St. Pierre was listed as a starter from his rookie season and onwards. Granted, his playing time was about 1/3rd of the time in his rookie campaign, including the IHOF Bowl LIV loss. His pass rush ability became more apparent from his third season onwards. He was a starter in the IHOF Bowl LVII loss and followed it in the 2061 season with 15.5 sacks and All-IHOF honors. By then he had established himself as a building block. In 2062 Shaun Hartman and Preston Urquoila came along, while in 2064 Daquan Strugielski became the fourth member of the fearsome front four. St. Pierre saw his numbers decline, but as a sidekick to these stars, as a 10th year veteran he got his chance to shine in IHOF Bowl LXIII with 2.5 sacks. He retired after the upset deficit in the 2067 AOC Championship game. At that time he ranked 2nd for the Merchantmen with 78.5 sacks and following the retirement of Hartman and Strugielski, he's 4th all-time in sacks.

DT #95 Shaun "The Behemoth" Hartman 2062-2074
Defensive tackle Shaun Hartman was only the 28th overall draft pick in the 2062 draft, but the Merchantmen knew it for sure: this was the guy they wanted. And they chose wisely, Hartman was a day one starter and didn't miss a single game for 13 seasons. The first three seasons were relatively disappointing, as the Merchantmen misses the playoffs. But Hartman was a force, earning All-IHOF first or second team honors from his second to twelfth season, being a seven-time first-teamer. Playing exclusively from the inside, Hartman was a pass rush machine, recording 116.5 sacks, 281 hurries and 57 blocked passes in regular season action. He added 577 tackles, 252 assists and 22 forced fumbles. He's second in sacks and first in hurries and blocked passes of all Merchantmen players. His finest hour came in IHOF Bowl LXIII, where he made 3.0 sacks, 2 hurries, 6 tackles and forced a fumble to earn IHOF Bowl MVP honors. His ferociousness earned him the nickname Behemoth with the Merchantmen fans. In 2074, Hartman decided to step away from football. In the 2079 off-season, Hartman got inducted into the Hall of Fame.

CB #34 Peter Tucker 2064-2075
Cornerback Peter Tucker was the #10 overall pick in the 2064 draft, the first of many tremendous Merchantmen picks that draft. The Merchantmen hoped to get a shutdown corner in Tucker, but that doesn't exactly describe the kind of player Tucker turned out to be. Rather than throwing away from him, Tucker was often faced with the WR1 of the opponent and had the task to deflect the ball or at least make sure the receiver wasn't going to gain ground. With 45 interceptions and 130 defended passes, he ranks 1st and 2nd in Merchantmen history. But Tucker also supported the run defense, for a conrberback he made the remarkable total of 1,039 tackles and 284 assists. Tucker earned All-IHOF honors seven times, 4 times as a first team selection. Tucker made crucial interceptions in the playoffs of the 2066 season in he divisional round and conference final, en route to IHOF Bowl LXIII victory. The Merchantmen retired the #34 jersey the day Tucker announced his retirement from football.

LB #51 Gabe Hamilton 2064-2074
Linebacker Gabe Hamilton was the #12 overall pick in the 2064 draft, the second of many tremendous Merchantmen picks that draft. Hamilton peaked early, earning Defensive Rookie of the Year honors ahead of teammates Tucker and Ross. In 2066 he made 152 tackles, 5.5 sacks and defended 17 passes, earning All-IHOF honors. He brought his a-game to the playoffs as well, making 13 tackles and 8 assists in the AOC Championship victory en route to the IHOF Bowl LXIII victory. Although that turned out to be his best season, Hamilton remained to be a key player for 9 seasons, coming 2 tackles short in 2072 to have a century in all of them. He lost his starting role in 2073, was active in a single game in 2074 and a tough roster cut decision in the 2075 pre-season, not making the final 53-men list. Hamilton retired in the 2076 off-season and it is rumored he talked his Class of 2064 compatriots Peter Tucker, Edward Ross and Daquan Strugielski to retire together with him. Hamilton recorded 1,72 tackles, 326 assists, 23.5 sacks, 80 defended passes, 5 interceptions and 15 forced fumbles.

LB #58 Edward Ross 2064-2075
Linebacker Edward Ross was the #16 overall pick in the 2064 draft, the third of many tremendous Merchantmen picks that draft. Initially playing second fiddle to Hamilton as the premier linebacker, the roles changed from the 2067 season and onwards. By that time, Ross was already wearing a championship ring, just like all his teammates in the IHOF Bowl LXIII victory. Albeit the highlight of his career being there and then, Ross continued to grow into perhaps the best outside linebacker in league history. He earned All-IHOF honors four seasons straight in 2067-2070, being a three-time first-teamer. Ross was a lock for 100 tackles, but also was a key factor in the pass rush and pass defense. Ross retires with 1,423 tackles, 407 assists, 49.0 sacks, 17 interceptions, 94 defended passes and 25 forced fumbles. The tackle total ranks him 3rd all-time in the IHOF. For the Merchantmen he ranks 1st in tackles, 11th in sacks, 9th in defended passes and tied 3rd in forced fumbles. Ross retired in the 2076 off-season and is expected to be inducted into the Hall of Fame.

DE #98 Daquan "Da Machine" Strugielski 2064-2075
Defensive end Daquan Strugielski was the #217 overall pick in the 2064 draft, the last of many tremendous Merchantmen picks that draft. In his rookie campaign, Strugielski wasn't a sure thing yet, but in his second season the 10.5 sacks were the start of a 9-season stretch of 10.0 or more sacks in all but one season. He was one of the pass rush monsters in the IHOF Bowl LXIII victory. From 2069 onwards, Strugielski earned All-IHOF honors, winning back to back Defensive Player of the Year honors in 2071 and 2072. The latter a result of also being an above average tackle machine from the defensive end position. he made 50+ tackles four times, including those DPOY seasons. The continuing production of sacks in those seasons earned him the nickname 'Da Machine'. Strugielski made 7.0 sacks in a time-share role in 2074, but his 2075 season ended in a deception: 0.0 sacks in 17 games, including the lost wild card game. Strugielski retired in the 2076 off-season after a Hall of Fame worthy career.

QB #3 Alfred Hickman 2065-2072
Quarterback Alfred Hickman joined the Merchantmen out of the blue in the 2065 off-season. Lester Lowe was still in charge, but the Merchantmen felt that a kid with 0 starts on his resume was worth sending their 1st roud pick next draft to the Hanalei Dragons. Hickman won the starting gig and delivered with a tremendous season: 4,545 yards and 32 touchdowns versus 16 interceptions, a 12-4 record and a loss in the divisional round. In 2066 the interceptions started to pile up. From week 11 through 17, Hickman threw at least 2 picks, but 10-5-1 was enough to go into the post-season. Supported by the superb defense, Hickman quarterbacked the Merchantmen through the playoffs and into IHOF Bowl LXIII victory. Despite throwing for 231 yards, the MVP honors weren't his. Hickman continued to be a lock for 4,300 yards and above. Contract disputes made the Merchantmen cut Hickman right after training camp 2070. In 2071 Hickman returned for another couple of one-and-done seasons. The 2073 off-season was Hickman's second departure, cut as contract negotiations were expected to fail again. In 7 seasons, Hickman threw for 30,325 yards, 198 touchdowns and 153 intcerceptions, guiding the Merchantmen into the playoffs every time and towards their only IHOF Bowl victory.

C #77 Tom Anaya 2065-2078
Center Tom Anaya was the Merchantmen's surprise first round pick in the 2065 draft. Following the suspension of Zack Whelan, the Merchantmen decided to give the line to Anaya. He became a day one starter. His stats as a rookie were unimpressive, but the Merchantmen started an eight-season streak of playoffs football. Anaya wasn't just great for the Merchantmen, it became apparent he was an all-time great run blocker. The All-IHOF honors were limited to two times, but he wasn't a stranger to 40 key run blocks. He was around early enough to party after the IHOF Bowl LXIII victory, yet hung around long enough to celebrate the Merchantmen's 75th season. Anaya retired after the 2078 season, ranking 8th in key run blocks and 2nd in block opportunities in IHOF. He ranks first for the Merchantmen in both figures, while his 213 starts top previous record holder Louie Flannery by 2.

WR #82 J.R. Mills 2069-2078
Wide receiver J.R. Mills cost the Merchantmen a treuckload of picks, but the #9 overall selection was high enough to get him. And boy was he worthy it. Not from the beginning though. Despite a 1,000-yard campaign as a rookie and making it a four-season streak, Mills' stamina appeared to be an issue. Injury sidelined him for the majority of the 2073 season. Upon his return in 2074, he upped his game and kept improving, becoming a 1,500-yard receiver and peaking with 111 catches for 2,228 yards in the 2077 season. Coming in at the second most productive season by any receiver in IHOF history. The Merchantmen hope to build on him for another handful of seasons. Mills had another All-IHOF second team season in 2078 with 1,756 yards receiving. His 17 receiving touchdown were a personal record and second best in Merchantmen history. Going into 2079, he ranks 6th in receptions, 3rd in receiving yards, 5th in receiving touchdowns and a superior yards per catch and yards per target figures. Mills

OT #65 Oscar Meadows 2071-2078
Offensive tackle Oscar Meadows was a surprise first round pick in the 2071 draft for the Merchantmen. Right tackle isn't traditionally a position the Merchantmen invest in, but Meadows has the size and talent to be worthy of that. In his first seven seasons in Maassluis, Meadows proved to be the stud of the line. He allowed 33 sacks and made 198 key run blocks so far. In 2078 Meadows earned his first All-IHOF honors, being a second-teamer with 33 key run blocks and only 4 sacks allowed.

LB #52 Antonio Battle 2073-2078
Linebacker Antonio Battle joined a rich history of first round picks at his position. He had the honor to join the Merchantmen shortly before the big names retired. The veterans imediately recognized Battle's talent and he became a full-time starter as a rookie. With four 100-tackle seasons, 11 interceptions, 50 defended passes, 8 forced fumbles and 12.0 sacks in 5 seasons, his two All-IHOF team selections aren't surprising. He's a premier linebacker, a worthy succesor to Edward Ross and preceding names. In 2078 Battle earned his second All-IHOF first team selection.

MIJB#19

12-27-2018, 09:28 AM

75th season anniversary: 50 Legends, epilogue
To celebrate the 75th season of the Maassluis Merchantmen, I selected 50 players that I consider the legends of that time span from 2004 until the start of the 2078 season. I split the list of players into 5 groups, each being a time period of roughly 15 seasons. Epilogue.

If you counted the names carefully, you'll notice that the 5 articles of 50 Legends actually consisted of only 49 names, one short. The explanation is simple, I picked only 1 player from the list of active players in the 2076-2078 time period. With 2078 in the books and hopefully the beginning of a new strong era, it's the perfect timing to promote one name from the also-rans list.

Bennett Morris bailed on us after one season, that's an easy "no". Walt Blair is 10 games in, that's too short. Carlos Webb hasn't broken out into becoming a threat to the run blocking legends yet. Stiegler and Hitchcock actually earned All-IHOF first team honors in the 2078 season, but they'll have to wait for a future episode of whatever number of legends. Which leaves the honors to...

RB #23 Lucas Blackwell 2069-2077
Lucas Blackwell was the Merchantmen third round pick in the 2069 draft. Instead of bringing him slowly, he impressed enough in camp and pre-season to get 20 carries from the start. Blackwell came along with a skill set unusual to the Merchantmen, as he wasn't known for his breakaway speed, but did bring the instinct for hole recognition. On top of that, Blackwell was showing the power en determination to be a third down back. His endurance was slightly lacking, meaning the Merchantmen kept Blackwell basically active about 2/3rd of the time for most of his career and rarely seeing Blackwell active on the first play on the first possession. His career yards per carry wasn't impressive at 3.96. With 6 1,000-yard seasons, he played above the odds as a part-timer. Eventually his elusiveness and fumbling habits made the Merchantmen decide to release Blackwell in the 2078 off-season, deeming him too expensive for a backup role behind recently selected rookie Walt Blair. As a result, Blackwell's production was halted after 9 seasons with 9,531 rushing yards and 75 rushing touchdowns, with a 48.6 success rate on third downs. he's second all-time for the Merchantmen in carries, rushing yards and rushing touchdowns. The later trailing Nobert Talley by a single touchdown, a record that would have been in reach for Blackwell with one more season... Blackwell tried out with the Arizona Miners in training camp 2078, but didn't make the 53-men roster and retired in the 2079 off-season.

MIJB#19

12-27-2018, 10:11 AM

For the heck of it, I tabulated the 50 Legends to create a listed top50, assigned every player three scores from 1 to 5 on "star player value", "popularity" and "longevity". The first one being slightly subjective but basically ranging from hall of famers . The popularity rating resembles my own "heart for the player" value, again ranging from 5 for "favorites" to 1 for "I had to play him by lack of having anything better". Longevity was a simple formula of dividing the years of service by 3 and rounding to the closest whole number. Tie-breakers went to my own decision (shocker!).

Top 50 Merchantmen 2004-2078
1. DT #95 Shaun "The Behemoth" Hartman (https://forums.operationsports.com/fofc/showpost.php?p=3226880&postcount=52&highlight=Shaun+Hartman) 2062-2074
2. WR #89 Terry "The Gasket" Haskell (https://forums.operationsports.com/fofc/showpost.php?p=3226245&postcount=43&highlight=Terry+Haskell) 2036-2048
3. DT #78 Charles Gomez (https://forums.operationsports.com/fofc/showpost.php?p=3224511&postcount=30&highlight=Charles+Gomez) 2004-2014
4. LB #55 Wesley Devine (https://forums.operationsports.com/fofc/showpost.php?p=3226245&postcount=43&highlight=Wesley+Devine) 2036-2048
5. DE #98 Daquan "Da Machine" Strugielski (https://forums.operationsports.com/fofc/showpost.php?p=3226880&postcount=52&highlight=Daquan+Strugielski) 2064-2075
6. WR #86 Gabe Springer (https://forums.operationsports.com/fofc/showpost.php?p=3224540&postcount=31&highlight=Gabe+Springer) 2016-2027
7. C #77 Tom Anaya (https://forums.operationsports.com/fofc/showpost.php?p=3226880&postcount=52&highlight=Tom+Anaya) 2065-2078
8. LB #58 Edward Ross (https://forums.operationsports.com/fofc/showpost.php?p=3226880&postcount=52&highlight=Edward+Ross) 2064-2075
9. QB #3 "Fumblin'" Justin McDavid (https://forums.operationsports.com/fofc/showpost.php?p=3224511&postcount=30&highlight=Justin+McDavid) 2004-2017
10. LB #54 Daniel "Double D" Duncan (https://forums.operationsports.com/fofc/showpost.php?p=3226762&postcount=50&highlight=Daniel+Duncan) 2040-2049
11. WR #82 J.R. Mills (https://forums.operationsports.com/fofc/showpost.php?p=3226880&postcount=52&highlight=J.R.+Mills) 2069-2078
12. C #76 Zack Whelan (https://forums.operationsports.com/fofc/showpost.php?p=3226880&postcount=52&highlight=Zack+Whelan) 2056-2067
13. QB #5 Russell "Rusty" Harrison (https://forums.operationsports.com/fofc/showpost.php?p=3224540&postcount=31&highlight=Russell+Harrison) 2020-2034
14. QB #1 Bryson Chow (https://forums.operationsports.com/fofc/showpost.php?p=3226762&postcount=50&highlight=Bryson+Chow) 2045-2058
15. LB #50 Cody Cluff (https://forums.operationsports.com/fofc/showpost.php?p=3224511&postcount=30&highlight=Cody+Cluff) 2004-2016
16. LT #60 Kerry Zumdahl (https://forums.operationsports.com/fofc/showpost.php?p=3226245&postcount=43&highlight=Kerry+Zumdahl) 2031-2038
17. CB #34 Peter Tucker (https://forums.operationsports.com/fofc/showpost.php?p=3226880&postcount=52&highlight=Peter+Tucker) 2064-2075
18. LT #63 "Indestructible" Ivan Jacques (https://forums.operationsports.com/fofc/showpost.php?p=3224511&postcount=30&highlight=Ivan+Jacques) 2007-2015
19. RB #20 Stanley Givens (https://forums.operationsports.com/fofc/showpost.php?p=3224540&postcount=31&highlight=Stanley+Givens) 2023-2026
20. G #71 Ricky Castillo (https://forums.operationsports.com/fofc/showpost.php?p=3226245&postcount=43&highlight=Ricky+Castillo) 2032-2038
21. QB #8 Lester Lowe (https://forums.operationsports.com/fofc/showpost.php?p=3226880&postcount=52&highlight=Lester+Lowe) 2057-2065
22. RB #29 Donald Terry (https://forums.operationsports.com/fofc/showpost.php?p=3226245&postcount=43&highlight=Donald+Terry) 2037-2044
23. K #8 Al Bettis (https://forums.operationsports.com/fofc/showpost.php?p=3224511&postcount=30&highlight=Al+Bettis) 2006-2019
24. WR #87 Jack Money (https://forums.operationsports.com/fofc/showpost.php?p=3226762&postcount=50&highlight=Jack+Money) 2037-2046
25. CB #39 Everett Heiser (https://forums.operationsports.com/fofc/showpost.php?p=3226762&postcount=50&highlight=Everett+Heiser) 2052-2062
26. LT #64 Roman Torrez (https://forums.operationsports.com/fofc/showpost.php?p=3226762&postcount=50&highlight=Roman+Torrez) 2051-2063
27. OT #65 Oscar Meadows (https://forums.operationsports.com/fofc/showpost.php?p=3226880&postcount=52&highlight=Oscar+Meadows) 2071-2078
28. QB #14 Louie Flannery (https://forums.operationsports.com/fofc/showpost.php?p=3224511&postcount=30&highlight=Louie+Flannery) 2006-2021
29. RB #25 Norbert Talley (https://forums.operationsports.com/fofc/showpost.php?p=3226762&postcount=50&highlight=Norbert+Talley) 2048-2055
30. WR #83 Riddick Stanley (https://forums.operationsports.com/fofc/showpost.php?p=3226880&postcount=52&highlight=Riddick+Stanley) 2057-2068
31. FB #20 Albert "The Shovel" Shalon (https://forums.operationsports.com/fofc/showpost.php?p=3226245&postcount=43&highlight=Albert+Shalon) 2029-2039
32. WR #83 Adam Brautlacht (https://forums.operationsports.com/fofc/showpost.php?p=3226245&postcount=43&highlight=Adam+Brautlacht) 2034-2044
33. LB #52 Antonio Battle (https://forums.operationsports.com/fofc/showpost.php?p=3226880&postcount=52&highlight=Antonio+Battle) 2073-2078
34. S #46 Lincoln Gilmore (https://forums.operationsports.com/fofc/showpost.php?p=3224511&postcount=30&highlight=Lincoln+Gilmore) 2004-2014
35. CB #27 Randall Allen (https://forums.operationsports.com/fofc/showpost.php?p=3224540&postcount=31&highlight=Randall+Allen) 2019-2023
36. DE #92 Jordan St. Pierre (https://forums.operationsports.com/fofc/showpost.php?p=3226880&postcount=52&highlight=Jordan+St. Pierre) 2057-2067
37. S #49 Thurman Hopper (https://forums.operationsports.com/fofc/showpost.php?p=3226245&postcount=43&highlight=Thurman+Hopper) 2031-2044
38. S #42 Perry Walker (https://forums.operationsports.com/fofc/showpost.php?p=3226245&postcount=43&highlight=Perry+Walker) 2030-2043
39. WR #84 Scott Dupuis (https://forums.operationsports.com/fofc/showpost.php?p=3226762&postcount=50&highlight=Scott+Dupuis) 2043-2053
40. QB #3 Alfred Hickman (https://forums.operationsports.com/fofc/showpost.php?p=3226880&postcount=52&highlight=Alfred+Hickman) 2065-2072
41. RB #29 Mark McConnell (https://forums.operationsports.com/fofc/showpost.php?p=3224540&postcount=31&highlight=Mark+McConnell) 2027-2035
42. LB #51 Gabe Hamilton (https://forums.operationsports.com/fofc/showpost.php?p=3226880&postcount=52&highlight=Gabe+Hamilton) 2064-2074
43. S #48 Jimmy Chellino (https://forums.operationsports.com/fofc/showpost.php?p=3224540&postcount=31&highlight=Jimmy+Chellino) 2020-2031
44. WR #80 Terry Thomason (https://forums.operationsports.com/fofc/showpost.php?p=3224540&postcount=31&highlight=Terry+Thomason) 2023-2035
45. QB #7 Jay McGee (https://forums.operationsports.com/fofc/showpost.php?p=3226245&postcount=43&highlight=Jay+McGee) 2030-2039
46. C #79 Cristian Sampson (https://forums.operationsports.com/fofc/showpost.php?p=3226762&postcount=50&highlight=Cristian+Sampson) 2047-2059
47. DT #56 Dennis Lucas (https://forums.operationsports.com/fofc/showpost.php?p=3226762&postcount=50&highlight=Dennis+Lucas) 2041-2050
48. WR #81 Alfredo Bass (https://forums.operationsports.com/fofc/showpost.php?p=3224511&postcount=30&highlight=Alfredo+Bass) 2012-2014
49. RB #23 Lucas Blackwell (https://forums.operationsports.com/fofc/showpost.php?p=3227037&postcount=53&highlight=Lucas+Blackwell) 2069-2077
50. WR #83 Vince McAlister (https://forums.operationsports.com/fofc/showpost.php?p=3224511&postcount=30&highlight=Vince+McAlister) 2015-2018

MIJB#19

12-27-2018, 05:55 PM

Game technicality:
2079 Off-Season: Morris and Anaya retire
Center Tom Anaya was the Merchantmen's 2065 first round pick. He played 14 seasons in Maassluis, playing in 213 regular season and 18 post-season games. Anaya made 487 key run blocks and allowed just 54 sacks. He ranked 8th all-time in the history of the IHOF in key run blocks in the regular season. He was the leading run blocker for the Merchantmen 12 times, including his rookie season, twice earning All-IHOF First team honors. Unsurprisingly, he's the all-time leader for the Merchantmen, 92 key run blocks ahead of Cristian Sampson, a starter for the Merchantmen in the '50s.It's premature, but it looks like #77 has been retired, it's no longer available for new Merchantmen players. Anaya would be the third player to get a retired number after #25 for RB Norbert Talley and #34, presumable retired for CB Peter Tucker.

MIJB#19

12-28-2018, 08:42 AM

2079 Off-Season: Free agent signings, renegotiations
The Merchantmen signed five players today. Linebackers Chance Nason and Alexis Turner each signed a new two-year contract. Additionally, veteran wide receivers Erik Slechta, Gene Sweazy and Nicolas Tucker were signed to two-year contracts. All five will likely battle for a roster spot with special teams duties. Tucker will also get a chance to battle for the kickoff duties ahead of behind Bart Lahnum, 4th in the league last season.

Slechta comes over from the Williamsburg Colonials, where he was a member of their special teams unit. Sweazy was a free agent throughout the 2078 season, getting cut on roster cut day by the Frederick Red Menace, where he was a special teamer for 3 seasons. Tucker was a pre-season cut by the Moontown Darksiders in their successful 2078 campaign, where he was a special teamer for 9 years and had been the premier kickoff returner from 2074 to 2077, until he lost the roster spot to Marvin Rayburn, who ranked 3rd last season.

The Merchantmen also announced contract extensions for guard Harvey Hank and defensive end Herb Crane. Hank was on the final year of his rookie contract and signed a 5-year deal worth about $116M, with a bonus of nearly $30M. Hank has been a crucial element for the pass protection, while having proven to be a worthy run blocker as well. Crane enters his sixth season in Maassluis and was also up for renewal, signing a 3-year $33M contract. His playing time increased last season, in particular on passing downs, ranking third on the team with 7.5 sacks and second with 15 hurries.

With the draft ongoing, the Merchantmen have 14 players still on their final contract, expecting to negotiate with most of them in the pre-season. Punter Santiago Hitchcock and linebacker Roosevelt Dees won't be amongst those players. Hitchcock signed a one-year deal, hoping to earn the holder duties. Dees has asked for a trade and has been on the trade block, trade talks with one team feel apart over the asking price. Key players still to be resigned include third down back Raul Curie, potential starting fullback Donald Latschaw, kicker Dave Eiermann, defensive end Todd Clinton, defensive tackle Willie Turner, linebacker Stan Foster, nickelback Giovanni Morton, safety Ben Gilbert and long snapper Chris Bertolone.

Contract negotiations with wide receivers Mickey Allen and Patrick Henry have reached an impasse. Merchantmen management is unwilling to comply with their demands. Henry spent the entire 2077 season inactive. Allen will have to battle with the recently acquired free agents for a special teams and fifth receiver role, as the Merchantmen expect to see sophomore Rico Techen jump into the WR4 spot.

MIJB#19

12-28-2018, 08:51 AM

General Manager notes: 2079 draft rounds 1, 2 and 3
We went into the draft with a truck load of draft picks. As result of trades in the previous two drafts, we had 3 additional second round picks and an extra fifth round pick.

We spent the 2.17 pick as exchange money for a trade up from #29 to #18 to be able to select linebacker Craig McCorkle. The staff assed him as underrated, which for me was the determining factor. He's strong and agile, a bit green and slightly undersized, but we'll be happy to have him team up with Battle and Brewer. We might consider playing a bit more linebacker heavy formations.

The second and third round ended up being a trade frenzy. We sent 2.12 to the Hanalei Dragons for a 2nd and 5th next draft. Then we sent the 2.26 to the Toronto Lake Monsters for their 2nd and 7th next draft. We sent the 2.29 to the Rochester Razorbacks for the Moontown Darksiders 2nd next draft. Finally we swapped the 3.29 for the North Plainfield Plague's 3rd next draft. This should be fun again next off-season...

McCorkle is in and we've still got five picks to be made, with the #29 overall in all four rounds, while having the 5.14 as a bonus.

MIJB#19

12-29-2018, 09:08 AM

General Manager notes: 2079 draft rounds 4 through 7
And then there was a trade. And another one. And a potential trade partner calling in 2 minutes too late. We shipped a player overseas for the first time in 22 seasons. And a trade that didn't go through, that got amended and eventually was trimmed to a different trade. And then we traded back into the draft. Craziness!

After all the smoke had cleared, we added a 4th round pick next draft, substituted our fifth next draft for Chesapeake's, gave linebacker Roosevelt Dees a new home and selected three rookies.

Kicker Herb Easter was our 4th round pick. The top rated kicker this draft will have a tough road ahead: We've picked 15 kickers in the previous 74 drafts and only 5 of them made the roster for week 1. Of those 5, only 3 survived the roster cuts for their second season and only 2 of them stuck around for more than 2 seasons. And the two that did stick, played 7 and 8 seasons with us. That's excluding Dave Eiermann, who's still active in the league, having spent 3 seasons on our roster. Wouldn't it be something to see the man named 'egg man' get replaced by a kid named Easter? So let's hope Easter breaks the trend and is a keeper. He had the best combine of all kickers, but might be just a kickoff specialist, which in this day and age is much less important than it was back when Al Bettis was the legend.

Our first pick in the 6th round was wide receiver Dwight Clements. Undersized at 5'8", but he ran the 40-yard dash in 4.29 seconds. Imagine that: J.R. Mills lining up with on the other side the gazelles Clements and Rico Techen (clocked at 4.25 this off-season) distracting the opposing secondary.

Our second pick in the 6th round was linebacker Jermaine Page. The trade of Dees made me decide to grab just one more rookie at this position. Page is a special teamer and can play zone defense. We'll have to consider hiring a mentor for Paige and first round pick McCorkle. Too bad the market on inside linebacker mentors is non-existent. There are 3 of these guys across the league, none in the open market. Chicago and Williamsburg won't trade their best linebacker, I suspect, and Paris shouldn't feel happy about trading their best special teamer. So much for that mentor suggestion...

All this wheeling and dealing means we're listing 53 players on roster, 4 incoming draft picks and leaving 3 open roster spots for the pre-season. I'm leaning towards bringing in a quarterback, long snapper and a defensive tackle. But we'll see what's available in late free agency after the draft.

tzach

12-30-2018, 05:31 PM

this is great stuff mijb -- i keep coming back here to check your updates.

MIJB#19

01-01-2019, 07:27 AM

General Manager notes: 2079 Training Camp Report
Training camp has finished, we're in preparation for the pre-season games, which we'll start at home against the Williamsburg Colonials and then on the road at the league champions Moontown Darksiders. We'll stay in the USA for about a week with training sessions at a location on the East coast, continuing with a road game at the Brooklyn Fightin' Bums and finishing at home against the Outer Banks Ospreys.

We signed two undrafted rookies to join us in training camp. Quarterback Karsten Muchnick and defensive tackle Cameron Erlitz. We also tried to bring in the best rookie long snapper Dustin Cooksey, but he decided to sign for about $250K more with the Orlando Talons. In retrospect, we should have offered Cooksey a better contract, that kid might turn out to be the best in business. Now we'll have to deal with another top 5 talent in Chris Bertolone, who's asking for a much bigger contract than what we could have tried to sign Cooksey for. The guys that did join us are strip sack specialist Erlitz and kick holder Muchnick. Both stand a good chance to make the 53 men roster.

Training camp was mediocre. With only 6 rookies in camp, the number of players that made progress wasn't spectacular. Our first round pick linebacker Craig McCorkle appears to be the real deal. He was the most improved player in training camp, according to our staff. Fellow rookie linebacker Jermaine Page, third year cornerback Amari Lavelli and rookie kicker Herb Easter were the other three guys that were reported as much improved.

Smaller improvement was reported for most of the other rookies and second and third year players, with a special mention for sixth year quarterback Ellis McAlister, who continues to improve and by our staff is graded as the 29th best player in the league at his position, with Sammy Erickson as the 24th best. We've moved on from the loss of Bennett Morris, we're going to stick with these two guys as our options. Despite some cap room to work with (about $18M), a good chunk of that will be used to extend a couple of contracts later on this pre-season. But more importantly, there's no team out there with 2 quarterbacks better than Erickson and McAlister. Maybe the Iowa Cobbers, but we can't afford the league nestor Cesar Small and their man of the future Zachery Hatcher isn't an improvement over either of our two guys.

We'll go into pre-season with 60 players signed, hopefully. We've made one offer to a free agent to join us post camp. We failed to persuade Mickey Allen to stick around for another season as our WR5, his salary demands far exceeded what we were willing to pay him in that role. He should have seen it coming with the four new receivers that we acquired in the off-season. The not to be named player should jump into a bit of a hole on our roster.

A slight disappointment in training camp were running back Walt Blair and wide receivers Dwight Clements and Rico Techen. Their progress was there, but I had hoped for more improvement. It's the second training camp where we have to list Blair as 'good progress', but not spectacular', that to me is a minor concern about his overall ability. Minor, because we've seen what he can do in the 2078 season, he's quickly proven why we had to move on from Lance Blackwell and give this kid the rock. If he stays healthy, he'll be that kind of player that gives Erickson or McAlister all the time to do their thing.

Lastly, our backup left tackle Richie Coughenour made good progress in training camp and by my staff has improved to being the third best pass blocking left tackle in the league. Quite the dilemma, given that we just gave Louie Murray a 5-year $100M contract. Coughenour is up for renewal of his contract, he's still willing to sign a new deal with us, but unless we give him playing time this season, I fully expect him to want to play elsewhere the season after. And he's unlikely to see much of that this season, if the guys we have and newly signed all-world Nicky Sherman show us in pre-season they're in good shape...

MIJB#19

01-01-2019, 05:50 PM

Will McAlister be number 17?
For decades, the starting quarterback for the Maassluis Merchantmen was the same guy for, well, over a decade. Louie Flannery came in on the mid '00s and was the clear cut starter throughout the '10s. Russell Harrison owned the '20s, while Jerry McGee dominated the '30s. Perry Coleman started early in the '40s, then Bryson Chow finished that decade and was the man under center through most of the '50s. Then there was Lester Lowe followed by Alfred Hickman and then the times of change started. The list of opening day starting quarterbacks, consists of 16 different names, so far. Sammy Erickson hopes to maintain that number for a while, but Ellis McAlister hopes to be number 17 in week one of the 2079 season. Borrows from an old article over at the IHOF website, here's an updated list of opening day starting quarterbacks for the Merchantmen:
2004 Calvin Snider
2005 Leonard Lyon
2006-19 Louie Flannery
2020-29 Russell Harrison
2030-32 Jay McGee
2033-34 Russell Harrison
2035-39 Jay McGee
2040 Stanley Bissel
2041-44 Perry Coleman
2045-57 Bryson Chow
2058-64 Lester Lowe
2065-69 Alfred Hickman
2070 Robbie Rhoades
2071-72 Alfred Hickman
2073 Winston Buckner
2074 Robbie Howe
2075-76 Erick Loera
2077 Sammy Erickson
2078 Bennett Morris
2079 ???

Ellis McAlister has been named the starter for the first two pre-season games, playing amidst a mix of youngsters and hard to replace backups. Walt Blair will be active, but J.R. Mills and Brody Stevens will be inactive. Sammy Erickson will be inactive, but likely play with the first teamers, such as Mills and Stevens, in the last two pre-season games. Rookie Karsten Muchnick will serve as the backup to McAlister and will likely see a lot of action as the mid-game replacement. On the defense, Antonio Battle and Glenn Brewer will be inactive, while the rest of the defense will likely be play in rotation, just like it will likely do in the regular season. Things might chance in the secondary for the last two pre-season games, a decision to be made after the first couple.

MIJB#19

01-03-2019, 03:12 PM

General Manager notes: Ellis McAlister, here are the keys for 2079
So much for that quarterback battle. McAlister, the team is yours.

It's always hilarious to see how training camp can give you a basic idea on what the team will be like, only to see the bunch of guys go into action and have some of these kids all of a sudden look like a complete different football player. Nothing of that, in a sense of having huge demasque moments, but we've had some medium ones and the quarterbacks were on both ends of it. On a scale from 1 to 100, this is where we stand, according to our staff:

50 (+7) QB Ellis McAlister
38 (-11) QB Sammy Erickson
14/28 (+1) QB Kartsen Muchnick

58/65 (+1) RB Walt Blair
39 RB Raul Curie
33/34 (-1/-2) RB Ronald Graham
40 FB Gilbert Taliancich
32/38 (0/+3) FB Darien Latschaw

57 TE Monty Elliott
42 TE Branden Schwirzke
41 TE Randal Curtis
13 (-4) TE Markel Ellison
60 WR Brody Stevens
54 (-4) WR J.R. Mills
49 WR Dennis Nadell
31/37 (+5) WR Rico Techen
24/28 (0/-6) WR Dwight Clements
18 (-6) WR Nicolas Tucker

81 C Nicky Sherman
38 (-5) C Steven Houshmandzadeh
68 (+1) G Harvey Hank
67 G Carlos Webb
19 (-9) G Bryson Hamilton
70 (-3) T Oscar Meadows
48 (-1) LT Louie Murray
32 (-7) LT Richie Coughenour

49 DE Todd Clinton
42 (-2) DE Max Lyons
41 (-5) DE Arnie May
40 (-1) DE Herb Crane
59 DT Glen Stiegler
50 DT Chandler Posante
33 (-1) DT Willie Turner
20/33 (-2/+3) DT Cameron Erlitz
76 (-1) OLB Antonio Battle
40/76 (+2) MLB Craig McCorkle
64 OLB Glenn Brewer
40 (-1) OLB Stan Foster
26/35 (+3) MLB Jermaine Page
1 OLB Alexis Turner

53 (-6) CB Alonzo Hitchcock
49 CB Amari Lovelli
49 (+1) CB Ezra Slocum
43 CB Herman Glenn
38 CB Giovanni Morton
25 (-9) CB Bart Lahnum
47 S Maurice Harkleroad
37 S Rex McIndoe
34 (+1) S Ben Gilbert
20 (-4) S Jonah Harden

70 (+1) P Tito Hornsby
55 (-1) K Dave Eiermann
21 LS Chris Bertolone

Released
QB Jamie Holmes: +1 in pre-season, but lost the kick holder battle to Muchnick
WR Erik Slechta: -6 in pre-season, not even worth a special teamer spot
WR Gene Sweazy: -10 in pre-season, not even worth a special teamer spot
P Santiago Hitchcock: -2/+3 in pre-season, but lost the kick holder battle to Muchnick
K Herb Easter: -3/-17 in pre-season, nope, not an elite kickoff specialists
LB Chance Nason: -5 in pre-season, took hit in special teams skills, bummer

That sets our 53 men roster. Or does it? Our depth at the OL took a hit. All the backups had terrible progression. Alas. I'm opting to look for a new backup guard after the next pre-season games. Afterwards, because we've offered a bunch of last-year players a contract extension. Once we know how much cap space is left, we'll consider using it.

MIJB#19

01-03-2019, 04:01 PM

this is great stuff mijb -- i keep coming back here to check your updates.Writing about the old stuff was both time intensive and cool to pick up. At the same time, this particular season of jumping back into writing, we actually had a solid season. The 500 points barrier feels like the borderline between also-ran and bowl worthy.

The team of 2023 was my favorite offense, it was fun to bring that talent together and see it work. Until injuries made the post-season end in deception. QB Russell Harrison, RB Stanley Givens, WR Gabe Springer, WR Terry Thomason...

The 2059 team that went 15-1, yet one-and-done, stung too. While the talent was marginal, that team was Jackie Collier Tigers good, the results were exceptional. A team that lost 2 bowl games around that season. QB Lester Lowe, WR Stanley, WR Oburn, TEs Forbes and Jurevicius... A defense with CB Everett Heiser, S Lonnie Razo, DTs Lapointe and Singletary...

In retrospect, I wish I had written about the 2066 season when we won it all, that would have been fun to re-read. Especially with the kind of team it was. It slightly was still built on the 2059 team building blocks C Whelan, LT Yonney, WR Stanley and WR Ellard. But with the enigmatic QB Alfred Hickman, but mostly being a completely rebuilt defense, with Shaun Hartman and the Class of 2064.

The team with the excellent defense of the 2037-2040 era was also fun. WR Haskell carried it. LB Wesley Devine, safeties Hopper and Walker...

And then there was the 2007 defense that grew into the zone only defense. Those were the times when novelties turned out to be over the line of what the game was supposed to do, forcing patches and all.

On to 2079, it will be really interesting to see what the loss of QB Bennett Morris and C Tom Anaya will do...

MIJB#19

01-04-2019, 11:46 AM

General Manager notes 2079: Ellis who?
There's no turning back, for the 8th time in the '70s, we'll have a new (opening day) starting quarterback. Sensational, since we had only 9 different guys in the previous 66 seasons. Ellis McAlister is the name, an unknown for the outside world, but within the Merchantmen, we know this kid well. That is to say, we thought we knew this kid to be a career backup. But here we are, years of keeping him around are about to get a new twist.

It was the 2074 draft when we saw the name Ellis McAlister for the first time. We were coming of the Winston Buckner season, who turned out to be a one-season solution and felt that Robbie Howe might not be the long term solution. The awesome defense was aging, but still in full galore. Cap space was tight and I figured this should be the draft where would interview 12 quarterbacks and see what it might bring.

And interviewing we did, 12 different quarterbacks. Results were mixed, with only 2 kids giving us an "underrated" impression. One of them was Brandon Riley, the Augusta Greenjackets made him the #2 overall pick and they have made the playoffs in all 5 seasons with him under center, with one lost IHOF Bowl on his resume. In retrospect a wasted interview, but so be it.

The other "underrated" kid was Ellis McAlister. Was he anything spectacular? Not quite. His combine numbers were pretty good, Solecismic score of 38, 7.36 seconds in the agility test, 13 bench reps. Numbers that should a general manager get interested in a quarterback. He also had better than 'average' 40-yard dash and position drill scores. His scouted potential ranges, though:
24-36 screen
28-39 short
28-40 medium
33-44 long
3-14 deep
12-24 third down
29-40 accuracy
34-45 timing
37-49 sense rush
9-20 read defense
20-32 two-minute
32-43 scramble

It makes you (me as well) wonder why we interviewed McAlister, probably because of the interesting combine scores. We did though and by the time it was our first sixth round pick, I figured, why not get this kid with very high volatility a chance? We grabbed some left tackle with awesome agility and named Louie Murray 3 picks later. Murray started in every game we played after that draft, 80 straight regular season games and 4 more in the playoffs. McAlister has been on the field in just 1 of those 84 games, handing off three times to Lucas Blackwell to salvage a 40-14 victory at home over the Bordeaux Vineyards.

The progress notes of post camp, mid-pre-season and season end:
2074: 14/35 to 14/39 to 17/39
2075: 21/39 to 22/41 to 23/41
2076: 28/41 to 29/42 to 29/42
2077: 34/42 to 35/42 to 35/42
2078: 39/42 to 41/44 to 41/44
2079: 43/43 to 50/50 to t.b.d.

And there's the reason why McAlister hung around: the kid showed progress in ability in every training camp (+4, +5, +5, +5, +2 to fully developed). Additionally, he showed disgruntlement towards being the backup to Sammy Erickson. Usually a hint that said player is better than backup material. It shows, at this point, he's the 21st highest rated quarterback by my staff. With 5 years on roster prior to this season, he's good for cohesion as well, that can't be bad either. And on top of that, he's come a long way from the scouting report post interview:
44 screen
56 short
49 medium
88 long
27 deep
36 third down
60 accuracy
94 timing
49 sense rush
28 read defense
55 two-minute
34 scramble

Lastly, his combine numbers today are very similar to what he showed as a rookie. His combine score next off-season will tell us whether his latest improvement was a sip from the elixir of life or it was all written in the stars...

MIJB#19

01-06-2019, 05:31 PM

2079 Pre-season Recap, stats leaders
The Maassluis Merchantmen finished the pre-season with a 3-1 record. They started with a 23-17 loss at home to the Williamsburg Colonials, gaining only 190 total yards but also allowing only 279 total yards. They followed up with a 21-17 victory at the Moontown Darksiders, IHOF's defending champions, outgaining their opponents 422 to 371 total yards. Third was a dominating 37-6 victory at the Brooklyn Fightin' Bums, outgaining them 382 to 229 total yards. The last game was another victory, beating the Outer Banks Ospreys 34-19 in Oranje Haven, outgaining the opponents 397 to 350 total yards.

Passing leading
McAlister 38/59 for 431 yd, 3 td, 1 int
Muchnick 21/43 for 305 yd, 3 td, 1 int
Erickson 22/32 for 280 yd, 3 td, 0 int

Rushing leaders
Curie 202 yd, 2.77 avg, 4 td, 1 fumble
Blair 124 yd, 3.88
Graham 17 yd, 2.83 avg

Receiving leaders
Nadell 23 for 304 yd, 4 td
Elliott 17 for 175 yd, 1 td
Sweazy 6 for 125 yd, 1 td (got cut)
Mills 9 for 125 yd, 0 td, 1 fumble
Stevens 6 for 107 yd, 1 td
Techen 6 for 62 yd
Curie 5 for 57 yd
Curtis 3 for 16 yd, 2 td

Blocking leaders
Hank 10/22
Sherman 6/23
Webb 6/21, 1 sack
Meadows 5/19, 1 sack
Taliancich 2/3
Elliot 2/5
Murray 1/5
Coughenour 0/10

Pass rush leaders
Lyons 3.0 sck, 2 blk, 0 hur
Clinton 2.0 sck, 3 blk, 3 hur
Stiegler 2.0 sck, 1 blk, 4 hur
May 1.5 sck, 1 blk, 5 hur
Posante 1.5 sck, 0 blk, 1 hur
Battle 1.0 sck, 0 blk, 0 hur
Crane 0.0 sck, 1 blk, 2 hur

Pass defense leaders
Hitchcock 2 int, 1 def
Morton 2 int, 1 def
McIndoe 1 int, 2 def
Lavelli 1 int, 2 def
Gilbert 1 int, 1 def
Battle 4 def
Harkleroad 2 def

MIJB#19

01-07-2019, 05:11 PM

2079 Regular season, week 1
At last, the Merchantmen were back on the field. The place to be: Oranje Haven. The opponents: the Paris Musketeers. Last season, the Paris Musketeers were 10-4 in games not played against the Merchantmen, but 0-3 against orange, white and blue. A warm welcome back for running back Walt Blair and an even bigger test for the new starting quarterback Elis McAliser.

And boy, did McAlister pass the test. His first three throws turned into negative yardage and a couple of incompletions, but attempts four and five to J.R. Mills were the kind of throws Merchantmen fans have gotten accustomed to the last couple of seasons. A drive with a 15-yard catch and run by Mills was followed up by Walt Blair's first 20-yarder of the season and the drive ended in a deep throw from McAlister to Mills to dance into the endzone for a touchdown.

The Musketeers replied with a drive ending in a 39-yard field goal, but the Merchantmen had only just began. Walt Blair ran for a career long 70 yards to put his team 14-3 up. Shortly after Paris' first offensive touchdown to make it 14-10, things got quiet for a while. Until the Merchantmen saw McAlister connect with Mills for 28 yards with just over 5 minutes left in the first half. Two plays later, Walt Blair stormed into the end zone from 26 yards out. The Merchantmen defense forced a couple of three and outs, but a couple of long passes to Mills and Dennis Nadell went unanswered as Dave Eiermann missed a 47-yard field goal to make it 21-10 at half time.

Paris scored first in the second half, seeing Shaun Dole convert a 47-yard field goal attempt. The Merchantmen quickly responded with a 40-yard field goal, as did Paris again with a 45-yarder. Dave Eiermann missed a 49-yarder to keep the score closer at 24-16 Maassluis.

The fourth quarter started with Paris equalizing touchdown drove. Despite a strong pass rush, the Merchantmen defense were unable to stop Neil Poling on 3rd and 18 from finding Eugene Hamilton in the end zone. A two-point conversion later and 24-24 was the score. Tossed from McAlister and runs from Blair kept the chains moving on the next drive and J.R. Mills once again found the end zone on a long throw from McAlister: 31-24, with 7:25 to go.

A quick three and out gave the Merchantmen a chance to pull the game away, but with 3 minutes to go, McAlister saw an underthrown pass get intercepted near midfield. Paris' hopes were broken only one play later, as pre-season revelation Giovanni Morton returned the favor. McAlister then found Brody Stevens and Mills for 17 yards each to waste Paris' timeouts to secure the 31-24 victory.

The end result was a close score, despite that the Merchantmen outgained the Musketeers 528 to 282 yards. Ellis McAlister completed 26 of 38 passes for 339 yards and 2 touchdowns with 1 interception in his first career start. J.R. Mills caught 11 of those passes for 192 yards and 2 touchdowns. Walt Blair ran for 179 yards and 2 scores. The Merchantmen fans saw the offense they had accustomed to in the first half of last season.

The Merchantmen take the early lead in the European division, based on tie-breakers that at this stage of the season are pretty pointless to look at. The Gothenburg Giants won a closely competed home game against the Bordeaux Vineyards 27-20.

MIJB#19

01-10-2019, 02:50 PM

2079 Regular season week 2
Back to earth. The Maassluis Merchantmen failed to produce the goods and stumbled on the Kansas Creationists on the road, losing 27-22 at a team that's financially cheating by being $40 million. Ellis McAlister tried to keep pace with all-world Eric Keith, but couldn't quite manage that, completing 17 of 37 passes for 244 yards, 2 touchdowns and 1 interception. Walt Blair was stuffed to just 65 yards on 23 carries, J.R. Mills was near-invisible behind the coverage, catches just 3 passes for 52 yards and 1 touchdown.

and week 3...
The Merchantmen bounced back in a quick fashion, storming to a 17-0 lead at the reigning AOC Champions Toronto Lake Monsters and eventually scoring the game winner in the fourth quarter for the 24-17 victory. The Merchantmen defense held Toronto to just 263 total yards. Ellis McAlister completed 24 of 35 passes for 316 yards, with 3 touchdowns and 1 interception. Dennis Nadell caught 8 passes for 155 yards and 1 touchdown, while Monty Elliott had 2 receiving tocuhdowns. The stars of the offense, Walt Blair was practically nullified with just 25 yards on 27 carries, while J.R. Mills caught just 4 balls for 61 yards.

and week 4!
In high speed fashion, the Merchantmen fans have embrassed their new quarterback. The "Ellis! Who the fuck is Ellis?" chants have made a 1995 song popular in Maassluis. Ellis McAlister guided his team to a 33-7 demolition of the San Antonio Tidal Force, taking full advantage of the defense's 6 forced turnovers. McAlister completed just half of his passes, but with 208 yards and 4 touchdowns, the fans have nothing to complain about there. He continues to struggle in connecting with J.R. Mills, this time recording just 3 receptions on 12 targets, gaining 78 yards with no score. Walt Blair continued to struggle as well, gaining 98 yards on 26 carries. Dennis Nadell lead the Merchantmen receivers once again with 2 touchdowns and tying Mills' 78 yards. Tight ends Monty Elliott and Randal Curtis hailed in the other two touchdowns. Safety Ben Gilbert and Linebacker Antonio Battle each had a pair of interceptions, while Glenn Brewer made 2 sacks, including a forced fumble. Kicker Dave Eiermann missed another short kick. Cohesion on the kicking unit (or lack there of) is turning into a concern. Sammy Erickson played a couple of downs in garbage time.

European Division
1. Maassluis 3-1
2. Gothenburg 3-1
3. Bordeaux 2-1
4. Paris 2-2

The European Division continues to be incredibly strong. Maassluis will go into their bye in week 4, while Gothenburg and Paris will travel to Texas for visits to Fort Worth and San Antonio. Bordeaux travels to Atlanta.

Despite the struggling offense, the Merchantmen key players have had a big enough day to rank highly on the leaderboards. Ellis McAlister ranks 5th in passing yards (269 per game) and passer rating (98.0), Boasting a 2nd place in passing touchdowns. Walt Blair, barely, ranks 2nd with 92 rushing yards per game. Dennis Nadell ranks 8th and J.R. Mills ranks 10th in receiving yards (97 and 96 yards per game), while both join Monty Elliott in a big group of players with 3 receiving touchdowns.

With games played again the two pass-only offenses (Paris and Toronto), team defensive numbers are very skewed towards low number of rushing attempts.

MIJB#19

01-12-2019, 10:45 AM

2079 Regular Season week 5
The Maassluis Merchantmen were on their bye week.

and week 6!
The Maassluis Merchantmen dribble on, with good but not great football. The defense has surprisingly been the stronger side of the ball, while the offensive stars J.R. Mills and Walt Blair struggle to play up to their standards. And amidst this all, the new starting quarterback Ellis McAlister is winning the hearts of the fans, already getting his own walk on song for the third home game of the season. The Atlanta Vipers came to town, the reigning AOC South champions, a 2-2 team with a run-oriented offense.

The Merchantmen defense started the game strong, forcing Atlanta to go four and out (a holding penalty gave them their only first down). The Merchantmen offense didn't come out with a bang, seeing Ellis McAlister find J.R. Mills for 9 yards and Walt Blair running for 7 yards, but the next three plays being short runs, coming short to move the chains. Sophomere quarterback Santiago Lester then lead his offense to a long scoring drive for 80 yards, with rookie Brody Barrett running for the short touchdown run to put the Vipers 7-0 up. The Merchantmen offense was rusty on their next drive, saw punter Tito Hornsby nail the Vipers at their 2-yard line, only to have a penalty nullify it and the re-punt resulting in Atlanta getting the ball back at their own 48-yard line. Lester then got sacked at the Merchantmen 46-yard line on the second play of the drive to end the first quarter.

Penalties on both ends resulted in Atlanta facing second and 17 early in the second quarter, leading to a punt that Amari Lavelli returned 17 yards to get the ball outside of the Merchantmen red zone. After a strong 17-yard run from Walt Blair, it was Ellis McAlister who scrambled for 7 yards, but lost the ball in the pile at midfield, giving Atlanta the ball back. The Vipers then gained just enough ground to have Jalen Bennewith kick a 46-yard field goal for a 10-0 lead. With three medium length completed passes and a 10-yard run by Raul Curie, the Merchantmen rolled into the Vipers' red zone for the first time this game and had Dave Eiermann kick the 28-yarder to trim the deficit to 10-3. With back to back sacks, the Merchantmen defense the forced the Vipers to punt on fourth and 25, which was returned by Amari Lavelli for 20 yards to the Maassluis 46-yard line right before the to-minute warning. Both defenses then forced a three and out, leaving too little time for the Merchantmen to put points on the scoreboard on the last drive before the big break.

leading 10-3, the Vipers were happy to force a quick three and out to start the second half. But not for the first time in the game, the Merchantmen defense swarmed the Atlanta quarterback and Santiago Lester was flat on his back. On the next drive, Ellis McAlister connected with Dennis Nadell for 22- and 21-yard gains to march into the red zone, finishing it off with 10-yard passes to Nadell and Brody Stevens, putting 10 points for both teams on the scoreboard. Atlanta wasn't impressed yet, Santiago Lester found Caleb Flylum for a big catch and run for 35 yards, then found Johnnie Forsyth for 23 yards on a third and long and then Flylum in the end zone for a short touchdown pass. Atlanta went up 17-10 and then forced a fumble on the kickoff return, which the Merchantmen tight end Monty Elliott recovered to save the day. Another three and out on both sides of the field saw the clock run out and seeing the home team fans worried this game might not go their way.

The Merchantmen were stopped short once again, this time pinning Atlanta at their 5-yard line. The Vipers struggled against the aggressive Merchantmen defense, were forced to punt and Amari Lavelli returned the punt 21 yards to the Atlanta 32-yard line. Randal Curtis then was Ellis McAlister's target for a short pass, but Curtis managed to find the hole in the defense and brought the ball into the end zone on a 29-yard gain. Dave Eiermann missed the ensuing extra point, meaning the Vipers were still up by a point: 17-16. Then, the wheels finally came off, as Lester Santiago saw his pass get picked off by Giovanni Morton at the Atlanta 30-yard line. Maassluis caught momentum, McAlister found J.R. Mills for 16 yards and on third and goal, Raul Curie showed his bulldozing skills to put the ball into the end zone. A two-pointer from McAlister to Dennis Nadell put Maassluis up 24-17. The dominating Merchantmen defense forced another three and out. Raul Curie ran for 15 yards, which got followed up by McAlister finding Walt Blair for two impressive catch and runs, the first one for 33 yards and the second for a 30-yard touchdown. Eiermann didn't miss this time and Maassluis improved the lead to two touchdowns: 31-17. Atlanta converted on fourth and 15 to stay alive, but the pass rush pressure made Santiago Lester throw the ball away three times. After the two-minute warning, the Vipers were not able to convert on fourth and 10, turning the ball over in Atlanta territory. The Merchantmen burned Atlanta's time outs, but the game wasn't over yet. The Vipers' hopes ended three plays later when Antonio Battle made the game ending interception in Atlanta territory.

Ellis McAlister earned his third player of the game honors in only his fifth start as he completed 19 of 29 passes for 263 yards, with 3 touchdowns and 1 lost fumble. Dennis Nadell was his top target again, catching 10 passes for 113 yards. Brody Stevens, Randall Curtis and Walt Blair had touchdown receptions. That same Blair ran for just 60 yards on 20 carries, but Raul Curie made up for it with 38 yards and a touchdown run. The defense impressed by sacking the Atlanta quarterbacks 8 times and picking him off 2 times allowing less than 300 total yards for the third time this season against a playoff team from last season.

Elsewhere in the league, the Paris Musketers reverted to a balanced game plan on offense and as a result saw Jon Miernicki run for 171 yards in a 39-21 victory at the Gothenburg Giants. The Bordeaux Vineyards didn't need much firepower to beat the struggling Fort Wayne Fury 30-7.

AOC Europe
1. Maassluis 4-1
2. Gothenburg 4-2
3. Bordeaux 3-2
4. Paris 3-3

The Tucker Tigers lost a 38-30 barnburner at the AOC Northeast leading Rochester Razorbacks, meaning the only undefeated team in the league are the NAC Mid-Atlantic leading Williamsburg Colonials. The Hanalei Dragons lead the NAC West with a 5-1 record, being the only other team with Tucker and Maassluis with 1 loss. Every other team in the league has lost at least 2 games already, with no winless teams and only 4 teams with just 1 win. Is competitiveness at an all time high? Probably not, but at the very least it keeps a lot of teams dreaming for going places this season...

MIJB#19

01-17-2019, 05:26 PM

2079 Regular Season week 7
Despite slightly outplaying an inferior opponent on the road, the Maassluis merchantmen lost 24-20 at the Fort Wayne Fury as that home team somehow managed to be more efficient down the field, as touchdowns trump field goals. Walt Blair had one of those games again, running 22 times for 163 yards and 1 touchdown. J.R. Mills was invisible with 4 catches for 42 yards. Ellis McAlister completed 17 of 33 passes for 186 yards and 1 touchdown, his lowest production to date.

came next: week 8
The Maassluis Merchantmen beat the Paris Musketeers for the sixth straight time in less than 2 full seasons. Scoring touchdowns was once again the Achilles heel, giving Paris a chance to almost get close enough for a game winning field goal to avoid the Merchantmen's 26-24 victory. J.R. Mills caught 5 passes for 148 yards, Walt Blair ran 27 times for 137 yards and a score, Ellis McAlister completed 20 of 27 passes for 263 yards and a pick.

followed by week 9
The Houston Mustangs dissected the Maassluis Merchantmen offensive game plan. The Merchantmen gained just 226 yards in a 20-10 loss. Walt Blair ran 16 times for 64 yards, J.R. Mills caught 4 passes for 75 yards, Ellis McAlister completed a measly 11 of 26 passes for 165 yards, 1 touchdown and 1 interception.

and eventually week 10
The streak of victories over French opponents increased to 11 wins for the Maassluis Merchantmen. Despite a sloppy showing, the Bordeaux Vineyards were beaten 17-10 in Oranje Haven. Ellis McAlister completed 18 of 29 passes for 216 yards, J.R. Mills caught 7 passes for 74 yards, Walt Blair ran 21 times for 82 yards and 1 touchdown.

AOC Europe
1. Maassluis 6-3
2. Gothenburg 6-3
3. Paris 4-5
4. Bordeaux 4-5

Next up: Maassluis at Gothenburg (the re-match is in week 15) and Paris at Bordeaux.

The Merchantmen get yet another chance to jump into pole position in the AOC, if they win. That's a big if, they've been in that position in Fort Wayne and Houston. The skeptics and pessimists expect the Merchantmen to completely fall apart. Optimists trust in Mills, Blair and McAlister, or in the defense, which is slowly falling in the ranks after the impressive victories against Paris, Toronto and Atlanta earlier in the season. The Solecimic Power Ratings has Maassluis and Gothenburg tied at fourth place as the best two teams in the conference, while the Solecismic probabilities calculator has Maassluis as the front runners for the #1 seed as well.

MIJB#19

01-18-2019, 04:10 PM

2079 Regular Season week 11
Gothenburg on the road, long time Merchantmen supporters are wary of this matchup. The Giants and Merchantmen were both sitting at the top of the division with a 6-3 record, with Maassluis having the mid-season tie-breakers. A chance for the Merchantmen to pull away for a bit and grab pole position in the Atlantic Ocean Conference.

The Gothenburg Giants drew first blood in the game on their first possession. Albeit not the desired 7 points, Roger Passut had a 21-yard run, 13-yard reception on a Tre Lynn pass and a 7-yard run to set up Myron Barcley's 51-yard field goal. The Merchantmen responded with a bulldozing drive. Ellis McAlister to J.R. Mills for 11 yards here, Walt Blair for 16 yards there, Blair for 11 yards, Blair for 7 yards, McAlister to Blair for 10 yards, McAlister to Monty Elliott for 22 yards and eventually the short throw into the end zone by McAlister to Elliott for the 7-3 lead. The game was on. Gothenburg immediately replied with a couple of big plays as Lynn found Passut (15 yards) and Cornell Perez (33 yards) for big catch and runs. It stalled there, still being close enough to see Barcley nail a 41-yarder for the 7-6 deficit. Maassluis quickly marched downfield on their second possession as McAlister connected with Mills (14 yards), Brody Stevens (10 yards) and Elliott (22 yards) with a 10-yard run by Blair in between, but a 16-yard sack pushed the Merchantmen outside of field goal range.

The second quarter rolled around and the Giants were playing well inside their own territory again. Tre Lynn found Richard Cook for 10 yards and C.J. Levine for 24 yards. This time, the Merchantmen defense had no answer on their end, Lynn found Roger Passut for 16 yards and Cornell Perez for 19 yards to march into the red zone. The Merchantmen thought they had them stopped short, but Ben Gilbert was penalized for pass interference and a new set of downs was just enough to see Passut run it in for the 13-7 Gothenburg lead. The Giants thought they had caught momentum, sacking Ellis McAlister for the second time. McAlister answered with a 29-yard laser to J.R. Mills, but on third and 19 his throw ended up in Gothenburg cornerback Skip Arnold's hands. The Merchantmen defense came up big, stuffing Passut twice and forcing Gothenburg to punt. With the ball back, deep inside their own territory, McAlister silenced the stadium with a 50-yard bomb to Brody Stevens. McAlister urged his team to hurry up and Walt Blair followed up with a 15-yard run. McAlister then found Dennis Nadell for 10 yards into he red zone, Raul Curie converted a big 3rd down run and Walt Blair blitzed into the end zone for the 14-13 lead. The Merchantmen secondary came alive and deflected three straight Lynn passes, giving Maassluis the ball back with still 83 ticks on the clock. McAlister immediately found Mills for 30 yards and on third down made a deep enough throw to make up for the third sack of the game to set up for the 54-yard field goal attempt to end the half. Dave Eiermann surprised all, shockingly succeeding to make it Maassluis 17, Gothenburg 13 at half time.

Second half and the Gothenburg fans had renewed faith. The Merchantmen winning streak inside the division has to stop at some point, why not in Gothenburg, after 12 wins by the Merchantmen against Bordeaux, Paris and today's hosts? The Giants defense was reborn, notching a three and out to start the third quarter. Tre Lynn was back too, finding Jace Milam for 10 yards. Adam LeBel ran for 19 yards and 12 yards to march into Merchantmen territory and Lynn then found Denzel Givens for 11 yards and into the red zone. Roger Passut slashed through the Merchantmen defense for 12 yards and the go ahead touchdown: Gothenburg 20, Maassluis 17. The Merchantmen were unimpressed. Walt Blair ran for 10 yards on the first play of the drive, Ellis McAlister found Monty Elliott for 20 yards on third and short, then J.R. Mills for 16 yards and then for 18 yards and a touchdown. Maassluis was back in the lead with a 24-20 score. In the last 3 minutes before the break, Lynn found Steve Sinclair for 10 yards, saw another pass interference call put his team past midfield and Passut then ran for 18 yards, barely short of the red zone.

The fourth quarter started with Maassluis' bend but don't break moment, seeing Tre Lynn find Albert Gilmartin for 10 yards and holding the Giants to a 21-yard field goal, keeping Maassluis leading 24-23. Bart Lahnum's 33-yard kickoff return into Gothenburg territory, shortly followed by Ellis McAlister's 16-yard pass to Monty Elliott was enough to set up Dave Eiermann's 40-yard field goal for the 27-23 lead. Gothenburg was then three-and-outted, while the Merchantmen continued their efficiency: Raul Curie converted on 3rd and short, McAlister found Dennis Nadell for 33 yards on third and long, Walt Blair ran for 11 yards and McAlister found J.R. Mills for a jump into the endzone for a 34-23 lead. It wasn't all over yet, but now time wasn't on Gothenburg's side, trailing by 11 and just 2:31 to go. Tre Lynn found C.J. Levine on third down for 13 yards, then Albert Gilmartin for 14 yards and used his legs to run for 13 yards into the redzone. Adam LeBel then ran for 12 yards, followed by Roger Passut pounding his second attempt in for the touchdown. Luck ran out then and there. The two-point conversion failed and Maassluis recovered the onside kick. Their last time out was insufficient to keep Maassluis from securing it in victory formation: Maassluis 34, Gothenburg 29.

Maassluis had season highs both in points scored and points allowed, in what appears to be a deserved victory. The Merchantmen outgained the Giants by 83 yards and gained 1.3 yards per play more. Ellis McAlister earned another game MVP by completing 20 of 30 passes for 344 yards, 3 touchdowns and 1 interception. J.R. Mills caught 7 passes for 131 yards and 2 touchdowns. Monty Elliott caught 7 passes for 92 yards and a touchdown. Walt Blair ran 21 times for 110 yards and a touchdown.

AOC Europe
1. Maassluis 7-3
2. Gothenburg 6-4
3. Bordeaux 5-5
4. Paris 4-6

The Merchantmen haven't just taken the lead in the division, but also moved into pole-position for the #1 seed. Additionally, they have locked up tie-breakers over Gothenburg and Paris, while Bordeaux mathematically still has a longshot chance to brush away their inferior tie-breakers situation. In the AOC, the gap between #1 and outside the playoffs is as marginal as 1 1/2 wins.

Next up, the underperforming Chicago Norsemen. Despite their 3-7 record, Chicago isn't a pushover team. Their running game is unusually bad, while the passing game is an after thought, as it has been in decent decades. The defense is doing exceptionally well, ranking 2nd in total yards, leaning on 6th best yards per run and 3rd best yards per pass attempt. Again, no pushover, but in the current flow, the Merchantmen should be able to get this. The bookmakers are optimistic, having the Merchantmen floating around 9 or 10 point in their favor.

MIJB#19

01-19-2019, 06:40 PM

2079 Regular Season week 12
The Maassluis Merchantmen rock on. After a 1-2 stretch in a 3-game series of road games, victories over Bordeaux and at Gothenburg restored confidence for the Merchantmen. This week's opponents were the Chicago Norsemen, a team known for their pounding offense and stingy defense.

It showed immediately in the first couple of drives. The Merchantmen struggled to gain ground on their first drive, requiring a penalty to get their only first down, yet the Norsemen displayed their run-run-run approach, which the Merchantmen didn't surprise in their 4-3 formation. Drive number two for the Merchantmen was much different, seeing Ellis McAlister connect with Dennis Nadell for 17 yards, followed with Walt Blair running for 30 yards into the red zone. Three more Blair runs later, the 7-0 lead was established. Chicago continued their run only approach, cycling through their backs Cory Lowe, Chuck Lyle and Shaun Vreede, shockingly converting on third and eight and then on third and 33. On their ninth play of the drive, Rickey Nelson found Irving Keilor for the tying touchdown pass. After a short kickoff, Maassluis started their next drive close to midfield and tried to force their way through with Walt Blair getting the ball a lot, changing gears a bit with a 12-yard pass from McAlister to J.R. Mills. It resulted in a 47-yard field goal by Dave Eiermann to put Maassluis 10-7 up on the first play of the second quarter.

The Merchantmen had caught momentum and forced and recovered a fumble on the following kickoff. Ellis McAlister failed to connect with any of this receivers, but Dave Eiermann didn't miss the 28-yard field goal attempt: 13-7, Maassluis. Another hilariously bad defensive showing on third and low, despite playing with all their linebackers on the field, the Merchantmen allowed the Norsemen to get into field goal range. Despite finally stuffing a carrier on third down, the Merchantmen couldn't avoid Darien Shield's 46-yard field goal for the 13-10 score in Maassluis advantage. Walt Blair and Raul Curie responded with big runs of their own, to march into Chicago territory, while McElister found Dennis Nadell for 24 yards and nearly into the end zone. An illegal cut block penalty pushed the Merchantmen back and after a sack on third and very long, Maassluis settled for a 40-yard field goal. The Merchantmen were once again made look foolish, allowing a 24-yard run on a third down attempt, but righted the ship just in time to hold Chicago to a 43-yard field goal. Walt Blair ran for 40 yards into Chicago territory, but the coaching staff blundered to not call a time out and try to run another play or two to try for a field goal, ending the first half in a 16-13 lead for the Merchantmen.

On the first Chicago drive of the second half, the Merchantmen defense were total morons once again, giving up a 17-yard run on third and long, but then regrouped and a sold out Oranje Haven cheered hard when a fourth down stop gave Maassluis the ball. The cheering didn't last long, Ellis McAlister misjudged on the next play and saw his pass get intercepted at the Chicago 46-yard line. Chicago continued to run, but this time Cory Lowe was barely held short on third and long, coming about a yard short. Maassluis failed to avoid a three and out, mostly due to an expensive penalty. Chicago fooled Maassluis with a successful pass from Rickey Nelson to Caiden Batchelder on third and short, but his receiver on a screen pass on third and long was quickly pushed to the ground to keep Chicago short of field goal range. Walt Blair replied with a 10-yard run, but three plays later, Maassluis punted the ball back to Chicago to end a scoreless quarter.

Still trailing 16-13, the Norsemen surprised the Merchantmen defense on third and short with a 34-yard pass from Rickey Nelson to Irving Keillor. The Merchantmen then quickly stopped Cory Lowe on a third and long run to keep the damage to a 40-yard field goal and a tied score at 16 all. Ellis McAlister came back to live, finding Monty Elliott for a chains moving short throw and then pacing for 33 yards into field goal range. Walt Blair ran for 10 yards and then for 8 yards into the end zone to put Maassluis 23-16 up with half a quarter to play. Had the Merchantmen finally learned their lesson? They kept Cory Lowe to a minor gain on third and very long to force a time consuming three and out. McAlister showed his accuracy, finding J.R. Mills for 11 yards and Randal Curtis for 15 yards, then Mills again for 16 yards to get into the red zone with the two minute warning stopping the clock. The Norsemen needed their time outs, but stuffed the Merchantmen, yet a 30-yard field goal was good enough to make it a two-score game. A penalty pinned Chicago deep in their own red zone for their all or nothing drive, which turned into nothing, as Rickey Nelson completed a screen pass to Shaun Vreede for 34 yards, which took too much time off the clock to trim the deficit. The Merchantmen players stormed the field, the 26-16 victory was secured.

Ellis McAlister struggled for three quarters, finishing the game with 16 of 27 passes completed for 158 yards and 1 interception. Dennis Nadell was the leading receiver with 5 catches for 73 yards. Walt Blair had a field day though, running 21 times for 143 yards and 2 touchdowns, earning him player of the game honors in a game where both teams ran for more yards than they threw for, but coming just barely short of 200 yards rushing (Chicago 199, Maassluis 190).

Elsewhere in the European division, the Gothenburg Giants beat the defenseless Arizona Miners 27-0, the Bordeaux Vineyards needed overtime to win 27-24 at the Iowa Cobbers and the Paris Musketeers swung past the Kansas Creationists 34-17. As a result, the divisional standings didn't change.

AOC Europe
1. Maassluis 8-3
2. Gothenburg 7-4
3. Bordeaux 6-5
4. Paris 5-6

Next up a round of games against teams that finished at the same position in another AOC division last season. Paris will visit the 7-4 Rochester Razorbacks, Bordeaux the 5-6 Harlem Apollos and Gothenburg hosts the 3-8 Orlando Talons. The Merchantmen will host the 6-4-1 Augusta Greenjackets, a rematch of last season's divisional round playoff game, which the heavily outplayed Merchantmen somehow won 24-23 in Augusta. A 91-yard pick six and three missed field goals, the Greenjackets will be motivated to avenge that...

MIJB#19

01-22-2019, 02:14 PM

General Manager Notes, 2079 Regular season
Another couple of weeks in the books, we've added a couple of home victories: 32-14 against the Augusta Greenjackets (7-5-1) and 31-17 against the Arizona Miners (1-12). Neither impressive wins, neither games were we played bad. Which is to say, Ellis McAlister had his first multiple pick game. And his second one. At the same time, he threw for 301 and 299 yards, he's proving he can move the chains. Walt Blair got stuffed badly by the Greenjackets, but bounced back with 146 yards and score against Arizona. J.R. Mills' demise continues, 30 yards and 111 yards were his numbers. Mills has scored a total of 2 touchdowns in the last 11 games. Dennis Nadell hasn't overtaken Mills, but with 119 yards and 2 touchdowns against Augusta, he's shown us again he can get the job done.

The defense is, well, mediocre. I can't put my finger on the cause, but we're not doing what I thought we could and should do. The disastrous third down run defense against the Chicago Norsemen was, well, that: disastrous. We won, but even the best linebacker trio in the league is just mediocre. Perhaps we should package all our picks next off-season and acquire a couple of new safeties. Maurice Harkleroad, Ben Gilbert and Rex Indoe should be good enough stop gaps, but I'm not seeing the results. Cohesion ain't the issue either, we're in the upper echelons in that regard.

Despite all that, we keep finding ways to win. We're the 8th best scoring team in the conference, 3rd best in the division. At least we're the 'best' defense, doing 1 point and 4 points better than division rivals Bordeaux and Gothenburg, making us 2nd in the league. I'm making a "say what now" gesture as I'm writing this, because some things just can't be explained.

AOC Europe
1. Maassluis 10-3
2. Gothenburg 9-4
3. Bordeaux 7-6
4. Paris 7-6

So, as it is, we're on a 5-game winning streak, sitting at a conference leading 10-3 record. Upcoming a home game against the Gothenburg Giants, in which we can guarantee the division title with a victory. A loss would still keep us leading, but with road games at Iowa (5-8) and Bordeaux (7-6),no easy task to maintain, despite Gothenburg's slightly harder schedule. And they should have it harder, compared to the rest of the division, they've had a cup cake schedule, would say the former Astoria Heroes owner/general manager.

So yeah, we're in pole position to be the #1 seed, but I'm not yet buying it. Aside from Gothenburg, the Tucker Tigers are on our tail with a 10-3 record, the Toronto Lake Monsters are 9-3-1. Thankfully the Houston Mustangs dropped to 8-4-1, but we can't count them out just yet. The playoffs are, well, the closest thing to locked as it can be. The only thing that can keep us from the post-season would be 3 losses, combined with Gothenburg winning at least 1 of their last 2 games (on top of beating us), Augusta winning their last 3 games, Tucker not losing both their next 2 games (they play Augusta week 17), San Antonio winning their last 3 games and Houston getting a win and tie in the next 2 games (they play San Antonio week 17) to finish 9-5-2 and beat us for the last wild card based on that week 9 loss.

Thing is, we've been here before, several times, and have quite a track record of not pulling it through, dropping a game or two, ending up with the #3 seed and lose on a missed field goal in the wild card round. Too pessimistic, or stuck in "Been there, done that"?

MIJB#19

01-27-2019, 06:23 PM

General Manager Notes: 2079 playoffs, here we come!
In a bit of a rollercoaster, we've finished the regular season with 2 wins and 1 loss. And that loss came against the team not making the playoffs, costing us the #1 seed in the AOC.

So, week 15, at home against the team on our tail: the Gothenburg Giants. It didn't come easy, with a wild fourth quarter, in which we came back from behind to win 33-27. Ellis McAlister threw for 330 yards, 2 touchdowns and 2 interceptions (his second straight 2-pick game). Walt Blair was held to 21 carries for 88 yards and 1 score. J.R. Mills caught 5 passes for 98 yards, Dennis Nadell surpassed Mills again with 5 catches for 135 yards and a touchdown. We gave up a 95-yard interception return, but replied it with a positive turnover margin to not let the superiority in total yards go to waste.

Week 16 came the inevitable hilarious loss. We outplayed the Iowa Cobbers, but freakish managed to lose 20-17, coming time short to kick the tying field goal. Ellis McAlister finally snapped his multi-pick streak, throwing for 232 yards with scores. J.R. Mills had 6 catches for 89 yards. Walt Blair ran for 107 yards and 1 touchdown, Raul Curie ran for the other touchdown.

In week 17 we were much better than the Bordeaux Vineyards, but fumbles and a pick returned for a score shortly before half time kept the score close. Late in the game, Giovanni Morton made a crucial interception, keeping Bordeaux from kicking the game winner, securing the 17-16 victory. Ellis McAlister threw for 329 yards and 2 touchdowns, with aforementioned interception. Walt Blair ran for 102 yards, Dennis Nadell had 8 catches for 94 yards, J.R. Mills had 5 catches for 92 yards, while Monty Elliot and Gilbert Taliancich made the scoring catches.

AOC Europe
1. Maassluis 12-4
2. Gothenburg 11-5
3. Bordeaux 9-7
4. Paris 8-8

The strongest division with 4.5 wins more than the second best division will send 3 teams into the playoffs. Paris went into week 17 eliminated on tie-breakers, but theoretically had a chance to finish the season 7th in the AOC, (The 20-17 late game collapse to Gothenburg dropped them to 10th).

Sadly, we choked the #1 seed, falling behind the 13-3 Tucker Tigers, but we salvaged a bye week, giving us a home game in the elite eight round. It should be great news, we've gone 8-0 at home this season. But, better than everyone we know it's worth nothing once the post-season kicks off, it's all a completely new coin flip. Heck, the last time we managed that 8-0 was in 2059, when we crushed the league with a 15-1 record (#1 in both points scored and points allowed) only to fall apart 31-17 in the only playoff game that season. In 2043 we didn't even get to play at home in the playoffs. In 2040 we lost 24-0 as the #2 seeds. In 2037 we lost 38-20 at home as the #2 seeds. Yup. We've gone 1-4 in the playoffs seasons with an 8-0 record at home, winning 0 of 3 home games. The only bright side: we lost all 3 home games to the Atlanta Vipers, lo and behold, they didn't make the playoffs!

So, regular season in the books, how has our new starting quarterback done?
Ellis McAlister threw the ball 522 times, completed 59% of those passes for 4,193 yards, 27 touchdowns and 14 interceptions. He ranks 9th in passing yards in the league, tied 8th in passing touchdowns with Gothenburg Tre Lynn. He had the 9th best passer rating, leaning heavily on the 3rd best yards per attempt. McAlister is our fourth different 4,000 yard passer in 4 seasons, a rare feat, something I might want to figure out, but probably is a novelty. I suspect three different guys in three seasons was already unique. McAlister was on roster all those season and has at least shown he can do it with much less interceptions than Erick Loera and Sammy Erickson. Ellis, who the fuck is Ellis? Well, he's our starting quarterback and bar disaster will still be next season.

J.R. Mills was our leading receiver with 77 catches for 1,349 yards and 5 touchdowns. Dennis Nadell had 86 catches for 1,273 yards and 6 touchdowns, in 27 targets less than Mills. Nadell can honestly make a case for having become our WR1, with Mills being the big gain WR2. Brody Stevens caught only 25 passes for 331 yards and 2 touchdowns, so much for being the most talented guy. Tight end Monty Elliott was our go to guy in the red zone, he had 73 catches for 798 yards and 9 touchdowns. Mills ranked 8th in yardage in the league, Nadell 11th, there was only one other team with two 1,200-yard receivers. Elliott was amongst a bunch of guys tying for 8th in receiving touchdowns.

Walt Blair came back strong after the mid-season injury as a rookie, running a league high 366 times for second most 1,609 yards and fifth most running touchdowns. We don't run the ball most of all, the seven teams ahead of us distribute their carries more evenly over their running backs, while we give Blair 23 carries per game and Raul Curie only 4 carries, on average.

Free agency singing Nicky Sherman had 41 key run blocks, leading the team in that area. Right tackle Oscar Meadows had 30 key run blocks, both could be considerations for all-league honors. Fullback Gilbert Taliancich had 12 key run blocks (on 33 opportunities), making him by far the most used fullback on running downs in the league. We used Taliancich on 250 running plays, second most used was the Arizona Miners' fullback on 159 running plays. Apparently using a 2-back formation on running downs is falling out of favor.

On the defensive side, our linebackers thrived. Glenn Brewer had 118 tackles, 25 assists, 7.5 sacks, 11 defended passes, 1 interception and 2 forced fumbles. Antonio Battle had 114 tackles, 36 assists, 1.5 sacks, 11 defended passes, 3 interceptions and 1 forced fumble. Brewer tied for 5th in the league in tackles, Battle tied for 7th in that figure. Rookie Craig McCorkle didn't see a lot of action, because (as mentioned on the blocking numbers) IHOF teams are drifting away from 2-back formations, making the usage of 3 linebackers rare. McCorkle saw the field on 401 plays, compare that to Battle's 1,007 and Brewer's 923. It'll be interesting to see what to do with that next season. Battle is an elite pass defender, it might be worthwhile to consider using him as a nickelback...

Speaking of nickelbacks, Giovanni Morton led the team in with 5 interceptions and added 10 defended passes to it for an exceptional 3rd best pass defense rating in the league. The picks rank him tied for 8th in the league. The rest of the secondary, well, they were there. We weren't bad, but not great either.

Our pass rush was second best with a 25.6 percentage, but basically on par with Houston Mustangs' 25.7 percent. Arnie May led the guys with 9.5 sacks, but Herb Crane was more prominently active with 8.5 sacks and 26 hurries (compared to May's 8 hurries). But really, with use four defensive ends in our rotation, these guys are all part of team effort. Defensive tackle Glen Stiegler is the workhorse in the line. His sidekick Chandler Posante may appear like a weak link, he may be, his endurance really calls for us to get either veteran Willie Turner, rookie Cameron Erlitz or a 2080 acquisition more involved to work around Posante's weakness. Our defensive ends are all too light to play on the inside.

We've cursed at our kicker Dave Eiermann from time to time, he scored a league low of 88 percent of extra points with a league most 5 misses. But we shouldn't forget that he was playoffs quality on long field goals and hit his only 50+ attempt. He's out of contract after the season, so, it's still more likely we'll look elsewhere...

Enough about the regular season, the playoffs are here. And the field this season is massive. There are four teams that scored 500+ points, all are amongst the 38 best scoring teams ever. That's 76 seasons of football, on average we should have only one of such teams every two seasons...

AOC
1. Tucker 13-3 (526-299 points = +227)
2. Maassluis 12-4 (404-309 points = +95)
3. Toronto 11-4-1 (535-391 points = +144) (we won 24-17 at them)
4. Houston 10-5-1 (338-315 points = +23) (we lost 20-10 at them)
5. Gothenburg 11-5 (428-317 points = +111) (we swept them 34-29 and 33-27)
6. Bordeaux 9-7 (370-306 points = +64) (we swept them 17-10 and 17-16)

NAC
1. Moontown 14-2 (526-285 points = +241)
2. Hanalei 13-3 (529-336 points = +193)
3. Williamsburg 13-3 (409-282 points = +127)
4. Kansas 11-5 (404-334 points = +70) (we lost 27-22 at them)
5. Fairbanks 9-7 (328-357 points = -29)
6. Chesapeake 9-7 (347-294 points = +53)

Two teams are out of contention with strong points differentials: Paris 8-8 (+53) and Harlem 7-9 (+51). But given the setup of the league these two teams were quite simply the also-rans in the AOC.

We're probably the mismatch amongst the four bye week teams. The simple result of only 5 wins by more than a score, but we've also lost just once by more than a score. We've gone 5-2 against this field, with 4 victories against our division rivals. Rivals that we've apparently dominated for quite some time. It was our second straight clean sweep in the regular season, we beat Paris in the playoffs in between and finished the 2077 season by beating Bordeaux and Paris in our home. It would be awesome to extend our winning streak from 15 to 17 in this post-season, if only for the fact that it would mean we'd be the 2079 AOC champions. But we have nothing we can do to determine who we will face, you can only beat the teams you meet. Toronto or the Gothenburg at Houston winner will be first, which regardless of the opposition will have us very motivated to beat them.

MIJB#19

01-28-2019, 01:22 PM

2079 Futility Bowl rematch
The longstanding rivalry between the Maassluis Merchantmen and Toronto Lake Monsters will get a new chapter. The Lake Monsters beat the Bordeaux Vineyards 42-6 in the wild card round to set up a rematch. Last season, the Lake Monsters won 37-14 in their own place. Earlier this season, the Merchantmen were victorious 24-17.

Elsewhere, the Gothenburg Giants crushed the Houston Mustangs 33-6 on the road. They will continue their championship dreams with a road trip to the Tucker Tigers. In the other conference, the defending league champions Moontown Darksiders will host the Chesapeake Chitterlings, who pulled a miraculous 21-16 upset victory at the Williamsburg Colonials. The Kansas Creationist won 17-9 against the Fairbanks North Stars and will travel to the Hanalei Dragons in the conference semifinals.

Kodos

01-28-2019, 02:15 PM

Go Lake Monsters! (Sorry, old friend.) :)

MIJB#19

01-28-2019, 02:53 PM

Go Lake Monsters! (Sorry, old friend.) :)I can't fault you for rooting for your old team, can I? :D

Poli

01-28-2019, 03:39 PM

lol

Kodos

01-30-2019, 10:03 AM

Looks like Ben has avenged you!

MIJB#19

01-31-2019, 04:46 PM

2079 Divisional Round: Merchantmen choke again
With a season worst score, the Maassluis Merchantmen saw their season come to an end earlier than anticipated. The Toronto Lake Monsters defense picked off Ellis McAlister 5 times, to nullify what otherwise was a slightly better offensive performance. The Lake Monsters took full advantage of the turnovers and traveled home with a 43-17 victory.

The Merchantmen defense held the Lake Monsters to 29 rushing yards on 16 attempts, but more importantly kept Clayton Andrews below 300 yards passing. But a decent amount of that was a result of a superior field position, as the Lake Monsters started 3 drives in the Merchantmen red zone and also scored a 96-yard pick six.

McAlister completed 19 of 37 passes for 271 yards and 2 touchdowns, with 5 interceptions. J.R. Mills caught 4 passes for 77 yards and 1 score, Dennis Nadell emerged once again with 6 catches for 90 yards and 1 score. Walt Blair ran for 82 yards on 19 carries.

The Merchantmen continued their tradition to lose at home in the playoffs after going undefeated at home in the regular season and added yet another one and done to their resume...

MIJB#19

01-31-2019, 05:34 PM

General Manager notes: Hello, 2080.
Ugh. Ugh. Ugh. What a disappointing way to see the 2079 season end. Granted, I never felt like we were an elite team like we were in 2078, but we had only one game in the regular season where we lost by more than a single score, getting crushed purely on an extraordinary number of picks is, well, baffling.

For those keeping score and not checking scores, Toronto lost the AOC Championship game at the Tucker Tigers 35-23. The Tigers in turn got Barged in IHOF Bowl LXXVI, the Moontown Darksiders repeated as IHOF champions with a 44-20 score. Derek Barge and his Darksiders have ended the '70s with four IHOF Bowls in their trophy case.

We went one and done 5 times in that decade, our only two victories in the playoffs came in the 2078 season...

Things didn't get better after the game. J.R. Mills has retired from the game. Mills finished his career with 839 receptions (franchise 5th), 14,944 receiving yards (franchise 2nd, just 57 short of the record), 85 receiving touchdowns (franchise 5th), with a spectacular 17.89 yards per reception average (3rd in the league all-time). In my mind, this guy joins the big two Gabe Springer and Terry Haskell, to become the big three of Merchantmen receivers. Yeah, Riddick Stanley got into the Hall with a ring, but, y'know, the other guys all felt special. Stanley was, solid, always, week in, week out. Mills had to get through the cycles of no less than eight different starting quarterbacks (Hickman, Rhoades, Buckner, Howe, Loera, Erickson, Morris and McAlister). God speed, J.R.

With Mills, long time sidekick tight end Markell Ellison and one-year backup kickoff returner and special teamer Nicholas Tucker decided that they don't want to go into the '80s as a football player. Ellison played in 112 regular season games and 5 (all lost) playoffs games with us. He was mostly our third or fourth tight end in all those years, with the exception of the 2071 season, when he caught 41 passes for 453 yards. His 2070 season was the special one with 8 receiving touchdowns on just 17 catches for 117 yards. Tucker had 3 kickoff returns for us. He did see a lot of action as a special teamer though in his only season with us.

Okay, now something neat: Edward Ross, Daquan Strugielski and Peter Tucker all got elected into the Hall Of Fame. The Class of 2064 got the ultimate individual accolades, albeit Gabe Hamilton came short and the other foursome that we drafted are nowhere to be found. They join Shaun Hartman into the hall, that's four guys from that awesome defense. Riddick Stanley is the fifth guy from our IHOF Bowl winning roster in there, no doubt Tom Anaya will join these guys soon...

So, 2080. We're $116 million over the cap, with 46 players on roster, 2 restricted and 2 unrestricted free agents. And 13 draft picks... Business as usual, except that we've got 4 second round picks once again. Maybe we'll actually use some of them this time around? First order of business will be a truckload of renegotiations. We should be able to find at least $100 million there. Right?

MIJB#19

02-05-2019, 11:52 AM

General Manager Notes: 2080 Pre-draft
And so began the off-season without J.R. Mills. Ok, we've got a couple of wide receivers ready to step in, but Mills had become on of those receivers that felt he was 'my guy'. I've had that with Gabe Springer, Terry Haskell and on a slightly lower level with Vince McAlister. Guys that you knew would always be a threat for the opponent to out of nowhere make a big play. Terry Thomason had that to a certain degree, but never really managed to carry the team like those guys did. Brody Stevens has yet to live up to it, and I fear he'll forever will be a WR2, while Dennis Nadell has shown early flashes of being better than we've always thought he could be. With the gazelles Rico Techen and Dwight Clements waiting in the wings, I should feel confident we'll manage, but sentiments, y'know?

We've gone through a truckload of renegotiations. We had early trade talks for Antonio Battle, but I decided against it, despite knowing we have Craig McCorkle ready to step in and have Glenn Brewer in his contract year. It'll be a challenge to find the cap room to extend Brewer's contract... Battle accepted the cap out route, making him untradeable and costing us $54.29M in dead money if we'd decide to move him after all.

I've made the tough decision to cut cornerback Ezra Slocum. He was our second most expensive cornerback this season, yet spent the entire 2079 season inactive. In return, this means I'll have to find a way to figure out whether Amari Lavelli is worth keeping, because his fumbling habits make him more of a liability as a punt returner than an added value. He's still our CB2, so not quite a waste of a roster spot.

We've acquired the rights of rookie center Butch Pearson. Fast, strong, I hope he can be our OL6 this season or perhaps we'll be forced to play him at center and play Nicky Sherman at guard. You never know whether the offensive linemen show up in shape at training camp.

We've shipped our quartet of second round picks to the Texas Sharks for their first and second round picks next draft. We can't afford these picks, I'm terrible in second round picking and it was about time for us to finally get something for all those picks.

We've still got additional third, fourth and seventh round picks this draft. In total, we'll need about $15 million to be able to afford all those rookies. Sure, the league mandated accountants tell us we need $19.02M, but that includes picks that will be the 52nd and 53rd most expensive players.

The tight cap situation means a couple of players that haven't signed a renegotiated deal are still at risk of getting cut. Safety Rex Indoe wants a trade, but he's missing the point that we've missed on our safety targets in the draft class and will quite possible reinstate him as a starter. All IHOF fullback Gilbert Taliancich isn't safe either, Darien Latschaw is looking over Taliancich's shoulders to take over...

MIJB#19

02-07-2019, 03:59 PM

General Manager Notes: 2080 Draft is done!
Some wheelin' and dealin', we finally got something in return for the truckload of low second round picks, and now, we've got 8 rookies about to join the team. Who are they?

QB Josiah Lyle (R7, #229)
3rd highest Solecismic score amongst QB, 4th highest agility amongst QB, high volatility, Michigan graduate. We're hoping to get a good lottery ticket here.

TE Kody Gowan (R4, #126)
Scouted to have decent run blocking, decent big play ability, decent special teamer.

WR Artie Blazewicz (R6, #188)
Could be a return specialist (3rd highest broad jump amongst WR), Big play ability (ran the 40-dash in 4.45), good size at 6'1" and 208 lbs.

C Butch Pearson (R1, #28)
Tied highest graded C, second fastest C, strongest C, 7th highest agility score amongst C, should be our new long standing center.

G Raul Hughett (R7, #228)
Tied strongest G, good size at 6'6" and 325 lbs, smart (39 Solecismic score).

K Chance Arnold (R3, #92)
We had to take another chance at drafting a kicker. Strongest K by a landslide, good speed, Solecismic score, broad jump.

DE Erik Shrader (R4, #124)
Acceptable speed (4.75 40-yard dash), good size at 6'6" and 313 lbs, enough stamina to play a lot, prefers to play DT.

DT Gino Kemp (R5, #153)
Good speed for a DT (4.93 dash), tied second smartest DT, prefers to play DE.

In other news, we've re-signed restricted free agent quarterback Karsten Muchnick and defensive tackle Cameron Erlitz. Both were undrafted rookies last season and I see a role for them on the active roster in 2080. Muchnick was already our kick holder, Erlitz should move into a pass rush role on the defensive line, given that we've got a lot of guys with low endurance and are considering our options there.

As such, I've decided to part ways with veteran defensive tackle Willie Turner. He played 9 seasons with us as a former undrafted rookie signing, being active in all games of the last 8 seasons. He's great for cohesion, but his salary figure was too much, he was asking for a raise and we actually still need to trim some cap figures to get well enough under the cap to extend Glenn Brewer's contract. Releasing Turner will be sufficient to be able to afford all the incoming rookies.

MIJB#19

02-08-2019, 04:23 PM

General Manager Notes: 2080 Cap Hell
Well, it's on. Glenn Brewer has decided to hold out.

We're going to make him a huge offer and will cut a couple of his sidekicks. I wonder what the rest of the team will think of Brewer from here on. We've already cut cornerback Ezra Slocum and defensive tackle Willie Turner, well, defensive end Todd Clinton and cornerback Herman Glenn are up next. Center Steven Houshmandzadeh is the fifth player that won't make our training camp roster.

If Brewer signs a new deal, we'll bring in a couple of undrafted rookies to get at least 53 players into camp. Adding up to 60 players might be bad for the cap situation as well, because at this point every $10K in bonus money will make a difference between keeping or not keeping Brewer.

Sigh.

I've considered trading Brewer. In retrospect, long term technically, trading the veteran Antonio Battle would have been a smarter decision, but with the five guys cut, we'll be losing about 600 downs of action of last season's roster combined. Brewer or Battle alone sniff at 1000 plays and quite frankly are the more talented players.

MIJB#19

02-12-2019, 04:57 PM

General Manager notes: 2080 End of Training Camp
At last, he signed. After turning down six previous offers, including a 3-year $85M contract, Glenn Brewer decided to extend with us for a 3-year $66M contract.

It's been 5 seasons since we've had such a tough off-season to get the cap situation worked out. Then it was our promising quarterback Robbie Howe that destroyed his football career by deciding to go into hold out mode and risk it all. He lost: we cut him and none of the 31 other IHOF franchises even thought he was worth the veteran minimum, let alone the starting money he was requesting.

Brewer is a different story, an All-IHOF linebacker, a centerpiece of our defense, together with Antonio Battle. It came at a price though, we released 4 defensive players that used to be starters with us in recent seasons.

Defensive end Todd Clinton was one of our four guys in rotation. He had been for both of the last two seasons, after spending his rookie season inactive and seeing limited action in season two. Clinton has the run stopping and pass rushing skills any team should like, keeping in mind he's not an all downs lineman.

Cornerback Herman Glenn was our nickelback in the 2077 season. We signed him in the 2075 post-season and thought he'd be a great (figuratively, the guy is 5'6") zone defender. He was our dimeback the last two seasons.

Cornerback Ezra Slocum was a starter in his first two seasons, but last season we kept him inactive all-season. He's a good corner on running downs and against formations with full backfields, but his zone defending and ball hawking skills were lacking. Good on paper, but he didn't deliver and was too expensive to watch 19 games without shoulder pads on.

Defensive tackle Willie Turner spent 9 seasons with us and didn't miss a game since late in the 2075 season. Initially the change of pace guy behind Shaun Hartman and Preston Urquoila, more recently the guy who came on for Chandler Posante when he needed a couple of minutes to take a good breath.

As a result, we're heading into pre-season with just 53 players signed. It wasn't necessary, the cap rules would have allowed us to sign 7 rookies at the rookie minimum ($1.4M), or even slightly higher than that ($1.51M), but we'll save that for the later. We might go scavenger hunting in the pile of leftovers after pre-season roster cuts to give a couple of guys a week to work out with us, but the current 53 names are close to carved in stone.

It leaves us with an unsatisfying off-season. The plan was to find a young safety who could anchor the defense for about a decade, but the draft class was lacking that guy. We liked Bobby Crips, he was taken 3 picks before our pick at #28 overall, but he's more of a cornerback. Our sleeper pick Tevin Taylor was taken #42 overall, the staff really liked him, but I didn't feel like he was first round material, down the road maybe good enough to take over from one of the guys on team. We'll have to go with mostly the same guys as last season, without Herman Glenn, without the vulture Slocum and maybe with undrafted rookie Tucker Lockhart added to the mix.

We did get our center of the future, presumable. Butch Pearson was our pick at #28 overall. He'll likely have to spend the 2080 season as our OL6, behind Nicky Sherman, but his training camp progression was impressive. It's rare to go through a full season with the same 5 linemen, Pearson will see some action on offense sooner or later.

We failed to address the retirement of J.R. Mills as well. Part of that is that retirement, which cost us more dead cap space than we could afford to hire a new receiver. We'll have to rely on Dennis Nadell and Byron Stevens and hope to see the young sub 4.40 seconds gazelles Rico Techen and Dwight Clements grow into the WR3 and WR4 roles. Rookies Artie Blazewicz and undrafted Les Didier will be special teamers at best this season. Our tight ends are obviously pretty good as well, not to mention the presence of our 1,600-yard back Walt Blair.

The quarterback situation is okay. Ellis McAlister crushed hard in the playoffs after what had been a solid regular season. Sammy Erickson hopefully doesn't have a similar downfall like last pre-season, maintaining to have a decent backup. McAlister is on roster for just $6.67M, next off-season will be challenging, he'll do what any other starter would do: ask for at least $25M to $30M, and if he plays well, close to $40M.

Last but not least, we have $1.15M of cap space remaining and still have a couple of players on the last year of contract:
* All-IHOF fullback Gilbert Taliancich
* backup fullback Darien Latschaw
* backup left tackle Richie Coughenour
* cornerback and punt returner Amari Lavelli
* safety Ben Gilbert
* long snapper Chris Bertolone
None of them are currently willing to sign for less than their cap figure, so we'll have to make some choices here. LS Bertolone will get the extension, his current demands are good. S Gilbert is in a 'probably' situation, he's asking for a small raise. FB Latschaw's demands are favorable, expect us to come to terms between the pre-season games. FB Taliancich's demands are reasonable, we might have the cap space to extend for an additional season. LT Coughenour is unwilling to sign a new contract, but by lack of better options on the free market, we'll go with him as our third tackle and look for a replacement next off-season. The decision to make here is with CB Lavelli. We can't afford his demands, so it might even be wiser to trade him before week 1, to give the receiving team a chance to offer him an extension. We'll try, but I suspect we'll come short.

We'll just have to wait and see how these guys look in real action though. All the young guys made some progress, with Butch Pearson and last year's first round pick linebacker Craig McCorkle making the biggest improvements, warranting a starting role that we might not be able to give them quite yet this season. But the first couple of pre-season games usually reveal what these guys are capable of in the new season. Yes, it's that time of the season general managers fear the most: the day of the proverbial Volatility Sticks of Death and unexpected booms...

MIJB#19

02-14-2019, 02:35 PM

Merchantmen wrap 2080 pre-season up with 3-1 record
The Maassluis Merchantmen wrapped up the pre-season action. In games against a couple of the upper echelon teams in the North American Conference, the Merchantmen posted an encouraging 3-1 record.

32-23 win at Frederick Red Menace (5-11 in 2079)
Rookie QB Joshua Lyle completed 11 of 18 for 162 yards and 2 touchdowns, WR Brody Stevens had 5 catches for 96 yards, receiving touchdowns were scored by WR Dwight Clements, WR Rico Techen and rookie WR Les Didier, the latter on a throw from KH Karsten Muchnick. Raul Curie was the leading rusher with 48 yards on 24 carries.
CB Amari Lavelli made 2 interceptions, CB Alonzo Hitchcock, LB Antonio Battle and S Maurice Harkleroad all had 1 pick. LB Antonio Battle was also amongst the four players with a sack.
Rookie K Chance Arnold was 4/5 on field goals and 2/3 on extra points.
Rookies C Butch Pearson and G Raul Hughett were both shockingly underused, while rookie TE Kody Gowan had 2 key run blocks on 3 opportunities.

20-3 win over Texas Sharks (6-10 in 2079)
Rookie Joshua Lyle completed 10 of 18 passes for 107 yards and 2 touchdowns. TE Branden Schwirzke and WR Dwight Clements were on the receiving end of those scores, Clements also lead the team with 38 yards on 2 catches. Raul Curie ran 21 times for 60 yards.
CB Alonzo Hitchcock had an interception, DT Chandler Posante recovered a fumble. LB Glenn Brewer made 3 sacks and defended 2 passes.
Rookies C Butch Pearson and G Raul Hughett were once again used way too little for what was planned.
Rookie K Chance Arnold was 2/3 on field goals, 2/2 on extra points, scoring a 52-yarder.

24-17 win at Williamsburg Colonials (13-3 in 2079)
QB Sammy Erickson completed 15 of 24 for 234 yards, 2 touchdowns and 2 interceptions, QB Ellis McAlister completed 7 of 11 for 92 yards and 1 score. WR Dennis Nadell had 9 catches for 151 yards and 2 scores, WR Brody Stevens had the other score. Walt Blair ran for 86 yards on 12 carries.
CB Alonzo Hitchcock had yet another pick.
DT Glen Stiegler had 2 sacks, DT Chandler Posante 1.5 sacks.
Rookies C Butch Pearson and G Raul Hughett were disappointingly not used.
Rookie K Chance Arnold was perfect on 1 field goal and 3 extra point attempts.

24-31 loss vs Moontown Darksiders (14-2 and IHOF champions in 2079)
QB Sammy Erickson completed 15 of 30 for 191 yards, 1 touchdown and 1 interception, QB Ellis McAlister completed 8 of 15 for 119 yards and 1 pick. Dennis Nadell had 8 catches for 149 yards, TE Branden Schwrizke had the sole receiving touchdown. Raul Curie carried 20 times for 72 yards, but Walt Blair ran for a touchdown.
Rookie K Chance Arnold scored on all 3 field goal and 1 extra point attempts.
The defense went without a pick or a sack.
Rookies C Butch Pearson and G Raul Hughett were once again not on the field.

MIJB#19

02-14-2019, 02:54 PM

General Manager notes: Pre-season 2080 done, bring on the real action!
So, Dennis Nadell.
I suspect the fans will quickly forget about J.R. Mills, because our leading receiver from last season was amazing in the pre-season. Brody Stevens appears to be on the decline, but Nadell should be capable of being more than a double coverage magnet from here on. Walt Blair is still, well, Walt Blair. He didn't jump out in pre-season, but I'm confident he'll get the job done, lead the league in carries and average 100 yards per game. The rest of the offense will be unchanged, although Darien Latschaw seems to have surpassed our All-IHOF fullback Gilbert Taliancich. Monty Elliott continues to be an elite tight end, awesome blocker and good enough for roughly 50 yards per game. The line is still going strong, with very promising Butch Pearson eager to jump in if an injury occurs.

The defense saw some overhaul, but has mostly remained. We'll try to get linebacker Craig McCorkle into the mix, but I'm not sure yet how. We might use linebacker Glenn Brewer on the defensive line here or there, we might put linebacker Antonio Battle in the dime or nickel slot. Alonzo Hitchcock and Maurice Harkleroad continue to be the key features on the secondary.

Cornerback Amari Lavelli has been trade blocked. We've told other owners they have until the weekend to make an offer, after that, we'll fly with Lavelli on the last year of contract, because we can't afford the extension that he's seeking. We have no cap room to hire a replacement (heck, we actually released his understudy in the off-season), so it has to be an offer that blows me away.

If Lavelli stays, we'll go with the 53 guys we have now.

oh yeah, we're heading into 2080 with 4 quarterbacks. Ellis McAlister was underwhelming in pre-season, but, who cares? He had a very good first season as a starter, we're confident the 5-pick disaster in the one-and-done playoffs (goodness, don't remind me of going through that kind of nonsense for the zillionth time) was a rarity. Sammy Erickson will be the backup guy for another season, Josiah Lyle will most likely never be active and Karsten Muchnick is our kick holder.

Is that Lyle kid anything good? Uhm, not right now, but what rookie quarterback is from the get go? Wait a sec, didn't he just have a tremendous pre-season while having to play without Dennis Nadell, Walt Blair, Monty Elliott and Nicky Sherman? This kid's stats are not to be underestimated!

MIJB#19

02-25-2019, 01:30 PM

General Manager notes: 2080, not quite our year just yet...
We're 7 weeks into the season, and the divisional standing are quite exceptional.

1. Gothenburg 5-2
2. Paris 4-2
3. Bordeaux 4-2
4. Maassluis 2-4

Uhm, yeah. We started with a 3-game losing streak, the first two while outgaining the opponents. We lost 23-19 at home to the Gothenburg Giants, then 16-10 at the Outer Banks Ospreys and then went into our usually way too early bye week after a 23-22 loss at the Toronto Lake Monsters. We thought we regrouped with a 16-13 overtime victory over the Tucker Tigers and a 30-20 win at the Augusta Greenjackets. But today, things went south again, we lost 26-24 at the Paris Musketeers.

QB Ellis McAlister's season started dreadful. His QB rating is a horrific 68.1 after 6 games, completing 52.6% of his passes for 270 yards per game with 5 touchdowns and 8 interceptions.

RB Walt Blair has to carry this offense at the moment. He's ran for a second most 598 yards (and a league best 100 per game). WR Dennis Nadell isn't J.R. Mills, but he's doing well in the yards per catch area (31 catches for 518 yard).

Otherwise, well, "meh". The season has been disappointing, so far. After improving to 2-3, we were actually in a win it all and be the division champion situation. At 2-4, we're far behind, with a tie-breaker situation that looks hard to fix. The wild cards are currently both in the European division, seventh best in the AOC is currently a threesome of 4-3 teams, not counting the Northeast division leaders.

Oh yeah, to rub it in, three of our cap casualties were picked up by other teams today: CB Herman Glenn joined the Moontown Darksiders, DE Todd Clinton the Rochester Razorbacks, C Steven Houshmandzadeh the Toronto Lake Monsters. These were the guys that we cut to be able to work out a new deal with Glenn Brewer. Earlier casualties DT Willie Turner and CB Ezra Slocum are still without a job in football though.

MIJB#19

03-04-2019, 03:52 PM

General Manager notes 2080: Too little, too late?
We've been winning 2/3rd of our games since the bye, but the triplet of losses before it have handicapped us.

We've won our last three home games by wide margins (37-13 over Snapfinger, 27-12 over Capital City and 31-6 over Houston) and in between won 24-14 at Bordeaux, but the stupidity in our 31-30 loss in Orlando and ineptitude in the 40-20 loss at Gothenburg have us trailing the wild card teams by 1 win and inferior tie-breakers. Had we won only one of the six games we lost (three of thosewe were the better team) and we're heavily in the mix.

European Division
1. Paris 9-3
2. Gothenburg 7-5
3. Maassluis 6-6
4. Bordeaux 6-6

Sure, 1 win behind, but Gothenburg has already secured tie-breakers, we'll need more than just 1 win. Aside from Gothenburg, three other 7-5 teams are ahead of us, as are the 6-6 Toronto Lake Monsters. On our tail, aside from Bordeaux, are three 5-win teams. The race for the wild cards is going to be wild.

QB Ellis McAlister has slowly recovered, improving to an 18:13 touchdown:interception ratio after 12 games. With 3,196 yards throwing, he's on pace for another 4,000-yard season. He's back into the league lead of yards per completion and third in yards per attempt.

RB Walt Blair has been missing in action in the last four games and about three quarters with a concussion. With 727 yards rushing and 5 touchdowns on the ground, he's still our ground game leader. We hope to see him back in action for the three home games.

WR Dennis Nadell unsurprisingly is our leading receiver. 66 catches for 1,067 yards and 5 touchdowns. He's in the upper echelon of the yard per catch guys, but he's mediocre in the per target list and catches less than 50 percent of his targets. WR Brody Stevens (62 for 753 yd and 3 td) and TE Monty Elliott (54 for 726 yd and 5 td) are sniffing at missing 1,000 yards by about 50 or so.

Our offensive linemen are doing well in the key run block figures. C Nicky Sherman and G Carlos Webb will likely come just short of 40 blocks for the season, G Harvey Hank isn't far behind them either.

The defense, well... I like the talent on this unit, but they've let me down quite often. We've got the fifth worst run per carry and fifth worst yards per catch numbers. Head shaking bad. ok, at least we've got the best pass rush in the league. (Too bad we're missing our key defensive end Arnie May in the last four regular season games).

Skeptic? Pessimistic? Realistic? A bit of all three, I think. If we win the last 4 (it's a lot to ask for with a road game at the 7-5 Texas Sharks and home games against Bordeaux, Derek Barge's Moontown Darksiders and Paris), we'd still need about 4 other teams to collapse.

Yeah, Derek Barge is coming to Maassluis in week 16, his first visit to Oranje Haven, if he remains healthy in the next couple of game. He's highly regarded as the second best player in league history, after Jackie Collier. That's a game we can sketch into the L-column already...

Ok, let's be optimistic: we're only eight wins away from our second IHOF Bowl victory!

MIJB#19

03-12-2019, 04:37 PM

General Manager Notes: 2080 is over already?
Fourth place.

No, not in the league (like two seasons ago) or in the conference (like last season), last in the division. It's been 31 seasons since we managed to fall to the bottom of the division.

Granted, it was a strong division, the strongest in the league last season, but fourth place is beyond all a very disappointing performance. Especially when the team ranks 6th in the Solecismic power ratings at the end of the season. Playing the toughest schedule in the league will do that.

1. Paris 12-4
2. Gothenburg 10-6
3. Bordeaux 8-8
4. Maassluis 7-9

We've won a shockingly low of 1 game inside the division, <strike>fucked up</strike> <strike>pissed away</strike> lost 4 home games over the course of the season.

This team should go hide in shame, or go outside, sit in the rain and storm that's torturing the Netherlands and think hard about how disappointing this season was.

We've won 4 games by a large margin, 2 more by 2 scores and beat the Tucker Tigers in overtime. On the other end, we lost 7 games by 6 or less points, lost by 20 at Gothenburg and when the season was already a failure managed to disgust the pride of the franchise with an unwarranted drubbing at home against the Paris Musketeers and their backup quarterback. We finished the season at +45 points, seventh best in the conference and 12th best in the league.

Our inept staff decided to pull our QB Ellis McAllister short of a 4K season, keeping him to 3,990 yard with 21 touchdowns and 16 interceptions. That's the lowest touchdown figure since Lester Lowe in 2062 (16 touchdowns in just 11 games), but basically the worst since the 2049 season, when Bryson Chow had only 16 touchdown passes. Yeah, that previous 4th place season.

RB Walt Blair came short of the 1K mark, running for 973 yards in 11 games with a head banging 3.96 yards per carry average. He ran the ball in 6 times, including a receiving touchdown. What happened to our 4.97 yards per carry workhorse? He was still a green rookie back then...

WR Dennis Nadell unshockingly lead the league in yards per catch (16.44), but with a pedestrian 49.1 percent catch percentage, his season was still a failure, despite the 85 catches for 1,397 yards. WR Brody Stevens had 81 catches for 1,028 yards, TE Monty Elliott 73 catches for 967 yards.

The defense was supposed to carry this team, but despite leading the league in sacks, that unit completely forgot to force turnovers and gave up a Merchantmen unworthy 346 yards per game. Yeah, we gave up between 351 and 389 in four straight season between 2074 and 2077 (and 367 yards in 2072), but all that was a disgrace to our tradition of fine defenses already. In that light, it was better than average in the '70s, but I had expected a lot more from Battle, Brewer and Craig McCorkle, undeniably the best trio of linebackers in the league and by pure talent could be in Merchantmen history. Amari Lavelli finally made his first career interception, in his 58th and probably final game in orange-white-and-blue. This unit ranked 31st in yarder per carry and 31st in yards per catch.
This all has nothing to do with a turnover prone quarterback or a retired HOF wide receiver. Quite simply: y'all let us down, defense, big time.

The good news? The Texas Sharks helped us get the #12 overall pick on top of the #16 overall pick that we 'earned'. It also means we'll have the #47 and #48 overall picks to work with.

To work with... We'll be about $150M over the cap going into the next off-season, with an underpaid starting quarterback in his final season of contract, an elite running back in the last year of contract, a couple of overpaid WR2s and an overpaid offensive line compared to what they showed us this season.

The defense is, of course, beyond doubt, a depressing unit. The talent is there, but the performance on the field is utterly disappointing. We try to game plan to their strengths, but instead they resemble nothing noteworthy.

Back to the drawing board?

MIJB#19

03-15-2019, 03:05 PM

General Manager notes: Hello 2081!
Oh goody, off-season time!

The retirement wave made us lose four guys, and not lose a guy or two that I anticipated to see retire. Firstly, who has left us?

Quarterback Sammy Erickson, 4 seasons of service, 1 as our starting QB. A 4,731-yard season with 32 touchdowns was part of the story, going 7-9 was the other half of it. He sat behind Bennett Morris and Ellis McAlister after that.

Fullback Gilbert Taliancich goes out at his peak, being the All-IHOF fullback for the last two seasons. 0 career carries, 29 career catches, Taliancich was a blocker for 11 season. 101 key run blocks, 297 opportunities. These are numbers of decent offensive linemen. Taliancich ranks highly amongst fullbacks in IHOF history in run blocking.

Safety Ben Gilbert played 9 seasons with us. Last season in a relief role, before that usually as a starter. His pass defense numbers aren't overly impressive, he was usually just there. 419 career tackles, 11 interceptions, 43 defended passes.

Linebacker Alexis Turner spent 12 seasons with us in 2 stints. His stat sheets says it was 12 seasons straight, but the Solecismic record books will count the post-camp singing in 2070 as a new start. 1 tackle in 12 seasons, what's up with that? Nothing shocking, really. Turner was a special teamer, made 190 special teams tackles for us.

The league office press department also reported the retirement of CB Ezra Slocum, WR Patrick Henry, RB Skip Clemons, G Bryson Hamilton, DT Willie Turner and T Liam Bell.

Slocum spent 3 seasons on our roster, 2 as a starter. What a waste of money. Wait, did I write that out loud?

Henry was a backup with us, mostly.

Clemons a one-year starter with 1,290 yards and 8 touchdowns. We just didn't want to pay him starter money. He moved on, but nowhere got even close to the playing time he got with us.

Hamilton was a backup, he was active in just 2 games in 5 seasons.

Willie Turner was a backup with us, active in 133 games. Cap woes made me cut him last off-season.

And then there was Liam Bell. Was with us for 5 seasons, active in 5 games. He was picked and kept for sentimental reasons. God speed.

Back to business.
We're $124M over the cap, projected at $153M over the cap after draft picks. We're holding the #11 and #14 overall picks, as well as the #45 and #46 picks.

I'm somewhat torn between getting a major rebuild going, or do what we usually do. It's worth considering to trade a couple of our expensive players. Antonio Battle in particular has the fourth highest cap figure in the league, $73.26M puts him just behind a threesome of veteran quarterbacks. It might be a busier than usual off-season...

MIJB#19

03-18-2019, 03:04 PM

General Manager Notes: 2081, what to do at quarterback?
We talked to the kid, but before we had a chance to make a sane offer for the 1.1 pick, it was already traded from Oakland to Orlando. The Talons did what had to be done there: select quarterback Jerald Harrison.

So much for that idea.

What about that Ellis McAlister guy that toted the ball for us in the last two seasons? Well, realistically, we're in a deadlock situation. McAlister is signed for a $11.69M cap figure in his last season of contract, but obviously he wants us to offer him a $164M contract for 4 years, with a $36M cap figure this season. As of today, after a truckload of renegotiations, we're still about $63M over the cap, $92M over after signing draft picks. I'm fully expecting McAlister to go into hold out mode and we'll be very unlikely to make him even a half-decent offer without trading or cutting guys like Nicky Sherman, Antonio Battle and Brody Stevens. All are a bit of a luxury (we've got last season's first round pick Butch Pearson, a couple of excellent linebackers and hope to fix the receivers group), moving all three would save us about $78.5M.

The free agents market is dry at quarterback. Not just a little bit, it's void of anybody worth throwing a contract at. Wesley Elliott and Zachery Hatcher are sack magnets, while Colin Clements is projected to still be out for the entire 2081 season.

The rest of the draft? I dunno. I shouldn't show my hand here, but I can be open about that I didn't focus our interviews at that position. Jerald Harrison was the only one.

Our backups are, well, that. The retirement of Sammy Erickson means last year's seventh round pick Josiah Lyle and third year kick holder Karsten Muchnick are our depth, or lack thereof. Neither of them is ready to start.

Our best bet right now is hoping for McAlister to not hold out, or if he does, hope he ends the holdout before week 1, to force our hand for the next off-season.

MIJB#19

03-19-2019, 03:31 PM

General Manager Notes: 2081 Free Agency Fire Sale
Cap space is a problem, a big one this off-season. We spent about $25M too little in 2076, '77 and '78 and we're paying for it dearly this season. Four of our best (albeit aged) players are on the block. Center Nicky Sherman, wide receiver Brody Stevens and linebacker Antonio Battle were already listed, but cornerback Alonzo Hitchcock has joined the list.

We'll have to move them all to be able to get under the cap and have at least some room to work with. Trading away the two second and one third round picks for a 2083 first round pick of the Outer Banks Ospreys gives some cap relief, about $4.5M. We're still at $53.74M over the cap.

Putting Hitchcock on the block is also a result of spending both first round picks on cornerbacks. Kirk Hitchcock (#11) and Tre Poloski (#14) are the top two graded cornerbacks this draft and hopefully can boost what has been such a disappointing unit. Of course, it'll take a season or three for them to really become top-notch, but we've got a guy or three good enough to play around them.

I'm pessimistic about the chances to salvage this team though. Aside from quarterback Ellis McAlister, there are several other players likely to go into hold out more. Walt Blair and his concussion syndrome wants $10M more than his current last year of contract, I think at best I can get him to sign for $7M more. Then there's defensive tackle Chandler Posante, currently signed for just $3.81M on the last year of his rookie contract and asking for his $100M contract, with a $14.4M cap figure this season. But McAlister is the biggest risk, signed for $11.7M and desiring $36.4M. We'll have to let these guys go regardless, I'm afraid. It's unusual, but we might have to sacrifice even more than just the quarterback this time...

MIJB#19

03-21-2019, 04:11 PM

General Manager Notes: 2081 fire sale has begun
Good bye Brody Stevens, good bye Nicky Sherman.

After nine seasons of service, we've traded our four-time 1,000-yard receiver Brody Stevens to the Oakland Black Panthers for the top of the seventh round pick in the on-going draft. He ranked in the top 10 of franchise receptions, receiving yards and receiving touchdowns upon his departure.

Nicky Sherman's stint in Maassluis lasted only 2 seasons, we traded him to the Houston Mustangs for a mid-late sixth round pick. Sherman made 41 and 44 key run blocks while on our team, allowing just 5 sacks in 32 games. A stellar, elite center, but we've decided that we're going to put our first round pick from last season in our line up.

It was sad to move them, but cap woes made it impossible to afford these two guys on top of the bunch of other guys that seem unsustainable.

We've accumulated a bunch of late round picks to cover for a potential situation where we'll have to go into training camp in an over the cap situation, yet still a chance to add more than the 51 players that account towards the cap.

I've already decided to release tight end Branden Schwirzke. A former third round pick, a pure receiver, had several seasons at around 700 yards for us, but the last three seasons he had a very minor role as the third tight end. Still scored 39 touchdowns in 8 seasons, a very respectable number.

Cornerback Amari Lavelli has decided to continue his IHOF career with the Gothenburg Giants. We had hoped to see him go far away to an AOC team, but he decided to stay within the division for just $7.2M this season and $8.2M in the next two seasons. It's more than we paid him, good for the kid, but it's a bummer to see a talented player go to a team we face twice per season.

We're going to give Antonio Battle one last chance to sign a new three-year contract. I'm expecting him to turn it down, but we have to try, no?

As mentioned earlier, we've got three players that are very likely to go into hold out modus. We'll still need to find the cap room to work around that. Chances of finding that are slim, trading or releasing Battle is the only option to make that happen, it seems...

MIJB#19

03-21-2019, 05:12 PM

2081 Draft Results: Top Two Corners For Maassluis
<table><tr><td>pick<td>player<td>notes
<tr><td>1.11<td>CB Kirk Hitchcock<td>highest graded CB, complete defender, except for play diagnosis
<tr><td>1.14<td>CB Tre Poloski<td>2nd highest graded CB, complete defender, except for low endurance
<tr><td>5.14<td>FB Tristan Cochrane<td>2nd highest graded FB, run blocker, picks up the blitz well
<tr><td>6.13<td>T Abel Bauer<td>23rd highest graded OT, tall, heavy, strong
<tr><td>6.23<td>LB Darien Stokes<td>8th highest graded OLB, special teamer, zone defender
<tr><td>7.1<td>S Louie Ferguson<td>20th highest graded S, smart, strong, interceptions
<tr><td>7.12<td>WR Riddick Bunting<td>40th highest graded WR, short, smart, route runner, special teamer
<tr><td>7.19<td>C Riddick Kasowski<td>9th highest graded C, green, decent speed and agility</table>

Future draft situation:
2082 additional 3rd, no 7th
2083 additional 1st

MIJB#19

03-22-2019, 07:36 AM

General Manager Notes: The 2081 Hijack
The word is out. Ellis McAlister, Walt Blair and Chandler Posante have told me they want Antonio Battle's salary. Battle refused a much richer contract than he requested, which also resulted in us being over the cap after early free agency and a 3rd round pick penalty in return. Cutting Battle would increase our dead cap space to nearly $100M on a $448M salary cap.

Part of me wants to cut all of their asses, but then, what kind of team will we have left after losing our starting quarterback, starting running back, starting defensive tackle and third linebacker? Our team would be depleted.

It might come as no surprise, I'm afraid of the implications of these hold outs. Battle's roster spot has been filled, we've got two talented younger linebackers, boosted the secondary with two talented cornerbacks. But losing Posante would downgrade the defensive line and losing Blair and/or McAlister would destroy our offense.

MIJB#19

03-25-2019, 06:57 PM

General Manager Notes: 2081, The Plot Thickens
Antonio Battle, gone.

Ellis McAlister, hold out ended. Gone in 2082.

Walt Blair, unwilling to sign a better deal than requesting (when will these football players get rid of these incompetent player agents who are too blind to see that a $39M contract with a $20M bonus is significantly better than a $39M contract with a $9M bonus?)

We've signed a bunch of undrafted rookies (QB Frank Graul, TE Gavin Stern, P Roosevelt Shaw, DE Ezekiel Wylie, CB Frankie Youngblood, S Phil Harvey), of whom some might not survive the roster cut waves.

Training camp report is in. Rookies FB Cochrane, C Kasowski, DE Wylie, LB Stokes, CB K. Hitchcock, CB Poloski, S Harvey, as well as second-year pro's C Pearson, K Arnold, DE Kemp and DT Shrader, these 11 guys all received "good progress" grades by my staff. We'll have to see where they stand in two days, when they'll be asked to re-grade the guys after the first couple of exhibition games.

All in all, the loss of Battle was a bummer, but seemed inevitable. The quickly ended hold out by McAlister was sad, but so be it. A starting quality quarterback, he deserves that money. We've actually attempted to trade McAlister for another team's holding out quarterback, but that opportunity fell when Merchantmen management (me) decided to stay away from the laptop for a bunch of hours.

Otherwise, I remain far from optimistic about the upcoming season.

MIJB#19

03-27-2019, 11:40 AM

Antonio Battle signed with Gothenburg Giants
Two-time All-IHOF linebacker Antonio Battle continues his IHOF career in Europe after signing with the Gothenburg Giants. The former Maassluis Merchantmen key player signed with the Giants shortly after training camp, just in time to join them for 2081 pre-season action. Battle signed a $22M one-year contract, making him the fifth highest played player on roster. Of course, it's far less than what Battle was due in Maassluis (a $35.5M base salary, with a $37.7M cap hit due to the signing bonus) and nowhere near the $107M 3-year contract the Merchantmen saw Battle decline.

Walt Blair denies Merchantmen again, talks continue
Contract negotiations between the Maassluis Merchantmen and running back Walt Blair are still in progress. Blair turned down a $47.5M two-year contract shortly before pre-season activity kicked off. Blair's demands have changed to a three-year contract, which the Merchantmen management reportedly is willing to work along with. Merchantmen GM M.IJ.B. said getting Blair to show and dress up is a top priority this pre-season, but the Merchantmen will have to offer Blair something different as the team simply can't get the cap room available for desired $15.3M salary with a $14.8M bonus, as it would increase his cap figure by $14.75M, while there's only $9.55M available.

Chandler Posante unlikely to play in 2081
Defensive tackle Chandler Posante and the Maassluis Merchantmen management are unlikely to come to terms before the regular season kicks off. "Imposante" turned down a $79M four-year contract after training camp and the Merchantmen have reportedly decided to put talks on hold until the situation with Walt Blair is resolved. The Merchantmen keep the options open for Posante to end his hold out and walk away as a free agent after the 2081 season. His name hasn't been thrown around as available for trade, but that could be an alternative route.

Merchantmen announce pre-season cuts
The Maassluis Merchantmen today announced the release of rookie punter Roosevelt Shaw and second-year quarterback Josiah Lyle. Shaw was unable to unseat Tito Hornsby, one of the elite punters in the league. Lyle lost the roster spot battle to undrafted rookie Frank Graul. This move means the Merchantmen go into the last two pre-season games with 53 players on roster, including hold outs Walt Blair and Chandler Posante.

MIJB#19

03-31-2019, 02:35 PM

General Manager notes: bye bye Blair and Posante
It's decided. Walt Blair and Chandler Posante have decided to end their hold out. They'll play out the 2081 season with us and then walk away free agents. There isn't even a point to trade them, because Solecismic regulation prohibit players from signing renegotiated contracts after pre-season. So they join Ellis McAlister in that. A huge blow to the stomach.

The good news? We've played decent in the pre-season we might be able to lose a dozen games by a field goal. Yay?

So be it, there's a lot worse stuff in life to get worked up about. We'll have to make the best of this season and get a rebuild going in the off-season. We'll kick off in Bordeaux, a team we're always more than happy to beat, winning at their place will be a nice way to start the season.

MIJB#19

04-01-2019, 04:01 PM

2081 week 1: Merchantmen sneak by Vineyards
The Maassluis Merchantmen are off to a good start. Despite defensive struggles, the Merchantmen came home with a 30-24 overtime victory at the Bordeaux Vineyards. Ellis McAlister and Walt Blair tried to make the best of their farewell season. McAlister completed 21 of 37 passes for 267 yards and 2 touchdowns with 1 pick, while Blair carried 28 times for 119 yards and 2 touchdowns.

Reality was simple: Bordeaux was the better team out there, but an early missed field goal in regulation, the traditional strong pass rush throughout the game and an interception too many in overtime reshuffled the cards just enough to give Maassluis a chance to squeak by. The Merchantmen shrugged at it, their season started with a 1 in the W-column. That's all that matters.

European division in action:
Maassluis 30, Bordeaux 24 (OT, @ Bordeaux)
Paris 48, Gothenburg 38 (@ Paris)

Standings
1. Paris 1-0
2. Maassluis 1-0
3. Bordeaux 0-1
4. Gothenburg 0-1

Next up:
Paris vs Williamsburg (1-0), 10-point favorites
Maassluis vs Frederick (0-1), 5-point favorites
Bordeaux at Brooklyn (0-1), 11-point favorites
Gothenburg at Chesapeake (1-0), 9-point underdogs

MIJB#19

04-02-2019, 05:47 PM

2081 week 2: Merchantmen pick off Red Menace
When the Frederick Red Menace took the plane to Maassluis, the figured throwing the ball a lot was a good idea. Think again, pals. It proved to be a horrible mistake. The Merchantmen defense knew their way with the commies' quarterback Alvin Mills, picking him off 5 times, sacking him 4 times, hurrying him 5 times, blocking 6 pass attempts and deflecting 7 passes. The kid was pulled in the fourth quarter with a 8.6 passers-by rating.

The Merchantmen offense struggled to punt points on the board though, attempting a field goal 7 times, 5 of those bring shorter than 40 yards. But with the supreme defense, they didn't need it. Walt Blair ran for 112 yards on 28 carries, while Ellis McAlister threw for 265 yards, 2 touchdowns and a couple of picks to give the visitors a fighting chance. Dennis Nadell recovered with 9 catches for 117 yards and a score.

Elsewhere in the league, the Paris Musketeers rolled on, beating the Williamsburg Colonials 47-34. The Bordeaux Vineyards recovered with a 17-10 victory at the Brooklyn Fightin' Bums. The Gothenburg Giants dropped hard, 49-30 at the Chesapeake Chitterlings.

Division standings:
1 Paris 2-0
2. Maassluis 2-0
3. Bordeaux 1-1
4. Gothenburg 0-2

Next up
Paris visits 2-0 league champions Tucker Tigers, Bordeaux visits the 1-1 Jerald Harrison lead Orlando Talons, Gothenburg hosts the 1-1 Fort Wayne Fury and the Merchantmen will host the 1-1 Atlanta Vipers.

MIJB#19

04-03-2019, 11:09 AM

General Manager Notes: How about that, Three and Oh Yeah!
After an off-season that fed the pessimism, the first games of the regular season have turned the tide into cautious optimism. For the first time since the 2071 season, we've managed a 3-0 start to the season. The road victory at Bordeaux was somewhat lucky, the home victory over the Red Menace should have been a blowout and week 3 was an old fashioned near-choke against the Atlanta Vipers.

So, three and oh, what's that worth?
We've been here 12 times before, so it's far from unique.
First time around, we finished the 2007 season with an 13-3 record, our first division title, first playoff victory and first trip to the AOC Championship game. In 2011 and 2012 we reached the playoffs. In 2023 we had that outstanding offense, yet were only fourth seeds with a 12-4 record and lost a nailbiter to the Tucker Tigers. In 2035, we won the division. In 2040 we wasted a bye in the playoffs with a humiliating 24-0 loss at home, In 2041 we were the top wild card and lost by a missed field goal. In 2049 we actually failed to make the playoffs, finishing 8-8 far behind the three division rivals that all did make the playoffs with 11-5 and better records. In 2058 we choked in the playoffs, in 2059 we had the super choke, despite being 15-1 juggernauts. In 2062 we missed the playoffs at 10-6 and in 2071 we choked once again in the playoffs. That's a lot of choking.

So, where to go from here, with that 3-0 start? Well, for at least another week we'll be the division leaders, because our way too early bye week is here once again and the Paris Musketeers today lost 33-30 at the Tucker Tigers.

Division standings:
1. Maassluis 3-0
2. Paris 2-1
3. Bordeaux 2-1
4. Gothenburg 0-3

The Giants defense with Antonio Battle and Amari Lavelli as regular starters is struggling, heavily. The Vineyards and Musketeers are playing well, very well even. We should not get carried away here, we might still be the worst team in the division. Well, "still", we were in my opinion one of the best last season, we were supposed to bounce back, no?

Anyway, 3-0, apparently we can win close games again, but all in all, we're probably worse than we were last season. We'll continue to play ball, take effort, do our best. C'mon Merchantmen!

MIJB#19

04-07-2019, 11:50 AM

General Manager Notes: Back with the living
The unbeaten streak ended after 4 victories. After an undeserved 24-23 win at the North Plainfield Plague in week 5, we wasted our chances to do well this season with a 34-30 home loss to the Rochester Razorbacks with an immensely underwhelming pass defense. In seasons like these, you simply can't afford to lose home game against teams that are close in record.

Standings
1. Paris 4-1
2. Maassluis 4-1
3. Bordeaux 3-2
4. Gothenburg 1-4

Ellis McAlister is struggling heavier than before. He's completing only 53.5 percent of his passes for 241 yards per game, with 8 touchdowns and 7 interceptions in these first 5 games.

Walt Blair is traditionally in the mix at the top of the rushing yards leaderboard. With 109 yards per game, 4.51 per carry and 5 touchdowns in as many games, he's doing quite well.

Artie Blazewicz and Dennis Nadell are amongst the league's top 10 in yards per catch, but their gross numbers are far from impressive. Blazewicz is a bit of a surprise team leader with 25 catches for 404 yards, Monty Elliot is close behind with 24 catches for 343 yards, Nadell is just third with 22 catches for 343 yards.

The rest of the team, well, "meh". We're 4-1 inspite of our inability to play well, especially on defense. Veterans Alonzo Hitchcock (3 picks), Maurice Harkleroad (3 picks) and Arnie May (4.0 sacks) are crucial, despite that they are arguably amongst the least talented starters. Craig McCorkle is on pace to top 150 tackles, but quite honestly, I still think having the tackles leader in the league means our defense is terrible.

It is what it is. We've played 5 games and won 4 of them. We've got a tough schedule remaining, but really, are there any pushovers in a league like the IHOF? I really don't think so. We'll have to do what we've being doing well lately: get lucky.

MIJB#19

04-18-2019, 03:57 PM

General Manager notes: Not this again...
Sigh.

After week 14 we were 9-4, with all those losses closes games, on an impressive 3-game streak of blowout victories and wildly in the mix for a bye week. Two big losses later, we're completely out of the playoffs picture. Done, locked into the 7th "seed".

1. Bordeaux 11-4
2. Paris 11-4
3. Maassluis 9-6
4. Gothenburg 7-8

We'll finish the season in Gothenburg. I wouldn't even mind if McAlister and Blair blow out their knees. Wait, did I write that out loud? I mean, they'll be off the team after this game, I had hoped they'd be guiding and carrying us deep into the playoffs, one more time. But so be it.

Our rookie cornerback duo has had its ups and downs, both are currently playing hurt. Kirk Hitchcock is going through his second knee injury, missed a game early on. Tre Poloski has missed 3 games with a broken clavicle.

Third year linebacker Craig McCorkle is having a DPOY kind of season, leading the league in tackles, supporting the pass rush and leading the team with 5 interceptions. Merchantmen worthy material.

All that said, it's been yet another weird, most mostly disappointing season. It's weird that we were 9-4, with all losses close games. Two blowout losses later, we're heavily outgained in yardage numbers. We're gaining a mediocre 358 yards per game and give up a horrible 386 yards. Our red zone defense is depressingly bad. And somehow the Solecismic power ratings puts us in 6th place. Say what?

Is there any good news? Maybe our cap situation next season? 45 players signed, $32.5M under the cap. That will be without a quarterback and running back, but it is what it is. Our draft situation will be par. We'll be picking 20th in all rounds, except for the pickless 7th round and knowing we lost a mid-round 3rd round pick for cap violation.

Or maybe it's our 6th round pick from last season, Artie Blazewicz. 72 catches for 1,035 yards makes him our WR2, but he's also grown into a top5 kickoff returner.

Oh well, there's always next season, right? Right!?

MIJB#19

04-21-2019, 02:32 PM

General Manager Notes: 2081, it's a wrap (sort of)
The playoffs are about to begin, but 2081 is over for us.

We finished the season with a 9-7 record, playing above average football for 13 games, only to turn into complete incompetence for the last 3 games. I know, I should be more supportive about my team, but reality is that we lost the last three by a 29, 13 and 19 points. Our first for losses combined for 20 points. The molded, dry cherry on the fallen apart pie was the 97 yards passing in week 17 at the Gothenburg Giants. I think that's unprecedented for us to be held under 100. Mind you, this is in the era of the passing game. The Paris Musketeers quarterback Neil Poling smashed the records with 574 completions on 919 pass attempts for 7,004 yards.

Our quarterback Ellis McAlister finished the season with career lows (as a starter) of 3,620 yards, 287 completed passes, 6.9 yards per attempt and 19 interceptions (technically a career high, but we'll throw that on the pile of worst ever numbers.

Walt Blair finished the season with 1,779 yards (third in the league), leading the league by a landslide with 17 rushing touchdowns, gaining a pedestrian 4.38 yards per carry.

McAlister and Blair. Free agents next off-season. I'm expecting both of them to get big contracts, hopefully far way in the North American Conference. McAlister is by my staff rated as the 21st best quarterback. 25th when you take into account the progress of four promising rookie or second-year quarterbacks. Blair is the 7th best running back according to our staff. He's irreplaceable, basically. *sigh*

We're still weak at wide receiver as well, despite having a 1,000-yard duo on what apparently has been the third most run-oriented offenses. Dennis Nadell is over his peak, we'll have to look at all three of the key skill positions next off-season.

The defense finished the season with a disappointing pass rush. We're still far above average, but no longer part of the elite. The pass defense has been pretty poor, despite all the talent. 385 yards per game allowed, slightly better than the league worst that we were in 2077, but still Merchantmen unworthy. Yes, unworthy, we'll have to improve on that in the next off-season.

And we will. LB Craig McCorkle, LB Glenn Brewer, DT Glen Stiegler and CB Kirk Hitchcock have the skills to carry this defense. Tre Poloski looks promising, ready to step in for CB Alonzo Hitchcock. S Maurice Harkleroad is still decent, but we'll be looking for a new guy to play side by side with him. The sidekicks on the defensive line are all talented enough to run havoc on any offensive line. Cohesion is still one of our strengths, let's build on that with a young core.

2082, can't wait for the chance to rebuild. Actually, we don't really rebuild, we fix what's been broken. We'll never play bad to improve our draft situation. The last time we won less than 7 games was in 2033, 48 seasons ago, and only once did we win less than 5 games. You know it, that was 2004, the inaugural season. We'll find a suitor to McAlister, we'll find a way to use our young gazelles at wide receiver, make tight end Monty Elliott the centerpiece of the passing game and improve that defense.

Keep faith, Merchantmen!

MIJB#19

05-03-2019, 10:47 AM

General Manager Notes: 2082, a new beginning?
Let's take a deep breath because it's time to regroup.

We're down two men already, safety Jonah Harden and defensive end Arnie May retired from the game. For the last eight seasons, May was a very reliable pass rusher, a force to reckon with. 82.0 sacks in 132 games is very good, he ranks 4th all time for the Merchantmen in sacks and 7th in hurries. Harden was around in relief duty, despite 11 seasons on roster, he was basically extensively involved in only 3 seasons.

As a result of our best of the rest performance, we're picking 20th in every round, except the 7th. Well, and the third, where we also held the 19th overall pick, but which we've lost due to cap violations.

Cap violations aren't an issue going into the off-season. We've got 43 players signed with about $45M of cap space, of which about $16M is reserved for the six draft picks. With an additional first round pick in the 2083 draft, we've got a bit of ammunition to wheel and deal.

43 signed and 2 retired means we've got 8 players out of contract. A handful were undrafted rookies, the core of the situation is with quarterback Ellis McAlister, running back Walt Blair and defensive tackle Chandler Posante. All should be in the top 50 free agents list. Blair could be the hottest commodity for other teams, McAlister is best suited in Maassluis due to his familiarity with our system, but I'm sensing he's determined to try to sign elsewhere, risking to end up riding the bench or even missing out entirely due to his salary demands. Posante will find a new home, no doubt.

The league office is still tabulating which players have declared themselves eligible for the amateur draft. No doubt that quarterback, running back and perhaps wide receiver are our top needs. Although crazy enough, league scouting says we're in dire need of a safety and a defensive end. Who knows?

The market at quarterback isn't all that bad, McAlister could be just the fourth of fifth best option. Kansas' Eric Keith might get a league mandated franchise tag. Paris' Neil Poling and his 7,004 yards passing is on the market as well, as the 35-year old might be asking for the moon and the stars. Williamsburg's Rickey Nelson was a pre-season target for us, attempting to trade hold out quarterbacks up straight, but the Chicago Norsemen decided to move him to Williamsburg. Nelson is only 30 years old. Former Bordeaux #1 overall pick Ike Woodhouse is coming off a season on the bench in Orlando, but this 34-year old might not fit our offensive game plan.

Quite honestly, we have no alternatives: Karsten Muchnick is a kick holder, nothing else, while restricted free agent Frank Graul is highly touted by the league scouts, but he's so green... We'll certainly bring Graul to camp, if he's willing to sign with us. We'll have to go out there and find a true quarterback. A Bennett Morris scenario would be ideal, but it'll require some cap magic to find the required cap space...

Cap magic, that's right up our alley. We can do that.

MIJB#19

05-07-2019, 05:08 PM

General Manager Notes, 2082 off-season: Receiver in, running back out
The rollercoaster has started and so far we got through a looping and a free fall. First, we moved up in the draft from 20th overall to 8th overall. We swapped our 2083 first rounder for Chesapeake's 2083 second rounder for the compensation. We used it on the only player that really impressed our staff members: wide receiver Theodore Bondy. Yeah, it's been a while, but it was about time to grab a receiver.

Then we lost the bidding war for Walt Blair. In retrospect, my stupidity to not make a better offer than the one Brooklyn already had thrown out there, cost us his service. Slap to face. It was so obvious, but I totally missed it.

We've put an offer out there for Ellis McAlister to stay around as our quarterback. I'm working on a plan B, just in case, McAlister moves on elsewhere.

Chandler Posante is also on our list of players with an offer on the table. Again, we're looking at a plan B, but keeping Posante would be nice.

Safety and linebacker are still positions of concern, on top of the very obvious: running back. Unlike the other positions, I have no clearcut plan B yet, other than going with the tandem of Raul Curie and Ronald Graham.

MIJB#19

05-09-2019, 03:03 PM

McAlister Saga continues in Maassluis
The unthinkable has happened. Nearly a year after quarterback Ellis McAlister told the Merchantmen he'd play out the 2081 season to be able to become a free agent, he has signed a three-year $100M contract to stay in Maassluis.

Following an up and down 9-7 season, missing the playoffs after being in a bye week spot going into the last quarter of the season, McAlister received a lot of the blame for the lack of success. With no other suitors, sticking in Maassluis was by far the better option for him, especially now that the team that picked him in the sixth round of the 2074 draft is finally willing to pay him starter money.

Along with McAlister, defensive tackle Chandler Posante signed a new contract in Maassluis, despite taking the same hold out in pre-season route. Of the three 2081 pre-season hold outs, only running back Walt Blair has packed up, taking a richer contract with the Brooklyn Fightin' Bums.

MIJB#19

05-09-2019, 03:21 PM

General Manager notes: Who the fuck is Ellis? He's our quarterback!
Yes, he's back. Quite honestly, we had a plan B, offering Neil Poling (the 7,000-yard passer) a contract, but maintaining Ellis McAlister was plan A after all.

The draft didn't deliver any quarterbacks that wowed me and my staff. in the first three rounds we've now picked wide receiver Theodore Bondy (as I mentioned earlier), safety Emmitt Miller and defensive tackle Wally Loop.

Miller is a smart, fast safety, did very well in the position specific score. He may be considered undersized at 5'9", but we think his play diagnosis, endurance, intercepting skills and experience in a zone defense make him a starting quality defensive back.

Loop will bring another tower to our defensive line, as the 6'6" rookie joins backups Cameron Erlitz (6'7") and Erik Shrader (6'6"). We have good faith Loop will bring along the speed that for years, decades perhaps, made us one of, if not the best pass rushing defense in the league.

We've also signed veteran safety Peyton Hines, outbidding our division rivals from Paris. Hines is a ballhawker and will be asked to mentor Miller, while bringing depth to the unit.

Last and probably least importantly, we've signed our restricted free agent quarterback Frank Graul, defensive end Ezekiel Wylie, punt returner Gabe Broady, cornerback Frankie Youngblood. Negotiations with tight end Gavin Stern are ongoing. He had an active role on our offense last season, has the potential to play a lot in our 2 and 3 tight end formations. It's likely we'll bring him back on a three-year deal close to what he's seeking.

More worrisome are the contract negotiations with Craig McCorkle. Playing on his final rookie contract deal, he's got every right to demand a real contract following an All IHOF first team season. But we're apparently wide apart in what he wants and we want him to get. As per usual in this situation, the moronic player agent tells him to go for a hilariously low bonus and take much less guaranteed money than we've offering him.

Will these player agents ever get their fix?
* sigh *

MIJB#19

05-10-2019, 03:40 PM

General Manager Notes: Sigh of relief
Craig McCorkle decided to not hold out. How about that!? That's great news, because it means we can postpone contract talks with the best MLB in the league to the late pre-season stages.

In the draft, we've spent our fourth through sixth round picks on a couple of projects. Quarterback Kelly Blalock comes in as a guy who can avoid the sack and has a decent Solecismic score, despite his mediocre intelligence (I think we have our new backup project). Linebacker Andy Russell will be moved to defensive end, the kid is potentially the best pass rusher on our team, which is something given how deep we are already. Running back Leonard Belin brings the fine combination of hole recognition and breakaway speed, although likely comes short to Ronald Graham.

In the meantime, we've signed pass rushing and special teams linebacker Skip Keith. We had to outbid the Paris Musketeers, which is good news of course, to claim his services.

Thus, we've had our first peak at what our rookies look like. The word on Theodore Bondy is very promising, our staff thinks he's a top five wide receiver. "Yay"?

I'm getting a little bit more optimistic about our chances, that's for sure, but I need to be cautious. I may be wearing my rose-colored glasses...

QuikSand

05-11-2019, 11:33 AM

MIJB#19

05-11-2019, 03:41 PM

General Manager Notes: We got a running back!
The loss of Walt Blair has been solved, of sort. Today we've agreed terms with the Chesapeake Chitterlings to acquire Jimmie Feffer. We actually had a deal worked out for another top5 talent running back (by my staff that is), but it was pending the cap situation of the seller. In the end, Feffer cost us less in terms of draft picks. He spent last season on injured reserve, recovering from a nasty keen injury picked up in the 2080 season with the Williamsburg Colonials. The Colonials cut Feffer in the 2081 off-season, then got picked up by on a three-year deal with the Chitterlings. As a result, he never played a down for them.

Anyway, we got a replacement for Blair, this should be good news for our running game.

MIJB#19

05-11-2019, 07:17 PM

FWIW, my pretty good scouting staff sees WR Bondy as a pretty god but not great WR1/2 type. I have him at 98 BPR which is good, and just over 50 in GD and Courage, so he's not a near-useless one-trick-pony type. On a loaded roster, he'd probably be a WR2 to use downfield and here-and-there, but he's got the endurance to be a go-to guy on a more ordinary roster. For pick 1.8, I'd say that's about what you'd be hoping for, typically.My staff sees Bondy as (impression after interviewing was very underrated):
14/44 avoid drops
53/62 getting downfield
26/82 route running
64/80 third down catching
98 big-play receiving
63/77 courage
24/82 adjust to ball
0/0 punt returns
0/0 kick returns
74/86 endurance
72/90 special teams
47/72 overall

If it holds up, that's a WR1 type for the Merchantmen. In comparison, previous (HOF) legends in Maassluis and their peak overall numbers:
68/68 Terry Haskell
74/74 Gabe Springer
68/68 Riddick Stanley
61/61 J.R. Mills

MIJB#19

05-12-2019, 10:49 AM

General Manager Notes: Sherman is back!
Nicky Sherman is back in Maassluis. One of the most talented centers, still at the top of the game at the age of 35, with two seasons in Maassluis on his resume, rejoins us after a season away at the Houston Mustangs. It'll be an interesting battle in pre-season for the starting five on the offensive line. Especially given that we also signed free agent guard Leon Wooden, a 34-year old pass protection expert.

The arrival of Jimmie Feffer for training camp was also cheered by the fans. He's already more popular than the guy that left us this off-season.

Far behind those key moves, we've also signed a threesome of rookie skill position players. Nicholas Douglas and Chad Togiai will battle for a depth spot in our backfield. Douglas has the better hole recognition, Togiai could hang on as a special teamer. The third signing is kickoff returning wide receiver Ross Willbrandt, also bringing the big-play ability to be a WR4 or WR5. He's no guarantee to make the team though, he became our seventh wide receiver.

We're going into training camp with 64 players on roster, which means we'll have to cut 4 guys after camp and before pre-season action, then 7 more before the regular season:
* we've got 4 quarterbacks, it's likely we'll trim it down to 3
* we've got 6 running backs and 2 fullbacks, that's 1 or 2 too many
* we've got 4 tight ends and 7 wide receivers, that's also 1 or 2 too many
* we've got 3 centers, 4 guard and 3 offensive tackles, that's 2 too many
* we've got 1 punter and kicker
* we've got 10 defensive linemen, that's 1, likely 2 over what I prefer
* we've got 6 linebackers, we may drop to 5 for the regular season
* we've got 7 cornerbacks and 5 safeties, we might cut 2 guys before pre-season

MIJB#19

05-14-2019, 12:12 PM

General Manager Notes: Training Camp
A lot of young players, so there was quite some news surrounding training camp results. Below the progress according to my staff on the 1 to 100 scales:
+4/-3 QB Kelly Blalock (rookie)
+4/0 QB Frank Graul
+3/0 QB/KH Karsten Muchnick
+2/0 RB Leonard Belin (rookie)
+2/0 RB Nicholas Douglas (rookie)
+1/+1 RB Chad Togiai (rookie)
+4/0 FB Tristan Cochrane
+2/+2 TE Gavin Stern
+1/+1 TE Kody Gowan
+5/0 WR Theodore Bondy (rookie)
+4/0 WR Riddick Bunting
+1/0 WR Dwight Clements
+1/0 WR/KR Ross Willbrandt (rookie)
+8/0 C Butch Pearson
+5/0 C Riddick Kasowski
+2/0 G Raul Hughett
+2/+1 RT Abel Bauer
+5/0 DE Andy Russell (rookie)
+4/0 DE Gino Kemp
+4/-1 DE Ezekiel Wylie
+4/-3 DT Wally Loup (rookie)
+3/+1 DT Erik Shrader
+2/+1 DT Cameron Erlitz
+3/+1 LB Darien Stokes
+7/0 CB Kirk Hitchcock
+5/-1 CB Tre Poloski
+3/0 CB Frank Youngblood
+1/+2 CB/PR Gabe Broady
+3/-3 S Emmitt Miller (rookie)
+1/0 S Louie Ferguson

So, good news on Bondy, the staff still likes him. Keep it up, Theodore!

QuikSand

05-15-2019, 09:00 AM

I hope you take no offense in my week-by-week full-throated rooting for your opposition. #SellingShort

MIJB#19

05-15-2019, 10:02 AM

I hope you take no offense in my week-by-week full-throated rooting for your opposition. #SellingShortI certainly won't. It's all part of the game when another team has your first round pick. In turn, I'll be rooting against the Outer Banks Ospreys. :cool:

MIJB#19

05-15-2019, 10:06 AM

My staff sees Bondy as (impression after interviewing was very underrated):
14/44 avoid drops
53/62 getting downfield
26/82 route running
64/80 third down catching
98 big-play receiving
63/77 courage
24/82 adjust to ball
0/0 punt returns
0/0 kick returns
74/86 endurance
72/90 special teams
47/72 overall

If it holds up, that's a WR1 type for the Merchantmen. In comparison, previous (HOF) legends in Maassluis and their peak overall numbers:
68/68 Terry Haskell
74/74 Gabe Springer
68/68 Riddick Stanley
61/61 J.R. MillsPre-season 2 (and 3) sim has been ran, Bondy has improved to this:
25/63 avoid drops
61/78 getting downfield
42/96 route running
71/87 third down catching
100 big-play receiving
76/94 courage
38/94 adjust to ball
0/0 punt returns
0/0 kick returns
80/100 endurance
80/96 special teams
56/82 overall

It's all an uncertainty for now, given it's his rookie season, but right now he's rated (56/82 by my staff) as the best rookie (second best a x/78) and best WR (second best a 76/76).

At the very least, that's promising.

MIJB#19

05-16-2019, 12:52 PM

General Manager Notes: "Don't let the door?" Nah, we liked some of them...
Tough decision time was here again.
Slightly earlier than most teams, we've trimmed our roster to 53 players, using our game day roster and depth chart for the last two pre-season games. It meant the departure of 7 players.

DE Herb Crane was the guy with 8 seasons of service, having played in all our games in the 2075-2081 time span, participating in our rotation on the defensive line. 112 games, 32.0 sacks, not bad for an undrafted rookie acquisition.

DT Wally Loup was our third round pick in the most recent draft. Yeah, he's not even all that horrible, but his training camp was unimpressive and his pre-season form was even worse. We're deep at the defensive line with guys like Loup. The staff had him as "hard to read", I think we know now...

G Raul Hughett was our 7th round pick two drafts ago. His training camps were underwhelming, his promising strength hasn't resulted in becoming a better football player though. Maybe some team will pick him up for their chemistry class...

C Riddick Kasowski was our 7th round pick last draft. Brining back Nicky Sherman sealed Kasowski's faith, despite a couple of promising training camps. By the time he's ready to play, he'll still be backing up Butch Pearson. We might as well spend the roster spot on a veteran backup.

RB Nicholas Douglas joined us as a rookie free agent this off-season. His hole recognition is very promising, but we've got a threesome of similar to better running backs, we're really not going to carry five tail backs into the season.

QB Frank Graul didn't do all that bad, but we've got that Blalock kid we drafted as our backup plan. Despite knowing our head coach will ignore the kid and throw our kick holder out there if Ellis McAlsiter needs to be replaced. Yeah, our head coach is a nutcase, just like the coaches all across the league.

WR Dwight Clements spent three seasons on our roster, but the former 6th round pick has no special teams skills to compensate for the lack of anything else than his speed. Speed a plenty on our wide receivers group. We go into the new season with 6 wideouts, Clements won't be one of them.

With the pre-season action in the books, we can safely say that we have no idea whether Theodore Bondy can be a world beater. For two games he was invisible, in the last two games, he caught a grand total of 3 passes from Ellis McAlister, gaining 26, 31 yards and finishing it with a 9-yard touchdown catch. Okay, he might be a bit better than good. Let's hope so!

Our cohesion will be quite high in all aspects of the game. We've got talented skill position players, a good offensive line, a pass rushing defensive line, two of the best linebackers, perhaps the best cornerback in the league and a bunch of question marks on the secondary. That's basically our roster.

The regular season kicks off with a road game in Paris and continues with 4 home games, then a series of road then home, a quartet of road games and eventually two more at home and a road game in Bordeaux. The goal? 19-0. But a bowl victory after a 10-6 regular season will do as well.

Go Merchantmen!

MIJB#19

05-21-2019, 05:04 PM

General Manager Notes: 2082, Great start, except for all the interceptions...
Two games in and we've already piled up with 9 turnovers. The enigmatic share has been Ellis McAlister's 6 interceptions. He never throw more than 4 in back-to-back games, but he started the 2082 season with a couple of threesomes...

We lost 28-6 in Paris in week 1. Despite outgaining them in yardage, we never had a chance, losing the turnover battle 5-1. Jimmie Feffer ran for 106 yards, Ellis Who the Fuck Is McAlister threw for 225 yards with the 3 picks, rookie Theodore Bondy caught 8 passes for 98 yards.

Week 2 we came back from 31-14 behind to win 35-31. We lost the turnover battle 4-1 this time, but our single one saved the day as Giovanni Morton turned it into a pick six. Monty Elliot caught 8 passes for 97 yards, Ellis McAlister threw for 269 yards and a score with 3 picks and a rushing touchdown, Jimmie Feffer ran for 124 yards and a score, Dennis Nadell caught a touchdown pass.

So far we've kept center Nicky Sherman on the bench, we're banking on the 5 starters from last season, but keep Sherman waiting in the wings to step in if we need an injury replacement. I'm tempted to put him out there though, for one of the guys.

Despite the sextet of picks thrown, McAlister still keeps two quarterbacks behind him in the passer rating rankings. Newly hired Feffer leads the league with 230 rushing yards, probably a result of the league wide trend throw a lot. Theodore Bondy hasn't scored a touchdown yet, even lost a fumble in week 1, but I'm sure he'll pick it up and contend for offensive rookie of the year, albeit having to battle with the starting rookie quarterback from the Frederick Red Menace, who gets to throw the ball like 50 times per game. Tough luck, Theo.

Division standings:
1. Paris 2-0
2. Gothenburg 2-0
3. Maassluis 1-1
4. Bordeaux 0-2

Next up:
Paris hosts the league champion Rochester Razorbacks, whom have a disappointing 0-2 start, while Gothenburg will visit the 1-1 Snapfinger Jazz, Bordeaux will visit the 1-1 Orlando Talons and we will host the 0-2 North Plainfield Plague.

So in short, we won't go 19-0 this season, but we have the worst behind us already, so if that holds up, we might still be in the mix for the postseason and who knows what not afterwards.

Keep faith, Merchantmen.

MIJB#19

05-24-2019, 05:00 PM

General Manager Notes: More picks, more scoring, more winning
Our annual bye week came early as per usual. We didn't really need it yet, we're on a three game winning streak. Mind you, we've got a hilariously imbalanced schedule, we're playing 4 straight at home, continuing this in week 6.

So yeah, we won three straight, thus two more since my previous writing. We beat the teams from North Plainfield and San Antonio. Ellis McAlister has gotten his picks throwing trend a bit under control, Jimmie Feffer continues to run for 100 yards (or come one short) and Theodore Bondy has established himself as our top receiver with 7 catches in each of the last two games. We've averaged 402 yards per game, not something to feel bad about. But then, playing at home three times, the numbers are inflated.

The defense, well... Meh? Okay, that's a bit too harsh. We dismantled the Plague's running game and kept the Tidal Force's passing game in check. It's only 4 games, but apparently we're a top5 run defense. In contrast, we're allowing the fourth best passer rating, a very disappointing figure, given how much we invested in our pass rush, linebackers and secondary in recent drafts. More importantly, we're really struggling to force turnovers, we rank last in that statistic.

The special teams unit is not to be proud about either. Rookie Ross Willbrandt has been underwhelming and makes me consider to give the kick return duties back to Artie Blazewicz. Chance Arnold has missed just 1 kick so far, that's not too bad, while Tito Hornsby is having a slightly below average standard. We've given up the most kick return yardage, per return that is, but with only 7 returns allowed, it doesn't amount for too much. The field position battle has been up and down: -6 yards, +8 yards, -9 yards and +6 yards. Obviously way below Merchantmen standards, especially with home field advantage, but at least it's just about par.

By the way, Ellis McAlister is playing through a sprained lateral knee ligament. A risky injury, but quite simply, we have no alternatives. We've already given our kick holder (he's really nothing more than a kick holder, coach!) 12 pass attempts, how stupid is that? We're going to activate our project Kelly Blalock for week 6, but I highly doubt my staff will even remotely pick up on the idea of putting Blalock out there if - football gods forbid - McAlister gets hurt. We'll likely be stuck with the kick holder getting undesired snaps on the offense... Ugh.

All the grumping aside, we're 3-1, sitting in a wild card spot and theoretically can still tie Paris at 15-1 each if we win the last 12 games. We could still fall behind a 15-0-1 Tucker Tigers team for the #1 seed, or even lose the tie-breakers to Paris, but that's a luxury issue. We haven't made the playoffs in the last two seasons, remember? A 4-0 start and 9-4 going into the last three games was insufficient, copying our trend to lose the last 3 games of the regular season from the season before. Are most recent 'normal' season was 2078. Oh, Bennett Morris, where have you gone...

Ellis, who the fuck is Ellis? Well, Ellis McAlister, our current quarterback. The guy that threatened to hold out, then threatened to leave us in free agency and then came back after all, when he finally getting starter money in his 9th season in the league, playing once again for the only team that ever believed in him: the Maassluis Merchantmen.

Bondy is making good progress, at this pace he'll get close to his potential and be a scouted as a top 5 receiver by the end of the season, perhaps even becoming the best receiver before the playoffs start. Wouldn't that be something?

JustinSmith94

05-26-2019, 03:13 PM

Posting because I want to subscribe to this thread, great stuff, keep it up!

MIJB#19

06-02-2019, 05:09 PM

General Manager Notes: Up, Down, Left, Right, But we're still in the race
We've reached week 12 and the European Division has already been decided: the Paris Musketeers will win it with 5 rounds of games remaining. So... How the [bleep] did we get there from our encouraging 3-1 start?

We've bounced around. We ran into a silly loss 38-24 at home to the Atlanta Vipers, responded with a smooth 31-16 win at the Fort Wayne Fury and then got into a three-game losing streak. We lost 38-35 at home against Paris, already basically ending the division title pursuit for us. We then lost 24-19 at the Houston Stallions and followed up with yet another annoyingly underperforming game: a 27-10 loss to the Bordeaux Vineyards. Since then we've regrouped a bit, working ourselves up from last place in the division to sitting in the #7 seed by a weaker common games record than the Orlando Talons. We snuck into beating the Gothenburg Giants 15-12 and Oakland Black Panthers 27-21, both on the road.

European Division:
1. Paris 11-0
2. Maassluis 6-5
3. Bordeaux 5-5-1
4. Gothenburg 4-5-2
Yes, the Gothenburg Giants already tied 2 games. And no, there's nothing European about ties.

We have 5 games remaining on our schedule and frankly, if we're really a playoffs caliber team, we should stand a chance against all five opponents, all have a worse record than ours is, although some just by half a game.

Our quarterback Ellis McAlister has sort of resparkled his magic. He's thrown interceptions in each of the last 5 games, but still went from 7 in 4 games to 12 in 11 games. With 239 yards per game and 17 touchdowns thrown. Progress, huzzah!

Running back Jimmie Feffer has launched himself to the top of the rushing leader board with 107 yards per game and 9 touchdowns in 11 games. At 4.83 yards per carry, he's more than just useful.

Our rookie of the year candidate Theodore Bondy is losing terrain on the Frederick Red Menace lucky charm quarterback Orlando George. With 61 catches for 923 yards and 4 touchdowns, he's having a WR2 worthy season, except that we're already expecting WR1 play from him. Tight end Monty Elliott (647 yards, 5 touchdowns), Dennis Nadell (459 yards, 2 touchdowns) and Artie Blazewicz (418 yards, 2 touchdowns) are clearly not able to carry the offense. But then, Bondy is the real thing, so says my solid staff, we have a player to build our offense around. Or better yet, let him play the kind of role we had J.R. Mills play, but with even more talent than that future hall of famer had. Imagine that.

Elsewhere, I can't by any means be even remotely proud of our defense. 386 yards per game allowed, 3rd worst in the league, with the least takeaways... Our so-called best cornerback in the league has allowed a league 'leading' 58 catches in the first 11 games. Good heavens. Imagine how incredibly bad we would be if we didn't have a very talented bunch of players.

Nevertheless, we're still hanging on, tie-breakers away from the #6 seed. The Solecismic Software playoffs probabilities machine actually ranks us slightly ahead of the Orlando Talons as the 6th likeliest AOC team to make the post-season.

And as an added bonus, if we have no draft pick to improve, we traded our first rounder to the Chesapeake Chitterlings and instead have routing interests against the Outer Banks Ospreys. So far so good, they're sitting at 3-8 in the cellars of the Atlantic Coast division.

Today I opened my Fortune Cookie, it read: "All's going well. The phase of success is here!" So either we're on the brink of another improbable IHOF Bowl run, or it's something else entirely... I think I can live with either, both would be really swell, though.

MIJB#19

06-04-2019, 04:54 PM

General Manager Notes: When it rains, it pours, but what if the sun starts shining?
Let's not get overexcited, let's not get overexcited.
We've won back-to-back road games, yet again. We're on a shocking four game winning streak, all on the road.

In week 13 we came home after a superior performance, failing to put it all on the scoreboard. We beat the Augusta Greenjackets 27-13, but with 470 yards total offense and winning the turnover battle 3-1, we should have scored at least another touchdown. But a win is a win, and it was a much deserved one.

Week 14 was a barnburner, played far away at the Fairbanks Northstars, where we needed every last bit of luck to come back from behind with Ellis McAlister connecting with Monty Elliott for a 17-yard touchdown pass with 18 seconds to go. Despite trailing 28-14 at half time, we pulled off a 38-35 victory in regulation. 531 total yards of offense, but also giving up 492 total yards. Yeah, our defense apparently missed the flight to Alaska.

European division
1. Paris 12-1
2. Maassluis 8-5
3. Bordeaux 6-6-1
4. Gothenburg 5-6-2

You guessed it: once again, we're playing in the league's strongest division. The Musketeers secured the division title as I wrote my previous report, I just failed to mention it. We're virtually in the #6 seed, but it's by no means a done deal. The Orlando Talons are a game behind, with 3 winnable opponents and with a chance to surpass us on tie-breakers. We'll have to beat Gothenburg (week 15) and Bordeaux (week 17) to guarantee a trip to the post-season. Losing either game, especially the one against Bordeaux gives Orlando a chance to get level in conference record and beat us on strength of victory tie-breaker, or by beating Augusta (in week 15) also have a shot at getting the common games tie-breaker (if we don't beat Bordeaux).

Do we stand a chance though, if we make the post-season? The defense continues to be depressingly bad and has tumbled even deeper, now being the worst in giving up yardage. We've allowed 311 yards passing, while being on a Merchantmen unworthy pass rush figure of 26 sacks in 13 games. Just... Unheard of.

But we got to keep faith, stay strong. Hold the heads up high, shoulders back, chest forward.

Feelin' young, feelin' strong
at the height of the fight,
so nothing can go wrong
we know we always wanna be
fighting the sea.

Full speed ahead, Merchantmen!

MIJB#19

06-04-2019, 05:01 PM

My staff sees Bondy as (impression after interviewing was very underrated):
14/44 avoid drops
53/62 getting downfield
26/82 route running
64/80 third down catching
98 big-play receiving
63/77 courage
24/82 adjust to ball
0/0 punt returns
0/0 kick returns
74/86 endurance
72/90 special teams
47/72 overall
Pre-season 2 (and 3) sim has been ran, Bondy has improved to this:
25/63 avoid drops
61/78 getting downfield
42/96 route running
71/87 third down catching
100 big-play receiving
76/94 courage
38/94 adjust to ball
0/0 punt returns
0/0 kick returns
80/100 endurance
80/96 special teams
56/82 overallPost week 14 my staff has upgraded Bondy to second best WR in the league, just one or two improvement spurts away from reaching the top, still only 80% developed:
48/63 avoid drops
71/78 getting downfield
80/96 route running
82/87 third down catching
100 big-play receiving
89/94 courage
74/94 adjust to ball
0/0 punt returns
0/0 kick returns
94/100 endurance
94/96 special teams
74/82 overall

Could this be for real?

In week 11 the Gothenburg Giants kind of dismantled Bondy, keeping him to 2 catches for 20 yards on 11 targets. Bondy still scored a touchdown and we won that game 15-12. But yeah, Julio Riddols and his Giants might not be our best matchup, understatement much? And we're facing them next, oh goody...

MIJB#19

06-08-2019, 02:57 PM

General Manager Notes: Playoffs? Are you kidding me?
No, I'm not kidding you, we're into the playoffs!

It didn't come easy, as the last three games were a complete rollercoaster. In week 15 we did ourselves a disservice big time, getting humiliated by the Gothenburg Giants. 41-17 in our own Oranje Haven, completing the division sweep of us in our own home. Disgusting. Turnovers paved the way for the Giants to run away in the second half after things being level at half time.

We bounced back with a smooth 27-13 victory in our last home game, against the Colorado Cutthroats. We allowed only 2 red zone visits, posting one of very few non-horrible showings by the defense. Granted, that unit is talented, with the best cornerback and an all-world defensive tackle and middle linebacker combo. But somehow, we're still struggling.

Week 17 it was all or nothing, we had to visit the Bordeaux Vineyards in what due to the various tie-breaker situations was a winner take all game. A victory of tie would put us in the playoffs, a loss would bring Bordeaux to the post-season. Despite losing the turnover battle (what's new this season?), we bounced back in the second half. Ellis McAlister was phenomenal, throwing for 306 yards and touchdown passes to all four of our top four receivers (Bondy, Elliott, Nadell and Blazewicz). A late field goal made it 31-24 for us, enough to put us into the playoffs and bringing us back into a positive points margin (415 to 414).

European Division:
1. Paris 13-3
2. Maassluis 10-6
3. Bordeaux 8-7-1
4. Gothenburg 7-7-2

Paris goes into the playoffs seeded #2, Maassluis #5. We're once again the best division in the league, making that four seasons in a row now.

Elsewhere in the league, the Midwest division had a 7-9 champion, marking the best record of any team in that division in the 2080s. Imagine that.

So, where do we go from here?

We're going to Atlanta, visiting the only non-division rival that beat us in Oranje Have this season. An absurd night of football. People that watched the game still claim to have seen guys in orange-white-and-blue that weren't any of the defensive players we have under contract. Additionally, we won only 2 playoffs games in the last 14 seasons, despite getting there 8 times.

But all we can do is score more than the opponent. We're 3-3 in games where we allowed 30 or more points, but also 7-1 in games where we scored 30 or more points. It can be done by this offense, so it's my job to have faith in them. Heck, at some point, our defense will actually play up to its potential, right? Right!? Now would be a good time to start showing up. You can do it, Merchantmen!

MIJB#19

06-10-2019, 06:25 AM

General Manager Notes: 2082, also not our season
One and done. For the 21st time, putting us back on top of that hill once again.

No words can describe how disappointed I am in our defense this season. We've got the talent to be a top12 defense, yet, this sorry ass bunch could do no better than 30th best in the regular season in total yards allowed. It's not just our inability to keep offenses from gaining yardage (32nd with 300 passing yards per game), but the completion percentage (25th with 60.8%), yards per attempt (27th with 7.23 ypa) and sack percentage (23rd with 4.9%) have been downright unacceptable.

Back to the drawing board? No such thing either. We've actually reverted to an old game plan in recent games, to save face, but it was to no avail. We still gave up 38 points against the Atlanta Vipers, against a quarterback that we should have put under pressure all night long (he was pressured once and sacked twice in 36 pass plays. unbelievable).

It didn't help that our turnover antics have carried over into the playoffs. With 3 lost fumbles, it was near impossible to fight back from behind. Ellis McAlister completed 21 of 28 passes for 321 yards and 2 touchdowns, being a mistake free solid team leader. He's getting the hang of finding Theodore Bondy, although he was kept to 6 catches for 124 yards and 1 touchdown.

Well, on to 2083 then? The staff is convinced Bondy is now the best wide receiver in the league and they claim he's the best wide receiver to put on the orange-white-and-blue jersey ever. Better than Alfredo Bass, Gabe Springer, Terry Thomason, J.T. Pritt, Terry Haskell, Riddick Stanley, R.J. Mills and Brody Stevens. Ok, then.

But that defense... Kirk Hitchcock, best cornerback in the league, second best in franchise history to Randall Allen and already scouted ahead of Peter Tucker. Craig McCorkle is mentioned amongst the likes of Cody Cluff, Oliver Drake, R.J. Knight, Fred McCorkle, Wesley Devine, Daniel "Double D" Duncan, Edward Ross and Antonio Battle.

Or maybe it's time to admit that we still have some work to do. Maurice Harkleroad and Rex McIndoe have been fine safeties, Emmitt Miller is likely a bust, maybe, just maybe, we have to get over that hump at safety and get somebody really good at that position.

Glen Stiegler and Chandler Posante have been good to very good, but are no Charles Gomez or Shaun Hartman. It's no secret that we tried to sign the amazing Morris Holliday last off-season.

Defensive tackle and safety. Those are the points of attention in the off-season.

One way to improve our roster is through the draft. Acquiring the Outer Banks Osprey's first round pick has resulted in us having the #9 overall pick in the 2083 draft. Additionally, we swapped our own first round pick (#23 overall) to the Chesapeake Chitterlings for their second round pick, which will be the #44 overall, while we still hold our own second round pick (#55 overall). Our third and fourth round picks are also in Pretty Yellow hands, but we have their fifth rounder to compensate.

There's always next season? No, it will be next season. We can do this, Merchantmen!

MIJB#19

06-13-2019, 06:00 PM

General Manager Notes: 2083 is here!
Not much to report at the moment. It's the day after the IHOF Bowl and you know what that means: various players will fill their retirement papers and a bunch of others will get their names called for induction into the hall of fame.

Tom Anaya, our center from the 2065 through the 2078 seasons has been elected into that Hall Of Fame. We retired the #77 jersey at the beginning of the 2079 season and now Anaya gets the complete picture. He missed 11 games in those 14 seasons, playing a grand total of 213 regular season and 18 playoffs games. The IHOF Bowl LXIV victory being his most important game. He racked up 40+ key run blocks in 5 different seasons. His 1433 key run block opportunities ranks third all-time. No, not just for us, for the entire league history.

Two other former Merchantmen players got their enshrinement today. Defensive end Zachary Tompkins spent the 2076 season with us. A far from spectacular season for him, but it kept him in the league and set him up for a move to the Toronto Lake Monsters the season after where he won his only championship ring in the 2077 season. Quarterback Bennett Morris inspired our offense in the 2078 season into new highs, but sadly he decided to retire after we lost the AOC championship game and just a single season in Maassluis.

Four of our players from last season retired. Long snapper Chris Bertolone was the most surprising one, quitting at the age of 33 after just 5 seasons with us. Guard Leon Wooden quit the game after a single season on our bench. Tight end Randal Curtis spent 11 season on our roster, being active in the first 160 games of that timespan, but sitting out the entire 2082 season. He scored 22 touchdowns, which is pretty good for a goal line formation tight end.

Cornerback Alonzo Hitchcock was the most established Merchantmen player to leave the game. 11 seasons on roster, the second through tenth as a starter. 34 interceptions and 96 defended passes put him in the top ten in both figures for our franchise.

The draft order was also published. As announced earlier, we're holding the #9 overall pick, as well as the 12th and 23rd picks in the second round. Then a couple of fifth rounder picks and our own sixth and seventh round picks to complete the septet.

Season number 80. Let's see what it has in store for us.

MIJB#19

06-17-2019, 03:43 PM

General Manager Notes: The draft of the wide receiver?
The draft has started and it's been a crazy one so far. The top five picks have all been spent on wide receivers. Although I considered picking one, but with those guys gone, we looked elsewhere.

The hope was to grab a safety, perhaps by a little trade down, but the class at that position is very disappointing. We interviewed a bunch of talented prospects, none looked worthy of a top ten pick.

And thus, we did the Merchantmen thing: we grabbed the best defensive tackle we could get our hands on: Heath Oliver. With the size of Shaun Hartman, we got something to look forward too. He's coming from the small college of Shippenburg, but really, that just adds to it. "Shippenburg", that just rings Merchantmen all over.

We've interviewed a couple of quarterbacks as well, but neither wowed us. We may consider one of them in the fifth round, but let's wait and see.

For now, we got the best player in the draft, as far as we know. That's quite the achievement, if it holds up, given that we got cornerback Kirk Hitchcock in 2081 and Theodore Bondy in 2082, both are (by our staff) listed as the best player of their class, at key positions.

But it ain't worth a thing, if they don't get a ring...

MIJB#19

06-18-2019, 01:51 PM

General Manager Notes: The inevitable happened, yes, we traded
Would any IHOF draft be complete without a Merchantmen trade? Well, I don't think so either.

So, we decided to wait no longer at the #45 overall spot and instead move up from the #55 to the #22 spot (swapping our 2084 first round pick for the Bordeaux Vineyards 2084 second round pick as compensation), to grab the best safety of this class: Bart Guthrie.

Of the seven safeties interviewed by our defensive coordinator J.J. Wolfe, Gutrie was the only one that left good impression. A triplet of mid-high graded guys were underwhelming and a couple of late round prospects got tagged "as scouted". Guthrie though, was considered to be underrated and thus a worthy pick. Perhaps more of a high second round pick, but I think we had to make a move at this position at some point. I'm still considering to look for a veteran to play on his side...

Besides that, we're in our usual waiting game stage of free agency. Not seeing any particular players that are a major upgrade, especially at any need positions. We're renegotiating with a bunch of players, already having moved from projected $40M over the cap after draft picks to being $40M under the cap, not accounting for draft picks. Our linebackers Craig McCorkle and Glenn Brewer signed the richest deals, but we've also talked Ellis McAlister into signing a contract that keeps him happy and still far from paying him top5 quarterback money. Because, face it, he's good, playoffs caliber, but not a game changer.

Anyway, "success phase", remember?

MIJB#19

06-18-2019, 04:39 PM

For now, we got the best player in the draft, as far as we know. That's quite the achievement, if it holds up, given that we got cornerback Kirk Hitchcock in 2081 and Theodore Bondy in 2082, both are (by our staff) listed as the best player of their class, at key positions.We all know the game (FOF8) does some absurd stuff with the front 7 positions in ordering players on overall rating, but here's what the top 5 (according to my staff) looks like. Because of that front7 weirdness, my staff (wrongfully) claims we've got the best player of the last three draft classes, not including yesterday's draft pick of Heath Oliver. How silly is that?

2082 draft
top5 current
78/82 WR Theodore Bondy (Maassluis) 1.8
77/77 P J.J. Sklenicka (North Plainfield) 5.17
75/75 RB Perry Blake (Augusta) 1.9
75/75 RB R.J. Wiggins (Frederick) 1.7
74/74 LT Walt King (Moontown) 1.30
top5 potential, not in current top5
59/78 LT Ian Brandon (Arizona) 1.3
60/78 CB Theodore Barker (Iowa) 1.4
38/76 LT Joe Herr (Oakland) 1.15
front7, should be top5
68/77 SLB Jonathan Arnold (North Plainfield) 1.16

2081 draft
top5 current
80/80 CB Kirk Hitchcock (Maassluis) 1.11
76/76 RB Korey Rose (Outer Banks) 1.3
72/72 RB Moe Shannon (Oakland) 1.4
71/71 WR Rod Zink (Snapfinger) 1.6
70/70 FB Nicolas Manning (Outer Banks) 2.14
70/70 LT Riley Jenkins (Colorado) 1.15
top5 potential, not in current top5
63/82 G Jon Benson (San Antonio) 1.16
60/79 QB Jerald Harrison (Orlando) 1.1
59/73 G Todd Hobson (Fairbanks) 3.9
front7, should be top5
82/82 WLB Joshua Lynn (Oakland) 1.13
75/75 DE Tristan Bernstein (Houston) 2.23
74/74 DE Alfred Wright (Rochester) 1.17

2080 draft
top5 current
72/72 C Butch Pearson (Maassluis) 1.28
70/70 C Amos Ethridge (Orlando) 1.29
69/73 QB Blaine Hawkins (Arizona) 1.1
69/69 P Cameron Layne (Arizona) 5.3
69/69 CB Nicky Collins (Outer Banks) 1.4
top5 potential, not in current top5
none
front7, should be top5
79/79 DT Derek Wallace (Brooklyn) 2.5
73/73 DT Percy Pomato (Iowa) 1.11

MIJB#19

06-20-2019, 05:13 PM

General Manager Notes: more new players for our 2083 roster!
Tight end, guard, offensive tackle and long snapper. Those are the positions where we added bodies to our training camp roster.

Tight end Nicholas Grundy signed a two-year deal with us, making this 30-year old a candidate to be our TE2 or TE3. Despite his resume as a backup, our staff is convinced he's amongst the 10 best run blocking tight ends. That's obviously great to have around, given that we play several 2TE and 3TE formations. He can play special teams too, that's our kind of backup tight end.

Guard Trevor Godfrey probably doesn't realize it yet, but we signed him to a two-year deal, expecting him to be a backup to our long standing starters Harvey Hank and Carlos Webb. Godfrey has been a starter with the Harlem Apollos for 10 years, never missing a game. He's primarily a run blocker.

Long snapper Santiago Sepanski signed a two-year deal with us. He's entering his tenth season, previously being the long snapper for the Moontown Darksiders (with whom he won 2 IHOF Bowls) and the last four seasons with their division rivals Texas Sharks. At the age of 31, we except him to be a solid guy for a handful of seasons.

With our early second round pick, we selected left tackle Nathan Hadinger. Green and volatily, but we're impressed by his agility and expect him to be the pass protection guy that we like to have at that position. We'll have to think about how to develop him, since we have Louie Murray still very capable for that left side and the awesome Oscar Meadows has returned for his 13th season with us. We expect Meadows to mentor Hadinger. It does make the future of 2081 sixth round pick Abel Bauer one that might be outside of Maassluis.

Contract negotiations with our running back Jimmie Feffer have been a bit of a struggle. We're not quite sure a 6th year back deserves a four-year $100M contract. We can afford his current cap figure of $22.74M, which is the fifth highest on roster, but it's a position where it's always an uncertainty what you'll get. Plus, we still have Ronald Graham and Leonard Belin waiting in the wings to step in if Feffer does something silly (like hold out or get hurt).

We've decided to offer Ross Willbrandt a one-year contract. Despite his severe injury, we hope to see (no pun intended) him back in action at some point in his career. We might place him on injured reserve if his condition doesn't improve during the pre-season, but for now, we think his talent as a kick returner and as a hail mary receiver warrants an effort to keep him.

Nicky Sherman has decided to continue his distinguished IHOF career with the reigning league champions, the Tucker Tigers. He'll likely be their starting center for the upcoming 2083 season. He was on a one-year deal with us last season and had already declared his desire to move on and play elsewhere, rightfully feeling unjust about being a backup, despite it being behind the equally talented and 10 years younger Butch Pearson.

But nothing else to report for now, really. We're floating on, waiting for the draft to finish, training camp to be held and then pre-season to figure out which 53 players will become our 2083 collective to take on our 80th effort to win the IHOF Bowl.

MIJB#19

06-22-2019, 03:44 AM

General Manager Notes: 2083 draft class joins the club house
The rookies are here! We've welcomed the seven rookies that we selected in the 2083 draft to Maassluis, signing them all to their league mandated four-year contracts. We also welcomed a new backup center in Angel Carter.

Angel Carter has been a starter in the league for 13 seasons, missing significant time in 2074 and 2080 due to injuries. He's a strong lineman, being better in making gaps for the running game than a role on the pass protection. It'll be a challenge to keep him happy behind Butch Pearson, because he's still a starting caliber center. We signed him to a one-year deal.

Okay, now our draft class:
1.9 DT Heath Oliver (graded 63/84)
1.22 S Bart Guthrie (37/65)
2.12 LT Nathan Hadinger (19/64)
5.14 QB Weston Witkop (7/26)
5.23 S Alexander Marty (22/44)
6.23 WR Corbin Tharp (28/37)
7.23 LB Billy Springer (23/39)

Oliver is obviously the cream of the crop. My staff already sees him as a top20 defensive tackle as he is right now, expecting him to into becoming a top5 defensive tackle. The assessment of his pass rushing skills and play diagnosis are on the low end to my liking. But the kid is still a short but not to be underestimated play maker, in potential.

Bart Guthrie is considered to potentially be amongst the top15 safeties. He'll need to develop for a bit, but I suspect we'll throw him out there into the starting lineup from the get go. We'll move him to strong safety, which seems to fit better with his run defending skills.

Nathan Hadinger by my staff is ranked in the top10 pass protecting tackles. In potential that is, right now they see him as being as green as grass. That's very disappointing, we had hoped to find a player that can grow into a starting role early on, but this basically means he'll likely have to wait in the wings for a season or two behind Louie Murray and Oscar Meadows.

Weston Witkop is currently looking like he won't even be good enough to make the team. But he's got good sense rush ability and scored very highly on the Solecismic Test. It might turn out to be a coin flip between him and previous draft's fourth round pick Kelly Blalock. Unless I see room for two projects.

Alexander Marty gives us another safety with the ability to pick off the quarterback. The staff sees him as a bit of a similar player as Maurice Harkleroad, which means he could turn out to be a potential starter by his third season. For now, it's likely he'll make the team as one of the seven inactive players on that 53 men roster at best.

Corbin Tharp skipped the combine, but we were willing to gamble on this kid. His route running and big-play ability skills are acceptable for a pro football player. But unless he makes good progress, he won't unseat one of the 2082 guys. Except that we're still talking with Ross Willbrandt for a return to us, knowing he might be forced to miss the entire season and we'll have to deal with Artie Blazewicz, currently holding out for the kind of contract we usually don't give to a WR3.

Billy Springer has good odds to make the team. Good special teamer with hard hitting skills, that's the kind of guy you want to play on your unit to stop the opposing kick or punt returner. Overall, his potential is similar to the kind of player Darien Stokes is right now, which bodes well for Springer, as Stokes is our third linebacker in formations with 7 or 8 front seven players.

On to late free agency to add a couple of undrafted rookies to increase our training camp roster to at least 60 players.

MIJB#19

06-23-2019, 04:33 PM

General Manager Notes: On to training camp 2083
And then there were 60. We signed a couple of undrafted rookies in safety Darnell Brim and wide receiver Travis Gellings. Brim is by my staff already in the top16 of safeties capable of picking off the quarterback. Gellings is a kickoff returner, potentially better than what we have now. Well, not exactly. Artie Blazewicz is a better returnman, but he's holding out and it's questionable he'll make it to training camp and the pre-season roster. We're offering him a contract close to his demands and we'll see where it goes from there. Ross Willbrandt is the other kickoff returner and he's still struggling with impaired vision, it's unlikely it will be over by pre-season, but we'll hold on to him until the regular season list of 53 names have to be finalized, deciding then whether to keep him active or put him on injured reserve. By these last statements, you've correctly concluded Willbrandt has signed a new contract with us for two seasons.

In other news, we're going to completely revamp our play book. Surely, it isn't the offense that needs to be fixed, because our defense has played unforgivably terrible in the 2082 season. But we think we can do better than what we've done with our play book.

That's all for now, more later on our preparation for the 2083 regular season...

MIJB#19

06-24-2019, 04:21 PM

General Manager Notes: training camp was good, but...
But pre-season can be a mood killer...

Improving players by our staff on 1 to 100 scale:
+8 S Guthrie (rookie, R1)
+7 DT Oliver (rookie, R1)
+6 LT Hadinger (rookie, R2)
+6 DE Russell (2nd year, R5)
+5 WR Bondy (2nd year, R1)
+4 FB Cochrane (3rd year, R5)
+4 LB Springer (rookie, R7)
+4 S Marty (rookie, R5)
+4 S Miller (2nd year, R2)
+3 QB Blalock (2nd year, R4)
+3 QB Muchnick (5th year, undrafted)
+3 T Bauer (3rd year, R6)
+2 QB Witkop (rookie, R5)
+2 RB Belin (2nd year, R6)
+2 WR Bunting (3rd year, R7)
+2 WR Tharp (rookie, R6)
+2 CB Broady (3rd year, undrafted)
+2 S Brim (rookie, undrafted)
+1 WR Willbrandt (2nd year, undrafted)
+1 WR Gellings (rookie, undrafted)

Bondy is considered to be fully developed now.

So yeah, our three investments in the first and second round of this draft all made very good progress. One by one, Guthrie the biggest surprise, maybe. Oliver looks great, but still looks like we might have to think twice about putting him on pass defense formations, with all those pass rushers on the bench, especially in his rookie season. Hadinger is so green, no way he's going to start this season, unless disaster strikes and either Louie Murray or Oscar Meadows has fallen apart during the off-season.

Bondy is now considered to be the best wide receiver in the league. Our defensive end project Andy Russell is coming along well as well. Safety Emmitt Miller might be recovering, but we'll have to see how he looks at mid-pre-season.

Overall, we'll have some sort of position battles at safety (7 players on roster, none return specialists), linebacker (7 players on roster) and wide receiver (8 players on roster). In this last group, we've decided to end it here for Ross Willbrandt. He might recover at some point, but with 61 men on roster, he's our odd man out, in a sense that he's not leaving us, but will go to injured reserve.

But for now, a bit of a waiting game. In a day or two, we'll know a bit more about where all the guys stand...

MIJB#19

06-27-2019, 01:13 PM

Merchantmen lose 2083 pre-season opener to Walt Blair in overtime
Walt Blair's return to Maassluis was emotional. With mixed feelings, but mostly in a positive atmosphere, the Merchantmen fans recognized their star running back from two years ago that carried the offense for four seasons. The Brooklyn Fightin' Bums were visiting Oranje Haven in both teams' 2083 pre-season opener.

The Merchantmen scored first, stalling the Fightin' Bums' first drive and replying with a field goal. Chance Arnold took advantage of Kelly Blalock's passes to Riddick Bunting and Monty Elliott to move up field. Brooklyn went up 7-3 on a typical 80-yard drive and got the ball on the next drive after a fourth and short run by Leonard Belin fell short.

Brooklyn quarterback Ross Grinell ran for 4 yards early in the second quarter, Maassluis was kept to a field goal again, despite Kelly Blalock's effective passing. Oranje Haven erupted when Walt Blair was stuffed by first round rookie Heath Oliver on a third and one to force three and out. Chance Arnold scored on the responding drive and after a defensive stand then kicked the deficit to 14-12 on the final drive of the first half.

In the second half, both teams at first continued with the same players that were active in the first half. A couple of sacks pushed the Merchantmen back from the red zone and settled for their fifth field goal of the day, at last reclaiming the lead: 15-14. Defenses stood strong, including another failed fourth and two for the Merchantmen, this time when third down back Raul Curie was tackled for no gain. Merchantmen kick holder Karsten Muchnick then took over for backup quarterback Kelly Blalock and obviously failed to get his team to score.

Both teams stumbled on, until the Fightin' Bums backups finally broke out, scoring a touchdown midway through the fourth quarter. After a successful two-point conversion, Brooklyn was up 22-15. Muchnick continued to be nothing but a kick holder and the Merchantmen fans rightfully started to wonder how this offense would even get any more first downs. Gabe Broady saved the day, returning a punt for 58 yards and a touchdown, tying the score just before the two-minute warning. The Merchantmen defense stood tall, the Merchantmen kick holder continued to collect boos. Overtime was the result.

Muchnick surprised the world by completing a 9-yard pass to Dennis Nadell, but a sack and bad throw later, Brooklyn had the ball back. On their second play of the drive, Walt Blair broke out for a fabulous 65-yard run and scored his first touchdown in Oranje Haven not wearing orange-white-and-blue. Brooklyn 28, Maassluis 22.

Kelly Blalock completed 17 of 24 passes for 167 yards and probably solidified his job as the backup quarterback. Karsten Muchnick completed 5 of 10 passes for 41 yards to secure his role as nothing but a kick holder, providing the Merchantmen staff won't be a bunch of blokes by putting him over Blalock in competitive games when Ellis McAlister (inactive today) for whatever reasons isn't on the field. (Which is very likely given the moronity staff members usually display in this game, sigh.)

Leonard Belin impressed, getting just 5 carries for -2 yards, making it one of the most underwhelming running performances by a starting running back, even for a pre-season game. Raul Curie lead the Merchantmen with 50 yards rushing on 14 carries. Jimmie Feffer was inactive.

Riddick Bunting caught 5 passes for 67 yards. Theodore Bondy was inactive.

Rookie left tackle Nathan Hadinger was benched midway through the game, much to the chagrin of the Merchantmen general manager, as the Merchantmen spent a second round pick on him and ordered the staff to give him as much action as possible.

First round picks Heath Oliver and Bart Guthrie were also disappointingly left off the field way too much. Oliver made 2 tackles and 1 assist, with no pass rush stats in as little as 25 plays. Bart Guthrie played on 2 more plays, making even a tackle less than Oliver. Yes, stupidity rules during pre-season games.

The Merchantmen defense allowed 362 total yards, including that 65-yarder in overtime. The Merchantmen offense gained 255 total yards. A tie-game would have done more justice here. If it wasn't for that former Merchantmen star running back. Walt Blair, this is why the Merchantmen fans loved you for four years. you're always welcome back in Oranje Haven, as long as you're not wearing the opponents' uniform.

MIJB#19

06-27-2019, 01:23 PM

Merchantmen bounce back, win second pre-season game
In a defensive struggle, the Merchantmen captured the Capital City's stadium by winning 16-10 in regulation. Neither offense made a strong impression, likewise the defenses received kudos for holding the opponent under 300 total yards.

Kelly Blalock completed 13 of 20 passes for a whopping 81 yards. The Maassluis kickholder completed 3 of 5 passes for 24 yards.

Raul Curie ran 17 times for 105 yards, outperforming Leonard Belin's 40 yards on 7 carries.

Rico Techen caught 5 balls for 33 yards, making him the shockingly unproductive leading receiver for the Merchantmen.

Key rookie investments Heath Oliver, Bart Guthrie and Nathan Hadinger were much less active than ordered by team management.

The Merchantmen defense disrupted 15 of 44 passing plays, a Merchantmen worthy figure.

The Merchantmen continue their pre-season activity at the Chesapeake Chitterlings and finish in Oranje Haven against the Outer Banks Ospreys. Key offensive starters Ellis McAlister, Jimmie Feffer, Theodore Bondy and Louie Murray will finally be in action in those two games.

MIJB#19

06-29-2019, 04:12 AM

General Manager Notes: the pressure is on us... huh?
League pundits have sky rockets the Merchantmen fans' expectations, some consider the Maassluis Merchantmen to be the #1 team in the league. Say what now?

Our pre-season results don't make me particularly optimistic. We lost at the Chesapeake Chitterlings after allowing their first two drives to go for touchdowns, which doesn't bode well for our starters on defense. McAlister struggled with his interception proneness, Bondy failed to top 100 yards, despite making 8 catches. We followed up by losing in a field goal fest against the Outer Banks Ospreys. It shows that our game plan on offense isn't good enough to move the chains in the opponents' territory. Feffer was underwhelming in both games.

At the same time, there's no denying that we've established what seems to be a very talented collective of players. McAlister, Bondy, Elliott, the OL, Hitchcock and Poloski, McCorkle and Brewer, the rookies Oliver and Guthrie, the depth on the DL, this team ought to do well!

Let me breakdown what our roster currently looks like, right before the final 4 cuts down to 53 men:

Quarterbacks<table><tr><td>scout<td>name<td>notes<tr><td>60/60<td>QB McAlister<td>keeps getting beter and better, on paper<tr><td>20/30<td>QB Blalock<td>all around passable<tr><td>30/30<td>QB Muchnick<td>kick holder (staff, please take remember that!)<tr><td>5/20<td>QB Witkop (R)<td>that combine was so promising</table>Sad to say, but Witkop is out. Too little progress in training camp. I wish Blalock was actually seen as our QB2 by our staff, he's the second best we have. McAlister is in the pack of 15th to 20th best quarterbacks.

Backfield<table><tr><td>scout<td>name<td>notes<tr><td>50/50<td>RB Feffer<td>declining, not per se our RB1<tr><td>50/50<td>FB Cochrane<td>run blocker, blitz protector<tr><td>45/50<td>RB Belin<td>sniffing at RB1, but lacks stamina<tr><td>30/30<td>RB Curie<td>short yardage back<tr><td>25/25<td>RB Graham<td>sniffing at RB2 if we cut Feffer<tr><td>20/20<td>FB Latschaw<td>run blocker</table>I still have to decide on what to do here. Feffer was the undisputed RB1, but his pre-season form was disappointing. Belin and Graham can't carry the team, lack of endurance, but could be solid in a committee. Curie is the short yardage guy. It basically forces us to stick with Feffer for this season and move on in 2084, depending on whether he's willing to take our last shot at a contract extension. Cochrane and Latschaw are additional run blockers in two-back formations.

Tight Ends<table><tr><td>scout<td>name<td>notes<tr><td>60/60<td>TE Elliott<td>excellent blocker, can get 1,000 yards receiving<tr><td>40/40<td>TE Stern<td>good run blocker, ok receiver<tr><td>35/35<td>TE Grundy (nw)<td>ok run blocker<tr><td>25/25<td>TE Gowan<td>declining, ok receiver</table>Elliott is amongst a large group of guys that are sniffing at second best in the league in overall talent. All-IHOF first teamer last season, rightfully so. Stern and Grundy solidify our running game.

Wide Receivers<table><tr><td>scout<td>name<td>notes<tr><td>80/80<td>WR Bondy<td>the real deal, best in the league<tr><td>45/45<td>WR Nadell<td>declining, route runner<tr><td>45/45<td>WR Blazewicz<td>declining, big-play guy<tr><td>40/40<td>WR Techen<td>big-play receiver<tr><td>30/40<td>WR Tharp (R)<td>promising, but likely to get cut<tr><td>30/30<td>WR Bunting<td>route runner, special teamer<tr><td>30/30<td>WR Willbrandt<td>kick returner, out for season<tr><td>15/20<td>WR Gellings (R)<td>kick returner</table>No turning back, time to build around Bondy. I hope we can find the right mix of giving him a lot of looks and not overdoing it. Nadell and Blazewicz have proven to be 1,000-yard receivers, which means opponents can't focus on just Bondy. It'll be impossible to keep all these guys, we'll likely cut two of the other guys. Gellings will stay as our kickoff returner. Bunting might be safe as a gunner.

Offensive Line<table><tr><td>scout<td>name<td>notes<tr><td>70/70<td>C Pearson<td>running game anchor<tr><td>60/60<td>G Hank<td>complete, low on stamina<tr><td>60/60<td>G Webb<td>our top run blocking, low on stamina<tr><td>50/50<td>T Meadows<td>still going strong<tr><td>50/50<td>T Murray<td>pass protecting LT<tr><td>55/55<td>C Carter (nw)<td>solid backup center<tr><td>30/60<td>T Hadinger (R)<td>promising pass protecting LT<tr><td>50/50<td>G Godfrey (nw)<td>added for depth</table>Pearson got snubbed for All-IHOF honors last season. Last year of contract, but we'll do what it takes to extend his deal. Hank and Webb are his sidekicks. Murray is our left tackle, noticing Hadinger in his rearview mirror. Meadows held up well enough to remain a starter for just another season. Carter and Godfrey give us depth in case of injuries.

Special Teamers<table><tr><td>scout<td>name<td>notes<tr><td>70/70<td>P Hornsby<td>quality punter, despite the age<tr><td>60/60<td>K Arnold<td>reliable kicker, also on long kicks<tr><td>20/20<td>LS Sepanski (nw)<td>he's a long snapper, shocker!</table>Can't go without them, all our amongst the top10 at their position. Still puzzling whether we can afford Hornsby and Arnold to extend their contract now, or risk losing them in free agency next off-season. In Hornsby's case, if he doesn't retire...

Defensive Line<table><tr><td>scout<td>name<td>notes<tr><td>70/80<td>DT Oliver (R)<td>our best run defender already<tr><td>55/55<td>DT Stiegler<td>declining, still pretty good<tr><td>50/50<td>DT Posante<td>lacks stamina, complete player<tr><td>45/45<td>DE Kemp<td>our best pass rusher<tr><td>45/45<td>DE Lyons<td>pass rusher, ok run stopper<tr><td>40/40<td>DT Shrader<td>improving, mostly pass rusher<tr><td>35/45<td>DE Russell<td>promising complete guy, lacks stamina<tr><td>30/30<td>DE Wylie<td>special teamer</table>A weird group of players. Most of them are very good pass rushers, most have play diagnosis, some can tackle. All but two lack the endurance to play all downs. We'll likely use 7 of these guys on our rotation, with Wylie the obvious the guy only used on special teams. Weird as it may sound, I'm still not sold on Oliver, we'll likely keep him out of the nickel and dime formations.

Linebackers<table><tr><td>scout<td>name<td>notes<tr><td>75/75<td>MLB McCorkle<td>should need no introduction<tr><td>65/65<td>OLB Brewer<td>still going strong<tr><td>45/45<td>OLB Stokes<td>third linebacker<tr><td>30/40<td>OLB Springer (R)<td>ok potential, special teamer<tr><td>30/30<td>OLB Keith<td>special teamer, can play if needed<tr><td>25/25<td>MLB Page<td>special teamer, can zone defend</table>Two starters and four special teamers.

Secondary<table><tr><td>scout<td>name<td>notes<tr><td>80/80<td>CB Hitchcock<td>best corner in the league<tr><td>50/50<td>CB Poloski<td>lacks endurance, decent CB2<tr><td>50/70<td>S Guthrie (R)<td>promising, the SS that we lacked so long?<tr><td>40/40<td>S Harkleroad<td>still going strong<tr><td>35/35<td>CB Morton<td>underrated nickelback<tr><td>35/35<td>S McIndoe<td>solid dimeback<tr><td>30/40<td>S Miller<td>still not convinced he's a future starter<tr><td>25/50<td>S Marty (R)<td>green, but resembles Harkleroad<tr><td>25/25<td>S Hines<td>ok alternative<tr><td>15/20<td>CB Broady<td>our punt returner</table>This unit has been our worst in performance last season. By a wide margin even. Despite having that Hitchcock guy, supposedly best cornerback in the league. Hopefully the addition of Guthrie fixes things, he's obviously still green, but I'm optimistic about him turning into a top5 player at his position. Poloski continues to underwhelm, but we'll have to stick with him by lack of better options. The depth at safety is based on their ability to play a nickel or dime role. Harkleroad is still good enough to be our second all-around safety.

MIJB#19

06-30-2019, 04:06 PM

General Manager Notes: Feffer stays, Graham out. Right?
I had such good hopes about Ronald Graham. Undrafted pickup from the 2078 draft class. Very good hole recognition, good break away speed. We gave him 14 games to fill in for an injured Walt Blair. 3.6 yards per carry, just one 100-yard performance. The latter came in the playoffs though, we had a nice run with Graham filling in for Blair. But the wait is just about over, we've selected Leonard Belin in the sixth round of last season's draft and also acquired the veteran Jimmie Feffer, like Blair and Graham from the class of 2078. It's Feffer at RB1 for another season, for now. Or..?

Contract renegotiations with Jimmie Feffer have been difficult. He's scheduled to make $22.7M this season, of which $15.99M is the base salary. If we cut or trade him, that money becomes available to extend contracts of players like Butch Pearson (the center of our offensive line), Chance Arnold (our kicker, a third round pick in 2079), aforementioned Graham himself, backup safety Peyton Hines and a trio of defensive linemen that are seeing a lot of time in our rotation: Gino Kemp, Max Lyons and Erik Shrader.

We've improved our cap situation a little bit by renegotiating ten veterans, while also locking them up for the 2084 season. Most notable were Oscar Meadows (our all-time best right tackle), safety Maurice Harkleroad (back for yet another season as a starter) and our punter Tito Hornsby.

Locking up Butch Pearson is the most crucial part and can be done without Feffer's help. Getting Feffer to take a cut of like $5M this season would help to at least extend contracts of Lyons and Shrader. Kemp and Arnold appear to be lost cases, their demands are too rich for our current cap situation. Unless we cut Feffer and open up another $15M, which would free up the required cap space to extend them all...

As I mentioned in earlier notes, Leonard Belin might be the smarter play than Feffer. Belin's hole recognition is superior, while Belin's (lack of) elusiveness makes him less erratic. We'll have to face that Feffer no longer is the top5 running back that we thought we had acquired. The only person on the planet that still thinks he is, well, that's his agent. And to be fair, he was top5 in gross yardage and touchdowns in the ground game. It's pointless to feature him on passing plays, he's a modest receiver and a horrible pass blocker.

As you can see, it's quite the pickle we're in. With opening day still a week away, that's plenty of time to second and triple guess what to do here.

Decisions, decisions...

MIJB#19

07-10-2019, 03:54 PM

Merchantmen cut Jimmie Feffer opening day 2083
Jimmie Feffer's stint with the Maassluis Merchantmen lasted just one season. Despite coming off his most productive season to date with 1,549 yards rushing, the Merchantmen decided to part ways with Feffer when contract negotiations failed to lead to an extension the Merchantmen management could agree upon. The move helped second-year pro Leonard Belin into the leading role, with Ronald Graham and Raul Curie also in the mix due to Belin's suspect endurance. Feffer, no doubt, will find a new home soon.

Due to the release, the Merchantmen opened up enough cap space to extend contracts of five potential free agents: center Butch Pearson and defensive linemen Gino Kemp, Max Lyons, Erik Shrader and Ezekiel Wylie.

MIJB#19

07-16-2019, 11:10 AM

General Manager Notes: 2083 and the staff that can't game plan
Game planning in football isn't cut and dry, it appears to be quite the art to create a plan that works.

For this season, we've thrown overboard the plan that we had used for roughly 2 decades. The new plan was supposed to be an improvement. The staff has been given the go ahead in all 7 games this regular season. The end result is downright unbelievably pathetic. Our team ranks 30th in scoring, having scored 23, 20, 17, 16, 10, 16 and 7 points. That includes 4 home games. Uncharacteristically we've beaten the current division leader (Gothenburg) and the defending league champions (Tucker), the third victory came again Kansas. All three times, the defense had to carry the team by allowing 13 or less points.

Being completely lost about where to begin to fix things, I've decided to give the staff an ultimatum: go back to what worked before this season and if we fail again, it's going to be a complete overhaul, because at 3-5, the season is pretty much wasted already. Mind you, we were one of the favorites for the league title this season, our roster isn't just a good one, it's up there with the very best. We have something to prove here.

Has the defense really carried us though? Not quite either. We've shockingly allowed the 3rd worst yards rushing per game and yards per carry. Unacceptable on a team with all what we have invested in our defense. Our pass defense is quite the disaster as well, allowing the 6th most yards per attempt, having the 5th worst pass defense rating and being light years away from what should be an elite pass rush.

The offense apparently is the better part of these two. Our running game is mediocre, the passing game in the bottom third of the league. We used to be good in yards per catch and per attempt, those days are over if I leave it all up to our staff. At least our special teams unit is saving the day again and again. Which is old school, but not quite enough to make us jump into the 13-3 juggernaut that we were expecting to see this season. So far, we're as bad as the new advertising heavy Operation Sports forums: annoyingly slow in processing what used to be a reliable thing.

The good news?

Well, let's not go there for now. It's up to the team to regroup, fast, and start playing like the most talented Merchantmen roster ever, which they are scouted to be. Bondy, McAlister and that whole defensive unit, get your acts together, play some football and make us proud!

MIJB#19

07-17-2019, 06:38 PM

His name is Ellis, Ellis McAlister

For a quarterback there are some mountains to climb to make a name in the International House Of Football. Helped by what some claim to be one of the best wide receivers to play the game, today it was Ellis McAlister's turn to join the ranks of Hall of Famers Jared Brimberry, Shaun Duncan, Ted Wolf, Bob Jourden, Jackie Collier and Ryan Norris, as well as the active legend Clayton Andrews (perhaps the best quarterback since Collier).

A humble sixth round pick from the 2074 draft, the Merchantmen saw something in the Oklahoma quarterback, born and raised in Mount Vernon, Washington. Five long years, McAlister was forced to ride the bench. He saw little action, handing off three times to Lance Blackwell in a 40-14 blowout of the Bordeaux Vineyards as a rookie. Back then it was Robbie Howe, the next two Erick Loera, followed by Sammy Erickson and Bennett Morris, all for a single season. By then, people still saw an emergency quarterback at best that had grown into a replacement level ball thrower.

But after the unexpected retirement of Bennett Morris, combined with the sudden decline of Sammy Erickson, McAlister all of a sudden went from fourth quarterback on roster to opening day starter in the 2079 season. Supported by the charming Walt Blair at running back and future Hall of Famer wide receiver J.R. Mills, McAlister guided the Merchantmen past the Paris Musketeers in his first real action. The 12-4 bye week campaign came to a crushing halt in the divisional round against the Clayton Andrews lead Toronto Lake Monsters, with 5 interceptions on McAlister's stat line. But a star was born, Maassluis had finally found their new franchise quarterback, the gut wrenching blow was forgiven after the unlikely breakout season.

Even at the age of 28, there was still room to improve for McAlister. Albeit a triplet of up and down seasons, league scouts kept reporting about McAlister getting better and better. Going into the 2083 season, the Merchantmen staff claims he's amongst the better half of starting quarterbacks, which was by no means written in the stars back when he was taken in that sixth round.

The 2083 campaign hasn't been all that particularly impressive either. The first four games saw the Merchantmen beat the Gothenburg Giants, Kansas Creationists and Tucker Tigers, sitting at 3-1. McAlister's play was far from stellar. No better than 227 yards passing, just 3 touchdowns versus 2 interceptions. The next three games, things went downhill at lightning speed. The fans were screaming for the head of Ellis after a couple of horrendous defeats at home. The 4 interceptions against the Snapfinger Jazz became the center of critism, McAlister's worst showing in a regular season game ever, second worst only to that day he got picked off 5 times after a cinderella story season.

Then came today's road game at the Bordeaux Vineyards. Merchantmen ownership basically called ultimatum on the staff: get this team's act together, or things will go another way.

First drive, first play: a dropped pass by Theodore Bondy. Second play, McAlister gets drilled by a Bordeaux defensive end. Third play, McAlister goes with the safest option, dumping to his running back to come short of a first down.

Down 7-0, things didn't get any better on the second drive. A hand off to Leonard Belin for 13 yards got followed up with a run for a loss from Belin. Third play of the drive, McAlister misjudges, misses his targeted fullback and a Bordeaux cornerback picks it off to move into Merchantmen territory.

Down 10-0, things continued to be downright disappointing. McAlister goes for a scramble on the first play, then sees Belin get the first down on the next play. Third play, McAlister gets sacked again. Fourth play, a screen pass to Theodore Bondy, obviously resulting in not much of a gain. Third and twelve, McAlister goes for the safe option of Artie Blazewicz for barely a gain.

The Merchantmen special teams unit then interferes as Craig McCorkle forces a fumble on the punt return and after left tackle Louie Murray miraculously comes away with it, Maassluis is in the red zone for the first time. McAlister throws another screen pass on second down, but on third and six, finally some success. McAlister finds Theodore Bondy open for a walk in touchdown.

The second quarter, things get a little bit better, but only just barely. McAlister finds All-IHOF tight end Monty Elliott for the first time today, sees Theodore Bondy drop another pass and gets sacked on the second drive of the quarter. A 28-yard catch and run from Bondy gets the engines running and the second touchdown pass (to fullback Tristan Cochrane) follows immediately after. The remainder of the second quarter is far from impressive, Maassluis plays a ball control game, which they fail in and they're trailing 20-12 at half time.

First drive of the second half, the Merchantmen defense forces three and out, putting all eyes on McAlister and his crew. An unlikely third and pretty long conversation to third stringer Rico Techen gets the chains moving. McAlister finally starts connecting with Bondy, ending the drive in a 15-yard catch and run from inside the red zone for the touchdown, leaving Maassluis trailing by just 1 point now.

The Merchantmen defense forces another three and out, now the offense gets finally in a swing. Another catch and run by Theodore Bondy puts the Merchantmen 26-20 up. Rookie Heath Oliver co-sacks Brad Nestor for the third time, the other first round rookie Bart Guthrie makes the tackle to force Bordeaux to punt. Third down: McAlister to Bondy, first down. Third down: McAlister to Bondy, first down. Third down: McAlister to Gavin Stern, first down.

Raul Curie makes the big run to start the fourth quarter and McAlister then finds Artie Blazewicz in the end zone for the 33-20 lead. By then, already the fifth touchdown pass from McAlister, with almost a full quarter of football still to go.

By then, the Bordeaux offense appeared to be broken, with the Merchantmen defense forcing another three and out. McAlister's sixth touchdown pass was a tremendous run after a short pass to Monty Elliott, hauling it in from 45 yards out. At that point, he ties a franchise record, in forgone times set by the pick machine Louie Flannery in the 2009 season. Harry Osborne joined the club of six in 2040 and as a backup saw Perry Coleman join in 2043. In 2078, McAlister was a witness when Bennett Morris became the fourth member in a tremendous showing against the Paris Musketeers. Today, McAlister had joined the last guy he had to backup.

But it wasn't all over just yet. After yet another three and out, McAlister connected with Artie Blazewicz on another short pass turned into a long touchdown. 47-20 up, but for McAlister, a record-breaking and -tying moment. The remaining 8 minutes of the game turned into garbage time, but forever, the Bordeaux Vineyards fans will have to remember they saw an opposing former sixth round quarterback throw 7 touchdown passes in a single game, something no European IHOF fanbase had seen before, neither on the supporting or opposing side.

After the game, the player of the game, Ellis McAlister smiled, but at the same time understood very well how this game goes. It was just another game, the Merchantmen had been less than underwhelming in the last three games, it was just a way to get back to .500. Next up, a road game at the Orlando Talons, a 6-2 team with the top scoring offense so far this season. But if the Merchantmen can bring this kind of A-game with them to the other side of the Atlantic Ocean, anything can happen...

Tonight, the former sixth round pick, former fourth stringer, can go to sleep, knowing he joined the ranks of seven Hall of Fame quarterbacks. Also knowing back home, the Kansas Creationists saw their quarterback Hugh Gaines miss the opportunity to do the same thing on the exact same day, throwing for 504 yards and 6 touchdowns. Time was a plenty, but the Moontown Darksiders defense decided enough was enough down 45-17. Hugh Gaines got the Player of the Week honors.

But Ellis McAlister knows those come by 17 times per season, Gaines won the 1352nd iteration of it, excluding 316 rounds of playoffs games. Gaines had a 6 in his stat line, McAlister a 7. Something only 7 other quarterbacks had done before, combining for now 10 occurances. If he doesn't make it into the Hall Of Fame, which after sitting out the first five seasons of his career will be a longshot, he'll always have today.

Ellis? Who the fuck is Ellis? He's Ellis McAlister, a record-tying quarterback from Mount Vernon, Washington.

MIJB#19

07-19-2019, 05:57 AM

The rising star Theodore Bondy

In and around Maassluis, football fans are unanimous: Theodore Bondy might be the best offensive player to put on the orange-white-and-blue. Merchantmen management and staff are outspoken about Bondy being the best skill position player in the IHOF, but it's easier said than done. For a while, they just thought the potential was there, but in recent weeks, Bondy has started to deliver. With five consecutive games at 100+ yards receiving, Bondy has become that productive leader of the offense.

"It's been a struggle," says offensive coordinator Neal Murack, "last season Theodore [Bondy] was still learning the game." In game situation practice sessions, Bondy was often paired up with Kirk Hitchcock, the best cornerback in football. Reports out of Merchantmen training facilities are they've been a competitive duo, they make each other better players. With 1,469 yards in his rookie season, Bondy did well, ranked tenth in the league. But this season, the greenness is wearing off. Additionally, the team is adjusting the game plan every week, even went as far as completely redoing their playbook in the last off-season after nearly 2 decades of 'good is good enough'. All in an attempt to make the best use of this generational top talent.

In recent games, Bondy has started to excel. Quarterback Ellis McAlister's strong arm is suddenly getting the job done, but mostly, he's just making sure the ball goes into the right hands, Bondy's. 10 games in, Bondy is leading the IHOF with 1,308 yards receiving, with his 102 catches being only second to Hanalei's Taylor Clayton. The road game at the Orlando Talons in particular was an eye opener to the neutral football fans. Bondy caught 8 passes for 249 yards and 2 scores. He was no longer a potential superstar, he arrived in his 26th game in the IHOF.

Glimpses of his ability were noticed time and time again before, but now that the Merchantmen are starting to find the right balance between being unpredictable, throwing short and throwing deep, Bondy is becoming the player everybody hoped and thought he could be. It's too early to throw him out there with the all-time greats, but with 6 games to go, in good health, it's not unheard of to project Bondy to become the second Merchantmen receiver to reach 2,000 yards in a season. In fact, he needs 76 yards per game to place himself in the second best Merchantmen season in between J.R. Mills' great 2078 and spectacular 2077 campaigns.

Be not mistaken about the Merchantmen being just about Bondy. Their receivers unit includes three proven 1,000-yard receivers, with All-IHOF first team tight end Monty Elliott currently being the second most frequent target. Speedster Artie Blazewicz and Dennis Nadell, the guy that always gets open, give the opponents plenty of reason to think twice about double or triple teaming Bondy. Meanwhilst, second year sixth round running back Leonard Belin is giving opposing defenses another reason to not overdo on covering Bondy. Belin has ran for 85 yards per game and 5.2 yards per carry, despite getting about 70 percent of backfield carries.

Team effort and all, it's undeniable that Theodore Bondy's star is rising. In Ellis McAlister's seven-touchdown game, Bondy was on the receiving end 3 times. The quarterback had his day in the spotlights (only to miss out on offensive player of the week honors to Kansas' Hugh Gaines' 504 yards and 6 touchdowns passing), but Bondy was there to make it happen.

Today, Bondy (11 catches for 144 yards and a score) had a leading role in the crucial 27-14 victory over the Gothenburg Giants, completing the head-to-head sweep and trimming the gap to 1 game behind the 6-4 division leaders. The Paris Musketeers are also still in the mix, whom the Merchantmen will face in week 17 in what could be an all or nothing game.

MIJB#19

07-19-2019, 09:58 AM

General Manager Notes: Camping in .500 land
A crucial victory over the Gothenburg Giants brought us back to .500 land. With 5 victories in 10 games, we're still one of the disappointments of the season. I hope it's a short stay here, seeing us go North from here on and hopefully make the playoffs with double digits wins after all.

European Division
1. Gothenburg 6-4
2. Paris 5-5
3. Maassluis 5-5
4. Bordeaux 1-9

It's been a disappointing season for the most part. The start was nice (beating Gothenburg and Kansas), followed by a mixed bag (bad showing in Houston, then us shocking Tucker), then followed by a threesome of games that are up there in being one of our worst sets ever. Although, the last time we lost three straight by 11 or more points was only 2 seasons ago, when we pulled one of the biggest choke jobs in league history by going from division leaders with no losses by less than a score to losing the last three by 13 or more each and completely missing the playoffs.

The latest three games saw us trounce the Bordeaux Vineyards, blundering to not kick a game tying field goal in Orlando and today beating Gothenburg fair and square.

Our running game is doing pretty well, Leonard Belin is averaging 5.2 yards per carry. We need it to play our balanced game plan. Our receivers are, well, Theodore Bondy and a bunch of guys that barely get any looks. Bondy is elite and delivers. Ellis McAlister is going with the flow of our games, either because we used horrible game plans, or because McAlister himself is so erratic. I hope it's all on the game planning inability from my staff and not on our ball thrower.

The defense was doing well in recent games, but over the course of the season (10 games so far), it's still the unit that's failing us. 5th most rushing yards allowed, 3rd worst yards per carry figure, 8th worst yards per pass attempt, 9th worst pass defense rating... Only the pass rush percentage is slowly recovering and ranking 5th best at the moment.

Heath Oliver and Bart Guthrie are making good progress though. Let's hope their progress will go hand in hand with the entire defense's improvement...

MIJB#19

07-22-2019, 04:16 AM

General Manager Notes: Another opportune season down the drain?
The pre-season favorites to win it all are once again south of .500 land. For the fourth time this season, we lost by 11 or more points. That's already on par with last season (then we still snuck into the playoffs at 10-6, only to get crushed in the wild card round). One more and we'll have our worst season since 2022.

Let that work into you: worst season since 2022. It was a horrific 5-11 campaign, despite having Rusty Harrison throwing long bombs to Gabe Springer. Sounds familiar? That season we had losses of 29-45, 14-31, 21-34, 26-37, 7-24, 24-38 and 14-35. (2061 would be next closest, as our fifth worst loss was by 10 points). What does it tell us? Quite simply that it's been one of the most disappointing seasons in quite some time.

The bright side of things? Back then, we bounced back big time in 2023, which was one of my personal favorite teams. We scored 507 points in the regular season, had an amazing offense and a shaky defense, an almost un-Merchantmen like team.

Today, we have the best wide receiver, a capable quarterback, a better than average running game and purely based on talent an awesome defense. In potential only, it seems. But maybe, just like that 2022 team, we're very close to breaking the trend and about to move forward into better times. Heck, why not this season? Shockingly enough, at 5-6 and a -17 points differential, we're still mathematically alive for the playoffs, knowing that the division title is closer than a wild card.

We're recovering from a less than stellar defeat by the hands of the Chicaco Norsemen. The defense achieved the unthinkable, allowing two running backs to run for 100 yards in the same game. Even though this was a team known for being run heavy, a team with Heath Oliver, Craig McCorkle and Bart Guthrie should never allow that to happen. Ever. Period.

Yet we did. And in the same game, we overdid the 'throw it to Bondy' thing big time. 20 target, 7 catches, 58 yards, 7 yards after catch. Bravo, Chicago defense. Monty Elliott and Artie Blazewicz sucked as well, so it wasn't as simple as covering Bondy, the support team was dreadful as well. That's how you stop our offense.

Five more games, the season isn't completely lost yet. We have no first round pick to suck for. Seriously, we've never sucked for luck and we'll never will, we'll always keep on playing to try to end the season on a positive note, even when we're out of contention. Our thing is choking it when we're doing well, and suddenly winning late in the season after we've sucked for the first 11 or so games. Well, how about that? Maybe we can righten the ship again, set sail for the promised land, make a short stop at .500 land and go north from there on.

One game at a time, though. One at a time.

MIJB#19

07-22-2019, 05:58 AM

Merchantmen return to .500 land
For the fourth time this (2083) season, the Maassluis Merchantmen moved to .500. A solid 20-3 victory over the Harlem Apollos in a not quite sold out Oranje Haven improved them to a 6-6 record. Theodore Bondy caught 11 passes for 171 yards and a score, leading the way on offense, while the defense had a good day, allowing only 174 total yards.

A rollercoaster of a season continues for the Merchantmen. Grueling deficits are followed up with upset victories, or at one time failing to kick a field goal to force overtime. For now, 6-6 feels about right given what the Merchantmen have displayed on the field.

Ellis McAlister completed 21 of 36 passes for 251 yards and a couple of scores, seeing him bounce back from the off-day in Chicago last week. He's thrown for multiple scores in 4 of the last 5 games, while being picked off once per game on average. Most importantly, he's been using the top receiver in the league, finding Theodore Bondy on 9 touchdown passes in those 5 games and getting the ball in his hands 48 times for 782 yards.

At 120 catches for 1,537 yards, Bondy himself continues to be on pace for a two-mile season, an achievement reached only 15 times in IHOF history. Toronto Lake Monsters' Jameson Sawyer managed it 4 times in the last 5 seasons. Before that, in 2077 Maassluis' very own J.R. Mills was the eighth player to get in the two-mile club, amassing 2,228 yards receiving. That franchise record might be too steep for Bondy, although his recent form of 156 yards per game would get him close to the required 173 yards per game he'll need. He's already ahead of Riddick Stanley's best season (1,536 yards) and has Terry Haskell (1,575 yards) and Gabe Springer (1,669 yards) within reach. The receptions record looks like up for grabs, bar injuries, Gabe Springer's franchise record of 128 should be doable, perhaps as early as the next game at the Arizona Miners. Bondy's actually on pace to barely miss the league record, set by Jameson Sawyer at 162 receptions in 2078 and repeated in 2081.

But despite Bondy's amazing season, the overall performance of the Merchantmen isn't up to franchise standards. The defense's topnotch showing against the Apollos hasn't kept the team from still sitting within the worst four rushing defenses, while the pass defense has improved to league average, roughly. That 6-6 record is still 2 wins behind the division leading 8-4 Gothenburg Giants and behind the AOC Deep South's three 8-4 teams, where Atlanta will still have to host both Fort Wayne and Houston, meaning third place will be 11-5 at best. Even then, if somehow third place falls to 10-6, the Merchantmen will likely have inferior tie-breakers, not to mention they're also still behind the Augusta Greenjackets on tie-breakers. Only the Tucker Tigers (6-6 as well) are no real treat to the Merchantmen in the tie-breakers race.

But one game at a time. The Merchantmen will be visiting the Arizona Miners, a team that might be even more loaded than Maassluis' roster. The Miners have been underachievers for several seasons and at 6-6 are struggling to get W's as well. The winner will stumble on, the losing owner will probably continue to complain about the bunch of overpaid chokers on the payroll.

MIJB#19

07-23-2019, 10:04 AM

General Manager Notes: Rant, rant, rant!
The 2083 season is shaping up to be a major disappointment. Not just a season where we're barely missing out, losing in overtime of on a last minute touchdown after being up by 4 points. No, we're getting crushed left and right, all over the old and new continent.

Yes, Ellis McAlister has a problem with throwing interceptions. Yes, we're trying too hard to throw it to Theodore Bondy. But that doesn't explain how discouraging the defense's performances have been. We can't stop the run, we can't stop the pass. Despite the likes of Heath Oliver, Craig McCorkle, Glen Stiegler, Gino Kemp, Andy Russell, Kirk Hitchcock, Bart Guthrie, Tre Poloski and Glenn Bower all on this unit. Indeed, in theory perhaps the best defense in the entire league.

Is there light at the end of this tunnel? Theoretically we're still in the hunt, At 9-7 we could, potentially, possibly, perhaps, maybe, somehow sneak into the playoffs. We'll have to keep winning as well, if only to keep the Bordeaux Vineyards from getting a top10 pick from us. At the same time, they've close to clinched the top pick in the second round for us with their sensationally bad performance.

I'm trying to change the negative flow towards staying positive, but with the current lack of results, it's been quite hard. Heath Oliver has apparently made so much progress, our staff scouts him as fully developed and as such in the realm of guys like Theodore Bondy, Kirk Hitchcock and Craig McCorkle. Bart Guthrie is coming along well too, but his progress is slower, mostly because he had more ground to gain. It'll be tough to keep a deep roster like this together, cap space will be an issue 2 seasons from now. 2084 should be fine, I suppose that will be our season to get things done.

2083 though... I fear it's all over. Despite being mathematically still in the race. Let's work on our game plan and get the results of it next season at the very least.

MIJB#19

07-24-2019, 09:02 AM

General Manager Notes: Stayin' Alive
Week 15, 7 losses on our track record, a negative points differential, but we're somehow still alive.

We've congratulated the Gothenburg Giants on their division title, that franchise's first since 2076. We beat the IHOF's worst team, by record at least, the Bordeaux Vineyards, 40-24. It didn't come easy, even. A punt return touchdown by Gabe Broady and a pick six from Craig McCorkle were required to separate ourselves from the Vineyards.

Ellis MCAlister completed 28 of 37 passes for 312 yards, 1 touchdown and 1 interception. Leonard Belin ran for 66 yards and a score, averaging 4.7 per carry, while Raul Curie scored on a one-yard run. Theodore Bondy was unsurprisingly our leading receiver, with 11 catches for 144 yards and the sole score.

At 1,829 yards receiving, Bondy is 59 yards ahead of Hanalei's Taylor Clayton, the number two in the league. At 139 receptions Bondy's actually 5 behind Clayton. But let's not talk about records anymore, it'll require a couple of sensational once in a lifetime kind of games to go there. More importantly, we're somehow still alive in the race for the last wild card.

It won't come easy though, we'll have to beat the AOC Midwest leading Iowa Cobbers and then follow up by avenging the Paris Musketeers on the road. We'll also require some other teams across the league to fall apart. The 8-6 Houston Mustangs beat us in week 3, we'll need them to extend their losing streak by 2, or at least see them fall behind the San Antonio Tidal Force, currently 7-7 and behind Houston. We'll also need the 8-6 Tucker Tigers to stumble on at least one of their last two opponents.

Are my hopes up? Not quite yet. We've been very hot and cold this season. Our running game is average, our passing game is average, our pass defense is average, our run defense is hair pulling bad underachieving. I'm saying this week in week out, but it continues to be true, our run defense is enigmatically bad. I'm given my staff a chance to fix it every week, but they haven't found the solution yet. Except for the home games against the Tucker Tigers, Gothenburg Giants and Harlem Apollos.

For now, it's an old tune getting another turn, we're stayin' alive, stayin' alive.

MIJB#19

07-25-2019, 08:46 AM

General Manager Notes: keep on believing
One round of games to go, we're still in the race, although just barely.

Today, we've managed to roll up the Iowa Cobbers 41-10. Wait, let's rephrase that. We managed to roll a Yathzee! of sort. Today, the big plays came on defense and on special teams. Giovanni Morton had a pair of long interceptions return touchdowns, Travis Gellings had his first career kickoff return touchdown and Gabe Broady achieved back-to-back games with a punt return touchdown.

We lost out punter Tito Hornsby. He had to go to the hospital, turned out he needed an appendectomy, he's ruled out for the last game and whatever number of games we'll get to play in the post-season.

We've also lost our number two tight end Gavin Stern, which means Kody Gowan will return to the active roster for the first time this season. Gowan was active in every game of the last two seasons. Stern had been a prominent, yet unproductive piece in our passing game. Ellis McAlister and our kick holder have already targeted Stern 60 times, resulting in just 36 catches for 344 yards. Our star tight end Monty Elliott hasn't done that much better this season, with just 56 catches for 528 yards and 3 scores in 15 games. Elliott does appear to be the leagues best run blocker from his position this season, for whatever that's worth. His receiving numbers are still a lot more than our proven 1,000-yard wide receivers Artie Blazewicz (24 catches for 203 yards and 2 scores) and Dennis Nadell (5 catches for 128 yards).

But enough about our receivers, we'll need a couple of things to happen to be able to reach the playoffs. We'll have to beat the Paris Musketeers. On the road, that will be challenging enough, because albeit being eliminated after today's results, the Musketeers will never stop trying to beat us. We'll also need the Houston Mustangs to lose at the Atlanta Vipers and the Tucker Tigers to loss at the Orlando Talons. Our conference record will be barely good enough to edge the Tigers and Mustangs. This will all be for the last wild card, because there's no way for us to get ahead of the aforementioned Atlanta Vipers and their division leading Fort Wayne Fury, despite that both are just 1 win ahead of us. The Solecismic playoff probabilities machine gives us roughly a 1 in 6 shot, which is actually slightly better than the 1 in 8 odds if you're counting all three games as 50-50 to win or lose.

1 in 6, those are better odds than rolling a Yahtzee!, but given that we rolled one today, it seems unlikely the dice will favor us again tomorrow. For now, a win is a win. There's still hope. Stay strong, Merchantmen!

MIJB#19

07-26-2019, 07:33 AM

Merchantmen sneak into 2083 playoffs
The season continues, the Maassluis Merchantmen beat the Paris Musketeers 24-20 on the road and saw their two rivals for the last wild card both lose: the also fighting for their chances Atlanta Vipers beat the Houston Mustangs and the Tucker Tigers lost at the top seeded Orlando Talons. It turned out to be a fumble infested day, not just for the Merchantmen, but for four of five teams competing for the playoffs tickets. Only the Fort Wayne Fury kept their nerves under control and posted a smooth victory.

The Merchantmen didn't have their best start to a game. After giving up a solid kick return, the Paris Musketeers started close to midfield and with two strong catch and run plays marched into the red zone. The Merchantmen defense held ground and being 3-0 down was considered an acceptable outcome. A defensive battled followed, with Maassluis getting three-and-out-ed, but getting the ball back quickly after a 4-play drive. The short punt was returned well by the IHOF's best punt returner of this season, Gabe Broady, only to see him fumble, but the recently activated Kody Gowan saved the day. The Merchantmen line struggled to protect their quarterback and after a couple of hurried throws, Paris got the ball back already. A three-and-out by the Merchantmen defense came next, only to see their offensive line struggle again, quarterback Ellis McAlister got strip sacked and Paris found themselves inside field goal range. An unsportsmanlike penalty on quarterback Neil Poling drove the Musketeers back and made them settle for a 37-yard field goal for a 6-0 lead.

Just before the switch of ends, the Merchantmen offense finally got their engines going. Leonard Belin had a couple of 9-yard runs, while Theodore Bondy made the third down catch to start the second quarter on the Paris 27-yard line. Ellis McAlister wasted no time, his first throw of the quarter went into Bondy's hands and the IHOF's leading receiver extended the play from a short gain to a touchdown and a 7-6 lead. The Musketeers' running game got going as well, but the Merchantmen defense once again didn't break and Paris settled for a third field goal and a 9-7 lead. A quartet of strong runs from Raul Curie made the Merchantmen march into Paris' red zone, settling for a field goal and a 10-9 lead. The Musketeers started to struggle with the Merchantmen pass rush and saw their kicker miss a 49-yarder on the next drive. Anchored by a strong catch and run from tight end Monty Elliott, the Merchantmen marched into the red zone and saw Raul Curie bulldoze it into the end zone for a 17-9 lead. Neither team took much risks in their last drive before half time, setting the mid-game score at Maassluis 17, Paris 9.

Both teams offenses looked stronger in their first drives after the big break, but somehow failed to get points on the board, despite being close to field goal range. The clock was ticking away at high speed, with the Merchantmen finally breaking into field position where scoring looked inevitable. Until Ellis McAlister got sacked again, fumbled again, this time with Paris' Brady Heniger running it back for 71 yards and a game tying touchdown. The tied score got there as Neil Poling connected with Darrin Sheldon for the two-pointer: Maassluis 17, Paris 17.

In the fourth quarter, a field position battle ensued. The Merchantmen were slowly losing it, saw Raul Curie stuffed at their own 1-yard line. Newly signed punter Carlos Emmons pinned Paris back to their 36-yard line, but Neil Poling was unimpressed. Poling found Warren Teal for a 17-yard gain and on third and 4 threw it to a wide open Eugene Hamilton for a touchdown. The explosion of joy was cut short, as a holding penalty took the points back off the board. Perhaps distracted from the previous play, the next try for Poling ended up intercepted by rookie safety Bart Guthrie. The Merchantmen had taken momentum, now was the time to get things moving and take the lead. No such luck, the Paris Musketeers forced three-and-out, but so did the Merchantmen defense on the next drive. With just over 3 minutes to go, Ellis McAlister returned the interception throwing favor. Paris' Lee Lane picked off a pass intended for Theodore Bondy. Maassluis' Glen Stiegler sacked Neil Poling on the next play, but Poling replied with a long third down conversion to get into field goal range. Erik Sharder sacked Poling on third down, but with 89 second to go, Paris took a 20-17 lead.

With time running out, the word spread amongst the Merchantmen players of the scores elsewhere in the league, both teams that Maassluis needed to lose (Houston and Tucker) were losing, there was still a chance. Ellis McAlister found Nicholas Gundy for a 7-yard gain, throwing away from the double covered deep going Theodore Bondy. On the next play, the other tight end Monty Elliott turned a 6-yard catch into a 29-yard gain, field goal range was reached. That is to say, if the Merchantmen actually remember there's such a thing as a field goal, they threw away the game at the Orlando Talons by forgetting all about it. The pressure was on, McAlister had to throw the ball away on first down. On second down, rinse and repeat: a defensive end was closing in on McAlister and the quarterback threw the ball away, avoiding another sack. Third and ten, 39 yards from the end zone, two time outs remaining. Maassluis lined up in a running formation, but both wide receivers on each side of the field went off for a deep run. Theodore Bondy got double coverage on the right side, but Artie Blazewicz was out running his cornerback on the left side. The line was holding, McAlister buys some time, launches the ball... Touchdown, Merchantmen! Blazewicz. The kick was good, Maassluis goes up 24-20, with only 10 seconds remaining.

Chance Arnold's kickoff then is deep enough to get the touchback. Paris goes for a hail mary formation, but the Merchantmen defense is unimpressed. Defensive tackle Glen Stiegler finds his way through the offensive line and forces Neil Poling to throw the ball away, not realizing the clock has reached all zeroes. Maaasluis has won, the narrow escape is still possible. Word from Atlanta comes in, the Vipers have beaten the Houston Mustangs 34-26, that's one opponent down. The Tucker Tigers are down 30-10 in Orlando, with 3 minutes left to play. Orlando wastes time and goes for the punt. The Tigers then get aggressive, trying to get back, but with a minute to go, Randy Winters' pass gets picked off and run back for a touchdown. The nail in the coffin. Tucker doesn't even call time out anymore. Games over, the Maassluis Merchantmen sneak into the playoffs!

It means an up-and-down season for the Merchantmen continues past week 17. Next up, a trip to the Fort Wayne Fury, the fourth seeded Deep South winners. A team not to be underestimated, despite their 10-6 record. The Fury's quarterback Josue Olivares has the league's highest passer rating, leaning heavily on his league leading completion percentage and a 31:7 touchdown-vs-interception ratio. With the team they have, reaching the playoffs wasn't the goal for this season at all, but having come from a 6-7 record and 2 wins behind the wild card spots, being amongst the twelve teams left standing is proof this team has found a way to come back from behind and achieve the seemingly impossible. The one game at a time approach might be key, and given this stage of the season, is the only way to approach it.

MIJB#19

07-29-2019, 03:13 PM

Merchantmen back at it, one and done again
New faces, old habits. The Maassluis Merchantmen have crashed out the post-season in their first game. The Fort Wayne Fury came back from two scores down the fourth quarter with a 24-19 victory. It makred the nineth one-and-done for the Merchantmen in the last 10 post-season appearances, meaning the franchise has won only 2 playoffs games in the last 26 seasons.

The first quarter was defense dominated, supported with both punters nailing the opponents deep in their own territories. And just as the Merchantmen seemed to be winning the field position battle, Fury cornerback Eugene Paup intercepted a pass from Ellis McAlister to Theodore Bondy and ran it back for 64 yards and 6 points. It marked a rare highlights worthy play in the first quarter, which the Fury ended 7-0 up.

A defensive stand on the first Fort Wayne drive of the second quarter resulted in a 21-yard field goal and a 10-0 lead for the Fury. THe Merchantmen continued to struggle offensively as McAlister got picked off for the second time, this time not far outside his own red zone. Cornerback Giovanni Morton saved the game for the Merchantmen, returning the favor with a pick in the end zone to maintain the 10-0 deficit. Heavily leaning on Leonard Belin's legs, the Merchantmen marched down field and shortly before the big break, McAlister found Theodore Bondy for a walk-in touchdown. Chance Arnold missed the extra point to make it Fort Wayne 10, Maassluis 6 at half time.

Things shifted in the third quarter. The Merchantmen defense held ground, while their offense marched downfield enough to kick a 23-yard field goal to trim the deficit to 10-9. After stopping the Fury around midfield, the Merchantmen marched downfield again, this time resulting in a 44-yard field goal for a 12-10 lead. A quick three and out ended the quarter.

Second play of the fourth quarter, Ellis McAlister dumps a short pass to Theodore Bondy, who then turns into the magic player the Merchantmen fans all go wild about. 68 yards later, a 75-yard touchdown pass goes into the books and puts Maassluis 19-10 up. The big lead was short lived, the Fury had no trouble marching downfield, leaning heavily on a 49-yard deep throw from Josue Olivares to Shaquille Grimes. Three plays later, the Fury are back in it, trailing only 19-17. Lack of ability to move the chains then haunted the Merchantmen offense, while the Fury responded with another Olivares to Grimes 49-yard pass, this time seeing Grimes run a short pass upfield. On the next play, he hauls it in from 8 yards out to out the Fury up 24-19. The Merchantmen failed on the next drive, but got the ball back with just over 2 minutes to go. The chicken play calling then took over, seeing them punt to pin the Fury back at their 6-yard line. A time outs wasting drive gave Maassluis the ball back at their own 43-yard line. But rather than throwing, McAlister saw no other options than scrambling with the ball, getting tackled for barely a gain and coming time short to spike the ball. Game over, without even trying.

And just like that, it's on to another off-season of moaning and wondering why a talented bunch of players is struggling to get consistent results. A season of silly ups and downs comes to a crashing end, but there's hope. The core of the Merchantmen remains to be young. But history has learned the fans that it rarely lasts, cap problems are unavoidable, resulting in the inevitable departure of players. But management is confident the cap troubles can be mitigated in the next off-season and hopefully the next (2085's), when Theodore Bondy's contract will be up for renewal and all odds are he'll demand to be the highest paid wide receiver in league history.

For now, it's time to dry the teary eyes and learn from all the mistakes made on both ends of the ball. The offense was too predictable, the defense downright underachieving. Time for change, not so much in the 53-men roster, but changes have to come to go from underachievers to living up to the high expectations. This team has the players to make a run for a title. Shoulders back, chest forward, sail on to brighter places. This team has what it takes, make it happen, Merchantmen.

MIJB#19

08-04-2019, 03:23 PM

General Manager Notes: when the football gods summon cap hell...
Here we go again, another off-season! We're getting ready for the 80th amateur draft in IHOF history, and subsequently for us as well. Although technically, we kind of skipped the 2067 draft, as we traded away all our draft picks.

We're going into this off-season with a truck load of cap space. Negative cap space. We're $68.81M over the $463.8M salary cap, before the signing of rookies, which by league office number crunchers should account for $15.2M. It's faulty number, given that we've already got 49 players signed and only the two most expensive draft picks will count towards the salary cap, but such is the life with people who can't do math correctly.

It doesn't change the fact that we're in deep cap trouble. Even before the contract talks with the likes of Ellis McAlister, Kirk Hitchcock and three of our five starting offensive linemen, all asking for a better contract. Especially McAlister and Hitchcock won't come cheap. But after some of my own number crunching, I'm optimistic that we should be able to make some contract renegotiations, which fit within the players' request, combined with a couple of hard, but unavoidable cuts, to free up about $110M of cap space, which should put us about $40M under the cap, $25M if we take into account the horrible way the league's number crunchers apply rookie contracts to the cap figure projections.

Roster cuts? Yes. I've made up my mind and plan on releasing 5 players to open up about $50M of cap space. One of them has been informed about his release today. Four others aren't safe either, but I'm waiting for the other renegotiations to see how much room there is to keep those four guys around. In essence, releasing them still means we'll have to fill those roster spots with new players, of close to similar skills.

Our draft day trade from last season worked out in out favor, we ended up trading down from the 1.22 pick for the 2.1 pick in the 2084 draft, while in the previous draft trading up from the 2.23 pick to the 1.22 pick. Yes, we robbed the Bordeaux Vineyards there.

We didn't rob the Gothenburg Giants. Despite sweeping them last season, their total number of losses in other games was 2 in 17 games. They ended up winning IHOF Bowl LXXX, to claim the first league title for the franchise. Good for them. We plan no continuing that streak though, and this season, we'll plan on being the best in the division and hopefully live up to the hype that went around our team at the end of the previous pre-season...

MIJB#19

08-06-2019, 01:21 PM

Merchantmen release Nadell
Dennis Nadell has been released by the Maassluis Merchantman. The 11th season former undrafted wide receiver was cut after his least productive season to date. Nadell is a three-time 1,000-yard receiver, twice being the leading receiver for the Merchantmen.

"A tough decision," said Merchantmen general manager M.IJ.B., "but the cap situation forced our hand to release a couple of players and Dennis Nadell today became the victim." Nadell was due a $7,29M salary this season, while the Merchantmen were just barely under the cap after a spree of renegotiations. After a season with just 6 receptions for 140 yards, it was a tough, but fair decision.

Nadell joined the Merchantmen shortly before training camp 2074 as a 20-year old undrafted rookie free agent. He won a roster spot in a crowded receivers group including 4 former 1,000-yard receivers. Mid-season, he was promoted from an inactive roster filler to the WR3 role, playing next to eventual Hall of Famer J.R. Mills. From there on, Nadell was a starter on the Merchantmen, improving to WR2 duties in 2079 ahead of former first round pick Brody Stevens. In 2080, after Mills retired, Nadell became the WR1 ahead of Stevens. In 2082, Theodore Bondy entered the scene, jumping in as the WR1 from his first day in the league. Nadell quickly started losing targets, despite on paper still being the WR2. Last season, Nadell's role was back to WR3 duties, on an offense featuring much less Three-receiver formations, while mentoring the amazingly talented Bondy.

Unless Nadell returns at some point, he'll walk away with 414 receptions for 6,401 yards and 38 touchdowns. His 15,46 yards per reception is second best amongst long-term starting receivers, only trailing to his longtime teammate J.R. Mills. Nadell is only the sixth undrafted rookie signing by the Merchantmen to start 100 or more games for them and only the fourth of those to be on roster for 10 or more seasons.

Nadell's ability to get open is widely recognized as one of the best in the league, even after 10 seasons. Opposite J.R. Mills, Nadell drew a lot of double coverage with his skills, helping Mills to have that Hall of Fame worthy career. His skills may have been underutilized the last couple of seasons opposite Bondy, but Nadell never complained about lack of playing time. Given his unique skill set, he should have no trouble finding a new home for the 2084 season.

MIJB#19

08-09-2019, 12:59 PM

General Manager Notes: 2084, off-season of head crunching
Sometimes a football team can be so loaded with talent, that some of those guys start thinking they aloe deserve ten percent of the available cap figure. It gets trickier when there's a hand full of those guys.

Such is the life in the Merchantmen general manager office this season. We've got a quarterback on the last year of contract, while the best cornerback in the game in the last year of contract has decided to hold out. I'm in negotiations with the agents of our All-IHOF guard Carlos Webb and have a situation at our offensive tackle position with two veterans and a second year guy eager to step in at left tackle. We may have a decision to make about our old left tackle Louie Murray... Our draft actually created a similar situation at the guard position, with two proven veterans and young promising second round pick. Luxury problems, I know...

Oh yeah, draft. We were sitting without a first round pick, as naturally, we still managed to grab one of the top 5 non-kickers of this draft, a slightly undersized guard named Michael Szott from Clemson. He's all around a very good player, in potential top10 in the league, we're expecting him to enter training camp very green. Our second second round pick we used on a new kicker: Thomas Robertson from Kansas State. Our staff thinks he's already close to on par with the guy we had, with a lot of potential to become the best kicker in the game, sweet.

What else did we get? A green but promising pass rusher or two in defensive end Jorge Marone and defensive tackle A.J. Ritt. Both will probably come in at a very unpolished state. We got a new third down back in Monty Digler, a new sixth linebacker in Daquan Forbes and potential dimeback in Courtney Blackwell, who turns out to be a very good punt returner as well, a bonus that we actually didn't really grab him for, given that we've already extended the contracts of our restricted free agent return specialists Gabe Broady and Travis Gellings. The latter probably has to expect to lose the premier role to back from injured reserve Ross Willbrandt, his eye condition is reportedly fully healed.

We've been very quiet on the free agency market. So far, zero players signed. Lack of cap space is a very logical reason.

Trading? Why, yes. We traded our third linebacker Darien Stokes to the Williamsburg Colonials for a future third round pick. The plan is to have Jermaine Page or Billy Springer move into the role. Aforementioned rookie Daquan Forbes might have a slight shot at it as well, as does our special teamer Skip Keith.

The bad news about our cap situation is that I've made a decision on four long time roster members. Third down back Raul Curie (104 games), defensive tackle Chandler Posante (95 games), defensive end Max Lyons (109 games) and safety Maurice Harkleroad (151 games) won't make our training camp roster. All four were no full time starters, but had a prominent role anyway in rotation duties. They join Dennis Nadell (159 games) into the unsigned player pool. These moves should give us the cap space required to extend the contracts of Kirk Hitchcock and Ellis McAlister. Always a sad day to release players, but, y'know, cap space.

Things will get uglier next off-season, when Theodore Bondy's contract needs an extension. The only one to blame is the people that keep drafting these top-notch players.

Let's just hope we actually go place this upcoming season, to make it all worth all those hundreds of millions of dollars. If Hitchcock and McAlister sign a new contract with us...

MIJB#19

08-12-2019, 02:49 PM

Hitchcock extends for 260M
Maassluis Merchantmen fans can go back to sleep at night, worrying is no longer necessary. Today, the Merchantmen called a press conference in which Kirk Hitchcock's new five-year contract worth $260 million with a $67 million signing bonus. Hitchcock had been holding out since the end of the draft, but signed the new deal just in time for training camp.

Hitchcock was happy, although signed for a $23 million cap figure this season, it will make him the highest paid cornerback in each of the next four seasons.

Merchantmen management was relieved. The release of no less than five veteran players was required to find the cap room for this new contract. "Tough decisions, but Hitchcock is the future of this defense," said general manager M.IJ.B..

After this deal, the Merchantmen have roughly $4 million left in cap space, which they will likely need to extend quarterback Ellis McAlister's contract, who once again is in the final year of contract.

MIJB#19

08-12-2019, 03:12 PM

General Manager Notes: Training Camp 2084 Results
Hitchcock re-signed, and we've got a bit of cap space remaining. We'll wait until after our first pre-season game and then start talking with Ellis McAlister and other players in the final year of contract.

Oh yeah, training camp. Here are the results, roughly.
Quarterbacks
60/60 QB Ellis McAlister
30/30 QB Karsten Muchnick
25+/30+ QB Kelly Blalock
Backfield
45+/50 RB Leonard Belin
30+/35 RB Monty Digler (R)
25/25 RB Ronald Graham
50/50 FB Tristan Cochrane
20/20 FB Darien Latschaw
Receivers
60/60 TE Monty Elliott
40/40 TE Gavin Stern
35/35 TE Nicholas Grundy
25/25 TE Kody Gowan
20+/35 TE Miles Barker (R)
20+/35- TE Artie Walton (R)
80/80 WR Theodore Bondy
45/45 WR Artie Blazewicz
40/40 WR Rico Techen
30/30 WR Riddick Bunting
30/30 WR/KR Ross Willbrandt
25+/30 WR Grant Herndon (R)
20+/20 WR/KR Travis Gellings
Offensive Line
75/75 C Butch Pearson
65/65 G Harvey Hank
60/60 G Carlos Webb
40++/75 G Michael Szott (R)
50/50 LT Louie Murray
50/50 RT Oscar Meadows
35++/60 LT Nathan Hadinger
25+/35 C Mario Bromley (R)
15+/35+ C Anthony Probin (R)
Special Teamers
60++/85 K Thomas Robertson (R)
70/70 P Tito Hornsby
40++/50 K Dominic Patton (R)
20/20 LS Santiago Sepanski
Defensive Line
80/80 DT Heath Oliver
55/55 DT Glen Stiegler
45+/45 DE Andy Russell
45/45 DE Gino Kemp
40/40 DT Erik Shrader
25+/45- DE Jorge Marone (R)
25+/40+ DT A.J. Ritt (R)
30/30 DE Ezekiel Wylie
Linebackers
75/75 MLB Craig McCorkle
65/65 OLB Glenn Brewer
30+/40 OLB Billy Springer
20++/35 OLB Daquan Forbes
30/30 OLB Skip Keith
25/25 MLB Jermaine Page
Secondary
80/80 CB Kirk Hitchcock
70/70 S Bart Guthrie
50/50 CB Tre Poloski
30+/45 S Alexander Marty
35++/40 S Emmitt Miller
35/35 CB Gino Morton
35/35 S Rex McIndoe
20+/25- CB/PR Courtney Blackwell (R)
20+/20 CB/PR Gabe Broady

Yes, this is rounded up or down to 5s and 10s. We shouldn't share the complete scouting reports. Plus (+) or minus (-) denotes increase or decrease of what our staff thinks of these players. A double plus (++) denotes great progress. Rookies are marked with an "R" in brackets.

Also, two rookie kickers? Yes, It's early, but we might even keep them both. Robertson is potentially the best field goal kicker in the league. Patton is a kickoff guy. He's no Al Bettis, but he's pretty good. We'll see how that goes in pre-season.

We're going into pre-season with 57 players signed, which means only four players won't make the cut down to 53. Half of it will likely come from the six tight ends on roster. There's a modest chance we'll release one of the two rookie centers and then it comes down to whether we feel like keeping two kickers or whether some player turns out to be completely out of shape and unworthy of a roster spot.

The latter will come first, only 2 days from now. Anticipation...

MIJB#19

08-16-2019, 01:32 PM

General Manager Notes: Your 2084 Merchantmen
The verdict is out, we have trimmed their roster down to 53 players. Merchantmen fans, here is your team for the 2084 season. Starting with the latest additions, going all the way down to the longest standing team members.

81 WR Grant Herndon ≈ 25/30
acquired: 2084 undrafted rookie
role: 5th wide receiver

49 TE Miles Barker ≈ 25/30
acquired: 2084 undrafted rookie
role: 3rd tight end, special teamer

73 C Mario Bromley ≈ 25/35
acquired: 2084 undrafted rookie
role: 8th lineman

57 LB Daquan Forbes ≈ 20/35
acquired: 2084 draft 7th round
role: 6th linebacker

99 DT A.J. Ritt ≈ 25/40
acquired: 2084 draft 6th round
role: 8th defensive lineman

31 CB Courtney Blackwell ≈ 20/30
acquired: 2084 draft 5th round
role: 1st punt returner, 7th defensive back

21 RB Monty Digler ≈ 30/35
acquired: 2084 draft 4th round
role: third down back

97 DE Jorge Marone ≈ 25/40
acquired: 2084 draft 3rd round
role: 7th defensive lineman

11 K Thomas Robertson ≈ 65/75
acquired: 2084 draft 2nd round
role: kicker

72 G Michael Szott ≈ 45/70
acquired: 2084 draft 2nd round
role: 6th offensive lineman

13 WR Travis Gellings ≈ 20/25
acquired: 2083 undrafted rookie
role: alternate kickoff returner, 7th wide receiver

54 LB Billy Springer ≈ 25/35
acquired: 2083 draft 7th round
role: 3rd linebacker, special teamer

45 S Alexander Marty ≈ 35/45
acquired: 2083 draft 5th round
role: 8th defensive back

66 LT Nathan Hadinger ≈ 35/60
acquired: 2083 draft 2nd round
role: starting left tackle

40 S Bart Guthrie ≈ 70/70
acquired: 2083 draft 1st round
role: starting strong safety

91 DT Heath Oliver ≈ 80/80
acquired: 2083 draft 1st round
role: all downs defensive tackle

76 LS Santiago Sepanski ≈ 20/20
acquired: 2083 veteran free agent
role: long snapper

10 TE Nicholas Grundy ≈ 35/35
acquired: 2083 veteran free agent
role: 4th tight end

83 WR Ross Willbrandt ≈ 25/25
acquired: 2082 undrafted rookie
role: kickoff returner, 6th wide receiver

29 RB Leonard Belin ≈ 50/50
acquired: 2082 draft 6th round
role: starting running back

52 DE Andy Russell ≈ 45/45
acquired: 2082 draft 5th round
role: starting left defensive end

4 QB Kelly Blalock ≈ 25/30
acquired: 2082 draft 4th round
role: stuck on the depth chart behind our stupid kick holder

46 S Emmitt Miller ≈ 40/45
acquired: 2082 draft 2nd round
role: starting free safety

80 WR Theodore Bondy ≈ 75/75
acquired: 2082 draft 1st round
role: best wide receiver in the league

56 LB Skip Keith ≈ 20/20
acquired: 2082 veteran free agent
role: special teamer, 5th linebacker

37 CB Gabe Broady ≈ 20/20
acquired: 2081 undrafted rookie
role: punt returner, hopefully stays off the field the rest of the time

18 TE Gavin Stern ≈ 40/40
acquired: 2081 undrafted rookie
role: run blocking tight end

79 DE Ezekiel Wylie ≈ 30/30
acquired: 2081 undrafted rookie
role: 3rd defensive end, special teamer

88 WR Riddick Bunting ≈ 25/25
acquired: 2081 draft 7th round
role: 4th wide receiver, special teamer

22 FB Tristan Cochrane ≈ 50/50
acquired: 2081 draft 5th round
role: starting fullback

39 CB Tre Poloski ≈ 50/50
acquired: 2081 draft 1st round
role: sidekick of Hitchcock

32 CB Kirk Hitchcock ≈ 80/80
acquired: 2081 draft 1st round
role: best cornerback in the league

87 WR Artie Blazewicz ≈ 45/45
acquired: 2080 draft 6th round
role: wide receiver #2, alternate kickoff returner

92 DE Gino Kemp ≈ 45/45
acquired: 2080 draft 5th round
role: pass rushing defensive end

93 DT Erik Shrader ≈ 40/40
acquired: 2080 draft 4th round
role: rotation backup on defensive line

75 C Butch Pearson ≈ 75/75
acquired: 2080 draft 1st round
role: starting center

7 QB Karsten Muchnink ≈ 30/30
acquired: 2079 undrafted rookie
role: kick holder, stealing snaps from our QB2

59 LB Jermaine Page ≈ 15/15
acquired: 2079 draft 6th round
role: 4th linebacker, special teamer

53 LB Craig McCorkle ≈ 75/75
acquired: 2079 draft 1st round
role: starting middle linebacker

23 RB Ronald Graham ≈ 25/25
acquired: 2078 undrafted rookie
role: change of pace back

85 WR Rico Techen ≈ 35/35
acquired: 2078 draft 6th round
role: third wide receiver

27 FB Darien Latschaw ≈ 20/20
acquired: 2077 post-season free agent
role: backup fullback

50 LB Glenn Brewer ≈ 65/65
acquired: 2077 draft 1st round
role: starting outside linebacker

36 CB Giovanni Morton ≈ 35/35
acquired: 2076 undrafted rookie
role: nickelback

15 TE Monty Elliott ≈ 50/50
acquired: 2076 draft 6th round
role: starting tight end

70 G Harvey Hank ≈ 60/60
acquired: 2076 draft 1st round
role: left guard

42 S Rex McIndoe ≈ 35/35
acquired: 2075 post-season free agent
role: backup safety, dimeback

74 G Carlos Webb ≈ 55/55
acquired: 2075 draft 3rd round
role: right guard

96 DT Glen Stiegler ≈ 55/55
acquired: 2075 draft 1st round
role: starting defensive tackle

69 LT Louie Murray ≈ 40/40
acquired: 2074 draft 6th round
role: backup left tackle

9 QB Ellis McAlister ≈ 60/60
acquired: 2074 draft 6th round
role: franchise quarterback

17 P Tito Hornsby ≈ 70/70
acquired: 2071 undrafted rookie
role: punter

65 OT Oscar Meadows ≈ 40/40
acquired: 2071 draft 1st round
role: starting right tackle (for now...)

MIJB#19

08-24-2019, 07:56 AM

General Manager notes: 25% regular season check (and we thought 2083 was bad...)
It's official: the pre-season favorites to win it all are a disgrace to football. The 2084 Maassluis Merchantmen are incapable of putting a passing game on the pitch. It's a major letdown, given that we're counting heavily on the best wide receiver in football, and a quarterback that just recently signed yet another cap heavy contract. We're completely baffled about how the staff and I are so incompetent of making this fine collection of players on offense play well.

So, four games in, we're 2-2, with two 3-point victories and a couple of defeats that were completely uncalled for with a team like we have. The defense will probably claim they're doing a better job that last season. Obviously, those guys were in the bottom 2 teams (or thereabouts) of the entire league. These guys are still giving up the most yards per pass attempt, by nearly a yard more than the second worst. So yeah, improved? Not quite...

How did we get to 2-2? We beat the Bordeaux Vineyards at home, in a game where we got outplayed, then the defense made just enough stops to win 20-17 at the Outer Banks Ospreys. We then travelled to Atlanta, to come away with a 23-17 deficit that could have gotten a lot worse. We had 3.1 yards per passing play (rounded up), and followed up with 3.9 yards per pass play at the North Plainfield Plague. These four opponents combine for a league easiest schedule after four games.

How incompetent does that sound? Four games in, our average is a league most horrendous 5.3 yards per attempt, with the fourth worst sack percentage. There are no words to describe how puzzling that is. Our red zone offense is dreadful, the only thing really missing is a truck load of turnovers, albeit we did see Ellis McAlister throw an all-time regular season game worst of 4 in a single game.

What to do now? I guess we'll have to go to the film room, not just for a bit, but quite a long time to try to figure out why we've got the worst passing game and worst pass defense. Because quite frankly, getting together a team with the best of the best in football at key positions, apparently that isn't enough to play well, let alone win games. And to be honest, I don't think we've seen the worst of it quite yet...

MIJB#19

09-04-2019, 11:47 AM

Editor's note: overall lack of understanding how the [bleep] game planning works, has skyrocketed my disinterest in the game to unprecedented levels. I'm not going to throw 80 seasons of history away, but my puzzled attitude about how what is supposed to be best for my team doesn't make the team win at all, makes it a lot harder to get myself interested, let alone motivated, to write about what is turning out to be or worst season in 50 seasons. Very unsatisfying, given how well I have drafted and thought I had built the best roster in those 80 seasons of history.

MIJB#19

09-14-2019, 08:06 AM

General Manager Notes: Disappointing season comes to an end
2084... A season to forget, quickly.

We finished the season 7-9, with a positive points differential, at the last moment surpassing the Gothenburg Giants to avoid a fourth place finish inside the division by sweeping the division in Oranje Haven for the first time in the '80s. The French teams both made the playoffs. A ghost owned Paris Musketeers team won the division, the Bordeaux Vineyards ended a long streak of seasons without post-season play. Paris beat Bordeaux in the wild card round. Paris then deservingly crushed out the next round, ghost owned teams get no cheers from the Merchantmen management.

Winning the last two games avoided our first double-digit loss figure since the 2033 season. Imagine that, having a team touted as pre-season favorites to win it all (for the second season straight), stumbling into a 5-11 or 6-10 record! How mindboggling would that have been. Now, we're just the best 53 players in the league that managed to go 16-17 in the last two seasons. Still dreadful, just not indescribably horrific.

We've entered the 2085 off-season, losing two staff members. Our defensive coordinator J.J. Wolfe shockingly got hired by the Brooklyn Fightin' Bums as their new head coach. Our strength coordinator Martin Devine for 15 seasons decided to move to the reigning league champion Williamsburg Colonials, despite still having a long-term contract with us. Losing Devine hurt, Wolfe though, he failed to make our loaded defense play well. Maybe it's a blessing in disguise...

Tight end Monty Elliott retired after 9 seasons of service. We grabbed him in the sixth round of the 2076 draft, lived up to his then scouted potential. In 2082 peaked with 1,101 receiving yards and All IHOF (first team) honors. Like everybody else on the offense, he struggled the last two seasons. Despite that, he's retiring with 572 receptions for 6,517 yards and 47 touchdowns. His catches and yardage are new franchise records for tight ends. His touchdown figure is third to the late '50s tandem Jorge Jurevicius and Emmanuel Forbes. With 43 key run blocks, he's second to Jurevicius in that figure amongst tight ends.

Wide receivers Dennis Nadell and Brody Stevens were also amongst the retiring players. Neither was on roster last season, we've let them both go in recent seasons. They rank 13th and 10th all-time in receiving yards for the Merchantmen. Both played a WR2 role for us for several years, with many 1,000-yard seasons on their resume, even both reaching that 1,000-yard mark in 2080, the season after J.R. Mills retirement and two ahead of the arrival of Theodore Bondy.

Defensive tackle Chandler Posante was a bit of a surprise retirement. Granted, we released him in the 2084 off-season and somehow didn't find a roster spot elsewhere. Apparently other teams in the league don't think a pass rusher like Posante was worth signing. He played 95 games for us (including the playoffs), usually splitting time with other defensive linemen, but being prominent on passing downs, next to Glen Stiegler.

We're entering the off-season nearly $25M over the cap, $47.72M after taking draft picks into account. That's modest, but we'll have to find another $40M or so to be able to extend Theodore Bondy's contract. Elsewhere, I'm expecting us to find the cap space to not need any major cuts, like we had to go through in recent off-seasons.

We're picking nineth overall in the first round of the 2085 draft. Shockingly high for a team with our record, points differential and status. Had we lost either of our last two games when we were out of contention, we would have moved up to 8th in the draft order, a testament of why tanking rarely helps. Which is something we'll never ever do anyway, making it a moot point to begin with. And given that three of the three most notable retirements this off-season were a 6th round pick, an undrafted wide receiver. Brody Stevens indeed was a first round pick, but only 24th overall, so basically lived up to expectations.

So yeah, 2085. A new opportunity. We'll have to see what we can make of this. The talent is there, but we've been such an underwhelming underachieving team for two straight seasons, my expectations have been dampened into thinking we've found a way to waste the best of talent in football. No, we're not going to shop around Theodore Bondy and Kirk Hitchcock, or even Craig McCorkle and Butch Pearson. The crème de la crème of football players on our roster should resparkle their talent and carry the team to where we belong: a deep playoffs run.

MIJB#19

09-22-2019, 06:26 AM

Editor's note: IHOF is on a rare week without any sims.

MIJB#19

09-25-2019, 12:17 PM

Merchantmen select top graded OT Humphrey
Top prospect Howard Humphrey has a new home. The big right tackle was taken 9th overall in the 2085 draft by the Maassluis Merchantmen. The Iowa State graduate received a 7.0 grade by the league scouting staff after the 24 year old shined in the rookie combine with a stellar 4.86 40-yard dash. The Merchantmen see Humphrey as the future replacement of veteran Oscar Meadows, currently out of contract. The Merchantmen will probably try to resign Meadows for a 15th season, to compete for the starting job, or at the very least to mentor Humphrey. This continues the Merchantmen's rebuild of the offensive line, as Humphrey joins second-year guard Michael Scott and third-year left tackle Nathan Hadinger, both high second round picks.

Merchantmen grab Andrews as their quarterback of the future
With their second round pick of the 2085 draft, the Maassluis Merchantmen have acquired the rights to the fourth highest rated quarterback of the class: Virginia Tech's Ernest Andrews. The 21-year old impressed the Merchantmen coaching staff after he had already impressed all league scouts with solid Solecismic Test and agility test scores. With Ellis McAlister entering his 12th season, it was a good opportunity to look at the future. McAlister looks likely to start for another season or two, but as he knows from first hand experience, the Merchantmen sometimes are willing to be patient and give a promising prospect plenty of time to grow into a starting caliber quarterback. Twice before did the Merchantmen select a quarterback in the second round, Josh Webb hung around for just two seasons, Everett "Going" South hung around for 11 seasons as the second stringer and briefly returned for a 12th season during an injuries plagued season. But Andrews looks eager to jump into the opportunity to become an IHOF quarterback.

Merchantmen grab punter Guynes in third round
The name of Doug Guynes was called earlier than league pundits expected, but the Maassluis Merchantmen haven't been strangers to drafting kickers or punters on the first or second day of the selection procedure. Previously highly drafted punters spent more than 10 seasons with the Merchantmen, which bodes well for the 22-year old from Michigan. It probably means the exit of Tito Hornsby, a former undrafted rookie signing by the Merchantmen, who turned into a stellar punter after all, entering his 15th season in the IHOF as a top10 caliber punter. Hornsby is currently unsigned.

MIJB#19

10-05-2019, 12:27 PM

General Manager Notes: favorites to win it all once again...
Yes, you read that correctly, for the third season in succession, we're tagged top team in the league by the power rankings.

Sometimes you wonder what league pundits were smoking when they cooked up their formula, but I bet the numbers don't lie and we are, in fact, a team with the ingredients to have a wonderful season. Sure, we do, but these last two season have been frustrating, underwhelming, mindboggling and confidence destroying. This team consistently struggles with barely outscoring opponents, unsurprisingly resulting in a Merchantmen unworthy streak of seasons with 6 or more losses.

Should we let our heads down and let the flow keep going? Of course not, we will regroup, do what we can do to keep the hype alive as long as we can for this upcoming season. And we've got our roster of 53 players pretty much ready to get that job done. Let's break the roster down.

Quarterbacks
55/55 QB Ellis McAlister
30/30 KH Karsten Muchnick
15/30 QB Ernest Andrews (rookie)
left team: 25/30 QB Kelly Blalock (cut)
For the seventh season in a row we've counting on Ellis McAlister to get the job done. For the first time, we've seen him decline in the off-season in terms of ability. By now, he should know he's no longer a must-start. But realistically, we don't have a replacement sitting ready. Blalock looked promising, but nothing more than a typical QB2. Our second round pick this draft Ernest Andrews has underwhelmed in training sessions, but looked pretty solid in pre-season action. Odds are, we'll go the McAlister route with Andrews, giving him a reasonable amount of time to learn from the current starter (McAlister) and if he outdoes his current image, we'll give him the same kind of chance that McAlister got. Have I mentioned that Muchnick is our kick holder and nothing but our kick holder? I suspect my staff still hasn't gotten the message and continue to disobey. Although this time around, the kick holder actually looks like the lesser of liabilities.

Backfield
50/50 RB Leonard Belin
50/50 FB Tristan Cochrane
30/35 RB Monty Digler
25/35 RB Reggie Thongchanh (rookie)
30/45 FB Ken Warren (rookie)
left team: 25/25 RB Ronald Graham (cut), 15/15 FB Darien Latischaw (cut)
Ah yes, the ball carriers. Our quarterback actually desires to carry the peanut himself, but Belin, Digler and Thong' are the designated ball carriers. Belin obviously the RB1, but lacking the endurance to be a fulltime workhorse, we're going to need power back Digler and Thong's speed in the change of pace roles. Cochrane continues to be a key blocker on all downs, as such, we'll try to work him into our game plan. Warren looks promising as a run blocker, perhaps even better than Cochrane, but his chances to see action are limited.

Receivers
75/75 WR Theodore Bondy
45/45 WR/KR Artie Blazewicz
30/50 WR Tucker Gaylor (rookie)
30/35 TE Miles Barker
40/40 WR Rico Techen
30/35 TE Jessie Taylor (signed from Fort Wayne)
25/25 WR Riddick Bunting
25/25 TE Nicholas Grundy
25/25 KR Ross Willbrandt
15/25 TE Tyler Kotz (rookie)
out: 50/50 TE Monty Elliott (retired), 40/40 TE Gavin Stern (signed with Iowa), 30/30 WR Grant Herndon (cut), 20/25 KR Travis Gellings (unwilling to re-sign)
Oh, Theo... In 2083 he lived up to the hype of best wide receiver in football, best in franchise history. In 2084, he looked bleak, struggled to get open, catch the ball, get downfield and gain yardage after catch. Mind you, we know he picked up something in the 2084 off-season that hurt him, but he went from best receiver by a landslide to the very best by the slimmest of margins. We want to build this offense around him, but so far, we failed, despite his 4,912 yards receiving in his first three seasons. Big-play receivers Blazewicz, Techen and Willbrandt stuck to be the guys to keep opponents from stacking it all on Bondy. Losing Elliott at the tight end position was tough, also losing Stern was really tough. We've downgraded to run blocking tight ends, it'll be hard to expect anything else from these guys, of whom Barker looks like the best blocker, with acquisition Taylor as the backup. The most interesting player is rookie Gaylor, who might be our steal of the draft. He's got the speed, intelligence and stamina to become a true WR2, but this season he'll be the WR3 and given the state of our tight ends group, might get quite some targets anyway.

Offensive Line
55/65 LT Nathan Hadinger
55/55 G Harvey Hank
70/70 C Butch Pearson
60/70 G Michael Szott
55/70 RT Howard Humphrey (rookie)
45/45 G Carlos Webb
40/40 LT Louie Murray
40/40 RT OScar Meadows
25/35 C Mario Bromley
out: none
Yet another rebuilding of the line is about to be completed. Pearson is already an established starter by now, but Hadinger, Szott and Humphrey are young. Hank will have to bring in the experience on the line. Webb and Murray have turned into one trick lineman, still good enough to be backups. Meadows was kept around with a simple task: mentor Hadinger and Humphrey to become as good as Meadows and Murray were roughly a decade ago. Bromley continues to be an emergency roster filler.

Defensive Line
80/80 DT Heath Oliver
45/45 DT Glen Stiegler
45/45 DE Andy Russell
45/45 DE Gino Kemp
40/40 DT Erik Shrader
30/30 DE Ezekiel Wylie
35/45 DE Manuel Scott (rookie)
30/35 DT A.J. Ritt
out: 30/40 DE Jorge Marone (cut)
Okay, from a distance this looks like Oliver and his side kicks. To a degree, that's true, but Oliver isn't Shaun 'The Behemoth' Hartman or Charles Gomez, he's a tackle machine. In the pass rush, he's almost an afterthought, but it's quite possible we'll put him next to Shrader on passing downs. Stiegler has lost some of his speed, but he's still a nice change of pace guy to have. Russell and Kemp are our speedster on he outside. Wylie and Scott the stamina driven backups. Ritt has he speed and skills to fill in whenever and wherever we need him. A slight disclaimer is that it's no secret we're still trying to sign free agent Wendell Marshall, we think he'll be a pleasant addition to our pass rush, which would free up Russell for the running oriented formations.

Linebackers
75/75 MLB Craig McCorkle
55/55 OLB Glenn Brewer
35/35 OLB Billy Springer
10/10 ST Jermaine Page
20/20 OLB/ST Skip Keith
25/30 OLB Daquan Forbes
The same bunch as last season, nice! Brewer is somewhat on the decline, but with McCorkle as the playmaker in the middle, these guys should be the core of the defense. Springer continues to be our third linebacker. Page is unhappy, but he'll have to do with special teams duties, as does Keith. Forbes is our emergency sixth man, again.

Secondary
80/80 CB Kirk Hitchcock
70/70 S Bart Guthrie
40/40 S Emmitt Miller
50/50 CB Tre Poloski
25/25 CB Giovanni Morton
40/45 S Alexander Marty
15/15 PR Gabe Broady
30/30 S Rex McIndoe
25/30 CB/PR Courtney Blackwell
Another unit with no change in names. Hitchcock and Guthrie are another year older and wiser, hopefully. Both are considered the best in the league at their positions. With guys like Poloski and Miller on their side, this should be an above average secondary. Morton, Marty, McIndoe and Blackwell have the skills to play the nickel and dime roles. Broady has been an elite punt returner in the league.

Special Teamers
55/60 P Doug Guynes (rookie)
80/80 K Thomas Robertson
21/21 LS Santiago Sepanski
out: 70/70 P Tito Hornsby (un-signed)
Last but not least? Robertson has the league to kick long field goals and the accuracy to actually convert them as well. Guynes was our recent third round pick, we hope he can do what Hornsby used to do. The first signs are so-so, but we'll have to do, as we let Hornsby walk away. Sepanski returns for a second season, he should be reliable enough.

So yeah, we've got a lot of stars, especially on defense. This teams should be good. No, better than good. Four of our starters on defense are all-world talent. And the offense? A promising offensive line, a useful quarterback, fast and smart runners. And then there's that one guy, that really special one on our roster. Theo.

C'mon, Theo, 2083 was great, 2084 uncharacteristic. Let's make 2085 sensational. You can do it!

MIJB#19

10-15-2019, 02:09 PM

Merchantmen sign Marshall, cut Scott
On opening weekend, the Maassluis Merchantmen announced the signing of defensive end Wendell Marshall. The lightning fast defensive end signed a $32M contract earlier in the off season with the Chesapeake Chitterlings, but failed to make their training camp roster. Marshall has hopped around in the IHOF, his first five seasons with the Outer Banks Ospreys, who selected him in the fourth round of the 2079 draft. After his best season there, he held out and was cut on opening day of the 2084 season. In week 3, the Moontown Darksiders added him to their deep defensive line unit. This off-season the Chitterlings changed their minds on him, the Merchantmen saw their opportunity, negotiated for a long time, but eventually found Marshall willing to come to terms on a one-year contract.

To facilitate the signing, undrafted rookie Manuel Scott was released, making Marshall the only defensive player new compared to last season's roster. To find the required cap space, veteran left tackle Louie Murray signed a contract extension, adding a season to his contract, while turning some of his salary into bonus money.

MIJB#19

10-15-2019, 02:56 PM

General Manager Notes: defensive woes continues, however...
It's not all bad, I suppose?

It's week 8 of the 2085. We just got home from a visit to Paris, France. The Musketeers were our seventh opponent of the regular season, technically the sixth, as we already faced them on opening weekend.

Boy, were we in for a disappointing start of the season then. Some no name rookie quarterback had the best day of his life, tore our secondary apart late in a game that we should have won easily, but instead let our asses get kicked. Theodore Bondy lead the way to a strong offensive performance, but Austin Rodham's 474 yards passing, including a 53-yard hail mary pass, resulted in a 41-34 loss for us, where we could and should have made it to overtime. Alas, Paris was luckier.

The same Musketeers have nowhere been close to that performance in their next five games and today, in week 8, they weren't either. Austin Rodham threw 2 interceptions less, but we kept the Musketeers enough in check to smoothly post a 41-20 victory. Wendell Marshall sacked kiddo Rodham 2.5 times, he had to share one of those sacks with Glen Stiegler.

It's been an up and down season in between these two games. We steamrolled the Frederick Red Menace, at their house, 59-31, despite letting them throw for 447 yards on us. We put quarterback Wesley Elliot on his back 8 times, which was more or less what we expected to do against him.

Week 3 was a smooth 30-20 win at the Toronto Lake Monsters, giving us another chance to beat the future hall of fame quarterback Clayton 'Champ' Andrews one more time. Theodore Bondy was back to his pre 2084 form with 13 catches for 236 yards. Welcome back, Theo.

Week 4 was a disappointing 30-26 loss. The San Antonio Tidal Force dominated early, taking a 13-0 lead, but we came back from behind in the second half. The game went all over the place, but despite that we were clearly the superior team, we failed to put the points on the board on the final drive where we needed a touchdown due to an early game missed extra point.

The bye week didn't resparkle things at all. Despite that we were dominating the Atlanta Vipers, there was this Deon Collier kid, a gifted cornerback with a nose and the hands for a pick or three that day. We choked into a 28-19 deficit, making us 0-3 at home.

But despite our misfortunes, the lack of ability to win games haunted the entire European division.

In week 7, we found ourselves playing at the Fort Worth Fury, facing a very familiar face at quarterback: Kelly Blalock, the fourth year pro that we cut in pre-season. Blalock threw for 358 yards, but also into the hands of Craig McCorkle and Kirk Hitchcock (twice). Those picks were just enough to solidify the 23-15 victory.

So, despite the triplet of frustrating losses in Oranje Haven, we also posted a foursome of road victories to find ourselves smoothly in the division lead:
1. Maassluis 4-3
2. Bordeaux 2-5
3. Gothenburg 2-5
4. Paris 2-5

It's way way way too earlier to draw conclusions, but we've somehow got the second most scoring offense (or team if you like). The bad news? We're giving up a lot of passing yards, the most of all teams. Not just per game, but also on per attempt and per catch basis. Our run defense has been rock solid, forcing teams to pass. Somehow, those quarterbacks overcome all the sacks they're facing.

Still, the season is young, we haven't even reached the mid-way point yet. Next up yet another road game, this time at the 6-1 Houston Mustangs. They've been solid since week 2, including a recent drubbing of the Bordeaux Vineyards. We actually have a lot to gain here though, Houston is currently in the second seed spot in the AOC. Their strength this season? Their running game. That could be a neat game of the week against our league leading run defense. In return, their inferior defense has played way above their heads so far, which if they can keep it up, could be a tough task for McAlister, Theo and Leo.

That's where we're at for now. By the next time I'm reporting, we might be just that game against Houston further down the road, may have lost 9 straight, but hopefully, we've by then fixed the home losing bug and are giving the top seed positions holding teams a run for their slowly fading lead... We have to keep faith in this team, it's still one of the best Merchantmen rosters ever assembled. Make good use of it, staff.

MIJB#19

10-19-2019, 05:52 AM

General Manager notes: division up for grabs...
It's early, but we've somehow maneuvered, or gotten lucky, into having a 3-win lead on the rest of the division. We don't have tie-breakers over any of them, so it's basically 2 1/2 games, but it's a wide margin.

How did we get there from the 2-win lead that we had after week 8?

Our visit to Houston in week 9 wasn't all that pretty. We managed to come away from there with a 26-24 loss, but in all honestly, we needed a late game drive to get back from 9 points down. The good news? In the end, our offense accumulated more points than theirs did, but a pick six saved their day shortly before half time.

Week 10 started the back-to-back last two divisional home games with a visit of the Bordeaux Vineyards. We gave them opportunities to stay in the game, with fumbles and a pick, but in the end, we were the superior team, leaning heavily on a revived Theo Bondy with 11 catches for 155 yards. Rookie Reggie Thongchanh responded well to a full game on the sidelines, bursting out for 116 yards and a score.

The Gothenburg Giants came to Oranje Haven in week 11. To be blunt, it was no contest. Both the offense and defense clicked on all fronts. As if the Giants have recently became our favorite opponent to play against, after years of fearing them most. Ellis McAlister took full advantage of his on fire wide receivers Theo Bondy (13 catches for 178 yards) and Artie Blazewicz (3 catches for 126 yards and 2 scores). A 75-yard long bomb from McAlister to Blazewicz was our first play on offense, Oranje Haven got an explosion of sound.

Standings week 11:
1. Maassluis 6-4
2. Bordeaux 3-7
3. Gothenburg 3-7
4. Paris 3-7

The wild card cut is currently at 6-4, which means all three of our division foes are 3-wins (minus tie-breakers) behind the playoffs spots. Our hopes for a bye week are pretty much non-existent, Orlando (9-1) and Houston (8-2 plus head-to-head win) are way in front of us, while the current #3 seed is North Plainfield (6-4) with a favorable common games record.

So, 6-4 now. I'm probably repeating myself, but this team looks and feels like it's better than our record, basically an 8-2 team. The remaining schedule is far from a cup cake trail. We've got three games remaining against the 6-4 or better NAC Mid Atlantic teams, a home game against the 5-5 Snapfinger Jazz and visits to Gothenburg and Bordeaux, two teams very eager to play spoiler, providing their playoff chances have vaporized by week 15 and 17 respectively.

Are we living up to the hype of favorites to win it all? Sadly, no. But we've been unable to the previous two seasons as well. The promising news is that usually we're capable of scoring at least 3 touchdowns. The defense seems to be slowly recovering, despite injury woes in our secondary. The run defense continues to be elite, while the pass rush is strong enough to really put the opponents in risky passing situations. Helped by the drubbing of the Giants, we've finally reached the point where our offense outgains the defense in yardage, for as long as that will last...

I am moderately optimistic though, perhaps we have righted the ship and set sail towards quieter waters.

MIJB#19

10-23-2019, 11:45 AM

General Manager Notes: Finally, division champions, but we have bigger goals...
5 seasons went by without it. Yes, we reached the playoffs twice, but a division title wasn't our route to the post-season. Until today, week 15 of the 2085 season. We've finally claimed our 31st division crown!

We're still wobbly, we forgot to take a big lead against the Brooklyn Fightin' Bums (yup, we lost yet another close home game), cruised past the Snapfinger Jazz, failed to stop the Chesapeake Chitterlings' passing game and today completed the sweep of the Gothenburg Giants, mathematically they were the last standing rival for the division title.

European Division standings:
1. Maassluis 8-6
2. Bordeaux 5-9
3. Gothenburg 5-9
4. Paris 3-11

Yeah, the division is incredibly bad this season. It won't be the worst ever: in 2021 the European division won 22 games, this season the minimum will be 23. But it will most likely be the worst since that campaign, in which we finished 5-11 far behind the Gothenburg Giants, who won the last four straight en route to their division title with an 8-8 overall record.

With the division locked up and a bye week out of reach (we're 3 wins behind the top two teams in the AOC), we have very little to play for in the last two games. Well, third seed looks more appealing than sixth seed, that's for sure...

Does it matter? Not really, we have bigger goals, despite having lost our left tackle Nathan Hadinger and safeties Alexander Marty and Rex McIndoe. We want to live up to the hype of being pre-season favorites. We severely choked that opportunity twice already, so far we're struggling to live up to it this season as well, but there are some positive signals that we're better than our record. Yeah, I've said that before, but aside from believing it, we really are!

Yes, I still believe in this team. Go Merchantmen!

MIJB#19

10-24-2019, 04:36 PM

General Manager Notes: Theo! Theo! Theo!
Sometimes things happen in football that you don't see coming and sometimes things you hoped to see happen, well, happen.

With Ellis McAlister limping (a sore knee) and the division title locked up, it was the golden opportunity for us to give Ernest Andrews his first regular season action in a sold out Oranje Haven against the reigning IHOF champions.

And boy, was he nervous? Maybe he was, but nobody noticed. First drive of the game, Andrews scrambles for 8 yards, find Theo Bondy for 20 yards and on the third play executes the Blazewicz special: 47 yards for the a touchdown. The Williamsburg Colonials responded with a quick touchdown drive on their own. Little could the teams on the field and people in the stands presume that they had seen the only two offensive touchdowns of the entire game already.

Amidst the defensive supremacy, Gabe Broady got has revenge with an 86-yard punt return for a touchdown, silencing all the critics of him being past his peak. Clearly the fumbles were just a streak of bad luck, Broady was back. Not quite back, but continuing his strong season, Theodore Bondy made 14 catches for 182 yards, making the crowd consistently chant 'Theo! Theo! Theo!"

It must be a pleasure for a young quarterback to come into the league and have the opportunity to have your main target be a guy like Theo. He's already secured his second 2,000 yard season. He'll still need 138 receiving yards to tie J.R. Mills' franchise record, needs 1 receiving touchdown to tie Terry Haskell's. The receptions record is secure already though, he's already 4 catches past his own previous franchise record of 153.

Andrews obviously wasn't the only rookie with a prominent role on the offense today. Reggie Thongchanh had 18 carries for 76 yards, but also pulled his groin and as we'll likely rest him in week 17, will come 11 yards shy of the 1,000-yard mark. Right tackle Howard Humphrey continues to be rock solid, 41 key run blocks puts him only 3 behind the league leaders. Tucker Gaylor continues to be our third wide receiver, he's just unlucky that we've decided to throw him in a lot of formations and plays where he's going to be a run blocker or third or fourth receiving option. Obviously we believe strongly in him, he's a fifth round pick after all!

So, week 17 up next and we'll still have something to play for, kind of. Third seed is on the line, a win secures it for us. It's no major issue, but it could be slightly better to be third if we somehow manage to end our one-and-done curse of the past two decades or so. We actually lost in Bordeaux last season, after eight straight wins there. They won't let us cake walk to victory at all.

Still, we just beat the last two IHOF champions in back to back games, that's pretty rare and a huge confidence boost. And 10-6 looks just so much better than 9-7 for a record to go into the post-season. Although, it won't mater at all anymore if we drop out right away, nor does it matter if we manage to win four straight playoffs games en route to a second IHOF Bowl victory. I think we've got the guys to make it happen. That defense with Hitchcock, McCorkle, Brewer, Guthrie, the loaded defensive line, and then the offense with Thong and Belin from behind a strong line anchored by rookie Humphrey, a better than ever before Ellis McAlister and then the guy he loves to throw to.

Theo, go get us that ring.

Theo! Theo! Theo!

MIJB#19

10-29-2019, 04:54 PM

General Manager notes: Wild wild Wild Card round
Theo!

Boys and girls, the season got extended by another week. In a heavily contested game against the Augusta Greenjackets, we managed to defend Oranje Haven well, with a 34-27 victory.

We stuffed the Greenjackets potent running game often enough to turn their offense into a one dimensional one. From there on, it was a matter of staying put with our own balanced game plan. Leonard Belin ran for 110 yards, with rookie Thong' still unable to carry the load, but once again, the key player of the night was our MVP worthy wide receiver Theodore Bondy. With 16 catches for 241 yards, he was nearly unstoppable all game long. Next stop, the top seeded Orlando Knights. A tough cookie to bite, but we're confident we can beat anybody in this league. Despite our 7 regular season losses. We're in for the upset...

MIJB#19

10-29-2019, 05:28 PM

General Manager Notes: And then there were four... including us!
We're still going strong!

Boy, oh boy. The Orlando Tallons were quite the test. In fact, we were down on our backs, but somehow recovered late in the fourth quarter to overcome an 11-point deficit, to force overtime and, lo and behold, pull of the upset!

In the first quarter, we had no defense to Orlando's first drive, but responded with the Blazewicz special for a 60-yard gain and saw Leo Belin run it in for a 2-play touchdown drive, only to see our kicker shank the tying kick. Orlando scored another touchdown on their second possession, which were the last points put on the board for the first 15 minutes.

We started the second quarter inside Tallons turf and settled for a field goal to make it 14-9 for Orlando. A goal line stand forced them to go for 3 points, which started another period of defensive supremacy. With the two-minute warning called, we drove downfield, but not efficiently enough to get in the end zone. Still, with a time expiring field goal, we trimmed it to 17-12 at the big break.

Our first possession in the second half didn't go so well. A screen pass from McAlister got picked off near midfield and after the return, we would have been happy to hold them to three, which we failed to do. Down by 12, Theo Bondy had one of his awesome plays where he turned a short pass into a 27 yard gain, shortly after followed by tight end Jessie Taylor going into the endzone from 32 yards out. We stopped Orlando, but found ourselves at our own 8-yard line and after three and out were just happy to pin them back to their own 32-yard line. Jerald Harrison found his receivers Giles and Fields for big gains and once again we were happy to hold them to a field goal, meaning we were trailing 27-19 at the end of the third quarter.

After another short drive, we were struggling against the Tallons' time draining drive that ended up in a 44-yard field goal, meaning an 11-point deficit. On a time draining drive of our own, we had to settle for a 43-yard field goal, with less than 4 minutes remaining. A quick three and out and with one time out used, we were back at our own 25 yard-line with 2:22 remaining. Theo Bondy got the first two big catches for first downs and then with still 84 seconds to go, McAlister completed another Blazewicz special into the endzone. Still down 2 points, we went for the obvious and McAlister somehow found Theo Bondy to tie it up 30-30. Orlando tried, as did we, to thrown to get into field goal range, but both teams got three-and-outed, summoning over time.

We got the ball first and despite that we didn't get all that far, McAlister's scramble was just enough to give Doug Gynes a chances to pin Orlando deep, and we did, all the way to their 1-yard line. After two short runs, our pass rush broke their pass play and a short punt later, we were inside Orlando territory. McAlister found Bondy on back-to-back plays to get into field goal range with a fresh set of downs. Monty Digler shortened the distance, Leo Belin (to my surprise) got the third and short carry and got stuffed deep, but 46 yards proved to be no problem for Thomas Robertson: Merchantmen win! 33-30 in overtime, what a heartbreaker for the Orlando fans, thinking their team was ready to avenge the AOC Championship game loss last season, only to see them trip over one hurdle earlier. Their last bowl appearance and victory remains to be from the 2018 season.

Merchantmen fans were ecstatic across the pond. Ellis McAlister finally got the monkey off his back for not being able to win in the playoffs and now he's finally a true Merchantmen franchise quarterback as he guided his team to the AOC Championship game. Obviously, like the fans, McAlister now wants to prove he can win the conference and get his team to the IHOF Bowl. And the fans have one simple message to McAlister, throw it to Theo, often and well enough for him to be able to catch it. The game plan will be balanced enough to keep the opponent from focusing everything on Bondy. The running game has been solid and Artie Blazewicz has proven to be a dangerous player when he gets room to get downfield.

Flannery, Harrison, McGee, Chow, Lowe, Hickman, Morris and now McAlister. Of all these names, just McGee, Lowe (twice) and Hickman got the Merchantmen into the bowl game, freakishly enough the hall of famers failed at that. For Ellis McAlister, a hall of fame career was pretty much a non issue after sitting out the first five seasons of his career. Getting that championship ring will be that much sweeter after having already seen from the bench how to lose at this stage.

So yes, fans and readers, we're closing in on living up to the hype. We're in the playoffs, deep into it now, where regular season losses no longer count. The AOC Championship game will be contested between the number three and four seeds. All that matters for us, we're one step closer. One game at a time, the North Plainfield Plague are no pushovers, we'll have to bring our A game once again to win our 5th AOC Championship.

Let's go Merchantmen!

MIJB#19

11-03-2019, 10:01 AM

General Manager Notes: And then... nothing
Indeed, the lack of fanfare was a sign of things gone wrong.

The Atlantic Ocean Conference Championship game turned out to be a game where we ran into the inferiorly talented, yet more effective North Plainfield Plague. Their defense dominated the game and the subsequent IHOF Bowl game en route to a surprise league championship. Well, surprise, they did play like the #1 defense in the regular season. Defense wins championship? It certainly did in the IHOF's 2085 season.

Where does it leave us? Well, fourth best team of the past season, apparently. About on par what I would have considered reasonable towards the kind of team we have, but taking into account how disappointing the previous two seasons and how up and down the regular season was, I'm not particularly happy and convinced that we played below our ability for these past 3 regular seasons. Apparently we're just not as good as we're supposed to be on paper.

The off-season has kicked off and we're down three players due to retirement.

Oscar Meadows hung it up. The best right tackle to ever play for the Maassluis Merchantmen, surely he's Hall of Fame bound. For 13 seasons starting with his rookie campaign he was our right tackle. In 2084 we demoted him to a backup role, last season he was just here to mentor the rookie Howard Humphrey, who clearly fit Meadows' shoes and earned All-IHOF honors. Meadows played in 224 games, starting 213 of those, excluding the 9 playoffs games he started and played in. 380 key run blocks make him 3rd all-time for the Merchantmen, first offensive tackle by a landslide. God speed, Oscar.

Meadows' sidekick Carlos Webb also retired. For 10 seasons he was our starting right guard, just like Meadows, from his rookie season and onwards. Last season he had to ride the bench behind Harvey Hank and Michael Szott. Together, with Meadows and the awesome centers and fullbacks, Webb was part of a tremendous run blocking unit. Webb's last activity was in the two playoffs games that we won last season. In 2083 he had his finest season, with 50 key run blocks, only 2 short of tying the franchise record. Webb ranks fourth all-time in key run blocks for the Merchantmen.

Less spectacular has been the career of Santiago Sepanski. The long snapper was only 3 seasons with us. It means we'll have to look out for a new long snapper. Our staff has considered him as one of the finest to play the game and position in the last decade and a half. Imagine how much more extra points and field goals Thomas Robertson would have missed had we had some other snapper...

In our staff, we were forced to sign a new assistant coach in the 64-year old Willie Sommers. He had been the offensive coordinator for the Chicago Norsemen, a good fit there with his smashmouth preference. It's likely a short-term solution. We re-signed offensive coordinator Neal Murack and kept the rest of the staff as is.

Our cap situation is healthy. Yes, we're $42 million over the cap, but I fully expect us to find a lot of space with renegotiations with several of our superstars. With draft picks taken into consideration, we're projected at $61 million over the cap, holding the #29 pick in each round and having an late extra third round pick. That $61M figure is inaccurate given that we already have 45 players signed. Also, four players are restricted free agents that we'll likely try to re-sign. Biggest puzzle will be to find enough cap space to extend contracts of the fourth-year players DT Heath Oliver, S Bart Guthrie and LT Nathan Hadinger. All three are elite at their respective positions. Also in last year of contract are veterans like QB Ellis MCAlister, G Harvey Hank, DT Glen Stiegler and many, many more, but all of them already have contracts in line with their market value. Guthrie, Hadinger and Oliver are in the last year of their rookie contracts.

The situation with Nathan Hadinger is the toughest. He's still recovering from a hernia and is expected to miss training camp, miss pre-season and is questionable to be recovered in time for opening weekend. Anticipating that, we'll be talking with Louie Murray about a contact extension.

That's what's going on in and around Oranje Haven, in a nutshell. Things are looking good in my opinion.

MIJB#19

11-06-2019, 01:19 PM

Merchantmen bolster defense in 2086 draft
The trading has returned in Maassluis. The first round of the 2086 draft ended with a delay caused by negotiating representations of the Hanalei Dragons and the Maassluis Merchantmen, resulting in the later moving up from the late second to the last pick of the first round, with cornerback Lee Hancock joining linebacker Daquan Espino as the 2086 first round picks for the Merchantmen.

The first round started with the Toronto Lake Monsters grabbing excentric Arizona quarterback Shane Shelton. Offensive players kept flying off the board, but the Merchantmen had different plans and enjoyed the show. Despite their openly advertised desire to draft a wide receiver, instead they added highest graded linebacker Espino through the 29 overall pick. A fast, agile, presumably top-notch pass defender.

The blockbusterish trade followed shortly after. The Merchantmen sent their 2087 first round pick together with their second, third and fifth through seventh round picks in this draft to the Hanalei Dragons for their second and fifth round picks in 2087 and the #32 overall pick in this draft. Second highest graded cornerback Lee Hancock was the player of choice. The Merchantmen staff fully expects him to work well alongside Kirk Hitchcock and puts pressure on Tre Poloski to stop thinking he's irreplaceable as the CB2.

MIJB#19

11-08-2019, 09:34 AM

Marshall leaves Merchantmen for Greenjackets
Wendell Marshall's stint in Maassluis has ended after one season. The 31-year old defensive end signed a two-year deal worth just over $18M with the Augusta Greenjackets. Marshall came off a breakout season with 12.0 sacks as the Merchantmen leading pass rusher. The Merchantmen beat the Greenjackets in the wild card round of the recent playoffs. The Merchantmen tried to match the Greenjackets' offer, but Marshall took the offer from the East Coast based team, bringing his family back to the States.

To fill the gap, the Merchantmen selected rookie Gene Kondovski from Arizona. The Merchantmen staff assessed him as a top 10 pass rusher of this class. He should bring along some additional defensive abilities to support the run defense, if needed and is expected to jump in as a special teamer as well. The Merchantmen recently decided to keep veteran Ezekiel Wylie, expecting him to mentor Kondovski.

MIJB#19

11-08-2019, 09:48 AM

Theo Bondy and Merchantmen agree terms
After lengthy negotiations, the Maassluis Merchantmen and wide receiver Theodore Bondy agreed terms of a new four-year deal, worth $180 million, including another $61 million signing bonus. Bondy was in the second year of a four year contract signed last off-season, which already included a $55 million signing bonus. The new deal opened up cap space to be able to offer contract extensions to several players in their last year of contract, most notably defensive tackle Heath Oliver and safety Bart Guthrie. Both are regarded elite at their respective positions and the Merchantmen want to maintain their star player heavy roster. This new deal makes it virtually impossible for the Merchantmen to trade or release Bondy without causing a dead cap space hit even larger than the salary figures he's signed for.

Sidekick Artie Blazewicz signed a new two-year deal, as the Merchantmen offered him the so-called cap out contract, which means Blazewicz received a bit of his 2086 salary in the form of a signing bonus. As a result, Blazewicz has basically guaranteed his roster spot with the Merchantmen. Coming off a bit of a comeback season, emerging as one of the biggest deep-threat receivers in the league, Blazewicz solidified his spot as the WR2 ahead of second-year receiver Tucker Gaylor, whom the Merchantmen think has a bright future, and veteran Rico Techen.

MIJB#19

11-08-2019, 09:53 AM

Merchantmen select guard Andre Watson
With their fourth round pick of the 2086 draft, the Maassluis Merchantmen selected guard Andre Watson from Nebraska. Albeit considered a raw talent, Watson showed his speed and agility at the rookie combine, while the Merchantmen staff assessed him as one of few players in the class capable of being a reliable run blocker and pass protector. The retirement of Carlos Webb left the Merchantmen behind with only two guards on roster. It does seem unlikely he'll see much if any playing time behind returning starters Harvey Hank and Michael Szott.

MIJB#19

11-09-2019, 06:21 AM

General Manager Notes: 2086, here we come... Almost
The draft has finished, the off-season is soon to be finished, with a crucial training camp upcoming. The goal for this training camp is simple: figure out what plays are missing and what plays are a waste of paper or bits in the play book.

What have we've been doing this off-season so far? Well, we lost a handful of players and acquired 4 rookies through the draft. In the next day or so, I hope we can add a bunch of the 17 free agents that we offered a spot on our training camp roster. Sure, they have a shot at a pre-season roster spot, at least 7 of them could make that, but they'll have to do exceptionally well to earn a spot on our 53-men opening day roster.

How about them rookies?

Fourth round pick Andre Watson looks green, very green. I hope he can live up to his potential, but we've seen many offensive linemen fail before. That said, the kid should realize he's in a good place, we've got a long history of mid-round picks becoming reliable starters on our offensive line.

Third round pick Gene Kondovski looks greener than I hoped. As of now, it'll be tough to put him on our rotation, yet, with Wendell Marshall gone, we've got little other options... He'll get his playing time on the special teams unit and we'll put Ezekiel Wylie on him to learn the tricks. We've still got a deep line, providing father time won't be nasty on the veteran defensive tackles...

Pick #32 overall Lee Hancock looks green as well. Boy, have we misjudged in this draft or what? It didn't even occur to me until now, but him teaming up with Kirk Hitchcock means we've got a cocky couple of corners here. Hancock has enough skill to put him on bump and run kind of duties, so he'll surely see playing time amidst Hitchcock and the stamina lacking Tre Poloski. For nickel and dimeroles, Hancock will have to watch and learn from the others though, especially Giovanni Morton.

Pick #29 overall Daquan Espino looks like he's the most developed of these four draft picks. His arrival is bad news for Billy Springer, our third linebacker in the last two seasons. We'll have to see how we fit Espino into the front seven with Craig McCorkle and Glenn Brewer as the obvious starters, but in all formation with seven or eight on the field, Espino should be good enough to be one of them. For now it might be likely he'll ride the bench on obvious passing downs.

Aside from those four draft picks, we signed as little as zero free agents from other teams. We managed to lock up the restricted free agents Jessie Taylor and Miles Barker, our two most active tight ends last season. We'll want to get them more involved in the running game and a bit less in the passing game, but it's been tricky to make that work last season.

What's on our to do list? A couple of things.

We missed out on signing the best long snapper in the free agent market and didn't spent a draft pick on getting a replacement. So yes, we'll be looking for signing a long snapper in time for training camp.

We have contract extensions to work out with a bunch of key players. Heath Oliver (the best defensive tackle in the league), Bart Guthrie (the best safety in the league), quarterback Ellis McAlister and left tackle Nathan Hadinger are on their last year of contract. We need to agree terms with them before opening weekend. The only relief here is that none of them decided to hold out and make it harder on us.

Ten other players are on their last year of contract. Yes, I understand not mentioning them may seem like disrespecting them, but the four guys I did mention are exceptionally talented players at crucial positions. We'll definitely try to get to terms with the other guys, providing they survive the pre-season cuts...

All in all, we've lost two players that saw a lot of action last season. Replacing Wendell Marshall looks tougher than I had hoped, after all, he exceeded expectations, despite that I did believe in him being capable of what he did for us, which was a breakout year for him. It was a real bummer for him to shove the confidence we gave him aside and move to Augusta. But so be it, we'll find a way to replace him, no worries. Andy Russell and Gino Kemp are long overdue for a 10-sack season, now might be the time to throw them more exclusively on the pass rush and let others do the run stopping.

Cohesion will once again be one of our stand out skills. The special teams unit has thrived last season, we hope to maintain that. Despite a somewhat disappointing month last season, Gabe Broady rebounded and earned a new contract. Heck, his agent is a clearly terrible at this, because Broady is a steal for his cap figure. This guy has been the best punt returner in the league for the past three seasons. It does help when even guys like Theo Bondy, Kirk Hitchcock, Craig McCorkle and Leonard Belin want to play on that unit. Those are key players at other positions, willing to butt heads with opponents to help Broady make his plays. That's another part of the cohesive team we've established here. It's been one of our strengths for decades, it's really thriving in this particular part of the game.

Looking at the schedule for that upcoming 2086 season, the confidence in the team will be severely tested early on. In the first seven weeks, we'll play exactly one home game, against the IHOF's highest decorated franchise, the Tucker Tigers. Around that game, we'll host three playoff-teams from last season: the IHOF champion North Plainfield Plague, the NAC runner up Hanalei Dragons and the Augusta Greenjackets, the team we beat in the wild card round in a very close game. The other two road games are in Gothenburg and Paris. We'll really have to focus on sticking with our plan, try to win as many as possible of these games where we'll usually be underdogs based on homefield advantage. Down the road, the schedule won't ease up, we'll still have to face the Orlando Talons and Fairbanks Northstars (both on the road) and get to host the team to watch in 2086: the Oakland Black Panthers. We'll also have to face the Houston Mustangs, Colorado Cutthroats and Snapfinger Jazz. That's even excluding the double header with the re-emerging Bordeaux Vineyards and the home games against Gothenburg and Paris.

But hey, if we're as good as we think we are, we should be able to play our A game, beat most of them, get in the playoffs and then see how deep we can get. Theo Bondy was back to his 2K form last season, the defense continues to be amazingly talented and the running game and our sidekicks to Theo are good enough to keep every opponent honest about (not) focusing too much on Theo.

But we're getting way ahead of ourselves now, we still have to undergo the waves of training camp, finding out in pre-season whether our guys are still in shape and then figure out which 53 players will be deemed good enough to represent the Merchantmen in 2086.

Go Merchantmen!

MIJB#19

11-09-2019, 11:53 AM

Oscar Meadows sixth on all-time Merchantmen money ranking
Recently retired offensive tackle Oscar Meadows ranks sixth on the all-time Merchantmen money list. In 15 seasons in Maassluis, Meadows cumulated nearly $248 million in cap figures. He had moved into sixth place at the end of the 2083 season, surpassing 2057-2065 quarterback Lester Lowe. The money list is lead by five hall of famers, with the top four all members of the Merchantmen's only IHOF Bowl winning squad in the 2066 season.

The absolute top 10
1. DT Shaun Hartman $337.42M
2. CB Peter Tucker $334.89M
3. LB Edward Ross $299.56M
4. C Tom Anaya $299.18M
5. QB Bryson Chow $279.12M
6. T Oscar Meadows $247.93M
7. QB Lester Lowe $215.17M
8. WR Riddick Stanley $206.08M
9. LB Antonio Battle $202.07M
10. LB Gabe Hamilton $201.99M

The top 10 will likely see some changes once the 2086 season roster has been determined. Quarterback Ellis McAlister has accumulated $189M and is due $42M the upcoming season. It seems likely his actual cap figure for the upcoming season will be different, depending on where McAlister and Merchantmen management end up in negotiations. Moving up to seventh place right behind Meadows looks very likely. No other player currently on roster is within a reasonable shot of the $200M figure.

Due to increasing cap figures over the decades, recently active players are dominating the all-time money list. On the relative figures towards the overall cap space spent on players, a different top 10 becomes visible. Quarterback Russell Harrison, in 2030 traded over failed contract negotiations, has managed to accumulate the highest relative cap figure. In his twelve seasons on roster he averaged roughly 10.7 percent of the team's total cap spent, adding up to 128.47 percent.

The relative top 10
1. QB Russell Harrison 128.47
2. QB Bryson Chow 98.9
3. DT Andy Cottle 96.81
4. DT Charles Gomez 95.15
5. DT Shaun Hartman 93.41
6. CB Peter Tucker 90.72
7. QB Louie Flannery 88.82
8. WR Gabe Springer 84.1
9. LB Edward Ross 80.54
10. C Tom Anaya 79.95

It seems unlikely anyone of players currently on roster will soon threaten this top10. Quarterback Ellis McAlister has a relative figure of 43.98, defensive tackle Glen Stiegler 42.53 and guard Harvey Hank 38.89. Oscar Meadows recently retired with a 61.88 figure.

Most notable on the relative cap figure list are defensive tackles Andy Cottle and Charles Gomez. Of the top 10, they are the only two not to get elected into the IHOF's Hall of Fame. Gomez' career was deemed too short by the HOF Committee, while Cottle's cap figure has possibly been influenced by the Merchantmen overpaying for his services playing at the then considered most important position.

Three Merchantmen Hall of Famers are considered to have been slightly underpaid. Running back Stanley Givens played 4 seasons in orange-white-and-blue, earning roughly $41M and just 7.05 percent of the cap figures. Fellow running back Norbert Talley accumulated just under $132M in 8 seasons, with roughly 5.95 percent of the cap figure in each of those seasons. Defensive end Daquan Strugielski and his two Defensive Player of the Year awards got rewarded with just over $125M and roughly just 2.77 percent of each season's cap figure in those 12 seasons.

MIJB#19

11-15-2019, 06:52 AM

Merchantmen release Glen Stiegler
The Maassluis Merchantmen today announced the release of Glen Stiegler. The 34-year old defensive tackle and former first round pick leaves the Merchantmen after 11 seasons of service, in which he missed only 2 games.

A reliable and fearsome pass rusher, while also a quality run stuffer, made Stiegler a two-time All IHOF selection and earned second team honors once. Last season his role already went from full time starter to a by committee role, primarily focusing on rushing the passer on obvious passing downs. He was a key figure for the team that lost in the 2078 AOC Championship game and was also active in the more recently 2085 AOC Championship game, also a lost effort.

Stiegler hopes to find a roster spot elsewhere in the league, but those odds appear slim. Merchantmen management decided to go into the 2086 season with three defensive tackles and five defensive ends, giving preference to the two rookies Gene Kondovski and Tony Whiting over Stiegler.

The Merchantmen also cut cornerback Shaquille Dixon, whom they do think has a bright future ahead of him, but 2086 came too early for him to win a roster spot in Maassluis. Dixon and Stiegler were the final two cuts to trim the roster down to 53 players. Earlier this off-season, the Merchantmen released 12 other players, most prominently being three experienced special teamers Riddick Bunting and Jermaine Page. Bunting played 85 games for the Merchantmen, while Page joined the century club with his 106th appearance in the 2085 playoffs.

The Merchantmen go into opening weekend with 9 new players on roster, with 8 rookies and one second-year pro. Four rookies were drafted: linebacker Daquan Espino, cornerback Lee Hancock, defensive end Gene Konodvski and guard Andre Watson. Four rookies were undrafted free agents: fullback Clay Brosseau, center Jared Labbe, defensive end Tony Whiting and long snapper Timothy Biegen. Wide receiver Chris DeWoody is the second-year pro, last season an undrafted rookie with the Fort Wayne Fury.

MIJB#19

11-15-2019, 06:59 AM

Heath Oliver extends with Merchantmen
Three days before opening weekend, the Maassluis Merchantmen and defensive tackle Keith Oliver agreed terms of a new four-year contract. Oliver was due to become a free agent after the 2086 season and according to league rules, they had to renew the contract before week 1 games. Oliver signed a $208 million contract with a $69 million signing bonus. Oliver is regarded as a key member of an elite run defense.

The news comes a day after the Merchantmen re-sign left tackle Nathan Hadinger to a 5-year deal worth over $146 million. Still recovering from an unguinal hernia, Hadinger is expected to miss opening weekend, but ready for action in week 2.

The Merchantmen hope to agree terms with safety Bart Guthrie in the next two days, to lock up all their key players that are in the last year of contract. The team also expects to re-sign some of the seven other veterans in the last year of contract, of whom none are expected to be a starter in the 2086 season.

MIJB#19

11-16-2019, 06:23 AM

General Manager Notes: 2086 fourth time the charm?
Favorites to win it all, we're a top the DogBytes power rating to start the season for the fourth season in succession.

What does it mean? It means we've done something right to build a team that can potentially win games. In our case, it's a combination of awesome players (Theodore Bondy, Kirk Hitchcock, Keith Oliver, Bart Guthrie, Craig McCorkle, the entire offensive line, perhaps even our quarterback Ellis McAlister), being loyal to our players to build sky high cohesion and good economy to be able to pick a good coaching staff.

But aside from those on paper factors, we're going to be tested with how our game plan will work out. In pre-season, Artie Blazewicz showed glimpses of being more than just the Blazewicz special play, he's shown he can complement Theo in being a top-notch receiving duo. Our running backs tandem/trio and their blockers are strong enough to punish opponents that focus on stopping the pass, which is near impossible with Theo involved anyway.

We picked up four new players for our defense for the upcoming season, all rookies. Last season that number was limited to just one new player: the awesome veteran defensive end Wendell Marshall. It remains to be seen, but losing Marshall might be a bigger loss than the fresh blood can do to improve our defense. Gene Kondovski and Tony Whiting are promising pass rushers, but they're not there yet. We'll throw Kondovski out there anyway, we need him to become our primary pass rusher as quickly as possible.

Releasing Glen Stiegler was a very tough decision. Our defensive captain and a core member of our defense for over a decade. But sadly, we've noticed he lost a lot of his speed, has durability, his agility. With all the talent on the line, he wasn't going to be on the active roster and as a result, I decided we should give that eighth roster spot on the defensive line to the undrafted rookie Tony Whiting. Oliver is our work horse up the middle, A.J. Ritt and Erik Shrader will split time as the second defensive tackle. On the end, we'll be using four guys in an energy saving rotation, with Andy Russell, Geno Kemp, Ezekiel Wylie and Kondovski. We might switch from Wylie to Whiting at some point during the season.

Rookie linebacker Daquan Espino will be our third guy this season. McCorkle and Glenn Brewer look sharp and as such we have no need to replace them as of yet. We'll be in plenty situations with three linebackers on the field anyway, Espino will get his playing time.

In the secondary, we've got rookie Lee Hancock as the new face, but he'll be fighting for playing time with Tre Poloski and Courtney Blackwell, our new nickelback. Giovanni Morton will be less active upcoming season, but we'll need his mentoring skills. At safety, Riddick Newsome is a new starter. We picked him up during the 2085 season to fill in for the season ending injuries of Alexander Marty and Rex McIndoe. He's lacking the stamina to be a full time starter, so it's likely he'll have to time-share with Marty. Strong safety Guthrie and cornerback Hitchcock are the undisputed starters. They are elite players at their positions.

The offense is mostly unchanged. Despite 5 new faces on roster, the guys seeing action will be very similar. Ellis McAlister remains our starting quarterback, heck, we've even signed him to a new expensive three-year deal to make sure he won't be a free agent next off-season. Is Ernest Andrews the future? Too early to tell, he's got that victory in his sole start last season to boost his confidence, but he still needs to improve and prove he's got top25 potential, which is our bottom line. We were patient with McAlister, he rode the bench for 5 long seasons. But I can't promise Andrews we'll be that patient again...

Our offensive line is unchanged, from left to right Nathan Hadinger, Harvey Hank, Butch Pearson, Michael Szott and Howard Humphrey. Hank is the veteran of the bunch, Hadinger the elite pass blocker, Pearson and Humphrey the elite run blockers. Szott is a complete player. Nestor of the line Louie Murray will be our opening day left tackle, as Hadinger needs another week or so to shake off the last effects of the hernia that sidelined him last season. Rookies guard Andre Watson and center Jared Labbe will (hopefully) see little action this season, as that would mean injuries forced them into action. Labbe looks interesting, a stellar run blocker. Watson is so green, it's hard to tell where his peak will be. We hope he can step in at Hank's spot in a year or two.

Our running game will once again see us split Leonard Belin and Reggie Thongchanh the carries. Monty Digler remains to be our third down back, providing the staff doesn't forget to use him, goshdangit! Tristan Cochrane will be the fullback, but it remains to be seen whether we'll use him as a run blocker or a pass blocker. The same might apply to tight ends Jessie Turner and Matt Barker, although it's pretty obvious at least one of those three will be on the field on running plays, at times even two of them.

But our centerpiece of the offense is quite clearly Theo. We loved all our previous all-worldly wide receivers (Gabe Springer, Terry Haskell and J.R. Mills in particular), but Theo is something special. This guy has everything needed to be considered the best at his position, not just in the league currently, but also the best in franchise history.

Alongside Theo, we'll be trying to trim down on targeting our tight ends and backfield players, trying to get even more deep threat with Blazewicz and our third receiver Tucker Gaylor. Expect to see more of the second half of the season Blazewicz. Gaylor remains to be a mystery as McAlister has had little opportunity to target him last season, but he does appear to have the skills to punish opposing secondaries. We've got newly signed lightning fast Chris DeWoody as a backup plan for Gaylor. Rico Techen remains on roster to mentor Gaylor. Ross Willbrandt sadly lost some of his speed, but he'll stick around as our fifth active receiver for the Hail Mary plays and as our second kickoff returner.

Speaking of special teams roles, our unit is considered cream of the crop in the league and rightfully so. Willbrandt and Blazewicz have proven to be quality kickoff returners, but Gabe Broady is a world beater, the undisputed best punt returner in the IHOF for the last three seasons. Blackwell gives us the luxury to sideline Broady if he's struggling. We'll keep our eyes open for a new kickoff returner though, as Willbrandt has looked slow and sluggish in pre-season and Blazewicz needs to save his energy for the passing game. We trust our punter Doug Guynes and believe in the talent of kicker Thomas Robertson, despite his struggles. Kick holder Karsten Muchnick stuck around for another season, he won that roster spot battle over a rookie. Our long snapper retired, but rookie Timothy Biegen looks good enough to step in. As you may have noticed, we've said goodbye to several of our other special teamers, but we've got plenty of guys capable of stepping in and even stepping it up: Belin, Thongchanh, Bondy, De Woody, Barker, McCorkle, Wylie, Skip Keith, Billy Springer, Guthrie, McIndoe, Poloski...

So yeah, I think we should feel confident that in Maassluis we've got a team that can play with and beat every other team in this league. We've got play makers in every position group and elements on our team that can make a difference with something special other teams don't have. It's pointless to think we've had our share of bad luck over the past three seasons, we can still blame ourselves for lack of effort to fix what we were doing wrong. Is the season a failure if we don't win the IHOF Bowl? In a way it is, this might be the last season with all these guys together. Cap space will be a real issue next season, if not the one after, because all these all world caliber players do want to get paid for their services. McAlister's is the oldest player on the team, at some point he's going to fall apart, but you never know with football players once they hit the 30's, they may retire when you least expect it.

But those are worries for the far future, 2086 is the season we're kicking off in 2 days. I'm confident we can improve on last season, which suggests anything can happen. Go Merchantmen!

MIJB#19

11-16-2019, 07:45 AM

2086 roster breakdown
<table border=1><tr><td>pos<td>name<td>age<TD>skill<td>how acquired<td>role
<tr><td>QB<td>E.McAlister<td>34<td>XXXXXXXXXXX<td>'74 draft 6th round<td>franchise QB
<tr><td>QB<td>E.Andrews<td>22<td>XXXXoo<td>'85 draft 2nd round<td>QB project
<tr><td>KH<td>K.Muchnick<td>30<td>XXXXXX<td>'79 undrafted rookie FA<td>kick holder, I repeat, kick holder
<tr><td>RB<td>R.Thongchanh<td>24<td>XXXXXXo<td>'85 draft 4th round<td>ball carrier
<tr><td>RB<td>L.Belin<td>27<td>XXXXXXXXXX<td>'82 draft 6th round<td>ball carrier
<tr><td>RB<td>M.Digler<td>23<td>XXXXXXX<td>'84 draft 4th round<td>third down back
<tr><td>FB<td>T.Cochrane<td>27<td>XXXXXXXXXX<td>'81 draft 5th round<td>pass blocker, run blocker
<tr><td>FB<td>C.Brosseau<td>22<td>XXXXXoooo<td>'86 undrafted rookie FA<td>project run blocker
<tr><td>TE<td>J.Taylor<td>25<td>XXXXXXX<td>'85 veteran FA<td>run blocker
<tr><td>TE<td>M.Barker<td>26<td>XXXXXXX<td>'84 undrafted rookie FA<td>run blocker
<tr><td>TE<td>N.Grundy<td>33<td>XXXX<td>'83 veteran FA<td>run blocker
<tr><td>TE<td>T.Kotz<td>25<td>XXXoo<td>'85 draft 7th round<td>project run blocker
<tr><td>WR<td>Th.Bondy<td>27<td>XXXXXXXXXXXXXXX<td>'82 draft 1st round<td>best WR in the league
<tr><td>WR/KR<td>A.Blazewicz<td>28<td>XXXXXXXXX<td>'80 draft 6th round<td>deep threat receiver, kickoff returner
<tr><td>WR<td>T.Gaylor<td>25<td>XXXXXXXoo<td>'85 draft 5th round<td>project wide receiver
<tr><td>WR<td>C.DeWoody<td>25<td>XXXXXXXX<td>'86 veteran FA<td>deep threat receiver
<tr><td>KR<td>R.Willbrandt<td>28<td>XXXX<td>'82 undrafted rookie FA<td>backup kickoff returner
<tr><td>WR<td>R.Techen<td>30<td>XXXXXXX<td>'78 draft 6th round<td>mentor, deep threat reciever
<tr><td>C<td>B.Pearson<td>28<td>XXXXXXXXXXXXXXX<td>'80 draft 1st round<td>all round center
<tr><td>C<td>J.Labbe<td>24<td>XXXXXoooo<td>'86 undrafted rookie FA<td>project run blocking center
<tr><td>G<td>M.Szott<td>26<td>XXXXXXXXXXXXXX<td>'84 draft 2nd round<td>all round guard
<tr><td>G<td>H.Hank<td>31<td>XXXXXXXXX<td>'76 draft 1st round<td>all round guard
<tr><td>G<td>A.Watson<td>22<td>XXXXoooooo<td>'86 draft 4th round<td>project all round guard
<tr><td>LT<td>N.Hadinger<td>26<td>XXXXXXXXXXXXX<td>'83 draft 2nd round<td>leading pass protector
<tr><td>LT<td>L.Murray<td>34<td>XXXXXXXX<td>'74 draft 6th round<td>backup pass protector
<tr><td>RT<td>H.Humphrey<td>26<td>XXXXXXXXXXXXX<td>'85 draft 1st round<td>leading run blocker
<tr><td>P<td>D.Guynes<td>24<td>XXXXXXXXXXXX<td>'85 draft 3rd round<td>punter (duh)
<tr><td>K<td>T.Robertson<td>24<td>XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX<td>'84 draft 2nd round<td>kicker (duh)
<tr><td>DE<td>A.Russell<td>26<td>XXXXXXXXX<td>'82 draft 5th round<td>pass rusher, run defense support
<tr><td>DE<td>G.Kemp<td>29<td>XXXXXXXXX<td>'80 draft 5th round<td>pass rusher, run defense support
<tr><td>DE<td>G.Kondovski<td>24<td>XXXXXXoooooo<td>'86 draft 3rd round<td>project pass rusher
<tr><td>DE<td>E.Wylie<td>27<td>XXXXXX<td>'81 undrafted rookie FA<td>pass rusher, mentor
<tr><td>DE<td>T.Whiting<td>25<td>XXXXXo<td>'86 undrafted rookie FA<td>pass rusher, project
<tr><td>DT<td>H.Oliver<td>26<td>XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX<td>'83 draft 1st round<td>run defense anchor, pass rush support
<tr><td>DT<td>E.Sharder<td>27<td>XXXXXXX<td>'80 draft 4th round<td>pass rusher
<tr><td>DT<td>A.Ritt<td>23<td>XXXXXXX<td>'84 draft 6th round<td>pass rusher
<tr><td>LB<td>C.McCorkle<td>28<td>XXXXXXXXXXXXXXX<td>'79 draft 1st round<td>all around linebacker
<tr><td>LB<td>G.Brewer<td>31<td>XXXXXXXXXXX<td>'77 draft 1st round<td>pass rusher, run defense support
<tr><td>LB<td>D.Espino<td>22<td>XXXXXXXXXooooo<td>'86 draft 1st round<td>project all around linebacker
<tr><td>LB<td>B.Springer<td>26<td>XXXXXX<td>'83 draft 7th round<td>backup pass defender
<tr><td>LB<td>S.Keith<td>32<td>XX<td>'82 veteran FA<td>special teamer
<tr><td>CB<td>K.Hitchcock<td>28<td>XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX<td>'81 draft 1st round<td>shutdown corner
<tr><td>CB<td>T.Poloski<td>26<td>XXXXXXXXXX<td>'81 draft 1st round<td>run defense support, man defender
<tr><td>CB<td>L.Hancock<td>22<td>XXXXXXooooo<td>'86 draft 1st round<td>project cornerback
<tr><td>CB/PR<td>C.Blackwell<td>26<td>XXXXXX<td>'84 draft 5th round<td>nickelback, backup punt returner
<tr><td>CB<td>G.Morton<td>34<td>XXXXX<td>'76 undrafted rookie FA<td>mentor, backup nickelback
<tr><td>PR/KR<td>G.Broady<td>27<td>XXX<td>'81 in-season undrafted rookie FA<td>punt returner, emergency kickoff returner
<tr><td>SS<td>B.Guthrie<td>26<td>XXXXXXXXXXXXXX<td>'83 draft 1st round<td>strong safety
<tr><td>FS<td>R.Newsome<td>24<td>XXXXXX<td>'85 in-season veteran FA<td>zone defender
<tr><td>SS<td>A.Marty<td>27<td>XXXXXXXXXX<td>'83 draft 5th round<td>run defender, backup zone defender
<tr><td>FS<td>R.McIndoe<td>34<td>XXXXX<td>'75 late season FA<td>special teamer, backup safety
<tr><td>FS<td>E.Miller<td>28<td>XXXXXXXX<td>'82 draft 2nd round<td>backup safety
<tr><td>LS<td>T.Biegen<td>22<td>XXXX<td>'86 undrafted rookie FA<td>long snapper (duh)</table>

QuikSand

11-16-2019, 07:57 AM

cohesion is off the charts for the Merchantmen, part of them being tipped among the league favorites this season

MIJB#19

11-21-2019, 03:50 PM

General Manager Notes: Two for three on the road...
The season has barely started and we've already had our bye week, without having played a single game in our own Oranje Haven. Such is the life in football, at time.

So, three road games to start the season. We knew this was coming, but it's still nasty when you're in that series. And lo and behold, we've come out of it with 2 wins, including a drubbing of the reigning IHOF champions. How about that?

Week 1 against the Gothenburg Giants was a near choke victory. The first half 31-7 lead was barely enough to win 34-31 on a last second field goal. Theo carried the team like we want him to do: 11 catches for 163 yards and 2 touchdowns.

We followed up with a horrible showing at the Hanalei Dragons. The other conference championship losers played tremendous red zone defense, forcing us to kick it way too much. The defense actually returned the favor, resulting in a 26-12 loss, with just 2 touchdowns all day. Theo caught 11 passes for 163 yards.

Week 3 was a different story. Playing at the North Plainfield Plague, the reigning IHOF champions, the top-notch defense for a change actually managed to play top-notch pass defense. How awesome is that? We somehow kept their star receiver to 6 catches on 22 targets, letting their quarterback throw for only 91 yards on 37 pass plays. Theo had 10 catches for 113 yards and a score.

Week 4 was our bye week.

Week 5 is up next, with yet another heavy matchup. We'll be hosting the undefeated revived Tucker Tigers. Granted, they played the easiest schedule so far, which doesn't say a lot at this stage of the season about either the team itself or those opponents. Their running game is traditionally efficient, their passing game dangerous with a rookie tight end averaging just over 10 yards per target. Their pass defense might be the weak spot, we'd better take advantage of it, but the only way to do that is keep them from controlling the ball and clock. Missing Howard Humphrey due to an achilles tendon injury will be a major blow. This kid has been phenomenal for our running game.

We'll have to see what we can do here, I hope for the best, but we've shot ourselves in the foot way too often in the previous three seasons. Being favored by a point or two means very little. If anything, that this game could go either way.

Hopefully our way. Go Merchantmen!

MIJB#19

11-26-2019, 03:06 PM

General Manager Notes: Leading Europe, but the lead is small...
After a mishmash of stellar road victories and a couple of mindboggling losses at home, we've placed ourselves at the top of the division with a 4-3 record.

With 5 road games already in the books and most of the tough opponents behind us, we thought we were in go mode for a 12-4 kind of season. Not so much, we stumbled over the previously winless Snapfinger Jazz, in Oranje Haven no less, meaning the next home game against the Bordeaux Vineyards will put the division lead at mid-season on the line after all.

Theo had a bit of an off-day against the Jazz, which didn't help, while the defensive line has been Merchantmen unworthy in generating pass rush pressure. It's tempting to throw the game plan overboard and act like we had a bad plan. We're probably about 66% to 75% effective, but I have no clue what works and what doesn't.

Does it mean I'm holding us back? Probably, this team feels like it could have been 6-1 and had no business choking our only two home games. But sometimes, football can see that oddly shaped ball bounce into the wrong direction and make your team lose a game it should have won and a game it should have won by two scores.

European Division:
1. Maassluis 4-3
2. Paris 3-4
3. Bordeaux 3-4
4. Gothenburg 1-5-1

Ok, the lead is just a game, but on paper, we're really a game or two ahead of the division. We steamrolled the Musketeers in Paris and should have never let the Giants come back to within 3 points at Gothenburg. We lost two winnable home games by a score and had smooth victories at our 2085 playoffs opponents from Augusta and North Plainfield. The loss at Hanalei was only logical.

Sure, the rest of the season won't be a cup cake schedule, we're no Asstoria Heroes, but we've got every reason to be optimistic, bar injuries to key players.

We'll curse the player agent of Bart Guthrie after the last game of the season, aside from this one right now: what a lunatic for telling his player to not take a better offer than he requested. *rant*

We'll have to keep faith in our pass rush, keep throwing it to Theo, but not overdoing it. And with a little bit of luck on the right side, we're still in the running for doing better than last season.

We can do this, Merchantmen! We can do this.

MIJB#19

11-30-2019, 03:06 PM

General Manager notes: rising, rising, and then dropping hard...
Two games back, we thought we had finally arrived where we thought we could be, but two home choke jobs later, we're back on earth after falling flat on our face.

With our first home victory of the season (20-13 vs Bordeaux) and a much deserved, yet surprisingly easy win (30-25 at Orlando), we had improved into the race for the top 2 seeds. But a couple of choke jobs later, both at home, we'll have to look over our shoulder again for the amazingly revived Gothenburg Giants, currently the conference's hottest team with 4 straight victories.

Europe
1. Maassluis 6-5
2. Gothenburg 5-5-1
3. Bordeaux 4-7
4. Paris 4-7

I honestly have no clue what we (I) have done wrong to see another pair of choke jobs in our own Oranje Haven. Against Gothenburg, we were driving for a hard-fought victory, but instead saw a pick six in the final minute turn our 454 yards of offense turn into a 9-17 disgrace. The home game against the pretty much playoffs eliminated Oakland Black Panthers saw the defense allow 454 yards, with 15 unanswered points in the fourth quarter, to lose 28-27 on a touchdown pass with 36 seconds to go.

Yes, this too is football, but we were on the other side of the coin against Bordeaux (goal line stand to salvage victory) and overcame late game turnovers that almost destroyed the solid performance at Orlando. As if we just don't want to show the rest of the world we're a 13-3/12-4 caliber team. No, we need to make things difficult on us, choke game after game, needing coin flips to get the W's.

Sadly, I'm out of ideas how to pinpoint what we're doing wrong. All the time spent in the video room feels like a waste of time, as we're playing like a .500 land team for the fourth straight season, despite that loaded roster.

Our window of opportunity is quickly shutting, Ellis McAlister is getting up there in age, the cap situation is getting very tight, including the $14M of cap space gone to waste this season because some stupid player agent feels like undervaluing the past safety in the league: "Nah, we don't want more money, we want less money, or else he'll sign elsewhere next off-season." Sigh.

So, 5 more games to get things right, with some luck get a slightly more favorable playoffs route as the #2 seeds and then hope to get lucky ones we're there. But really, does a team much better than .500, yet performing no better than that .500 deserve to dream?

One game at a time, one game at a time. That's where we stand.

Glen Brewer is out for the rest of the regular season, defensive end Tony Whiting, inactive for the first 11 games, will be moved back to outside linebacker and subsequently activated to fulfill the silliness called roster requirements.

I'm still hopeful we'll regroup and do well in the next 9 weeks of the season, but it's getting way ahead of things once again. Week 13, hosting Houston. Yes, a team we've rarely beaten when we were favorites, like we are this season. In fact, Vegas gives us only the home field advantage points this time around, which in our current form actually feels like a disadvantage, we've already secured having a worse record at home than on the road this season (1-4 vs 5-1).

So, guys, what will it be? Let another season go to waste, or will we step it up and after this long time of underperforming right the ship and start a long winning streak of 8 or 9 games? Y'all have the talent for it, now prove that y'all can do it.

Go Merchantmen!

MIJB#19

12-05-2019, 05:54 PM

Writer's rant: This fourth consecutive season of .500 ball is seriously hurting my interest to write about what could (should?) have been a powerhouse team during that tenure. Seemingly I've become one of the worst playbook makers both on offense and defense, despite that this is still the same game as the one we finally got our first and (so far?) only bowl victory in. It keeps getting tougher to think this ship can be righted, especially knowing that next season the decline of the roster strength will be unavoidable due to the snowballing of overpriced contracts.

The latter a direct result of a bug (I have no other word for this annoyingness) in the way contract renegotiations in the MP environment work differently from SP and make it a somewhat random roll of dice whether a particular player will or will not accept an offer that has much more or even much more guaranteed money that what he asked for. In SP it's cut and dry: the player will always accept the upgrade, in MP, you need to find the magic number for every single player, which is a serious pain in the you-know-where when there are only 3 stages after the random volatility rolls to offer those contracts.

I don't fancy the 'needs more testing in SP' approach, yet - much to my chagrin - I have spent plenty of time redoing the playbook (in that one stage per season when it's technically possible to change it) and analyzing what plays do and do not work on both offense and defense. But when that quite simply feels like it's been a waste of time, it's making playing this game more frustrating than it had already began when this became a necessity to remain competitive with teams with inferior rosters that did figure out the magic numbers that somehow work.

It's becoming a vicious circling catch-22, it dwindles down my interest to initiate trades, prepare for the draft, hence aggravating my roster building skills and as a result take away the little advantages I somehow seemed to have over teams yo-yoing from 9-7 to 5-11, rinse repeat.

A design change and a bug fix don't appear to be on the horizon, so it becomes a question whether I'm willing to throw nearly 16 years of playing this game away. Well, most certainly I am not! The white flag will not be raised, especially not thrown into the ring like a towel either.

[end rant]

2086 isn't entirely lost, we're going into week 17 (tomorrow) with the season still salvageable. So more on that later...

MIJB#19

12-07-2019, 09:10 AM

General Manager Notes: Regular season ends in a dramatic fashion...
We're repeat division champions. Yay.

It ended in a dramatic change of events. While we thought we were clobbering the Paris Musketeers and hearing the Gothenburg Giants were steamrolling the Bordeaux Vineyards, we thought we were going to finish second in the division, in the last wild card spot and started fueling the team plane for a trip to Gothenburg.

Then we all woke up after a night's sleep and found out it was all a dream. We did wind up beating Paris, although just barely, leaning enormously on Theo Bondy and a franchise record 285 yards receiving, but more importantly, Gothenburg choked the division title with an unheard of 39-16 home deficit to Bordeaux.

European division:
1. Maassluis 9-7
2. Gothenburg 8-7-1
3. Bordeaux 6-10
4. Paris 5-11

Despite our shockingly bad record for a division champion and for the kind of player collective we have, the AOC Northeast division has been so tight, that entire division finishes the season with 8 losses, except for the 9-7 Harlem Apollos and their inferior conference record compared to our 9-3 record inside the AOC (yeah, we got swept by a division with 3 losing teams and a 10-6 champion), meaning we ended up as the #3 seeds and hosting the #6 seeds: the Gothenburg Giants!

Theo Bondy's big day also meant he sky rocketed to the receiving yards title with 2,449 yards, coincidentally yet another franchise record, as were the 19 receiving touchdowns.

So, after a very wobbly regular season campaign, the on paper title candidates sneak into the playoffs once again. We've been 9-7 or 7-9 in all four of these season. It's annoyingly disappointing. And yet, we're one of 12 teams still in the running, as undeservingly as that may seem. We'd better make the best of it, because with our inexcusable ability to piss away games against opponents that we should steamroll, we have no reason to be cocky. Confidence is a good thing, but only if it helps us get the best out of ourselves. The 'on paper favorites' rarely win, we've proven that for the last 3 seasons already. Fourth time the charm? Who knows, time will tell.

Next up Gothenburg, at home. We made horrible decisions in a winnable home game earlier this season, while we already had nearly choked a 24-point lead in the road game there. We'll have to play our A game to win here. We can do this, team: go Merchantmen!

MIJB#19

12-17-2019, 06:01 PM

Writer's note: I haven't had a writers' block, but I did get caught between a bit of a roller coaster of events and aforementioned disappointment about the game. The former is sometimes a boost for writing, but it hasn't been this time around. The later, well, I'm trying to cope with it, but it continues to be an increasing annoyance.

No worries though. Naturally, I haven't given up, why would I after 83 seasons? 2086 wasn't the kind of season it could and should have been, while 2087 is starting with cap hell. Draft class board is up and running, just in case we can't get rid of all the expensive draft picks. But more on that later, maybe.

MIJB#19

12-18-2019, 03:38 PM

General Manager Notes: 2086, what a weird season...
Last I reported, we were happy to have salvaged our playoffs ticket, even shocked to sneak into the European division crown.

We managed to follow up with a convincing 36-18 defeat of the Gothenburg Giants in our own Oranje Haven. Theo was nigh unstoppable, catching 14 passes for 237 yards.

The joy was short-lived, we found our season end at the inferior talented Fort Wayne Fury, playing incredibly bad after our first possession a 98 yard drive for a quick 7-0 lead. The entire game, we gained just 263 yards and saw the defense once again play way below the standards that we're used to, especially given the talent on roster. 24-13, we can't even claim it was close to the end. Out in the elite eight round. We're not worthy.

So, onwards to the new season we went, with a humongous cap puzzle.

MIJB#19

12-18-2019, 04:12 PM

General Manager notes: 2087, fifth time the charm?
Football fans, we're far from giving up!

The off-season started with the departure of a couple of players that have been bounced around from starter to more recently a key backup role.

Left tackle Louie Murray retired after 218 games in orange-white-and-blue, a home-grown sixth round pick, mostly on duty to cover the seventh round quarterback Ellis McAlister from the same 2074 draft. A unique duo. Murray started in both the 2078 and 2085 AOC Championship games.

Cornerback Giovanni Morton spent 11 seasons in Maassluis after being picked up as an undrafted rookie in the 2076 off-season. In his third season he emerged as the nickelback of the team and played that role for 8 seasons. He played in both lost AOC Championship games in 2078 and 2085. The most notable of his 172 games was in 2083 when he scored two interception return touchdowns against the Iowa Cobbers in week 16 of the regular season.

Free safety Rex McIndoe was initially a Gothenburg Giant, but late in his second season he got released and picked up by the Merchantmen during the playoffs. From the 2076 season an onwards, he bounced from dimeback to free safety and back and forth. His final two seasons of the 11-season stint were in a reserve role. 171 games in orange-white-and blue are on his resume.

After the wave of retirements, we've decided to release cornerback Tre Poloski after 6 seasons, a former first round pick in the same draft as Kirk Hitchcock, safety Emmitt Miller, our second round pick in 2082 and inactive all of last season, wide receiver Rico Techen, 9 seasons of service as a sixth round pick, and running back Monty Digler, after three season o not delivering as the third down back.

A majority, if not all our key players signed a renegotiated deal, some a so-called cap out and others a restructured deal. The list is too long to mention them all. Guard Michael Szott is the biggest name yet to get a new deal. I hope we can offer him an improved contract before late free agency, but the first wave was to get our of a cap hole far beyond the $100 million over the cap, nearly touching a projected -$145 million after draft pick signings. We're currently at about +$30 million, with 11 contracts to add to the cap.

Safety Bart Guthrie is our main free agency target. As per usual, contract talks are frustrating. His agent declared a clear desired day to sign, but they let that deadline pass and now we're in a battle with 3 other teams for Guthrie's services. We have no frickin' clue whether he wants to stay with us anyway, by lack of any useful feedback, but let's assume it's about 50-50.

We've re-signed restricted free agent defensive end Tony Whiting and long snapper Timothy Biegen.

As of today, we're at 40 players signed, with openings in the backfield (a third RB, a second FB - perhaps restricted free agent Clay Brosseau - or both), a fourth tight end (veteran/mentor Nicholas Gundy looks ready to move to the Outer Banks Ospreys), a wide receiver (or two, we hope to retain kickoff returner Ross Wilbrandt), a backup center (restired free agent Jared Labbe looks promising), a third offensive tackle, a linebacker (or two) to fill in for Chesapeake Chitterlings bound Billy Springer, and then a bunch of defensive backs as we have only 6 left on roster, not including Guthrie.

Meanwhilst, I'm trying to trade away all our draft picks, at the very least the expensive ones. Any incoming rookies will likely ride the bench, possibly even inactive all season. I'm even willing to trade picks for lower round picks in the future for this, that desperate.

We'll manage, though, we'll manage.

MIJB#19

12-24-2019, 08:16 AM

General Manager Notes: Ready for pre-season 2087!
The off-season has ended, pre-season starts today. With 60 players on roster, we've got our exhibition season player collection worked out.

All-IHOF second team safety Bart Guthrie's agent decided that it was time for Guthrie to leave Maassluis. He's moved on to the Oakland Black Panthers for a $116M signing bonus. Yeah, we didn't have that cash flow available. Rex McIndoe retired, Emmitt Miller was released after a season of inactivity will earning starter money. Miller has moved to the Paris Musketeers, hoping to make their 53-men roster.

To fill the gap, we signed 29-year old Bart Farrell, a former undrafted safety, who worked his way up in the IHOF from an afterthought to full time starter at the Brooklyn' Fightin' Bums, then an off year at the Chicago Norsemen and the last two seasons starting for the Atlanta Vipers. He's more of a free safety type, but we'll be happy with him alongside the only two safeties that hung around: Riddick Newsome and run stopper Alexander Marty. Behind them, we've got two rookies eager to make the roster in second round pick Renaldo Upshaw and undrafted Salvador Harper. We released fellow undrafted rookie Eddie Adams yesterday to cut down from 61 to 60 players.

Elsewhere in the secondary, we'll have quite the roster spots battle at cornerback. Seven players are hoping to cling on one of the four or five roster spots we'll reserve there. The release of veteran Tre Poloski might have come as a surprise, but he never lived up to the first round pick hype and we felt he no longer deserved that kind of salary. Kirk Hitchcock and Lee Hancock are obviously our returning starters. Two rookies made it as pure cornerbacks, fifth round pick Jessie McNeill and undrafted Kristopher Reid will likely battle for one spot. Gabe Broady is our cherished punt returner, and nothing but that. Courtney Blackwell might improve to nickel back this season and has been waiting in the wings to take over the punt returning duties if Broady loses some speed. Undrafted rookie Mason Wilson might potentially make the team is one of two kickoff return specialists.

At linebacker, three of seven roster spots are locked up for All-IHOF Craig McCorkle, still going strong Glenn Brewer and rising star Daquan Espino. The latter looks ready to jump in as the new MLB ahead of McCorkle. Veteran Skip Keith hopes to get a sixth season in Maassluis as a special teamer. Undrafted rookie Harvey Cassidy is his main rival for the roster spot. Second-year pro Walt Offerman hasn't had a contract in the IHOF yet, but this off-season we decided to give him the chance after he kept working out for himself in hopes to get into the IHOF after all. Third round pick Clayton Jackson is a passing downs linebacker. The kid might fall anywhere from unseating Brewer as the third linebacker to missing the 53-men cut. Moving him to defensive end was an option, but the staff felt he's too short and small to make that move well.

The defensive line is pretty much unchanged from last season's collective. All-IHOF selection Heath Oliver will once again anchor the line from the middle. A truck load of fast pass rushers will be his rotating sidekicks. Gino Kemp, Gene Kondovski, A.J. Ritt, Andy Russell, Erik Shrader, Tony Whiting and Ezekiel Wylie are back for another season. Undrafted rookie Archie Exner looks very promising though, could be the most suitable pass rusher of this 2087 class and he might take out one of those other guys this pre-season...

Doug Guynes returns for another season as our punter, Thomas Robertson should stay as our kicker. He's in the final year of his rookie contract and (somewhat rightfully) thinks he deserves to be the highest paid kicker in the league. Sure, but we don't have the cap space to make you an offer. Most likely, we'll see the last of him this season and either have to pay him big next off-season or look for a replacement in the 2088 off-season. Timothy Biegen returns for a second season as our long snapper. Karsten Muchnick should hang around for a ninth season as our kick holder (I know it's to no avail, but at some point I hope my staff starts to understand that kick holder means kick holding and surely not second string quarterback!).

Speaking of second string quarterbacks, we picked up undrafted rookie Francisco Farley to challenge third year Ernest Andrews for the slight possibility to ever becoming the replacement for when Ellis McAlister calls it quits. It seems very unlikely either will emerge though, we gambled too much in the draft on two players that I felt were worth taking in the fifth and sixth round, but both got taken shortly before our turn.

In the backfield we've replaced veteran Monty Digler, his third down skills never came to fruition. Seventh round pick Francisco Patter isn't quite that kind of player either, but he's emerging as our strongest most promising rookie. His hole recognition makes him a threat to Leonard Belin and Reggie Thongchanh as a viable ball carrier. Patter might lack the breakaway speed to fit in our playing style. Tristan Cochrane remains as our fullback. I'm still struggling to have our staff find a way to sue him to his strengths, we've underused his run blocking skills for four straight season. Consequently, it makes it tough to defend my decision to bring back the promising run blocking fullback Clay Brosseau for a second season.

At tight end, we've replaced veteran Nicholas Gundy with fifth round rookie Randy Holliday. We'll likely go into the 2087 season with 4 tight ends, which should pretty much guarantee a roster spot for Holliday. Tyler Kotz might emergence as our new third tight end this season after two seasons of inactivity. Miles Barker and Jessie Taylor stick around for another season. I hope we find better use of both guys' run blocking skills in the upcoming season.

At wide receiver, it's still Theo sky high above the rest. With another bunch of franchise records, Theodore Bondy was IHOF's leading receiver in 2086. I do hope we can make him more effective as his yards per target number has dipped again to under 8.0. Artie Blazewicz should remains as his main sidekick, although sixth round pick Branden Sandlin looks like a younger, greener, version of Blazewicz, lacking the return skills to make him a true copy. Tucker Gaylor is going into his third season, will he finally emerge as the player I believe he can be? Chris DeWoody is the alternative and is demanding the WR2 role, but his lack of route running skills has kept him in a WR4 role last season. Ross Willbrandt re-emerged as our kickoff returner last season, but he'll be challenged once again and could lose the roster spot to aforementioned rookie cornerback Mason Wilson. Or to undrafted rookie A.J. Warnock, who might make the roster as a kickoff and punt return specialist, while also good enough to be in a support role on special teams.

Lastly, the offensive line. The five starters remain to be the same, most likely: left tackle Nathan Hadinger, left guard Harvey Hank, center Butch Pearson, right guard Michael Szott and right tackle Howard Humphrey. Hank has to look over his shoulder as second-year Andre Watson made decent progress in training camp. As did center Jared Labbe. The retirement of Louie Murray made us decide to acquire two new left tackles in second-year pro Miles Hanspard and fourth round rookie Myron Hamilton. We'll have to see in pre-season which of these two deserves a roster spot in 2087, it's unlikely we have room for both.

And that's it, the 60 names of players that will be on the Maassluis Merchantmen roster this pre-season. As per usual, 7 names (at least) will not make it to our opening day roster. QB, WR, LT, DE, LB, CB and S are the positions where there's most likely a casualty, but nobody is safe. Okay, that's not entirely true. 4 players are safe, because releasing them will give us an increased dead cap space hit: Butch Pearson, Nathan Hadinger, Daquan Espino and Lee Hancock. Their bonus money cap figures in future years are bigger than their base salary for 2088. Another general manager in the IHOF informed me about the availability of Espino, but I had to tell him this exact thing why he's untradeable. We're projected to be roughly $197 million over the cap next off-season. But so be it, that's how we do things here in Maassluis.

So yeah, pre-season action. 4 games to figure out which players are worth keeping. I hope we have some tough decision to make, not because good players have lost their ability to play ball, but because the youngsters are emerging and too many good players are 53-men worthy. Well, then make it so, guys. Give me tough decisions to make.

MIJB#19

12-24-2019, 05:32 PM

Editor's note: After re-reading the first 10 or so posts of this thread, I'm convinced I'll write another era summary when Ellis McAlister retires. By the end of the 2077 I had no idea he would become our new franchise quarterback. The 75th season stuff with the best 50 legends was a lot of fun to write as well.

MIJB#19

12-25-2019, 08:17 AM

Roster Cut Day 2087 Comes Early: Merchantmen Release Seven
Without any additional roster moves, the Maassluis merchantmen 53 players for the 2087 season are known. Today, the Merchantmen announced the release of seven players following the 19-19 tie with the Outer Banks Ospreys. Earlier this off-season, the Merchantmen lost 33-27 at the Chesapeake Chitterlings in their first exhibition game.

Quarterback Ernest Andrews jumps out amongst the seven released. The third year former second round pick (#40 overall) was making some progress in training camps and pre-season activity, but apparently it was too little to maintain his roster spot as the future quarterback. Undrafted rookie Fernando Farley made more progress in training camp and was slightly less disastrous in pre-season action than Andrews. Neither looked particularly at place with a second-string heavy support cast. The release of Andrews consequently opens up some cap space to extend contracts of several starters on the secondary in their last year of contract and possibly for kicker Thomas Robertson.

Merchantmen general manager M.IJ.B. assured that the cap situation wasn't at work here: "Farley looks more ready than Andrews to potentially step in after McAlister. Andrews was slightly further in his development overall and finally looked ready to be our QB2, but Farley has the arm, legs and awareness to suit our game plan better. Plus, in Farley we see the upside that McAlister showed back in the day. Honestly, Andrews would have made the opening day roster had Farley not impressed us. But that too is the life in the IHOF."

Sixth-year wide receiver and kickoff return specialist Ross Willbrandt was the second familiar name to not survive the cut wave. For the past three season, Willbrandt had surpassed Artie Blazewicz as the premier kickoff returner. His career average of 27.4 yards per return made him a top ten kickoff returner. He looked slightly out of shape in training camp and the Merchantmen decided to go with rookie Mason Wilson as the new kickoff returner.

Undrafted rookie A.J. Warnock also missed the cut. The wide receiver but mostly return specialist didn't impress enough either to unseat aforementioned Willbrandt and Blazewicz, outdo aforementioned Wilson, nor did he impress enough to get into the mix as a punt returner as the Merchantmen stick with Gabe Broady and Courtney Blackwell there. Although, the league's best guy in that area for the last three season, Broady looks like he'll have to hand it over once again to Blackwell.

Another special teamer, linebacker Skip Keith was told his tenure in Maassluis came to an end after 5 seasons and 70 games. He lost the roster spot battle to undrafted rookie Harvey Cassidy.

The same applies to linebacker Walt Offerman. The Merchantmen certainly think he has potential, but on the crowded front seven in Maassluis and his lacking experience, it was tough going in. He wasn't that bad either, in limited action he defended a pass in both pre-season games.

Another second-year pro on his first stint in the IHOF, left tackle Miles Hanspard lost the roster spot battle to rookie Myron Hamilton. The Merchantmen see more upside in Hamilton between two different players.

The seventh player released was cornerback Kristopher Reid. An undrafted rookie, Reid didn't even get a real chance to prove himself. He was active on 1 passing play and on 10 special teams plays in the 2 pre-season games. Fifth round pick Jessie McNeil got preference over Reid as the 11th defensive back on roster.

With these seven players not surviving these cuts, it does mean a couple of players that seemed unlikely to make the roster are still hanging on. Undrafted quarterback Fernando Farley was already mentioned above, but he's one of 12 rookies and 1 veteran player new to the Merchantmen.

Defensive end Archie Exner didn't see much action in two pre-season games, but the undrafted rookie does look like he's going to jump ahead of Ezekiel Wylie and Tony Whiting as the fourth defensive end in the rotation. It means the Merchantmen are likely going into the 2087 season with 9 defensive linemen on roster, one more than usual.

Cornerback Mason Wilson makes the team as the new kickoff returner specialist. The Merchantmen have Blazewicz ready to take over if needed, but for now, the undrafted rookie looks like he'll get that role.

Seventh round pick running back Francisco Patter is another surprise. As it looks like now, Patter will jump ahead of Leonard Belin, on the depth chart. Belin was the main ball carrier last season with 1,351 yards and 9 touchdowns. A the very least, Patter looks like he'll get the third down back role, for whatever that's still worth as the coaching staff refused to use the previous third down back Monty Digler in the last two seasons. It would also mean Reggie Thongchanh jumps ahead as the top ball carrier.

Safety Salvador Harper was probably the last player to make the 53-men group and it looks like he'll be in an active role due to his special teams skills. The undrafted rookie might even be used on run heavy formations.

MIJB#19

12-26-2019, 08:31 AM

General Manager Notes: Spoiled brats!
Yeah, I said it. The highest paid roster in the league ended pre-season without a single victory, looking like a cellar dweller during the games. We have scored a grand total of 1 touchdown on offense. Unheard of, shame on yourselves!

We extended contracts of four starters (guard Harvey Hank and defensive backs Courtney Blackwell, Alexander Marty and Riddick Newsome), which means we're going into the season with just $290K in cap space. In fact, I think that's how it should be every season. The last bunch we failed to use all our cap space, which will eventually snowball into a heavier cap situation the following season.

As it looks now, we'll be $217M over the cap at the start of next off-season. We have $293M locked up in bonus money and $11.8M in dead cap space. This leaves us with $179M room for the base salaries, while we've currently promised them to pay $395M. That's all before taking into account the cost of 8 draft picks. Technically, with 45 signed and 8 draft picks, we could get sneaky and go into the season over the cap. But I'm not sure the league will allow us, regardless of whether we feel that's sportsmanlike.

The cap situation is the least of my concerns for now. Apparently this supposedly talented defense continues to play like a below average bunch of players, while the offense continues to struggle heavily when Theo Bondy isn't on the field. Sure, it's okay to rely on Bondy, but it's not okay to stop trying when he isn't on the field or is double covered. I suppose we have 3 or so days to go into the film room, extensively take a look at what does and doesn't work and figure out what needs to be done to make this talented roster feel more comfortable with the game plan given. (Yeah, good luck with that, M.IJ.B....)

The good news? We're no longer cursed with being the pre-season favorites, we've dropped to third place in that area. Or was that a bad thing as well?

Keep hope, Merchantmen, stay strong. Work hard, it won't come easy, but it'll come.

MIJB#19

01-02-2020, 11:04 AM

General Manager notes: 2087, not our year... Yet?
We're sitting 1-2 after 4 weeks of action. What positive notes can anyone take from there?

For starters, our most recent game was a victory at the defending IHOF champions: the Tucker Tigers. We came back from behind to win 41-34 at their place, despite giving up 448 yards passing and 6.4 yards per carry. Ellis McAlister completed 22 of 28 passes for 316 yards, while the running backs Leo Belin and Reggie Thongchanh combined for 156 yards on 25 carries.

It was a welcome result after we lost a winnable game against the two-time reigning AOC champions Kansas Creationists. We came back from behind in the fourth quarter, turning a 17-10 deficit into a 24-17 lead, gave up the tying touchdown and then saw our kicker miss a 58-yard field goal attempt. In overtime, we let the Creationists convert two expensive third downs and as they reached field goal range, we gave up the losing 29-yard touchdown pass.

The season began by choking at the Bordeaux Vineyards, as an 84-yard pick six turned the game around for them and a late game 55-yard field goal completed their 17-15 late game heroics.

One thing is for sure, the game plan that we thought was okay enough has gone out of the window during our bye week. We've been working on something completely different and hope to see the results of it in week 5 against the North Plainfield Plague, the 2085 IHOF champions. Yes, our schedule is pretty heavy early on.

We may still need work on our offensive game plan as well. Ellis McAlister is once again struggling with completing passes, sitting at 54 percent on 113 attempts. His yards per attempt is a full yard lower than the last two seasons. Unsurprisingly, Theo Bondy is carrying this team with 43 receptions for league leading 536 yards and 4 touchdowns. Our second receiver is tight end Jessie Taylor with 6 catches. Artie Blazewicz has been benched after just 1 catch on 16 targets in he first two games. Tucker Gaylor responded with 4 catches for 58 yards against the Tucker Tigers of all teams.

We're still struggling to figure out who should be the main ball carrier. Leo Belin's 5.9 yards per carry make him the most efficient runner, but Thong's 4.8 yards per carry aren't too shabby. The staff is completely ignoring the instructions to use our rookie Francisco Patter, so far he's gotten 1 lousy carry while being on the field on 2 running plays. Say what now?

Okay, stay positive. We've played 3 close games, won the hardest of them and were kind of a coin flip away in the losses. So it goes. New game plan on defense. Maybe this will make this loaded defense finally start playing up to potential. No pressure, guys, just wanting you to do your jobs!

MIJB#19

01-03-2020, 09:11 AM

General Manager notes: Ellis' reign coming to an end?
Four interceptions and a lost fumble. That too is Ellis McAlister.

Every now or then, when things go wrong, they go horribly wrong. In our home game against the North Plainfield Plague very little went wrong, actually. Sure, when our stupid cornerbacks decided to blitz, we got punished all four times, but basically today was all about an inefficient running game and a mostly a quarterback that couldn't keep the ball on the team.

Three times before in his career did Ellis McAlister get picked off more than 3 times in a single game. All of those off days happened in Oranje Haven and today was the fourth time. Granted, he was playing through the pains of a broken thumb, but he coped with it at the Tucker Tigers.

But elas, Ellis, it happens.

What makes it so interesting though? Some guy we signed off the street as an undrafted rookie free agent banged on the door of our head coach and asked for playing time. It was quarterback Francisco Farley. Granted, he got good grades in the pre-season, a guy that made unexpected good progress. But this guy is asking us to let him take over from a winning quarterback, from his own mentor. What gives? It's not like this went by behind the scenes, for whatever reason this somehow went out to the rest of the world and now we have a disgruntled second string quarterback, whom the staff will likely ignore entirely if McAlister gets hurt and will probably place our frickin' kick holder under center.

What about that rejuvenated game plan? It was okay, we held a pretty solid team to 281 total yards. It wasn't impressive, but it was a huge improvement over the first three games, where we looked lost on defense.

The offense probably needs some tweaking as well though. Like Artie Blazewicz, today it was Tucker Gaylor struggling with just 2 catches on 8 targets. The catches he made counted hard though (53 and 44 yards), but we can't have that when Theo Bondy is held to 10 catches for 115 yards, like today.

European division:
1. Paris 3-1
2. Bordeaux 2-2
3. Maassluis 1-3
4. Gothenburg 1-4

So, we're sitting 1-3 at our 1/4th of the season point, with a couple of home losses and every game could have coin flipped the other way. Well, I'd rather see us throw a six sided die with 3 or higher being in our favor. That's where we want to be. Or really, I want to see this loaded highest paid roster play up to their potential and post 8 solid wins and then see where the 8 coin flip games will go. Thinking about 12-4 is a very optimistic after a 1-3 start, I give you that.

Back to that Francisco Farley guy though, history learns that when young players start complaining about playing time, they seem to think they have the potential to be better than the current starter, or think they are at least starting material in this league. I'll applaud that thought if Farley really is that good. In fact, we'll have to somehow please this kid sooner or later as he's on a one-year minimum contract and if he's really that good, we don't want to lose him in free agency next off-season. We'll look at things later on, for now, we have a proven winner, a quarterback that on average has gotten us to 9-7 wild card round losers. Yeah, the last two seasons he actually posted post-season victories, in his 12th and 13th season in the league. Still, the keys are firmly in the hands of Ellis McAlister and we have no intention to let him hand them in.

For now...

MIJB#19

01-03-2020, 04:40 PM

General Manager notes: the 2087 Roster!
I see you thinking: the season has started, but I missed the list of names that made the cut! Well, you're right, I didn't.

Yet!

Here's the breakdown of the 53 men that made the roster and why they made it.

<table><tr><td>pos<td>name<td>cur/fut<td>why he made the team<tr><td>QB<td>McAlister<td>55<td>Well, let's face it, he became our franchise quarterback. Still sits at roughly 15th best in the league.<tr><td>QB<td>Farley<td>20/35<td>This kid made good progress in training camp. We have to see if this guy is the new McAlister.<tr><td>KH<td>Muchnick<td>25<td>Second best kick holder in the league. (Please stay out of our offense!)<tr><td>RB<td>Belin<td>40<td>Still recognizes holes, but lost a lot of his speed. Good for cohesion. Special teamer.<tr><td>RB<td>Thongchanh<td>45<td>Hole recognition and breakaway speed. Special teamer.<tr><td>RB<td>Patter<td>45/55<td>Hole recognition, but too new to the team to carry it. Okay on third downs.<tr><td>FB<td>Cochrane<td>50<td>Run blocker, can pick up the blitz.<tr><td>FB<td>Brosseau<td>30/45<td>Run blcoker. Potentially the best, but right now has to ride the bench.<tr><td>TE<td>Taylor<td>35<td>Run blocker and special teamer.<tr><td>TE<td>Barker<td>35<td>Run blocker and special teamer.<tr><td>TE<td>Kotz<td>15/20<td>special teamer and ok run blocker.<tr><td>TE<td>Holliday<td>25/30<td>Special teamer? Realistically just our emergency tight end in case of injuries.<tr><td>WR<td>Bondy<td>75<td>Centerpiece of the offense, if not the eintre team.<tr><td>WR<td>Blazewicz<td>40<td>Decent WR2 last season, but he has to prove he still can play. Kickoff returner.<tr><td>WR<td>Gaylor<td>45<td>Hard to explain, but this guy has the endurance, speed, route running and getting downfield skills.<tr><td>WR<td>DeWoody<td>40<td>Special teamer. Big-play receiver. If only he knew how to run routes...<tr><td>WR<td>Sandlin<td>25/40<td>Younger version of Blazewicz, without the return skills.<tr><td>LT<td>Hadinger<td>65<td>Elite pass blocker. Got to love that at left tackle.<tr><td>G<td>Hank<td>35<td>Our cohesion bomb on the line.<tr><td>C<td>Pearson<td>75<td>Solid center. Fits in our tradition of strong centers.<tr><td>G<td>Szott<td>70<td>Solid, no weakness. Must start.<tr><td>RT<td>Humphrey<td>65<td>Elite run blocker.<tr><td>C<td>Labbe<td>30/50<td>Elite run blocker. Potentially. Project or trade value? Time will tell.<tr><td>G<td>Watson<td>25/50<td>This kid has potential. (So we hope.)<tr><td>LT<td>Hamilton<td>25/40<td>We needed a third tackle. (Cutting him would have been tough for the cap)<tr><td>P<td>Guynes<td>55<td>Well, we need a punter, don't we?<tr><td>K<td>Robertson<td>80<td>Best kicker in the league. (Really? This guy?)<tr><td>DE<td>Kondovski<td>45/60<td>Potentially fastest pass rusher in the league. Can defende the run.<tr><td>DE<td>Russell<td>45<td>Should-be elite pass rusher. Decent run defender.<tr><td>DE<td>Exner<td>35/45<td>Pass rusher with decent run defense potential.<tr><td>DE<td>Kemp<td>40<td>Pass rusher, obviously.<tr><td>DE<td>Wylie<td>30<td>Special teamer and mentor. (I hope he doesn't get forced into action much).<tr><td>DE<td>Whiting<td>30<td>Pass rusher (but by lack of run defense skills just our 5th option).<tr><td>DT<td>Oliver<td>80<td>We want an all-world defensive tackle and his name is Heath Oliver.<tr><td>DT<td>Shrader<td>30<td>Declining, but knows the system and can still support the pass rush. Special teamer.<tr><td>DT<td>Ritt<td>35<td>Pass rusher (shocker!)<tr><td>LB<td>Espino<td>65<td>This guy actually is a better pass defender than McCorkle, hence, his successor as our MLB.<tr><td>LB<td>McCorkle<td>75<td>Seriously, this guy is an elite linebacker.<tr><td>LB<td>Brewer<td>45<td>Pass rusher, zone defender. This guy still can play!<tr><td>LB<td>Jackson<td>30/40<td>Pass defender, pass rusher. Our future LB3?<tr><td>LB<td>Cassidy<td>20/35<td>Special teamer.<tr><td>CB<td>Hitchcock<td>80<td>Elite cornerback. Duh.<tr><td>CB<td>Hancock<td>45/55<td>Zone defender, bump and run defender, interceptions. (Might be first round worthy afterall.)<tr><td>CB<td>Blackwell<td>30<td>Elite punt returner. Zone defender, interception skills, hence our nickelback.<tr><td>CB<td>McNeil<td>30/40<td>Zone defender, interceptions, pontentially decent man to man defender.<tr><td>CB<td>Wilson<td>20/30<td>Kickoff returner. (Can't cover a receiver, so plays stay off the defense!)<tr><td>CB<td>Broady<td>15<td>Punt returner, top 20 in the league. But not our best, hence burried deep with inactive role.<tr><td>S<td>Marty<td>45<td>Our least worst run stopper, interceptions magnet (says the staff, he's at 1 pick in 500+ plays).<tr><td>S<td>Newsome<td>30<td>Zone defender, play diagnosis, decent interceptions.<tr><td>S<td>Farrell<td>45<td>Zone defender, also decent man-to-man, interceptions, special teams.<tr><td>S<td>Harper<td>20/35<td>Special teamer, can tackle and potentially zone defend.<tr><td>S<td>Upshaw<td>20/30<td>Quite simply, a bust. (Don't tell him!) Kept to avoid agravating our cap situation in 2088.<tr><td>LS<td>Biegen<td>20<td>A long snapper, duh. Top12 in the league, per my staff.</table>

MIJB#19

01-05-2020, 12:37 PM

General Manager Notes: And that's two!
Alright, win number two is finally in the bags. Ten more in eleven games to go to get that desired 12-4 record.

Was it pretty? Well, to a degree it was. We were visiting the 1-4 Rochester Razorbacks and realized this was the kind of games we should win. And so we did. The defense played decently, holding the Razorbacks to 202 yards passing on 52 passing plays. They may have done better running the ball all day long. We didn't force any turnovers, but with only 2 drives allowed longer than 31 yards, we didn't really need them. About half their points came in garbage time in this solid 25-13 victory.

European division:
1. Paris 4-1
2. Bordeaux 2-3
3. Maassluis 2-3
4. Gothenburg 1-5

Wait what? Gothenburg dropped to 1-5? Yeah, the almost division champions from last season are having an even worse campaign than we are. Their first three losses were in similar fashion: winnable, but silliness cost them a victory or two. Their last two games were much less impressive though. The Giants aren't the kind of team they were last season. Yet?

Over on the French side of the division, the Paris Musketeers have finally played their first road game, avoiding a late game touchdown with a tremendous goal line stand and grabbing victory over the Toronto Lake Monsters in overtime. Despite their progress, they've just announced trade for Arizona Miners former #1 overall pick quarterback Blaine Hawkins. Ironically, really, as the Musketeers intercepted Hawkins 3 times in their week 2 clash against the Miners. Hawkins is considered a gifted passer, our staff says he's the third best in IHOF.

Our next stop? We'll be back in Oranje Haven to face the Toronto Lake Monsters. We've got a superior collective of players, but we all know that's not how football works. They've been playing tremendous football, running efficiently and keeping opponents from scoring a lot of points. Well, we're up to the challenge! Last time we faced them, Theo Bondy had 13 catches for 236 yards. We hope he can copy that and lead the way back to .500 land.

MIJB#19

01-11-2020, 04:48 PM

General Manager notes: Playoff bound, seriously?
Not so long ago, I reported that we were trying to crawl out of a deep hole dug by our lack of ability to win close games. Now, I'm telling you we'll need a some serious bad luck to avoid the playoffs. Let's rephrase, we've done well enough lately that we're in a very good position to be able to reach the playoffs. What's up with that?

First of all, the defense finally woke up. Sample size is small to get overly enthusiastic, but a revived game plan might be at least somewhat of a cause here. We've gone on a serious stretch of good showings to improve from worst defense in the league after 5 games to slightly above average after 11 games. Which means we must have played quite a bit above average in the last 6 games to get there. We've had one horrible quarter against the Gothenburg Giants (3 long drives all for touchdowns), but for the most part it's been between good, pretty good and at the very least Merchantmen worthy.

Offensively, Reggie Thongchanh has stepped it up quite a bit. After two games of riding the bench, we've given him the ball quite a lot and he's responded our confidence with 4 more 100-yard games and 9 touchdowns in the last 6 games. Theodore Bondy saw his streak of 100-yard games end in a home game against Bordeaux, where he left the field injured with just 52 yards on 7 catches, then missing the follow up road game at Gothenburg, which we lost by lack of having an alternative game plan ready to roll out.

European Divison:
1. Maassluis 7-4
2. Paris 7-4
3. Gothenburg 4-7
4. Bordeaux 3-8

Yes, ladies and gentlemen, we've crawled all the way back to the top, posting a firm 33-24 road victory at the Paris Musketeers and pulling an unexpected shutout victory over the Bordeaux Vineyards. In the process, we've also managed a road victory at the stout Chicago Norsemen defense and overcame a peculiarly horrible showing from Ellis McAlister (5 interceptions!) with a 21-20 win at the Harlem Apollos.

Yes, despite the victories, McAlister has really struggled. His passer rating in these last six games only once topped 72.3, he hasn't even sniffed at 300 yards. Our running game isn't just a welcome surprise, I think it a necessity to keep defenses honest.

Have we pulled McAlister in that series? Oh yes, our staff once again decided to throw our kick holder miserably excuse for a quarterback out there, despite that we have a promising rookie active. For a change, Francisco Farley can be reasonably displeased about not getting some playing time. Of course, we should never accept that our staff pulls a proven winning quarterback at half time in a favor of whatever we have on the bench, never ever. I'm still trying to figure out who's been responsible for this inexcusable decision. When Theodore Bondy is inactive due to injury, the worst thing we can do is take away our second most important player of the offense. Yes, I'm still non-amused.

But enough about our loss against the Giants, we've re-established ourselves with 6 wins in the last 7 games. With head-to-head victories over basically all the AOC teams in pursuit of the wild card places, we're in a favorable situation to at least reach the playoffs. Our week 15 clash with the Musketeers, in Oranje Haven, will be crucial for the division title tie-breakers. Mathematically, the Giants can still pass us in a week 17 head-to-head clash at their place. I mean, it wouldn't be the last time we pulled that kind of stunt of a choke job.

I hope we can figure out where we can make some improvements to McAlister's ability to find other players through the air than Theodore Bondy. And if he does, how we can make Bondy improve on his unsatisfying 6.9 yards per target. A player of his caliber should be able to sniff at 10 yards per target, but at least get way north of 8.5 to 9.0 per target. Wouldn't that be something, finding a way to have Bondy play up to his potential? Sure, 2,449 yards in a single season (last season) isn't shabby at all, but with his skills, he should be able to get 450 yards more, or open up the field for our other wide receivers to combine for that yardage.

For now, we'll cherish this somewhat unexpected, yet very logical revival. For a day or two and then get on with it: the next 8 or 9 games of this season. That should be our goal. We can do this, Merchantmen.

MIJB#19

01-15-2020, 05:40 PM

General Manager Notes: Europe reclaimed
Wait, what now? Isn't it only week 15?

Sometimes, things can be less complicated than all the various tie-breakers there can be required to seperate teams. Week 15 of the 2087 IHOF season feature us, the Maassluis Merchantmen, hosting the Paris Musketeers. We were the division leaders, with 1 win lead, practically set by the earlier head-to-head road victory in Paris. In essence, win and the division would be ours. Well, the team delivered, and quite convincingly.

First drive of the game, Maassluis possession. The Blazewicz special, ran by Chris DeWoody, fails, followed by a hurried pass, but on third and 10, Ellis McAlister connects with Theo Bondy for a 49 yard gain. Welcome to Oranje Haven, Paris. DeWoody delivered in the next play with a 19-yard catch and McAlister to Bondy from deep inside the red zone put us up 7-0 after less than 2 minutes.

It wasn't like the Musketeers didn't respond with their offense marching downfield, but our free safety Bart Farrell ended their first possession at our 30-yard line, which was eventually followed up with a 44-yard field goal and on the next Paris possession, again Farrell turned things over with a pick in the endzone. Free agent signing of the year? At least for a day he was.

Defenses started to take over in the second quarter, until we got another productive drive ending in Teggie Thongchanh's run from 6 yards out for the 17-0 lead. Several defensive stands followed and Paris finally got on the score board with a 33-yard kick with less than 3 minutes to go until the big break. We responded with a 41-yard kick of our own and maintained the 20-3 lead through the half time break.

Second half, Paris ball. The Musketeers put their best drive of the game so far on the field. Things get really interesting when they reach field goal range and rather than salvaging it on 3rd and 5, they go all out as Blaine Hawkins connects for a 26-yard throw into the end zone to tight end Rusty Fernandez to trim the deficit to 20-10. We punt, but on the next play force a fumble at our 41-yard line and eventually kick again: 23-10. Things got uglier for Paris three plays into their next possession as Lee Hancock picked off Hawkins at the Paris 30-yard line and 14 seconds into the fourth quarter we've kicked ourselves to a 26-10 lead.

We force three and out, follow up with a drive that results in a 28-yard field goal, but then Paris' Darrin Sheldon catches fire and returns the kickoff for 94 yards and a successful two-point conversion later it's 29-18 for us with just under 10 minutes to go. No worries, McAlister finds Theo for 54 yards on third and long to set up field goal for the 32-18 lead. We stop Paris on fourth down near midfield with just over 3 minutes to go and the crowd starts thinking this division title is pretty much secured. We eat some time, but Thong fumbles the ball in Paris territory and albeit without timeouts, they have 2 minutes remaining and the ball to keep their dreams for a comeback victory going. Blaine Hawkins marches his team downfield, but we stop them short of a touchdown with 54 seconds to go and on the next play, our rookie Archie Exner makes the sack for a 12-yard loss and virtually the game ender. Two failed plays later, it's over. Maassluis wins 32-18 and defends the European division title with success!

1. Maassluis 10-4
2. Paris 8-6
3. Gothenburg 7-7
4. Bordeaux 3-11

It was a good day overall. Granted, we were forced to kick quite a lot (6 times), but 454 yards of total offense isn't something we showcase week in, week out. 379 yards allowed isn't up to par with recent weeks, but against this loaded offense, it's a very good showing. Especially the 4 turnovers really changed the story of the game for us. Thong's late fumble ended up too little too late for Paris.

Theo was seriously back in business with 159 yards receiving after two games under 100 yards. Thongchanh ran for 91 yards, DeWoody gained 91 yards on 3 catches. Yes, the offense played well. McAlister threw for 327 yards and was happy to remain turnover free for a change. He's still leading the league in interceptions, but we don't worry too much as long as we rack up the victories and keep on doing that for 5 more games.

5 more? Aren't we just 10-4? Sure, but with all that's happening around the conference, we've moved into the second seed spot, which means two more wins will give us a bye and means five wins will give us the IHOF Bowl.

Okay, let's not get way too ahead of ourselves though, next up is a home game against the 8-6 Iowa Cobbers (last season they went 14-2) and the regular season ends with the most feared game of the season: at the Gothenburg Giants. We'll certainly go all out and aim for that 12-4 finish. Heck, if the Houston Mustangs lose one of their two remaining road games at wild card hopeful teams, we'll have a shot at the #1 seed. But again, that's getting ahead of ourselves.

For now, we're one of six teams with a ticket to the playoffs secured, it's a contrast with the miracle comeback last season. Sure, we've gone from 1-3 and behind a 5-1 division leader to claiming the division 2 week ahead of schedule, but this is the first step to success this season.

Yes, Iowa up next. C'mon Merchantmen, we can do this.

MIJB#19

02-05-2020, 02:05 PM

General Manager Notes: And then there was nothing...
Our season is over, cap hell forthcoming, window of opportunity closing?

Last time I wrote, we had just clinched the division title with 2 regular season games remaining. We're far ahead of that already, tomorrow the IHOF Bowl LXXXIV is on schedule. Nope, we're not in it. We didn't even make it to the Atlantic Ocean Conference championship game. How we didn't get there?

We finished the regular season with a heavily contested 26-23 overtime loss to the Iowa Cobbers, in a game where we allowed just one touchdown: a 90-yard pick six. We followed up with a smooth, yet tight 30-23 victory at the Gothenburg Giants, which wasn't enough to grab a bye week.

As a result, we got to host in the wild card round and once again got to face a division rival. The Paris Musketeers had their best showing against us this season (after we beat them twice by a firm margin in the regular season), but we failed to choke against them, coming up with a crucial fumble return touchdown in the fourth quarter to flip the score into a 24-20 victory. Our late game defense was crucial as Paris ran of time while driving for a possible game winning touchdown, they surely would have converted the field goal had it been 3 or less points.

So onwards we went, to play the second seeded Orlando Talons in their place. In spite of being underdogs, we had every right to be optimistic with victories against them in the last two seasons. We struck first and at half time were trailing just 14-13. In the third quarter we turned the scoreboard around, taking a 20-17 lead after Reggie Thongchanh scored his second short touchdown of the day. But in the fourth quarter our luck ran out, Theodore Bondy eventually had just 7 catches on 26 carries and we didn't get enough out of the 3 interceptions that we got out of Orlando's quarterback. End result a 34-20 loss.

As of now, I'm sensing that our cap dept for next season is too large to get out of without sacrificing some talent. As such, I've already called this the potential closing of our window of opportunity. It's too bad we didn't fix our defensive game plan a couple of seasons earlier, as it now ends up in a "would have, could have, should have" "what if?" situation.

So be it.

But we'll never give up, keep on trying.
Feelin' young, feelin' strong...

Go Merchantmen!

MIJB#19

02-07-2020, 02:54 PM

Merchantmen release Ellis McAlister
The Cinderella story is over. Ellis McAlister, the 36-year old former sixth round draft pick, was today announced to be released by the Maassluis Merchantmen after 14 seasons of service. The decision comes after McAlister's statistically worst season, for the first time throwing more interceptions than touchdowns and seeing his quarterback rating plummet to below 75 for the first time.

The franchise quarterback played in 144 regular season games and 10 playoff games. His regular season tally ends at exactly 35,000 passing yards with 218 touchdowns and 152 interceptions. McAlister ranks third all-time amongst all Merchantmen quarterbacks in passing yards and sixth in touchdown passes.

The Merchantmen are stuck in a deep salary cap situation, projected to be $230 million over the cap if they don't make any roster moves, renegotiations and use their current 8 draft picks. Releasing McAlister opens up just $34 million of cap space, as this is just the beginning of an unavoidable domino effect of roster cuts, trades and heavily negotiated contract restructures.

Along with McAlister, nine other long time veteran players will be released come next Monday. The players and their various player agents have already been informed, but McAlister's departure stands out far above the others. The off-season will be busy in Maassluis, the 2088 roster will see many changes for the last three seasons' conference semifinalist.

MIJB#19

02-08-2020, 10:03 AM

General Manager Notes: Welcome to Cap Hell 2088
We've been here before and somehow crawled our way out of the deep hole we dug. This time around, it's a deeper hole than ever before. Let me take you through how deep it is.

The basics:
* the salary cap is $483.8M and the 51 most expensive players will count towards that cap (player 52, 53 and during the pre-season 54 and up don't count towards the cap)
* we have $13.87M of dead cap space, leaving $469.3M to work with
* we have 8 draft picks (which combine for $19.82M of cap costs), which means after using those picks, we have $449.48M left
* we have 44 players signed, which means all but the least expensive one will count towards the cap [FOF's in game calculations are misleading in this area and will actually add the draft costs on top of whatever number of players that are signed, even if that number is already 51]
* the 44 players signed are already counting $291.65M in bonus money, this means we have $157.83M available for the base salary for these 44 players
* the 44 players on roster are due $389.43M in base salary, this means we're $231.6M over budget and need to free up that much of cap space by roster cuts or by renegotiations

So there we have it, we're $231.6M over a $483.8M cap. Yes, we're spending roughly 1.5 times what we are allowed to.

* breath in, breath out *

Some considerations:
* if we trade all 8 draft picks, we clear that $19.80M of cap space, but would still need to sign 7+ undrafted rookies at $1.61M a piece to a full roster (remember, only the first seven count towards the cap, the last two will be the cheapest 2 players on roster), which actually saves only $6.91M
* we've talked with all 52 players on roster to find out their contract demands, which gives us a picture of 5 options for each player (excluding the 8 free agents): do nothing, give what he wants, offer what we want to pay (alteration of the request), cap out (available for only 12 players) or release the player.
* after applying the optimal cap number (without any releases) and removing all draft picks, we'll still be $88.44M short, which means we'll have to release a number of players and will save their base salary minus the rookie minimum in cap space. As it appears to me, we'll have to release 4 of our 5 most expensive players and will still come short. Those five are DT Heath Oliver, CB Kirk Hitchcock, WR Theo Bondy, QB Ellis McAlister and MLB Craig McCorkle. Cutting them all would give us a positive figure of $10.4M.
* all this taken into consideration, we'll have several underpaid players desiring a very large increase in their cap figure (RB Reggie Thong', WR Tucker Gaylor, S Bart Farrell and RT Howard Humphrey). Combined, they want $33.78M more. Money we don't have, which means there's a big risk of them going into holdout mode, in which case we'll be forced to trade or even cut most of them. Especially Tucker Gaylor and his 51 catches for 720 yards and 2 touchdowns looks very likely to be off roster come opening day 2088.

I thought I had made up my mind yesterday and had everything under control, but that was far from the truth. After a truckload of moves and potential renegotiations, we would be $970K under the cap, but with only 34 players signed and thus still needing to find room for 17 minimum salary rookies (which is $27.37M) and no cap room for any of our draft picks. Early reports of McAlister leaving Maassluis look like it's a done deal, no way around it. The "nine other long term veteran players" to be released would get us to that $970K situation, but still far away from what we need to do.

So, that pretty much sums up our cap situation.

Is there a door number two? Theoretically, we could use the picks, as such get up to 52 players signed and see what the league office will do about us being $230M over the cap. Quite simply, we wouldn't get away with it, as league rules are pretty clear: "Each team must be under the league salary cap when Regular Season Week 1 is [played]. Failure to do so will result in league mandated cuts and a possible loss of draft pick(s)."

So there you have it.

It's time to announce a big trade block to the rest of the league's general managers...

tzach

02-09-2020, 04:57 AM

just checking in again to say that i really enjoy this thread, mijb.

the financial module of fof is not perfect, but it simulates pretty well these kind of situations with the salary cap. it's one of my favorite aspects of the sim.

regarding your last point about trying to go into the season over the cap with a legal roster, my understanding is that this has been attempted in the past in other leagues, and the language from ben's rule is exactly to prevent this possibility (which can occur is SP, since the AI will not put a team under the cap with automatic cuts if the roster is legal wrt min position numbers).

MIJB#19

02-09-2020, 10:59 AM

regarding your last point about trying to go into the season over the cap with a legal roster, my understanding is that this has been attempted in the past in other leagues, and the language from ben's rule is exactly to prevent this possibility (which can occur is SP, since the AI will not put a team under the cap with automatic cuts if the roster is legal wrt min position numbers).I'm aware of that, even pointed it out.

Thanks for being a loyal reader!

MIJB#19

02-09-2020, 12:07 PM

General Manager Notes: Goodbye guys
Hold on, don't panic, I'm not going anywhere!

We will say goodbye to 11 players that have been with us for many seasons. One of them retired, ten others were today told we'll release them. Yes, Ellis McAlister is one of them.

Guard Harvey Hank retired during the off-season. Rarely have we used a first round pick on guards, but Hank has been an exception and with good reason. Since opening day in 2076, he's been a starter on our offensive line all the way through our playoff loss last season. In 12 seasons he played in 202 games (191 regular season, 11 playoffs), missing just 1 game in that time span.

Running back Leonard Belin played 6 seasons with us. A sixth round pick in 2082, he barely played that rookie season. Things drastically changed in the next season when he went into our rotation as the main ball carrier. Over the past five seasons, we flipflopped between him and Reggie Thongchanh. Belin ran for 1,247 yards or more in 3 of those seasons, coming 15 yards short of the 5,000-yard mark, with a 4.5 yards per carry average and 33 total touchdowns. His tally ends at 97 games played for us, unless we re-hire him later on...

Wide receiver Artie Blazewicz turned from a sixth round pick into our WR2. In his 2080 rookie campaign, he was exclusively a special teamer, but in his second season he was our premier kickoff return man, the alternate punt returner and most prominently notches his first (and so far only) 1,000-yard receiving season. Playing behind Theodore Bondy, he was rarely getting a lot of targets, but at 15.2 yards per catch he's clearly been a deep threat receiver for us. He scored 23 total touchdowns for us.

Linebacker Glenn Brewer was considered a complete defender. Our late 2077 first round pick was a day one starter, his role has been a full time starter until last season, when he moved down in the depth chart to the third linebacker role. He topped 100 tackles four times, but also accumulated 43.0 sacks, 10 interceptions and 84 defended passes. His number of games played for the Merchantmen will likely stop at 187.

Defensive end Ezekiel Wylie went from an undrafted rookie to special teamer, then a loyal member of our d-line rotation and a much appreciated mentor last season. It's been only 7 seasons, but that's plenty enough to rack up to 112 regular season games and 9 playoffs games of activity.

Tight end Jessie Taylor will leave the Merchantmen after just 3 full seasons. He was a free agent signing in the 2085 off-season. The plan was to make him a key run blocker, but due to our game plan decisions, it hasn't worked out well and he became even more of a third or fourth choice receiving target. He's made 111 catches for 1,064 yards and 5 touchdowns in 48 regular season games, while playing on all 7 playoffs games in those 3 seasons.

Fullback Tristan Cochrane joined us as a fifth round pick in 2081 and as such spent 7 seasons on roster. We had hoped to turn him into an elite blocker, which he has all the skills for, but reality is that our game plan hasn't been in his favor. 10 carries, 81 receptions, 13 key run blocks, that's his tally in 112 regular season games. We might have found a new role for him with a different game plan in the future, but we're going to promote Clay Brosseau to the role.

Tight end Miles Barker has been another supposedly run blocker, but in reality he's made a grand total of 1 key run block in 64 regular season games and 7 playoffs games. He was an undrafted rookie signing back in 2084, but we just haven't found a way to get him to play much in our game plan.

Defensive end Gino Kemp joined us as a fifth round pick in the 2080 draft. His rookie campaign was silent, but his second season we put him into a leading pass rush role. His tally ran up to 39.5 sacks in 115 regular season games, while also playing in 9 playoffs games during his tenure with us. With a 7.1 pass rush percentage, he's been our most threatening rusher in that time span.

Defensive tackle Erik Shrader was our fourth round pick in 2080. He's been in an active role as a rookie, although his role to a fulltime starter had to wait until his fourth season. He played in 127 regular season and 9 playoffs games for us, scoring 2 fumble return touchdowns.

And then there's Ellis McAlister. A 2074 sixth round pick afterthought at first, but from his first training camp and onwards, we knew this guy had more into him than all the scouts in the league realized. He had to ride the bench for 5 long seasons. And then the 2079 season rolled around. With McAlister at quarterback, we had a 12-4 campaign, with him throwing for 4,193 yards and 27 touchdowns against 14 interceptions. All in all, it might have been his best regular season. That season came to a painful halt in a 43-17 drubbing in which hew threw for 5 interceptions, a rarity even for McAlister. Long story short, he's been our starting quarterback for the last 9 seasons, with that last one being his worst in passing numbers. His contract demands are no longer in line with what he has done for us. So, sadly, it was time to move on.

Wait… Isn't kick holder Karsten Muchnick the only "quarterback" on roster? Why yes, indeed. We hope to re-sign Francisco Farley before the draft is over, because after that he'll go into the open market. Why would we want Farley back? Well, frankly, I have good hopes that he's our new hidden gem, that needs some polishing, but could be much better than all the scouts in the league think he is. We may dream, no?

So, that's where we're at. Basically quarterback-less and still $151 million short of getting under the cap with 53 players signed. Of course, we could just find a way to get out of the $135 million gap. Yes, all these cuts have saved us close to $100 million already.

Still, we're going to have to trade 2 or 3 players from our elite four: Theo Bondy, Kirk Hitchcock, Oliver Heath and Craig McCorkle. I'm hoping to salvage Bondy most prominently, but as you can imagine, he's currently the hottest player in negotiations. A tough situation.

And then there's the situation with all those potential hold outs, primarily our running sensation Reggie Thongchanh. It's getting less and less likely we'll be able to hold onto him, even despite the aforementioned release of Leo Belin.

Fun times for troubleshooter general managers. Not so much for those that restock through the draft season after season. My drafting skills have taken their toll now, combined with the stubbornness and stupidity of the player agents that keep on turning down better contracts than what their players want. So be it, this is where we're at.

I once said: Maassluis doesn't rebuild, we reload. "Restock" might have been better suited, but that's where I'm at. We'll get over this hump, fast.

MIJB#19

02-11-2020, 11:43 AM

General Manager Notes: Stubborn Player Agents!
Oh for four. Bullocks.

We tried to offer our four best and most expensive players a restructured contract. Kirk Hitchcock, Theodore Bondy and Keith Oliver currently have the three biggest cap figures in the league. Craig McCorkle is eighth behind a foursome of quarterbacks. So, as such, we offered them insane contracts ($252M over 5 years for Oliver, $235M over 5 years for Hitchcock, $215M over 5 years for Bondy, $135M over 4 years for McCorkle), but their agents made the unsurprising, yet very disappointing decision to turn down contracts that would give these guys enormous new signing boni.

Alas, Player agents in the IHOF have no sense of what money is. Heck, there's no way these players will get these kind of contracts elsewhere. Bondy maybe, but the other guys? Hell, no.

Five other guys have signed a restructured deal, but these are in the margins of our roster (no offense, guys).

A tougher decision was the release of one of, if not the best, punt returner in league history: Gabe Broady. His tenure in Maassluis ends after 7 seasons. He was an undrafted free agent signing in 2081 and became our premier punt returner halfway through that season. In the following 5 seasons, he was the league's best return specialist, combining for 8 touchdowns. For a short while in 2085 we benched him in favor of Clarence Blackwell and in 2087 Blackwell took over from this legend. Broady spent the entire season inactive. With 7 playoffs games added, his tally ends at 91 games played for us. Father time came early for him, the decline has already set in for him. Good luck elsewhere, Gabe...

MIJB#19

02-12-2020, 03:12 PM

General Manager Notes: Exodus continues: Bye, McCorkle
Yup, Craig McCorkle is out. And so is Bart Farrell.

We found new homes for linebacker Craig McCorkle and safety Bart Farrell. McCorkle moves to the Arizona Miners, while Farrell joins the Texas Sharks. In return, we received fourth and fifth round picks in the 2089 draft respectively. Earlier on, we sent the 1.27 and 2.27 picks to the reigning IHOF champions (Houston Mustangs) for their first round pick in 2089 and their third round pick.

Craig McCorkle, inside linebacker, last season moved to the strongside. We picked him 18th overall in the 2079 draft and after a season of third linebacker duties, he burst into the league as a full time starter in 2080. In 2081 he earned his first All-IHOF first team selection and he repeated that in 2085. Last season he was a second teamer. Six season straight he topped the century mark in tackles. In 143 regular seasons games he made 940 tackles, 292 assists, 25.0 sacks, 16 interceptions, defended 99 passes and forced 21 fumbles. Yes, this guy has been a beast and at 29 years old is still at the top of the game. Yeah, we miss him already.

Bart Farrell was our short term replacement for last season's free agency loss Bart Guthrie. Farrell played very well in the free safety slot, but for dubious reasons we were not allowed to offer a cap out to him. A shame, as it would have made us keep him. But so be it, off he goes after just one season. Good luck in Texas!

Attempts to persuade the moronic player agents of the three remaining expensive star players resulted in another failure. It's becoming pretty clear: by tomorrow, we'll make a decision on which of these three guys will leave Maassluis: Theodore Bondy, Kirk Hitchcock and Keith Oliver. Traditionally we've been a team of elite defensive tackles and wide receivers, which doesn't bode well for Hitchcock, unless he actually wants to play elsewhere. But, honestly, I haven't made up my mind yet. We have a very sound trade offer for Bondy, whilst the other two guys have been overlooked on the market. Perhaps their inflated salaries scare other team's general managers away.

One fellow general manager asked about Keith Oliver's contract demands. I was polite, offered the insight, but also added: this is what he wants us to pay. Oliver will lower his demands elsewhere, he knows he's much more valuable to us than for another team. [Yes, I'm convinced that's how FOF8 works, it makes you pay for cohesion boosts].

Will 2088 be a lost season? Hell, no. It's way too earlier to make such claims. We're salvaging a majority of our starters and I'm convinced we'll be competitive and fill some of the voids with guys that were main backups last season. The glaring holes are at quarterback and defensive tackle, we'll have to figure out what to do there though...

All in all, this interesting and moving off-season continues...

MIJB#19

02-13-2020, 01:45 PM

General Manager Notes: Rock, Paper, Scissors…
Oliver wins. I mean, loses. He's out.

Ladies and gentlemen, that was a tough decision. We're down our franchise defensive tackle. A sad day for the Merchantmen defense, a position we usually cherish, especially when he's the best at it.

Well, Heath Oliver, it was a good run, five season in orange, white and blue. The acquisition started in the 2081 draft, when we shipped two second round picks, a third and a sixth to the Outer Banks Ospreys for their first rounder in 2083. It ended up being the #9 overall and at that slot we grabbed the best player of his class, just like we did in the previous bunch of drafts. In those five seasons, he missed nine games due to concussion in 2084. His statistics aren't all that shiny, but he earned all-IHOF first team honors in 2086 and was probably a key figure in our run defense, giving other players the opportunity to make plays.

It is what it is. We turned down a couple of great offers for Theodore Bondy, as I suspect we can do a better job winning games with him and Kirk Hitchcock still around.

But, y'know, it's been a tough off-season. We've released 12 players and I'm not yet convinced we've reached the end of the tunnel. Cap space should be cleared in time for the end of the draft, with just enough cap space to sign Francisco Farley, regardless of whether Bondy and Hitchcock will sign a renegotiated deal that gives them much less money (yeah, remember, player agents are lunatics), but closer to their demands.

The draft has been ongoing and we've already picked a replacement defensive tackle in Corwin Nowlin. Outside linebacker Trenton Mendelssohn and kicker Emmett Wells were other other two third round picks. Additionally, we swapped our fourth rounder for a pick next draft from North Plainfield. We still have our fifth, sixth and seventh round picks to use.

Again, cap hell is not yet over, but the end is in sight. Some inevitable hold outs are upcoming, I just hope we can get Howard Humphrey to stay away from that and offer our all-IHOF first teamer a contract both parties can agree with.

So it goes. Got to keep believing we can manage it!

MIJB#19

02-14-2020, 06:56 PM

Merchantmen trade WR Gaylor
The exodus of Maassluis Merchantmen players this off-season continues. Today the Merchantmen management announced the trade of wide receiver Tucker Gaylor to the Paris Musketeers for a fourth round pick in the 2089 draft.

Gaylor broke out with 51 catches for 720 yards as the Merchantmen #2 receiver last season. It was his third season in Maassluis after being taken in the fifth round of the 2085 draft. He had just 12 catches for 142 yards before last season.

Being in the last year of his rookie contract, Gaylor felt that he deserved an improved contract, which the Merchantmen under their current cap situation can't afford. It didn't take long for an interested trade partner to fly bye, as the Paris Musketeers offered a fourth round pick for him.

---

Merchantmen re-sign QB Farley
The Maassluis Merchantmen have agreed terms with quarterback Francisco Farley to a new one-year contract. Farley was the third stringer for the Merchantmen last season, seeing no action in his rookie campaign. The undrafted free agent signing has been tipped to be the starting quarterback in Maassluis for the upcoming 2088 season.

The Merchantmen released Ellis McAlister earlier on this off-season and Farley was a restricted free agent. Earlier on kick holder Karsten Muchnick signed a new two-year contract.

Odds are the Merchantmen will bring in a bunch of young quarterbacks to challenge Farley for the starting role. If cap space requires it, Maassluis may or may not look in different directions, as the Merchantmen general manager M.IJ.B. made no secret of wanting to go for a new quarterback in the 2089 season. That said, the Merchantmen are known for trying to be competitive all the time. Even during rebuilding seasons, which the 2088 is shaping up to be.

---

Merchantmen present 2088 draft class
Two defensive tackles, a linebacker, a running back, a wide receiver and a new kicker. That's the score for the Maassluis Merchantmen in the recently completed 2088 amateur draft.

Running back Bart Gunja was taken in the fifth round. The Merchantmen believe he has the much desired combination of hole recognition and breakaway speed, similar to last season's starter Reggie Thongchanh. Expectations are this might be Thong's last season in Maassluis, playing on the final season of his rookie contract. Gunja will likely have to ride the bench, if he makes the final 53-men roster.

Wide receiver Tracy Arntt was taken primarily for his special team skills. A promising kickoff returner, Arntt fits the Merchantmen tradition well. He was taken late in the seventh round, but he was already considered at the fifth round by the team. Arntt has okay big play ability to make him suitable for hail mary plays as well.

Kicker Emmett Wells was graded highest at his position. The Merchantmen took him with the final pick of the third round, acquired in the deal that saw the Merchantmen trade their first round pick to the Houston Mustangs for a 2089 first round pick to save cap space.

Defensive tackle Corwin Nowlin was the first player taken in the third round by the Merchantmen. He's considered as a promising pass rusher, which shouldn't be a surprise given the tradition of fast defensive linemen.

Fifth round pick Kurt Ackerman is another fast defensive tackle. Given the current state of the defensive line, surely Ackerman and Nowlin will see a lot of playing time in their rookie campaigns.

The middle of three third round picks, linebacker Trenton Mendelssohn appears to be yet another pass rusher joining a depleted front seven. He was regarded the second best outside linebacker of this class.

MIJB#19

02-16-2020, 11:36 AM

General Manager Notes: We have a 2088 roster!
... and 12 players in excess.

But yes, it's been a frantic post draft free agency with no less than 25 new players signed. With them, three out of contract second year pro free agents returned to Maassluis. In particular the return of defensive end Archie Exner gives me a happy face, but bringing back kickoff returner Mason Wilson and special teamer Santiago Harper are good stories.

Of the 25 new signings, one had a previous stint in Maassluis: third year guard Vernon Sam. He failed to make our 2086 regular season roster, got picked up by the Frederick Red Menace deep into that season and hung around for the entire 2087 season as well, without every seeing any action. Here he'll be battling for the third guard spot on our roster, most likely.

Of the other 24 guys are new names, five aren't undrafted rookies. Running back Braxton Szporluk finished the 2087 season on the Houston Mustangs roster, but missed out on a championship ring being inactive during the playoffs. Safety Bart Sword saw some action for the Moontown Darksiders in 2086, sat out the 2087 regular season without a contract in IHOF, but we'll give this special teamer a new opportunity. Running back Asher Ford was a rookie in 2087, but didn't get even a training camp or pre-season contract, he'll get his first shot here. Tight end Renaldo Crawford was the Toronto Lake Monsters' third round pick last season, got cut in pre-season, then went to the Frederick Red Menace in week 16 for a couple of weeks inactivity and a restricted status this off-season, only to not get a contract there and now joining us. And then there's Jumbo Mojica, a defensive tackle, third round pick for the Chicago Norsemen last season, but inactive all-season long, only very recently released by the Norsemen after ownership change.

Still keeping track? We added 19 undrafted rookie free agents to our roster. Here we go: QB Alvin Stoner, QB/KH Buba Haim, TE Brett Smith, TE Jeffery Blake, WR/KR Roman Gomes, WR Keegan Gelat, WR/KR Rickey Pineo, WR/KR/PR Santiago Messenger, G Nathan Willis, DE Terrence Gellar, LB Jace Peterson, LB Alex Palmer, LB Sebastian Strobel, CB Devin Cherron, CB Alfredo Bennett, CB Ted Frias, S Brenden Hoekstra, S Kennedy Reid and S Levi Blanchard. It would be unfair to all the other guys to pick out a guy or two who stand out, we'll let their training camp performance speak for them.

And that's it for now?

Okay, I see you wondering, what's the cap situation? We've currently got $2.73M of room to work with. Most likely the lion share of this will go to our All-IHOF tackle Howard Humphrey to extend his contract as his rookie deal is ending after this season.

We have six other players scheduled to become free agents after the season. Defensive end Andy Russell appears to be the easiest one to talk into a new deal as he's willing to drop some salary this season and have it spread out as a bonus over three season. Safeties Alexander Marty and Riddick Newsome both have reasonable contract demands, but we'll need all of what Russell is willing to give up for that duo. Defensive tackle A.J. Ritt wants a raise we can't afford for now. Punter Doug Guynes is requesting a raise that might be possible if Humphrey is willing to work with us. And then there's our star running back Reggie Thongchanh, who quite simply will be out of contract after the season. Thong' is willing to play out his rookie contract way below his market value and contract demands.

How is next season looking? The release of Heath Oliver has given us a big hit, but at $38.79M of dead cap space, we're in an okay spot. I'm currently calculating us at $115M under the $489M salary cap. It's reasonable to expect the out of contract players to take about $35M from that stack, which will put us at roughly 35 players signed and $80M to go. The draft will be very interesting with 6 additional picks, including the Houston first round pick. That's 13 more players, putting us at only 3 more empty roster spots counting towards the cap. Realistically, we'll have the cap space for a quarterback once again.

But, but, what about this season? Well, it'll be tricky. I'd love for us to bring in a mentor for Francisco Farley, providing he comes through pre-season and training camp as our obvious #1. But even then, what else can we do? A bunch of potential mentors signed with the better franchises in the league, there are 3 or 4 left on the open market. One of them is the unaffordable franchise quarterback we released not so long ago: Ellis McAlister. No, he's not coming back this season, that's out of the question, impossible, can't be done, no way we'll find the cap space to bring him back.

One more thing? Yes, one more. We'll be releasing 5 players after training camp. Quite simply, we have a roster size limit of 60 to meet. It'll be tough, but probably not out of a luxury. With no disrespect meant, at the bottom of the roster we're weaker than we have been in at least a decade.

On the positive side... Well... We salvaged Theo Bondy, Kirk Hitchcock, kept the O-line together and shockingly saw Thong' decide to hang around for one more season. We might have to go run-heavy this season to protect whomever is going to play at quarterback for us, quite possibly our weakest opening day starter aside from Calvin Snider in the inaugural 2004 campaign. Don't say "what about Malik Weaver in 2044?", he wasn't our opening day starter, Perry Coleman was and got hurt early on, at which point we made the mistake to not go with proven emergency quarterback Harry Osborne, but instead giving that Weaver kid 10 starts, somehow seeing us win 4 of those...

Anyway, that's the post-draft free agency round up. The unwrapping moments to look out for are next Monday and Wednesday, when our scouts tell us the training camp results and what they think on second look after the first bit of pre-season activity.

Until then, we'll sail on. Go Merchantmen!

Elijin

02-17-2020, 11:09 AM

tzach

02-17-2020, 11:35 AM

yep, lots of respect here as well.

MIJB#19

02-17-2020, 05:31 PM

General Manager Notes: Training camp Results are in... Yay?
Could it be? Could it be Farley?

Our scouting staff has taken notes, a lot of notes and they have reported about the progress of our players (and lack there of for some). We went into training camp with 65 players signed. 19 players were reported to have good progress. 26 others made okay progress. The first category interests me most, because that to me is a sign those players could become starting quality players, or the very least decent backups. That doesn't mean the other 26 guys, and especially the youngsters that didn't make progress at all, will get cut. It does mean those 19 guys have a significantly better chance to survive the roster cut waves (the first one coming as early as tomorrow).

Enough yada-yada, who are those 19 guys?

QB Francisco Farley - Our second-year pro has me enthused, this guy was already penciled in as our starting quarterback, this might be a signal it was a good decision to keep him last season.

C Jared Labbe - No surprise, he was on this list in the previous two training camps. He's incredibly unlucky to be stuck behind one of the best centers (a 30-year old) in the league. It might be worth putting him on the block, in potential he would fit very well on a run-oriented offense. (Wait, didn't I say we might go run-oriented? Should we put him at right guard, or put Butch Pearson there? Interesting...)

G Nathan Willis - Undrafted rookies that look well are always welcome! This might be a chance for him to get ahead of veteran Vernon Sam as our third choice and 53-men roster making guard.

G Andre Watson - Our fourth round pick 2 drafts ago had his third straight good camp. With Harvey Hank retired, this could be Watson's chance to break into our starting lineup.

LT Myron Hamilton - A bit of a surprise here. Our fourth round pick from a draft ago wasn't impressive in his rookie training camp. We'll need three tackles for the season anyway, he's pretty safe now.

K Emmett Wells - A bit of a no-brainer to "he'd better be!" We spent a third round pick on this rookie, we'll need him to step in now.

DE Archie Exner - Yes! It was a surprise to see him choose to stick with us, we'll be more than happy to throw him into the rotation as one of our top three defensive ends. He was also on this list as an undrafted rookie last off-season.

DE Terrence Gellar - A welcome surprise. Still a longshot to make our team on a crowded defensive end group (wait, didn't we cut two veterans? Yeah, that crowded were we last season already).

DE Gene Kondolovski - Our third round pick two drafts back. Already had two good training camps, this makes three. Basically he should be, given that third round status, but it's still nice to see this guy turn into what we hope is the succesor to Daquan Strugielski. There, I said it!

DT Jumbo Mojica - New signing, second-year pro. Chose us over a worthy other deal elsewhere. This guy has a shot at starting on our line ahead of the two rookies. At the very least, he will be on our running downs rotation.

DT Corwin Nowlin - Third round pick in the recently finished draft. The staff isn't optimistic about his potential, but still felt he made good progress. At least this give him a head start over the other rookie (Kurt Ackerman), but neither look ready to play on running downs.

OLB Clayton Jackson - As stacked as the D-Line is (bar the heavy cap casualty Heath Oliver), our depleted linebackers group (Craig McCorkle and Glenn Brewer both out) needed a boost. Well, Jackson might be our new strong side linebacker. Wait, he'll definitely will be anyway, but his progress is a sign that he's worthy, not just a short term solution. Well... He's struggling at making tackles, but also had a good camp as a rookie. A bit of both worlds, I suppose.

CB Alfredo Bennett - How about that 21-year old undrafted rookie? Sure enough, but we brought in a lot of bodies in the secondary. Good training camp might still not be sufficient for him to make the 60-men pre-season roster...

CB Ted Frias - This undrafted rookie has me more enthusiastic than Bennett. If this kid holds up, we'll have ourselves another pretty decent CB2 type.

CB Jessie McNeil - Was also on this list last season as a fifth round rookie. Last season sniffed at becoming our dime back. With this progress, he might challenge Clarence Blackwell for the nickelback role...

CB Lee Hancock - Our first round pick from two drafts ago once again made this list. In principle a good sign, albeit he was still underwhelming the last two camps. Now, we have to say he's looking sharp and ready to become a true starting cornerback.

S Salvador Harper - Undrafted rookie last season, had his second good camp. I still don't see much more than a special teamer, but he might eventually be a good enough zone defender and tackler to be considered a worthy injury replacement for the 6-men secondary packages.

S Kennedy Reid - Too little, probably. Despite trading Bart Farrell, I'm pretty happy with our returning safeties. Reid lacks the special teams skills to challenge the other guys, he might not even make our pre-season roster, despite his good camp.

S Bart Sword - Third year pro, I think we have our new Bart here after the two guys that left us this and previous off-season. Not quite sure he's good enough to get into our running downs rotation, but his progress is promising.

And there you have it, 19 young players that made good strides.

Notoriously missing are rookie linebacker Trenton Mendelssohn, whom we had hoped to become our second starting linebacker. The same applies to our sixth round pick running back Bart Gunja, reportedly he didn't make any progress: ouch. The undrafted rookie quarterbacks Alvin Stoner and Bubba Hiam didn't look too great either. Although, we might have found a new kick holder in Hiam (Watch out, Karsten Muchnick!)

All five tight ends and all five wide receivers didn't make much progress. Especially wide receiver Branden Sandlin was on the list of guys that we need to make progress as he's quite clearly our WR2 candidate, despite his underwhelming 2 catches in his rookie campaign, he's still ahead of the five rookies that we brought in (and two of them will likely not even make the pre-season roster).

And that's pretty much it. Next stop: the pre-season update. A very important and potentially overhaul making day. We hope to see little to no guys show up out of shape, but you can never know...

Until then: anchors away!

MIJB#19

02-17-2020, 05:33 PM

I have a lot of respect for you not tearing the team down and starting over. It would have been easy to trade away your assets and take a couple of seasons of lumps, but you chose to fight, which is always the right way.

Missing on Bondy did hurt, though. He deserves to retire in orange.yep, lots of respect here as well.Thanks guys. That's indeed our (my) spirit. Always try to get the best out of this team. We have too much great players hanging around to not try to keep winning. The game plan on defense looks much improved, I have to stay and will remain positive.

MIJB#19

02-19-2020, 04:02 PM

General Manager Notes: God speed, Lee Hancock
He had a good two seasons, but he's off to the realms of the once good football players.

One day after having a superb pre-season game with 2 interceptions with a game clinching 45-yard pick six, Lee Hancock showed up for work and looked light and day differently from the very good starting cornerback he used to be. Hancock has become the worst player on roster. No way around it, he'll be out of Maassluis tomorrow. My apologies to the Hancock family.

That's how life can be in the IHOF. One day you are one half of an elite cornerback duo, the next, you're destined to be a former first round pick no longer getting a contract anywhere in the league.

Lee Hancock was our first round pick two drafts ago. It took little time for him to burst into a full time starting role. His pass defense numbers in that rookie season where pretty phenomenal: 10 passes defended, 1 interception, 19 catches allowed. His second season was somewhat pedestrian looking, but he was part of a reborn rejuvenated secondary. Now, we know he's no longer n IHOF worthy sevenths stringer even. There's no point hanging on to him as a special teamer and fourth choice dime back...

He's one of seven roster cuts after our first two pre-season games. A lot of players looked out of shape in that second game and some got the axe just like Hancock. Before I mentioned them all, let's recap which five players failed to even make the pre-season roster: five undrafted rookie free agents: CB Alfredo Bennett, S Brenden Hoekstra, WR Rickey Pineo, S Kennedy Reid, TE Brett Smith.

The other six guys joining Hancock into the free agents pool: kick holder Bubba Hiam (not better than Muchnick), guard Vernon Sam (three times the charm?), safety Renaldo Upshaw (that was our 2087 second round pick? Yes, he never did anything worth mentioning), defensive tackle Corwin Nowlin (wasn't that our high third round pick in the recent draft? Yes, that's he bad he plummeted), kickoff returner Mason Wilson (too many decent other options) and kickoff returner Roman Gomes (too many decent other options).

That Hancock kid though... A real bummer. I've never in the history of this team see a player show up for training so out of shape. That's a huge blow for the entire team.

With Hancock, several other players look like they lost some of their ability over night. Rookie Corwin Nowlin is far behind Hancock, yet still feels like he's in the top10 of worst pre-season looks compared to before training camp in franchise history. Kirk Hitchcock took a hit, but is still an elite player. Our kick holder Karsten Muchnick looks even less of a quarterback now (yay?). Previously tagged potential starting center Jared Labbe now looks like a career backup.

Our results have been horrible, we gained 342 yards. Combined in two games. We scored a grand total of 6 field goals and 3 touchdowns, all interception returns. We managed a 29-6 victory over the Brooklyn Fightin' Bums and lost 16-9 at the Texas Sharks. Our defense gave up 427 yards, combined. Yes, ladies and gentlemen, a new era of football has apparently kicked in. Just like that, the air in the atmosphere on the planet has made throwing no longer a sure thing. Nor does running the ball. Reggie Thongchanh' gained 33 yards on 30 carries spread over 2 games. Say what now!?

So... Back to the drawing board? I guess so...
*sigh*

MIJB#19

02-21-2020, 12:14 PM

General Manager Notes: A pre-season to forget...
Unprecedented. That's the word for it.

We just finished the pre-season scoring 41 points, that's the cumulative of all four games. We scored a grand total of 6 field goals and 3 touchdowns, all 6-pointers were interception returns. So, basically, the defense outscored the offense. Welcome to the 2088 Maassluis Merchantmen.

Usually, this would be the time of year to announce our 53 men roster, but to be frank: we're still working on some last minute changes before opening weekend. What it means? Let's wait for a day or so and we'll get back on that.

Those hoping for a return of Ellis McAlister, that's out of the question. Despite that he dropped his demands severely from $35M to $11M for a one-year rental, he's simply unwilling to return to Maassluis. Well, honestly, we can't really blame him here.

So, Francisco Farley? How'd he do in pre-season action? He completed 19 of 42 passes for 160 yards with 2 interceptions, 3 sacks and 1 fumble on a scramble (he had 4 carries for 30 yards).
Yup.

Do I have hope he can get things going? Well yeah, even if I didn't, I would still say I do. Because we have to keep believing, throwing our best quarterback under the bus would not help at all. I see you thinking: "best quarterback, what does that look like in this case?"

Farley is scouted by our staff as roughly a 25/35 on the scale of 1-100. Let's draw the picture
XX+_______ screen
XXX+______ short
+_________ medium
XX+_______ long
XXX++_____ deep
XXX_______ 3rd down
XXX+______ accuracy
XX________ timing
XXXXXX____ sense rush
XXX+______ read def
+_________ 2-minute
XXXXXXXX__ scramble
XXXXXXX___ muchnicking

Compare that to McAlister (scouted at 50/50), whom we recently released:
XXXXX_____ screen
XXXXXX____ short
XXXXX_____ medium
XXXXXXXX__ long
X_________ deep
XXXX______ 3rd down
XXXXXX____ accuracy
XXXXXXX___ timing
XXXXX_____ sense rush
X_________ read def
XXXXX_____ 2-minute
X_________ scramble
__________ muchnicking

That's a huge step back from a guy that was already struggling to make our passing game excel. Or perhaps we've arrived at finally realizing our game plan has been too optimistic and Theo Bondy has covered it with his sensational skills.

The defense hasn't been all that great either, but we're going to need these guys to do well, exceptionally well, to have a shot at winning some games. We may look depleted here, having let go of DE Gino Kemp, DT Heath Oliver, DT Erik Shrader, MLB Craig McCorkle, OLB Glenn Brewer, CB Lee Hancock and S Bart Farrell. That's 7 starters gone. We're going to enter the new season with 9 rookies, just on defense. Is that definite? It probably is.

And as such, we're going to have to rely on guys that are no rookies, but still pretty young. DE Gene Kondolovski enters his third season, DE Archie Exner is into his second season. DT Jumbo Mojica is a second-year pro with zero experience and will likely team up with rookie Kurt Ackerman in the middle of the line. OLB Clayton Jackson spent the 2087 season inactive, a rookie will be our third linebacker. Second-year pro CB Jessie McNeil or undrafted rookie CB Ted Frias will be our guy opposite Kirk Hitchcock.

The offense will be mostly unchanged though. Mostly, because we did let go of our RB2 Leonard Belin, FB Tristan Cochrane, TEs Miles Barker and Jessie Taylor, WRs Artie Blazewicz and Tucker Gaylor, and saw G Harvey Hank retire. That's roughly 5.5 more starters gone, including the departure of QB Ellis McAlister.

So yeah, a huge overhaul. I may check on this later, this could be the biggest rebuilding project in franchise history.

Wait, what? Did I throw "rebuilding" in there?
Apparently I did...

Rephrase that. This is the biggest change of guard in franchise history. Pre-season results have me much less enthused about the upcoming season, but I do realize it's just pre-season. Yet, the offensive game plan needs change, that's a sure thing. We might shift to a slightly more run heavy approach, but not too much to allow defenses to adapt.

Nothing is impossible? Well, I'm not dreaming of reaching the bowl game like I did over the previous 4 or so seasons, when we had an elite team, we should have gotten there with that roster. But now, winning the division would be a positive surprise. Sure, I think we can do it, but it won't come easy, that's for sure. But impossible?

We've got to keep believing in ourselves, we can do this. Go Merchantmen!

MIJB#19

02-22-2020, 09:30 AM

Merchantmen sign QB Moe Sheldon
Moe Sheldon joins the Maassluis Merchantmen quarterback group. Two days before opening weekend, Sheldon signed a one-year $3.2M contract. Still considered a starting caliber playcaller by most league scouts, the 30-year old looks thrilled to get a new shot in the league. Sheldon was a third round by for the Texas Sharks in 2082, but never saw any action there. After being released by the Sharks in the 2085 off-season, the Rochester Razorbacks signed him to a one-year contract. Sheldon started all 16 games for them, losing the first 9, finishing with a 4-12 record. He did well enough for the Paris Musketeers to sign him as their starter for the 2086 season. There he posted a 5-11 record as the fulltime starter. In 2087 he lost the starting job and got released early this off-season. The Merchantmen waited for Sheldon to lower his salary demands and scooped him up. General Manager M.IJ.B. praised Sheldon: "We had been looking at him earlier this off-season, but told him we couldn't afford his salary demands. Initially, we hope he can mentor Francisco Farley, but if the need arises, we know Sheldon as an IHOF caliber starting quarterback. But for now, he's going to need some action on the training field to get in shape, before thinking about battling for the QB1 role for our 2088 campaign." To make room for Sheldon, the Merchantmen released undrafted rookie quarterback Alvin Stoner.

MIJB#19

02-25-2020, 05:09 PM

Merchantmen lose 2088 opener
The reigning European division champions Maassluis Merchantmen have kicked off the 2088 season with a 36-24 loss at the Paris Muskteers. After three head-to-head victories last season, the Merchantmen kept the score close, but looked lost on the field at times.

The Merchantmen started their first drive seemingly well. Francisco Patter carried for 10 and 6 yards, but negative yardage on Francisco Farley's first completion to Theodore Bondy and a hopeless scramble from the second-year quarterback ended the first drive. Paris responded with a quick drive for the 7-0 lead, just needing one third down conversion on the last play of their first possession. On the second Merchantmen drive, Farley was sacked on his first drop back leading the way to a three and out. The Merchantmen defense replied with a three play drive for -4 yards, but saw their offense quickly punt again after just 3 plays. Before the first quarter was over, Paris had marched into Merchantmen territory.

Paris quarterback Gabriel Woodson found Eugene Hamilton for 18 yards on the first play of the second quarter, only to see them settle for a 40-yard field goal and a 10-0 lead. The Merchantmen needed two penalties from the Paris defense to avoid three and out, responding with a 9-yard run from Patter, but a holding penalty destroyed their drive. The defense came though again, forcing Paris to punt after 5 plays. A couple of no gainers for Patter and a hopeless attempt of Farley to find his tight end ended in another quick three-and-out. Paris replied immediately with a 46-yard pass from Woodson to Darrin Sheldon and a 17-0 lead. Another three-and-out followed, but this time the Merchantmen responded as one of the few remaining star players Kirk Hitchcock took the first takeaway of the game with an interception in the Merchantmen red zone. Paris got the ball back just 3 plays later and as they were driving for a sucker punching touchdown, Hitchcock came through even bigger, picking the ball off again and this time bringing it all the way for 93 yards and a 17-7 deficit at half time.

The Merchantmen defense started the second half well as off-season addition Jumbo Mojica sacked Woodson and also recovered the ensuing fumble at the 13-yard line. Farley found Bondy for 12 yards and two plays later in the end zone to bring things back to 17-14. The Paris offense responded with a couple of good throws from Wooden to Sheldon, setting up a 47-yard field goal for the 20-14 lead. A run first approach somewhat worked for Maassluis, but a fourth and two gamble near midfield failed and gave Paris an opportunity to quickly drive downfield and had Woodson connect with Sheldon for a 27-14 Paris lead. Yet another three-and-out was replied by the Merchantmen with their fearsome pass rush; could it be back after a couple of mindboggling disappointing seasons? On a freak play, the Merchantmen out of nowhere got in the end zone again. Theodore Bondy fumbled near midfield, but somehow Fernando Patter recovered it and was allowed to run it 47 yards forward to make it 27-21. Paris responded with a stellar kickoff return and saw Woodson find his tight end for a 35-yard gain towards the Maassluis red zone.

The Merchantmen defense forced Paris to kick early in the fourth quarter, brining the deficit to 30-21, a closer score than it should have been. Farley started connecting with fellow second-year pro Branden Sandlin for two crucial first downs. Patter ran for 13 yards, Farley for 8 yards and rookie kicker Emmett Wells converted a 43-yarder for a respectable 30-24 deficit with nine and a half minutes to go.

And just as the Merchantmen defense seemed ready to take control, they brought out the dumbest of formations in the last 5 decades, allowing the Paris Musketeers to throw for 83 yards and the gut wrenching touchdown. Their two-point attempt failed, but all hope was gone at that point.

The Merchantmen got three-and-outed. Paris took time off the clock until they punted with 3 minutes to go. Farley started connecting with Bondy for 13 and 12 yards, but a deep throw to undrafted rookie Santiago Messenger, the least likely player on the Merchantmen offense to make such a catch, backfired: interception and game over. Paris wasted time, converted on three and six and then knee dropped to victory.

Maassluis sailed back home with a painful loss. The 157 yards of total offense against the 481 yards allowed was half of the story, the turnover battle was clearly won, but that play that never should have been kept behind a would have, could have, should have feeling. Whomever thought it was a good idea to plug a 5'11" 197 pounds player in a linebacker slot is responsible for the ugliness that followed. Maassluis was weaker, but based on their defensive efforts deserved a shot at a miracle comeback from behind victory in the dying seconds. It didn't happen in week one. But it was only week one after all, 15-1 and home field advantage is still mathematically possible...

MIJB#19

02-25-2020, 05:57 PM

Merchantmen repeat: winless after two weeks
The Maassluis Merchantmen continued their 2088 campaign with a deficit. Just like last season, the Merchantmen have lost their first two games of the regular season, this time falling 29-7 at the Outer Banks Ospreys. Yardage production was closer and better, the scoreboard didn't feel much about it.

The first Merchantmen drive started with back to back Reggie Thongchanh runs, getting the starter role back. Francisco Farley found Theodore Bondy on third down to move the chains. Still in Maassluis territory, a huge third down throw for 33 yards to Branden Sandlin got they near the red zone. Only to see Thong' fumble this opportunity into Ospreys' claws. Luckily, the Ospreys did very little with their first possession, turning it over on downs after a failed fourth down attempt. Maassluis quickly got back to midfield as Thong' ran for 13 yards. A set of Thong' runs for 9, 13 and 8 yards set up for a field goal, but the rookie shanked the 42-yarder. Outer Banks' off-season acquisition quarterback Dexter Hutton threw for 23 yards to Chance Seelig to get his birds into Maassluis territory and despite that he got sacked in the red zone, connected with Malachi Pierson for 17 yards for the 7-0 lead with just 1 minute to go in the first quarter.

Although the Merchantmen seemingly slowly but steadily moved upfield early in the second quarter, they were forced to punt and failed to pin their opponents deep. The Merchantmen defense struggled to stop the run, allowing Korey Rose to make several big gains - Heath Oliver and Craig McCorkle surely are being missed. On third and 13, Rose finally for stopped just in time, making it 10-0 Outer Banks after the 33-yard field goal. Francisco Farley wasn't doing all that bad, the Merchantmen got the chains moving, but not enough to avoid punting. A crazy 53-yard throw from Hutton to Pierson got Outer Banks in the red zone and two plays later the 17-0 score was on the score board. Farley showed his strides, scrambling for 13 yards and finding Sandlin for 26 yards (a play called back for holding), then Bondy for 9 yards. To no avail, rookie Wells added a 49-yard misser to his resume to end the first half.

While running kept working for the Ospreys in the second half, a sack from Jumbo Mojica and a defended pass by Alexander Marty forced the home team to punt. Pinned at their own 1-yard line, Maassluis was in trouble. A somewhat surprised crowd saw Moe Sheldon play at quarterback for the Merchantmen in the second half. A penalty and a Thong' run moved Maassluis slowly away from their end zone, but Sheldon took his first sack of the season to force the punt. The Merchantmen defense forced three-and-out, but Maassluis got pinned deep again at their 5-yard line. Sheldon found Theodore Bondy for 16 yards, but it was way too little to even sniff at Outer Banks turf. The Merchantmen defense seemed to get the ball back, but yet another big punt placed Maassluis back at their own 1-yard line to start the fourth quarter.

And just like that it was 19-0 Outer Banks. Reggie Thongchanh got tackled in the end zone on the first play of the drive. The spirit was clearly broken as 4 plays later, Dexter Hutton found Chance Seeling for a touchdown and a 26-0 lead. Francisco Patter ran for 24 yards, Sheldon found Randy Holliday for 17 yards, Renaldo Crawford for 24 yards and eventually Santiago Messenger in the end zone. With just under nine minutes to go, 26-7, was it still feasible? The Ospreys started to get cocky and Alexander Marty picked off Dexter Hutton's deep throw in the end zone. Moe Sheldon replied with 27 yards to Theo Bondy, but near midfield the Merchantmen were stalled and decided to punt. Switched to time wasting mode, Outer Banks left just over 3 minutes on the clock for Maassluis. Sheldon got picked off on the second play. The Ospreys burnt all of Maassluis' time outs and kicked to a 29-7 lead. Sheldon found Crawford for 23 yards, Messenger for 16 yards, but on fourth and 10 the 8 yards to Bondy were insufficient. Hutton dropped to the 29-7 victory.

Some contrast to week one as Maassluis put on more of a fight on offense, but most of that came in the fourth quarter. Although apparently as planned, the replacement of Francisco Farley at half time with Moe Sheldon saw a change in dynamics of the Merchantmen offense. Farley is establishing a preference for Branden Sandlin, while Sheldon likes to connect with the for Merchantmen standards underdeveloped tight ends. Bondy is third in the league with 22 receptions, but with a mind-blowing 4 yards per target, still 6 yards per catch. Most importantly, the Merchantmen are sitting 0-2, but due to other results within the division, they're just 1 win (and tie-breakers) behind the two French teams. A fourth straight division title is mathematically still very much possible.

But to even start thinking about that, the Merchantmen will have to find ways to win football games. The pass defense is ridiculously bad, very much not in line with the talent still remaining. The passing game on offense is league worst. The special teams unit has fallen from cream of the crop to Merchantmen unworthy, one of the worst in the league. Sure, two games is no sample size, but it is what it is. Improvement is needed and it's not understatement. Next up a couple of home games. Maybe playing in Oranje Have will turn things around? Starting with a game against the Lake Monsters, a team the Merchantmen love to feast on...

MIJB#19

02-26-2020, 04:12 PM

General Manager Notes: 2088, Farley or Sheldon?
Yes, it's going to be one of those seasons.

For good reasons, we haven't had much flipflopping at quarterback over the recent few decades, but this season could be a classic case. I'm hopeful in Francisco Farley, ok, somewhat hopeful. But we've also got this Moe Sheldon guy, he's one of the "most careful quarterbacks" in the league.

Game one it was Farley, he stunk. Game two we did a one half each, both played okay. Game three, today, it was Farley and he threw a seemingly secure victory away. We were 17-0 up at half time, but in the second half his incautiousness began two interceptions in the third quarter, a pick six in the fourth quarter to revive the Toronto Lake Monsters and then one more in overtime. Shockingly enough, our defense held Toronto to -10 yards in that overtime, but a 53-yarder got them the victory anyway.

You'd think our running game that was so strong last season should have bailed Farley out today? No such luck though. Reggie Thong ran for just 64 yards on 32 carries. Howard Humphrey had 15 key run block opportunities, Butch Pearson 9. They combined for 3 successful key run blocks. Let's shake our heads on that... (What do you mean, passing is at an alltime low? We freakin' stopped running forward as well!)

At least we know now we can make a punter punt 13 times for 630 yards against us. That's impressive.

But no, we completely sucked, flabbergasted I am about how horrible we're doing compared to last season and it's not just the new quarterbacks, it's also the units that had close to no change of personnel. Just, no idea what we're all of a sudden doing wrong that used to be right...

That said, despite an 0-3 start, if we win the next 13, we'll be division champions anyway. The last time we started a season 0-3 was in 2080. We bounced back to 7-6 back then, but eventually were the weakest team in the divison after all was said and done with a 7-9 record. It was before Theodore Bondy, it was with Walt Blair, with Ellis McAlister, Butch Pearson was a backup role rookie, Craig McCorkle, Antonio Battle and Glenn Brewer were our linebackers and Glen Stiegler was still our star defensive tackle. But yeah, we somehow sucked that season... No we didn't, we outscored our opponents by 45 points, we just happened to lose a lot of games by a field goal or less...

Prior to that, in 2047 we bounced back from 0-3 and 1-4 with an 12-game winning streak into losing the AOC Championship game. And prior to that, 2030 actually was a crappy 5-11 season... Or was it? We still outscored our opponents after an 0-6 start! And prior to that was our 2009 campaign, where we went from 0-3 to 2-7 to an 8-8 record.

So, see there, this is our 5th time starting a season 0-3 and in all of those we either outscored our opponents, won at least half our games and when both happened we reached the conference championship game. But for now, I see very little reason to get exited about anything. Theodore Bondy managed to degrade his yards per target figure to under 4.0 yards, he's barely above 7 yards per catch. Yes, that same Theo Bondy with 4 2,000-yard seasons on his resume.

On a positive note... There's still 13 games to go, 13 more chances to win, 13 more chances to show we can play decent football.

Next up the San Antonio Tidal Force. Blaine Hawkins returns to Maassluis on yet another new team. Last season we beat him three times as Paris' quarterback. He's still looking cursed and unable to play up to his potential. We'll make a push for him next off-season if the Tidal Force also think he's never going to live up to the hype as a rookie. We can dream, no?

MIJB#19

02-27-2020, 03:54 PM

Merchantmen grab first 2088 victory
From 0-3 to 1-3. The Maassluis Merchantmen defended Oranje Haven well enough to note down their first victory of the 2088 season. The San Antonio Tidal Force with Blaine Hawkins at quarterback failed to put yardage into points, gifting the Merchantmen a dirty 14-9 victory. Moe Sheldon got the start over Francisco Farley, but failed to impress, aside from bringing home the W.

The Tidal Force got possession first, but punted the ball away after less than 2 minutes. Moe Sheldon found Theo Bondy for a negative play (what the bleep is that play doing in the Merchantmen game plan?), quickly followed by a 12-yard connection for that duo to move the chains. Close to midfield, another third down conversion worked out well as Sheldon found Branden Sandlin for 22 yards. Reggie Thongchanh thought he got his team into scoring position, but Sheldon lost the ball on a sack play and the Tidal Force recovered. The Merchantmen pass rush replied, especially Tony Whiting with back to back strong plays (a sack and a hurried pass) to force a punt. Pinned back at their own 4-yard line, the Merchantmen gave it to Thong' and saw their ball carrier run for 16, 19 and 12 yards to march into San Antonio territory. Sheldon found Bondy for 11 yards to close in, then Randy Holliday pulled a 1-yard catch into a miracle 23-yard gain on third and ten, setting up Thong's 11-yard touchdown run for the 7-0 lead. The Merchantmen defense got pressure on San Antonio and forced them into a third and 19 situation. Hawkins found one of his receivers, but short of getting the first down, a strip tackle by Riddick Newsome gave Maassluis the ball back at the San Antonio 40-yard line.

First play of the second quarter, Moe Sheldon drops back, throws a short pass to Theo Bondy and the all-world wide receiver turned it into a 31-yard gain. The Merchantmen eventually settled for the 29-yard field goal, had Emmett Wells actually scored it, yet he didn't as it was blocked. Trailing 7-0, the Tidal Force felt like they were cruising downfield, but a second fumble ensued on a 19-yard run by Wendel DuBois, which was recovered by the last man standing Kirk Hitchcock. Three and out followed, but for the first time all day San Antonio was pinned deep inside their part of the field. Just when the Merchantmen defense thought they were to force a punt, Blaine Hawkins found one of his receivers for a 37-yard gain on third and 10. Driving deeper and deeper, Hawkins fired into the end zone, but undrafted rookie linebacker Sebastian Strobel, born and raised in San Antonio, caught the ball for the Merchantmen. With the clock winding down to 2 minutes, Maassluis punted it back. Blaine Hawkins scrambled for 17 yards on a third down play, but they came time and turf short to attempt a field goal. Half time score: Maassluis 7, San Antonio 0.

The Merchantmen offense got three and outed, but their defense failed to return the favor, allowing Blaine Hawkins to find one of his receivers for 23 yards on third and 15. Things slowed down in Maassluis territory and San Antonio punted after all. It didn't help much as Moe Sheldon took his second sack of the game on third and long. San Antonio saw their punt returner bring it to the Maassluis' 37-yard line. Wendell DuBois ran for 16 yards, then Hawkins came yards short on a third down scramble, settling for a 31-yard field goal for San Antonio's first points of the game: 7-3 Maassluis. A couple of three and outs were followed up by another miracle third and long conversation by Moe Sheldon to tight end Randy Holliday. Just past midfield, Reggie Thongchanh covered half the distance with a 24-yard run, followed by Theo Bondy covering the rest of it with a 23-yard reception to get into the end zone. Maassluis 14, San Antonio 3. The Merchantmen defense forced another three and out, but just as the fans in Oranje Have started believing in the first win of the season, Moe Sheldon saw a pass to Bondy picked off at the San Antonio 39-yard line. Lucky for him, his defense bailed him out, forcing a punt, albeit pinning Maassluis at their 7-yard line to end the third quarter.

After a conservative drive, Maassluis punted and saw Wendell DuBois run for 24 and 26 yards to get San Antonio into the red zone. It was DuBois as well who pounded it in from 2 yards to, but the two-point conversion failed, making it 14-9 on the score board. A couple of three and outs followed. On Maassluis' end, Theo Bondy took a couple of plays off and saw rookie Keegan Gelat step in with a 13-yard reception to avoid a three and out. San Antonio got the ball back, though three plays was all they got. With four and a half minutes left, Maassluis went into time draining mode. Francisco Patter was added into the running mix, alternating with Thongchanh for short gains. They came inched short on a third down throw, punting it to San Antonio with less than 2 minutes to go. They went for it on the fourth play of the drive and failed. The two time outs remaining were insufficient to get the ball back, Moe Sheldon knee dropped three times to secure his first victory for the Merchantmen.

With that, the Maassluis Merchantmen improve to 1-3, sitting 1 win and a game in hand behind the 2-1 Bordeaux Vineyards. Next up a bye week, followed by a visit from the Atlanta Vipers, currently 2-1 Deep South division leaders and hosting Bordeaux in week 5.

Question remain plenty in Maassluis. Will they stick with Moe Sheldon, or was it just one game and will Francisco Farley (said to have shown no progress in development since training camp) get back under center? Theodore Bondy is fourth in the league in receptions, but at 4.4 yards per target he's clearly struggling for whatever mysterious reasons. The Merchantmen are clearly running a lot, but are just 12th with 112 running yards per game. The passing game ranks dead last with just 160 yards per game. The pass rush pressure seems to have somewhat returned to Merchantmen standards (they'd better with all the talent on that defensive line!), but the run defense is bad and the pass defense mediocre at best. A struggling rookie kicker certainly doesn't help either. Getting outgained by 98 yards per game so far, there's still very little reason to think this Merchantmen is good enough to get their fourth European division title in succession. But a game like today shows that there's more in football than just outgaining the opponent. There's still a lot of football left to be played...

MIJB#19

03-03-2020, 04:29 PM

General Manager Notes: From good to terrible to awesome
That's it basically, the last three games in a nutshell.

The home game against the Atlanta Vipers was a bit of a defensive slugfest, with a 24-7 win on the scoreboard. A bit as our defense picked off their quarterback on one of their two drives for more than 35 yards, while we were more efficiently on our long drives (2 touchdowns), medium length drive (42-yard field goal) and scored another touchdown on a short 7-yard drive. We went with Moe Sheldon at quarterback again and it somewhat worked. 17 of his 27 targets went to Theodore Bondy, who made just 9 catches for 106 yards out of it. Our tight ends made the touchdowns, as did Reggie Thongchanh' on another 100-yard running performance. The pass rush was particularly impressive with 16 broken up plays on 46 passing plays.

We followed up with quite the defensive stinker at the Fort Wayne Fury: a 48-20 loss. They scored six touchdowns, contrary to previous games, our defense was a no-show, giving up 515 total yards. Our running game was pretty decent, but our passing game was less efficient: Theo Bondy had 6 catches on 15 targets (seriously, what's up with that?), yet Branden Sandlin had 103 yards on 3 catches.

And then we hosted the Paris Musketeers and took full advantage of the turnover margin, beating them 48-14. Moe Sheldon completed 17 of 21 passes for 246 yards, Theo Bondy had 12 catches for 125 yards, Branden Sandlin had 3 catches for 111 yards. Reggie Thongchanh ran for 106 yards and 2 touchdowns. But the key to the blowout score were the 3 interception return touchdowns. Paris' decision to feed their running backs only 8 carries did not work out well for them.

And with that we're sitting at a somewhat surprising second place, just one win behind the division lead:
1. Bordeaux 4-3
2. Maassluis 3-4
3. Gothenburg 2-5
4. Paris 2-5

Yes, it's obviously still wide open and there's very little reason to think we're world beaters. But so is the rest of the division. Our points differential of -9 is best inside the division.

Elsewhere in the AOC, the Houston Mustangs have fallen to 1-6. The reigning IHOF champions will be our next opponents, at their place. Let's not forget that we've got their first round pick, beating them will be very good for our draft position!

So, I suspect you're going to ask "what about Francisco Farley?" Quite simply, he didn't improve much, if at all, so far. Contrary, Moe Sheldon has done admirably well, it makes sense to stick with our eleventh hour free agent signing, for now. With a 3-1 record, numbers look good on him, but to be fair, all three wins were home games. Farley got just one start at home, where he did indeed throw 4 interceptions. More importantly, Farley currently has 4.0 yards per attempt, Sheldon has 7.4 yards per attempt: sample size issues or not, we've got to like Sheldon here. Upside for Farley is his ability to scramble. Where Sheldon will take a sack for a 4 yard loss, Farley will run for 5 or 6 yards.

Defensively, Tony Whiting is turning into a pleasant surprise. Although already knowing he could be a pass rush machine, he's delivering it so far with 7.0 sacks. Archie Exner is behind him with 4.5 sacks, but with an impressive 10.3 pass rush percentage. The supposedly monster defensive ends Gene Kondolovski and Andy Russell are probably the ones taking all the blocking and opening holes for the two undrafted guys. Defensive tackle Jumbo Mojica has proven to be a crucial guy on the inside, the one game he was missing is the game we got crushed by the Fury.

That's about as much as I can say and see for now. We could just as easily end up a 3-13 bottom dweller (we have the #29 offense and #26 defense in yardage), but for now, we're actually half-decent enough to be in the race for the division title. A sweep of the Vineyards would put us in the division lead, but that's getting way too much ahead of ourselves. Houston is our next stop, Bordeaux is second. And all that comes next is way too far ahead in the future.

We live in the now. We're on the Moe Sheldon boat. A place I had no idea we'd be in during the pre-season. But here we are now, hopefully on the right route to success.

MIJB#19

03-07-2020, 05:22 PM

General Manager Notes: 2088, clearly not or year, but...
The rest of the division isn't doing all that great either.

We're three weeks further into the season since I last wrote. Boys and girls, we've won one and lost two games. We continue to be W-less on the road and followed up the potential season saving road game at the Bordeaux Vineyards with a similar drubbing against the Gothenburg Giants, at home, no less. That back-to-back loss means the 30-6 steamrolling we managed over the Capital City Blues became near worthless, as those games inside the division could have put us in the division lead.

But, we didn't.

European Division standings:
1. Paris 6-5
2. Gothenburg 5-6
3. Bordeaux 5-6
4. Maassluis 4-7

Our tie-breaker situation against the division is problematic. All three of them have beaten us once, which theoretically means we can tie up all the head-to-head situations. Gothenburg will have the division record edge if they manage to beat Paris in week 17, but Paris can get the same advantage that week, if they also beat Bordeaux in week 15. The common games situation after that is somewhat manageable for us as well, as we're actually in better shape than Gothenburg and Bordeaux, but week 13 results can shift things into being all level again (if we win and they don't). Our conference record is lacking, so it's a steep hill to climb anyway.

We toyed around with our game plan, to get less predictable on offense. We drastically toned done the planned targeting of Theodore Bondy. The end result? 25, 21 and 27 targets in the last three games. Beats me what the [bleep] is going on there. The home game against Gothenburg was one of the most best wide receiver in franchise history unworthy stats lines: 21 targets, 4 catches for 45 yards. That's 2.1 yards per target. Yes, that was Theo Bondy's statline, not one of the backups. After 11 games he's at 4.9 yards per target, with 107 catches and just barely over the 1K mark.

Behind him, our for-the-time-being WR2 Branden Sandlin has 23.4 yards per catch and 8.5 yards per target. He's struggling to make the catch when targeted, but when he makes that catch, he's making the best of it. Obviously we planned to throw him more balls and with sensational succes: 10 targets total in the last three games. That's below the average for the first 8 games. Yes, sometimes a game plan doesn't get executed the way you'd think it should.

In case you're wondering what's happening with Francisco Farley? He's got a clipboard and a notebook to make notes. He's firmly in the QB2 slot, behind Moe Sheldon. With a 4-4 record and an 9:6 TD:INT ratio, he's doing a pretty decent Ellis McAlister impersonation. McAlister's quarterback rating with the Arizona Miners is one point better, while he's at a 5-6 W/L figure for them after a seemingly decent 4-1 to 5-3 start.

Our running game is unimpressive. Reggie Thong and Francisco Patter are not making the best use of one of the best offensive lines in the league. I mean, it's not all bad, it's just not like we're playing like the potential elite running game that I thought we had.

The defense is going from solid showing to downright dreadful showings. Some of our losses haven't been all on our underperforming offense, the defense is taking its share. The special teams unit appears to lack the cohesion to be as state of the art it has been for the past decades. All in all, this does make you wonder: are these really the Maassluis Merchantmen?

Why yes, these guys are and we'll have to not just do with it, we expect more from them. We've had a tough schedule so far, albeit sadly home game heavy. Our 'easiest' opponents have been the 4-7 Houston Mustangs, the franchise currently the league's reigning champions. It just comes to show how unpredictable football is in the current state.

But despite all that, our schedule won't get any easier. We're going to the 8-3 Orlando Talons next. We'll be facing 5-6 or better teams in the last 5 games, only twice playing at home. With Houston having won 3 of their last 4 games, our draft position has gotten worse as well. Yes, we're dropping games left and right on our own, but the bonus Houston first round pick only recently looked like we may have hit the jackpot in one of the most surprising first to worst situations. It's not going to be, apparently. But all of that out of our hands and something for the next off-season.

For now, we'll focus on our 5 remaining regular season games and who knows what miracles will turn things around and out of nowhere put us into a situation where we can extend the season? Likely? No. Possible? Yes, nothing is impossible. At least in football.

MIJB#19

03-14-2020, 11:46 AM

General Manager Notes: Alive and kicking, sort of
Yeah, these are strange times.

Let's focus on the football for a bit, league has been on a bit of an hiatus, but I hadn't taken the time to report on our week 13 game. Well, we sucked, monkey balls.

The defense generated 3 interceptions, we needed all of them to avoid the biggest loss in team history. The Orlando Talons crushed us 52-14, with 589 yards versus 141 yards not far from the result we deserved.

I mean, there was nothing that looked even remotely up to Merchantmen standards. Moe Sheldon completed 7 of 19 pass attempts, got picked off 3 times. The staff even decided to throw Francisco Farley into the lions pit and he got eaten alive, completing 1 of 9 with 1 picked off pass. Our anchor Theo Bondy was near invisible. Targeted just 11 times, gained a grand total of 40 yards. Our running game was unrecognizable, Thong' got 37 yards on 17 carries.

At the same time, the defense was unacceptably terrible. Nothing remotely close to what this collective of players are capable of. Just, totally horrible. Extremely bad. I'm really at loss here, have no words for it. Mindboggling.

Besides all that, we're still just 2 games and tie-breakers behind the division leaders. How absurd is that?

European division:
1. Gothenburg 6-6
2. Paris 6-6
3. Bordeaux 6-6
4. Maassluis 4-8

So yeah, we're still alive and kicking, although it feels more like we're just squealing. I do realize that our tie-breaker situation is still salvageable. We need to beat Gothenburg and Bordeaux to stay in the race and as such will always have tie-breakers over Bordeaux. To get tie-breakers over Gothenburg, we need them to fall to Paris as well, which will basically also require us to see Bordeaux beat Paris, which could create a four-way tie. If we somehow make up the additional loss. If we do though with the given scenario where all four win 3 divisional games, Paris and Maassluis will have common games tie-breakers over Gothenburg and Bordeaux, with Paris then holding us back on conference record. So yeah, we need to get at least 1/2 a win ahead of Paris. And if Paris falls to both Gothenburg and Bordeaux, we'll need Gothenburg to fall at least 1/2 a win behind us as well.

Alive and thrashing around, yeah, that's where we're at.

MIJB#19

03-20-2020, 09:45 AM

General Manager Notes: Home sweet home
We're on stayin' alive mode.

In pretty much all aspects of the game, this has been an awkward, or the very least a very unusual season om many levels. As a little spark far away in the darkness that seems to be daunting on us all, things are slowly rolling again in the league. We hosted the Texas Sharks in a far from impressive showing offensively, although these days 344 total yards is considered pretty good, while we saw the defense give up just 178 total yards. Ball control was heavy, having possession almost 2/3rd of the game, despite losing the turnover battle 2-0.

Yeah, it may seem obvious based on that, we beat the Sharks 20-14. Half of their points were the result of a kickoff return touchdown after we had just gone up 17-7. A fumble in the fourth quarter set them up for what could have been a game wining drive from inside our territory, but as they gambled on fourth down and figured two field goals wouldn't be possible, we got somewhat lucky.

Interestingly enough, our three division rivals all tripped over their respective opponents, potentially shifting things back into a four-horse race.

Division standings:
1. Gothenburg 6-7
2. Paris 6-7
3. Bordeaux 6-7
4. Maassluis 5-8

Realistically, we still don't belong in that race. Next up is a road game in Gothenburg. Losing there will shot the doors to the playoffs for us. The division title race is still as I explain the last time I wrote. The final wild card is mathematically possible from the second place spot in the division, but it will require the Fort Wayne Fury to lose their remaining 3 games, the Atlanta Vipers to lose their next 2 games (and beating the Fury in week 17) and then still needing many other 6-7 and 5-8 teams (5 of them outside our division inside the conference) to not end up above 8-8, we might fend off some of them at 8-8 on tie-breakers, but those are longshot scenarios.

Solecismic Software's playoffs predictions actually has us at 2.5% chance to sneak in as division champions. In comparison, all four 10-3 and up teams in the NAC already secured their respective divisions. Both 10-3 teams in the AOC have secured a wild card at minimum, but still need to fend off the second place team in their respective divisions. Most likely the Giants finish the season as 9-7 or 8-8 division champions and enter the post-season with the worst record of all 12 teams.

So, in short, playing at home did wonders and kept our dreams alive. Keep on dreaming, or wake up and move on? It's not our mentality to give up just yet, but I'm sensing any further efforts will be fruitless. We'll see where the flow will make us go.

It's not over until it's over, go Merchantmen!

MIJB#19

03-22-2020, 01:43 PM

General Manager Notes: It's over
Still two games to play, but 2088 will not see us extend our division title streak.

We visited the Gothenburg Giants and despite them being heavily favored, we managed to put up a fight. Not just that, we had our chances to pull of the upset. But it wasn't to be, 24-20 was the final score, in Giants' favor.

A 65-yard bomb from Moe Sheldon to Branden Sandlin was the highlight of the first quarter, setting us up for a 7-0 lead (Reggie Thong' ran it in from 8 yards out). We gave up a 43-yard kick off return that set up the tying touchdown (Tre Lynn to Jack Crane for 6 yards). Late in the first quarter a blocked punt seemed to have set up for our go ahead touchdown, but eventually Theo Bondy was held a yard short and we settled for an 18-yard field goal for the 10-7 lead.

In the second quarter the Giants blocked one of our punts to set up for Jack Crane's 4-yard touchdown run for a 14-10 Giants lead. A long drive of our own was anchored by a 34-yard run from Francisco Patter on 3rd and 3, later followed by Moe Sheldon finding a wide open Keegan Gelat on 3rd and goal from the 19-yard line, putting us 17-14 up. With a minute to go, rookie Emmitt Wells converted a 53-yard field goal for the 20-14 lead at half time.

In the second half we had a minor scare when Clarence Blackwell fumbled a punt return, but special teamer Jace Peterson saved his teammate. The third quarter was mostly defense dominated, the Giants ended that quarter with a 17-yard run by Wade Paterno into the red zone.

Jack Crane put the Giants 21-20 up 16 seconds into the fourth quarter (including the converted extra point). Santiago Messenger returned a kickoff return to our 43-yard line. After a three-and-out, Doug Guynes nailed them at their own 1-yard line. The Giants gained enough ground to eventually pin us at our own 7-yard line. We failed to gain much ground and Giants' returner Doug Flannery marched into our territory. The Giants came closer and closer, but our goal line stand was strong enough to force them to kick the 26-yarder. Trailing 24-20, we had four and a half minutes to fix things. Three and outs on both ends gave us the ball back at our 12-yard line with less than 2 minutes to go. We thought we were making strides as Moe Sheldon found Theo Bondy for 36 yards, only to see him fumble and see the Giants move to midfield to knee drop to a crucial victory in their race to the division title.

It feels like we were the better team, or at the very least not the weaker team, but the 24-20 loss is there regardless. It ends our hopes as at 2 wins behind Gothenburg with inferior tie-breakers, we're out of the race.

Standings:
1. Gothenburg 7-7
2. Paris 7-7
3. Bordeaux 6-8
4. Maassluis 5-9

Gothenburg and Paris play head-to-head in week 17 in Paris. It's setting up for a winner takes all. In a tied situation, Gothenburg has the edge and in that scenario Bordeaux could jump ahead of them with an 8-8 record, providing Gothenburg and Paris both lose in week 16.

For us, what remains is playing for pride, first at the Moontown Darksiders where we can spoil their wild card dreams. Then in week 17 trying to play spoiler for Bordeaux, providing they get their dream scenario of catching up to a three-way tie at 7-8.

We knew this would be a tough season, but it remains to be a disappointment to see us with a -73 points differential, which ranks third worst in franchise history if this holds up. Our worst numbers are -80 and -81, so it's no given that we can avoid that.

It is what it is. C'est la vie. There are worse things in the world.

MIJB#19

03-24-2020, 04:45 PM

General Manager Notes: Rock bottom, we're comin'
One more game...

A 34-7 drubbing, all our points from a pick six. The Moontown Darksiders increased our points differrential to -100. Our worst after 16 games in the previous 84 seasons was -81.

That's how bad we were. It's almost like we stopped knowing how to play football. Theodory Bondy has stopped playing like the all-time legend that was supposed to be upon retirement.

I had good hopes we could survive on our old habits, we didn't. Sure, it doesn't help that we've played the (tied) hardest schedule in the league, but that should stop the Merchantmen under normal circumstances. No, we're simply not good enough past the top guys. Because, well, we actually have an elite O-Line, that can't be it. We have an elite collective of pass rushers, that can't be it either. We've got Bondy, we've got Hitchcock. We're clearly not a typical 6-10 or 5-11 team. But here we are.

Division:
1. Paris 8-7
2. Gothenburg 7-8
3. Bordeaux 7-8
4. Maassluis 5-10

We're done, Bordeaux is done, it's Paris at Gothenburg in week 17 for a winner takes all.

The last time we lost 10 games in the same season was in 2033. Yes, that's right, more than 50 seasons ago. We actually had a pretty good roster that season and our points differential was just -3, despite the 6-10 record. In 2030 we went 5-11, our points differential was actually +6 (yeah, I know).

Okay, one more game. At home. We can finish this season with the best record in home games in the entire conference. We'll just need a win and the #2 seed bound Tucker Tigers to lose. #1 bound San Antonio and #6 seed hopeful Atlanta also hope to finish the season with a 6-2 record at home. Crazy stuff.

Our lottery ticket? The Houston Mustangs have improved to 7-8, they won 5 of their last 6 games. No easy top5 pick for us. Our own pick will be top10. That's Merchantmen unworthy. Period. A disgrace for this franchise.

But at the end of the day, it's just a game, we should cherish that we can still do this, still play football, still show our fans we have pride, still honored to wear that orange white and blue, still feeling strong. Still the Maassluis Merchantmen.

MIJB#19

03-26-2020, 05:29 PM

General Manager Notes: Over, it's finally over
Done, finished, 2088 is in the books for us.

We actually managed to finish the season with a crushing defeat of the Bordeaux Vineyards: 37-10. Reggie Thong' ran for 148 yards, Branden Sandlin caught 6 for 105 yards, Moe Sheldon threw for 204 yards and 2 scores without a pick. And Theo Bondy, he struggled once again: 6 catches on 17 targets, gaining 64 yards for 2 scores (the second one a 45-yarder).

The margin of victory actually pushed this season from worst to only third worst in franchise history. A -73 points differential is quite obviously nothing to be happy about, but it's better than the -100 points from before today. Although, considering that we also steamrolled the Paris Musketeers in our house, it shows how pathetic we were most of the time. We lost all 8 road games, only twice being within 1 score. At the same time, we lost one 2 home games, including the one against the Toronto Lake Monsters that we choked as well. But had we not choked those two games, we would have still fallen behind the Paris Musketeers on common games record, this was never meant to be.

European division:
1. Gothenburg 8-8
2. Paris 8-8
3. Bordeaux 7-9
4. Maassluis 6-10
Gothenburg swept Paris, giving them tie-breakers.

All around, the league has six (division winning) teams with a 12-4 or 13-3 record going into the playoffs: the Outer Banks Ospreys, Oakland Black Panthers, Kansas Creationists, Chesapeake Chitterlings (all four in the NAC) and the San Antonio Tidal Force and Tucker Tigers (both in the AOC). The 10-6 Orlando Talons (AOC) and 9-7 Williamsburg Colonials (NAC) are probably better than their records show, they are the top wild cards. Sixth seeds Fort Wayne Fury (AOC) and Moontown Darksiders (NAC) both look good, but not bowl bound material. The Fury might actually have a decent shot at the 9-7 Toronto Lake Monsters, the only team in the playoffs with a negative points differential. The Gothenburg Giants might even not be the worst team in the post-season, despite their 8-8 record, but hosting aforementioned Orlando Talons, a deep run looks farfetched.

Mean whilst, we've taken note of the Houston Mustangs finishing the season with a 7-9 record and as such giving us only the #13 overall draft pick in the 2089 draft. Sure, much better than the #32 pick they were supposed to be, but after their 1-6 start, we had every reason to think we hit the jackpot. Combined with our 'earned' #9 overall, we'll have something to work with. Although it should be no surprise that I would have preferred a pick in the bottom 12, which would have meant still being in the race for league championship.

So, what does next season look like for us?
We have a young roster, we forced our hand there, but it's a fact now. We have exactly one player in his 10th (or up) season: our frickin' kick holder. Let's take a quick glace at each position group.

Quarterbacks
signed: KH Muchnick
restricted: QB Farley
unrestricted: QB Sheldon
Moe Sheldon actually guided us to a 6-7 record in his starts, Francisco Farley lost the starting gig after an 0-3 start. Quite simply, with Farley we were a train wreck. With Sheldon, we were average. Will we bring Sheldon back? If he wants to and if he doesn't ask for $20M/year, maybe. Farley? A somewhat similar story: welcome back, but if he asks for much more than minimum, I suspect his career will be over before we find out what his true potential is.

Backfield
signed: RB Patter, FB Brosseau, RB Gunja
restricted: RB Ford, RB Szporluk
unrestricted: RB Thongchanh
Oh yeah, Thong'. He ran for 1,359 yards this season (1,436 last season). Quite simply, he's going to demand starter money. Will we have the cap space? Probably. Will we give it to him? Unlikely. Patter actually thinks he should be the guy, he's locked up cheap for 2 seasons and looks unlikely to go into holdout mode. Brosseau could be serviceable, but we'll have to get him more involved in the running game as a blocker, otherwise it's a waste for him to play with us. The other three guys? We might be able to bring Ford and Szporluk back cheap and Gunja is locked up. But these guys might be a RB2 at best.

Tight ends
signed: TE Holliday, TE Kotz
restricted: TE Blake, TE Crawford
All these guys are run blockers and okay special teamers. Blake isn't listed as our starter, but he saw the most action. This unit is shoulder raising. We're not going to pay these guys. It's pretty clear that the game these days demands teams to have a decent receiving tight end. Well, we'll have to look at the market and draft class then.

Wide receivers
signed: WR Bondy, WR Sandlin, WR/KR Arntt
restricted: WR/KR Messenger, WR Gelat
If these were happy times, I might be more disappointed about Bondy. It just doesn't make sense that he stopped playing like an all-time great. I really hope we can unbreak him next season. Sandlin has lived up to my expectations, he's WR2 material and locked up cheap. Messenger is our WR3 and kickoff returner, he may have demands, we'll likely meet them. Arntt is locked up, a very good backup to Messenger for the return duties. If we want to improve our team, Gelat might find himself dropped to WR6, providing he gets called back for next season. It's quite possible we'll look at bringing in a new starter.

Offensive Line
signed: C Pearson, G Szott, G Watson, LT Hadinger, RT Humphrey, LT Hamilton, C Labbe
restricted: G Willis
This unit will remain as is. Most likely. Watson is the only starter at risk here, bar disaster in training camp/pre-season, while backup Willis would then be the actual casualty. But unless we find a very good starter, this unit should stick with a cohesion boost.

Kicker/Punter/Long snapper
signed: P Guynes, K Wells, LS Biegen
unrestricted: P Holton
Holton is still around? Yeah, but just because it was pretty pointless to axe him for the last game alone. Neither Guynes or Wells is safe, we have high standards for these positions, but it would need to be a major improvement. Ditto on Biegen.

Defensive Line
signed: DE Kondovski, DE Russell, DE Exner, DT Ackerman
restricted: DT Mojica, DE Whiting, DE Gellar
unrestricted: DT Ritt
Oh boy, Mojica. That guy broke out and might ask for big money. Will we pay him? I might actually be willing to. This guy is the best guy on this unit. Whiting also broke out and might want to get paid as well. Worth it? Probably. Ritt is worth keeping at the right price. There's little chance other teams would want him, well, he'd fit here.

Linebackers
signed: ILB Espino, OLB Jackson, OLB Mendelssohn
restricted: ILB Strobel, OLB Palmer, OLB Peterson
Espino is the real deal, but we already knew that. Jackson is decent, Strobel played okay for what we had. If he wants to get paid, I suspect he'll be out of football by 2090. Palmer and Peterson are special teamers (can somebody please fire the moron that kept Palmer off the field every single game every single special teams play :rant: ). Mendelssohn is a bust, sorry kid. Don't be shocked if he's no longer with us by 2090.

Secondary
signed: CB Hitchcock, CB McNeil, CB/PR Blackwell, S Marty, S Newsome
restricted: CB Frias, S Sword, S Harper, S Blanchard
I really like Marty and Newsome, but we do need an all downs guy to give these guys more time to take a breath. The restricted safeties are okay, all lack stamina as well. Yes, safety will be a position to look at for improvement. Hitchcock is undisputable. McNeil better suited to become or nickelback, which would downgrade Blackwell back to just a return specialist and maybe dimeback duties. Frias might be better than he has shown so far. If the price is right, we'll bring him back and give more time to develop.

We're does that put us? 31 players signed, 18 restricted free agents, only 4 players that will hit the open market before the draft. A draft where we will pick at #9 and #13 in the first round, have 3 additional 4th round picks, and also bonus picks in the 5th and 7th round for 13 picks in total. The cap situation? We'll be $80M under the cap, not accounting for the draft picks that will be an expensive one with two top half picks. After accounting for the 22 open roster spots, we'll probably have about $35M to work with.

The season isn't over yet, 12 teams are still in the race to become the IHOF's next top franchise. For 19 others and us, the action is over, it's "tot volgend seizoen" for us. And we wil return, stronger than this season. For we are the Merchantmen, never giving up!

MIJB#19

03-27-2020, 01:20 PM

Francisco Farley, sophomore rollercoaster
It was early in spring of 2087. For the third time in succession, a quarterback was taken #1 overall in the IHOF Draft. The Moontown Darksiders invested their top pick in Alabama - Birmingham prospect Blaine Sanderson in hopes of making him their franchise quarterback. Not an unusual decision, many quarterbacks preceded Sanderson as the top pick in the IHOF draft. The Maassluis Merchantmen have been no strangers to this phenomenon, twice trading up to the #1 overall pick and the end result was in both cases an eventual Hall of Famer. Rusty Harrison and Bryson Chow are names every Merchantmen fan should know.

In total seventeen quarterbacks received a call from any of the 32 franchises in the IHOF to be selected in that 2087 draft. The Maassluis Merchantmen spent their seven picks on other positions, but had their eye on one particular quarterback from Syracuse as a potential signing after the draft: Francisco Farley. There was little reason to see why this player in particular was signed by the Merchantmen. Best bet for the outside world was Farley's reputation as being decent in noticing the collaps of his protection and in that situation being a decent scrambler. His Solecismic Score was okay, at least better than the #1 overall pick Sanderson.

Upon arrival in Maassluis, Farley had three other quarterbacks to compete with for a roster spot. Seasoned veteran and sixth round pick to franchise quarterback grown Ellis McAlister's spot as the starter seemed indisputable. The backup slot was by no up for grabs either, the Merchantmen had invested a second round pick in Ernest Andrews in the 2085 draft and by no means looked ready to give up on him just yet. And then there was Karsten Muchnick, one helluva kick holder, crucial for the kicking unit, but not somebody management would like to see on the field throwing the ball. Most likely, Farley would be here to have a fourth ball thrower in training camp, very usual for the Merchantmen.

During training camp, the staff was positively surprised. Farley was picking things up pretty well and was seen as barely any worse than Andrews, whom had been very unimpressive in the previous two camps and pre-season action, while barely making progress during the seasons. Both youngsters made the pre-season roster of 60 players and split playing time in the first pre-season game. A game both would love to see vanished from the history books. Neither Andrews nor Farley looked even remotely in control. Farley completed 4 of 11 passes for 38 yards, getting sacked once, picked off once and running for a 10 yard gain. But all in all, Farley was really on par with Andrews, who got picked off twice in 13 attempts and also lost a fumble. The second pre-season game was barely any better. Again, the Merchantmen offense failed to score any touchdowns, but a 19-19 tie was the end result. Farley completed 4 of just 6 pass attempts for 50 yards. One day later, Andrews was cut. Bar any last minute signings, Farley made the 53-men roster, all based on the staff's assessment about his improvement in training camp and flashes of potential shown in that second pre-season game.

Unsurprisingly, there was little Farley could do that 2087 season to get on the field. Sitting behind Ellis McAlister, two-time reigning division champion and having guided his team to the 2085 AOC Championship game and the conference semi finals in 2086. Sure, McAlister had his flaws, throwing more interceptions than most head coaches would like to see, but he was connecting with the phenomenal wide receiver Theodore Bondy. But Farley also took note of how slow McAlister's career went, he rode the bench for five seasons. Patience can work out.

Following another second round loss in the playoffs, things changed drastically in Maassluis. Cap Hell broke loose and one by one key players left Maassluis. One of them: Ellis McAlister. All of a sudden, Francisco Farley's name was getting penciled in as the 2088 starter. Lacking the cap room to sign a seasoned veteran, the Merchantmen, Farley was seeing potential. The 2088 IHOF draft went by and the Merchantmen spent all six of their picks on other positions. Farley and kick holder Muchnick were the only two quarterbacks on roster. 25 young free agents were signed between the draft and training camp, including undrafted rookie quarterbacks Bubba Hiam and Alvin Stoner.

Francisco Farley received accolades for his progress in training camp prior to the 2088 season. Surely, by no means was he showing flashes of a starting quarterback, but he was far ahead of his competition. The Merchantmen finished pre-season with three quarterbacks on roster, as Hiam got axed after the first couple of pre-season games. Two days before opening day, the Merchantmen called a press conference. A new potential sheriff joined town: Moe Sheldon. Albeit his track record as a starter (9-23) being far from impressive, Merchantmen management was clear about their move: Farley needs a mentor and if he breaks, Sheldon will be a suitable replacement.

Opening day, 2088. The Merchantmen traveled to Paris (France) to start the new season. Starting lineups were revealed. At 25 years old, Francisco Farley was the youngest opening day starting quarterback for the Maassluis Merchantmen in 43 years (Bryson Chow was 22 years old in 2045). And boy, was Farley not ready. The first half was a disaster. Teammates had to motivate him as teams went into the locker room at half time, the Merchantmen trailing 17-7 and being on the score board purely on a last minute 93-yard pick six from Kirk Hitchcock. A fumble on Paris' second play of the second half gave Maassluis a short field and Farley quickly had a chance to cheer: third down, Theo Bondy open in the end zone: touchdown! It was a unique highlight in what ended as a 36-24 loss for the Merchantmen. Farley completed 14 of 27 passes for 93 yards.

Week two, 2088. The Merchantmen had a new plan for the road game at the Outer Banks Ospreys. Little did they know they were visiting the eventual 14-2 top seeds in the NAC. Farley got the first half to prove himself and completed 10 of 14 passes for 74 yards and ran for a first down on a 13-yard scramble. He deserved some kudos, despite the 17-0 deficit at half time. But after the break, Moe Sheldon was the quarterback on the field for Maassluis. Albeit with inferior passing numbers, Sheldon got the Merchantmen on the scoreboard late in het fourth quarter.

Week three, 2088. First home game of the season in a near sold out Oranje Haven. Francisco Farley was once again announced as the starting quarterback. The Toronto Lake Monsters were visiting, but the Merchantmen were rolling. When half time was called, the Merchantmen were comfortably leading 17-0. Farley was the man of the game so far, having found Theo Bondy for the first touchdown and pounding it in from 2-yards out himself for the second touchdown. But in the second half, things got bad and went from bad to worse. The Lake Monsters took control, picked off Farley 3 times, the third one being an 83-yard pick six to eventually force overtime. In overtime, Farley's fourth pick was brushed away by his defense, but eventually it was not to be. An impressive 53-yard field goal gave the Lake Monsters a 20-17 victory.

Week four, 2088. The San Antonio Tidal Force arrived in Maassluis en route to their top seed 13-3 regular season record. Obviously something the Merchantmen did not know then. Francisco Farley was sobbing on the sideline, Moe Sheldon was the starter for Maassluis. Despite a far from impressive statline, one critical number was there: a 1 in the W-column as Sheldon guided the Merchantmen to a 14-9 victory.

Maassluis' bye week didn't change anything. In fact, as Sheldon was notching two more wins in the next three games, the battle for the starting role that wasn't intended, didn't come either. The Merchantmen went from Farley to Sheldon without any back and forth changes like in past times when the Merchantmen struggled. Farley got some playing time in a 34-10 drubbing in Bordeaux, a 52-14 drubbing in Orlando and a 34-7 ear washing in Moontown. Cumulative numbers: 3 for 18, 29 yards, 1 interception. His highlights of the season turned out to be victory formation plays in the home victories over the Capital City Blues (30-6) and Bordeaux Vineyards (37-10).

At that, as promising and as loud as the season started for Francisco Farley, it ended with that knee drop for victory over Bordeaux. By no means was it clear Farley would be the new franchise quarterback, but he could not predict he'd be the backup to a 6-7 Moe Sheldon. Is his stint in Maassluis already over? Too early to tell. Farley will be a restricted free agent once again. He went into the 2088 off-season unsigned, returned for the second-year minimum salary. Next off-season his demands might be higher, albeit based on a depressing statline. Sheldon isn't likely to return, he was probably a one-year rental that kept the Merchantmen far away from a potential top five draft pick.

Draft picks are a plenty in Maassluis in the soon to be upcoming 2089 draft. Most prominently a #9 and #13 overall in the first round. Enough cannon fodder to look up, to attempt to, well, who knows? Maassluis might be in the market for a new attempt at grabbing a franchise quarterback. Or maybe they will look at the potential free agent market, possibly lead by 38-year old Brian Sams or 37-year old Brad Nestor. But that market will be dry. Moe Sheldon might be the best option.

15 minutes of fame, Francisco Farley got two games and a half. Optimistically, it was a false start to a promising and long career. Pessimistically, it was the best he could ever achieve as an undrafted afterthought. Sure, it's way too early to know what the future will bring for Farley. Merchantmen management has claimed to see promising things. It's unclear based on what. Progress in training camp? We'll see what happens, first prior to the draft, then during the draft, training camp, pre-season. Depending on whether Maassluis wants Farley back. In the end, Farley was there when Maassluis seemed to have hit rock bottom, saw a crazy back and worth of wins and losses towards a respectable 6-10 record. A way up from an unusual 0-3 start. For the Merchantmen, for Farley. Who knows? Anything can happen...

MIJB#19

04-02-2020, 01:07 PM

Merchantmen OC Murack retires
An extraordinary stint has come to an end. After 18 seasons of service with the Maassluis Merchantmen, Neal Murack has announced his retirement from football. A former respectable center, Murack played 204 regular season games in the IHOF and retired after a short stint with the Merchantmen, early on showed his desire to get into a coaching job. He returned to Maassluis 15 seasons later, to stick around for the longest coaching or staff member stint in franchise history.

As the Merchantmen's offensive coordinator since the 2071 season, he's had the pleasure to work with wide receivers J.R. Mills and Theodore Bondy, and perhaps the strongest offensive line in team history, anchored by Tom Anaya and Oscar Meadows. And obviously the lionshare of his time his faith was connected with quarterback Ellis McAlister, cut by the Merchantmen in the 2088 off-season.

Options are a plenty, but these are big shoes to fill in Maassluis, with a very likely unavoidable change of offensive playing style.

MIJB#19

04-02-2020, 01:27 PM

Merchantmen legend Gabe Broady retires
Return specialist Gabe Broady has decided to call it a game. An undrafted rookie signing in 2081 for the Maassluis Merchantmen, Broady was initially a bit of a roster filler. But midway through the season, the punt return duties were given to him. For a majority of the following five and a half seasons, Broady posted phenomenal numbers. With 17.0 yards per return (highest average in IHOF history) and 8 touchdowns (tied second most in IHOF history), he's considered an all time great. But father time visited early and in 2087 Broady's seemingly undisputed status fell apart, in part initiated due to his fumbling habits, but also by the emergence of Courtney Blackwell. Broady was released during the 2088 off-season and by lack of interest from any of the 31 other IHOF franchises, Broady decided it was no longer worth waiting for a call.

Elsewhere across the USA, five other former Merchantmen players announced their retirements. Running back Leonard Belin played 97 games in Maassluis and had 3 1,000-yard seasons. Tight end Nicholas Grundy was a special teamer for 4 seasons. 2086 first round pick cornerback Lee Hancock was a two-season starter, but failed to make the 2088 regular season roster. Defensive end Wendell Marshall's one season in Maassluis was a very strong one with 12.0 sacks in that 2084 season. Defensive end Ezekiel Wylie played 121 games in 7 seasons, usually being one of the guys in a four-men rotation.

MIJB#19

04-06-2020, 04:41 PM

Merchantmen pick DT Fletcher and QB Bell in first round
The Maassluis Merchantmen haven't traded up or down. The 9th and 13th overall picks were kept and used to bolster two positions Merchantmen fans are familiar with seeing picked highly. Defensive tackle Darien Fletcher was selected 9th overall, shortly after followed by quarterback Brandon Bell.

General Manager M.IJ.B. of the Merchantmen was pleased: "It was no secret that we tried to move up in the draft, but after our attempts failed, we got two players we did not anticipate to fall in our lap. Yes, pleased we are."

23-year old defensive tackle Darien Fletcher was touted as a the second player on the draft board and top three in overall talent. The Merchantmen saw it, interviewed Fletcher, but fully expected him to get snagged up by another team. As he dropped to nineth overall, the Merchantmen couldn't pass on what they historically have seen as a key position on defense. The home of Charles Gomez and Shaun Hartman. Fletcher can only hope to get into their footsteps.

23-year old quarterback Brandon Bell left a good impression with the Merchantmen staff. Although they were open about looking for a wide receiver at the top of the draft, management looked happy to pick him. A possible second round target, but he was moved up the priority list when the last of the top three graded wide receivers was taken. The Merchantmen have gone through a struggling season at quarterback, although they've been open about trying to re-sign quarterback Moe Sheldon, perhaps to mentor Bell. This does make it unlikely Francisco Farley will get another chance.

MIJB#19

04-06-2020, 05:11 PM

We got 'em!
It's early to claim our 2089 draft is a success, but I can't be unhappy about it so far. We got a new stud defensive tackle and a new quarterback!

Okay, I tried to move up to 1.1. There's a once in decades talent at quarterback in this class named Angel Hanson. 20 years old, exceptional in everything. And our brand new offensive coordinator called the kid "underrated". Yeah, we all know Maassluis doesn't Suck for Luck, so even the #9 and #13 were insufficient to persuade the Frederick Red Menace into trading down.

I tried to move up to 1.2. There was an outstanding wide receiver Riley Doyle second on our board. Our new OC was ecstatic about him. Snapfinger didn't like our picks either and went with the kid.

From there on, we just kept waiting and by the time #9 was up, I was shocked to see Fletcher still unspoken for. Our defensive coordinator really liked him and I figured: this is our position, this guy is top three in talent in this class, he's ours!

A couple of picks later, I talked with Bordeaux about the #12 pick, but once they realized wide receiver Marshall Hoffmann was still on the board, they went with picking him. Would we have picked him there? Probably.

No worries, by then I knew our second choice quarterback of this class was still available: Brandon Bell. Aside from his excellent interview, his profile doesn't wow, but he looks like a kid that can lead us to a division title.

The plan is to talk Moe Sheldon into sticking around, both as a mentor and an insurance policy for Bell.

Is this the end for Francisco Farley? It shouldn't initially be, until you understand what his salary demands are. The kid sniffed at playing time and now claims he's a reliable backup, replacement level. Seriously, things are flying over his head. His demands have been a prominent reason to look elsewhere. You heard it here first: he'll be out of football before the 2090 draft.

Contrary to Farley, eleven other restricted free agents had reasonable demands and were signed to two or three year deals. Most prominently defensive linemen Tony Whiting and Jumbo Mojica. Boy oh boy, if Fletcher works out, our defensive line will be back to our old standards.

WR Theodore Bondy and C Butch Pearson have signed a restructured deal, opening up some extra cap space for, well, who knows?

I know, we need to give MLB Daquan Espino a new deal. That will cost us some cap space.

And that's about it for now. A draft to continue, a free agency period with actually some cap space. It's been a while to have something like that going on here in Maassluis.

MIJB#19

04-08-2020, 05:07 PM

General Manager Notes: Where have the 2089 picks gone?
Take a guess? Indeed. We traded a lot of picks!

Going into this draft, we had no less than 12 draft picks, with the #9 and #13 overall the clear cut centerpieces. But we also had a quartet of fourth round picks. "Had" indeed, the Hanalei Dragons came around, their depleted roster could use another draft pick... Or eight! In two steps, we packaged our second, third, four fourth and two fifth round picks for the Dragons' first and second rounders next draft, their fifth rounders in each of the next two drafts and on top of that linebacker Moe Iveans.

Why the linebacker? Well, really, haven't you seen what was starting for us last season? Iveans can play the zone defense, stop the run, play special teams and support the pass rush. He'll be starting on running downs, that's a sure thing. It also means the departure of last year's undrafted rookie Sebastian Strobel. His demands aren't even extraordinary, but really, he's just not that good of a run stopper or pass rusher. Or a zone defender. Wait, why was he our third linebacker?

On the free agents market, we backed out of signing the best linebacker out there. Trading for Iveans made it pointless. We missed out on a quality cornerback. I thought I made a sound offer, but it was trumped by another team. Our consolation prize of sort was defensive tackle Francisco Burgess. A 32-year old veteran running lanes stop gap. But we'll mostly ask him to mentor the incoming Darien Fletcher.

We made a bid on Reggie Thong', after backing out on the expensive linebacker we have some cap space available. I'm confident in the other three running backs on roster, but Thong' has been with us so long already, he has cohesion with the entire offensive line. Will we get him? Maybe, maybe not. The Chicago Norsemen are also in the market.

Our bid on Moe Sheldon is still the only one. Granted, Moe has announced a preference to sign late in free agency, but you can never know with these players. Making an early offer shows our willingness to commit to him. Sure, short term, most likely, perhaps even as nothing but a mentor to Brandon Bell, but there's nothing wrong with a starter quality backup quarterback.

Aside from that, we're going to offer contracts to some of our restricted free agents. Although their demands are quite higher than what they've done for us last season, we can spend that additional cap space here. Most are defenders and familiar with our game plan. Turnover in players is always bad for cohesion, so we'll try to keep some of them.

One player whom we'll most likely are not going to make an offer is Francisco Farley. His demands are way too rich for what he's shown in his two and a half games. But moreover, we just invested in Brandon Bell, Farley's chances to play are much smaller now. Maybe in late free agency we'll reconsider. After all, I still think he has more potential than most scouts give him for.

I'm undecided about A.J. Ritt for now. He's still a fast defensive tackle, but we're all of a sudden pretty full on our defensive line. Ritt does have cohesion value, but keeping him would mean we'd have to part ways with another defensive lineman, like second-year pro's Kurt Ackerman or Terrence Gellar.

And that's basically it for now. Our next draft picks are in the sixth and in the seventh round, twice in that last round. We'll have to wait and see what will be left from this class once we get there.

Unless I get the goggles and jump in for mid round pick...

MIJB#19

04-09-2020, 11:05 AM

Thong' stays with Merchantmen for 2089 season
The Maassluis Merchantmen today announced the extended services of running back Reggie Thongchanh. The Merchantmen leading rusher of the last two seasons agreed to a new two-year $16M contract. Overall interest in Thong' was limited, but an offer from the Chicago Norsemen gave enough competition to get this deal done. It makes Thongchanh' the eight highest player on roster.

Fond of keeping players around, the Merchantmen felt relieved to salvage their fourth round pick from four seasons ago. Thong' is familiar with the franchise and has plenty of experience playing behind the current state of the art offensive line. All that said, Thong's role as the starter are no guarantee. The Merchantmen currently have 5 running backs on roster, all returning from last season. Especially third-year pro and last season's RB2 Francisco Patter feels like he's ready to take over. But as both Thong' and Patter struggle with endurance, splitting the carries is a logically solution to the situation. Thong's contract is release friendly as he worked out a modest signing bonus of just $2M, perhaps feeling confident he'll win the main ball carrier role.

Together with Thong', five other free agents signed a new deal in Maassluis. Contrary to Thong', they were all restricted free agents. Tight end Jeffery Blake, winde receiver Santiago Messenger, cornerback Ted Frias, and safeties Salvador Harper and Bert Sword signed various lengths of deals, all until at least the 2090 season.

MIJB#19

04-10-2020, 12:22 PM

Merchantmen grab CB, WR, FB to finish their 2089 draft
The 2089 draft is about half a round away from finished. The Maassluis Merchantmen kept their sixth and couple of seventh round picks to increase their class to five rookies. The new names: cornerback Andres Provo, wide receiver Harris Wilkerson and fullback Mel Kinney.

23-year old Provo is the 10th highest graded cornerback in this draft class. Scouts think he's one of the most developed players at his position in this class. On first look, he can play zone defense, man-to-man, support the run and has stamina. Maassluis had only 4 cornerbacks on roster, Provo's chances to make the final 53-men roster are pretty good.

23-year old Wilkerson is considered by the Merchantmen staff as a promising receiver. Probably lacking the route running skills to get open and with big-play ability slightly below Merchantmen standards. But otherwise very promising. Wilkerson will be the 6th wide receiver on roster.

22-year old Kinney comes in as one of the four players the Merchantmen draft war room tagged with an upside of 100 out of 100. Their brand new offensive coordinator called Kinney potentially the best blocking fullback in league history, with the ability to find open lanes to run through. He'll be the second fullback on roster.

MIJB#19

04-11-2020, 08:00 AM

General Manager Notes: What about that new OC?
Oh yeah, it's almost time.

Later today the post draft free agency will end and it means we'll have to prepare our training camp. Most specifically, we'll have to act fast on a drawing a new offensive game plan. As our offensive coordinator retired, we had to hire a new one. Reuben Bidwell is the name and play calling is his thing. Surprisingly he's 58 but has only 8 seasons of experience in the IHOF. He's been an offensive coordinator before, with stints in Frederick and Hanalei. In between, he was head coach of Outer Banks. Sadly, he isn't quarterback oriented, which would have been nice to see him help develop our recent first round pick a bit faster. More importantly, his style is a "spread offense". Why does that matter? Well, we built a game plan a couple of seasons ago completely suited towards our then OC Muchnick. We'll have to do it once again.

For the life of me, I've got no frickin' clue what the difference is between a "balanced" and a "spread" offense. Nor should I, that's what we have that offensive coordinator for, no? It's clearly time for a Solecismic crash course on offensive game planning.

MIJB#19

04-11-2020, 09:46 AM

General Manager Notes: early draft class 2089 look
Yay, rookies arrived, the staff has made a first report on our five draft picks.

1.9 DT Darien Fletcher
Overall grade: 45/65
Our staff sees Fletcher potentially as being in the top 10 pass rushers. We're already loaded in that regard, but Fletcher also brings the endurance and run stopping ability to be an improvement of the D-Line.
run d XXXXX++___ 45/70
pr tc XXXXXX++++ 60/95
pr st XXXX______ 40
mtm d X+________ 10/25
zon d X+________ 10/25
bnr d XXX+______ 25/40
ply d XXXX+++___ 40/65
p hit XXXXXX____ 60
endur XXXXX++___ 55/65
sp tm XXXX______ 35/45

1.13 QB Brandon Bell
Overall grade: 10/50
Yes, we somewhat reached for this kid. He's clearly more of a second round value guy, but at this position you can never know when or where he flies off the board. Has this kind strengths? Not really. Does he have any weaknesses? He's green and scouted to be worst in short passes. He can avoid sacks, his intelligence came back as a 1/100. Yeah...
sc ps ++++++____ 5/55
sh ps +_________ 0/5
md ps ++++++____ 5/60
lg ps +++++_____ 5/50
dp ps ++++++____ 5/60
3d ps XX++______ 20/40
accur +++++++___ 5/65
timin XXXX++____ 40/60
s rsh XXXXXXX___ 65
rd df ++++++____ 5/60
2m of +++++_____ 5/50
scr f XXXXXX____ 65
kck h XXXXXXXXXX 100

6.7 CB Andres Provo
Overall grade: 30/50
Initial look doesn't make me wow on him, but what would you expect from a sixth round pick? His zone defense is okay, man to man and bump and run slightly lower than I wish to see here. Endurance is a good thing. Probably lacks the skills to make several picks in a season, will be just an ok option on running downs.
run d XX++______ 20/40
mtm d XXX++_____ 30/55
zon d XXXX+++___ 40/70
bnr d XXX+______ 30/45
ply d X++_______ 10/25
p hit __________ 0
inter XXX+______ 25/40
pnt r __________ 0
kck r __________ 0/5
endur XXXXXXX___ 65/75
sp tm __________ 0/5

7.9 WR Harris Wilkerson
Overall Grade: 30/50
So, what has to give here? How did this kid fall to the seventh round? The obvious part: lack of route running skills, seemingly. Complete void might me more precise. But otherwise, this kid looks pretty promising. At the very least, we'll have a special teamer again that we wouldn't mind to occasionally see enter the field on offense.
av dr X+++++____ 5/65
gt dw XXXXXX+++_ 60/90
rt rn ++________ 0/25
3d ct XXXX++++__ 45/80
bg pl XXXXXX____ 60
coura XX+++++___ 20/65
ad bl __________ 0
pnt r __________ 0
kck r +_________ 5
endur XX+++_____ 25/50
sp tm XXXXXX+++_ 55/90

7/13 FB Mel Kinney
Overall Grade: 15/50
Green, but potentially a complete blocker. Not the stand out guy our OC claimed he'd be, but still promising. Yet so green...
rn lb X++++++___ 10/75
ps bl X++++++___ 10/70
bl st XXX_______ 25
pw in XXX_______ 25
3d rn ++________ 5/20
hol r XX++++____ 15/60
blitz XX++++++__ 20/80
av dr ++________ 0/20
rt rn +++_______ 0/25
3d ct X_________ 5
endur XXX+______ 30/40
sp tm XX++______ 20/35

Overall, we got five players with potential very close to 50 on a 1 to 100 scale. Fletcher is the clear exception. The current development of these kids is on a wide range from very green (Bell, Kinney) to ready to play (Fletcher). We have four mentors on roster: QB Moe Sheldon, KH/QB Karsten Muchnick, DT Francisco Burgess and C Butch Pearson. Both coordinators are very good at player development and young talent. On top of their play calling skills.

MIJB#19

04-11-2020, 12:16 PM

2078 - 2088 Ellis McAlister era

In 2078 a wild off-season resparkled the glory of the Maassluis Merchantmen. After four straight non-winning seasons, the arrival of quarterback Bennett Morris as a free agent gave new hope. Especially the connection with J.R. Mills was exceptional and with rookie running back Walt Blair racking up the 100-yard games, the Merchantmen offense was a pleasure to watch. With 490 points scored, they were second in the league and first in the AOC, deservingly reaching the AOC Championship game. A game they lost miserably 37-14 at the Toronto Lake Monsters.

Albeit a short stint, Morris retired after just one season, he left behind a legacy and inspired a fourth string quarterback to come out of nowhere to become the new face of the franchise: Ellis McAlister. A sixth round pick in the 2074 season, McAlister had to witness the disaster that Robbie Howe was and then played zero downs as Erick Loera's backup. In 2077 and 2078 he barely made the roster as the fourth quarterback. But Merchantmen management kept believing in what had been a promising interview back in 2074. And after five long seasons, McAlister's patience was finally rewarded, he became the undisputed starting quarterback. The Merchantmen built on their success from the season before, flirted with their second best single-season record ever, but eventually settled for a 12-4 campaign and crashing out in the conference semifinals. It turned out to be J.R. Mills' last game, coming 56 yards short of 15,000 receiving yards and at that 58 to break Terry Haskell's franchise record of 15,001 receiving yards.

Running back Walt Blair left Maassluis after only 4 seasons, in which he missed 16 games due to concussions. Concerns over his health made the Merchantmen decide to not give him a big contract in his fifth season and eventually Blair would be forced to retire early, despite playing all games in two seasons for the Brooklyn Fightin' Bums. The Merchantmen didn't invest in likewise top-notch running backs, but focused on a strong offensive line with left tackle Nathan Hadinger, right tackles Oscar Meadows and his succesor Howard Humphrey, center Butch Pearson, guard Carlos Webb and his succesor Michael Szott. Aside from the offensive line, the Merchantmen managed to rebuild the roster around McAlister well, almost exclusively through the draft. Season after season, one of the top prospects in the entire draft class was added to the team. One of them, in 2082 Wide receiver Theodore Bondy joined the Merchantmen and grew into a phenomenon. With four 2,000-yard seasons completely vanished former stars from the top spots of the single-season receiving yardage records. The defense saw the arrival of many great players as well. The Merchantmen continued to be strong at linebacker, with Craig McCorkle (2079 draft). On top of that, the Merchantmen found exceptional talent in cornerback Kirk Hitchock (2081 draft) and defensive tackle Heath Oliver (2083 draft).

The Merchantmen kept defining themselves as a team capable of crushing opponents, but also choking in unexplained fashion, but always outscoring their opponents on a season long basis. In 2085, the Merchantmen finally snapped a five season stretch of not winning a playoffs game, scoring 463 points, second most in the AOC. They reached the 2085 AOC Championship game, upsetting the top seeded Orlando Talons, but fell to the North Plainfield Plague. McAlister guided the Merchantmen to two more lost conference semifinals.

Eventually the Merchantmen's success of drafting highly talented players backfired om them. For season after season they managed to stick the bunch together, showing their cap management magic by offering their star players heavy signing boni and exorbitant cap figures. Hitchcock, Oliver, Bondy and McCorkle, as well as McAlister all were getting franchise quarterback money. The snowballing effect of pushing cap hits to the future came to a grueling halt in the 2088 off-season. The biggest roster turnaround in team history was the inevitable result. McCorkle was traded to the Arizona Miners, McAlister and Oliver were cut. McAlister joined McCorkle in Arizona, while Oliver signed with division rival Gothenburg Giants and anchored them into a lost IHOF Bowl. The Merchantmen went through one of their weakest seasons, getting outscored by 73 points, the third worst figure in the 85-season history.

2078 11-5 (3rd) conference finalist
2079 12-4 (2nd) conference semifinals
2080 7-9 (13th)
2081 9-7 (7th)
2082 10-6 (5th) wild card round
2083 9-7 (6th) wild card round
2084 7-9 (12th)
2085 9-7 (4th) conference finalist
2086 9-7 (3rd) conference semifinals
2087 11-5 (3rd) conference semifinals
2088 6-10 (15th)

Editor's note: It was time to add another 'era' chapter, a follow up of the first 10 posts in this thread

QuikSand

04-11-2020, 01:09 PM

FYI, I have had decent luck doing a copy-paste from the IHOF draft thread, and pasting here (with WYSIWYG formatting turned on in both sites) to avoid the tedium of manually recreating the bar profiles. Hope that makes things easier.

Obviously, you can decide whether this is what you want, but this seems pretty functional to me:

http://www.fof-ihof.com/small/helmet8.png

Maassluis (http://www.fof-ihof.com/teampageroster.php?teamid=8): MIJB19 takes QB Brandon Bell (http://www.fof-ihof.com/conscriptor/show_player.php?in_game_id=73139) with the 1.13 pick.

<table style="border-collapse: collapse" cellspacing="0" cellpadding="0" border="2" bgcolor="#C8C8C8"><tbody><tr><td valign="middle">Screen Passes</td><td>http://www.fof-ihof.com/greypic.pnghttp://www.fof-ihof.com/bluepic.pnghttp://www.fof-ihof.com/greypic.png</td><td>46<->72</td></tr><tr><td valign="middle">Short Passes</td><td>http://www.fof-ihof.com/greypic.pnghttp://www.fof-ihof.com/bluepic.pnghttp://www.fof-ihof.com/greypic.png</td><td>0<->27</td></tr><tr><td valign="middle">Medium Passes</td><td>http://www.fof-ihof.com/greypic.pnghttp://www.fof-ihof.com/bluepic.pnghttp://www.fof-ihof.com/greypic.png</td><td>56<->83</td></tr><tr><td valign="middle">Long Passes</td><td>http://www.fof-ihof.com/greypic.pnghttp://www.fof-ihof.com/bluepic.pnghttp://www.fof-ihof.com/greypic.png</td><td>40<->66</td></tr><tr><td valign="middle">Deep Passes</td><td>http://www.fof-ihof.com/greypic.pnghttp://www.fof-ihof.com/bluepic.pnghttp://www.fof-ihof.com/greypic.png</td><td>50<->76</td></tr><tr><td valign="middle">Third Down Passing</td><td>http://www.fof-ihof.com/greypic.pnghttp://www.fof-ihof.com/bluepic.pnghttp://www.fof-ihof.com/greypic.png</td><td>29<->56</td></tr><tr><td valign="middle">Accuracy</td><td>http://www.fof-ihof.com/greypic.pnghttp://www.fof-ihof.com/bluepic.pnghttp://www.fof-ihof.com/greypic.png</td><td>55<->81</td></tr><tr><td valign="middle">Timing</td><td>http://www.fof-ihof.com/greypic.pnghttp://www.fof-ihof.com/bluepic.pnghttp://www.fof-ihof.com/greypic.png</td><td>47<->73</td></tr><tr><td valign="middle">Sense Rush</td><td>http://www.fof-ihof.com/greypic.pnghttp://www.fof-ihof.com/bluepic.pnghttp://www.fof-ihof.com/greypic.png</td><td>60<->87</td></tr><tr><td valign="middle">Read Defense</td><td>http://www.fof-ihof.com/greypic.pnghttp://www.fof-ihof.com/bluepic.pnghttp://www.fof-ihof.com/greypic.png</td><td>49<->76</td></tr><tr><td valign="middle">Two Minute Offense</td><td>http://www.fof-ihof.com/greypic.pnghttp://www.fof-ihof.com/bluepic.pnghttp://www.fof-ihof.com/greypic.png</td><td>39<->65</td></tr><tr><td valign="middle">Scramble Frequency</td><td>http://www.fof-ihof.com/greypic.pnghttp://www.fof-ihof.com/bluepic.pnghttp://www.fof-ihof.com/greypic.png</td><td>61<->87</td></tr><tr><td valign="middle">Kick Holding</td><td>http://www.fof-ihof.com/greypic.pnghttp://www.fof-ihof.com/bluepic.pnghttp://www.fof-ihof.com/greypic.png</td><td>73<->100</td></tr></tbody></table>
<table style="border-collapse: collapse" cellspacing="2" cellpadding="1" border="1" bgcolor="#ffffff"><tbody><tr><th bgcolor="#FF7A24"><center>HT</center></th><th bgcolor="#FF7A24"><center>WT</center></th><th bgcolor="#FF7A24"><center>RAW</center></th><th bgcolor="#FF7A24"><center>ADJ</center></th><th bgcolor="#FF7A24"><center>DASH</center></th><th bgcolor="#FF7A24"><center>SOL</center></th><th bgcolor="#FF7A24"><center>BENCH</center></th><th bgcolor="#FF7A24"><center>AGI</center></th><th bgcolor="#FF7A24"><center>BRJU</center></th><th bgcolor="#FF7A24"><center>POS</center></th><th bgcolor="#FF7A24"><center>%DEV</center></th></tr><tr><td bgcolor=""><center>73</center></td><td bgcolor=""><center>211</center></td><td bgcolor=""><center>5.1</center></td><td bgcolor=""><center>5.8</center></td><td bgcolor=""><center>4.64</center></td><td bgcolor=""><center>30</center></td><td bgcolor=""><center>11</center></td><td bgcolor=""><center>7.46</center></td><td bgcolor=""><center>106</center></td><td bgcolor=""><center>81</center></td><td bgcolor=""><center>11</center></td></tr></tbody></table>

MIJB#19

04-11-2020, 04:01 PM

MIJB#19

04-12-2020, 09:04 AM

Farley signs with Merchantmen
Francisco Farley re-signed with the Maassluis Merchantmen. The third year quarterback and last season's opening day starter signed a new three-year contract. The agreement comes as a surprise as earlier on the two sides were wide apart in their demands. Farley signed a $13.5M contract, but with basically no guaranteed money, meaning he'll have to make the opening day roster this and following seasons to collect the money. No other teams showed any interest in Farley in post draft free agency. Merchantmen management has been open about their belief that Farley has the upside to become an IHOF worthy quarterback, but also in their opinion about him not being ready just yet. Farley will have to compete with first round pick Brandon Bell, last season's starter Moe Sheldon and kick holder Karsten Muchnick for what will most likely be three roster spots for the regular season.

* * * * *

Merchantmen sign veteran guard Theisen
The Maassluis Merchantmen have bolstered their offensive line with veteran guard Darren Theisen. The 26-year old fourth year pro was released by the Chicago Norsemen this off-season. He was in the final season of his rookie contract. The Merchantmen offered a $26.3M contract, but with little guaranteed money. The move comes as a little bit of a surprise as the Merchantmen seemed to have faith in third-year pro Andre Wilson as the starting right guard. Although the Merchantmen had also shown interest in Jose Weems, the other starting guard for the Norsemen last season.

* * * * *

Merchantmen sign one undrafted linebacker
The Maassluis Merchantmen signed linebacker Malcolm Wentz to a one-year contract. He took a one-year $2M contract over offers from three other teams. Wentz was the only undrafted rookie free agent to sign with the Merchantmen. Surprisingly, as usually they make a move on many undrafted free agents after the draft. They showed interest in only three of them. Their other targets running back Bryce Fassnacht and wide receiver Shaun Steel both signed with the Orlando Talons.

MIJB#19

04-12-2020, 09:21 AM

General Manager Notes: Of Farley, Theisen and the Spread
Oh boy, we're in for a challenge.

Let's start with the quarterback situation. As you can see, we brought back Francisco Farley. Yes, I still think he can be good, but we've also seen his not ready at all. His demands were backup money. We offered him backup salary with basically minimum bonus money. He took it. If he proves to be worth it, he'll make the team as our QB2 or QB3. We have no guarantee that rookie Brandon Bell will be ready to play this season. We also know Moe Sheldon is our best bet to win games now, if he holds up, but it will also mean we'll have to focus on pass protection on our offensive line. Farley and Bell can sense the rush and run with the ball. Kick holder Muchnick is still here, but if Bell turns out to be in the same realm of kick holding ability, well, you can do the math. If Sheldon falters, Muchnick will stick around to be the mentor of the two youngsters.

Then Theisen. A simple move. We needed a sixth decent offensive lineman that can play guard. Center Jared Labbe once was the promising kid, but he no longer is. Left tackle Myron Hamilton is, well, we're on the fence about him. He'll make the team, bar disaster, but as the seventh or eight lineman at best. At guard there's a backup that most likely won't survive the roster cuts, probably Nathan Willis, who's a liability in the passing game if he's forced into action (as is Labbe, but Willis is even worse). We're pretty confident Andre Watson will be good enough to be a starter, he's actually the better pass blocker than Theisen, but if we want or need the running game to be any good, Theisen run blocking skills should be an improvement.

We've been looking at a new game plan, now that we have Reuben Bidwell as our new offensive coordinator. Safe to say, he's a pass oriented guy. Quite simply, there's no possibility to go with just plays that work best in a spread offense, because it's a pass oriented system. We'll have to work out 50 something running plays that would work in other systems, but can still be effective in Bidwell's approach to football. Quite the challenge, it appears. Looking at our roster, I'd find it a waste of talent if we don't get our fullback and tight end (or two) on the field specifically to help the running game. Signing a guy like Theisen would help as well. And in that, we'll have to be careful in not making things too obvious, making a couple of plays where we run out of a passing formation and throw out of a running formation. You know the drill.

Anyway, the drawing board is getting used quite a bit to figure out what we can do with our offensive game plan. It's a challenge. And we'll get to something that could work on paper, no worries.

MIJB#19

04-13-2020, 03:05 PM

General Manager Notes: TC 2089, mixed bag...
Fletcher, Yay. Bell, uh-oh?

Training camp, oh training camp. The time of year where young players make their big leaps forward in their ability to play ball. And for the staff an additional opportunity to make reports on how good they think the young guys are. But y'all are not interested in all 61 players that went into camp. Yes, we managed to sign an additional player and actually not some random hobo. But more on that later. Let's break down the roster by position group.

quarterbacks
45/45 Sheldon (no change)
30/35 Farley (+3/0)
10/50 Bell (+2/+2)
15/15 KH Muchnik (no change)
This is probably the group where optimism isn't in place. Bell made some progress, but nothing that will make us scream: Yes, he's our guy! It doesn't mean we won't give him pre-season action to show he was first round material. Farley's camp was clearly better than Bell's. This isn't a done deal yet on who will do what.

Backfield
55/55 RB Patter (+3/+3)
40/40 FB Brosseau (no change)
40/40 RB Szporluk (+2/+2)
35/35 RB/PR Thongchanh (no change)
30/30 RB Gunja (+2/0)
25/25 RB Ford (+2/+2)
15/45 FB Kinney (+3/-5)
The plan is to put Brosseau on the field more often on running plays. Thong' remains to be the fastest guy, but Patter hasn't just caught up, it's about to make more sense to make Patter the main ball carrier. Neither has the endurance to be a workhorse though. Ford is a special teamer, Kinney is a question mark to make the 53-men roster. Gunja will be released after camp, we had to trim down to 60.

Receivers
75/75 WR Bondy (no change)
45/45 WR Hammond (no change)
40/40 WR Sandlin (+1/+1)
30/50 WR Wilkerson (+3/-2)
35/40 WR/KR Messenger (+2/0)
25/40 TE Blake (+3/0)
30/30 TE Holliday (+2/-5)
30/30 TE Crawford (+1/-1)
25/30 WR/KR Arntt (+1/0)
20/25 WR Gelat (+1/0)
20/20 TE Kotz (no change)
Hammond who? Yeah, we signed somebody just in time for camp to have a legitimate WR2 (no offense, Branden Sandlin). Hammond was the Gothenburg Giants' leading receiver, curiously he was still looking for a team. The tight ends lack the skills to do well in our passing game, Holliday maybe, Crawford perhaps. Blake is a blocker, potentially.

Offensive Line
75/75 C Pearson (no change)
70/70 G Szott (no change)
70/70 RT Humphrey (no change)
65/65 LT Hadinger (no change)
55/55 G Theisen (no change)
40/55 G Watson (+4/0)
40/40 C Labbe (+6/0)
40/40 LT Hamilton (+5/0)
30/35 G Willis (+4/0)
Theisen or Watson, that's the question. The rest of the line should be as is. Labbe once again with great progress, the other guys also made good progress. And one of them will not make the 53-men roster, that's for sure.

Punter/Kicker/Long Snapper
55/55 P Guynes (no change)
55/55 K Wells (+5/0)
20/20 LS Biegen (no change)
We got special teamers. Shocker! They're all better than average, but nothing spectacular.

Defensive Line
60/60 DE Kondovski (no change)
60/60 DT Mojica (no change)
55/65 DT Fletcher (+7/-1)
45/45 DE Exner (no change)
45/45 DT Burgess (no change)
40/40 DE Russell (no change)
35/35 DT Ritt (no change)
30/30 DE Whiting (no change)
25/30 DT Ackerman (+2/0)
20/25 DE Gellar (+2/0)
We've got to like this group. The two second-year guys (Ackerman and Gellar) might be post pre-season casualties, but for now, they're hanging on. Burgess will probably be an inactive mentor for Fletcher.

Linebackers
65/65 Espino (no change)
50/50 Iveans (+4/-2)
45/45 Jackson (no change)
30/40 Mendelssohn (+5/0)
30/40 Wentz (+4/-1)
25/35 Peterson (+2/0)
20/25 Palmer (+3/0)
Espino, then Iveans, then Jackson. That's the hierarchy. Wentz might be a useful WLB. Possibly more so than passing downs specialist Jackson. Mendelssohn made so much progress, but is still a longshot to make the 53-men roster. Peterson or Palmer, that's the battle for a special teams role.

Secondary
70/70 CB Hitchcock (no change)
50/50 S Marty (no change)
40/40 CB McNeil (+4/+2)
30/45 CB Provo (+4/-2)
35/35 S Sword (+3/+2)
30/40 CB Frias (+4/0)
30/35 S Harper (+4/0)
30/30 S Newsome (no change)
30/30 CB/PR Blackwell (no change)
20/25 S Blanchard (+2/0)
Yeah, Hitchcock and a bunch of sidekicks. The safeties are all zone defenders, except for Marty, he'll be our running downs strong safety. Frias is a running downs corner, we'll need to rotate these guys a bit due to endurance issues.

But yeah, what does it matter? We'll see what these guys are worth when the first pre-season game is in the books. Bell will get the first team to play around with, we'll save the development sessions for the second couple of games.

Back to the wide receiver situation, we signed Ronnie Hammond. After four seasons in Toronto and six in Gothenburg, he's up to a new challenge and home. We figured he can still play ball and gave him a two-year deal. He played in two IHOF Bowls with the Giants, won in his first season there, lost last season. Also reached the AOC Championship game in his first season in Toronto. We need a second legitimate wide receiver to be able to make defense play a honest defense against us.

We actually tried to sign one more wide receiver and a new third offensive tackle, but those attempts failed. left tackle Manuel Stevenson signed with the Kansas Creationists, wide receiver Dale Snyder prefers to remain a free agent. Nobody will give you what we offered, but hey, your loss, Dale.

Time to move on, or continue with that. New game plan for a new beginning. C'mon, Merchantmen. We can do this.

MIJB#19

04-15-2020, 11:37 AM

Time to stop trusting this OC?
Remember how we got a new Offensive Coordinator? He's got his strengths, but making player reports that make sense, it isn't one of them.

At least, that's what my first observation is. He's made new reports on all the players and he's telling vastly different things than right after training camp. Most notably, he told me Butch Pearson and Howard Humphrey aren't the players they used to be. Still very good, but not the world class elite they used to be. Of course, Pearson will turn 32 during the upcoming season. More shocking is his new report on Brandon Bell:
sc ps X++++_____ 10/50
sh ps +_________ 0/5
md ps X+++______ 10/45
lg ps X++_______ 10/35
dp ps X+++______ 10/40
3d ps XX+_______ 25/25
accur X++++_____ 10/55
timin XXXX+_____ 35/50
s rsh XXXXXXX___ 70
rd df X++_______ 10/35
2m of X++________ 10/35
scr f XXXXXX____ 65
kck h XXXXXXXXXX 95

Our OC is currently putting Francisco Farley ahead of Brandon Bell in potential. How about that. For one thing, Bell's kick holding ability seems to be decent enough to make one move y'all probably didn't expect: the farewell of Karsten Muchnick.

Together with Muchnick, six other players have been told that their stint in Maassluis will be over before our third pre-season game. This applies to second year pro's DE Terrence Geller, G Nathan Willis, WR Keegan Gelat and LB Jace Peterson as well as recent draft picks CB Andres Provo and FB Mel Kinney.

Wait, Mel Kinney? The best blocking fullback the IHOF had ever seen? Uhm, yeah, just to understand:
rn bl XX________ 15/25
ps bl XX+++_____ 15/50
bl st XXX_______ 25
pw in XXX_______ 25
3d rn +_________ 5
hol r XX________ 15
blitz XX++++++__ 20/75
av dr +_________ 5/10
rt rn +_________ 5/10
3d ct +_________ 0/5
endur XXX+++____ 35/55
sp tm XX+_______ 20/30

The others are, like Muchnick, casualties in the numbers game. We have no room for 10 defensive linemen (Geller), 7 linebackers (Peterson), 10 defensive backs (Provo), 7 wide receivers (Gelat) and 9 offensive linemen (Willis). Most notable guys to do make the roster: QB Farley and QB Bell, RB Szporluk and RB Ford, the tight ends, WR Wilkerson, C Labbe (so great in camp, but also got terrible grades after the latest re-scouting), LT Hamilton, DT Ackerman and DT Burgess (mentor!), LB Wentz and LB Palmer.

Any reason for optimism? The first pre-season game was a 44-3 crushing defeat of the Fairbanks Northstars with 395 vs 108 total yards. We did lose 21-13 in Chicago in the second pre-season game, losing the yardage totals 303-242. Brandon Bell played pretty well, actually.

Let's stay positive, we've got a good offense and quality defenders. At least, that's what I think we have. Let's ignore that coordinator's assessment for a while...

MIJB#19

04-15-2020, 02:15 PM

General Manager Notes: Pre-season report
Volatility, can be a bitch. Or our scouting sucks.

This is where we stand midway through the pre-season.

quarterbacks
40/40 Sheldon (-3/-3)
30/40 Farley (0/+2)
10/35 Bell (+2/-13)
10/10 Muchnick (-5/-5)
decision: Muchnick out, Bell kick holder.
question: Bell or Sheldon as starter?

Backfield
50/55 RB Patter (-4/+2)
40/40 FB Brosseau (+1/+1)
30/35 RB Szporluk (-10/-5)
35/35 RB/PR Thongchanh (+1/+1)
25/25 RB Ford (-3/-3)
15/30 FB Kinney (-1/-17)
decision: Kinney out, Patter/Thong' will split carries.
question: Can we work Szporluk into plan as short yardage back?

Receivers
75/75 WR Bondy (+3/+3)
45/45 WR Hammond (+1/+1)
40/40 WR Sandlin (-1/-1)
35/40 WR/KR Messenger (no change)
30/40 WR Wilkerson (-2/-11)
25/35 TE Blake (+2/-2)
30/30 TE Crawford (+1/+1)
30/30 TE Holliday (no change)
25/30 WR/KR Arntt (no change)
20/25 WR Gelat (-1/0)
15/15 TE Kotz (-3/-3)
decision: Gelat out.
question: how to utilize all the run blocking tight ends and still be 3WR heavy on passing downs, without making it too obvious foor opponents?

Offensive Line
70/70 G Szott (no change)
65/65 C Pearson (-7/-7)
65/65 LT Hadinger (no change)
65/65 RT Humphrey (-6/-6)
50/50 G Theisen (-7/-7)
40/55 G Watson (no change)
25/30 C Labbe (-12/-13)
30/35 LT Hamilton (-9/-6)
30/35 G Willis (-1/-1)
decision: Willis out
question: Theisen or Watson as our right guard, leaning towards Watson.

Punter/Kicker/Long Snapper
55/55 P Guynes (no change)
55/55 K Wells (no change)
20/20 LS Biegen (no change)
nothing to add here.

Defensive Line
60/60 DE Kondovski (+1/+1)
60/60 DT Mojica (no change)
55/65 DT Fletcher (-1/-2)
45/45 DT Burgess (no change)
45/45 DE Exner (-2/-2)
40/40 DE Russell (-1/-1)
35/35 DT Ritt (+1/+1)
30/30 DE Whiting (-1/-1)
25/30 DT Ackerman (no change)
20/25 DE Gellar (+1/+1)
decision: Gellar out.
question: are these guys really as good as their pass rush speed suggests?

Linebackers
55/55 Espino (-10/-10)
45/45 Jackson (no change)
40/40 Iveans (-9/-9)
35/40 Mendelssohn (+1/-1)
30/40 Wentz (0/-3)
30/30 Peterson (+2/-2)
20/25 Palmer (no change)
decision: Peterson out.
question: we went from good duo/trio to pretty fragile, is this unit even Merchantmen worthy?

Secondary
70/70 CB Hitchcock (-1/-1)
45/45 S Marty (-4/-4)
40/40 CB McNeil (-1/-1)
30/45 CB Frias (+1/+1)
35/35 S Sword (no change)
35/35 S Harper (+2/+1)
30/40 CB Provo (-1/-8)
30/30 S Newsome (-1/-1)
30/30 CB/PR Blackwell (no change)
15/25 S Blanchard (-1/-1)
decision: Provo out.

Not sure what to add here for now. Re-evaluation had depressing results. Not something we're used to. But we'll hold tight en keep hope on things going to be better than last season. Because, well, last season was almost rock bottom, at least for the Merchantmen.

MIJB#19

04-16-2020, 06:20 PM

General Manager Notes: Lock 'em up!
It's that time of season: pre selecting the 2090 roster.

Alright, we haven't even started the 2089 season, but it's in good Merchantmen tradition to try to lock up as many players of the potential 53-men roster as possible for the next off-season. As such, the likes of FB Clay Brosseau, TE Tyler Kotz, LT Myron Hamilton, DE Archie Exner, CB/PR Clarence Blackwell and LS Timothy Biegen got extensions. Most are now signed through the 2091 season, Kotz signed only a 2-year deal (he's our fourth best TE, might not even play a down this upcoming season), Exner got locked up for 4 seasons for $40M over that timespan. Some of them might be easy targets as free agents, but I'd rather have them signed and lose some cap space by cutting than losing out on a slightly better replacement and losing the guy that is familiar with the team facilities.

That leaves one player not yet signed for next season: DE Gene Kondovski. He's a little bit undersized, but this guy feels like the kind of defensive end we love to put on the field. Excellent pass rush technique, very good run defense and play diagnosis and at least some pass rush strength. The new Daquan Strugielski? Probably not, but with the support cast around him, he can excel. Or we'll just rotate between him, Exner, Andy Russel and Tony Whiting, which is what we did last season. Kondovski's meager 3.0 sacks was the lowest of this quartet. He's in the last year of his third round rookie contract, looking for a (for his skill set) reasonable $48.7M over 3 years. We have the cap space (or close to), so we'll go and make him an offer that will be lower on this year's salary, much higher on the bonus money, clearly higher overall and just enough to stay exactly under the cap.

Extending Kondovski will also put us over the cap next season, but only by $19M or so, which is (aside from this off-season), a very safe zone for the Merchantmen. Without retirements, it would put us at 52 players signed, 1 restricted free agent (LB Wentz) and 10 draft picks to work with due to the additional 1st, 2nd and 5th round picks from the Hanalei Dragons. Who seem to be reloaded pretty quickly, having signed veteran QB Alvin Engelberger as a free agent (my staff sees him as the 5th best quarterback in the game). This might end up being a low 1st rounder, as is per usual for the Dragons, usually. Why didn't we go for Engelberger? He's signed for a hefty $35M salary and a $40M bonus each of this and next season.

Is that 53-men roster set in stone after re-signing Kondovski? Never say never. We have a couple of players that are still options to cap out their contract if needed. I'd rather not to, because now is the perfect example of a season where we want to spent ever $10K of cap space to have more room to renegotiate with the locked up players next off-season.

Another decision I made was to activate Francisco Farley for the last two pre-season games. He'll be splitting the playing time with Brandon Bell there. We don't have to see anymore from Moe Sheldon, we know he's a .500 land quality quarterback, with this offense should be good enough to push us back into the division title race.

We're going to not tweak too much with the game plan of the first two games. The pass/run split has been as close as 50/50 as it can get. FB Brosseau was on the field on just over half of the running plays and about a third of passing plays, that's progress from recent seasons. On a lower level, our run blocking tight ends Blake and Crawford have been on the field occasionally on running plays and a handful of passing plays. The carries split for running backs is a complete clusterfuck in pre-season, backup Szproluk saw the most activity in the first game. Patter and Thong' had promising ypc figures, almost exclusively playing from behind our projected starters on the offensive line (with G Thiesen getting the nod here, G Watson will play in the second couple of games).

And with that, it's on to those second two pre-season games. First one at the Colorado Cutthroats and next up at home against the Arizona Miners. The latter will be visiting without Ellis McAlister, he didn't get a new contract there. In fact, McAlister is sitting a top the free agents pile. Together with Tre Lynn, the Gothenburg Giants starter for the last 13 season, including their winning IHOF Bowl run in the 2083 season and being their starter in the lost bowl game last season. Both are good enough to start for a third of the league's teams, on paper. We're one of them. But most of them have a young guy with the potential to be better than them. Or so they hope, both the player and the team. Had we not re-signed Sheldon, either Lynn or McAlister would be a suitable alternative.

Oh yeah, those last two pre-season games. We'll have to see what happens there. And then it's on to opening day against the Gothenburg Giants, in Oranje Haven. It'll be interesting to see which quarterback they will bring in as their starter. And many other new faces, that's for sure.

MIJB#19

04-17-2020, 08:04 AM

Merchantmen 2089 Pre-Season Recap
The Maassluis Merchantmen have finished their pre-season action with a 2-2 record. It ends a three-season streak of losing pre-seasons. Let's look over what the Merchantmen did in those games (and limited sample size).

W2: 44-3 win, 395-108 total yd, +3 turnovers (6-3)
W3: 13-21 loss, 242-303 total yd, equal turnovers (1-1)
W4: 9-33 loss, 237-411 total yd, -1 turnovers (1-2)
W5: 24-19 win, 326-336 total yd, +1 turnovers (2-1)

Passing:
W2: Bell 22/42 for 196 yd, 2 td, 0 int
W2: Sheldon 0/1 for 0 yd, 0 td, 1 int
W3: Bell 8/10 for 58 yd, 1 td, 0 int
W3: Sheldon 8/20 for 38 yd, 0 td, 0 int
W4: Farley 4/6 for 26 yd, 0 td, 1 int
W4: Bell 15/25 for 105 yd, 0 td, 0 int
W5: Farley 18/21 for 211 yd, 2 td, 0 int
TOTAL:
Bell 45/77 for 309 yd (4.01 ypa), 3 td, 0 int
Farley 22/27 for 237 yd (8.77 ypa), 2 td, 1 int
Sheldon 8/21 for 38 yd (1.80 ypa), 0 td, 1 int

Bell's performance was acceptable, Farley's play was encouraging, aside form the interception. Sheldon was unable to get anything going.

Rushing:
Thong' 63 for 275 yd (4.36 ypc), 0 td
Patter 29 for 168 yd (5.79 ypc), 2 td
Szporluk 20 for 43 yd (2.15 ypc), 1 td
QB Bell 7 for 44 yd (6.28 ypc)
QB Farley 8 for 32 yd (4.00 ypc)
QB Sheldon 4 for 23 yd (5.75 ypc)

Patter really pushes Thong' here for being the main ball carrier. Szporluk got very little going as the 'passing downs hb'. THe quarterbacks all showed some flashes of their scrambling skills.

Receiving:
Bondy 20/45 for 218 yd, 2 td
Hammond 18/30 for 188 yd
Sandlin 19/24 for 70 yd
TE Holliday 6/7 for 60 yd, 2 td
TE Crawford 5/6 for 52 yd, 1 td
TE Blake 2/2 for 20 yd
FB Brosseau 2/2 for 14 yd
RB Szpurlok 0/4 for 0 yd
RB Thong' 0/1 for 0 yd

Bondy still struggles, but when he makes the catch, it will be a good play. Hammond is in the same camp. Sandlin was used mostly for short throws. The rest are just there to keep the opponents from (correctly) focusing on the wide receivers.

Pass defense:
CB Hitchcock 3 int, 5 pd
CB Blackwell 1 int, 2 pd
S Marty 1 int, 1 pd (63 yd td)
S Newsome, CB McNeil 1 int each
LB Espino 3 pd
DE Russell, S Sword 2 pd each
LB Jackson, CB Frias, S Harper, LB Iveans, DT Mojica 1 pd each

Nothing surprising here. Hitchcock is the man. The other starters showed their face. CB Frias perhaps with the most underwhelming numbers.

Sacks and stuff:
DT Mojica 3.0 sk, 3 hur, 0 blk
DE Whiting 3.0 sk, 2 hur, 0 blk
DT Ritt 2.5 sk, 0 hur, 0 blk
DE Russell 2.0 sk, 2 hur, 0 blk
DE Exner 1.5 sk, 1 hur, 0 blk
DE Kondovski 1.0 sk, 6 hur, 0 blk
LB Jackson 1.0 sk, 1 hur, 0 blk
DT Fletcher 0.0 sk, 2 hur, 1 blk
LB Espino 0.0 sk, 1 hur, 1 blk
DT Ackerman 0.0 sk, 1 hur, 0 blk
CB Blackwell 0.0 sk, 1 hur, 0 blk

Nobody really stood out, which is to be expected from this talented bunch. 14 sacks in 4 games is probably what you can expect or at least want from this crowd.

Blocking:
LT Hadinger 4/9 run, 1 sk
LT Hamilton 1/13 run, 3 sk
LG Szott 8/17 run, 0 sk (1x pancake)
C Pearson 5/14 run, 0 sk
C Labbe 3/5 run, 0 sk
RG Theisen 4/14 run, 0 sk
RG Watson 2/4 run, 0 sk
RT Humphrey 10/29 run, 0 sk (4x pancake)
FB Brosseau 0/5 run
TE Crawford 1/1 run (1x pancake)
TE Holliday 0/1 run

Hard to judge without down and distance numbers. The starters played well. Watson and Theisen hard to compare due to Watson's activity being much less than planned.

Scoring:
5x pass td
3 x run td
1x interception return td (63)
9x field goal (1x 49, 1x 47)

Scoring allowed:
5x pass td
1x run td
2x punt return td (74, 62)
6x field goal (1x 52, 1x 46)
1x safety

On both ends roughly a 50/50 between touchdowns and field goals. Couple of punt returns resulted in the somewhat inflated 33-9 score. Pick six was in the 44-3 blowout.

All in all, really hard to make any judgement call on what makes and doesn't make sense for the Merchantmen in terms of the leading decisions to make. Well, decisions, there's basically one, that's not just a question mark, but also has an exclamation mark behind it: who will be the starting quarterback? The Merchantmen published their depth chart with Brandon Bell starting, Moe Sheldon the backup and Francisco Farley inactive. But how accurate and honest is that? We'll have to wait and see what happens in week 1 against the Gothenburg Giants in what could be considered already a crucial game. If the Merchantmen are for real, they'll have to do well in their home games inside the division to have a shot at the division title.

MIJB#19

04-17-2020, 05:01 PM

General Manager Notes: A new beginning?

On my left shines a glass with my favorite soda, as I've learned to call this. On my right a bowl loaded with grapes. In times like these, fruit and vegetables are the things to stay healthy. She taught me with firm confidence. In a way, she's been my new muse, unknowingly inspiring me to grab a laptop and write down what's going on in Maassluis, in particular with the Merchantmen. Now, being forced to stay at home is one way to re-evaluate what you've been doing for so long and whether it all still makes sense to keep dreaming or whether it's time to start all over.

Let's face it, that 2088 season was a disaster. Football in the IHOF has changed, drastically. Defenses have somewhat caught up, a guy like Theodore Bondy can no longer on his own gain 2,000 yards. You know it! It can't have come as a surprise that we've signed a new wide receiver off the street, one that has recently been involved with a successful team: "Sharlie". No offense to the previous general manager that has been behind his nickname, to us he'll be Ronnie Hammond. In the shadows of these two 30-something proven 1,000-yard receivers, we have the third-year sixth round pick Branden Sandlin. 35 catches for 670 yards last season as our emergency WR2 and as a result his agent already thinks he's worth $10M a season. I mean, the salary cap is closing in with $500M, but it's still a lot of cash.

But three wide receivers sounds like a much better plan than one and a half, like Bondy and Sandlin were going into that disastrous last season. It's not like we didn't adapt early to the new playing styles, we ranked third in most running plays on offense and next to last in pass attempts. The teams around us in both figures participated in the IHOF Bowl, our philosophy was more than ready. But obviously there's more to it. Our running backs Francisco Patter and Reggie Thong' each laid down a 3.9 yards per carry average, behind a loaded offensive line. I'm willing to blame our game plan.

Thus entered our new offensive coordinator Reuben Bidwell. The fanbase loves our loyalty to our personnel, Bidwell is the replacement of Neal Murack, after 18 seasons of service. For Bidwell's sake, it's good that Murack retired, otherwise he'd have a lot of people to convince. And I'm one of them, because, frankly, I trusted him in the decision making to go for Brandon Bell as our backup plan after failing to get the top pick for Alvin Henson. Underrated, well, I'm not yet convinced. In return, when Murack in his third season with us said sixth round pick Ellis McAlister would be our new franchise quarterback, not previous first round pick Robbie Howe (the guy we drafted the off-season before Murack was assigned). I raised an eyebrows, or two, but trusted him. Or both, however you've read that, I kept faith in Murack's opinion on McAlister. In essence, Bidwell's faith is now tied with a kid named Bell.

Brandon Bell isn't in an easy spot here. He's got last season's starter Moe Sheldon to compete with, as well as last season's opening day starter Francisco Farley. Quarterback isn't an easy position in football, when the management and staff have faith, you can make mistakes. But Farley will probably remember how last season went, we were unforgiving towards his first three starts in the IHOF. And now a rookie, taken with the #13 overall pick, might be in that exact same position. "Might" indeed, in all honestly, the unusual confidence that I have felt since somewhere between the 2084 and 2085 season, it has crumbled down. Or the completely not knowing of what would come in the 2078 season, when new unprecedented things started. Now, I'm second guessing my next move, play it cool or go on a firm all or nothing offensive?

It's ironic how everyday life decisions carry over to your profession and other parts of what comes and goes around. Bell, Sheldon, or back to Farley? I think I know what Sheldon can give us: pretty much the same as last season, but with an additional wide receiver and on a game plan that might be improved from last season's. But the game plan's effectiveness is a mystery, too many unfamiliarity. There's little time left to twist thumbs and second guess here. Cutting ties with Karsten Muchnick was probably something no Merchantmen saw coming, which paves the way for Brandon Bell to stick around at minimum as an active kick holder. But will we go with the new kid as our man of the offense? We've seen him play in pre-season with the starters, it was encouraging.

Farley would be too much of a Cinderella story. Heartbroken by how the 2086 season ended, he got here and it would be too good to be true, perhaps. We knew in 2087 it would be the last call on McAlister, Farley was already the glimpse of hope. But it didn't work. Or we just didn't try hard enough, after all, we gave up on him after just 3 games. Moe Sheldon gave us .500 ball, albeit the wounds from earlier that 2088 season were to deep to heal it all. Bringing Farley back shows there's still some hope left. Sheldon was underwhelming in pre-season. Our safest bet for the short term, but for long term effects, a choice between Farley and Bell might be better, knowing that it has higher risks. I hope there's upside here, but as promising as both have looked in pre-season, the sample size can make things look so promising, we have no guarantees it was the real magic at work.

At the end of the day, the weekend if you will, I'll have to make a decision and it makes sense to stick with it, no matter what (bar unforeseen circumstances). Either way, Bell or Farley, from a helicopter view looking, neither seems to give us much hope to playing winning football in 2089. Unless the one we choose works well with the game plan, let him hand of and let Patter and Thong' run it all day long.

Only problem is, I know I can live with another season of Sheldon, it sure wasn't easy, but it was kind of bearable...

MIJB#19

04-20-2020, 02:19 PM

Bell leads Merchantmen to solid season start
Brandon Bell began with a big bang, the Maassluis Merchantmen beat the reigning conference champions Gothenburg Giants 28-14 in Oranje Haven. Bell earned his first game MVP honors in a solid showing. Especially the connection with another off-season acquisition, Ronnie Hammond worked surprisingly well. The 2089 season has started well for the Merchantmen.

For days it was the biggest question in and around Oranje Haven: who would be the starting quarterback for the Merchantmen? Fans were split on the issue. Some felt Moe Sheldon deserved the credits after an acceptable 2088 campaign. Other felt the first round pick Brandon Bell should be thrown out there, regardless of what happened in pre-season. And then there were the fans that saw a near perfect Francisco Farley in the last pre-season game almost single-handedly beat the Arizona Miners. Merchantmen management released their depth chart two days before game day. It turned out it wasn't a diversion tactic, but the actual lineup: Bell the opening day starter.

Brandon Bell steps in the footsteps of big names. Five times before Bell, a rookie was the opening day starter. In 2004 through 2006, three different names got their moments of fame. 2004 starter Calvin Snider's spotlight lasted one game, 2005 rookie Leonard Lyon's a full season. Louie Flannery got the nod in 2006 and was the first one to become a franchise quarterback, The first Merchantmen quarterback to get elected into the IHOF's Solecismic Hall of Fame. In 2020 and 2045 number one overall picks "Rusty" Harrison and Bryson Chow got the confidence of Merchantmen management and both responded with a Hall of Fame career as well. Their careers pretty much followed up. Merchantmen fans got spoiled with self-grown quarterbacks, albeit without that big win.

And then it was a different story. Quarterbacks came and went. 9 quarterbacks were drafted in between, in 2071 Robbie Howe was the #19 overall pick, but he was unable to unseat IHOF Bowl winner Alfred Hickman. Howe was the only first round pick between Chow and now. Howe's stint in Maassluis lasted 4 seasons, only the final one as a starter. Now, in 2089, 44 seasons after Chow, there's finally a new rookie quarterback that received the confidence from management.

But one thing turned out to be very different. Snider, Lyon, Flannery, Harrison and Chow, all had to live with losing their first start for the Merchantmen. But Brandon Bell showed no mercy with the Gothenburg Giants defense. Bell used his arm, his legs and his head. The Merchantmen offense put a solid game of football on the grass, but Bell was the quarterback the Merchantmen fans had been hoping for to see. Yes, Ellis McAlister got them deep into the playoffs, but after last season's disaster, the spoiled fans want more than just a 9-7 record.

Superlatives were too little. Bell completed 24 of 32 passes for 262 yards and a touchdown, while running 5 times for 24 yards with several crucial first downs. Especially under pressure, Bell excelled and kept connecting with primarily Ronnie Hammond for first downs. By the time the third quarter was about to end, the Merchantmen had a 28-7 lead, with a missed field goal on both ends.

Sure, the Merchantmen defense was quite okay, holding the Giants under 300 total yards. Especially starting quarterback Kenny Reese was pounded out of the game. On the first drive of the third quarter, Reese was sacked on third and five, getting thrown on his back for the third time and subsequently got pulled from the game. Fourth round rookie Mercury Pierce played admirably well in relief, but it was far from sufficient to orchestrate a comeback.

Merchantmen management i optimistic about the result, but also realistic and trying to temper the expectations for the near future. "Rebuilding" isn't part of their vocabular, but it's way too early to think this will be the great revival. A good, strong start after such a disappointing season.

In the mean time, the 37-year old quarterbacks Ellis McAlister and Tre Lynn had to watch this game on television, both still being a free agent after a long off-season without any phone calls for a new opportunity. After 19 consecutive clashes against each other in this division rivalry, which ended last season with McAlister's departure, today both franchises hope to have seen their new longterm starters in action in their respective encouraging debuts.