[MIJB#19]

General Manager Notes: 5 out, 2 more to go
And renegotiations to lock players up.

Last part first, we extended contracts to a good bunch of players, meaning 9 players won't be locked up for next season: QB Moe Sheldon, QB/KH Jon Giles, RB Edwin Harlow, TE/ST Ike Nixon, G Desmond Pritchett, G Hayden Gaylor, G Vince Henselman, LB/ST Jose Meadows and CB/ST Britt Hudson. Six of them will be restricted free agents, which means they'll be protected in the pre-draft free agency. Pritchett signed a 1-year deal this off-season. Sheldon is too expensive to give a new deal. We'll see where we stand next off-season, but I think he'll retire, otherwise he's nothing more than a mentor with cohesion value. Gaylor has been in trade feelers mentioned, which is the only reason why we haven't given him an extension, if he doesn't move away, it depends on the decision whether Gaylor or Henselman will not make the 53-men roster.

Concerning the latter, it's obvious to me that 1 guard and 1 running back will not make the team, which means we go into 2095 with two punters, as Doug James will be inactive, but not put on injured reserve.

Players that were released: undrafted rookie RB Derek Finch, 5th round WR Nicolas Coady (despite his big boost in pre-season), trade acquisition RB Benjamin Kapp, DT Kurt Ackerman and CB/KR Keegan Cosby.

CB Keegan Cosby had been scouted by my staff as our best kickoff returner on roster, but I'm going to stick with Rickey Lyle, or try to find an eleventh hour replacement. It clashes with my belief that you shouldn't give up on young players too early, but the numbers game in the secondary was not good to him. We're probably still overcrowded at CB, but so it goes. He saw no action in his rookie season with us, after we picked him in the 7th round of the 2094 draft.

DT Kurt Ackerman was the casualty in a very crowded defensive line unit. We really have no room for 9 guys, 8 of them will be on the active roster. It was either Ackerman or Jumbo Mojica. The latter can stop the run, while Ackerman is basically just another pass rusher. In 7 seasons with us, his production is only 8.5 sacks, 31 hurries and 7 blocked passes, despite activity in 84 regular season games. He was a 5th round pick find in the 2088 draft.

Last but not least, we're going to try to make our young players get additional action in the last two pre-season games. Which will probably fail, as my staff has been known to be very disobedient and prefers to sub out the young players that need the development time and wear out the low endurance veterans. So it goes, I guess...

Oh, yeah, we played two pre-season games. We won in Outer Banks and earlier lost at home against the Frederick Red Menace. It wasn't worth mentioning as Earnest Ashley was traditionally subbed out for our kick holder way too much and that kick holder tossed for 3 touchdown passes in these games, while Ashley was limited to 1 touchdown. Ashley did win player of the game honors for his 186 yards passing in Outer Banks.

Final decisions after these last two pre-season games.