[MIJB#19]

General Manager Notes: And then there was pre-season 2104
The day players' careers can be made or broken.

General managers in the IHOF are always anxious for this stage of the season. Young players reveal a bit more of their actual potential, while some veterans will show a step backwards in their career arch and everywhere around, a handful of players will seemingly randomly turn into much a reborn player, sometimes in a negative way.

Let's go through the Merchantmen roster and let me tell you what I make of these changed and stuff. Yup, once I again, I will round the scouted figures to the nearest 5s.

Quarterbacks
55/55 QB Evan Drake -5/-5
55/55 QB Earnest Ashley -2/-2
30/35 KH Malachi Manning nc/+1
15/50 QB Randy Walters -1/n.c.
The plot thickens? I'm still on board for Drake getting the keys that Ashley had to hand over last season. And if Ashley wants, he's going to get an extension through the 2105 season. Walters continues to not implode, which makes it so weird to keep wondering what this kid could become. But for now, behind a shaky O-Line, Walters would be the one unable to see the rush coming, yet still running for his life, while Drake is the best in business to see it coming. No changes here yet, we'll go into the last two pre-season games with Drake and Ashley both active.

Backfield
40/40 RB Bennett Holmes -1/n.c.
40/40 RB(+ST) Van Goodwin
40/40 RB George Shackelford -5/-5
35/35 FB(+ST) Randy Julian +1/+1
35/35 RB(+PR) Rondell Robertson
25/45 FB Clifton Hitchcock n.c./-4
30/30 FB Damien Wanamaker -5/-5
Despite the decline, Wanamaker will be our run blocker for another season. Julian is more complete and makes it too bad that we have to let go of Hitchcock, a kid that could work out for a team as a potential top run blocker. Shackelford took the typical veteran hit, we could use him as a RB2 though. The three youngsters don't really need his mentoring anymore, so it seems. I still believe in Holmes as a 15-20 carries back, but we'll need Goodwin as an additional receiver and third down runner. Robertson is our punt returner, but otherwise is a Holmes light in terms of speed and hole recognition.

Tight Ends
60/60 TE Garrett Alcala +2/-1
45/45 TE(+ST) Wesley Martin
35/55 TE Nicholas Heath +4/+6
35/40 TE(+ST) Darnell McKie n.c./-4
30/40 TE Allen Williamson n.c./+1
Williamson is out. Heath is the surprise of the off-season and yet I don't see how I can make him active ahead of Alcala and Martin. McKie needs to be on the team as our short passing option on third downs. Still, Heath looks promising, although mostly as a run blocker, and we may need to look at how we can get all four tight ends involved in our offense.

Wide Receivers
80/80 WR(+KR,ST) Calvin Maxwell
65/65 WR(+ST?) Vinny Buysse -7/-7
40/40 WR Ed Schulz -2/-2
35/35 WR(+ST) Rick Emerson
25/25 WR Calvin Hancock -6/-6
15/20 WR(+ST) Gage Greer -5/-5
15/25 WR(+ST,KR?) Lamar Wanamaker n.c./-1
Wanamaker will be out. The decline of the backups is sad, the one for Buysse a bit earlier than anticipated. We still gave him a new deal, but it was much less than what he turned down early in the off-season. Yeah, Vinny, fire your agent, his lunacy cost you about $80M in signing bonus. Buysse is still a top10 receiver in this league and combined with Maxwell, it would be very disappointing if they can't combine for 2,500 yards. Schulz will be worked into the game plan, but probably in a different role than the one he'll get in the last two pre-season games.

Offensive Linemen
80/80 C Elijah Cyr -3/-3
65/65 G Britt Stickney +2/n.c.
40/75 RT Ivan Dole +2/-2
55/55 C Lincoln Stonge
45/45 LT Harold Gruenwalder -1/-1
45/45 LT Carson MCCormick
40/40 G Caleb Driver +1/+1
35/35 G Bruce Strong -3/-3
30/30 LT Andres Blair -3/-3
All of these guys will make it through the end of pre-season with us, but it's up in the air still whether I want to carry 9 linemen into the regular season or 4 quarterbacks. Undisputed starters remain to be Cyr, Stickney and Dole, with Gruenwalder still having my preference at LT over McCormick, while I'm leaning towards Driver's cohesion value at RG. Blair will likely stick around to mentor Dole, which would be bad news for Strong, as soon as Stickney no longer needs him as his mentor.

Defensive Linemen
70/80 DT Gabriel Morris
65/65 DT(+ST) Ben Courcy +2/+2
45/45 DE Robbie Dobreski +1/+1
40/40 DT Mitch Potchynok
35/35 DE Deon Rosas
35/35 DT Alexander May -11/-11
20/40 DE Aiden Preston +1/+2
25/25 ST Spencer Crawford -7/-7
The bad news is on May and it will end his stint in Maassluis after 3 seasons. I didn't see this one coming, but it also means we now have a roster spot for both Preston and LB Rhodes. The latter will be worked into our rotation ahead of Preston. Morris and Courcy will likely be close to all down players, while the rest will rotate. Crawford's drop was also not so great, but he's got other talents.

Linebackers
60/75 MLB Gus Coleman +1/+1
55/55 MLB Abraham Desimone
50/50 SLB Tony Burks +1/+1
50/50 SLB Micah Halvorson +1/+1
45/45 ST Mo Fausel +11/+11
35/35 ST/WLB Luke Thompson -4/-4
20/25 SLB Stephen Rhodes
Fausel looks like great news from a distance, but the reality os that he's still primarily a special teamer and not even close to as talented as the top four. It's actually bad news, as his salary demands have skyrocketed into very high for just a special teams role. Rhodes will get his chance in the last pre-season games and likely and the opening games of the season. We'll have tough contract talks with Halvorson, who wants big money. I'm going to offer him a low bonus contract, as I don't see how I can justify a big bonus with 3 better linebackers on board.

Secondary
55/55 CB Logan Wallace +1/+1
40/40 SS Blaine Wright
40/40 CB Eduardo Cowdrick
40/40 CB Wesley Cabrera +1/+1
40/40 FS Pete Weaver -1/-1
35/35 CB Donnie Dogins -1/-1
30/45 SS Craig Clancy +1/+5
25/45 FS Lincoln Taylor n.c./-3
5/5 ST Eric McCool -3/-3
McCool is out. It's a numbers game, but I don't see much more mentoring for him to do here. Clancy is the surprise of the off-season, he'll be worked into the secondary as a starter. It means first round pick Taylor and his disappointing showing will make him lowest in the pecking order. Wright is still signed for this and next season, which is good for the time being after his short hold out. We didn't make the big improvement that I think we needed.

Special Teamers
95/95 K Oscar Harrington +8/+8
50/50 P Manuel Szymanski
50/50 P Dana Louis -2/-2
20/20 LS Bennett Brock
Szymanski is out, I decided to fall for Dana here. Harrington is now considered the most skilled player in the IHOF. He's going to demand a lot of money when his rookie contract runs out. Brock continues to be an elite long snapper.

Finally, I decided to stick with our starters for the second pair of pre-season games. It means some of the long shot guys that will mostly be inactive this season will come out of it rusty, but so be it. We've been trying some simulations through this game called Front Office Football by modeling a roster after our guys and the results so far are mixed. Some simulations we actually do well (like go 13-3 and win the bowl game) but in most we struggle into a 8-8 kind of season and sneak into the post-season. The biggest challenge is to find a game plan that will not piss away Drake's talent, will not throw us the ball too much to Maxwell or Buysse, or too little to one of them, yet still enough to Alcala as our TE option and have the relief guys Schulz, Martin, McKie and Goodwin all get their looks in suitable situations.