[MIJB#19]

General Manager Notes: Mid-Pre-Season and the 53 men for 2108 are known!

No dillydallying over which 11th defensive lineman to try out for another couple of pre-season games, I made the decisions on our 53 men for 2108 already. We went through a promising training camp and some noteworthy pre-season unpredictability.

Let's try to do this in quick bits first.

First things first: we released LB Tony Burks. He was in his final contract year at a $10M cap figure. I basically announced it already, but it's official now. He hasn't found a new home and I doubt he will in the second part of pre-season. He was a useful LB3 for us and had he not been a 1st round pick, not to be considered a bit of a bust.

Once we cleared cap space, we signed a lot of undrafted rookie free agents for training camp. Let's stick to the names for now, because some have already been cut, so it's too late to get attached to them now. RB Mo Henderson, RB Vincent Rodman, RB Cary Delgado, RB Malachi Byerly, TE Wesley Keener, TE Eric McMillian, TE Jackie Stokes, C Roman Gillespie, C Leo Carrano, C Zack Strickland, LB Alexander Newhart, DT Kelly Kirk, DT Howie Tucker and DT Zachary Abueva were the undrafted rookies we signed. Tucker and Abueva were switched to DE.

RB Henderson, RB Rodman, TE McMillian, TE Stokes, C Strickland, C Carrano and LB Newhart didn't make it to our pre-season roster. THe same applied to 7th round pick FB Dean Lang, Second-year DT Sherman Casanova and last season's backup LT Roosevelt Dumrauf. Casanova was inactive all of last season, Dumrauf played on special teams all 16 games.

After the frist two pre-season games, we terminated the contracts of undrafted rookies DT Kelly, DE Abueva, RB Byerly, 6th round pick TE Ty Rumans, last season's 5th round pick DT Harvey Chiu, who played in all 16 games. Even more noteworthy was the release of former 1st round S Lincoln Taylor, after he finally saw playing time in his 4th season with us, and QB Monty Truitt, our quarterback of the future project. Well, not anymore. We've got a new deputy in town.

Let's break down the 53-men that we've got, position group at a time, with their scouted ratings rounded to the nearest 5s and their training camp and pre-season progress or lack there of.

Kicker, Punter, Long Snapper
75/75 P Jimmy Summers (TC: n.c., P2: -1/-1)
90/90 K Oscar Harrington (TC: n.c., P2: n.c.)
20/20 LS Bennett Brock (TC: n.c., P2: n.c.)
Solid guys, nothing to add here, really.

Secondary
50/50 CB Logan Wallace (TC: n.c., P2: -4/-4)
50/50 CB Joel Delgado (TC: n.c., P2: -1/-1)
45/45 S Craig Clancy (TC: n.c., P2: n.c.)
40/40 CB Eduardo Cowdrick (TC: n.c., P2: n.c.)
40/40 CB Wesley Cabrera (TC: n.c., P2: -1/-1)
40/40 S John Aponte (TC: +1/+1, P2: nc/-2)
35/45 S Noah Matthews (TC: +4/-3, P2: n.c., rookie)
35/40 PR Dennis Finley (TC: +3/nc, P2: nc/-1)
35/35 CB Sherman Barnes (TC: n.c., P2: -6/-6)
30/30 S Jonathan White (TC: +3/nc, P2: nc/-1)
Shapiro left, Taylor cut, Matthews in. The rest is the same bunch. This should be a fine group of guys.

Linebackers
75/75 LB Gus Coleman (TC: n.c., P2: +1/+1)
45/70 LB Caiden Hastings (TC: +7/-3, P2: nc/+5, rookie)
55/55 LB Abraham Desimone (TC: n.c., P2: n.c.)
35/35 LB Avery Distel (TC: +4/nc, P2: -4/-5)
20/20 ST Mack Pang (TC: n.c., P2: -5/-5)
15/15 ST Mo Fausel (TC: n.c., P2: -8/-8)
Burks our, Hastings in. Hastings looks awesome and should jump ahead of Desimone somewhere during the upcoming season. Desimone is still the more solid zone defender though. Distel is an awesome pass rusher, but we've got so much talent on the D-Line now. Distel can now join Pang and Fausel on the league best special teams unit.

Defensive Line
70/70 DT Gabriel Morris (TC: n.c., P2: +1/+1)
40/70 DT Efrain Hutchins (TC: +5/-1, P2: +2/+3, rookie)
30/75 DE Frank Bernard (TC: +8/-1, P2: +1/-3, rookie)
40/40 DT Mitch Potchynok (TC: n.c., P2: +1/+1)
40/40 DE Andres Harmon (TC: n.c., P2: -3/-3)
35/35 DE Deon Rosas (TC: n.c., P2: n.c.)
35/35 DE Robbie Dobreskie (TC: n.c., P2: -3/-3)
25/35 DE Howie Tucker (TC: +3/+1, P2: +1/nc, rookie)
Fletcher left, Casanova and Chiu cut, Hutchins, Bernard and Tucker in.
Another fine group, Morris is solid, Hutchins and Bernard should become solid. The other guys are very good pass rushers. This group is sound.

Offensive Line
75/75 RT Ivan Dole (TC: n.c., P2: n.c.)
65/65 G Brett Stickney (TC: n.c., P2: +1/+1)
60/60 C Zane Chaplain (TC: n.c., P2: n.c.)
60/60 G Andres Uwaezuoke (TC: +2/-1, P2: +1/+1)
45/45 LT Harold Gruenwalder (TC: n.c., P2: +1/+1)
20/60 LT Earl McBirney (TC: +5/nc, P2: nc/-7, rookie)
25/50 C Roman Gillespie (TC: +6/+4, P2: n.c., rookie)
35/35 G Brett Robbins (TC: n.c., P2: -5/-5)
Stonge left, Dumrauf cut, McBirney and Gillespie in. I'm on the fence about McBirney, he looks both impressive and underwhelming: his training camp was good, his pre-season second look was discouraging. It makes bringing back Gruenwalder even that more important as an insurance.

Wide Receivers
65/65 WR Calvin Maxwell (TC: n.c., P2: -6/-6)
45/45 WR Preston Gray (TC: +4/nc, P2: +1/-1)
30/45 WR Jaylen Gearhart (TC: +2/nc, P2: n.c., rookie)
30/30 WR Ricke Emerson (TC: n.c., P2: +1/+1)
20/30 WR Perry Madison (TC: +2/+1, P2: nc/-4, rookie)
15/15 ST Herman Jeffries (TC: n.c., P2: -8/-8)
Buysse retired, Samuels traded, Gearhart and Madison drafted. The decline continues, fast. Missing out on a WR in the 1st round of the last draft was a huge miss. Our best bet now is the next draft with the additional 1st round pick from the Ft Wayne Fury... Gray will be our WR2, despite his inability to make catches downfield. So maybe rookie Gearhart will be asked to jump in as the new WR2 with his excellent big-play ability and very good potential in route running. Meh?

Tight Ends
55/55 TE Garrett Alcala (TC: n.c., P2: -6/-6)
40/40 TE Wesley Martin (TC: n.c., P2: n.c.)
25/40 TE Wesley Keener (TC: +2/nc, P2: nc/+1, rookie)
20/20 TE Darnell McKie (TC: n.c., P2: -5/-5)
Heath left, Keener joined. We really missed the boat by not locking up Heath previous off-season or the one before. Alcala's decline hopefully won't be a problem, he might be our best bet on third and long, third and short. Martin is reliable, McKie an ownership favorite, Keener shockingly the least impressive of the rookies, but I still chose him over the others that tried out. Keener looks like a green version of Martin.

Fullback
35/35 FB Randy Julian (TC: n.c., P2: -1/-1)
Yup, he's still here, despite that he was out of contract.

Running Backs
40/40 RB Bennett Holmes (TC: n.c., P2: n.c.)
35/40 RB Cary Delgado (TC: +4/+2, P2: +1/+2, rookie)
30/35 RB Marcus Jorg (TC: +1/nc, P2: nc/+1)
15/15 RB Van Goodwin (TC: n.c., P2: -5/-5)
Delgado in. Nobody left, as Goodwin and Holmes were a stellar duo last season. Goodwin declined even more, but in pre-season he looked just as sharp as last season. Delgado has 3rd down back potential, Jorg change of pace potential. We just need to lock 'em up for a couple of seasons and then let cohesion do the rest.

Quarterbacks
35/35 QB Evan Drake (TC: n.c., P2: -6/-6)
15/45 QB Harrison Singleton (TC: +4/-1, P2: nc/+8, rookie)
30/30 KH Drake Bishop (TC: n.c., P2: -8/-8)
Truitt released, Singleton drafted. So, Drake, still? Maybe, maybe not. Singleton played equally impressive in pre-season action so far. But more importantly, Singleton did the right things: improve. Drake is regressing, no longer the undeniable best out there in reading the pass rush. Bishop will be asked to mentor Singleton. We might stick this elite kick holder on the inactive roster though, if Drake wins the starting job in the final two pre-season games with mostly backups and youngsters on offense around our quarterbacks.

So, I left the biggest story for last: could Harrison Singleton be the new sheriff in town? Drake is the one for now, but this might be the moment to flip things around. Sure, I must be convinced that Singleton will give us a better chance to win games. This kid has already has excellent sense rush ability and very good timing with room for improvement. That and he can run, or so we hope, he decided not to test his legs in the first two pre-season games. He's quite old already (25, older than two of our starting offensive linemen), but we really can't know whether he'll play until 40. Nor should we care now anyway, the future is important, but winning now, this season, would be even better.