[MIJB#19]

General Manager Notes: Pre-season giveth and taketh away
The 2109 edition!

It was evitable, pre-season will always come around and throw the plans into a wrinkle of sorts. Or help determine the final decisions on which 53 players will make the roster for the new season. Let's go through the team position group at a time, or maybe a bit more compressed, with our focus on the most important position in football.

Quarterbacks
Okay, we went into pre-season with 4 names, 3 of which could be considered legitimate starters and one guy that I'm not even sure I want to spend an active roster spot on as our kick holder, despite that Drake Bishop (25/25) still is one of the top5 in business. And a mentor for our youngest member of the group. Harrison Singleton (20/45) is our project guy, but he was also our lucky charm last season, basically we went 6-2 with him under center. The verdict isn't out yet, Two-time league MVP QB Billy Russell (30/30) is the new guy in the city, but didn't overwhelm with awesome play in pre-season. Initially Singelton outplayed Russell in the first two pre-season games, but in the back end of things, Singleton struggled and Russell shone. This could end up being a game day decision, as I haven't taken the time to analyse the situation just yet. One decision was made already: Evan Drake (35/35) has been released. I lost all hope that he would return to his pre 2108 form.

Evan Drake was initially drafted by the Arizona Miners in 2094 in the second round. After starting 12 games in his rookie season, he was demoted the season after and in the 2096 off-season traded to the Colorado Cutthroats. Immediately he guided them into the playoffs, even to a conference final in 2098, but after 8 seasons starting there, he fell out of favor. In came the Maassluis Merchantmen (yay!) and after a career high 4,416-yard season, the longest playoffs drought in team history ended. Drake remained to be the undisputed starter in Maassluis for 3 more seasons, but last season he fell out of favor as the Merchantmen went 2-6 with Drake leading the team. Drake was unamused, decided he was no longer willing to talk about a new contract in Maassluis and the release was there. It cleared enough cap space to extend a dozen contracts and still see the Merchantmen go into the new season with far too much cap space than is competitively affordable (every dollar not spent this season is a dollar unavailable to be spent in the next season).

The skill positon group
It can't have flown over without noticing, we grabbed the top kid in this draft. WR Jessie Vertelney (65/75) is already on par with our reigning star WR Calvin Maxwell (65/65), which should make for a solid duo. Maxwell will be the WR1 for now. WR Preston Gray (45/45) is a very welcome WR3, being our leading route runner until mid-season when I fully expect Vertelney to have surpassed Gray. Second-year WR Jaylen Gearhart (35/45) will be our WR4, but I'm convinced we can move all these guys up a slot once Maxwell calls it a game. TE Garrett Alcala (45/45) has declined a bit more, but will remain in rotation, just like TE Wesley Martin (35/35). Our back field rotation will consist of our three guys from late last season: RB Bennett Holmes (40/40), RB Marcus Jorg (30/35) and RB Cary Delgado (35/40).
WR Rick Emerson (25/25) will mentor Vertelney and Gearhart. WR Kai Cote (30/40) is our typical promising special teamer. TE Darnell McKie (20/20) will be our TE3, TE Ty Rumans (20/30) our emergency TE. FB Randy Julian (40/40) our 2-back formation filler. Veteran RB Van Goodwin (15/15) will be another special teamer.

Offensive Line
This group is fine. Starters will be LT Earl McBirney (35/60), G Brett Stickney (70/70), C Zane Chaplain (60/60), G Andres Uwaezuoke (60/60) and RT Ivan Dole (75/75). McBirney hasn't continued the decline that we saw in his rookie season. LT Harold Gruenwalder (45/45) is a solid backup to McBirney. C Roman Gillespie (35/50) is solid enough to step in with injuries. G Tutan Shapiro (30/40) is a project, plain and simple.

K Oscar Harrington (90/90), P Jimmy Summers (65/65) and LS Bennett Brock[/b] (21/21) are a good group of special teamers.

Front Seven
The group of players that I will rotate here will be large. DE Frank Bernard (50/70), DT Efrain Hutchins (65/70) and LB Caiden Hastings (70/70) have grown into a solid trio going into their second season. With returning veterans LB Gus Coleman (75/75) and DT Gabriel Morris (60/60) there's a solid base. Around them will be the youngsters DE Howie Tucker (35/35), DT Leslie Jeffries (30/45), LB Xavier Hoover (35/50) and LB Avery Distel (35/35). The group will be completed with rookie DE Steve Aber (30/50), veteran DT Mitch Potchynok (40/40), elite special teamer LB Mack Pang (15/15) and veteran DE Dean Rosas (20/20).
Undrafted rookie LB Julio Pochman didn't make it, but I'd love to try to bring him back if the opportunity arises as he's a promising pass rusher and zone defender in one, a multi-talented front seven guy!

Secondary
Another group where we will rotate a bit, trying to optimize the guys' talents. CB Logan Wallace (40/40), CB Joel Delgado (45/45) and rookie CB Bryan Sokol (30/45) will be the man-to-man coverage guys. The zone defenders group has gotten bigger, with rookie CB Skip Horner (30/40), S John Aponte (40/40), S Craig Clancy (35/35) and S Jonathan White (35/35). CB Eduardo Cowdrick (40/40) and S Noah Matthews (40/40) will also see their fair share of action. CB Dennis Finlay (30/30) is nothing but our elite punt returner and CB Norbert Goldfarb (15/15) is our new group leader, mentor and solid special teamer.


That means we also released a couple of other players at mid-pre-season. This includes try-out loser TE Enrique Corbett, This 30-year old veteran lost the roster spot battle to Ty Rumans. But earlier on we released FB Kennedy Broady, G Mark Arce, WR Herman Jeffries, DE Robbie Dobreski, LB Mo Fausel and CB Wesley Cabrera.

Robbie Dobreski leaves Maassluis after 11 seasons, with 166 games played for us, including 2 in the playoffs. His regular season tally has added up to 65.0 sacks (8th all-time for us) and 130 hurries, amongst others.

Wesley Cabrera played 101 games for the Merchantmen, 2 in the playoffs, flipping around from just a special teamer to starter to a backup and what not.

Herman Jeffries is another elite special teamer, but his problem is the lack of receiving skills, which other backups/special teamers do have. He leaves us after 64 regular season games played.

Mo Fausel played 110 games for us, 2 in the playoffs, exclusively as a special teamer. He was already down the list last season, falling behind Pang and Distel, while youngsters Hastings and Hoover can also jump on.


We'll start the season at home against the Paris Musketeers. Their fans and ownership won't want to hear this, but on paper they are the easiest opponent we'll face this season. We might have to call ourselves lucky to face their #1 overall pick QB Ikie Eichorst in his first IHOF game. He's extremely green, but he looks very promising and could be the player to turn that franchise around. So yeah, playing against this kid in week 1 and 8 is more favorable than twice in the second half of the regular season. Still, it will make for a clash between the #1 and #2 picks of the recent draft.

So, to conclude, we got a but younger again, and we'll be having an interesting QB decision. I'm leaning towards Singleton, but it might end up being Russell... It doesn't matter much though, they're similar players, sort of... We'll see.