[MIJB#19]

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...