[MIJB#19]

General manager notes
Well, the day before the start of the draft was supposed to be one without little action, although I wanted to conclude three deals and got lucky, I got three deals I needed. These deals involved the #12, #23 and #35 overall picks and I'll explain wnat happened.

#12 pick
I acquired this pick in a trade with North Plainfield. The goals was to have a good starting point in the draft and #12 seems to be a decent top pick. There's been much interest in this pick. Still, I tried to trade up from here and failed. That means I made a list of four names and tried to find a trade partner if all four are gone. Ironically, my partner expects the list to not run out, but if it happens, there will be a trade of the #12 pick. Who the partner is, I won't reveal.

#23 pick
Acquired in a trade which also brought us linebacker Carl Meier for the #28 and #30 overall. These picks seemed to be too expensive too keep and were just there to be able to trade up. Same was there for the #23. As I decided to stop pursueing a trade up, the #23 got expendable and I offered Orlando a shot at getting two guys they want at #22 overall, while they return us the same favor at #50 and #158 overall.

#35 pick
Acquired in trade for Leonard Lyon. I wanted an escape in case I won't get the guy(s) I want at #12 overall and this pick could have been that. Yet, Outer Banks provided an offer I couldn't refuse and I got good future value to trade down from #35 for to #87. With the two mid second rounders at #50 and #51 still here, I hope our #35 prospect will fall half a round lower. Is it likely to happen? I dunno, but I don't mind gambling on it.

Future draft situation
Yes, that's what has become more interesting now. We almost had a double draft in 2007 going into the offseason, but what do we have now? We have no first rounders, but do have two second and an additional fifth rounder to make up for the loss of a seventh rounder. For 2008, we gave up our fourth, but acquired a second, fourth and sixth round pick. In case the #12 pick isn't used by use, we will improve our future draft situation in 2007 to a very good starting point.

Other things to note?
Well, maybe that I'm still not sure how the overall effect on the loss of QB Lyon, FB Burger, TE Aubrey, LG Causey, DE Wells and DE Chapa will work out. On defense, I hope that either Scot Dick or a rookie will step in at Wells' spot to make up for the loss there. On offense, we have FB Rosenberry, who's as good as Burger, we have RG Lacy, LG White and RT Malave for the loss of Causey, acquired QB Bower to fill in for injured QB McDavid. That leaves us with three gaps, we hope to fill in the draft. With six selections, that should be doable. Draft will start in less then four hours as I write this. Wish us luck to get who we want. I'll let you know how our strategy has worked out after each (double) selection we made.