General Manager Notes: Mea culpa
I broke the team.
The 2100 campaign is over for the Maassluis Merchantmen. In what was supposed to be a breakout season for potentially the best offense in Merchantmen history, leaning on the #1 defense from last season, has turned into the seventh worst season in franchise history. It wasn't on injuries or some such, there's one stand out problem: the game plan.
Yes, it's a repeating story, especially if you're reading along elsewhere on the web about the Merchantmen and what I think of it. For whatever reasons, I tried to come up with a balanced, hard to read offensive game plan, but the end result has been a a disappointment. Sure, Ken Torphy finished the season 3rd in rushing yards and Calvin Maxwell 3rd in receiving yards. But 330 total yards is far below league average, where you'd expend and demand being much closer to 400 per game than to that 351 league average.
The defense was night and day compared to last season, which has been mindboggling as well. We let Jerome Shumate become a free agent, resulting in him taking a better offer from the Paris Musketeers. But I'd expect much better than third worst with 389 yards per game allowed and 401 points against. We were #1 in points allowed last season and to be blunt, we played a cupcake schedule this season, the kind even the Asstoria Heroes founder could take advantage of and get his team into the playoffs.
But we couldn't. There's no discussion about what my staff can or can't do, game planning isn't their thing. But neither is it mine. What about "more testing"? Maybe...
European Division:
1. Gothenburg 11-5
2. Paris 7-9
3. Maassluis 6-10
4. Bordeaux 5-11
So, we actually finished right between the two French teams, with whom we only split the series each, while there's the disappointment of the head to head with Gothenburg, which is the one we really should have split. And on top of that, we managed to be 50% of the victories for the two worst teams in the league, the two teams that will be consolidated with the #1 and #2 overall picks in the 2101 draft. Overall, we had a 3-6 record against losing teams and a 3-4 record against those with an 8-8 or better record, including solid wins against two division champions.
So, is the continuing improvement of Maxwell and Torphy the good news, or were they actually not quite producing the goods either and could they have done even better? Torphy ran for 1,312 yards with a 4.27 average and 11 touchdowns. He was also our co-leader in receiving touchdowns, which fits with his workhorse all down and double-threat skills. And Maxwell gained 1,406 yards on 97 catches, with a 7.03 yards per target average. There's clearly a problem with our quarterback connecting with the wide receivers as Maxwell and Vinny Buysse combined for 172 catches on 361 targets. That's worse than 50% caught. That just can't be on the receivers, it must have been on Earnest Ashley. Are we not making the right play calls for these guys? They're no doubt the most talented skill position group in the league. By a pretty wide margin even.
To rub it in how terrible we've been lately. This is a list of which season was the last time each team made the playoffs:
| season | team(s)
|
| 2077 | Snapfinger
|
| 2090 | San Antonio
|
| 2092 | Maassluis
|
| 2093 | Moontown
|
| 2094 | Bordeaux
|
| 2095 | North Plainfield
|
| 2096 | Frederick, Kansas
|
| 2097 | Orlando, Capital City, Chicago
|
| 2098 | Harlem, Hanalei, Colorado
|
| 2099 | Toronto, Houston, Paris, Outer Banks, Williamsburg, Brooklyn
|
| 2100 | | Rochester, Tucker, Atlanta, Gothenburg, Augusta, Fort Wayne, | | Texas, Chesapeake, Oakland, Arizona, Fairbanks, Iowa |
|
Now, I have to accept that 2100 was a lesson of how not to play football.
Let's flip the page, move on into a new chapter.
We'll go into the 2101 off-season with a challenging, yet manageable, $108M over the cap situation. Awesome! During the draft, we'll be missing the #5 overall draft pick, but remember that we got Ken Torphy in return for it. It would have felt better had it been a pick in the late 20s, preferably even in the 30s, but it is what it is. The pick ended up in the hands of the Colorado Cutthroats, which isn't where we traded that pick to, but apparently the Arizona Miners shipped it to them. We do have our 2nd through 7th round picks still in possession, so that's one way to try to fill the gaps that will possibly come up as 12 players will be out of contract:
QB Malachi Manning
FB Owen Johnston
TE Clarence Gore
TE Wesley Martin
WR Bobby Sutton
LT Malachi Overby
P Manuel Szymanski
DT Harold Gough
LB Bart Hansen
LB Brandon Brady
LB Trey Ford
S Chuck Murray
Of that dozen, Manning, Martin, Sutton, Overby, Szymanski and Ford are restricted free agents. Of the restricted players, Ford and Szymanski saw significant playing time and could be asking for bigger contracts than we can afford in a cap strapped season. We'll see how that goes.
Johnston is no longer our starting fullback, but has been our backfield special teamer, which means keeping him as desirable. Gore is over the hill, I tried to shift him into the team late as a cohesion booster, but that didn't help at all. Gough will ask for a big contract, but I'm afraid we can't give it to him and will have to anticipate on further overhaul of the DT position. Hansen is angry and will ask for a big contract, which just isn't going to happen. Brady has been demanding big bucks since we drafted him, but he might retire and make it all moot. Murray is on the decline, but I think we're going to have to invest in a new pair of safeties anyway, as Devon Farrell and Jon Brotzman also played more than 160 games for us already.
So, plenty to do in the off-season, starting with "more testing".
In the mean time, we'll watch the IHOF playoffs on tv one more time and have to keep faith in that we'll be participating in it next season.