[MIJB#19]

General Manager Notes: The 53 for 2099?
At least, we're down to 53 now.

The roster cuts waves have come and gone. Our first way saw fullbacks Jackie Norris and Sebastian Howard, quarterback Daryl Pritt, center Skip Krueger, guard Chance Zwillinger and tackle Dusty Webster leave Maassluis. That last guy must feel like a familiar name, he was a backup here for 2 seasons. The other six didn't impress enough in training camp and failed to make the pre-season list of 60 names.

Seven players did make that list, but are no longer on our team going into the last couple of pre-season games. Undrafted rookies kicker Darren Adams, punter Donnie Stoffel and safety Trey Hopkins were the likely casualties. We also released our recent seventh round pick tackle Zane Humphries and fifth round pick defensive end James Shapiro. Humphries lost the roster spot battle to undrafted rookie Johnathan Van Pelt. We also released two respected veterans.

Tight end Ike Nixon spent 6 seasons with the Merchantmen. In all those seasons, he was mostly our fourth or fifth choice, inactive, waiting for his chance to see the field. His tally was 23 games played, with his very own 15 seconds of fame when he made his only touchdown for us, a fantastic 60-yard catch and run in a 17-10 victory against the Colorado Cutthroats in 2094.

More shocking may have been the release of running back Bert Ta'Amu, our premier ball carrier the last two seasons. We acquired him through trade in 2097, in a season where he still ran for 1,235 yards. Last season his production split almost in half with 673 yards. The Fort Wayne Fury football fans may be much prouder of him, as he's considered to be one of their best running backs in franchise history.

It's too early to claim the current 53 men are the end all be all for this season, because you never know, no? The most surprising names on roster are aforementioned left tackle Johnathan Van Pelt and fellow undrafted rookie tight end Riley Bridges. Surprising for other reasons are the names of linebackers Preston Bradford and Brandon Brady. The first one because he ended his hold out after we agreed to terms. The latter because I was fully expecting to release him after further decrease of his skills, but he held up in pre-season and I'm leaning towards making his experience on the team a key role to keep him on the active squad. Brady is expensive, I might have to renegotiate with him to extend a couple of contracts.

We have a bunch of players that need a contract extension. First thing (yes, singular) first: guard Nickolas Toler. He's going to get the lion share of our remaining cap space of $9M. After that, there are 12 more players on our team in the final year of contract and 10 of them will be unrestricted free agents in 2100. So yes, it would be nice to lock them up for another season, if we can. With only $850K in dead cap space next season all adding up to projecting to be close to $29M over the cap, we're in good shape to not be in trouble next off-season. Not having an expensive first or second round pick in the next couple of drafts will also help...

Which brings me to the Maxwell and Torphy show. They held up, yay. Will they be the best ever? Way too early to tell. In the first couple of pre-season games, neither of them shined. Was it on the new play book? Was it on the game plan, constructed by my staff? Or are we coming closer and closer to the conclusion that we have a quarterback in our stables who might continue to struggle. The defense saved the day, twice. We're going to see where we stand soon enough: we open the season at the Bordeaux Vineyards.