[MIJB#19]

General Manager Notes: Pre-season 2120 roster set

Our 2120 roster is getting more shape as we just trimmed down from 70 players to 61 for pre-season. Yes, 61, as RT Perry Georgopulos is going into it on injured reserve. It still meant we had to release 9 players from our training camp group of 70 players.

Yes, we were at 68 players last time I wrote, we signed 3 new players and released another to not go over the 70-player roster limit. QB Julian Andrews was released to make room for veteran QB Tyrone D'Arms, with the intent to make good use of D'Arms' mentoring skills. We also signed rookies P Elias Alexander and K Kirk Pietrzyk. Initially intended as pre-season insurance policy for you never know silliness, but I figure that the market for punters is good enough to still find a solution, while at kicker there's no player out there capable of what our current guy can. Along with Alexander and Pietrzyk we also released QB Harrison Singleton, RB Greg Buckley, TE Wally Stephens, TE Asher Hodges, DE Gage Bensen, LB Marco Long and CB Horace Pratt. I mean, these will be announced tomorrow,

Yes, the end of the era is here, we released both our starting quarterbacks of the last 11 1/2 seasons. Singelton took over from veteran Evan Drake in his rookie season, while Tanner took over when Singelton got hurt and after Singleton's return was unspectacular, Tanner became the undisputed starter. Except for when a couple of hold outs made Tanner an expensive player and as I lost the faith in him in the previous pre-season, now felt like the time to get it over with. Since we also let go of our kick holder, it means 4 new quarterbacks on our pre-season roster, with Renaldo Wilson our starter, Al Schneider the project, D'Arms the mentor and Damon Franz the potential new kick holder, if he manages to look better than Schneider to win the backup job. Schneider had an okay training camp (+3/-2), just okay enough to win me over to get this pre-season to show what he can look like.

At running back, we released the second-year pro Gary Buckley. The rookies Corey Ward and Diego Kosters didn't wow us, but both have more to give us. Jackson Powell had a nice training camp (+3/0) and has a convincing case to stay ahead of the rookies. At fullback things will stay put.

At tight end, last season's star Francisco Andersen had a solid training camp, showing he can be even better than he already was in his All-IHOF honors worthy rookie season. Rookie Wally Stephens had a nice camp (+3/0), but he's just not the right guy for this team. Asher Hodges also didn't impress, which means that Jackson Henselman is the rookie that makes the team as the 4th tight end, for now.

At wide receiver the big three will remain unchanged, but behind them I'm expecting us to release Antonio Price, if he gets another age related decrease. Rookie Tyrone Dillon had a tremendous training camp (+5/-1) and has to make the roster. Fellow rookie Maurice Hadnot is also looking good enough to make the pre-season roster.

Our offensive line saw quite the improvement in training camp. Second-year pro's and kind of emergency starters last season C Tracy Stewart(+6/0) and G James Tucker (+5/0) made the biggest improvements. Rookie C Chester Coffey (+4/0) and injured RT Perry Georgopulos (+4/0) also improved. Third-year pro G Greg Brizzolara (+2/+2) even had an unexpected improvement.

On the defensive line, the overhaul will continue. Biggest gains were for DE Phil Wakefield (+5/0) and DT Floyd Dillon (+5/-1), but DE Roger Graf (+4/-2), DE Bradley Osborne (+4/0), DT Jeremiah Cortez (+4/0) and DT Neil Burton (+4/+1) jumped up. In the linebackers group, the second-year pro's Sam Hastings (+5/0) and Brendan Tatum (+5/0) also improved a lot. Rookie Marco Long (+4/-3) was a mixed bag and his lack of special team skills meant the end with us.

In the secondary, CB Andre McAninch (+3/0) didn't make a big jump up, unlike S Kim Fox (+5/0), S Bart Parker (+4/0) and S Max Junker (+4/-1). Rookie CB Billy Cochrane made the pre-season roster and actually will be active in the first two pre-season games ahead of veteran CB Byron Sokol, who might end up axed with the arrival of McAninch and depending on what happens to CB Zachary Blair and CB Asher McElroy in pre-season.

And shortly we'll re-evaluate everything another time, because, you know, in pre-season weird stuff can happen to players...