[MIJB#19]

General Manager Notes: Training Camp 2121, here we come!

It's been a quiet off-season in Maassluis. We traded away the 1st round pick that we had in the draft and signed a grand total of 2 veteran free agents, including a guy that was on our team last season. Let's recap how we got to the 66 players that will go into training camp.

The draft
We held pick 1.18, acquired from Harlem last season a trade down, but as soon as it went on the clock, we got a great offer from Kansas: their 1st round picks in 2122 and 2123, as well as the 2.26 pick this draft. Our only target for the first round, LB Bert Rickles, was picked at spot 1.17. So, it became basically a no brainer. People asked me why we didn't draft an offensive tackle. I considered the top two candidates at that position, but I figured we'd gamble on going with the guys on team for one more season, we'll try to address right tackle in 2122.

Our original 1.26 pick was traded to Fort Wayne during the 2120 draft to be able to pick DT Floyd Dillon at spot 1.16. A trade I have no regrets making. This pick ended up in Toronto and getting used by the Lake Monsters on a tight end.

Our original 2nd round pick (pick 2.26) travelled to Harlem in 2120 amongst others in return for QB Renaldo Wilson. The pick got passed along to Kansas and returned home in the trade of pick 1.18 this draft. We spent it on LB Cristian Beyer, the 6th linebacker taken in this class and the second best on our draft board.

Our 3rd round pick (3.26) was sent to Harlem for QB Renaldo Wilson in the 2120 off-season. The Apollos spent it on a linebacker.

We sent picks 4.04, 4.26 and 4.32 to Hanalei in exchange for their 3rd round pick in 2122. The 4.04 was acquired from Fort Wayne in the trade that made us acquire the 1.16 in 2120, while the 4.32 was acquired from Williamsburg for the 4.7 pick in 2120. Hanalei picked a guard, defensive end and defensive tackle with those picks.

We acquired the 4.20 from Bordeaux in exchange for our 2nd round pick in 2123. It may seem a hefty price, but I put that pick on the table from early in the third round and wanted to convert it into P Devon Middleton, the 11th best player in this draft class. We got him there, 47 picks after the first punter was taken.

The 5.26 was used by Fort Wayne, our original 5th rounder sent to them to acquire the 1.16 in 2120, they got a cornerback with it.

We spent our 6.26 pick on RB Glyn Sloane and 7.26 on TE Sedrick Hill.

After the draft, we signed as little as 5 undrafted rookies: RB Claude May, RB Preston Tanner, CB Cooper Baker, CB Bert Hines and LS Bobby Waters.


In the meantime, to address the right tackle position, we offered LT Roy Wilkerson a new 1-year deal. He stept in as our emergency RT last season during Perry Georgopulos' recovery and kept the job when it turned out Georgopulos was no longer capable of being a starter in the IHOF. Georgopulos was released by us. A sad, but unavoidable move, likely ending his pro football career after just 9 games.

26-year old TE Perry Bussey joined us as a free agent. He's a special teams specialist, but also has decent receiving skills, with courage over the middle and third down ability.

We also re-signed a whole bunch of restricted free agents: QB Orlando Garrett, RB Corey Ward, RB Diego Kosters, TE Jackson Henselman, WR Tyron Dillon, C Clyde Van Lanen, DE B.J. Shellhaas, DE Gage Bensen, LB Luther Goffee and CB Billy Cochrane.


We spent quite some time renegotiating with many players to get under the cap and in the process extended a couple of contracts to key players. We failed to agree terms with QB Renaldo Wilson and G Greg Brizzolara, but after the first two pre-season games, we'll get aroud the table with them again. Brizzolara already turned down a $206M 5-year offer and Wilson a $236M 3-year deal, so this might continue to be really annoying. We have $37M of cap space as it is, so we're not really tight as of yet.

We should be good to go for next season as well, we're $134M under the cap for next season. But, we might go and spent that much on Wilson and Brizzolara already... We have 42 players under contract next season and it will be the off-season where we will have to make a decision on the quintuple 1st round picks from the 2119 draft. Yes, it will be an interesting off-season then, with likely the start of a new snowballing cap situation, at some point (2124?) probably leading to more tough decisions.

For now, we're getting ready for 2121, with a modest rookie class and having lost just 1 player that was a contributor then in TE Arnie Huffman.

Once we're about to hit the 53-men cutdown day, I'll try to not forget to write about why every single one of those 53 players made the team.


But wait, why so little information on the rookies? That's one of the fun parts of the off-season: rookie reports! Okay, okay, here we go.

RB Claude May - undrafted
A 30/35 rated 21-year old with very good breakaway speed (80) and elusiveness (75), but also modest hole recognition (30/40), acceptable endurance (40/45) for a timeshare role. May's not suitable to join the special teams unit and doesn't bring blitz pickup ability, which hurts his chances to make the team.

RB Preston Tanner - undrafted
A 20/30 rated 23-year old with very good power inside (80) and third down running (70/85), whilst also bringing in good breakaway speed (60) and interesting receiving potential with his route running (25/75) and third down receiving (35/45). No pass blocking skills, endurance of special teams skills to speak of though.

RB Glyn Sloane - pick 6.26
A30/45 rated 23-year old with very good breakaway speed (75), good hole recognition (50/65) and interesting elusiveness (65/80). Sloane might develop into a capable receiver with his route running (30/85), but he doesn't bring other bonuses in terms of blitz pickup or special teams skills.

TE Sedrick Hill - pick 7-26
A 20/30 rated 21-year old with acceptable special teams ability (55/65) and promising getting downfield (65/75).

P Devon Middleton - pick 4.20
A 45/65 rated 22-year old punter, excelling in the directional punting (50/90), which combined with his okay power (40/55) and hang time (55/70). He's an immediate upgrade to Andre Marincic, if he holds up, but we're really banking on him being underrated and worth a 2nd round pick. We might put him in the kick holding (85) duties as well, if he improves on it a bit.

LB Cristian Beyer - pick 2.26
A 25/65 rated 23-year old with underdeveloped run stopping (25/80), play diagnosis (25/85) and zone defense (10/50) skills. He's got the endurance (55/75) to become an all downs defender, whilst lacking the special teams skills to play double duty.

CB Bert Hinson - undrafted
A 20/35 rated 24-year old with zone defense (45/70) and special teams (65/75) skills, our type of backup defensive back. His interceptions making is non-existent (0/0), but he does have run defense (25/50) and play diagnosis (40/70) skills, to make him a potential running downs back.

CB Cooper Baker - undrafted
A 20/45 rated 24-year old with excellent man-to-man (35/90) potential. His interceptions (35/55) ability is good, the rest is lacking, he won't making the special teams unit. A serious shortcoming (no pun intended) is his (lack of) height, coming in as the shortest player on the team at 5'6".

LS Bobby Walters - undrafted
A 21-year old excellent long snapper (90), but unlikely to make the team given that we have an elite veteran on the team.


So, there you have it, the trainging camp report will likely be the next update. Hopefully we'll have a lot of great news from the rookies and other promising youngsters around the team getting closer to their potential, like G James Tucker (55/60), DE Phil Wakefield (45/50), DT Jeremiah Cortez (45/55), QB Al Schneider (30/45), TE Jackson Henselman (20/35), WR Tyrone Dillon (25/40), DE Roger Graf (45/50), DE Gage Bensen (20/40), DT Floyd Dillon (65/80), S Max Junker (15/35) and LB Luther Goffee (15/35).

Can't wait!