[MIJB#19]

General Manager Notes: Welcome to the 2122 season

We've collectively turned the page over from 2121 to 2122, a new season with new chances for the 31 teams not named the Tucker Tigers to unseat the reigning champions. The historical multiple IHOF Bowl winning franchise ended a long streak of seasons without winning a bowl, which in itself isn't noteworthy at all, as all 31 other franchises have had such long stretches without a bowl win, but their regular season campaigns with their current quarterback had made them by far the best team over a 6-season stretch to not win a Bowl game. Streak ended, on to 2122!

The 2122 season starts for our team with 4 players no longer on the team due to retirement.

FB Kenneth Holse retired after 12 seasons of service with us. An undrafted rookie free agent in 2110, he jumped onto the team as a run blocker and last resort receiver, initially, and evolved into being the best special teamer in the IHOF. He played in 179 regular season games and 9 playoffs games for the Merchantmen.

Last season LB Xavier Hoover joined the exclusive 200 games club. A 5th round pick for the Merchantmen in 2109, he never missed a game, playing a role as one of the running downs linebackers as well as being on the special teams unit as often as possible. His final tally: 208 regular season games and 9 playoffs games.

QB Tyrone D'Arms was the shocking winner of the Solecismic Legend of the Game award. During his 14 season tenure, he was active in as little as 25 games, yet was on an IHOF roster for all those seasons, spread out over 7 different franchises. He guided the Hanalei Dragons into the playoffs in his third year in the league, his only one as a fulltime starter. He joined the Merchantmen in 2120 to mentor QB Al Schneider.

LT Roy Wilkerson called it a game after 15 seasons in the IHOF. After 9 seasons with the Chicago Norsemen, followed by 4 seasons with the Gothenburg Giants, he joined the Merchantmen in 2120 as the short term replacement for then injured former first round pick RT Perry Georgopulos. Wilkerson played 2 seasons in Maassluis, playing in 29 regular season games and 2 playoffs games. His career highlight and disappointment in one was the lost IHOF Bowl 2118.

RT Perry Georgopulos retired at the age of 24. Our 20th overall pick in 2119 was supposed to be our new run blocking right tackle for years to come, but a grueling knee injury cut his career short to just 9 games. He spent the 2120 season recovering and at the start of the 2121 off-season we had to let go of him as it was clear he would never be able to play football at the level he was supposed to be destined to reach.

WR Jessie Vertelney retired as a Bordeaux Vineyards player, but the collective memory obviously puts him in a Merchantmen uniform, as he spent the first 10 of 13 seasons in he IHOF in Maassluis. With 8 1,000-yards seasons (6 of those in Maassluis) he joined the ranks of the 10K receivers in IHOF history, already having achieved that, although just barely, in the 10 seasons (150 regular season games) in Maassluis. He also played in 5 playoffs games for the Merchantmen and was known as a hard hitting special teamer.

RB Renaldo Billodeaux officially retired after 10 seasons with the Merchantmen and last season on the couch at home, not getting a second chance elsewhere. A late 7th round pick in 2111, Billodeaux evolved into the 4th all-time rusher in Merchantmen history, gaining 8,880 yards rushing with a 4.71 yards per carry average. In the process, Billodeaux scored 68 touchdowns (66 rushing, third highest in franchise history). After 155 regular season and 7 playoffs games played, he failed to make the 2121 regular season roster.

DT Francisco Blades retired after an up and down career with the Merchantmen. A 6th round pick in 2111, he made the team in a special teams role, then spent 2 seasons mostly inactive and then in 2114 finally joined the defensive line rotation in a running and neutral formations role. In the 2111 off-season he was a post training camp casualty and didn't find a new team after 10 seasons in Maassluis, in which he played in 123 regular season and 6 playoffs games for the Merchantmen.

DT Bryan Lomax retired after 7 seasons as a professional football player. The power rusher joined the Merchantmen as an undrafted rookie in 2115 and joined the rotation on the defensive line in 2116. After 5 seasons in Maassluis (74 games played), Lomax signed as a free agent with the Chicago Norsemen in 2120, but never reached the level of play he had in Maassluis, was cut after that first season there and found no new home in 2121, choosing retirement as the way out now.

There were others that walked away from football, no longer willing to wait for a phone call unlikely to come, but that'll be for another time, if I find the time to do all the research on which other former Merchantmen players retired this off-season.


We go into the off-season with our staff unchanged.

We're roughly $6.5M over the $654M salary cap, with 43 players signed. I consider that a very healthy situation. Our projected cap cost is pretty high at $35.7M, a result of having the 1.13 pick from the Kansas Creationists - they had a bit of a down season - and the 1.20 pick, the reward for being the very best team not making the playoffs.


2 players are unrestricted free agents: RB Jackson Powell and S Cesar Welch.

Powell is seeking a $100M contract, wanting a mix between $30M and $40M cap figures over 3 years, which is something we're not quite willing to put on the table for a running back, even one that comes off a season with 1,199 yards and 9 touchdowns rushing. We have RB Glyn Sloane and RB Diego Kosters waiting in the wings, as well as restricted free agent RB Preston Tanner. the later is a player that didn't wow at all, but I'm considering keeping him, if we can find a middle ground between his demands that really don't fit with a player that ran for only 2.12 yards per carry (in 16 games Tanner was held to under 10 yards 12 times).

Welch is a different story, despite his lack of ability to force turnovers, his run stopping and zone defending skills make him a player to want to keep.

C Tracy Stewart is a restricted free agent worth considering to keep. His numbers are okay-ish and his intelligence make him less of a penalty magnet than some others on the team.

RT Clyde Van Lanen isn't going to make the team anymore. We actually flipped him from center to right tackle to maintain a legal roster last season, but fact is that he was never going to make it as a center either.

LB Luther Goffee is potentially the new special teams ace that we saw retire with FB Kenneth Holse. He's going to get a contract offer as soon as we're under the salary cap.

Last and not quite not worth mentioning: I've been trying to move up in the draft to slot 1.6 over the last couple of days. By the time all the move-up-worthy wide receivers were all picked in the top3 (some might say the entire top5 was worth it), it still took me a good night of sleep to come to understanding that I was trying to acquire the 1.6 from a team that wasn't actually holding that pick. How about that...