[MIJB#19]

General Manager Notes: We have a new play book!
It was about time.

Time for change. I said this before, several times. Many times? At least more often than just now. We took some advice from other owners/general managers across the league and after a couple of training camps of stalemate, this became the one to make a difference. It's tricky, because before training camp it's hard to see what offensive personnel you'll have heading into the new season, but it's the uncertainty we have to live with.

Things I took into consideration? First of all, our return to a Smashmouth offensive coordinator. Things hopefully fall into place with Bert Ta'Amu as our running back. Ta'Amu will likely lose some of his skills, but for now, we'll have to consider this is the best running back in the league. Hole recognition, third down skills, decent breakaway speed, little elusiveness, can protect the blitz, has receiving skills and the endurance to be an all downs back. This is a player to build an offense around.

Our fullback situation is simple: we have a gun that can run block. Owen Johnston is a 4th season Merchantman, rookie Damien Wanamaker is most likely too green to jump in right away, but I hope he'll be indeed an excellent run blocker. Our tight ends aren't much of run blockers, those guys retired. Clay Gaynor is actually half decent at it, but Clarence Gore isn't. 7th round rookie Myron Lofton is just as green as Wanamaker, while 5th year backup Ike Nixon is a probably the better option than Gore. Gore and Gaynor do have something in common: we can use them as additional pass blockers when we don't target them, which is seemingly something our offensive coordinator likes to do. Directional running won't be too complicated, we'll go all over the place, slightly more to the middle over Robbie Zinn and over the right side, where right tackle Isaac Delgado will step into the role Howard Humphrey used to have.

Our passing game? Earnest Ashley likes to throw it deep, but he's supposedly at his best when he's going to to throw for 0 to 20 yards. How convenient, no? We'll still let him try the occasional long bomb, like we used to do, but this is where we'll be focusing on.

Ed Schulz is our big play guy, he can get downfield and when he gets there, he's one of the best to break away for a big gain, fastest player in the league they say. First and second down material. George Stuckey is better at getting open, can get downfield too, but lacks that big play ability to be as special as Schulz. Both have the courage to run all kinds of routes. Ta'Amu will get looks too, stepping into the WR3 role in a way. Kind of, because we also have Malachi Pierson now, a third down receiver, this man might have to sub in for Schulz on third downs. Rookie tight end Myron Lofton could grow into that kind of receiver that can only get you a third and less than 10 catch. But so can Clay Gaynor, our TE1, who might be overall our only guy that can play well in all kinds of situations. WR4 Branden Sandlin is still a guy that can get open and make a big play. So yeah, in theory we have something nice here.

What to expect from here on? Tomorrow we'll be getting training camp results, primarily reports on the progress of the youngsters and a second assessment on the rookies. Later on pre-season action, with a complete new scouting report of the roster. Followed by renegotiations, 25 of 58 players are in the final year of contract. We can get about $50M available in cap space after cap outs, so we're in a flexible position, but we'll see where we stand after we've made our 5 final cuts to trim down to our 53 men regular season roster.