[MIJB#19]

General Manager Notes: 2098 begins now...
With a hall of famer announcement, some retirements and 2097 honors announced.

Kirk Hitchcock got elected into the Solecismic Hall of Fame, unanimously. Our 2089 Defensive Player of the Year is the first Merchantmen player to get so much praise. After 13 seasons of service, 204 games in the regular season, 13 in the playoffs, he earned it. Best cornerback in Merchantmen history. So far?

Gene Kondovski retired after 12 seasons as a pass rusher for the Merchantmen. We picked him in the third round of the 2086 draft, moved him from linebacker to defensive end and made him part of our rotation from day one. 188 regular season games, 8 in the playoffs, 52.0 sacks. Those are the core numbers. The last two seasons, he was stuck as our fourth defensive end far behind Richie Piotte.

Malachi Pierson, wide receiver and kickoff returner, leaves us after just one season. Former second round pick for the Outer Banks Ospreys, moved to Colorado later on and spent 2097 in Maassluis. Scored 5 touchdowns last season.

Travis Hampton was our long snapper for just 2 seasons. Just turned 32, so we were pretty surprised he called it a game, but that's up to him. Too bad that he leaves at the top of the game though...

Cornerback Ernie Grant and safety Devon Farrell were both elected All-IHOF first teamers, while defensive end Richie Piotte got second team honors. Grant had 6 interceptions, 16 defended passes, Farrell 4 interceptions (3 touchdowns and 16 defended passes, Piotte had 14.0 sacks.

This means we're going into the 2098 off-season $18M over the cap, projected closer to $49M after draft picks, not keeping in mind that we'll have to count only the top 5 picks towards the cap. We don't have a lot of negotiable room, which we will need to both be able to re-sign three of our four free agents and lock up Ernie Grant and Richie Piotte.

We'll go into the draft with picks #18 and #20, as well as #46, #52, #81 (virtually #79 as two higher picks are stripped for cap violation), and later on a couple of 5th rounders, a 6th and a 7th rounder. Those first rounders account for roughly $7.5M each, the second rounders roughly $3M each and the third rounder just under $2.5M, adding up to about $24M in cap cost. Combined with aforementioned $18M, meaning we're actually going to be at $42M over. Not an easy task, but I think it's manageable, but we'll know a bit more tomorrow when we can truly investigate whether I can make some cap magic.