[MIJB#19]

General Manager Notes: Training camp Results are in... Yay?
Could it be? Could it be Farley?

Our scouting staff has taken notes, a lot of notes and they have reported about the progress of our players (and lack there of for some). We went into training camp with 65 players signed. 19 players were reported to have good progress. 26 others made okay progress. The first category interests me most, because that to me is a sign those players could become starting quality players, or the very least decent backups. That doesn't mean the other 26 guys, and especially the youngsters that didn't make progress at all, will get cut. It does mean those 19 guys have a significantly better chance to survive the roster cut waves (the first one coming as early as tomorrow).

Enough yada-yada, who are those 19 guys?


QB Francisco Farley - Our second-year pro has me enthused, this guy was already penciled in as our starting quarterback, this might be a signal it was a good decision to keep him last season.

C Jared Labbe - No surprise, he was on this list in the previous two training camps. He's incredibly unlucky to be stuck behind one of the best centers (a 30-year old) in the league. It might be worth putting him on the block, in potential he would fit very well on a run-oriented offense. (Wait, didn't I say we might go run-oriented? Should we put him at right guard, or put Butch Pearson there? Interesting...)

G Nathan Willis - Undrafted rookies that look well are always welcome! This might be a chance for him to get ahead of veteran Vernon Sam as our third choice and 53-men roster making guard.

G Andre Watson - Our fourth round pick 2 drafts ago had his third straight good camp. With Harvey Hank retired, this could be Watson's chance to break into our starting lineup.

LT Myron Hamilton - A bit of a surprise here. Our fourth round pick from a draft ago wasn't impressive in his rookie training camp. We'll need three tackles for the season anyway, he's pretty safe now.

K Emmett Wells - A bit of a no-brainer to "he'd better be!" We spent a third round pick on this rookie, we'll need him to step in now.

DE Archie Exner - Yes! It was a surprise to see him choose to stick with us, we'll be more than happy to throw him into the rotation as one of our top three defensive ends. He was also on this list as an undrafted rookie last off-season.

DE Terrence Gellar - A welcome surprise. Still a longshot to make our team on a crowded defensive end group (wait, didn't we cut two veterans? Yeah, that crowded were we last season already).

DE Gene Kondolovski - Our third round pick two drafts back. Already had two good training camps, this makes three. Basically he should be, given that third round status, but it's still nice to see this guy turn into what we hope is the succesor to Daquan Strugielski. There, I said it!

DT Jumbo Mojica - New signing, second-year pro. Chose us over a worthy other deal elsewhere. This guy has a shot at starting on our line ahead of the two rookies. At the very least, he will be on our running downs rotation.

DT Corwin Nowlin - Third round pick in the recently finished draft. The staff isn't optimistic about his potential, but still felt he made good progress. At least this give him a head start over the other rookie (Kurt Ackerman), but neither look ready to play on running downs.

OLB Clayton Jackson - As stacked as the D-Line is (bar the heavy cap casualty Heath Oliver), our depleted linebackers group (Craig McCorkle and Glenn Brewer both out) needed a boost. Well, Jackson might be our new strong side linebacker. Wait, he'll definitely will be anyway, but his progress is a sign that he's worthy, not just a short term solution. Well... He's struggling at making tackles, but also had a good camp as a rookie. A bit of both worlds, I suppose.

CB Alfredo Bennett - How about that 21-year old undrafted rookie? Sure enough, but we brought in a lot of bodies in the secondary. Good training camp might still not be sufficient for him to make the 60-men pre-season roster...

CB Ted Frias - This undrafted rookie has me more enthusiastic than Bennett. If this kid holds up, we'll have ourselves another pretty decent CB2 type.

CB Jessie McNeil - Was also on this list last season as a fifth round rookie. Last season sniffed at becoming our dime back. With this progress, he might challenge Clarence Blackwell for the nickelback role...

CB Lee Hancock - Our first round pick from two drafts ago once again made this list. In principle a good sign, albeit he was still underwhelming the last two camps. Now, we have to say he's looking sharp and ready to become a true starting cornerback.

S Salvador Harper - Undrafted rookie last season, had his second good camp. I still don't see much more than a special teamer, but he might eventually be a good enough zone defender and tackler to be considered a worthy injury replacement for the 6-men secondary packages.

S Kennedy Reid - Too little, probably. Despite trading Bart Farrell, I'm pretty happy with our returning safeties. Reid lacks the special teams skills to challenge the other guys, he might not even make our pre-season roster, despite his good camp.

S Bart Sword - Third year pro, I think we have our new Bart here after the two guys that left us this and previous off-season. Not quite sure he's good enough to get into our running downs rotation, but his progress is promising.


And there you have it, 19 young players that made good strides.

Notoriously missing are rookie linebacker Trenton Mendelssohn, whom we had hoped to become our second starting linebacker. The same applies to our sixth round pick running back Bart Gunja, reportedly he didn't make any progress: ouch. The undrafted rookie quarterbacks Alvin Stoner and Bubba Hiam didn't look too great either. Although, we might have found a new kick holder in Hiam (Watch out, Karsten Muchnick!)

All five tight ends and all five wide receivers didn't make much progress. Especially wide receiver Branden Sandlin was on the list of guys that we need to make progress as he's quite clearly our WR2 candidate, despite his underwhelming 2 catches in his rookie campaign, he's still ahead of the five rookies that we brought in (and two of them will likely not even make the pre-season roster).

And that's pretty much it. Next stop: the pre-season update. A very important and potentially overhaul making day. We hope to see little to no guys show up out of shape, but you can never know...

Until then: anchors away!