[MIJB#19]

General Manager Notes: "Don't let the door?" Nah, we liked some of them...
Tough decision time was here again.
Slightly earlier than most teams, we've trimmed our roster to 53 players, using our game day roster and depth chart for the last two pre-season games. It meant the departure of 7 players.

DE Herb Crane was the guy with 8 seasons of service, having played in all our games in the 2075-2081 time span, participating in our rotation on the defensive line. 112 games, 32.0 sacks, not bad for an undrafted rookie acquisition.

DT Wally Loup was our third round pick in the most recent draft. Yeah, he's not even all that horrible, but his training camp was unimpressive and his pre-season form was even worse. We're deep at the defensive line with guys like Loup. The staff had him as "hard to read", I think we know now...

G Raul Hughett was our 7th round pick two drafts ago. His training camps were underwhelming, his promising strength hasn't resulted in becoming a better football player though. Maybe some team will pick him up for their chemistry class...

C Riddick Kasowski was our 7th round pick last draft. Brining back Nicky Sherman sealed Kasowski's faith, despite a couple of promising training camps. By the time he's ready to play, he'll still be backing up Butch Pearson. We might as well spend the roster spot on a veteran backup.

RB Nicholas Douglas joined us as a rookie free agent this off-season. His hole recognition is very promising, but we've got a threesome of similar to better running backs, we're really not going to carry five tail backs into the season.

QB Frank Graul didn't do all that bad, but we've got that Blalock kid we drafted as our backup plan. Despite knowing our head coach will ignore the kid and throw our kick holder out there if Ellis McAlsiter needs to be replaced. Yeah, our head coach is a nutcase, just like the coaches all across the league.

WR Dwight Clements spent three seasons on our roster, but the former 6th round pick has no special teams skills to compensate for the lack of anything else than his speed. Speed a plenty on our wide receivers group. We go into the new season with 6 wideouts, Clements won't be one of them.


With the pre-season action in the books, we can safely say that we have no idea whether Theodore Bondy can be a world beater. For two games he was invisible, in the last two games, he caught a grand total of 3 passes from Ellis McAlister, gaining 26, 31 yards and finishing it with a 9-yard touchdown catch. Okay, he might be a bit better than good. Let's hope so!

Our cohesion will be quite high in all aspects of the game. We've got talented skill position players, a good offensive line, a pass rushing defensive line, two of the best linebackers, perhaps the best cornerback in the league and a bunch of question marks on the secondary. That's basically our roster.

The regular season kicks off with a road game in Paris and continues with 4 home games, then a series of road then home, a quartet of road games and eventually two more at home and a road game in Bordeaux. The goal? 19-0. But a bowl victory after a 10-6 regular season will do as well.

Go Merchantmen!