[MIJB#19]

General Manager Notes: more new players for our 2083 roster!
Tight end, guard, offensive tackle and long snapper. Those are the positions where we added bodies to our training camp roster.

Tight end Nicholas Grundy signed a two-year deal with us, making this 30-year old a candidate to be our TE2 or TE3. Despite his resume as a backup, our staff is convinced he's amongst the 10 best run blocking tight ends. That's obviously great to have around, given that we play several 2TE and 3TE formations. He can play special teams too, that's our kind of backup tight end.

Guard Trevor Godfrey probably doesn't realize it yet, but we signed him to a two-year deal, expecting him to be a backup to our long standing starters Harvey Hank and Carlos Webb. Godfrey has been a starter with the Harlem Apollos for 10 years, never missing a game. He's primarily a run blocker.

Long snapper Santiago Sepanski signed a two-year deal with us. He's entering his tenth season, previously being the long snapper for the Moontown Darksiders (with whom he won 2 IHOF Bowls) and the last four seasons with their division rivals Texas Sharks. At the age of 31, we except him to be a solid guy for a handful of seasons.

With our early second round pick, we selected left tackle Nathan Hadinger. Green and volatily, but we're impressed by his agility and expect him to be the pass protection guy that we like to have at that position. We'll have to think about how to develop him, since we have Louie Murray still very capable for that left side and the awesome Oscar Meadows has returned for his 13th season with us. We expect Meadows to mentor Hadinger. It does make the future of 2081 sixth round pick Abel Bauer one that might be outside of Maassluis.

Contract negotiations with our running back Jimmie Feffer have been a bit of a struggle. We're not quite sure a 6th year back deserves a four-year $100M contract. We can afford his current cap figure of $22.74M, which is the fifth highest on roster, but it's a position where it's always an uncertainty what you'll get. Plus, we still have Ronald Graham and Leonard Belin waiting in the wings to step in if Feffer does something silly (like hold out or get hurt).

We've decided to offer Ross Willbrandt a one-year contract. Despite his severe injury, we hope to see (no pun intended) him back in action at some point in his career. We might place him on injured reserve if his condition doesn't improve during the pre-season, but for now, we think his talent as a kick returner and as a hail mary receiver warrants an effort to keep him.

Nicky Sherman has decided to continue his distinguished IHOF career with the reigning league champions, the Tucker Tigers. He'll likely be their starting center for the upcoming 2083 season. He was on a one-year deal with us last season and had already declared his desire to move on and play elsewhere, rightfully feeling unjust about being a backup, despite it being behind the equally talented and 10 years younger Butch Pearson.

But nothing else to report for now, really. We're floating on, waiting for the draft to finish, training camp to be held and then pre-season to figure out which 53 players will become our 2083 collective to take on our 80th effort to win the IHOF Bowl.