[MIJB#19]

General Manager Notes: Feffer stays, Graham out. Right?
I had such good hopes about Ronald Graham. Undrafted pickup from the 2078 draft class. Very good hole recognition, good break away speed. We gave him 14 games to fill in for an injured Walt Blair. 3.6 yards per carry, just one 100-yard performance. The latter came in the playoffs though, we had a nice run with Graham filling in for Blair. But the wait is just about over, we've selected Leonard Belin in the sixth round of last season's draft and also acquired the veteran Jimmie Feffer, like Blair and Graham from the class of 2078. It's Feffer at RB1 for another season, for now. Or..?

Contract renegotiations with Jimmie Feffer have been difficult. He's scheduled to make $22.7M this season, of which $15.99M is the base salary. If we cut or trade him, that money becomes available to extend contracts of players like Butch Pearson (the center of our offensive line), Chance Arnold (our kicker, a third round pick in 2079), aforementioned Graham himself, backup safety Peyton Hines and a trio of defensive linemen that are seeing a lot of time in our rotation: Gino Kemp, Max Lyons and Erik Shrader.

We've improved our cap situation a little bit by renegotiating ten veterans, while also locking them up for the 2084 season. Most notable were Oscar Meadows (our all-time best right tackle), safety Maurice Harkleroad (back for yet another season as a starter) and our punter Tito Hornsby.

Locking up Butch Pearson is the most crucial part and can be done without Feffer's help. Getting Feffer to take a cut of like $5M this season would help to at least extend contracts of Lyons and Shrader. Kemp and Arnold appear to be lost cases, their demands are too rich for our current cap situation. Unless we cut Feffer and open up another $15M, which would free up the required cap space to extend them all...

As I mentioned in earlier notes, Leonard Belin might be the smarter play than Feffer. Belin's hole recognition is superior, while Belin's (lack of) elusiveness makes him less erratic. We'll have to face that Feffer no longer is the top5 running back that we thought we had acquired. The only person on the planet that still thinks he is, well, that's his agent. And to be fair, he was top5 in gross yardage and touchdowns in the ground game. It's pointless to feature him on passing plays, he's a modest receiver and a horrible pass blocker.

As you can see, it's quite the pickle we're in. With opening day still a week away, that's plenty of time to second and triple guess what to do here.

Decisions, decisions...