[MIJB#19]

General Manager Notes: Training Camp 2103 report
And Albert Desimone signed a new contract.

The preparation for the 2103 season continues. Just before training camp we agreed terms with LB Abraham Desimone on a new contract, which I think he deserved. We gave him a typical minimum salary first year, increasing salary contract, with a big bonus. Yes, these are the type of contracts that have gotten us in cap troubles many times before, but it's the type of contracts that help get us addition cap space to work with in the 'current season'.

We also made a decision on a couple of position switches. Our MLB group was getting crowded and it made me decide to flip LB Tony Burks to SLB. It's a more natural position to him and makes it probably easier to fit within positional requirements. We also made DE Gabriel Morris make the announced switch to DT. It suits him well and he should be the run defense plug that we really lacked for quite some time. Mind you, he's also an awesome pass rusher and has the endurance to actually play on all downs. LB Gus Coleman could play the MLB or WLB role, which probably means we'll put him at WLB in 4-3 formations, MLB in the nickel and fighting for the lone LB spot on the dime formation with Desimone.

And then there was the arrival of QB Randy Walters and RB Bennett Holmes through the draft. Well, I'll wait about them until after the training camp report.

Let's breakdown the team by position group, with in brackets the training camp results, if there was improvement to report.


Quarterbacks
65/65 QB Winfred England
55/55 QB Earnest Ashley
10/55 QB Randy Walters (+5/-2)
25/35 QB/KH Malachi Manning (+3/nc)
15/35 QB Jay Bates (+2/nc)

Okay, so Walters had a decent camp. His improvement to me hints at that he indeed is starting QB material, but overall similar to Ashley, although with a different skillset, making them very different quarterback types. Early hierarchy for 2103 is projected as above. Manning continues to improve and to be the best kick holder in the league. Bates won't make the pre-season roster, that's the result of the addition of England and Walters.


Backfield
45/45 FB Damian Wanamaker
40/45 RB Bennett Holmes (+3/-2)
35/40 RB/ST Van Goodwin (+3/nc)
35/35 RB/KR Morris Pritchard
35/35 RB/PR Rondell Robertson (+1/nc)
25/40 FB/ST Randy Julian (+3/-2)
20/20 ST Owen Johnston

Yes, Holmes looks pretty neat. His hole recognition and breakaway speed are better than the outgoing Lost Cause. But Holmes does lack the receiving skills and endurance that Ken Torphy did provide. Torphy left us after 4 seasons, with one dreadful 2102 campaign, but still left as our all-time leading backfield receiver. It will mean that we'll have to figure out which backup or backups can be worked into the rotation. Robertson and Goodwin make a bit more sense than Pritchard. Wanamaker continues to be an elite blocker, but he still hasn't lived up to that hype by making his way into the key run blocks leaders. I'll make a decision on Johnston or Julian as our backup fullback for the upcoming season. Julian's blocking skills are quite good for a rookie, actually.


Tight ends
45/60 TE Garrett Alcala (+4/nc)
45/45 TE/ST Wesley Martin
40/40 TE/ST Bryan Goldade
30/45 TE Darnell McKie (+3/nc)

Alcala's development, or slow progress thereof, is a bit discouraging. Hopefully having Goldade around to mentor him for a full season. Martin deserves to be involved as well and the 2TE formations could be his savior. McKie is a promising third down receiver. If only we had somebody who could truly game plan well and work these two guys into the plan (as well as aforementioned FB Wanamaker)...


Wide receivers
80/80 WR/KR/ST Calvin Maxwell
70/70 WR Vinny Buysse
45/45 WR Ed Schulz
30/35 WR/ST Rick Emerson (4/nc)
30/30 WR/ST Calvin Hancock (+2/nc)
20/30 WR Lorenzo Gaines (+2/-5)
20/25 WR/ST Gage Greer (+1/nc)

Yeah, the top2 is undisputed, they'll go into 2103 as the best WR duo in football, although the Hanalei Dragons' young duo (2102 #3 overall pick Solwold and 2103 #1 overall pick Rivera) are in pursuit. Schulz hopefully holds up for another season of being a lightning fast WR3. The rest of the guys will have to fight for two active spots as special teamers. Gaines has to live up to his name in pre-season, or his underdeveloped return skills won't help him enough to make the team, if I even give him a chance there.


Offensive Line
65/65 C Tevin Bratsch
45/65 G Brett Stickney (+5/nc)
50/50 C Lincoln Stonge (+4/nc)
35/45 LT Harold Gruenwalder (+3/nc)
40/40 G Bruce Strong
35/45 G Floyd Graham (+3/nc)
40/40 G Corwin Driver (+1/+1)
30/45 LT Carson McCormick (+5/nc)
35/35 LT Adam Blair
25/40 LT Carlton Simmons (+2/-4)

Quite some decisions to make here, first and most of all: Bratsch or Stonge? The younger Stonge looks promising, but if Bratsch holds up, he'll be a much needed run block anchor out of the center position. The guard roles will go to Stickney and probably pre-season will tell me Driver, Graham or Strong. On the tackle side of things, I'm going to commit to the second-year pro's Gruenwalder and McCormick, with run blocker Blair mentoring them. Simmons won't make the pre-season team.


Special teamers
85/85 K Oscar Harrington (+6/+1)
50/50 P Manuel Szymanski
35/40 P Tommy Hodges (+3/+1)
20/20 LS Bennett Brock

Brock is the second best in business, welcome to the Merchantmen tradition of state of the art special teams! Which quickly brings us to Harrington, he's up to third best in the business in overall assessment. He's acceptable as a kickoff guy as well, which is always tough in Maassluis where the all-tme greatness of Al Bettis forever makes it impossible to ever come in and become the new best of all time. Szymanski probably secured his role as our punter for another season, Hodges didn't do enough to unseat him. Pre-season might be good for Hodges, but I doubt I'm going to wait for it.
I'll elaborate on the other special teams situations as well a bit here. We have Calvin Maxwell as top10 kickoff returner, while Rondell Robertson is roughly an average punt returner. Usually I want better than average there, but it's not easy to improve here. rookie Lorenzo Gaines needs to wow in pre-season to show whether he's actually in potential a suitable KR2 and PR alternative, or just a fata morgana.


Defensive Line
65/65 DT/ST Ben Courcy
45/80 DT Gabriel Morris (+7/+1)
50/50 DE Robbie Dobreski
45/45 DT Alexander May
45/45 DT Harold Gough
45/45 DT Jacob Buckey (+5/nc)
45/45 DE Warren Mendelssohn
40/40 DT/ST Mitch Potchynok (+4/nc)
25/45 DE Mel Adams (+4/nc)
35/35 DE Deon Rosas
35/35 DE/ST Spencer Crawford

Okay, we invested in this group, but even before that, I was wondering why they were not living up to their potential. The injection of talent with Courcy and Morris should make this a Merchantmen worthy group again. It will be really tough to figure out which players to keep after pre-season, hopefully. It's bad news for 7th round rookie Adams.


Linebackers
35/80 MLB Gus Coleman (+7/-1)
55/55 SLB Micah Halvorson
50/50 MLB Albert Desimone
45/50 SLB Tony Burks (+3/-2)
45/45 WLB/ST Luke Thompson
35/40 SLB Marco Nichols (+4/nc)
30/35 MLB/ST Mo Fausel (+3/-1)

Okay, with Coleman in, this should be a swell group, almost bringing back the talent levels of old times. I'm actually fond of Halvorson and it's weird to have Banks, a second year 1st round pick likely to be our LB4. I even switched from cohesive Ford to Thompson as our group leader to restore peace in the front seven. I suspect Nichols won't make the final 53-men list.


Secondary
56/60 CB Logan Wallace (+4/+1)
45/45 S Pete Weaver
40/40 SS Blaine Wright
40/40 CB/ST Zachery Weisz
35/40 CB Wesley Cabrera (+4/nc)
35/40 S Wesley Centers (+4/+1)
35/35 CB Donnie Dogins
35/40 CB Eduardo Cowdrick (+4/nc)
30/30 S Devon Farrell
10/10 CB/ST Eric McCool

This group will hopefully tested more than last season, when we got ran over and the secondary didn't have a truckload of pass defending to do. Wallace is developing into a nice shutdown corner, although he's a liability in a zone defense scheme and lacks the endurance to play all downs as well. We boosted the safety position with Weaver, anticipating on more decline of Farrell, the cohesion bomb of the unit, together with Weisz. Dogins is turning into a fine nickelback. Centers and Cabrera are likely the question marks for making the 53-men roster. But both made good progress in training camp, which is a signal of them being still underrated.


That summed up, it's time to think about which 5 players will not make our pre-season roster. And then, after the first two pre-season games, re-evaluate where we are.