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Old 02-12-2019, 04:57 PM   #84
MIJB#19
Coordinator
 
Join Date: Oct 2000
Location: Maassluis, Zuid-Holland, Netherlands
General Manager notes: 2080 End of Training Camp
At last, he signed. After turning down six previous offers, including a 3-year $85M contract, Glenn Brewer decided to extend with us for a 3-year $66M contract.

It's been 5 seasons since we've had such a tough off-season to get the cap situation worked out. Then it was our promising quarterback Robbie Howe that destroyed his football career by deciding to go into hold out mode and risk it all. He lost: we cut him and none of the 31 other IHOF franchises even thought he was worth the veteran minimum, let alone the starting money he was requesting.

Brewer is a different story, an All-IHOF linebacker, a centerpiece of our defense, together with Antonio Battle. It came at a price though, we released 4 defensive players that used to be starters with us in recent seasons.

Defensive end Todd Clinton was one of our four guys in rotation. He had been for both of the last two seasons, after spending his rookie season inactive and seeing limited action in season two. Clinton has the run stopping and pass rushing skills any team should like, keeping in mind he's not an all downs lineman.

Cornerback Herman Glenn was our nickelback in the 2077 season. We signed him in the 2075 post-season and thought he'd be a great (figuratively, the guy is 5'6") zone defender. He was our dimeback the last two seasons.

Cornerback Ezra Slocum was a starter in his first two seasons, but last season we kept him inactive all-season. He's a good corner on running downs and against formations with full backfields, but his zone defending and ball hawking skills were lacking. Good on paper, but he didn't deliver and was too expensive to watch 19 games without shoulder pads on.

Defensive tackle Willie Turner spent 9 seasons with us and didn't miss a game since late in the 2075 season. Initially the change of pace guy behind Shaun Hartman and Preston Urquoila, more recently the guy who came on for Chandler Posante when he needed a couple of minutes to take a good breath.

As a result, we're heading into pre-season with just 53 players signed. It wasn't necessary, the cap rules would have allowed us to sign 7 rookies at the rookie minimum ($1.4M), or even slightly higher than that ($1.51M), but we'll save that for the later. We might go scavenger hunting in the pile of leftovers after pre-season roster cuts to give a couple of guys a week to work out with us, but the current 53 names are close to carved in stone.

It leaves us with an unsatisfying off-season. The plan was to find a young safety who could anchor the defense for about a decade, but the draft class was lacking that guy. We liked Bobby Crips, he was taken 3 picks before our pick at #28 overall, but he's more of a cornerback. Our sleeper pick Tevin Taylor was taken #42 overall, the staff really liked him, but I didn't feel like he was first round material, down the road maybe good enough to take over from one of the guys on team. We'll have to go with mostly the same guys as last season, without Herman Glenn, without the vulture Slocum and maybe with undrafted rookie Tucker Lockhart added to the mix.

We did get our center of the future, presumable. Butch Pearson was our pick at #28 overall. He'll likely have to spend the 2080 season as our OL6, behind Nicky Sherman, but his training camp progression was impressive. It's rare to go through a full season with the same 5 linemen, Pearson will see some action on offense sooner or later.

We failed to address the retirement of J.R. Mills as well. Part of that is that retirement, which cost us more dead cap space than we could afford to hire a new receiver. We'll have to rely on Dennis Nadell and Byron Stevens and hope to see the young sub 4.40 seconds gazelles Rico Techen and Dwight Clements grow into the WR3 and WR4 roles. Rookies Artie Blazewicz and undrafted Les Didier will be special teamers at best this season. Our tight ends are obviously pretty good as well, not to mention the presence of our 1,600-yard back Walt Blair.

The quarterback situation is okay. Ellis McAlister crushed hard in the playoffs after what had been a solid regular season. Sammy Erickson hopefully doesn't have a similar downfall like last pre-season, maintaining to have a decent backup. McAlister is on roster for just $6.67M, next off-season will be challenging, he'll do what any other starter would do: ask for at least $25M to $30M, and if he plays well, close to $40M.

Last but not least, we have $1.15M of cap space remaining and still have a couple of players on the last year of contract:
* All-IHOF fullback Gilbert Taliancich
* backup fullback Darien Latschaw
* backup left tackle Richie Coughenour
* cornerback and punt returner Amari Lavelli
* safety Ben Gilbert
* long snapper Chris Bertolone
None of them are currently willing to sign for less than their cap figure, so we'll have to make some choices here. LS Bertolone will get the extension, his current demands are good. S Gilbert is in a 'probably' situation, he's asking for a small raise. FB Latschaw's demands are favorable, expect us to come to terms between the pre-season games. FB Taliancich's demands are reasonable, we might have the cap space to extend for an additional season. LT Coughenour is unwilling to sign a new contract, but by lack of better options on the free market, we'll go with him as our third tackle and look for a replacement next off-season. The decision to make here is with CB Lavelli. We can't afford his demands, so it might even be wiser to trade him before week 1, to give the receiving team a chance to offer him an extension. We'll try, but I suspect we'll come short.

We'll just have to wait and see how these guys look in real action though. All the young guys made some progress, with Butch Pearson and last year's first round pick linebacker Craig McCorkle making the biggest improvements, warranting a starting role that we might not be able to give them quite yet this season. But the first couple of pre-season games usually reveal what these guys are capable of in the new season. Yes, it's that time of the season general managers fear the most: the day of the proverbial Volatility Sticks of Death and unexpected booms...
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* 2005 Golden Scribe winner for best FOF Dynasty about IHOF's Maassluis Merchantmen
* Former GM of GEFL's Houston Oilers and WOOF's Curacao Cocktail
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