[MIJB#19]

General Manager Notes: 2081 fire sale has begun
Good bye Brody Stevens, good bye Nicky Sherman.

After nine seasons of service, we've traded our four-time 1,000-yard receiver Brody Stevens to the Oakland Black Panthers for the top of the seventh round pick in the on-going draft. He ranked in the top 10 of franchise receptions, receiving yards and receiving touchdowns upon his departure.

Nicky Sherman's stint in Maassluis lasted only 2 seasons, we traded him to the Houston Mustangs for a mid-late sixth round pick. Sherman made 41 and 44 key run blocks while on our team, allowing just 5 sacks in 32 games. A stellar, elite center, but we've decided that we're going to put our first round pick from last season in our line up.

It was sad to move them, but cap woes made it impossible to afford these two guys on top of the bunch of other guys that seem unsustainable.

We've accumulated a bunch of late round picks to cover for a potential situation where we'll have to go into training camp in an over the cap situation, yet still a chance to add more than the 51 players that account towards the cap.

I've already decided to release tight end Branden Schwirzke. A former third round pick, a pure receiver, had several seasons at around 700 yards for us, but the last three seasons he had a very minor role as the third tight end. Still scored 39 touchdowns in 8 seasons, a very respectable number.

Cornerback Amari Lavelli has decided to continue his IHOF career with the Gothenburg Giants. We had hoped to see him go far away to an AOC team, but he decided to stay within the division for just $7.2M this season and $8.2M in the next two seasons. It's more than we paid him, good for the kid, but it's a bummer to see a talented player go to a team we face twice per season.

We're going to give Antonio Battle one last chance to sign a new three-year contract. I'm expecting him to turn it down, but we have to try, no?

As mentioned earlier, we've got three players that are very likely to go into hold out modus. We'll still need to find the cap room to work around that. Chances of finding that are slim, trading or releasing Battle is the only option to make that happen, it seems...