[MIJB#19]

General Manager Notes: Fifth round magic!
Myth or reality?

It goes all the way back to the 2007 draft. Perhaps initiated by boredom or an overall addiction to making trades, I accumulated a bunch of fifth round picks that were consecutive. After a lot of wheelin' and dealin', we kept five of them. Two of those players hung around for four seasons, one spent one season with us, the other two didn't even make the final 53-name roster, but did find a home elsewhere in the league. This quintet eventually combined for 55 regular season games for the Merchantmen, 193 more for other franchises. All was forgotten at the end of the season, a 13-3 regular season campaign and a trip to the AOC championship game blew away the mockery from the off-season.

The Merchantmen and fifth round picks have been a thing ever since. Over the years, there've actually been a bunch of players that didn't just make our roster, but actually had a fine career in Maassluis. Browsing the roster of the 2005 through 2090 seasons, there's been only one season where there wasn't at least one home grown 5th round pick on roster. We went 11-5 that 2072 season, but crashed out in the wild card round as the #5 seeds.

A quick road down memory lane?
2008 pick LB Bernie Surry, dubbed a boomer, perhaps deserved defensive rookie of the year honors, hung around through the 2017 season for 147 regular season games, really excelled in the all zone defense.
2017 picks S Brian Campbell, LB Alonzo Sales and RB Tom Bone. They all hung around for at least 8 seasons, Campbell as a regular starter, T-Bone had to share carries, Sales was mostly a special teamer.
2018 pick DE Broderick Amadro overcame our traditional rotation of defensie ends, hung around for 8 seasons.
2020 pick TE Rondell Bowers, a blocking tight end.
2027 pick RB Mark McConnell, once ran for 277 yards against the Tucker Tigers and we still lost 38-12.
2030 pick S Perry Walker, the underdog of the best safety duo in Merchantmen history (Hopper and Walker wasn't just a comedy duo).
2036 pick CB moved to S Bernie Gordon, still a starter in his 12th season.
2037 pick RB Donald Terry, league leading rusher in our 2039 IHOF Bowl campaign, phenomenal rusher for 2 more seasons after that.
2040 pick G Vinny O'Neill, 2044 pick G Bryant Huffman and 2046 pick T Mitchell Glover, all three long time starters, the last two the key blockers for hall of fame RB Norbert Talley.
2057 pick DE Jordan St. Pierre, late in his career a starter on the exceptional '60s defense, side kick of IHOF Bowl MVP "The Behemoth" Shaun Hartman and two-time defensive player of the year "Da Machine" Daquan Strugielski.
2062 pick S Cornelius Dionne, also a starter on the mid/late '60s exceptional bowl winning defense.
2075 pick S Maurice Harkleroad, 2080 pick DE Gino Kemp, 2081 pick FB Tristan Cochrane...
And more recently 2082 pick DE Andy Russell, 2083 pick S Alexander Marty, 2087 pick CB Jessie McNeil and 2088 pick DT Kurt Ackerman. If we re-sign McNeil, guys that should be members of our 2091 defense.

But back to today, we had two 5th round picks in this ongoing 2091 draft and we made our selections. RB Trey Beyer was our pick at 5.9, TE Clarence Gore our 5.23 pick. Beyer has the hole recognition and breakaway speed combination that we like for our running backs. Gore has route running, endurance and some blocking skills. I mean, if they live up to potential, obviously.

We'll see what happens this time around. In all those years, 23 of 354 fifth round picks didn't make the regular season roster. There's no guarantee for these picks to make the team. Just ask our 5th round pick from last season DT Tyrone Hanson, who is smart enough to not have retired just yet, that kid does have the potential to be a solid pass rusher somewhere, someday...