[revrew]

At the opening of the off-season (or, the ON-season for G.M.s like me), the Rebels were more than 13 million over the cap with only 40 players on the active roster. We had to not only shave 13 million dollars off the roster, we had to add between 6 and 13 players more!

At first, I thought our chances at defending the NFC title were slim to none. With our Oline and defensive stars aging, I grew worried that our fifth season had been as close to a Lombardi as we were ever going to get. If I had to release too many players to get under the cap, we wouldn't be able to make another run for years.

As soon as the pain of the SuperBowl loss cooled, I hit the phones hard, preaching another title run to our seasoned vets. I had hoped they would catch the fever and be willing to renegotiate into cream puff contracts that could free the Rebels from cap hell. Then I sent out the scouts to see if there was any way we could trade out some expensive reserves and/or some of our picks for underpriced, true Southerner starters.

On the re-signing front, we weren't as lucky as we'd hoped. Our players were willing to renegotiate, but only at the cost of big signing bonuses and contracts that escalated out of control. We wouldn't be able to hold the nucleus together for long. But maybe, just maybe, one more year.

On the trading front, we were able to score one of two big trades we were hoping for. Though we paid a hefty price, the Giants were willing to give up Georgia native, Split End Chester Lucido. Our scouts touted Lucido as a greatly undervalued player, one whose ability to run a precise route and catch the ball under any situation reminded some of the old guys of the Vikings' Chris Carter. Opposite Tyrone Calico with the speedy Robert Ferguson in the slot, our receiver corps got an immediate upgrade. The underperforming and injury-prone Corey Bradford was shown the door, and the carpet was rolled out for Lucido.

It was a brutal off-season. We renegotiated everybody, made some painful cuts, and negotiated down to the last week of free-agency before training camp. Then, the day before training camp began, we inked LCB Ahmad Carroll. We were in negotiation with Carroll every week for 15 weeks, but finally brought him in. Ahmad was the kind of one-on-one shutdown corner we had never had in Birmingham, and I dearly hoped he would stay healthy to finally give us a pass defense worthy of our pass rush.

Another draft, depleted by trades:
2 (31) Byron Robertson, G, VA
3 (31) Marco Graveson, CB, LSU
7 (31) Aaron Sockanathan, WR, NC State

Staying healthy, of course, was going to be the key. In order to sign Carroll, I had to make a gutsy decision. There was no more wriggle room. If we were going to bring him in, we had to make the foolhardy decision to play with less than a full roster. We couldn't afford 53 guys on the team. If injuries hit us, we would be in deep water. But I wanted a SuperBowl, and I wanted it bad. Bad enough to play the season with only 49 guys on the roster. "Whatever it takes," Davis had said. Gulp.