[MIJB#19]

General Manager Notes: 2086 fourth time the charm?
Favorites to win it all, we're a top the DogBytes power rating to start the season for the fourth season in succession.

What does it mean? It means we've done something right to build a team that can potentially win games. In our case, it's a combination of awesome players (Theodore Bondy, Kirk Hitchcock, Keith Oliver, Bart Guthrie, Craig McCorkle, the entire offensive line, perhaps even our quarterback Ellis McAlister), being loyal to our players to build sky high cohesion and good economy to be able to pick a good coaching staff.

But aside from those on paper factors, we're going to be tested with how our game plan will work out. In pre-season, Artie Blazewicz showed glimpses of being more than just the Blazewicz special play, he's shown he can complement Theo in being a top-notch receiving duo. Our running backs tandem/trio and their blockers are strong enough to punish opponents that focus on stopping the pass, which is near impossible with Theo involved anyway.

We picked up four new players for our defense for the upcoming season, all rookies. Last season that number was limited to just one new player: the awesome veteran defensive end Wendell Marshall. It remains to be seen, but losing Marshall might be a bigger loss than the fresh blood can do to improve our defense. Gene Kondovski and Tony Whiting are promising pass rushers, but they're not there yet. We'll throw Kondovski out there anyway, we need him to become our primary pass rusher as quickly as possible.

Releasing Glen Stiegler was a very tough decision. Our defensive captain and a core member of our defense for over a decade. But sadly, we've noticed he lost a lot of his speed, has durability, his agility. With all the talent on the line, he wasn't going to be on the active roster and as a result, I decided we should give that eighth roster spot on the defensive line to the undrafted rookie Tony Whiting. Oliver is our work horse up the middle, A.J. Ritt and Erik Shrader will split time as the second defensive tackle. On the end, we'll be using four guys in an energy saving rotation, with Andy Russell, Geno Kemp, Ezekiel Wylie and Kondovski. We might switch from Wylie to Whiting at some point during the season.

Rookie linebacker Daquan Espino will be our third guy this season. McCorkle and Glenn Brewer look sharp and as such we have no need to replace them as of yet. We'll be in plenty situations with three linebackers on the field anyway, Espino will get his playing time.

In the secondary, we've got rookie Lee Hancock as the new face, but he'll be fighting for playing time with Tre Poloski and Courtney Blackwell, our new nickelback. Giovanni Morton will be less active upcoming season, but we'll need his mentoring skills. At safety, Riddick Newsome is a new starter. We picked him up during the 2085 season to fill in for the season ending injuries of Alexander Marty and Rex McIndoe. He's lacking the stamina to be a full time starter, so it's likely he'll have to time-share with Marty. Strong safety Guthrie and cornerback Hitchcock are the undisputed starters. They are elite players at their positions.


The offense is mostly unchanged. Despite 5 new faces on roster, the guys seeing action will be very similar. Ellis McAlister remains our starting quarterback, heck, we've even signed him to a new expensive three-year deal to make sure he won't be a free agent next off-season. Is Ernest Andrews the future? Too early to tell, he's got that victory in his sole start last season to boost his confidence, but he still needs to improve and prove he's got top25 potential, which is our bottom line. We were patient with McAlister, he rode the bench for 5 long seasons. But I can't promise Andrews we'll be that patient again...

Our offensive line is unchanged, from left to right Nathan Hadinger, Harvey Hank, Butch Pearson, Michael Szott and Howard Humphrey. Hank is the veteran of the bunch, Hadinger the elite pass blocker, Pearson and Humphrey the elite run blockers. Szott is a complete player. Nestor of the line Louie Murray will be our opening day left tackle, as Hadinger needs another week or so to shake off the last effects of the hernia that sidelined him last season. Rookies guard Andre Watson and center Jared Labbe will (hopefully) see little action this season, as that would mean injuries forced them into action. Labbe looks interesting, a stellar run blocker. Watson is so green, it's hard to tell where his peak will be. We hope he can step in at Hank's spot in a year or two.

Our running game will once again see us split Leonard Belin and Reggie Thongchanh the carries. Monty Digler remains to be our third down back, providing the staff doesn't forget to use him, goshdangit! Tristan Cochrane will be the fullback, but it remains to be seen whether we'll use him as a run blocker or a pass blocker. The same might apply to tight ends Jessie Turner and Matt Barker, although it's pretty obvious at least one of those three will be on the field on running plays, at times even two of them.

But our centerpiece of the offense is quite clearly Theo. We loved all our previous all-worldly wide receivers (Gabe Springer, Terry Haskell and J.R. Mills in particular), but Theo is something special. This guy has everything needed to be considered the best at his position, not just in the league currently, but also the best in franchise history.

Alongside Theo, we'll be trying to trim down on targeting our tight ends and backfield players, trying to get even more deep threat with Blazewicz and our third receiver Tucker Gaylor. Expect to see more of the second half of the season Blazewicz. Gaylor remains to be a mystery as McAlister has had little opportunity to target him last season, but he does appear to have the skills to punish opposing secondaries. We've got newly signed lightning fast Chris DeWoody as a backup plan for Gaylor. Rico Techen remains on roster to mentor Gaylor. Ross Willbrandt sadly lost some of his speed, but he'll stick around as our fifth active receiver for the Hail Mary plays and as our second kickoff returner.

Speaking of special teams roles, our unit is considered cream of the crop in the league and rightfully so. Willbrandt and Blazewicz have proven to be quality kickoff returners, but Gabe Broady is a world beater, the undisputed best punt returner in the IHOF for the last three seasons. Blackwell gives us the luxury to sideline Broady if he's struggling. We'll keep our eyes open for a new kickoff returner though, as Willbrandt has looked slow and sluggish in pre-season and Blazewicz needs to save his energy for the passing game. We trust our punter Doug Guynes and believe in the talent of kicker Thomas Robertson, despite his struggles. Kick holder Karsten Muchnick stuck around for another season, he won that roster spot battle over a rookie. Our long snapper retired, but rookie Timothy Biegen looks good enough to step in. As you may have noticed, we've said goodbye to several of our other special teamers, but we've got plenty of guys capable of stepping in and even stepping it up: Belin, Thongchanh, Bondy, De Woody, Barker, McCorkle, Wylie, Skip Keith, Billy Springer, Guthrie, McIndoe, Poloski...


So yeah, I think we should feel confident that in Maassluis we've got a team that can play with and beat every other team in this league. We've got play makers in every position group and elements on our team that can make a difference with something special other teams don't have. It's pointless to think we've had our share of bad luck over the past three seasons, we can still blame ourselves for lack of effort to fix what we were doing wrong. Is the season a failure if we don't win the IHOF Bowl? In a way it is, this might be the last season with all these guys together. Cap space will be a real issue next season, if not the one after, because all these all world caliber players do want to get paid for their services. McAlister's is the oldest player on the team, at some point he's going to fall apart, but you never know with football players once they hit the 30's, they may retire when you least expect it.

But those are worries for the far future, 2086 is the season we're kicking off in 2 days. I'm confident we can improve on last season, which suggests anything can happen. Go Merchantmen!