[MIJB#19]

General Manager notes: 2087, fifth time the charm?
Football fans, we're far from giving up!

The off-season started with the departure of a couple of players that have been bounced around from starter to more recently a key backup role.

Left tackle Louie Murray retired after 218 games in orange-white-and-blue, a home-grown sixth round pick, mostly on duty to cover the seventh round quarterback Ellis McAlister from the same 2074 draft. A unique duo. Murray started in both the 2078 and 2085 AOC Championship games.

Cornerback Giovanni Morton spent 11 seasons in Maassluis after being picked up as an undrafted rookie in the 2076 off-season. In his third season he emerged as the nickelback of the team and played that role for 8 seasons. He played in both lost AOC Championship games in 2078 and 2085. The most notable of his 172 games was in 2083 when he scored two interception return touchdowns against the Iowa Cobbers in week 16 of the regular season.

Free safety Rex McIndoe was initially a Gothenburg Giant, but late in his second season he got released and picked up by the Merchantmen during the playoffs. From the 2076 season an onwards, he bounced from dimeback to free safety and back and forth. His final two seasons of the 11-season stint were in a reserve role. 171 games in orange-white-and blue are on his resume.

After the wave of retirements, we've decided to release cornerback Tre Poloski after 6 seasons, a former first round pick in the same draft as Kirk Hitchcock, safety Emmitt Miller, our second round pick in 2082 and inactive all of last season, wide receiver Rico Techen, 9 seasons of service as a sixth round pick, and running back Monty Digler, after three season o not delivering as the third down back.

A majority, if not all our key players signed a renegotiated deal, some a so-called cap out and others a restructured deal. The list is too long to mention them all. Guard Michael Szott is the biggest name yet to get a new deal. I hope we can offer him an improved contract before late free agency, but the first wave was to get our of a cap hole far beyond the $100 million over the cap, nearly touching a projected -$145 million after draft pick signings. We're currently at about +$30 million, with 11 contracts to add to the cap.

Safety Bart Guthrie is our main free agency target. As per usual, contract talks are frustrating. His agent declared a clear desired day to sign, but they let that deadline pass and now we're in a battle with 3 other teams for Guthrie's services. We have no frickin' clue whether he wants to stay with us anyway, by lack of any useful feedback, but let's assume it's about 50-50.

We've re-signed restricted free agent defensive end Tony Whiting and long snapper Timothy Biegen.

As of today, we're at 40 players signed, with openings in the backfield (a third RB, a second FB - perhaps restricted free agent Clay Brosseau - or both), a fourth tight end (veteran/mentor Nicholas Gundy looks ready to move to the Outer Banks Ospreys), a wide receiver (or two, we hope to retain kickoff returner Ross Wilbrandt), a backup center (restired free agent Jared Labbe looks promising), a third offensive tackle, a linebacker (or two) to fill in for Chesapeake Chitterlings bound Billy Springer, and then a bunch of defensive backs as we have only 6 left on roster, not including Guthrie.

Meanwhilst, I'm trying to trade away all our draft picks, at the very least the expensive ones. Any incoming rookies will likely ride the bench, possibly even inactive all season. I'm even willing to trade picks for lower round picks in the future for this, that desperate.

We'll manage, though, we'll manage.