[MIJB#19]

General Manager Notes: That day all GMs both love and loath
... that moment between pre-season game 2 and 3.

Our cut down to 53 men is settled. Long time special teams linebacker Brant Rayburn, kicker Dylan McMullen and cornerback Bryson Swafford are the biggest casualties. We're also releasing undrafted rookies punter Trenton Sinclair, running back Angel Henderson, defensive end Drake Stinchcomb and wide receiver Lester Quinn.

McMullen looked out of shape, while rookie Gino Shea made good progress. It would make sense to keep McMullen around to mentor Shea, but salary cap reasons made me release him, so we have additional room to lock up cornerback Ernie Grant.

Grant will have a different CB2 next season, in particular on running downs. Bryson Swafford's promising progress came to a grueling halt and in his current shape we can't play him anymore. In return, third-year cornerback Omar Leszynski made another good impression and after two season of inactivity it's time to make him play. This too will help get the cap space for Grant to sign him a new deal.

The other releases are quite simply the numbers game of too many players at their positions. Henderson wasn't going to unseat Bet Ta'Amu (despite his horrible decline) and Ronnie Vanden Bosch, while Dashawn McIntyre and Harris Gerhardt will have special teams roles. Sinclair looked good in training camp, but all of a sudden not so much in pre-season, making us stick with veteran Shaun Barlow. Quinn doesn't look good enough to get an active role on the team. Stinchcomb didn't impress more than Robbie Dobreski did. Rayburn was stuck in a linebackers group where too many are also great special teamers, we're likely shifting Brandon Brady into that unit, with his playing time in pass defense possibly lowered.

I intend to take a look at a couple of upgrades, which means the 53-men list isn't completely set, but it will be 2 or 3 moves at most. The verdict on the decision to get pick #7 rather than pick #4 is currently looking like all it means is $5M more in cap room, whether Raul Bradford (picked at the #4 pick) or Vinny Buysse (our #7 pick) will be the better player is way too early to call. We can't judge Buysse on his 4 catches for 35 yards in the first two pre-season games, we played him in the WR3 slot after all.

Raul Bradford played for the Frederick Red Menace, but wasn't even targeted. The other first round rookies? Outer Banks Osprey's #2 pick Donnie Olsavsky had 8 catches for 116 yards, Texas Sharks' #5 pick Dustin Mathis 3 catches for 27 yards. Moontown's #16 William Rivers had 5 catches for 84 yards, Toronto's #17 Teddy Austin 5 catches for 50 yards. Tucker's #30 Ethan Sawyer barely played, he wasn't targeted. Gothenburg's #31 Jeffery DiMillo had 2 catches for 18 yards. So far the class of 2098 isn't making a splash just yet...