[MIJB#19]

General Manager Notes: A new beginning?

On my left shines a glass with my favorite soda, as I've learned to call this. On my right a bowl loaded with grapes. In times like these, fruit and vegetables are the things to stay healthy. She taught me with firm confidence. In a way, she's been my new muse, unknowingly inspiring me to grab a laptop and write down what's going on in Maassluis, in particular with the Merchantmen. Now, being forced to stay at home is one way to re-evaluate what you've been doing for so long and whether it all still makes sense to keep dreaming or whether it's time to start all over.

Let's face it, that 2088 season was a disaster. Football in the IHOF has changed, drastically. Defenses have somewhat caught up, a guy like Theodore Bondy can no longer on his own gain 2,000 yards. You know it! It can't have come as a surprise that we've signed a new wide receiver off the street, one that has recently been involved with a successful team: "Sharlie". No offense to the previous general manager that has been behind his nickname, to us he'll be Ronnie Hammond. In the shadows of these two 30-something proven 1,000-yard receivers, we have the third-year sixth round pick Branden Sandlin. 35 catches for 670 yards last season as our emergency WR2 and as a result his agent already thinks he's worth $10M a season. I mean, the salary cap is closing in with $500M, but it's still a lot of cash.

But three wide receivers sounds like a much better plan than one and a half, like Bondy and Sandlin were going into that disastrous last season. It's not like we didn't adapt early to the new playing styles, we ranked third in most running plays on offense and next to last in pass attempts. The teams around us in both figures participated in the IHOF Bowl, our philosophy was more than ready. But obviously there's more to it. Our running backs Francisco Patter and Reggie Thong' each laid down a 3.9 yards per carry average, behind a loaded offensive line. I'm willing to blame our game plan.

Thus entered our new offensive coordinator Reuben Bidwell. The fanbase loves our loyalty to our personnel, Bidwell is the replacement of Neal Murack, after 18 seasons of service. For Bidwell's sake, it's good that Murack retired, otherwise he'd have a lot of people to convince. And I'm one of them, because, frankly, I trusted him in the decision making to go for Brandon Bell as our backup plan after failing to get the top pick for Alvin Henson. Underrated, well, I'm not yet convinced. In return, when Murack in his third season with us said sixth round pick Ellis McAlister would be our new franchise quarterback, not previous first round pick Robbie Howe (the guy we drafted the off-season before Murack was assigned). I raised an eyebrows, or two, but trusted him. Or both, however you've read that, I kept faith in Murack's opinion on McAlister. In essence, Bidwell's faith is now tied with a kid named Bell.

Brandon Bell isn't in an easy spot here. He's got last season's starter Moe Sheldon to compete with, as well as last season's opening day starter Francisco Farley. Quarterback isn't an easy position in football, when the management and staff have faith, you can make mistakes. But Farley will probably remember how last season went, we were unforgiving towards his first three starts in the IHOF. And now a rookie, taken with the #13 overall pick, might be in that exact same position. "Might" indeed, in all honestly, the unusual confidence that I have felt since somewhere between the 2084 and 2085 season, it has crumbled down. Or the completely not knowing of what would come in the 2078 season, when new unprecedented things started. Now, I'm second guessing my next move, play it cool or go on a firm all or nothing offensive?

It's ironic how everyday life decisions carry over to your profession and other parts of what comes and goes around. Bell, Sheldon, or back to Farley? I think I know what Sheldon can give us: pretty much the same as last season, but with an additional wide receiver and on a game plan that might be improved from last season's. But the game plan's effectiveness is a mystery, too many unfamiliarity. There's little time left to twist thumbs and second guess here. Cutting ties with Karsten Muchnick was probably something no Merchantmen saw coming, which paves the way for Brandon Bell to stick around at minimum as an active kick holder. But will we go with the new kid as our man of the offense? We've seen him play in pre-season with the starters, it was encouraging.

Farley would be too much of a Cinderella story. Heartbroken by how the 2086 season ended, he got here and it would be too good to be true, perhaps. We knew in 2087 it would be the last call on McAlister, Farley was already the glimpse of hope. But it didn't work. Or we just didn't try hard enough, after all, we gave up on him after just 3 games. Moe Sheldon gave us .500 ball, albeit the wounds from earlier that 2088 season were to deep to heal it all. Bringing Farley back shows there's still some hope left. Sheldon was underwhelming in pre-season. Our safest bet for the short term, but for long term effects, a choice between Farley and Bell might be better, knowing that it has higher risks. I hope there's upside here, but as promising as both have looked in pre-season, the sample size can make things look so promising, we have no guarantees it was the real magic at work.

At the end of the day, the weekend if you will, I'll have to make a decision and it makes sense to stick with it, no matter what (bar unforeseen circumstances). Either way, Bell or Farley, from a helicopter view looking, neither seems to give us much hope to playing winning football in 2089. Unless the one we choose works well with the game plan, let him hand of and let Patter and Thong' run it all day long.

Only problem is, I know I can live with another season of Sheldon, it sure wasn't easy, but it was kind of bearable...