[MIJB#19]

General Manager Notes: back to business in the '90s?
One thing looks familiar: we're over the cap!

Okay, that sounds much worse than it really is. By having locked up 51 of 52 players on roster (we lost Ronnie Hammond over retirement) and that 52nd being a restricted free agent, we're in a position where we just have to get under the cap, use our 10 draft picks and have some difficulties in decided who to keep.

Okay, let's back up just a bit. Over the cap? By how much? We're currently $10.7M over the $493.8M salary cap.

Sidetracking for a minute: insane how high the cap has gotten, no? It was just $75M when the IHOF was established. In 2022 it had already doubled up to $149.9M. In 2031 we went north of $200M, in 2041 north of $250M, in 2051 we surpassed $300M, in 2062 we got past $350M, in 2072 we reached $400M and in 2082 we surpassed the $450M mark. I'm projecting the salary cap to break the $500M barrier in the 2092 season.

But yeah, about $29M over is doable. A good chunk of that is the reservations of the draft picks, with the #17 and #19 overall picks accounting for $14M. Technically we're just $10.7M over the cap, which should be something to figure out by talking with our key players Kirk Hitchcock, Theodore Bondy, Daquan Espino, a bunch of our offensive linemen and the defensive ends.

We've got an interesting case with backup quarterback Moe Sheldon, our 10th most expensive player. Both starter Brandon Bell and Moe Sheldon played okay football, but we'll have to consider our options at quarterback. A playoffs caliber quarterback at minimum get $40M. Bell and Sheldon right now combine for barely $21M. It's very unlikely we'll go out there on the market to try and sign any of the top free agents. Who would that be? Eric Keith, Iowa Cobbers starter, turning 40 during the off-season. He's in the average starter level and it will require that $40M kind of offer to sign him. Perhaps less, most teams will shy away from the veteran. We haven't seen the draft class yet, but let's be reasonable, we can't count out the possibility we will try to see what #17 and #19 will get us in terms of trade up options. Heck, maybe the #1 pick holding Chicago Norsemen will go quarterback and (in that scenario with good reason) put Brady Ladner on the block, the 2088 #2 overall pick, a kid with playoffs caliber potential.

Backup guard Darren Theisen is our 9th most expensive. Based on that, it makes a lot of sense that Andre Watson in his 5th year will start demanding starter money. For us, that means being top10 in cap figure, as Theisen is the 5th highest paid offensive lineman on our roster and the other four starters are top7.

And then there's Reggie Thongchanh. He's on roster for $8M with a very cut friendly $1M bonus figure. But then, why would we release one of the two guys of our running back rotation? A bigger test will be to see what Francisco Patter's demands will be as he's in his final year of rookie contract. Being a former 7th round pick and coming off a 1,000-yard season, there's an obvious mismatch that his player agent might try to milk millions out of.

But all things considered, with Ronnie Hammond already out of town, having Theodore Bondy and Branden Sandlin as our receiving options means we've got that area to look into. We targeted our tight ends 113 times last season, which is an area where we might try to shift away from pure run blockers to improving on the 75 catches for 731 yards and 1 touchdown they accumulated. But a new wide receiver might make even more sense as we're losing a guy that had 3 catches per game for 16 yards per catch. And knowing that keeping Branden Sandlin might get tricky, as he's (also) entering his final season of the rookie contract and he's coming from 6th round pick money.

After this, I see you wondering, which player is that one restricted free agent? It's the undrafted rookie signing linebacker Malcolm Wentz. By lack of special teams skills, he sat out the entire 2089 season, but his run stopping, zone defending and pass rush technique make it worth the trouble to keep him around, especially after seeing how our linebackers deteriorated last off-season. But by the lack of stamina, he's no all downs guy either, so brining him will mean we need a second linebacker to fill in as well. Or maybe, just maybe, we do one of those linebacker combo drafts, if the talent is there...

The secondary could be another area of interest and effort. Kirk Hitchcock is entering his 10th season in the game, the 3rd most expensive player in the league delivered with a DPotY award. Our safeties and sidekick corners to Hitchcock are acceptable, but a second impact player would be really nice.

Lastly, I've already mentioned some players in their final year of contract and loyal readers know that we prefer to lock up as many players as possible going into a new season. It applies to our tow running backs, wide receiver Sandlin, guard Watson, but especially our secondary will be an area of attention. All four of our tight ends will be out of contract after the 2090 season.

For now, optimism is returning, we've got a healthy roster/cap situation and are coming off a season that was encouraging. One reason for that has been our performance on the road against one of the two teams that eventually faced off in the IHOF Bowl. I think we had our chances to have a better result against the Chesapeake Chitterlings. During the IHOF Bowl I claimed that the Orlando Talons crushed us and were worthy league champions. That last part is certainly true, but we didn't have our worst game against them. The do have plenty of reason to claim they crushed us though, we were down 21-3 at half time and really showed very little to prove we deserved to get in a situation where we'd be driving late in the game to tie things up.

So yeah, optimism. A step at the time? I hope we make a big step then. Our more fitting in our team theme, a firm breeze would be nice. Go Merchantmen!