[MIJB#19]

General Manager Notes: The jinx is on
And the roster is almost set.

An urban myth in IHOF is the idea that winning all four pre-season games is the ultimate jinx to have an unsuccessful regular season. Well, bring it, because we went through the pre-season with the perfect record.

Rookie seventh round pick Lorenzo Emerson guided us to a 41-3 victory over the Colorado Cutthroats and a 30-17 victory at the Iowa Cobbers. The kid completed 29 of 46 passes for 348 yards, 5 touchdowns and went through it without interception. Can we really cut his ass to trim down to the 53-men roster? Plan F completed 7 of 19 for 69 yards and 1 touchdown. Maybe Francisco Farley finally made a strong case for not making the team?

An undrafted rookie cornerback named Britt Hudson has joined our team and got his first action on special teams in the last two pre-season games. He looks more promising than 6th round pick Bob Reese, who left the building before Hudson joined it. With Reese, fellow rookies RB Kapp, TE Kipps, DE Wolfe and LB Pizir didn't make it to the second couple of pre-season games. The same applies to Trenton Prescott, after spending 2 seasons on our roster as an inactive backup (aside from 1 game in 2091 where he was on the field for 1 special teams play).

So, if you did the math right, you've noticed we're two cuts short of announcing our 53-men roster. Position groups with more bodies than needed: we have 4 quarterback, 8 wide receivers and 9 defensive linemen.

One more puzzle: I still want to lock up Brandon Brady, our star linebacker. He wants quarterback money, I think he's worth it, but the puzzle part is finding the right combination of bonus money and salaries that would please him and fit under our current cap situation. The alternative thing to do is hope we can win the bidding war next off-season and instead lock up some other defensive starters (DT Ackerman, S Murray, S Brotzman). I'm going to make up my mind on this and see where it'll bring us. Achieving both looks utopian, locking up Brady looks like that either way though. And after those contract talks, it's on to preparation for week 1 of 2093, which we'll kick off in Bordeaux.

Pre-season means nothing. Usually, most of the time. We outscored our opponents 116-37, scoring at least 22 each game and allowing 17 at most. About that 4-0 jinx, it's on. Well, is it really? Last time we went 4-0 in pre-season was in 2085, eventually we lost in the conference championship game. Before that? Conference championship loss in 2078. Before that? Conference semifinals in 2065. Before that? 15-1 regular season, but followed by the most shocking one-and-done in league history in 2059. But good seasons they all were. Let's build on that.