[MIJB#19]

General Manager Notes: Bye bye Francisco Patter
And six other players, our tentative 53 men list is set.

This is part of the business: making tough decision on players that have been reliable and loyal for so many seasons. Today we trimmed down our roster to 53 players, following the first two games of pre-season action. Who did we release?

Running back Francisco Patter, 9 seasons on team, 137 regular season games, 6 playoffs games. A 7th round pick in the 2087 draft, was an active member of the team since day one. From season two and onwards was part of the tandem with Reggie Thongchan'. Ran for 1,000 yards in '89 and '90. Saw his role get smaller lasgt season in a three-headed rotation, most notably losing third down duties to Jack Crane. Patter is top10 all-time for us with 5,754 rushing yards and 35 rushing touchdowns.

Defensive tackle Kurt Ackerman leaves us for the second time in his career. We rehired him prior to training camp, after we had already released him in the 2095 pre-season roster cut waves. I fully expect him to retire after this season, despite that he's still one a fine pass rushers at his position.

Seventh round rookie wide receiver Sebastian Hamilton was an easy release. Our offensive coordinator was all over this kid, claiming he would be a potential WR2. Guess again, he won't make the team.

Wide receiver Rickey Lyle had been on the chopping block before, but this time he wasn't going to make our team as the kickoff returner. He was okay at that, got that role the plast two seasons. Initially a high second round pick in 2091, picked in hopes of turning him into value again as we tried to trade that pick without success. Lyle leaves with just 46 receptions for 461 yards and 3 receiving touchdowns in 46 games for us.

Safety Paul Figures was our medium high sixth round pick. The way he looks now to our defensive coordinator, there's no reason to keep him, even knowing he was our fourth safety on roster.

Linebacker Evan Hicks leaves us after training camp and 2 pre-season games. It's not like he didn't look like the kind of player we thought he can be, he held up quite well despite his age, but we still have Daquan Espino and especially have the emerging Andrew Cochrane.

Cornerback Britt Hudson leaves us after 3 seasons. Discovered as an undrafted rookie, initially signed and released by the Chesapeake Chitterlings. Decent special teamer, nose for interceptions. But in 35 games played for us, 2 interceptions wasn't enough to convince me.


Otherwise, pre-season was a mixed bag, as to be expected with a dreadful scouting coordinator duo as we have. The key results from the re-scouting of players:

QB Earnest Ashley +8/+8, an increase that we expected to see. He's still signed cheap to his rookie contract, but next off-season we'll have a decision to make. Ashley's demands have increased to somewhere around $55M per season. Well, you can prove yourself this season, kid.

WR/KR Darien Thompson +2/+8, our original seventh round pick in the recent draft. No, he won't play on our offense, but his kickoff return skills and special teams skill make him an easy addition to the 46-men active roster. Fans love him too, let's just hope he doesn't fumble...

WR Theodore Bondy -12/-12, the legend, the future Hall of Famer, the 37-year old that returns for his 15th season and will make the team. Has little gas in the tank left as a true receiver though, I might have to think twice about what his role will and can be behind Ed Schulz and George Stuckey. He will be a no-brainer on the special teams unit though.

C Robbie Zinn -18/-18. Yeah, this looks bad, but at least he was considered to be so good that it means he's still an above average starting center in the league.

LT Isaac Delgado +15/+15. No surprise here, we knew he was better than our OC had him at. Our previous superior scout was convinced about this kid. It's quite the decision to make here as Johnnie Houston to me feels like he's still the better pass protecting left tackle, while Howard Humphrey remains to be a solid run blocking right tackle. But I guess it's really between Humphrey and rookie Nickolas Toler to be the right guard, with veteran free agent Todd Springer jumping into the left guard spot. Luxury decision to make here.

DE Gene Kondovski -12/-12. This means he'll be demoted to less action, but still on the rotation.
DE Richie Piotte +5/+5. This kid is so great, he's going to be the complete end that we need. This unit will be quite good this season, with the addition of veteran DT Jerome Shumate.

LB Andrew Cochrane +7/+7. This has been one of those players that made progress before, dropped last season, but now he regains the trust from our defensive coordinator. I think he improved just enough to over take Daquan Espino as one of our running downs linebackers. Add in his special teams skills and this guy is a lock for the 46-men active roster.

LB Brandon Brady -9/-9. The decline has kicked in. He's still impressive, but not extraordinary.

CB Ernie Grant +1/+8. Yeah, I trusted in this guy, and it continues to look like a good decision. Goes into his second season as our clear shutdown corner. His endurance is starting to catch up with his pass defending skills as well now. Peter Tucker, Kirk Hitchcock, watch out: this kid has what it takes to challenge you for best cornerback in Merchantmen history.

S Chuck Murray +7/+7. A welcome improvement from the 7th year veteran. Unhappy about playing time, but this is reason enough to bring him back into the running downs rotation and consider him again for the dime formation.

LS Travis Hampton -2/-2. This sounds like a small decline, but fact is that Hampton went from best longsnapper by my scout to like 6th best. Still excellent, but just not the best and as such worth the cap space we invested in him.

So, that's where we are now.

Pre-season action?
We lost 16-13 at home against the Chesapeake Chitterlings and followed up with a 31-10 loss at the reigning IHOF champions Texas Sharks. To be fair, on paper the toughest competition we could face, aside maybe the Oakland Black Panthers. Earnest Ashley was dreadful in both games, didn't even sniff at his 50% completed passes from last season, threw 3 interceptions and didn't even scramble in either game. Backup Efrain Batcheck played on the same level as Ashley, making this look like a no-brainer. We're going to let rookie Kelvin Everett play a bit in the last two pre-season games. Yes, Everett will make the team as our fourth quarterback. Rookie Ronnie Vanden Bosch ran okay enough to make the 53-men roster, for now. Theodore Bondy had 1 reception on 10 targets, ouch. The defense had 9.0 sacks in the two games combined. And as per usual, the staff annoyed me quite a bit by replacing rookie guard Nickolas Toler in both games, while endurance lacking veterans were kept on the field for the full game. Stop doing that. Seriously! It's annoying!

So, what's next? Renegotiations with the players that are still on roster and will be out of contract after this season. Because that's what the second half of pre-season is for, and is the only stage of the season where it actually makes sense to extend contracts. We have close to 20 players to talk with, but I seriously doubt that the flat contracts that we'll give them will take away all of the $76M of cap space that we still have. We have the 5th most cap space in the league. Insanity.

So, that's where we're at. We finish the pre-season with games against the Brooklyn Fightin' Bums and at the Capital City Blues.