[MIJB#19]

General Manager Notes: And then there was cap space
But is it enough?

Our tight cap situation got a little bit better. A bunch of renegotiations with players has resulted in opening up about $50M in cap space. Which may sound like a lot, but before those contract restructuring moves, we were $36M over the cap, so we're still only $14M in the positive now. And we're going to need all of that to lock up Calvin Maxwell, I'm sure.

Aside from that cap relief, we improved our roster size to 61 players, which means we're finally over 51, the hard minimum for the salary cap to be able to sign players during the season if required. Getting there was the result of the signing of 14 undrafted rookies. Yes, I mentioned 46 players on roster in my previous report, but that excluded one player that was holding out, which was one of the players to sign a restructured contract.

The new additional names: QB Jay Bates, QB Wendell DeMeester, RB Van Goodwin, RB Rod Eafon, TE Darnell McKie, TE Antoine Springer, TE Tanner Sweeney, WR Gage Greer, WR Calvin Hancock, C Gustavo Hartman, C Stan Cloude, OT Carson McCormick, LB Mo Fausel and CB Kendall Boone. We lost the bidding war on many undrafted rookies, but this time around I felt forced to only offer a minimum salary to these players. Most other years, they would have received a more tempting offer. Which probably would have only made a difference for just 2 of them, both signed in Paris, which in turn helped them in trouble for exceeding the 70-player roster limit, so it basically cost them a 6th round pick to outbid us. Ha! All the others that signed elsewhere got more enticing contracts, figures that I'm rarely willing to offer to undrafted rookies.

All that said, it's both interesting and depressing to see that we're going into training camp with 33 rookies on the team. We do have 8 unsigned players working out in our facilities that are out of contract, for whom I will decided about giving them a one-year minimum contract for training camp and who knows a bit longer if they convince me they're important enough to stick around. The other 31 franchises weren't interested in them, that should be a sign for all of them to not get too cocky and tell their agents to be reasonable.

On the open market, two of our released players found a new home, sadly the Paris Musketeers picked up guard Nickolas Toler. Left tackle Isaac Delgado joined the Atlanta Vipers. Both signed for a lot less than they were scheduled to receive here. The other players that we released all of a sudden have more reasonable contract demands as well. We know how that works, don't we? Player agents are dumbasses and don't always get what's best for their clients. For Preston Bradford and Caleb Domis, I'm convinced this will be the end of their football careers. Well played, agents, well played. But as much as I complain about it, their attitude won't change. We'll just have to deal with it. Maybe some of them will end up signing for a veteran one-year minimum deal as a result of league office mandated signings. But those players' careers are no longer my concern...

My concern is finding a way to get this offense to work, because they've let me down so much the last 3 seasons, despite on paper being an elite unit, the best we ever had. And now, without the veterans on the offensive line, the skill players will have to learn to play from behind a green offensive line. And hope the young defense can get not rolled up week after week.

To make things happen, we replaced our defensive coordinator Ryan Ivans by hiring Rod Shannon, previously the defensive coordinator of the Orlando Talons and better known for being the head coach of the Gothenburg Giants in their losing efforts in IHOF Bowls LXXXIX, XCII and XCIV, and prior to that was the Williamsburg Colonials' defensive coordinator for 13 seasons, including the IHOF Bowl LXXXI victory, after two losing efforts there as well. We also replaced our assistent coach Jeremy Crane by hiring Zack Varitek. He was previous the Paris Musketeers defensive coordinator and earlier on in his career was assistent coach of the Tucker Tigers in IHOF Bowl XC and for the Gothenburg Giants in IHOF Bowl XCII. And we didn't replace our offensive coordinator, contrary to what league pundits advised us (and to be honest we actually planned to do, but there apparently were no suitable candidates on the market).

So, training camp next. And then pre-season, when the Merchantmen will get on the field after the Mega Make Over. Expect to see more than half of our starters to be rookies...