[MIJB#19]

General Manager Notes: Here comes the 2105 off-season!

We're $67M under the cap. I repeat: we're $67M under the cap. How about that? With 43 players signed, it means we still have 8 roster spots to fill that will count against the cap and with the veteran minimum salary being $2.44M, it means that we've basically got $47M to work with.

We lost 3 players to retirement: QB Earnest Ashley, LT Andres Blair and OLB Luke Thompson. Ashley was our QB2, and quite frankly, I'm not sure he'll be missed. Blair was our OT mentor, a spot we'll likely fill with a backup C or G as the young OTs are fully developed or will be come opening day. Thompson was a member of our special teams unit and it's likely we'll have to invest in a new special teams LB. The departure of Ashley means we're back down to 3 QBs and will get to the point where we have to make a decision on QB Randy Walters whether he's going to be good enough and quickly enough to become our QB2 or even future starting QB. The latter isn't very likely, unless he makes an Ellis McAlister kind of progress.

If you kept counting, you know know this means 7 players are free agents. 5 of them are restricted: RB Van Goodwin, TE Darnell McKie, MLB Mo Fausel, SLB Stephen Rhodes and S Craig Clancy. Clearly we're going to offer Rhodes and Clancy a contract, if their agent's (they have the same) demands are fair. Interestingly enough, the requests are identical, I think these two misfit toys are well worth a $3.7M cap figure. McKie's agent's demands are better, he's request just under $3M. I'll take it for what he can do and has done as a third down receiver for us. Fausel's demands are quite far from what he's worth, $5.4M for a special teamer is quite expensive, but he's probably our best guy and a serviceable running downs backup. Goodwin wants $5.7M, which is defensible for him, but I will have to think about this one as the short yardage and change of pace roles aren't as clear cut his.

SLB Micah Halvorson and G Corwin Driver are unrestricted free agents. Halvorson is a starter in our front seven and his demands now (just under $10M) are much more sane than last season's (much more than $20M). There might come a bidding war on him, so we'll have to see whether we can afford upping the bid. I'm not yet sure where to go with Driver. He's a fine run blocker and has cohesion going for him, but I'm not sure he'll be a starter for us going forward. $7M for a backup role is a bit too much, especially if he can't mentor (he can't and likely won't).

But... There's a big but here: we have a large group of players going into their fourth and final season of their rookie contracts. Of the class of 2101 many are starters and all are contributors (otherwise they wouldn't be around still). Apparently I addressed a good chunk of it last off-season by extended some of them a season ahead of time (well done, MIJB, well done). But still, TE Garrett Alcala, CB Logan Wallace, K Oscar Harrington, G Brett Stickney and LT Harold Gruenwalder will want to get paid roughly $63M more (combined).

I also might want to think about locking up QB Evan Drake for 5 seasons (he's still signed for 2 season), to make his contract renegotiations friendly.

And then there's a truck load of draft picks, picks 3.3, 3.9 and 3.20 are our top three. I traded our 1st rounder to the Colorado Cutthroats for Evan Drake, which now feels like it was well spent. Even more so if he can continue to be a solid starter for another season or 4. I will want to trade our quintet of 4th through 6th round picks and probably keep the triplet of 7th rounders to grab some players before the undrafted rookie free agency period.

And that's basically where we are as of now. I'm not going to share more plans. Quite simply, I haven't given it much thought yet. But I will in the next couple of days.