[MIJB#19]

General Manager Notes: 2107 Retirement Wave
Bye Bye Ben Courcy

Loyal Merchantmen fans know that ownership and management in Maassluis love defensive tackles. So when one of the best in business became available in 2103 as a free agent, it took me little time to decide to go all in on trying to sign DT Ben Courcy. As a result, after 7 seasons with his original franchise, Courcy moved to Maassluis to play out his IHOF career. In 4 season time, he won over the Merchantmen fans, being one of the leading figures to end the division title and playoffs drought in 2104. Courcy ended up playing 63 games for the Merchantmen, recording 27.0 sacks, amongst his tremendous numbers. He leaves behind a glaring hole, despite that he was initially signed to tutor DT Gabriel Morris to become the successor. Courcy goes out after finally earning All IHOF first team honors, after having received second team honors a couple of times in his long career.

Elsewhere in the league, 2094 first round pick LT Isaac Delgado hung up his shoulder pads a final time. A day one starter as a rookie, Delgado proved to be a reliable left tackle, being an above average starter in his pass protection and good enough to support the run. He played (and started) in 111 regular seasons games for the Merchantmen, until cap woes forced him out. His career expanded in Atlanta for 3 seasons and 2 more in Fairbanks. His stints there also proved to be injury prone, which not just hurt his performance on the field, but may have kept playoff caliber teams from making a push at signing him as a free agent. Delgado never played for a team that made the playoffs.

Back in Maassluis, the cap situation is the same old as in better times, sitting at $144M over the salary cap. Courcy's departed helped yank up the dead cap space to almost $20M, but he was scheduled to be signed for his bonus figure anyway. WR Calvin Maxwell, LB Gus Coleman and QB Evan Drake will be looked at the most to restructure to a more cap friendly deal, which isn't going to prove easy after the last two had exceptional seasons, with Coleman having established himself as the most productive linebacker in the IHOF, while Maxwell's skills are undisputed as league best and Drake is coming off a season where he ranked second in passer rating. Not to mention that the likes of K Oscar Harrington, RT Ivan Dole, TE Wesley Martin, LT Harold Gruenwalder and DE Damian Fletcher are all in their final year of contract.

Aside from the cap hole, we enter the off-season with 46 players signed, with undrafted rookie signing CB Joel Delgado having become our only restricted free agent. He stepped in for CB Otis Hane, who is amongst the 6 unrestricted free agents. The others being RB Broderick Levine, LT Carson McCormick, DT Mitch Potchynok, LB Mo Fausel and some roster legality mid-season signing not worth mentioning.

Our draft pick situation is quite rich, as we have additional 2nd, 3rd and 4th round picks. We'll be picking 19th overall in the first round, alternating between 20th and 19th in subsequent rounds. The bonus picks are the 2.23, 3.30 and 4.14 picks. Most likely only the top 5 picks will count towards the cap, if we even keep them all, and account for $20M, which would put us at roughly $165M over the cap for now.

Staff drafting comes first and odds are we'll finally move into a different direction with our Offensive Coordinator. I mean, most of the alternate candidates are "smashmouth" lovers as well, so it may not result into a different kind of offense, just new blood with other talents in other areas of the profession...