[MIJB#19]

General Manager Notes: the forgotten faces?

Previously I mentioned the retirement of 2 players that were still on our team in the 2109 season, but several long-time members of past seasons also announced their retirement from football.

QB Evan Drake
It's undeniable: Evan Drake retired as a league champion. Picked in the second round of the 2094 draft, he was destined to be the Arizona Miners franchise quarterback. Except their ownership gave up on him after just 2 seasons of not really getting a fair chance to prove himself. The Colorado Cutthroats had no doubt and in 2096 Drake guided his new team into the playoffs. In 2098 the Cutthroats stranded in the NAC Conference game.

Despite a 4,000-yard seasons, he fell out of favor in the 2104 off-season and the Maassluis Merchantmen swooped him up. Drake lead the Merchantmen to the end of a playoffs drought, making the Merchantmen division champions in 2104 and victory in the wild card round. Drake remained the undisputed starter in Maassluis, until 2108 second round pick Harrison Singelton stepped in during for the injured Drake early in the season and took the starting role from Drake late in the season. Fallen out of favor, Drake wanted to leave Maassluis in 2109 and it took until the playoffs for him to finally get picked up again. The Brooklyn Fightin' Bums needed a backup quarterback and by virtue of having seen the field as a kick holder, Drake earned a championship ring as the Fightin' Bums won their first ever IHOF Bowl.

Drake retired with passing figures of 48,571 yards, 281 touchdowns and 215 interceptions in 208 regular season games. These kind of career figures are usually sufficient to get enshrined into the Solecismic Hall of Fame. For the Maassluis Merchantmen Drake ranks 9th in passing yards and passing touchdowns in 69 regular season games.


DE Robbie Dobreski
Picked in the third round of the 2098 draft, the Merchantmen felt that Dobreski should prove his pass rush skills from day one. He wasn't quite ready, but his playing time seriously increased in his third season on the team. In 2101 Dobreski made 10.5 sacks and in 2106 he topped that figure with 11.5 sacks. Caught in a rotation system, these were quite impressive figures. After 10 seasons on the rotation and 65.0 sacks later, Dobreski was out of shape in the 2109 off-season and failed to make the regular season roster. No other team showed interest and he retired with 164 regular season games and 2 playoffs games, all for the Merchantmen.


CB Wesley Cabrera
One of many members of the class of 2102, a 3rd round pick even, Cabrera never proved to be a true starter, but season after season kept making the team as the nth cornerback on the team. In the 2109 off-season, he finally fell out of favor and was released. Unable to find a new team, Cabrera retired this off-season, showing 101 games played for the Merchantmen (including 2 in the 2104 playoffs).

LB Mo Fausel
Whether Fausel is a member of the class of 2102 is disputable, as he was an undrafted rookie. But his role was never disputed, from day one he was a member of the special teams unit, racking up to 110 games played for the Merchantmen in that role. The undisputedness ended in the 2109 off-season as Fausel was no longer considered one of the best special teamers on the roster. No other team wanted to boost their special teams unit and Fausel retired this off-season.



But enough about the past now, we just finished the 2110 draft?
With some limited wheeling and dealing, we ended up swapping our 2nd and 6th round picks for future picks, picking up an additional 7th round pick in the process. Here's our sextet of picks, not counting the undrafted rookies that we haven't quite signed yet.

1.18 TE Ben Gordon
Scouting reports told us he's a fantastic receiver in potential. He fills a soon-to-be need as TE Garrett Alcala is getting up there in age and has been losing quite some of his speed and stuff. Hopefully he can adapt to leaving Texas...


3.20 P Sergio Scott
Yup, it was bound to happen at some point. Jimmy Summers is on the decline and has a moron as an agent requesting way more money that Summers deserves for his ability. Training camp and pre-season are still to come, but Scott is the favorite to win this role in 2110.

4.19 RB Richard Ragley
Anticipating the departure of punt return specialist CB Dennis Finley, we interviewed several promising return specialists this draft. Ragley impressed our staff members and we're hoping to have a guy here that can also return kickoffs. His route running and hole recognition are interesting enough to see whether he can join the rotation.

5.18 LB Bobby Diaz
A special teamer, with pass defense skills and some run defense ability. He'll have a chance to make the roster.

7.9 DT Trey Woods
A special teamer with pass rush technique. We were in search for somebody in the rotation after we released DE Dean Rosas a couple of days ago.

7.20 LS Joshua Harvey
Maybe we stick with our veteran LS Bennett Brock. Or maybe we switch to this 11.5 years younger alternative. We'll see after camp. Or pre-season.