[MIJB#19]

General Manager Notes: early look back on the 2108 draft class
"5 picks in the top37, this better be a good class!"

Remember that? Maybe you don't and even I almost forgot, but that class is now the backbone of our team. Let's go over all the rookies from that season and see what I think of them now, after 3 regular seasons.


1.24 LT Earl McBirney (early rated 15/65)

#20 on our draft board, 2nd best T, 4th best OL.
Came back as "overrated" after interviews. It didn't shy my away enough from picking him. He's a heavy (335 lbs) pass protector, who can also support the running game. Very green, so a mentor was a must have and it might force our hand to let him sit his rookie season behind Gruenwalder, of flip around a bit and start him at left guard and either bench one four guards or center. A lot can happen in training camp and pre-season, so having 6 starting caliber linemen isn't excessive.

Now rated 60/60
McBirney has developed into being our starting left tackle. One might say he had a bit of an off season with 6 sacks allowed, but overall 10 sacks in 37 starts is a very good number for a left tackle. By my staff he's considered to be #3 in pass blocking technique amongst all offensive tackles in the league. That's all that matters here.



1.28 DE Frank Bernard (early rated 20/80)

#17 on our draft board, #1 DE, #2 DL, #3 DL/LB
With the daunting departure of Fletcher, getting a new defensive end was kind of unavoidable. Bernard brings in a solid dose of both pass rush speed and especially outstanding run stopping and play diagnosis, with the right endurance to use it all. One might say he's even better suited to play DT, but he's got the framework of a DE and it makes much more sense to not mess with that. Especially given what came next.

Now rated 70/70
Those that paid attention have seen Bernard's name pop up as having had a strong season where he was in the sacks lead race for a while. We don't care he couldn't hold on to it, other guys around him made up for it and it will keep him more affordable once he's up for renewal. He's an elite run stopper according to our staff and a key member to our defense.



2.02 DT Efrain Hutchins (early rated 30/70)

#22 on our draft board, #2 DT, #3 DL, #5 LB/DL
Hutchins brings in a solid dose of run stopping and play diagnosis, but also provides excellent pass rush technique and the endurance to be able to play a lot of downs. This guy will be awesome to put on the field next to DT Gabriel Morris (rated 70/70).

Now rated 70/70
With Morris declining, Hutchins is now the key member in the middle of the defensive line. He's an elite pass rusher up the middle and give enough run defense support to consider him a worthy successor to the all-time greats.



2.04 LB Caiden Hastings (early rated 40/70)
#19 on our draft board, #1 LB, #3 DL/LB
Despite having two 100-tackle linebackers, I felt that the unavoidable decline of LB Abraham Desimone or of LB3 Tony Burks would make for a great opportunity to snag this guy up here and in the process make a cap friendly move by releasing one of them soon after (which we will do with the release of Burks). Hasting is an excellent run stopper and plenty of over skills to jump in as the LB2 next to All-IHOF LB Gus Coleman (rated 75/75).

Now rated 65/65
Hastings is coming off his third straight season with 100 tackles. He plays a lot on our pass defense and I think we'll eventually take him out of those formations by putting rookie Bryan Diaz there, but on the balanced and run heavy downs, Hastings is undisputed. He's one of the elite run stoppers at linebacker in the league.



2.05 QB Harrison Singleton (early rated 10/35)

#26 on our draft board, #1 QB
Every decade or so, I end up in a situation where our QB situation is questionable and figure that the cap situation and roster situation are balanced enough to take a gamble with a 2nd round pick on a quarterback. As I mentioned, our offensive coordinator's assessment, combined with my own strengths and weaknesses profile for a quarterback, made him jump to the top of the QB class for us, in what seemed to be a relatively weak class overall. I'm writing that despite that he was the 5th QB taken this draft. What makes Singelton look so interested, despite his perceived overall ability being underwhelming? He comes in with excellent sense rush ability and scramble frequency, combined with excellent timing potential. The big elephant in the room is his intelligence which may have been the reason for his Solecismic Test Score, hinting that he might not be all that great in avoiding interceptions. This might push us into making P Jimmy Summers our holder, keep Drake Bishop as the mentor and force Monty Truitt out of Maassluis. If we can't afford to keep 4 quarterbacks.
Now rated 40/40
I'm not going to elaborate on Singleton much. He's delivering with his arm and legs. We're on average an 11-5 team with him starting. He was the first ever Merchantmen quarterback to receive All-IHOF honors. Our best quarterback since Lester Lowe, yes, also factoring in Alfred Hickman. Notable tidbit: Singelton scored a 41 on the Solecismic Test this off-season. Maybe his ability to avoid interceptions isn't as dreadful as it initially has been foreshadowed...



2.20 WR Jaylen Gearhart (early rated 30/45)

#46 on our draft board, #6 WR
We interviewed the top5 prospects at his position and initially hoped that enough of them looked great enough to be worth a trade up with all our picks. Four of five guys were taken by pick #6, which meant our trade option in a slot somewhere closely behind that failed to work out, it would have been a bad move. The 5th best WR was available at the #17 pick, but I got worried about WR Edwin Forbes' route running ability and decided to not pick him, but instead make the cap friendlier move to trade down. One of the end results was not having grabbed a WR at all with our 5 high picks, thus making it a bit of a forced move to grab the best left WR at this spot. Gearhart would in ancient times be destined for greatness with his excellent big play ability. In modern days football, he will also need the route running (his potential is very good) and endurance (also very good), combined with at least some additional skills (good courage, maybe?). He'll be in a spot where he could go anywhere from WR2 to WR6 as it looks right now.

Now rated 40/45
A reach in the second round, especially given that he fell behind two 2109 additions, but Gearhart is still on the team. Still needs to work on his route running if he wants to get into the mix as WR3 by the time Calvin Maxwell retires. I still believe in his excellent big-play ability to make a difference.



4.18 S Noah Matthews (early rated 30/45)

#77 on our draft board, #5 S, #11 CB/S
My sleeper pick was CB CB Clifton Lukins, who got picked 11 slots higher than Matthews, for our new nickel/dime safety project. Lukins could be too light to be able to play safety, which won't be an issue with the massive 6'2" 211 pounds Matthews - if anything, he's too large. Matthews tops this class in intercepting skills, while having the play diagnosis and endurance to be suitable to play a lot of downs.

Now rated 45/45
Ironically the highest drafted player on our entire secondary, as other than Matthews, only John Aponte was a draft pick (a 7th rounder for us). Matthews' gift is the sense for forcing interceptions and albeit he went without a pick this season, he has been crucial in that area in his first 2 seasons. I'm still not sure whether he really is a full time starter or just a role player on some formations, but that's a bit of a luxury to be able to think that way.



6.20 TE Ty Rumans (early rated 20/40)

#318 on our draft board, #17 TE
With the unavoidable loss of TE Nicholas Heath, I needed a backup plan and that was to spent a 6th or 7th round pick on a tight end. I looked at one that can play special teams and be good on third downs, with run blocking skills being secondary to that. He might not have much route running skills, but that seems to be less important at his position than it is at WR or RB. We'll likely try to sign some undrafted rookies to battle with Rumans for the roster spot.

Now rated 20/30
Rumans might go into the history books as the player we signed and released more than anybody else. We brought him back as much as 3 times already and he basically spent just 1 1/2 half season on our roster. Although technically we signed him as a restricted free agent twice, which means he was to be considered to have never left. We might take one more stab at it if he's still on the open market late in the playoffs and we either are out of contention or need to sign a tight end for injury disaster reasons. He played in 1 game for us so far, didn't even get to see action on the special teams unit that day, which is what makes him worth the trouble bringing him back a 5th time.



7.03 FB Dean Lang (early rated 30/45)

#76 on our draft board, #4 FB
Yeah, we were not going to spent a 1st or 2nd round pick on the impressive FB Louis McIntyre, #4 overall on our draft board, because we just don't use the FB all that much. McIntyre got taken by the Houston Mustangs at slot 2.18, so we had our chances. Lang got picked before we knew whether FB Randy Julian would re-sign with us. Lang isn't very likely to make the team, it seems, as his ability to play special teams is lacking and would be something worthy of a roster spot. His pass blocking and blitz pickup could be solid enough to change on that though.

now retired
He didn't make our pre-season roster as a rookie and then failed to convinced the Chesapeake Chitterlings in half a pre-season as well.


7.19 WR Perry Madison (early rated 15/35)
#231 on our draft board, #31 WR
Everybody wanted to pick a WR. We did in the mid-late 2nd round and added Madison later on in anticipation of trading WR Alfredo Samuels. Madison in potential is a similarly talented special team, but one that actually does have route running skills to make some catches. Will he make the team? That's questionable as we're already up to 56 players signed with clearly few excess elsewhere on the team.

Now rated 20/30
He made our 53-men roster, then was cut mid-season because of injury troubles at tight end (brining back Ty Rumans), then we re-signed Madison in the post-season. But he failed to impress in the second pre-season on team and it's actually surprising he didn't retire after the 2109 season already. His promise as a route runner with sticky hands hasn't come to reality.



And then there was a truckload of undrafted rookies that we signed and never played a down of football for us. But 5 of them did end up on our roster. Who are they?

TE Wesley Keener (early rated 20/40)
Now retired
Made the team as a rookie as our TE4, but in the 2109 off-season we decided to not re-sign him, choosing Ty Rumans over Keener.

C Roman Gillespie (early rated 20/45)
Now rated 45/55
Gillespie is currently angry over lack of playing time, stuck on s solid offensive line as our backup interior lineman. Hasn't played a single downs this season and saw action in 7 games prior seasons. He's still signed for another season and looks like a very capable run blocker.

DE Howie Tucker (early rated 20/35)
Now rated 35/35
Tucker was mentioned by Dogbytes as one of the good execution from unexpected places. Tucker is in the top 20 most gifted pass rushers at defensive end and is ferocious in terms of being a punishing hitter. His lack of endurance makes him a passing downs only player. He's still signed through 2111 and I'm expecting him to want to receive starting money next season.

DE Zachary Abueva (early rated 20/30)
Now rated 30/30
Abueva returned in Maassluis this season, after being cut as a rookie in pre-season, brought back in the post-season, only to get cut again in the 2109 pre-season. That landed him a stint in Kansas, where he was on roster that season, seeing action in 5 games. Abueva spent all of 2110 on the inactive section, despite that we know he's got very good pass rush technique, play diagnosis, punishing hitter skills and special teams ability. Very capable to step in if we need an injury replacement.

RB Cary Delgado (early rated 30/35)
Now rated 40/40
Last, but not least! Delgado is on our running back trio rotation, mostly on third down situations. His hole recognition is low, he's got no breakaway speed whatsoever, can't play on special teams, lacks endurance, but his power running and third down running make him the best option on team to throw out there on third and short. He's a fair third down receiving target as well for a short pass, although usually when he makes catch, it's on third down and he comes short of a first down. Anyway, he's kind of undisputed as our 3rd down back. No Albert "The Shovel" Shalon, but I doubt anyone can ever step into The Shovel's shoes, Shalon is 3rd all-time in conversion percentage amongst players with at least 100 3rd down carries (across the entire league, not just amongst Merchantmen players). And if we increase it to 50+ 3rd down carries, the career cut short Walt Blair is 1 of 3 others that are ahead of The Shovel. But we're getting sidetracked now.


So, as I already mentioned in Steelstone's awesome Youtube series about the IHOF, our 2110 success is a result of the 2108 draft more than anything else, I suspect. QB Singelton, RB Delgado, LT McBirney, DE Bernard, DE Tucker, DT Hutchins, LB Hastings, CB Delgado and S Matthews are all contributing. That's a lot more than the 2 starters per draft most teams get.