[MIJB#19]

General Manager Notes: 2113 Draft and other stuff

The big pieces of the off-season have finished and we got out of it without much special to report on. That is to say, what is special in the off-season? A fancy top5 or draft pick usually is and so can be a free agent signing.

Let's start with the stuff that's always neat: the draft. We went into it with six picks, being down our 6th round pick for the rights to DT Dwayne Downs as a one-year rental. I decided that I wasn't too keen on the prospects left for the 2nd and 3rd round and swapped both for the Brooklyn Fightin' Bums 2nd round pick next draft and a 7th rounder this draft. That left us with 5 picks for the 2113 class, not counting the soon to be arriving undrafted rookie signings.

Pick 1.22 - LB Jorge Mayes
Planning ahead here as LB Gus Coleman is entering his 11th season. He might be not much more in potential than our 4th round pick last season (LB Nicolas Giles), but there might be nothing wrong to play them both, eventually. Mayes is a run stopper and zone defender with endurance. That's good enough for me. Worth a 1st round pick though? He feels like more of a 2nd round pick at the moment, despite his 30/70ish scouted ratings.

Pick 4.21 - DT Garrett Theurer
This pick somewhat crossed the free agency signing, which I will elaborate on later, making it a bit less likely Theurer will have a shot at making the 53-men roster, but we'll have to trust our staff regardless. Run defense, pass rush, play diagnosis. This kid can play 2 out of 3 downs. He arrives looking 25/50ish.

Pick 5.22 - LT Kristopher Harmon
It will come as no surprise that I was looking for a left tackle project after we lost LT Earl McBirney last season and as of this pick had no "I'm back" from LT Harold Gruenwalder either. If Harmon improves upon his initial looks, he'll be a worthy successor to Gruenwalder. Harmon arrived looking 25/50ish.

Pick 7.10 - QB Shawn DeLay
Clearly, a 10/40ish graded player can't be ready to quarterback a playoffs caliber team, but with QB Harrison Singleton out and the verdict far from out yet on QB Bert Tanner, picking up another project in the 7th round can't be a huge mistake.

Pick 7.22 - P Zack Lestage
Do we need a new punter? Maybe, maybe not. P Tyrus Johnston is barely a top10 player at his position, so taking a shot at the best of this rookie class late in the 7th round is worth it. We should hope Lestage will improve on his 40/50ish early impression.


Aside from the draft, the most surprising move was bringing DT Dwayne Downs back for another season, this time getting a 1-year $22.7M contract, which means we signed the top player from the Grey Sheet. So, yay. But it's quite telling no other team should even the slightest of interest in Downs and to be fair, we offered him the absolute minimum he was willing to consider midway through the early free agency.

LT Harold Gruenwalder signed a cheep 2-year deal, but I felt he deserves to stay and only in Maassluis can play up to starting quality with his cohesion boost.

Other than those two, we re-signed all the unrestricted free agents that we had on roster last season or signed to a future contract in the post-season. We'll lump QB Corey Backer into that pile as well.

That and we extended the contract of WR Jessie Vertelney through 2117. He better start posting 1,500-yard seasons. He barely got past 1,000 yards last season and didn't score a touchdown at all. Yikes.

Oh yeah, DE Howie Tucker decided to hold out. Which is a shame, because I was going to make him an offer during the pre-season anyway. I decided to make him a worthy offer before training camp, to talk him out of it.