[MIJB#19]

General Manager Notes: No more room for Doug and Doug
It is what it is...

We finished training camp with 64 players on roster. A simple conclusion to make there: 4 players had to be released before pre-season. The decisions were somewhat easy to make. With 3 punters on roster, I decided to release both Doug James and Doug Guynes. Center Aidan Doyle and longsnapper Shawn Goldberg were also released.

Doug James was supposed to become our all-time great punter, we picked him in the second round of the 2093 draft and he proved it with an impressive rookie campaign. Then he blew out his knee in week 1 of the 2094 season. We waited for his recovery, which came midway through the 2095 season, let him take punt for the final 7 games, but it was quite clear that he was no longer the player we drafted. A sad, but easy decision to release him now.

We also released Doug Guynes, the punter that preceded James and jumped in as a repaclement, dubbing him 'Old Doug'. It was nice to have him back, but I decided to stick with our new signing Shaun Barlow.

Center Aidan Doyle wasn't initially on my chop block list, but with the signing of Todd Springer and draft selection of Nickolas Toler made our interior linemen group quite large. We trimmed down to 8 offensive linemen by this move and will keep second year pro Vince Henselman and veteran Andre Watson in mind of for some reason we need to miss Robbie Zinn as our lone center.

Longsnapper Shawn Goldberg was our late seventh round pick, taken as an insurance in case veteran Travis Hamilton wouldn't sign with us. But Hamilton did sign with us, which means we really don't need two longsnappers.


Wait, hold on, MIJB, what happened in training camp!?

Alright, let's take a quick look at the young players that made a good impression in cap and those that made a bad impression. We're going with the traditional scale of 0-100 for pro football players.

+7/+6 G Nickolas Toler
Our first round pick made good progress, our staff (hahaha!) now thinks he's our second best player in potential.

+8/n.c. CB Ernie Grant
Our first round pick last season is making good progress. His endurance continues to be his weakness, but this kid is the real deal.

+4/+4 QB Earnest Ashley
We remember the words from our previous OC, a guy that was very high on Ashley. We've kept believing in Ashley and he made more progress.

+1/+4 QB Kelvin Everett
Let's call this a mixed bag. Pre-season will be interesting.

+4/n.c. G Vince Henselman
Undrafted rookie last season, way too early to be able to judge him, given our OC et al.

+3/+1 CB Omar Leszynski
The move from safety to cornerback sounds nice for him. But it's tough to think this third round pick will actually make our regular season roster...

+2/+2 DE Richie Piotte
Our second round pick last season continues to grow into an elite defensive end.

+2/+1 CB Bryson Swafford
Still growing, but in his third year now, he'll have to prove he's starting material.

+2/n.c. KH Jon Giles
Best kick holder in the game, according to my OC (not this guy again!?), but I'm seriously considering to cut him in favor of the older but slightly less impressive backup Efrain Batcheck.

+2/n.c. TE Ike Nixon
Fourth season on team, if he survives the cuts wave, but he's still green. It's likely he'll be our TE4 once again.

no change WR Ed Schulz
Yeah, just mentioning him because of the "no change". It's becoming more clear that his potential of 70ish will never be reached and he'll be stuck at 55ish.

+1/-2 WR/KR Darien Thompson
Underwhelming receiver, okay kickoff returner. If he holds up, he might win that role. Might.

+1/-4 WR Sebastian Hamilton
This guy will drop, drop hard. But for now we tell our OC: good choice, getting a 50ish wide receiver in the seventh round!

-1/-6 RB Ronnie Vanden Bosch
Have I mentioned that our OC can't judge young offensive players, making it pretty much pointless to draw conclusions? I will try to make this fifth round pick still, unless his last name continues to annoy me.

+3/-14 S Paul Figures
Yeah, figures... He is only a sixth round pick and might still be pretty okay.

Enough about training camp, pre-season week 2 is upcoming and might completely change everything I just thought about these young players. Stay tuned...