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Winning the cup made collaros untouchable here. Gotta hope Nichols lands on his feet though. The work he did to help turn this team around means a lot and always will.

Matt Nicholls has been released. I want to thank him for his play the past 4 seasons & elevating the Bombers from an also ran to Grey Cup contender. I want to wish him all the best wherever in the CFL he ends up playing. I agree that while he didn't get us over the finish line he got us in position to do it. Another reminder that a player's career in football can be over in the snap of two fingers because of injury or the path one was on significantly altered.

Yeah, they came back positive for "Grey cup MVP" with a large amount of "Most outstanding Canadian" apparently the side effect won't be seen until next year. Should show around his finger as a big ass ring.

Nichols , in the end, will always be a successful Bomber QB. He took a 1-4 team in 2016 and propelled us to where we are today, contenders and now champions. He saved everyones jobs and it's a shame he had to go, but, it's the right football move. Good for Walters and whoever else was in on this decision to choose Zach over Matt. Couldn't have been easy. Thank you Matt.

At what point do we start giving Kyle Walters the benefit of the doubt?... he's been the man for over 6 years now and in that time he has proven to be a shrewd and intelligent cap manager... I see no reason to believe Kyle would sign a contract that puts the team in a bad situation... The best thing about this deal is it gives the team two more years to work on McGuire and (hopefully) Streveler to get the heir apparent ready...

Legit don't get the griping about the "guaranteed" money, because that term has transitioned away from "cap hit" and nobody has really noticed. Collaros' injury risk is that he's going to miss significant time with a concussion - if that happens, whatever his cap hit is minus the signing bonus is off the cap anyways, because he'll be 6-gamed instantly. I'll wait to see what his signing bonus was, but reality is that Walters and company understand the comparables and the financial implications way better than any of us do and they surely weren't in a position to have to pay way above market for Collaros. If his signing bonus is dead cap money because of an injury? Meh. That really doesn't matter too much because at that point, chances are our season is toast anyways and it's the same risk associated with ANY starting QB. You can't have one without paying big upfront dollars.

Just going to go back and delete the posts where I thought he wouldn't play and if he did, he would just get injured. Then, I'll go and erase all the posts where I said he wouldn't re-sign. I really wasn't expecting to have to do a lot of work today. This is going to seriously impact my forum surfing.

_Marsh Replying to @TSN_Marsh Stat I didn't expect to find while researching a Collaros signing piece.. Despite being used in packages while Nichols was healthy and getting replaced by Collaros down the stretch, QB Chris Streveler took exactly 50% (595) of the #Bombers 2019 offensive snaps (1,188).

I would imagine that the Bomber brass asked some of our veteran players before making this decision. From my impression this wasn't an easy decision at all and "character" could have easily flipped it. I think that the players liked Matt too though and the radio silence is out of respect.

MBT is garbage and Arbuckle is a .500 QB who started 6 pro games. I'll take Collaros.

Troll. That's why.

BLM got $300k signing bonus... Reilly probably more Vernon Adams and Fajardo are getting $415k in hard money - $450k next year I think... Not sure what the panic is about $50k... the guy just won us a grey cup.

but when there is literally nobody out there "brand new" with the ability to lead and win you some games..you go with the best available "proven" option...and we just did that

Who is this guy? Surely trump doesn’t know him. Never met him.

New Republican containment plan: Sen. James Lankford (R-Okla.) on Monday night said the White House should give senators access to Bolton’s draft book, which claims President Trump linked security assistance for Ukraine with an investigation of former Vice President Joe Biden. Lankford said the manuscript could be viewed in the Senate’s Sensitive Compartmented Information Facility (SCIF). The highly secure room located in the basement level of the Capitol Visitors Center is usually used for classified briefings or to review sensitive intelligence and national security documents. We are talking about a book, that will be available to everybody on the planet, within months. But the contents need to be hidden for now......or will be "interpreted" in the proper fashion. Perhaps they could get Barr or Nunes...simply to issue a "summary" Really.

Walters presser on now...tons of info I refuse to believe the above is true because I was told he'd be traded........ Also, they won't be active in FA (...will maybe target a couple of guys...), Jefferson and Strev both solely focused on the NFL......, and "we have zero questions about Collaros durability right now".....

Well, first off....I am pretty suspicious of "connections" when it comes to long time, high profile politicians, of any stripe. Including Biden. If he and his son have done anything shady, the US has their law enforcement agencies, House and Senate, as tools to initiate investigation and should do so. But blackmailing a foreign government, by withholding aid already approved and passed by Congress, to have them initiate an investigation into a domestic political opponent (or any US citizen, for that matter).....has no moral or legal rational and sets a terrible precedent, regardless of who is in the White House, now or later. Having a back channel process and bypassing official channels, with Uncle Rudy (and Panas) smearing a US ambassador and engineering her removal, to smooth their path, adds even more odium. Of course Trump and Rudy could have been simply selflessly battling corruption, as they see it. If anyone really believes that.....please contact me, to obtain some outstanding real estate opportunities

Yes, Nichols and Lapo would be perfect for each other. Just imagine the completion percentage for 5 yard dump-offs they're going to engineer together in Ottawa. If that doesn't bring out the fans there nothing will! If he lands in Toronto to hand off to Wilder Jr., with that O-line, that should electrify the league and bring the Argos right into the mix. Hell, Walker will be likely to go off for four, maybe five hundred yards!

I'm going to focus on the fact that we having our starting QB, we're paying about the same $ as last year for our starting QB and that the guy played well for us.

This offence will look pretty different with Buck and Collaros instead of LaPo and Nichols. Looking forward to some medium and deep routes and less checkdowns.

Toronto did not get Nichols? The trade is a 1st rounder for Collaros and a Grey Cup..... We made out like bandits with that trade! I'll trade a 1st rounder for a starting QB + Grey Cup any day.

and apparently working with this offensive staff they encourage input from QB's and players for schemes..plays...and what they like/don't like and from all accounts Collaros is uber intelligent in regards to stuff, even from years ago, so having a QB in house who has a bit better skill set than Matt is no doubt gonna help the transition to Buck...I expect a pretty dynamic offense tihs year

He didn't need to light up the stats sheets...in every game he played..when opportunity was there for a deep shot..he took it and was generally succesful...and in the instances when we were backed up in a hole..he calmly got us out..with either a longer toss or some darn accurate mid level ones, he made no errors and leaned on our bread and butter...especially in the cold weather, which was that run game...he basically for 4 games played error free..smart and pretty surgical QB...

It's not always raw numbers. He looked in control of the offense and showed he looked like he belonged out there.

I mean ... it seems like what is being forgotten in your entire argument is that we don't just decide what Collaros gets paid. He actually has to agree to it.

And those jerseys.....

Best. answer. yet.

And without the Grey Cup factor.

Not what he was getting at at all....It didn't cripple us as we were not in SMS crunch and had surplus left over to re-sign quite a few guys, and really a large upfront chunk is par for the course in the CFL for a pivot...so we all in the same boat, that being said we were in better position than other teams SMS wise as we didn't have several guys eating up gobs of the SMS... Further to that we only were on the hook for what...2 game day cheques at his prorated amount so basically peanuts...it would have been peanuts pretty much as well for who-ever was picked up. Will be a similar scenario again this year if it comes down to it..and if Zack goes down mid-season...end of season...first 3rd of season then his remainder whatever it is goes off the books and we work within what we have...that bonus...like with Matt's last year, and previous years is already accounted for and removed from in-season surplus, so the GM knows exactly what they will need to work with, and pretty sure Walter's and company have gone over all scenarios of the what if's since the season ended and they had to decide who they were going with AND if we need to roll with McGuire for an extended period in-season for some reason I am more than okay and confident with him for some reason from watching him all year, and knowing his history...he is more a true QB than Streveler and the speed of going through reads and comfort in the pocket is better, so behind our line, and the run game we have...he will manage just fine...he also has the best arm of all guys we have had in the system for last 4-5 years

We don't know the people in China dying. Or the person who dies in a car accident, disease or is murdered. We knew who Kobe Bryant was. He wasn't faceless & he had a name. We know what he accomplished on the BBall court during his Laker career. Some fans had a very close affinity with Kobe despite never meeting him. His death affected a lot of people so therefore it's newsworthy. If you don't get that then there's nothing more I can say to explain it.

BIDEN IMPEACHED!! DEEP STATE THWARTED! HILLARY NEXT!!

Can we sign Nichols then trade him to TO for a first rounder?

Behind that o-line in TO Nichols might wind up with both feet pointing in the wrong direction...

https://www.tsn.ca/winnipeg-blue-bombers-sign-qb-zach-collaros-to-two-year-extension-1.1433446 With Collaros signed, fellow Blue Bombers quarterback Matt Nichols is expected to hit free agency next month. Nichols had served as the team's starting quarterback since 2015 when suffered a season-ending shoulder injury in August. His agent said last week that Nichols was "a little bit upset" over the team's decision to prioritize signing Collaros. I can see why Matt is upset but this is business. It's not personal. I was happy to hear what a team guy Nichols was in the QB room when Collaros was brought in, and I hope that he received a big playoff bonus cheque, because he deserved it. Now I wish him all the best in Ottawa with Lapo.

Interesting - same bonus as what Nichols got last year and even though he went down, that didn't seem to cripple our cap flexibility at all, did it?

either way you slice it..Nichols or Collaros was gonna get 450 to 500k...in this case it is 490k...and if 200-225k isn't up front...which I highly doubt it is...this is a very good deal... And who cares about Masoli...he won't be ready for start of season, and is hardly an established guy...so of course he won't be getting on the north of 400k this year 3 teams are in excess of 600k....Winnipeg and Sask are hovering around 500k...Ottawa and T.O will also be too...if not more now seeing as the pool of potential legit starters just shrank...And if Nichols is truly not ready for TC...Arbuckle is gonna get paid Injry history aside I'd much rather pay a proven guy (Collaros) what we are than an unproven guy (Arbuckle/Fajardo) the same amount...especially whhen I bet Collaros will have a smaller upfront cap hit in regards to a bonus than either of those 2 will

Aaand......fare thee well to Mr. Nichols. Sad, in a way, but sempre avanti!

Nice to have an idea how the QB corps is going to look for 2020. I'm still curious what happens with Streveler but I hope he's in the mix and can continue to develop. Congrats on the new contract, Zach!

You would think there would be some level of understand in Nichols that Collaros literally won the Grey Cup as the starting QB. Its not like Nichols didn't have opportunities in previous years. Last year it wouldn't have taken much of a game at the QB position for us to get past Calgary but we didn't get a whole lot in the West final.

I'm perfectly fine with spending that much money and perfectly fine if Strev does go to the NFL. At this point the only free agent that I really want them to bring back is Willie. Anyone else is a bonus.

I'm SURE both teams are hoping to land Arbuckle, and figure that Nichols will be their fall back plan. Nobody's gonna trade for him....it just doesn't make sense.

Between Ottawa and Toronto, the team that loses out on Arbuckle will likely get Nichols.

The signing bonus is the cost of keeping Collaros from the market. Really the options are Collaros or Nichols, and the Bombers are all-in on Collaros. Now the question becomes how would Streveler fit in. Basically we gotta hope he doesn’t come into the picture until the fall. The Bombers don’t have the cap space to fit another money QB on the roster. The other question moving forward is how we replace the production Streveler brought to the offense as the option QB. Going to need a lot more from the downfield passing game I think.

Gotta have faith that Walters knows what he's doing, but I agree...that's a lot of up front cash.

He's come to the right place.....

Can't see Nichols staying, with Toronto needing a legit starter, but I'd sure love to see a Collaros/Nichols tandem with equal base pay and playing time bonus, and may the best man win out in camp....