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Just stopping in to say I love the CFL.

The club bringing in another DT especially gives me hope that they are leaning towards going 2 American DTs.

Interview with Josh Johnson. Obviously not going to give much insight into his skills but he seems pretty excited to be here.

Was...Toronto WAS a stacked team

This is football to me, not some patriotic circlejerk. I want my football team to do as well as possible and the last couple years, it hasn’t been. That’s it. You want to support Canadians over everything? Good for you. That’s not the end all be all for me.

I picked up my Zach Collaros bobblehead today which is this year's season ticket holder gift. Very cool.

Speaking of which, got my ticket for the home opener, so psyched to see the Bombers take out their rage for losing last year out on CoFaj and pound the Als into the ground....

Four games today. OTT @ HAM BC @ CGY SSK @ EDM TOR @ MTL All games on CFL+ : https://www.cfl.ca/2024/05/09/where-to-watch-2024-cfl-preseason-games/. The Montreal game is also on RDS. Highlights: First look at Dru Brown in a Redblacks jersey and MBT repping the Elks. BLM starts for the TiCats. Hopefully we get the Edmonton radio crew on the Riders/Elks game. That Regina radio crew is brutal.

Lapo and an overly conservative vanilla O?

How are those examples? And even if they are, which I don’t think they are because these guys all won open jobs, not actual competitions with veterans if my memory serves me correctly … then what’s wrong with us doing that more frequently? Even if I’m off on a few of those names (I know Schoen won an open job for sure, as did Alford but maybe Holm/Nichols beat out veterans) then that’s still only what … a handful in 4 years when we have 24 starting positions and we’ve had deteriorating skills (BA, Bighill, Jake) and severe health concerns (Jeffcoat, Kyrie) that would be pretty glaring signs to maybe start looking for the next guys? Our use of the practice roster and willingness to develop talent has been very poor over the past couple years. I get there’s been a real push for the “win-now”, but we still have to think about developing and finding new players as well One guy we don’t talk about enough is Donald Rutledge. That guy won a job in training camp, came into the regular season like a man on a mission and had some scheme mistakes that ended up costing him his job to a veteran (Alden Darby) and by the end of the season, he had been reduced to a practice roster spot. Guy was named a divisional all-star as a rookie, but we relegated him to a practice roster job by the end of the season instead of letting him work through some growing pains as a rookie (all the while, we had other established veterans working through some performance issues as well) we essentially demoted him, gave him a pay cut and ended up losing him for nothing. To me, whether there are other circumstances or not, he wasn’t given the same leash veterans are and while I get that, there still has to be *some* leash for new guys and it doesn’t really seem like there is. If it was no leash, onto the next new guy, then okay I get it. But it’s so risk adverse. No leash for the new guy, onto the safe veteran move (and yes in this example, I know Darby played well for us but it was obviously a short term thing)

Witherstone was supposed to be having a good camp but didn’t look great in pre season. Adams is a monster athlete. Played naia level 156 tackles 96 solo 20.5 sacks 56 Tfl. Of note, he did a bit of every thing as well in his 3 years. Punting a decent bit some kick offs, carried the ball throwing it mostly on fake punts. Head and shoulders the most talented guy they had. 40 yard average punter with 19 50+. Realistically his punting motion is kinda janky and really slow at times. If he started following through with his leg he could be a legit punter. Might be a guy you could turn into a kick off specialist. https://pscbobcats.com/sports/football/roster/devin--adams/4963 https://nationalscoutingcombine.com/national-scouting-combine-2024-attendee-devin-adams-invited-to-new-england-patriots-mini-camp/ https://www.si.com/nfl/patriots/rookie-minicamp-patriots-invite-absurd-devin-adams https://pscbobcats.com/news/2024/4/29/football-peru-state-to-new-england-patriots-devin-adams.aspx#:~:text=During his time at Peru,State Head Coach Phil Ockinga . https://ras.football/ras-compare/?p1=10989&p2=26142&pos=DT

Who said anything about our starting Canadians? You really need to stop trying to play devil’s advocate, you are remarkably bad at it. Let’s take your Bighill point, since I love picking on him anyways. The point some of us are trying to make is that IF our coaching staff were willing to submit to the theory that grooming a replacement for him would be good solid forward planning, building a contingency plan for a potential injury to an older player and just overall good practice since Bighill’s ability has been diminishing for a while … then the result potentially becomes that instead of having to choose between a banged up Bighill and a Shayne Gauthier or Jesse Briggs run of the mill player, we have the potential to insert an impactful player into the lineup at a place of need when the need arises. Our scouting staff is very, very strong. There’s a reason teams have been trying to poach Danny Mac and Goveia for a few years now and there’s a reason Danny Mac is so secure in his employment that he can just tell everyone “talk to me when you’ll let me stay in Florida nearly full time” If they’re a strength for us to this degree, I’d like to see us bear some more of the fruit of their labours. The coaching staff in years past just seems to content to allow good to be good enough and I’d prefer we pushed the envelope a bit more to see if we can strike gold the same way we have with Schoen, Nichols and guys like Alford, Holm, etc. It would be nice to see our team doing that even when they don’t have their backs against the wall with an open roster spot.

They truly are the tasteful grey pant suit of hockey organizations.

Pretty lofty attendance goal, but hey, shoot for the stars

Cmon cut some guys so we can all complain about who they cut.

The CFL shud bring back the rookie off-season camps. I know the league stop them for cost reasons because I believe they were beneficial for the new guys to adapt to the CFL.

I have my doubts that Kelly will be back at all.

Thanks one specific link that works, whoever manages that site needs to be fired.

Lawrence was awful for us. Darby was terrible last season. It's not that hard to see when a guy has 200 yards of passing go right through him in a game. I have no qualms with our current staff and their ability to evaluate DB's. The only guys I think they were too soft on were Rose and Alexander. They both haven't been good players at all since the 21 Grey Cup. Not sure why Alexander was brought back.

In an in deal world I’d love to have qb4 be some one who is a major run threat and can operate the strevy package in case he gets hurt. But otherwise Wilson is an exciting guy to develop. I should add that he played every alignment and position in college. We have made extensive use in the past few years of a heavy set with a dt at end, and that would be right up his alley. Honestly with his athleticism physically he could be a de full time. It requires a lot more polish in edge pass rushing though. Very happy we brought him in.

It's actually impressive how bad Subway is.

They cut DB Anthony Witherstone and DL Jabari Ellis too Added DE Taylor Upshaw and DT Devin Adams

Ritchie Hall and a soft vanilla d, name a more iconic duo.

Oh sweet! Should be heading out for fan fest Sunday and will be picking that up

Tried Firehouse Subs at Kildonan Crossing today, was amazing. Subway doesn't come close.

I feel seen.

Oh for Christ's sake.. the last time there was an open spot at receiver we wound up with Dalton schoen... I think they've earned a little bit of trust on this particular issue.

Grant, no question. It's hard to believe that couldn't find the money to sign him this season.

BUT ZOMG SO FAST!!

I think they should expand the rookie camp to 7-10 days and expand the roster size by 20 for that. Have a significant cut down when vets report and then have a cut down between the two exhibition games.

Agreed. When an incident like this spills out of the closet, it is typically followed by other examples. We will never hear about most of these, Bottom line: Kelly is just not worth the looming risks.

I not sure why we dont do a conrrolled blue and gold game as well...actually get extra looks in a game situ...stupid we dont

Mike Kelly and being pissy

https://www.cfl.ca/

I don’t know, I seem to remember there were comments being made about how the grind of the longer season was an adjustment for him. That being said, you don’t get demoted for PEDs or drunk driving in Bomberland so I hate to think what he could’ve done.

Is it all about coaching though? A system COMBINED with the proper talent to perfom it successfully is what it takes to win consistently. That consistency INCLUDES playoff performance. This crew (many of the main players) has now had 3 different coaches and the playoff results have been similar (save for one season 2018). Depending how this works out (and I'm willing to give Arniel a chance) maybe it'll be time for True North to replace the GM position (to address personal needs in a different way perhaps). I'm not holding my breath about that part, but as the Bombers showed, when things aren't going well (3-15 in 2013), a house cleaning including players can work wonders ...

Also just to add on to what I was saying before in my reply to you @Jesse Are we really going to claim there’s been a competition for some of these roster spots when it comes to the guys on the back end of their careers? Have BA or Biggie even participated in training camp in the past two years? Even Jeffcoat … you could probably count the amount of times he practiced last year on two hands but at least he was effective

As mentioned earlier, maybe Barriere gets picked up by the Stamps to reunite with his former coach Beau Baldwin. Wilson got comfortable real fast in that first game, I'd be surprised if any other QB is going to dislodge him from #3.

I guess Wilson has officially won the job as #3 (for the mean time). Now they have a new QB to start evaluating and taking reps. Interesting that the other adds are defensive linemen

Exactly...if u all gaga over just the Canadian aspect support your USport...junior or amateur leagues Best players should play within the ratio requirements...regardless of birth. anything less doesn't cut it..and truthfully we already have to accept lesser talent with ratio as it is...that's a fact...too bad a lot don't grasp that

are they also anatomically correct?

Your post yesterday seemed to say that though. Now maybe your words don’t mean what your words mean, and this opinion is misunderstood. But I just wanted to quote your post directly and not be seen as twisting anything or misrepresenting you.

I brought this up earlier too. The onus is on the players to prove themselves.

Seems like a nice guy.

Jake's explanation for the late signing was he was fully exploring his NFL opportunities.

No you launched into your tired old tirade when evidence points to this situation not being the same. I agree there's too much loyalty to some aging vets... but I don't think it's a problem on offense really (other than my personal belief that Eli should be a starter somewhere). I know you loved BOLO, but nit like demski or wolitarksy are a problem. He just got caught in a deep spot. You have gone off the deep end on this issue I am sorry to say. Even I'm tired of it and I agree there are some issues, but you're building thus up to be too much.

There's simply a larger pool to draw from. It's infinitely easier to find an American who can come in and offer more athletically than it is to find a Canadian of similar skill. Don't get me wrong, I love the CFL, in part, because of the Canadians in it but I wouldn't lose sleep if starting fewer Canadians meant we were able to build and maintain a deeper, more complete roster.