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I really like Brady but him at $250,000 to $275,000 versus paying Mills, Butler or Bell $150,000 to $160,000, I think I'd go for the later option.

Thing is...we only need 7 true starter caliber Candadians....so if you do 3 on the oline...2 receivers...and 2 at anytime on defence you can easily navigate the sms..this trying to make 9...10 guys a thing with sub par talent in a good 3 of them for most part is just dumb...not to mention costly There are a lot of quality Canadians that are gonna be free...and some that wont necessarily break the bank either, but we need to have open mind and be willing to change who we play and where as our Canadians

I mean, every back we've plugged in has had success. That is the tendency with zone systems as well. If you can identify/coach backs into pressuring the gap while also doing a good job of reading the blocking, you will succeed. Remember the broncos sticking random FA FBs in at tail back and having them average 5+ yards a pop and enough yards a game to get 1200-1500 a year? The point of tangibles is worth looking at. Brady is a fantastic blocker. But he also crafted him self into that role. Harris was too, but Augustine did a massive amount of work to go from terrible to pretty good at pass blocking, and MCI has taken huge leaps and bounds blocking too. Now, it is a far cry from being the lone back pass blocker in games during the regular season. But you only gain that final step by doing it. I am pretty confident that with marty, brady and the rest of the guys in the RB room that will hold over that we can coach guys up to be atleast good enough in pass blocking.

And a live shot of MOS right after the signing:

Whatever the role was...it was odd..and noticeable and don't think degraded talent related...as mentioned have discussed this and former DE said it was very odd I think if we bring him back..and im 99.9% certain we are we need to have him play as a straight up pressure/attack de...or rush end hybrid at various spots on line...20..25 high energy snaps and allow the young ends to grow...his experience and knowledge of the oline guys we will face also be invaluable to the youngsters We need a difference maker tho inside..if Hutchings hits the market back the truck up..that guys a beast and versatile...his presence would allow woods or Adams to eat too..but hopefully we scour the interior line with guys brought in like we have with dbs before..fix the line..the rest will fall into place..we already have some legit pieces coming back..and any new blood..fa or scouted that's as good or better is just bonus

I have said this before: If they are going continue starting Brady at RB, then they should be consistently starting 3 Americans on the OL.

Canadians, and who our outlier contracts are. You will always have a few guys earning a premium, but you can only afford so many. Also depends on how many rookie-scale overachievers you have. I see a very good chance that we will go with no premium pay DL other than Lawson. For Canadians, Lawson at dt, 1 lber, 1 db, 2 wrs, minimum 2 on ol. If they hit the free agent market, I would prioritize a guy who is a significant positional upgrade and a ratio win, especially guys like Allen and Woodmansey.

A 250k+ contract to a running back, ANY running back, is going to hinder any team unless they put up MOP calibre numbers and clutch performance. We got hosed on his contract last year.

https://3downnation.com/2025/12/02/cfl-award-winner-trey-vaval-to-work-out-for-new-orleans-saints-cleveland-browns-sources/

I do love him in that role. I wish they’d make him a permanent fixture in the booth/panel for each game.

Now that's interesting....

I think a lot of our 2nd year guys should be ready to step up into more active roles for sure. Agreed. Spend the wad on a tier one NAT OL, preferable a centre (not sure if there any available) and add QUALITY NAT depth. Draft well, develop better. These are going to be some key areas for us this offseason and season in general. Not a great idea to get rid of Kramdi right now. His contract isn't prohibitive and even if we platoon him we can get our money's worth. We gotta get away from our current DL NAT usage and keeping Kramdi is going to be a necessity in that. We can platoon our young NATs at WIL, and platoon Kramdi at SAM and this will allow us the flex we need to not pay BO the outrageous numbers we are hearing. We need to keep as much NAT roster flex as we can because if Neuf is back it's a roll of the dice, and Lawson/Thomas/Schmek hurt us if we gotta go there again. If another young NAT steps up into a viable starter/platoon guy then we revisit it next season. This, of course, predicates on us getting Kramdi back at a reasonable contract again.

We should have our OC in place before Ott or Tor announces theirs. If we fail that, we are in big trouble. Early January should be the goal. Talk to guys, conduct interviews, take the holidays to think about it, and make the offer right after. Then announce it by the week of the 9th.

Depends what we do with the rest of our roster and who our Canadians are. We need to play them somewhere. If we want better Canadians on the ol or at rec we’ll have to pay through the nose for them. We’re in some trouble right now with our Canadians. Only two of them were good last year and they’re both fas looking for raises. We really need to hope our young lbers can step up and we hit a home run in the draft.

I agree. Highly doubtful, January is prime time for most coaching hires outside of HC. I will be semi concerned if we don't have anyone in place by Jan. 9.

How much is 'establish the run to open the playbook up' worth to the Bombers? Some assume whoever we replace BO will be an easy plug and play but I'm not too sure with what BO offers outside of pure yardage and saving puppies. Tough decisions to be made. KW have fun.

If we don't have an OC by Christmas, I will be concerned.

Not bad for a guy who averages 9-11 games a season. The Riders are going to be hard pressed to bring the core of that team back. When you're a champion you pay the price of not being able to keep every free agent. They have something like 45 free agents so good luck with that. Some very good talent will be available from the Riders in February.

Yup...agree...id add interior dline to that too... I agree also that BO is beneficiary of system to a good extent...especially with lotsa touches...he isnt a guy who is a home run hitter from anywhere on field and could score from anywhere..anytime...but is one of best in a while to slug it out tenderize defences all game...love the guy but if he is looking for more than what he got last deal...I just think it may hinder us

Naylor reporting Hufnagel heading to Argos as well. Front office role

It really is a strange usage. But usually when you have an outlier on the edge like WJ, it's generally some young guy trying to cut his teeth. No matter the level or league. So that guy would be in their prime athletically, and you'd use them in a lot of ways. For a guy like WJ to play this late into his athletic prime is extremely rare. I think his step has diminished, but he can still turn in on. I really think the majority of his dip has come because he has been getting physically battered for a long time. After all, teams can double him and have figured out that if you out-physical him, he will coast. Some guys don't relish the physical punishing side of the game. Even at DL. Even at his best, WJ has been a terrible tackler in the back field. From an offensive standpoint, I'd be happy to see any DE roaming on the edge looking for PKDs. I love DL getting organic PKDs, but their value isn't remotely comparable to a sack imo. Tips still gets caught sometimes, but he is very seldom batting balls up to get picked. A PKD on 2nd down means you're punting unless it's a very short distance to the first. But even sacks on first down that get converted bring tremendous value. When you stack up physical hits on a QB, you drastically change the game. Ages ago, Football Outsiders I believe it was, had an article on QBR after hits/sacks and hurries. As you would expect, QBs that took 5-10 QB hits/sacks/hurries in a game saw drastic dips in production. Hurries don't have as much impact, especially without the hits, but you change the game when you disrupt the QB. PKDs slow the drive but don't have that compounding.

I feel like if Eli was going to be a starter it would have happened by now.

I just want to throw piles of money at both Lines and build out from that. Own the LoS and happy things happen. I

Scmeck likely wont be ready anyway so hopefully we dont have him pencilled in as a guy we looking to use Kramdi is a good rotation depth guy....and has value, but we can be way better for way less at SAM so if he is a role/depth guy he cant be sucking in 140k+ a yr tho Our second yr guys in Shay and Smith....Woodbey...Allen should all be better than last and more than capable of stepping in and if not starting taking heavy reps....Griffin needs to be re-upped and he wont break the bank so those guys alone...4 on entry level...Griffin very affordable should allow us to be active in fixing our lines I would think Bailey is gonna push for full rotation usage and if one of the 2 ends we saw takes the job and runs with it then there is another entry level deal playing which helps even further...But Osh needs to be willing to go with the youth movement...and Hopefully Walters see's that and takes some of the deadwood right out of Osh's hands and he has no choice They are all 2nd yr guys will have another full camp...and all showed well when playing last yr Neuf has played 17..18..14...18 games in last 4 yrs so is shown he can be durable...I think his vet leadership be key one more yr and he be am ideal 6th of a Rookie/FA signing who isnt pricey or Vibert can take the job as he can cover multiple spots on line

yeah we kinda did...and the last 2 yrs...he's been dealing with injury issues...trend?..anomaly?...hard to say but his big price, and the fact if he goes down there will be a huge drop off in production if we refuse to go import there...I just dunno Sure we can 6 game him and not absorb the cost, but his huge salary, along with ZC's 600k...still on books and affects who else we sign before even the first snap of TC...We gotta go young and trust in the scouting and eject salaries of Gauthier..Kolo..Thomas..Kramdi (as he is the lesser of Nichols and Holm in our bloated secondary salary mess)......Hallett...Wilson...Even T.Jones. We have inhouse guys already on entry level deals for most part to cover all those guys, plus a possible draft gem or 2...and I would think some of the new scouting staff guys brought on last yr will have more beefit this We can go minimal salary in several areas and be able to be very proactive with both lines, and a legit WR....

Toronto announced theirs as Mike Miller already. He's going to be OC and call the plays. Haven't announced the rest of the staff though if that is what you mean.

That's my thinking as well. Things are going to slow down a bit because holidays do that. But we need our guy by 2nd week of January and that is a likely timeline unless we do something within the next 10 days.

If you give a CFL calibre 20+ touches a game they are going to rack up big yardage. I love Brady ball, but I don't think Brady is our only option to do it with. This last contract my heart was happy but my head said it's a terrible contract. This time both my heart and my head say it's a bad idea. Sorry Brady, but your attitude over the last year was not to my liking.

Any predictions on who are first signing will be?

You’re right, dl in general but disruptive inside especially.

That won't happen if Younger stays at DC. This is his defense with the personnel he wanted doing what he wants them to do. It's strange the way he used WJ. Our DL could be so much better. It's his decision not to do it the way it normally would be done. I don't pretend to try to explain how Younger uses his personnel & why. All I know is we don't presure qbs anymore. Out interior DL is a joke which affects our Ends. We don't get the pressure we used to when Richie Hall was DC. With Hall, it all started with a vicious Front 4. With Younger, he seems to build from the back end out. The best athletes play in the secondary & it flows up to LBers & finally to the DL which is a no pressure Front 4. I don't like it & I'm not convinced Younger is really all that good as a Coordinator. Yup, let's just repeat the same mistakes again.... If we don't have an OC in place in 5 or 6 weeks then we can declare that the talk of change & introspection was just that... talk... while nothing has changed.

Crumbl Cookies (and yes that's how it's spelled)

https://3downnation.com/2025/12/02/head-coach-mike-miller-to-also-be-offensive-coordinator-rest-of-toronto-coaching-rest-unclear/ Looks like he will also be the Argos OC and play caller. Lots to take on as a new head coach that wasn't even the OC last year.

I like Lapo as a broadcaster, I still think with experience and coaching he can really help build our game from that space. I don't think the space of a positional support coach is big enough to hold his ego and need for control. 🙂

wow, i thought he shifted away from formally working, guess not, probably missed it. Too bad for him the Argos suck.

If you're gonna gamble on positions to overpay in the CFL, its QB, OL, and WR. I mean that was really hamiltons off season last year and while they didnt win it all it worked out very well for them.

Emilus will be 250k+ BO is the beneficiary of an offensive system that is far too run heavy. There I said it. 250k+ for BO. Price over replacement is the formula I like to use and BOs salary makes no sense at that equation whereas Philpott's is closer to an accurate amount but still a slight overpay.

I've got it, Jake Thomas for OC.

I also heard JBR say to continue to talk about JT until further notice. I told you offseason is going to be fantastic.

If only for the "can't standya" jokes

yeah...we need to scrap the rigid ratio constraints...the rigid scheme based on...I not even sure these days and allow the best players to actually compete for jobs....and then select you best 24 where you have actual adequate back-up...the key part and then determine the ratio and who makes best sense scheme wise to suit their, and the units best ability Not this pre-determined Player X is the starter regardless of injury in camp or outperformed...Position A is a Canadian position regardless if we have better options with an Import....playing sub par guys (Can or American) cause they were loyal foot soldiers in yrs gone past, or just tickle Osh's fancy.... That in a nutshell is what we have done for half a decade now....time to switch things up

pay the best you got to win....maybe we should take note

He's a good coach, boy is he a reach for that HC job though. I hope we take a long hard look at bourgoin and costanza

Good

Which is totally fine, if he's on a reasonable contract and in a more limited role. When he turns it on, he is still an absolute monster. He just doesn't have the ability to turn it on for a huge amount of snaps in a row. Especially if he sees any kind of double team. Pay him 100k base, with bonuses to go up 50k+ if he has a monster year. Make him a naturalized Canadian and rotate him as the 3rd end. He shouldn't play man run downs anyway. But in passing situations, let him go for 15-20 snaps a game at 100%. Hell, make use of him in in niche roles like when we tried to throw him the ball, or let him run off the edge and try to block kicks. Give him a guy to pair with who will take the brunt of the physical impact off on kick rushing etc.

I think the 2026 scheme should be predominant 4 man...Modified 3 man with a Jack....And also believe WJ has a lot of gas in tank and should be used as the rotational 55% rep end and allowed to just cut loose, with the other 3 "best" options at DE....Preferably 2 imports and Bailey the Global or a Canuck we can land via FA's or draft...Allows us to designate another import to DT and have 2 legit ball busters inside alomg with Lawson....Do that with 7 bodies who can play, and the secondary, almost regardless of who we employ get better...significantly...same with LB's As I mentioned in another post while discussing dline with Gavin Walls he even said what he saw...and would have hated to do, was that we used our ends a lot...primarily WJ in a contain role and not as an attack end...and you could see a lot of times it was a take 2..3 steps...jab down and hold back and become a volleyball player at the net...and more often than not it looked like plays were being taking off...as basically we schemed him out of plays ourselves....or was flat footed alot and having to attack/pursue from a dead stop...pointless and stupid...and a waste quarter of a quarter...the 1st quarter

Funny how we had a bunch of pressure the game we dressed the all rookie defensive line eh?