Colin Unger

I was disappointed too. But nobody really flew off the page. So I’m going moreso off the role that the bombers gave him.

Its too bad Rod Black isn't still around if a guy named Moses ends up patrolling the bombers defense. There's a lot of material there. I can't imagine Barriere has any way of winning the number 3 job after that game. Both the fact that Wilson looked solid and in control and Barriere while showing some athletic flashes looked rather awful in the the passing game. I would imagine most of next game will be dedicated to getting Zach ready and giving a few extra reps to Streveler. How much opportunity will Barriere even have to redeem himself? At this point i think Cruickshank is probably in line for the return job. He didn't do anything on returns but nobody else flew off the page. I love Cruickshank's college highlight package and the bombers used him on offense. He got a sweep and a couple catches. The main separator right now is that he seems to have the potential to do more than just return kicks or at least the bombers seem to think so. Chauncy Rivers has to get some credit for making a sack. I like his size and lets face it his number of 56 at that position might be an omen. In terms of potential dev roster guys i thought Hackett looked pretty good to me if there's still room in the CFL for 5 foot 7 dbs.

Its interesting how many rookies didn't make the trip. I wonder what that means for them.

There’s not much point. Rourke is still going to exhaust his nfl aspirations and then he will come back and play in the cfl on a contract that fits within the context of the salary cap. did teams not have the ability to pay Flutie, Garcia, Dickinson and Burris whatever they wanted when they left for the nfl? I’m not a fans of the changes. Special teams is a big part of the Canadian game and gives great opportunities for Canadian players to make the team based on their special teams acumen. I would not want to see the cfl alter or diminish the return game.

I was viewing it as his smarts are a real asset in the CFL. On paper a lot of CFL greats don't have any one skill that flies off the page for NFL scouts. Even Milt or Arland Bruce probably would have been categorized like this by NFL teams. In Milt's case it was really his smarts that make him such a good CFL receiver. His measurables alone would not have made him standout verses half of the receivers in the CFL.

From what I've gathered about Josh Vann, he appears to be a solid CFL prospect. He doesn't posses a singular skill or physical attribute that flies off the page and I believe that's why no NFL team is bothering to develop him on a practice roster. He posses good smarts and vision and this helps him to read the defense and put himself in a position for a catch plus yak yards. Despite facing challenges with drops early in college, he's managed to overcome them and establish himself as a reliable pass catcher. He's 5 foot 10 which i think is fairly average in the CFL and has good jumping ability and body control. He's a guy I think we could develop. Unfortunately I don't see him making much of an impact at WR and is more of a slot type of guy in the CFL.

O'Shea general strategy is vets don't need to be injured to miss practice and vets don't need to be healthy enough to help the team to play. I think you're right its 10. I got a bit mixed up counting the fullback as the 11th. But that fullback won't be on the field that often.

I stand corrected about Houston. It was Parker on the 3rd and 5 and Houston on the game winning touchdown. I still believe that some of the poor play from our secondary in that game was as a result of the decision to dress Bighill ahead of an extra DB. We had db's getting injured in that game and playing hurt. Could have had Rose available. I wasn't intending to blame the whole game on Houston/Parker... Im just saying that despite the coaching mistakes to play Bighill and Scheon we still were in a position to make one stop and we would have won.

If Gautier starts at MLB by my count that's 11 Canadian starters in week 1. I wonder when was the last time that happened in the CFL. Would be kind of a neat achievement to see them start 12 Canadians and 12 Americans.

Crazy to think if Houston makes one play we still would have won.

Wish we could see what milt could do in a scrimmage

Who is the other one? Manu and?

https://3downnation.com/2024/02/22/antonio-simmons-looking-to-make-cfl-comeback-after-mental-health-break/ bombers apparently expressed interest in him. Potential defensive end replacement at a discount.

They did make a coaching change on special teams. Hopefully there will be an impact from that. The lack of depth last year stems largely from probably the weakest recruitment class we've had under this regime. I'm hopeful things will be back to normal in that regard this year with half as many jobs available in the USFL/XFL.

I imagine we’ll get back into the habit of drafting an offensive lineman early who can at the very least provide instant depth and then draft another developmental guy later on in the draft who will go back to school. We’ve discovered quite a few starting calibre lineman outside of the first round. Wouldn’t be surprised if we drafted an offensive lineman, wr, and linebacker with our three picks in the first two rounds. It’s crazy to think that we could have 10 Canadian starters if Ford ends up starting at corner.

https://3downnation.com/2023/07/20/winnipeg-blue-bombers-flex-late-on-winless-edmonton-elks-12-other-thoughts/ I was able to find verification of it. It wasn’t reflected in the bombers depth charts. Scroll down to the segment called hog shuffle.

I remember during the season they gave Dobson a start for Gray for one game. I think he made a couple of mental mistakes early in the game and was pretty solid as the game went on.

Without seeing salary demands it’s hard to comment. Also perhaps Gray after being here this long was told he would have to compete for a starting job here and decided to move on based on that alone. All other things being equal Gray might have made more sense then kola.

I would count him. He was released because they had cheaper alternatives. Most of whom are not as good as a healthy Rhymes.

Lawson/Thomas/Bennett and Haba who looked decent as a pass rusher. My point though is the Defense hasn’t really lost a lot of key talent from last season and last year they ranked 1st against the run and 1st against the pass. Montreal’s d was the only one that really gave them a run for their money statistically. They need to improve their pass rush this offseason. They’ll probably sign a free agent or two. But the real talent that this team keeps acquiring is through its American scouting. You have to be able to rely on that or else you end up overpaying for high priced free agents. Everyone keeps talking about how bad Bighill looked last season. You guys should have told opposing offensive coordinators because they sure didn’t take advantage of it in any meaningful enough way. Whether it’s elite coaching or elite talent it doesn’t matter to me how they keep getting it done. And I fully expect that to continue.

When it comes to me you just make these weak little one liners without any substance. Like the time you came after me for suggesting there "might" be a role for the global kickers the teams drafted last year.

Typically the improvements come from the recruiting department. A lot of the top players on this team are guys we've recruited and often they had instant impact. When you're a top team you will never improve on paper before factoring in your American recruits and your Canadian draft class. The game is all about minimize the drain in free agency and then recruiting as well as you can. I don't see a large set of needs especially in a year where so much new American talent was made available with half of the USFL/XFL folding.

Do you care to expand on the skeleton of what it used to be comment? The way i see it our secondary is "essentially" unchanged. Winnipeg didn't seriously go after Houston because besides costing us the Grey Cup he isn't anything special. He lead the team in interceptions because he was the most targeted defensive back on the team. As it stands right now we have a differences makers re-signed in the secondary and will need to find one corner and a couple backups. We've never really had trouble finding DB's. There's a reason why the top corner's in this league are making chicken scratch compared to other positions but the two halfbacks (Nichols and Holm) we have coming back are special players in this league. Linebacking core is unchanged. Healthy Wilson could make an impact. Defensive line is the only area really deserving comment. It looks like Jeffcoat's time was up in the CFL. Its easy to argue that the entire league viewed his performance last year as essentially replacement level based on the lack of offers. That leaves us with losing Ricky Walker.... This is what makes the bombers D a skeleton? Ricky Walker? I mean he was decent for us but by no means was he at the level we had been accustomed to in years past. With the alternative leagues down south cutting half of the jobs this offseason and reducing salaries on the rest of them I think Winnipeg can easily find a DT and a Corner. Keeeeeeeep dreaming!

Speaking of top DB's today is the day that the NFL option window closes. I guess Holm is officially coming back?

There is already an article on 3rddownnation about this. Its 100% financial. He threatened to retired if he didn't get a raise. The team was willing to negotiate with him but they never ended up agreeing to terms so her retired. I'm not convinced this isn't a negotiating ploy. Have to wait and see if one side caves. Im going to assume that the bombers won't cake in this situation. He would still need to come to camp and earn a starting job vs competition. And the competition is going to be playing more likely for league minimum. There's a lot of tackles with at least one year of pro experience who just came available when the XFL/USFL merged.