wbbfan

First question, that's why I think we are in this situation where he hasn't resigned. I think he will need to go to free agency to see, teams are willing to overspend on ends coming off career years, not ones off multi-year career slumps. Now, he and his family are deeply entrenched in Winnipeg. I don't think they want to leave. The initial knee-jerk reaction of "I'm not taking a pay cut!" gives way to the reality that his career is soon to end, and his family is cemented in this area. He likely has some cushy post-playing gigs lined up here, leaving now to chase some cash could really cost him in his post-playing life.\ We did the exact same thing to Jeffcoat. He thought he would get much better offers and didn't, despite coming off a strong year; his limited games scared teams off. He chose to retire rather than play for cheap. We also played hardball with key DL free agents like Sayles, Nevis, Stove, Kongbo, etc. I would take any of those guys and Jeffcoat at the point we let them go, over WJ today. I'd pay more for those other guys than WJ, and WJ earned more than any of those guys would get. For the 2nd, I can't say for sure, as much as I would love to know the answer to that. Previous to this year, the thought of us walking from Jake and Kola was a pipe dream. The DL is on a rebuild, we need to bring in an outside FA, and we have some hungry young talents. Also, when our D was at its best, WJ was on limited reps. 19/21, we rotated the DL more than anyone does currently. We carried essentially 2 full DLs, and they all played meaningful snaps. And that is how the rest of the league runs their DL now. We built the paradigm, then lost the keys. Really, we lost the bodies, and our staff decided it's better to carry 7ol and a FB for short yardage sets that we never struggled with, rather than carry a full DL and rotate those guys in to take meaningful snaps.

We haven't seen disciplined WJ in a long time. But when JJ was here with the support inside both needed, WJ struggled when JJ wasn't on the field. Media types tried to invert that, because WJ was the guy who got credit and MODP nods. But post JJ, wj has been the worst version of him self, save for 2-3 games. Jeffcoat had 8 sacks in his last season here, where he played 14 games. WJ had 11 that year. Since then, WJ has played 35 games and totaled 9 sacks. Wj has always struggled with discipline. Once the ball is snapped, he relies heavily on instincts and gambling. This is most visible in how frequently teams have run read option off him and just torch him routinely, also his inability to get contain on most QBs, and how frequently he misses tackles on the QB when he gets into a good position. Despite his age and success, he has always been low on field discipline. When he was most effective in the past, he wasn't allowed to play rover. But seems to have been able to do it as much as he wants the last two years. What he has always needed to succeed is 1-on-1s. With guys like Sayles/Stove/Drake and Jeffcoat in the past, WJ didn't see a ton of double teams here. But ever since we moved on from Sayles and JJ, WJ has been the focal point of blocking schemes. And teams have realized that if you double him and get him roughed up, he will stop driving his rush lane. You can't put that genie back in the bottle. Teams are going to run read option on him in the run game, and double him with the pass. The way to make him the most effective he can be is to take away the other team's ability to game plan for him. The easiest way to do that is to take him out of the starting lineup. Rotate him as the 3rd end, and move him around. The only other way would be to surround him with ideal talent that requires double teams and support blocks. But that won't release him from his deficiencies in the run game. Could he be effective as a standard DE? I don't think so. He could've when he was younger. But I don't think he could now. He doesn't have the motor you need to fight through and keep pursuing disruption in the back field. We could make a useful role that is not a rover with him. It would have to start by limiting his snaps, though. This is really late for WJ not to be resigned. I suspect it's going to be a Jenarion Grant play. Let him hit FA, see where the market is, then try to get him back on a discount.

I think if he weren't cut out to be a DL coach, they would've put him in the SnC room. Mos loves his gym stuff. Most kids who come up here were 3-4 star in HS at best, with size or athleticism, who went to a big school and didn't play. Then transferred to a small school, played heavily in year 2, and finally found production. Then, immediately came out thinking they'd go to the NFL. It's most often that, or the same path in reverse. The ones that come up here normally need consistency and reps. Not just game reps, but 1-on-1 too. dl/ol and wr/db are the positions that by far benefit most of 1-on-1s at all levels of play. It's hard to improve at doing 1-on-1s at other positions. But even without pads, linemen can grow endlessly with more reps against someone able to challenge them. DL is one of the most well-supported positions for development, though. Both lines have a tremendous volume of very high-quality camps for any level. Which is why its also important to support it with a good position coach, but having an extra body to support jake in his first camp would be a good idea. he should be fine after that.

Yeah, you're right. Thomas isn't going to be a make-or-break for us at Dl coach. Howard was very solid here, though he had spectacular results a bunch of other places. Young too. But in general, we have really struggled to take talented kids and turn them into highly effective DL. And this is over a long period of time with many coaches. We've never gotten back close to having what Richard Harris brought. Jake won't be any significant down grade over the past couple years.

Yes and no. Some positional coaches are far more important, like QB coach. The 2 closest after that are both Line coaches. Line play is the next most important after qbing, but the adjustment to the game up here is big and we don't get polished blockers or pass rushers from the ncaa any more. Pretty much every imp T and pass rusher is a project of one sort or another. Having a sub-optimal DL coach when we have JY and Hall running the D isn't the biggest deal. Thats part of why I'm not really worried about Jake. The bonus from him not being on the field any more is way bigger than any loss from having him coach the DL in the worst case. Player success doesn't directly translate to coaching success or failure either. A lot of great coaches have played but couldn't perform at the highest levels of their position group. I would love to have a great DL coach. I would even go more modular with the defensive coaching staff, have a Coverage coach, a front coach (Jake) and a pressure/pass rush coach. Even bringing in some one like that just for camp could be a big boost. Some one who can coach the finer points of rushing and winning battles with technique and athleticism.

Yes, last year was his 5th season. Glenn young coached the DL and Lbers before that. 17 and prior for a couple years was todd howard. But Richard Harris was the last time we had a great Dl coach. also worth noting is that Craig Roh was at least a half player half DL coach while he was here.

wonder how much holm got? i’m mentally preparing for it to be kramdi level pay. Despite a few heavy over pays, a solid free agency period and draft will have us in A grade off season territory imo. Based on the addition by subtraction I have us on the fringe of an A minus/B plus. We need a cfl calibre qb coach, and need to address atleast two of wr/ol/dl in free agency with legit cfl starters. Then we need to have a solid crop of draft picks while adding depth with real upside also at wr/dl/ol.

If Kramdi can walk, he will be starting im sure. Allen showed some brilliant flashes at S, but I would love to flip-flop him and Kramdi. I don't love Kramdi + Holm, but as long as we don't fall in love with a really bad db out of camp, yet again, the secondary will be very good. I think DL, and flipping the ratio at 1 lber spot is far more critical to the success of the D.

I don't think going 3 imp on the OL will hurt us too much. Kramdi is gonna start as long as he's healthy. Then if you start Shay, and Lawson, plus Brady, 2 WRs, and 2 OL, that's 8. If we go with a DA who can replace Lawson some and pass rush with an all-in DL for 49% of snaps or less, we'd be in a great spot.

Neuf as the 6th ol would be an incredible luxury. I'd love to have him and Wallace fight for the 2nd guard spot, with the loser taking the 6th spot. Letting Wilson go makes a lot of sense. Personally, I'd platoon the canadians at wil, and play woodbey at DHB. Woodbey is such an extraordinary outlier in his combination of size, athleticism, DB, and LBer skill sets. Playing him at half, and having him be the db in the run fit instead of Nichols would be such a miss match. Rolling out Shay, who is very similar in skill set at Wil, would take a big load off the shoulders off the Sam position as well. We could have a full 3 guys at wil/mac/sam who can play the box like Lbers. Plus a DB in Woodbey. That would be a massive mismatch in the run game. Plus Allen, who is a down hill Safety. In the Cover game that would give us interchangeability at Wil and Sam without subbing, but if slid Woodbey to Mac, and brought in Griffin, we'd have the same kind of mismatch advantage. Allen, Woodbey, and Shay can give us the game-breaking versatility that we used to have with Biggie/BA/Kyrie. It would take us closer to being able to run the cutting-edge modular defenses we used to run. We'd just need more Inside/Out versatility on the DL.

I bet he’s in camp with someone but doesn’t make an ar. I could see 2 of them gone.

It does, but a true positional C can have that coming out as a pro. Vibert isn’t a pure C, but he is a high floor guy. getting a guy who has experience in a similar system helps a lot too. Kola was a snap specialist. Guys like couture and goosen have been the block captains. Calgary did a great job of fitting fortin in, and identifying a guy who would be turn key for them.

kharis best chance is how close he is to wade. The mafia really wanted masoli as a fa too. we pined for him a couple times. If nichols could rub off on zach a little bit that would make us a lot better. agree. plus jackson didn’t have ties to mos before getting hired

I’d still go after woodmansey if he hits FA, but Vibert is also a real sleeper at C too. C is also a spot you can get a high floor draft pick to contribute at right away. Not every year, but many years. And we have historically drafted very well at C under the mafia.

Imo, he’s perfect as a 3rd/4th dt / 6/7th dl. Like you said he’s very useful as a package guy in heavy sets on both sides of the ball. We really need a great imp 3 tech who can kick outside in both 30 and 40 fronts. An imp nose to rotate with lawson would also be fantastic. Major props to schmekel whose crafted himself into a very good end of the roster canadian. Love to see a young big do what ever it takes to be useful. If he takes another step forward that would be incredible, but i’m not expecting that.