wbbfan

Yeah Demski isn’t often healthy and while he’s played most games he’s not been 100%. But this might be his new 100 at his age and wear. That’s the worst fear yeah. Full time Jake. That’s a good point, woli had long been a go to comfort blanket for zach. Big time plays and when we’ve had other guys banged up he’s stepped up.

It’s not like we are deep at ni wr either. We’ve been starting two ni WRs, with basically 1 back up. Big Kev can do it very thing woli was doing on O, and has a ton of up side. But Demski isn’t a spring chicken either. Confounding move to say the least. only things I can think is 1) they want to flip the ratio and go 1 ni wr, 2) penny pinching like others have said. 110k isn’t peanuts, but with a 70k ish base rookie salary it isn’t tremendous savings either. This has got to spell doom for a guy like Augustine. We needed to move on from long in the tooth over priced vets but a huge list of guys should’ve come before woli. I love Demski, hes had his two highest production years back to back with good health. But if we need to save cash his 225k+ could be better served else where. He isn’t the jet sweep guy any more, or the guy blocking down field he used to be. No fault of his own, it’s his usage and wear n tear catching up. We’ve seen that with guys like lawler and schoen out, Demski doesn’t become a no1 wr. Hes a damn good no3 ni wr. But we are paying him no1 money. Expecting to see more of this now though. We are clearly cutting space to add big in free agency. Don’t think we were 40k away from what we needed. More will come im sure. Also certain with this move that we aren’t gonna spend like the B.C. lions against the cap this year. I’m the biggest Dobson booster here. He isn’t. He isn’t even close to worth that kind of money. I’m a big believer in what he can turn into and how good he will be this year. Last year was his first season starting and our ol was in shambles. But he isn’t desjarlais or in that tier. He’s not in the tier below drew either. Drew made 260k. Big Stan made like 176k. Chung got 202k, which is a bit of an over pay. I wouldn’t give Dobson 200k. 150-180k with some incentives on a multi year deal, I’d take that gamble. North of 200k he should kick rocks.

Qft. Tremendous ambassador for the team, league and sport. Getting him was huge for us. Last hole on the D filled by the best guy possible.

League wide how many guys do we send to the nfl? 10 maybe into tc total on average maybe? How many of their guys do we get into our camp? 250-300? Both cases guys out of contract that either league could sign if they wanted. The nfl could do the nfle in the us, or expand their developmental /pr system 10 more spots per team again and crush us.

that’s all true. I don’t think we did any thing wrong by any means. You can always do better though, and I think you we’ve missed opportunities to make these kinds of moves better in the past. For the team, the player and the fans. I don’t expect any thing to change, but this whole thing smacks of would’ve happened no matter what.

Where we are now, it could've and should've been handled better and classier. I don't buy that he didn't know, but we should've lead with a formal public thank you to biggie for all he has done here. I suspect we will do that here soon, but it is too late for that now. It is our MO to draw these things out, and wait for players to go out bitter. I don't think guys who have failed to take the hint and realize they are cooked get a lot of process on their exit like this. I don't think we've done wrong, but we haven't done things the right way either. We have done this the mafia way though. Exactly what I'd expect. From the team to him, we don't need to do more than that. We should lead publicly though thanking him for what he did and give him the choice to retire a bomber before free agency starts. (that might be why he wasn't released early)

Nah. This is how it goes. It’s not like we are losing guys under contract mid season. We went from one year plus an option that allowed guys to go to the nfl to this. Independent pro baseball has the same windows in the off season. With in the league it self the window of guys staying or going is almost never that quick unless the team decides it to be. We have no leverage, and this isn’t the nfl deal. This is the rule with our own PA contracts first and foremost. Then we have a contract with the nfl for option windows. From when they gave us a no interest loan that saved us from folding after us expansion. If teams have locked up multi year base rookie contracts that nfl teams need to buy out, this will cease to be a pro league. We don’t get another guy with hope of nfl play again. As it is we can’t even compete with the Canadian kids in our own draft. This would be the death knell for our league. Those aren’t the reasons we lost the young demographic. This is just the life and reality of a 2nd tier league. Team engagement is where it starts. Look at the rum hut and RBs home games. Some teams do it well, other teams don’t have a fan base. By some I mean it’s getting close to half the league. Yes the league needs to change stuff, but the familiar comfort of a sure thing has lulled the teams into accepting what we have.

Yeah idk if he does either. But we are married to him, and we aren’t going to instantly have a team that can win a gc with him chucking bombs down field on 2nd and short or when ever else he wants. (Which is a lot) He isn’t gonna become Ricky ray, but he’s gotta quell the chucking in the worst situations into triple cover. Thats true, but we’ve seen more miraculous late career changes Damon Allen being the biggest up here. this. No way he didn’t know what was coming with his and season interview. Probably didn’t want to believe it.

Un comparable, considering 15 years ago the nfl didn’t want mobile QBs, didn’t think spread or option was viable, small tweeners or a lot receivers. Now they do. But we didn’t see true pro rookies performing at such high levels at db wr or qb like we do now. So I don’t think it was as close to as good now. Just easier to get more optimal fits and lots of guys with out nfl interest. 30 years ago, they tried us expansion too. 30 years ago Canadian college kids almost never got nfl tc invites. Little on deals bonuses and drafted. Fans love player mobility. Most popular time of the year in sports worlds are trade dead lines, drafts, and free agency day. Leagues problem is trying to cater to the wrong people, and not focusing on innovation.

I wonder if being short handed played a part in it. We have to remember, buck and hall were in consideration for other teams positions and when that happens aren’t involved for obvious reasons, plus 3 front office people. It was basically mos and Walters doing all the work for a long time. He talked about it in the year ending presser. I also don’t buy he didn’t know the writing was on the wall here. Especially after we re upped jones and then kyrie. Far as Im concerned we gave biggie multiple victory laps including a top end pay day far past his prime. Love biggie, hope he coaches. Glad he isn’t playing here. Can’t be the only vet we move on from though. Think he will get one? I really don’t know.

Before players go home, they have exit interviews with players. I have no doubt that the bombers let biggie know what the whole league knew after he played in the previous years gc. Yuuuuup he’s the 100 year old media version of a social media $@&% poster. How long till he retires? Or will the sun go under first?

It’s a really hard balance that is deep in the blind spot for us as fans. Is he willing to evolve his game to extend the last bit of his career? Is he capable? What does that look like? How much do you try to cover for his weaknesses (forcing the ball down field, holding it too long) and how much do you give him what he wants? I feel like both alleged finalists, Jackson and miller are well poised to deal with him. But it won’t be an easy job. It the oc balances that well the rest will fall in place. as has been said, he can’t run and escape like he used to. He also struggles mightily with rpo and option play in general. He’s shown flashes of really good up tempo play involving Timing routes and select screens. He does a lot better with this stuff off PA. He also likes to read down field back to the line, so stuff has to be designed around that. The offence also needs to have some development beyond zach. It’s very likely that the next oc will be here longer than zach at this point in his career. So we don’t just need some one who can excel with zach, but who can develop the next guy and involve him.

Canadian football player exposure is always valuable in the nfl. It strengthens the pipeline of Canadian kids getting shots down south from ncaa to nfl and of American players coming up here.

And it could very well be a big aid for him in progression. For for Canada and the league. But just dumb at the same time.

They all are. Both halletts, kornelson, samson, schmekel, Thomas all of em. Not on any other team but here. Not starters capable of competing. Not better than any imps. But yeah they all starters. If cut maybe, maybe one guy gets another offer. But they all starters.

Yeah I get that. He’s pretty much tcf.

He sat out 2022, just the one year. Plus the cancelled season and the year out of college. But it’s just 1 year since he was starting games for us in 21. It did seem to hurt his being game ready shape when he came back. I think long term if he gets back to starting all the breaks will be good for his body. He had a bunch of wear in college. He struggled at guard, but other wise was his usual self in the heavy set stuff.

Yeah. General logic is guard is easier than c or t but some guys struggle on one side or the other, or inside vs out. Hardrick struggled a lot at G before sliding to rt. Bonds struggled switching sides and then couldn’t play rt when the riders tried to move him around. C is also an odd position. We all see the snap, but it’s a completely different position most of the time. G and T you know your guy, you’ve prepared a lot for that 1on1 and they end up being 80-90% of your snaps. C, you don’t often have a guy heads up. It’s about reading, adjusting and helping. Dobson was also in his first season as a starter. That’s almost never an instant plug and play. The rest is soo depressing I can’t even thinking about that going into FA lol. Kolo and Thomas are gonna play till they can’t walk or stand. I agree with both. Hope for de dream of a C. I think c likely has to be a trade. between the ears makes sense. He excels in short yardage and in prior years went in at G while gray and others kicked out of te. It could also be that he just needs steady reps to grow into the role at g.

Raw, intimates high potential. He’s instantly the least athletic guy in the nfl. His cfl numbers were embarrassing. Average height of a wr in the nfl is a tiny shade under 6’1, ajou ajou was 6’2 at the combine here. Hes slightly above average for a wr down south, not even close to a tall lanky guy in the NFL. And he flashed average hands. Aside from his best game he caught about 40% of targets. It’s not his fault by any means. And I don’t blame him for taking the deal. This is a capitol case of the nfl can get really really stupid when it comes to signing guys. It’s pure 80s eye test stuff. He over achieved here and could well turn him self into a good cfl pro. Jamie stoddard and plenty of other guys have done it. If he’s smart he will soak in everything down south and use it to propel him self in his career. I think we have an easy 100 players in the cfl who would be way more worth the look.

So the dude runs like Matt Sheridan at the combine with a full battery of test results in that range, he catches 20/32 for 300 yards, hurts his knee in week 16 and misses the rest of the year, then gets an nfl deal. That is insane. Big Kev had better production and went like 32/40 with out missing a pass attempt for like 14 ish weeks, tested exceptionally well and blocks like it’s his full time job. Hope they don’t come for him.

He isn’t an excellent tackler. But he is extremely smart. He does continue to get better. But his steps are a fraction of what ford showed from his first tc to his first start and then from his early starts this year to mid season. Kramdi isn’t covering other teams best guys man up, only when they cross his zone. The down side in his game is while he has an excellent anticipatory skill, his ability to convert those jumps into big plays is sub par. He just misses a ton of big plays. That, and his tackling is inconsistent at best. Hes basically hidden in our run fits unless he’s blitzed off an edge. Athletically he’s pretty solid for the passport. Though our secondary is filled with outlier athletes. Makes him look slower than he is. His decision making in not great. When he gets out of the instinctual play and has to make snap decisions despite having great football iq he’s too hesitant. Kellys improvement also hardly out paces Kramdi, as do guys like mci and clercius. Kramdi is solid. If he keeps grinding and stays healthy he could possibly have a Demski esq improvement in his 30s, but it isn’t likely. Hes basically a 2 year starter going into his 5th training camp. Hard to expect much more. Hes also 1 injury away from being a hallett. Hes a solid mid roster Canadian starter. Hes worth about half of what ford is.

Wonder if you guys go after ford. Did lokombo ever fully recover from that early career injury?

You know Pickett was the highest paid db of any position in the whole league last year at 165k right? Nichols hard money was 140k. How much you gonna pay ford this year, and nichols next year then? I’d say he’s an average starting Canadian db in the cfl. How most teams have deployed ni safety’s, we use Kramdi. Put him in a small box and ask him to come down/over to make tackles on pass catchers. Honestly I like that with an imp S better than vice versa. Except for the fact I think Kelly can cover S like an imp with development, and we don’t need the ratio help. Conceptually though I hate the small box mid deep Canadian S who mostly watches and takes what comes to him. It’s like an upright on the field goal vs Fajardo. I do like that he has a nose for opportunity and has good in the box potential. I think he needs polishing though. Tackling by our D has been a big piss off for me the last bit. We have had terrible tackling at every level. Couple guys like Nichols and jones tend to wrap welll with guys who they can get hands on, but we must’ve missed more tackles than any team last year.

He isn't a top 3 sam in the cfl. And being top 3 (at a 1 player per team position no less) doesnt equate to a premiere pay day for a guy at a position that doesn't get paid. Plus, we paid him the off season before last year, and any of our imp Dbs could've taken his spot with out missing a beat. He was also a big part of our early season secondary struggles. Ford, is a top 2 cb in the league last year, is younger, a far more dynamic athlete, and far earlier in his games played. That, is a guy you pay kramdi money to. Kramdi played his best ball late, which is always good. But he was one of the smallest parts of our D turn around. BA staying home rather than head hunting, biggie/kyrie coming out, Griffin taking over the wil db package, ford emerging, Jones stepping up in biggies place, it is a long list before you get to kramdi. And paying guys before they step up is extremely dangerous. ] What do we pay kramdi in his next contract? We bumped him to top 5 ish paid in the league as a fringe starter. As a middle of the pack starter at sam in the cfl do we need to pay him 200k?

I don't remember that being the rumor, though I do think he got a fat pay day. I also don't think we got the 3dn highest paid articles we get now. hard to say. That said, he's high on the list of FAs we've lost, that we haven't missed. Up there with houston. A lot of other guys we lost that hurt though.