wbbfan

https://www.si.com/college/olemiss/football/top-ranked-juco-prospect-deion-smith-denied-eligibility-won-t-play-for-ole-miss-in-2024-01j6cyzejzs6 this is the type of guy I’d like to see get a look in the cfl. Soo many kids like this that need a look that isn’t grade reliant.

The lions can sell axe the sms tax stuff

Edmonton and Calgary try to leave the cfl as soon as they hear this news lol. No doubt publicity wise it’d be a huge splash.

https://3downnation.com/2025/03/17/canadian-lb-devin-veresuk-earns-nfl-attention-with-impressive-pro-day-numbers/ Extremely impressive pro day for veresuk. “Veresuk checked in at six-foot-two, 232 pounds then recorded a 36-inch vertical, 10-foot, four-inch broad jump and burned a 4.47-second 40-yard dash — as clocked by an NFL scout — along with a 4.47-second short shuttle and 7.19-second three-cone drill. He also repped 225 pounds on the bench press 27 times.”

I'm also optimistic that we will see considerable improvements this year here even with Kolo. Healthy Bryant, Neuf, Lofton should progress and pick up where he left off at worst, and Wallace could take a big step forward other wise and Randolph should be ready to take a job at Rt or RG if needed. I think Vanterpool could be a high-level starting guard this year if required as well. If we replace Kolo one way or another, we could have an elite OL by mid-season IMO. In Wallace and Randolph in particular, I see critical intangibles that Dobson never showed here.

I'll add, I don't think Dobson would've been in the elite of the top tier at guard if he had an elite C all year. It would have brought up his lowest level of play early in the season, But since dropping weight he hasn't had the same push/leg drive/ punch move. He used to be able to knock guys silly at 350. he was allegedly down to 315-320 last year, and certainly noticeably more trim. But he doesn't seem like he just lost sloppy weight. He is notably not the same guy he used to be. We seldom saw flashes of his potential, in the way of pancakes and downfield rumbling. He did the basic job of a guard but didn't show the upside of why we drafted him. I don't know if its a SnC issue, or diet, or what. But even the nastiness was gone. And that's why I wouldn't pay him what he got or close to it. I don't want to see a high-potential guy turn into a high-floor guy. If he struggled more with consistency and flashed more upside It would have been more tempting to keep him. Plus, every one not named desjarlais has struggled inside in pass pro here. Gray got it much worse than dobson with a much better RT beside him. His footwork was fine, his angles, hip drive, etc were not what you want. He'd try to lock up and counter with pure strength but just didn't have the explosion for that to work. Pass pro was a unit problem last year. Too many weak links, too many guys out of position too many guys hurt too much kola. Run pro is what concerns me with dobson. he should've been able to get down field more against the smaller 3 techs and didn't. OL play in general last year was junk league-wide. The continual allowance of holding to such an extreme degree removed the ability for guys to separate from the bottom half of the guards in the league. We can agree to disagree though, as he's gone and neither of us are sad to see him go for that payday he got.

He wasn't regularly or routinely lined up against the league's elite DTs Ceresna had his number last year. Ceresna also had all our interior OL's numbers. And if you are only struggling against the elite DTs in the league as a first-year starter, that does NOT make you over rated lol. That makes you one step away from an elite G. You haven't watched nearly enough interior line play then, because stove, sayles, brown and a ton of other guys have been that good or better just here over the past 25 years. Fact is, the elite rushing 3Techs win the battles one on one with guards and centres in this league. Think about it, the interior OL are almost never at the level of an elite import in terms of technique or athleticism. That is part of why teams always play Canadian guards and centres, but not tackles. You can slide and double the inside guys easily. You can't do that to cover up at the edge nearly soo easily or effectively. Normally, 2 average starting Canadian interior OL will handle an elite imp 3T 95% of the time. If you try to double an end with a guard, you open a huge pass rushing lane in side, with the fastest route to the QB possible. Guards cant get help from Ts when ends speed rush either, which teams did to us a lot last year as we struggled greatly with health at tackle, and speed off the edge. This is the crux of why Ceresna whipped us soo bad last year. We had no 2nd OL capable of aiding in the double. Neuf had some kind of awful injury and played his worst ball for 3/4 of the year, and Kola is a fringe PR guy. Dobson wasn't a star early, but mid season he was firmly in the 2nd tier of guards league wide.

Gonna need a serious defense fund should the 4 stripes learn the new commish was from here.

Wicked football name for sure. Really depends on his nfl interest, how he performs in drills and 10 yard split. It’s a double edged sword, if his testing mobility is strong and he shows a high upside for tackle, he gets a better longer look at the nfl. If he is a priority fa he goes higher if he’s drafted in the nfl probably worse. Hes a first round talent, top few picks. I think the only op in this class that is top 4 calibre. Wallace was an excellent draft prospect last year, with far better mobility than expected partly because he came in much lighter than he played. But shanks is a different tier. A Canadian who can play T at an imp level is the ultimate ratio breaker.

https://3downnation.com/2025/03/16/canadian-born-ol-tiger-shanks-added-to-2025-cfl-draft-sources/ RT added to the cfl draft. If he fails he could be moved to rg, but I think he projects extremely well at rt in the cfl. He will be in an nfl camp this year, but I think he’s still gonna be a first or second rounder. “All-Mountain West selections, taking home back-to-back honours in 2023 and 2024. According to Pro Football Focus, he allowed just 11 pressures and one sack over 410 pass-blocking snaps last season.” “ TIGER SHANKS, UNLV REBELS Total Points Earned: 35.90 (19th) Points Earned Pass Block: 16.61 Points Earned Run Block: 19.29 All Blown Block RK: 45th Pass Blown Block %: 2.50% Run Blown Block %: 1.90% Summary Analysis: Tiger Shanks has shown remarkable growth and consistency on UNLV’s offensive line. In 2023, Shanks earned 35.90 total points, with solid performances in both pass blocking (16.61 points) and run blocking (19.29 points), according to PFF. His low blown block percentages, 2.50% in pass protection and 1.90% in run blocking reflect his reliability and effectiveness. Shanks’ strong performance and ability to create holes in the ground game make him a key player for UNLV and a promising NFL prospect.”

Honestly, IDK. A million bucks a year with incentives is much more than anyone else in the CFL makes. Is that kind of money insufficient, especially wrapped around a rare job in pro sports? I'd be ok with a high cap on bonuses for that role. If they generate sustainable growth, they should have their salary grow. I don't want to incentivize a commish to come in, pump up a bunch of trash expansion teams and some front-loaded sponsorship deals, and then bail after getting paid. To put it into some sort of comparison, the company I work for had a net income under 400m (all USD numbers) last year. His base salary plus performance bonus hit under 3m, though he received considerable stock extra for an exceptional year (everyone's bonus was a record high). This is a big company, if you scaled his rate of earning in a record year down to CFL revenue levels, the commish would make pennies. For further comparison, Bettman made under 10m, and the MLS commish got under 5m and he's seen insane revenue growth in his time.

To be fair to Randolph, who started 3 games at guard, our ol was ravaged with all kinds of injuries in his games and snaps. Our whole ol was at its worst when he played and he didn’t get to play at its best so Dobson had a much better chance to excel. I’m really optimistic about him in general, he’s definitely a tackle and should’ve double switched with Lofton.

https://3downnation.com/2025/03/16/if-cfl-wants-real-difference-maker-as-commissioner-compensation-needs-to-be-raised-commensurate-with-leagues-business/

He wasn’t the most over rated guard on the team last year lmfao, he was our best player at guard by a wide margin.

Road grader potential. And he finished playing his best football. That’s why he got a big deal in Hamilton.

Fords an excellent ratio braking ni talent and athlete. But at the least valuable position in general and to the team. When we already break the bank on a rb and a bunch of other spots it’s just not sustainable with a db too. Id love to see a dl that is much better more athletic and talented. Lawson woods wj vaughters adams is gonna be very solid. If Thomas takes the fewest snaps and we run 7 dl we will be in good shape. I have a hard time seeing us carrying 6 imp dl. But If we sub a lot and go 30 half the time, while having rotational Canadians like makonzo, and or start Kelly we can make it work. S, Sam, dt, 3ol, rb, 2wr that gives us our 9 starters that we covet, and the flexibility to go extra imps in the secondary and dl. DI might be the tightest battle in camp. We are set up for di at the dl, lber, db, K and kr. And we could use a 2nd on the dl. I doubt we will use the nat Canadian on some one like wj like we should. Using the nat on dl would be huge.

Yeah, excited about the type of player Kelly is and what he can become. Athletically viable Canadians, who are smart, and have that toughness are a great keystone to build around. Makonzo, kelly, and kramdi give us a great bit of utility on D with the Canadians. No more need for Lbers/dbs who are pylons, and DL who aren't even that. JY has a tremendous tool to throw out different packages this year. Its going to be great to see how he develops and uses them. Big fan of Griffin. I think he could adjust to play most any position, but is probably at his best inside. Should be a lock to take a starting spot this year. Forgot about parker, if he's 100% that's a big sleeper too. Guys like Makonzo, and Parker despite not being huge can bring a lot better tackling and physicality to the secondary this year.

Griffins I think, will kick out and fill a full-time role left by Ford. We aren't likely to double shift S and Sam, especially with the level of turnover we have in experience. Kelly has given no reason to lack confidence in him. He's our best Canadian cover guy. Kramdi is likely best off at Sam. He's good at jumping backfield plays based on his read; he isn't athletic enough to do that from S, few guys are. He isn't strong at making downhill plays downfield at all. He's a wall player and isn't strong if he has to pick up a man in straight cover. S in our system especially demands a guy who can keep the top on the D, pick up on deep breaks, be quick laterally to get to spots, and make downhill plays. We don't need a hitter, and we don't need at ball hawk at S. Those are nice to have, but it's not really the fit we need. If anything, Holm would be a much better fit at S.

I'll throw in 2 sleeper picks, too. Jake Kelly. All he's done is succeed when we've had to go to him. He's shown more physicality than I'd ever suspect from his build and all the quickness/speed to excel. He's smart and a solid tackler. We have brought in a bunch of Imps to fight for BAs old spot, but I could see Kelly stealing it. And not just as a ratio guy, but legit winning it. Enock Makonzo. Say whaaaat? Well, He's a strong tackler and a good athlete. He can back up Kelly at S if he takes that job and Kramdi at sam. He can also rotate in at Wil. Our scheme could be very advantageous for him. This allowed him to play an inside wall spot downfield and enter the box to play the run. When Jones drafted him, he had him targeted as a guy who could fill a modern Wil role, exactly like we used Griffins last year. Except in our split field zone concept, this role has less demanding man cover requirements. He's not going to be an all-star, but he should be a high-floor mid-roster Canadian backup. Having a guy like him on the AR who can actually fill a role on the D vs guys who can just play teams will be big. It could allow us to go full IMP DL at times, and he's a good db for the run fits.

Giants or the Jets? If it's the Jets, we gotta fight now LOL

Now I know how all those kids drafted by the browns must feel. “Aww, do I suck?”

For sure, he was a favorite security blanket for Zach. But it seemed like Clercius was picking that up pretty quickly last year. very excited to see what he does with a season under his belt. He really surprised considering how raw was.

I mean he is a huge impact, not a good one for us but huge none the less. The usual cfl.ca quality lol. I think they got to 3 and couldn’t figure it out so they went with the old guy. I think Cjob types would go Brady Demski kramdi. Personally I’d go with 3 key Canadians to watch this year: Gabe Wallace, who has a big chance to fill a spot we badly need filled. With likely only imp competition. Then cam Lawson. We need that nose, we need a guy to take most of Jake’s reps. He was tremendous here before his injury. Finally big Kev. Demski isn’t getting any younger, woli is gone he’s penciled in as a starter. But he flashed a lot more than just blocking next year. I loved woli but I don’t think we will miss a beat. He could be the next big wr break we land.

I see the bombers advertising a rural flag football league starting spring of this year for kids 10-14. This is brilliant, I hope they end up rolling it out to high schools as well. Younger ages would be great too.

Id say it’s an ok crop that is deep in middle and upper middle tier talent. I don’t think guys will get a lot of nfl attention, but a lot of guys who will be on ARs for the next few years. It seems like front 6 D is a consistent thing in the draft now. Hoping to see dl/ol/db/wr/rb as our target positions. A versatile ni rb who can play wr would be great. Its a really good draft for our needs. I don’t think we need to draft for cover teams or niche roles like fb, ls, etc. I do think going forward we should be looking for the next Canadian K/P, or global. Though who knows when that will come up.