wbbfan

He brought in the pieces to fix the issues. Mos didn't use them. Yes, he could've tried pushing Mos more. But he isn't the big boss either; that is Wade. Walters talked about how every personnel discussion used to be a fight with Mos and how it's changed post Grey Cup wins. It sure seems like the power structure from the top down does not go Wade to Walters, then to Mos. At this point, the ultimate responsibility and failure to maintain the contender we had falls to Miller. We hemorrhaged front office types, coaches, as well as players. That doesn't all fall on Walters. We had the pieces to win 2 more Grey Cups. You can't understand justifying a guy who was stuck in the middle, but still producing in Walters, but you can for Mos, who hasn't executed his job with any level of competence in years. Guys like Vaval, Allen, and Woodbey aren't bare minimums across the league, nor are all the other additions you chose to omit.

I think if the CFL got the top QBs to pay up to a million bucks, it'd be great for the league. As it is, we can't get the backups to shake loose from the NFL anymore. No fringe NFL QBs come here for a chance to play anymore, especially if they got good NIL money in college. We can't rely on just hitting the lotto, as a league, to fix our QB talent issue. Great QB play, is the easiest way to grow the league as well.

It's such a silly change. If you want to let teams pay to win (or try to) just do it. Make the top end of the cap a soft cap and make teams pay for it.

That has become so prominent across North American sports these days. NFL teams, especially with QBs carry dead years on the back of contracts in order to stretch out the term and pay more, knowing they will end up eating it. We see the same in MLB and the NBA, where if a guy has 2-3 good years left, you have to pay 5-6 to get those from him. I wonder if it's going to wind up better for him or the cats. Is it bonus/guaranteed money he will walk with if he retires after next year? Or is it just a lock in that if he decides to play the 2nd year that he will get paid what he wants for it. In the CFL, I could see having a guy like that sit the final year on a 6-game and get his base without hitting the cap.

Idk what to expect with Qbs money. If Brady is going to get 250-300k, and many non-QB get low-end QB money, will Rourke be he new normal?

wilson and lawson back is big. Hopefully on reasonable deals.

Walter’s who brought us two extremely strong draft classes back to back, a couple great canadian talent trades, and a bumper crop of rookies like vaval, allen, woodbey, and the rookie ends who dominated in their one game. The same who already has us with the next group of high end imp ol in rando, who would’ve been an acclaimed all star on any other play off team maybe gotten nfl looks, and vanterpool who barely played but was our best ol when he did. The huge majority of the problem lays at the feet of mos. Walters hasn’t been perfect by any means, but we’ve seen him have the best free agent periods in the league while here when he has money to spend. He’s handed out some over pays for sure. And we’ve lost guys. But the team from top to bottom was in a maintain stage. If we are really in a re tool phase and it sure looks like we are, I wouldn’t pick any other gm in the league to do the job over him.

As far as competitive balance on that schedule, just for us, I really like that schedule. No stupid short weeks, no home and away back-to-back series (other than LDC/BJB), good spread out balance of bye weeks, and we aren't ending a season series super early in the season again. Best competitive balance schedule (For us) in many years. Personally, only 3 weekday games all on Thursdays, which is great.

It's a combination of factors, and a big dose of good luck. Not having had catastrophic type injuries, especially to your knees and hips, goes a long way. Because you aren't cutting at speed or running/jumping nearly as much as any other position, you don't get the no-contact injuries very often. What really gets guys in a bad spot for their career is when someone rolls up on the back or side of the legs. That kills careers. But also, if you are the hammer far more often than the nail, you will play longer. By playing on more great teams, especially ones that run the ball, instead of constantly absorbing hits, you are the one dealing them out. And you are far more often playing exhausted DLS late in games. If you are a road-grading type, you are also able to play longer, even when you lose a step and can't dominate pass reps anymore. It doesn't hurt that, in football in general, the OL prototype has changed to a far more sustainable model, and the gap between replacement level and all-star is so vast. You can backslide a very long way without playing your way out of the league. Ol also has some of the best resources for off-season training. The level of trainers available and the camps out there are extraordinary. It's only beaten by QBs, and has passed DL imo. Teams and trainers at every level are so used to taking big kids with upside and a severe lack of polish, and trying to turn them into useful players, that not much scares people off linemen. Most young guys would prefer to play DL over OL as well. So the kids who want it will always find their way to help. But it also means that older guys who have been hurt, like Yoshi, have an endless string of resources and chances to fix what's wrong and get themselves where they need to be. This is a big part of why the CFL focuses the ratio on the OL, and why it is the cornerstone of every team's ratio. The normalization and modernization of Ol builds have made a huge impact on longevity. We don't see guys having to constantly go up in weight for TC, or see teams pushing guys to be bigger and bigger. Guys 6'3 walking around at 295-305 with an athletic build are just a whole lot healthier than the old standard of 325+ lbs guys on squat frames. The growth of the importance of wingspan is wild, but those long guys often have a much better frame to carry weight.

I'm sold just based on the name alone. Someone call Key and Peele with that one. If he stays healthy and keeps him self in shape, He will make a serious run at it.

Right? The highlights, too. His build, especially in college, before leaning out, but also the way he rides guys into the ground and never gives up. If he ends up being half the player Yoshi was, or half the teammate, that would be a huge steal for us. But wow, they are dead ringers for each other on the field. We always muse on here about former great players becoming coaches, but Yoshi is the guy, more than the rest from the GC era, that I hope goes into it after he retires. That guy is such a fantastic person, leader, and field coach; he is exactly what the sport needs in the next generation of coaches. As much as I would love to have him end up here coaching linemen in the future as well, he could do so much good back down south coaching kids. The Tait article on Yoshi from years back is still my favorite of those articles. Such perseverance from him at so many points.

I actually like the pick up of Stewart. He projects as a strong run-blocking RT. He hasn't played in the CFL in the regular season yet, but hes a big, mobile, nasty, strong pedigree in the run game, and is still young. I see a lot of Yoshi in Stewart, which I'm sure the other teams who've brought him in and had him around saw too. Love bringing this guy into camp to work with Marty. Maybe you look at sliding Rando to LT if big stan retires or moves inside. Probably means Lofton is done here. Sure makes it look like the OL will be more of a battle than it's been in a long time for camp. https://www.thedraftnetwork.com/2023/12/22/tairiq-stewart-scouting-report-nfl-draft-2024 https://ncataggies.com/sports/football/roster/tairiq-stewart/3801

Smith is making 276, and Betts is making 266. Then Ceresna was at 246. The next highest paid defensive player in the league is Ford at 236k. If you pay him as a top 3 DL, I think you are in the range. Which is equivalent to a top 3 defender. I actually think the chances of him taking a fat deal up here are pretty good. He's 6'0, he had major knee surgery after he completed his college career, and he's 300lbs. He is very fringy in terms of size. We saw Stove go through the same thing, though Stove was a solid inch shorter and a handful of pounds lighter. Stove couldn't catch much interest down south after 19/21, but he did miss the start of the 21 season. His dominance down the stretch of 21 was 100% NFL-worthy play. Average DTs in the NFL are around 6'3, and they target 310-ish for weight. Some guys play under that, but it's rare to be short and light. If a team running a 30 thinks he can play the 4i, or a team running an aggressive 30 thinks he can translate at 3t, I think he gets a camp invite. But I don't think anyone is going to give him guaranteed money going into camp, especially off 1 year's success. I would offer the guy a 3-year deal, with a 100k signing bonus, and a 100k roster bonus out of camp the following 2 years. Then I'd give a base salary of 160k a year, and incentives of 40k each year. Something like 10k for 9+ sacks, 10k for divisional all-star. 10k (555$ for each game where he starts) and 10k again, split in 555$ per game where he takes the most snaps at DT, or more than half the snaps. That way, if he hits the NFL window, you don't burn off-season bonus money. He earns 260-300k a year, and everyone is happy. If he gets hurt, you recoup even more bonus money than just the base from 6 game stints.

ni db is a rare ratio breaker especially out side of S. But you can always get canadians at other positions. Or going down to regular roster usage. Last year was not a great ni fa period out side of our guys. That’s pretty interesting. Kinda lazy on their end imo. Hamilton is gonna end up filling the spot with a guy no one else would have doing that job otherwise.

and who knows maybe he will toss away a ton of value on a bad trade to us again

Yep. Won’t be enough for every guy to get a premium deal. Could easily be more guys looking for elite money than elite money is left to pay. could be a big levelling of the free agents playing field.

Yeah, I agree. dumb money is probably going to be the main theme of the off season. I’d rather not throw the dumb money deal at rb. We certainly need to save the money from some place and it’s hard to see improving and not using stupid money on either line. Yeah, we really need to remove some of the existing dumb money. I’ll be really interested to see what dbs get in this market. Qb, Wr and line. That’s where it’s easiest to excuse making dumb payments. Rb lber and db are the hardest. I wonder if a lot more premium free agents go to market this year now that we’ve seen some crazy spending out of the salary increase. Could be a wild year

100%. This is the best contract situation he's been in in ages, and very, very likely his last ever contract. But I don't think he will end up with a stupid deal. This whole off-season is gonna end up like the wild west anyway. Montreal is maybe the most frugal of the successful teams today, and they just spent like drunk sailors. I think every premium FA that hits the market is going to get silly money, and every team will likely have a none qb earning nonesensical money. I don't know why I ever thought teams would do anything different with the cap increase. It's the CFL, of course, they are going to spend like drunk sailors on leave. Previously, I thought Brady should be under 220k-ish. Maybe a bit of incentive money on top of that. I'm starting to think that line should be around 235-245k, maybe 250k. Still much more than I'd like to pay for an RB, even if he ends up being the best Canadian back ever (and I think he will.) But I think the market for guys like that is going to jump. If Philpot, etc, reset the market with the increased cap, someone may well offer Brady 280-320k. If he hits free agency, I don't think he will be back. Really makes me curious to what guys like demski, kramdi and allen will get.

Having just won a ring, I kind of doubt he's giving the team handouts. Idr, has he ever renegotiated to a smaller deal? I don't feel like he has, or has taken a team-friendly deal when in a good position him self. That said, I think his deal is gonna be good value no matter what. With guys setting the pace for contracts right now, and with how this off-season has already started, $550k for Harris would be tremendous for them.

I would think he’s 500-600k. 4 I think. He also lead the backs in total yards despite the dip in carries.

run pro almost always does exceed pass pro. The izr scheme we run also means if the inside is shut down he can speed cut to the tackle. His vision while running has been a major part of his growth. It allows him to press the line but still pivot on a slight hesitation or over pursuit by the edge. I didn’t see nearly as much ol effectively blocking at the second level, or the classic down field scrum with our ol driving our ball carrier further for added yardage. But guys did get the opportunity, they just struggled getting on a guy and kicking him out or mowing him down. Kola was also the guy heading down field more than the guards which creates a gap but doesn’t get you a seal at the second level. With teams shifting to line up in a 0 or 1 tech on kola that creates the situation where the guard carries the play side or head up dl and he slides off the double team down field. pass pro and ol play isn’t all time good, but with the way holding is being called, it has a massive advantage in pass pro. especially on the ends. All our ol has to play with inside leverage though to help compensate for our inability to seal the a gaps / nose lane. so our Ts give up too many rushes on looping routes to the qb with speed. Does stan still have it to play head up on a guy and win the battle around the edge? Idk, i would rather see him kick in side. Every one gets better if the hole up the middle is slammed shut though. It was painful watching him cruise for a guy and not find any one. Even more painful when the broadcasters would try to make excuses. When you’re the guy who will be doubling then heading down field, you should have an eye on the guy at the 2nd level who you want to hit the whole time. getting to the point and being all alone is such a red flag for awareness. even if a guy falls down at the second level you should be able to get the 2nd a gap defender.

Not really a natural centre, but proficient enough at C that it doesn’t matter imo. He could easily be a starter in this league sooner rather than later at either g spot or c. I’d add, no guard has looked terribly great next to kola. Eli has excelled in heavy sets on the edge including in pass pro and inside. I have no question that eli, and any ar ni C in the league would be an upgrade over kola. he’s that bad. It is very hard to properly identify how good an ol is/can be when next to a turn style. The insertion of bond at G and hardrick kicking out to rt took us from a team giving up among the most hits/pressures/sacks to the best ol in the league. Id sure like to see how wallace, neuf, eli, vibert and/or vanterpool play with out kola giving up instant disruption and pressure as fast as the qb gets the ball. I mean the Ts will play better too. Rando and vanterpool are serious contenders for all kinds of awards if c is fixed.

Really a monster final year, first year post transfer is pretty meh. The film in that article is interesting. The good, extremely successful position change, very productive final year, better runner than you’d expect, big lean interior dl, has great instincts ability to read the play and gets off the line fast, has good hands too. The bad, he wins battles from the nose with finesse not power. He often used the same rip/swim into the A gap and just walked by a c and a guard. Mostly relies on shoulder check hits not good form tackles. The ugly, the level of competition on those ols looks real bad. He doesn’t look explosive or use power much. He looks like a big hs senior playing a bad jv team. Even for a d3 conference, it looks bad. I can see the fit as a guy who rushes the passer from a 3 tech spot (he’s not a cfl nose) if his slippery play and violent hands are as effective up here.

I wonder if they are front loading parts of the contract with excess space this year. Or maybe they just intend to go over the cap again as much as they feel like.

Yeah, the staff for both. Dinwiddie will likely have play calling in ottawa as well, but both will be looking to lock up the candidates for OC into positional jobs with an extra title.