wbbfan

Finally, we have the first pre-season game! LFG Both games are on CFL+, no regular TSN this year. Position battles to watch; DB, (22)Burrell, and (37)Texada lead this race through camp so far. (41) Williams isn't far behind. It will also be a big pre-season for (26)Woodbey and (0) Allen, who showed strong flashes last year but are fighting an uphill battle for AR spots. Bonus, the Canadians are having a tough battle as well (7)Stuart, (29)Ball, (16)Kelly are all fighting for a chance to play. Kelly needs to sustain some high-level play, as Ball has been a strong overachiever, and Stuart has tremendous attributes. (36)Javier is a sleeper pick as well. He spent time on the Riders' PR, played pre-season in the NFL, and had a knack for big plays in college to go with great size. (13)Addison, a former WR convert who immediately produced at DB, has incredible size and is another big-play college guy to watch. DL, (90)Dixon, and (54)Jenkins are front-runners at DE, (35)Bailey, and (43)Gatkuoth have high hopes to provide us meaningful reps from the depth chart. 95(Hooper) is a depth-sleeper as well. While (91)Pace is the new DT to watch. Of course, the OL will be a great watch, with mostly names we are all familiar with. Wallace's step forward in camp has been huge; this could be his coming-out party. And Eli now gets the chance to be C 1, while everyone gets the chance to finally be free of Kola. (62)Viebert, and(64)Ellsbury are lesser known guys to watch. I like a lot of what Viebert brings, and with a step forward this year could make a tough decision. Ellsbury is our no. 1 option at C if Eli doesn't work out. Lber, we see a ton of returning guys and more CFL bodies than we could possibly carry. (39)Smith and (34)Shay are the ones we all hope have a big game and manage to move up the depth chart. Rb/TE will be interesting to watch. (73) Daniels could be put in for blocking immediately, which could come at the expense of the 3rd rb. (25)MCI has flashed a significant step forward as a ball carrier in camp, on top of that huge play late last year. While (22)Peterson showed us a whole lot in relief of Brady last year. (35)Rocker, the token import RB of the year and winner of best name in TC, would only be fitting if he became the TC MVP. WR, it's an ugly group today. No reason to mince words. (86) Clericius moving to the slot should be a good watch. They seem high on (82)Cobb this year in camp, after stapling his butt to the bench most of last year. (83)Nield will need to translate what he flashed last year in a big way for us. (17) Singer has had some plays in camp. Corcoran, Desrosiers, Hurford, Jack, and (89)feel good story Tachinski are all going to play significant reps. Hopefully its not like a rerun of Baywatch when they are out on routes. (44)Keegan, the punter's rival this year, has been quiet after coming to camp late. (36)Lidster, Sergios intern has as well. (79)Harrison is a former JET KR of the year winner and will see some KR work. (87)Davis, a very tall, slim-built converted QB from the arena leagues, will likely see some KR work today. (17)Singer, a WR to watch, has also gotten reps on teams this camp, though he doesn't have as much experience doing it as the rest. (35)Rocker may possibly do it this pre-season as well, as he was kind of a do-it-all back in college.

Well a broke clock is right twice a day LOL Every couple of years we gotta have one of these family members. But atleast 3/4 of the time over the past 20 years its been Lapos... Wilson missed the biggest part of TC, the games. He took away his chance. We've seen guys be just about written off then have a great PS and change their fortunes. TE did it with the packers, and Browns big steps forward came in game as much as any thing.

I was in favor of dumping Wilson early in the offseason. I don't think he showed a shred of progress at any point in time. From what I saw, Elgersma was head and shoulders better, and Wilson doesn't do anything better than Elgersma. I kind of expected Bryce and TE to pass Wilson. I also didn't think Wilson would want to sit on the PR. Its really hard to take a downgrade at his career point. That said, a downgrade is better then an end point.

I think bryce and elgersma made them quit. Thorne because no chance at qb3/4 and wilson because he wasn’t going into games as qb2. yep. now maybe small chance it’s some family stuff or some thing important that took him away. but if that happened we would hear about it soon at the latest as much a vet as wilson was. All 3 are in the same tier. No real live regular season action. Dividing up cfl tc vs nfl pre season regular season ufl play offs etc is beyond splitting hairs

Its also important to note that it is a world of difference between getting 650k viewers on average for a league total of 43 games (UFL,) 660 games (Wnba) and 2,688(NHL). Also, in its peak, the Arena league was drawing between 700k and 1.3m tv eyes. Its also a whole other comparison when the UFL has a very low (for football) paid attendance, owns none of its infrastructure (stadiums, cameras etc) and the merch/other revenue streams are worse than the paid attendance. The new arena league, AF1 is touting massive increases this year in its viewership as well. The UFL is only a little more secure then the AF1. The UFL only exists as long as its owners tolerance for losing money survives.

You absolutely do. But you need those glue guys to contribute, and you can't have too many guys whose contribution is unquantifiable. The rosters just don't have the flexibility for that up here. Id argue that some of our biggest glue guys in the GC wins, were guys who played at a high level as well. Kongbo, Hansen, prime Jake, biggie was a huge glue guy, etc. Idr seeing a depth chart from us in the pre season with soo few imp wrs. I think the club is extremely high on him.

Same here. I think the potential for running modern cluster/flex-spread/bunch style TE offences between 11 and 22 formation is tremendous. Especially if you get some big athletic Tes involved. The CFL lacks diversity in system and game plans to the point a mediocre job of running a modern style TE would take multiple years for the majority of teams to counter it. A lot of those athletic tweeners want to stay at TE now, and not move over to DE. (Like wj did.) And the NFL only keeps a couple TEs around, while so many college teams are running outliers there. The available talent pool has more quality at TE then we have at WR or DL. The motion up here also would make athletic big TEs deadly. Line up tight, flex to a spread but the TE gets to use the waggle as well. You could drag them in back field motion and have massive disruption in the tackle box defenders. You could Iso them and give CBs nightmares. If they play off and you screen now they have to solo tackle a giant, if they play tight 1 cut timing route and you not only have to close but you have to out reach said giant. They don't even need to be $h!t kicking blockers, if they can beat up on smaller wils, sams and other DBs that alone goes a long long way.

I HOPE, that this is a case of we need to know what we have in Korny and see if a roster move to fill the back up is needed now. (It is) And that we want to run Corcoran, Cobb and fredericksen against each other for the last wr spot. It would make sense since we are doing the same with Texada and Burrell. I hope Clercius gets lots of reps at Slot. I will be sick if we cut him for the also-rans who can't run.

Starting lineup for preseason week 1. I'm gonna try real hard not to look too hard into some of these Canadian TCF starting... or why you would start them but not Shay/Smith. De WJ Jenkins DT Korny (lol) Lawson Wlb Jones, Mlb Wilson Sam Griffin CB Texada, Burrell HB Holm, Nichols S Kramdi QB Zach, RB Brady TE Daniels LT Bryant RT Broxton LG Wallace C Eli RG Neuf WR Corcoran, Fredericksen SB White, Nield, Cobb

I haven't either, but I wasn't looking for him either. But something I did notice is that everyone is talking about the great improvement with Condell in how strong a communicator he is. Also, his great attitude. In the past years, I saw considerable frustration and angst between Zach and both Hogan and Buck. At first, I thought it was a looking too hard at it thing. But so many others in the organization and media have echoed the same things about Condell. I don't think Zach was taking shots, nor was anyone else. But I think the interpersonal issues with Hogan are not understated. Having a normal TC, and not throwing out the playbook come the regular season is going to be a massive boon to our offence.

To me it looks like the, "we want to try him at a different position to try and develop more versatility" thing we do every TC with a couple guys. It makes sense to me, Clercius has great athleticism, we have a bunch of guys like Corcoran who can fill the roll of the blocking and playing field, but can't do much else. From the slot, Clercius can also pinch the edge with a block and release after on some plays. Plus he plays even bigger than his listed size, so if we want to make TE a thing long term, he would be a prime candidate to pass catch out of a TE alignment.

Looks right to me. could be one or two spots like major might start at the other corner, but this is as good a guess as it gets.

Yeah, and touch is far more critical in the CFL. QBs/offenses live and die with the ability to feather passes into the gaps between the LBers and DBs. I still think he's worth having around, even having on the AR. The ability to battering ram short yardage and in a real pinch, do some throw on the run package in relief is very valuable. I think he could do most of that better than strevy did last year.(low bar I know)

he doesn’t have a huge arm, but it’s enough to make the throws on the cfl field. His touch is sporadic in the mid range though. That’s probably what is being seen, poor touch to the wide side out often causes the ball to float too long making it’ll look under thrown. He’s much better throwing passes like that on the run, but having to roll a guy to make a route consistently is far from ideal.

100%. And we haven’t seen a cis qb do what the hope is for elgersma. So i’m hoping for the best but prepared to see little to nothing from him this year. His talent does warrant the time too. Could be. Which is fine. I’m not sure on terry. Thorne is a solid talent, he wasn’t going to get the pre season reps to steal a job. I totally get why he made that decision. suspended is best case tbh. We keep his rights but he doesn’t eat a roster spot.

Dare to dream. I expect his 2nd TC/pre-season to be extremely high level, that's for sure. In skelly hes throw some extremely tight window passes, which look great in Skelly. But when the contact is full and the timing just a bit more advanced, a great looking pass play in skelly, can often turn into a pick in game. And at that regular season is a notch higher than pre season, even with 1s vs 1s. He will have a big advantage when/if he takes that next step, though. The, "defences don't have enough film/experience against him" window will be larger than normal because of his experience with the Canadian game. I just hope he gets in before the end of the 4th playing with and against TCF.

He has, and he's had a bit of work at a high level of competition. But I don't expect him to do any thing in game this year.

Elgersmas arm talent is legit. I think the biggest concerns with him short term are, how much he forces the ball and how he adjusts to the D. He’s pretty damn close to a lock to be with the club this year. I could see him on the ar off the bat too. I like Wilson’s poise. Hes thrown with authority a few times and has good arm talent. But i haven’t seen progress at all. I could see the same thing happening tbh. If wilson doesn’t show good progress, it’s time to move on. Thorne is a solid prospect but i think he needs a year of seasoning. Perkins has given me some optimism for his pick up of the canadian game, which is what’s needed. The deviation in camp isn’t to the point where id cut any one right now, and i wouldn’t be married to any qb2.

While JY has some very interesting and difficult decisions to make, Condell will have an even tougher situation with pre-season. Balancing QB play time is going to be a real challenge. On one hand, Zach has a new system and a few new starters, he/they will likely need a chunk of time to gel. On the other hand, the backup QB position is clear as mud. We don't have a seasoned backup QB2, and we have 3 rookies behind that. For Zach, I would normally say 3 quarters in pre-season would be the upper limit of what you want to see. But we might want to roll a full game's worth of reps at the starters between the two games, plus a few drives on top of that. Starting the 2nd quarter is a great reset and chance to adjust calls/personnel. Terry needs a chance to play himself into earning QB2 or out of the spot, which is hard to do with less than a half of football between the 2 games. Perkins, while a rookie, is older than Terry. So he also really needs to be thrown into the fire. Can't imagine anyone wants to wait 2 years to see if he can develop. Which doesn't leave much for Elgersma, who also needs to be challenged. And even less for Thorne. Roughly, I'd look to have Zach ease out at some point in the 2nd Q to reconvene with Condell before going back in to finish and run the start of the 3rd. That gives Terry and the best of the rest time to roll with 1s and 2s against 1s and 2s. Once Terry gets his chance, I'd let them fight for reps. Those reps are limited and very valuable. Its no where near enough to get everyone enough reps. Not even enough for 3 to get enough reps. 5 QBs are to reduce load and diversify how many guys get a shot. 2 QBs aren't likely to make the PR at all, it's harsh, but whoever is on the bottom of the depth chart (I suspect Thorne) is likely to only get a real shot if someone else is brutal or gets hurt. I'm really interested to see how the battle goes between Elgersma and Perkins. And if Terry has progressed. If he does, that 2 spot is as good as his. But if Elgersma shows more of what he did in the NFL preseason, or if Perkins translates his game to the Canadian game quickly, it's going to be a real scrap. Been a long time since we had this much variability on the QB depth chart. I can't imagine we cut Elgersma and don't PR him. But just about anything else is equally as likely.

agree. Talk about dare to dream though. Agree. And if we protect kyries health maybe we see him get back to the best ball hes capable of, and in time for when the games count. That also helps us with better use of the limited DIs. With Schmek down, maybe we DI a DL. Or maybe we DI a WR to give much-needed depth, ensuring the guys stay healthy this year. (its gotta be our turn for a healthy WR core one day right?) It could allow us to carry a DI db on top of Vaval. Even if we Nat Kyrie, start Jones and Ayers, we can easily DI woodbey who is as able to fill in as a DB as a Lber. The potential with our youth, athleticism, and versatility is embarrassingly good. I bet JY is chomping at the bit.

I think its just regular moving guys around in camp. We've tried him at S, sam, and De before to get some extra versatility. I do love his nose for the ball and play-making skill. Tremendous range as well. With JSK out, I'd be working on Ayers + Smith/shay as the go-to wil/mac. And have Kyrie on the fringe. Even if we used Kyrie as the naturalized and rotated him, he is way more versatile than Ayers and still a strong teams guy if he plays a lesser role on the D. Boy, that would be a nightmare for opposition offences.

We've seen lots of discussion for positivity, but this is the overreaction to the first discussion of anything possibly negative. But by all means, carry on about only the positive. Nothing is stopping you. Or you can just whinge for the sake of it w/e. Really trying hard to replicate a Stoddard-type WR. We do seem to do that in cycles. Like after the Petermann/Simonise projects failed. This was considered a weak draft class for WR, but honestly, it had a lot of developmental talent that was available through half the class.

Nah, he's Tachinski. Sinopoli was quicker than his testing, but still drafted as a QB then converted. That was also 15 years ago, when the 2 top Wrs ran high 4.5 low 4.6. We used to see pro athletes and pro skill sets be completely seperate in the CFL draft. We aren't getting 4.2-4.3 guys, but only the least athletic WRs are putting up those 4.7-4.8 times. Sinopoli probably doesn't get the WR shot if he plays ball today. He was drafted in 11, caught his first game pass in 13, broke 1k in 15 on his second team. He played in 28 games before he caught a pass.

Could be a reinjury, tbh we won't know much more then we knew last year. I feel like he's TCF, easy guy to plug in because he knows the game and team well. He's got size, but I don't see the athleticism for him to actually move to WR.

Qbing is a football wide issue. Its worse here, because of the reality of canadian football, but it is an issue every where for sure. Nailed it. We've said and done many right things this offseason, but until I see sustained change Im not betting on it. Canadians are the back bone of every DL. You just can't carry 7 imp dl and have them take all the reps. Its sad, but schmekel was our depth. If we flipped wil, then we could rotate lawson with an imp db at wil. Not wrong lol, but we could see those guys play till some even crazier ages at this rate. I refuse to even think about next years cfl while there is football going on.