Rich

Not a surprise,

They think the Liberals are a bigger threat than the NDP

Deleted some posts in here. Please try to keep the discussion civil and leave the insults at the door.

Wow, this is totally out of left field and a ridiculous statement. Depending on what his camp is asking for, if the options are Buff wants a deal for 6+ years or he is going to free agency, I am fine trading him. Flame away at me for being racist.

There is really no choice if you make that contract offer. You take the 3 years and get the money up front. After 3 years you either get another contract (from any team) or you don't. If you get another contract you get more money in the long run. If you don't get another contract, you are still getting more money sooner and can invest it, giving you more in the long run. Why would anyone choose to extend that over 5 years?

Here's the scorecard so far: HC's who started off with 2 or more losing seasons who went on to greatness: In the NFL... One in the '50's - Lombardi. Two in the 60's - Knoll/Landry. One in the 70's - Walsh. One in the 90's/2000's - Belichick. In the CFL... One in the 80's - Murphy. One in the 90's(After 11 years) - Lancaster. HC's who didn't make the playoffs in their first 2 years who were kept on by their teams in the CFL since 2000 - One - Barrett. So it works out sometimes, just not very often. So what you are saying is that O'Shea is going to be the next great head coach with the best parts of Lombardi, Walsh, and Belichick all mixed in? Wonderful!

This last off season it seemed to me that defensemen were being given the bigger contracts over forwards. There seem to be less of them to choose from and teams coveting them more when their cap space gets tight. Now no Dman got an 8+M contract last off season, I think the biggest was Hamilton with a 5.75M cap hit, but that included RFA years. I think the problem for the Jets is that there is no real incentive for the player to sign if they aren't going to pony up the money or term. In years prior, teams could count on the cap going up and would offer the big escalating contracts. That isn't true anymore. There are a lot of potential UFAs next year and this problem isn't unique to the Jets. Agents and teams are still figuring out the market place in a world where the cap stays the same or may even decrease year to year. So agents / players are going to be reluctant to sign long term to what teams are offering. And the highest paid D-man is PK Subban @ $9M.

Your depth doesn't have to be rookies though. Halischuk and Fraser are two examples of veteran guys who might get pushed to the AHL by rookies. Sure, I understand that. I'm just very wary of going too young, too fast... And that's what I'm seeing right now. Not trying to be negative, it's just hard to ignore. I think our opening lineup will be: Ladd - Little - Stafford Perreault - Scheifele - Wheeler Burmi - Lowry - Ehlers Fraser - Copp - Thorburn With Hali and Peluso as extra forwards. Options for call-ups will be Petan, Cormier, Johnny Albert and Ryan Olsen. Not so bad but still seems a little scary to me. I just hope our prospects are as good as the hype train has made them out to be. There is for sure reason to be concerned when we are depending on rookies coming into the lineup out of training camp. When you look at the Jets prospects coming up, they will have to be adding a couple each year to the lineup. Ideally though they make it into the lineup as injury call-ups and force the team not to send them back down with their play to prove they are ready. Let them play in the AHL until they give you no choice. After this year and maybe next, I think you will start to see that happen more.

I think this has run its course

There was an article that came out a few days ago (can't remember where now), but attendance at BC for the last home game dipped below 20k. There is concern about the health of the franchise. They need to be a competitor to be relevant in that market. Pressure will be on Buono.

Blueandgold extended his lead this week moving up to 34 wins, leaving Atomic and saskbluefan tied for second with 31 wins. Still time to make up some ground with 11 weeks (including playoffs) remaining. Leaderboard can be seen here: http://morningbigblue.com/community/index.php?app=pickems&do=leaderboard&pid=6&wid=82 Picks this week need to be in by Friday at 8PM. They can be made here: http://morningbigblue.com/community/index.php?app=pickems&do=games&pid=6&wid=83

It would be nice to see the young'ins have some success down in the tournament but in the grand scheme of things, the win / loss record in this tournament mean even less then the win / loss record of the pre-season. And as was mentioned a couple of posts up, the Jets scouts do go NCAA heavy (and have had success doing so). And because of their goofy rules, those players don't play in the tournament (they would have to pay their own way if they did, because apparently accepting money for travel and expenses is considered being a "pro" and would disqualify them from NCAA play). Both our 1st round picks from last year, Kyle Connor and Jack Roslovic aren't even there. A few other mid-type prospects in Jack Glover, Tucker Poolman, and Clinston Franklin aren't there either.

I wouldn't read too much into the score of these games, nor does the performance of these games impact any free agent decision for the Jets this year. These guys have had next to no practice time together and if you really want to evaluate why we loss you would have to look at why we loss the game (who was responsible for giving up the goal or not scoring) and then determine if those individuals have any chance at the team this year. Out of that whole squad only a few guys have any legit chance to make the team this year. Those few guys can't be on the ice all the time.

BC still has a game in hand. We are 4 - 7. They are 4 - 6. (same as Montreal) The good news is that we still have one more game against both Montreal and BC

I've cleaned up a bunch of posts in this thread. I know people get passionate about politics and whatever side they happen to fall on, but please keep the discussion to the issues at hand and not insulting and calling out other posters. We still have a long way to go to the election, and wouldn't want to have to close this topic down. If you feel that I’ve missed any posts in this thread that should also be moderated, please shoot me a PM or flag it. Did my best to delete the obvious ones, but it is probable that I missed some.

Picks for this week need to be in by 7:30PM Friday, before kickoff of the Hamilton / Toronto game. Picks can be made here: http://morningbigblue.com/community/index.php?app=pickems&do=games&pid=6&wid=82 Blueandgold keeps his hold on 1st place with 30 wins. saksbluefan in 2nd with 29 wins and Atomic in 3rd with 28 wins. Leade rboard can be seen here: http://morningbigblue.com/community/index.php?app=pickems&do=leaderboard&pid=6&wid=81

Then we get a week of "I told ya so" and "We need to keep this group together" and "We're on the right track" and "O'Shea's a great HC" and so on before we fall back to earth the week after. Honestly, we should win this week. Regina's only won a single game all year, it's very hard to win back to back and we're at home. Agreed 100%. That's what will make a loss that much harder to take as fan. As for MOS, the rest of the coaching staff, and the Bomber management, another loss to SK at home means that there is no place for them to hide. The "I gotta watch the game film" cliche they use every week shouldn't even be brought up. Suitor had an interesting comment on MOS yesterday here on 1260 in Edmonton - he said that MOS's policy of only talking to him (and not his other coaches) has a negativec affect in the locker room. He feels since the coach doesn't trust his assistants, why would the players? He's only speaking as a former player of course but makes me wonder, how much credibility in the room does MB even have? I don't understand how a media policy would affect the players. Why would the players even care if a coordinator was allowed to talk to the media or not unless that coordinator was talking about them to the media. This sounds more like Suitor the media person speaking and not Suitor the player. If MOS didn't allow the players to talk to Marcel without going through him, that would be a problem

Putting a limit on it is a huge pain when you want to quote a post over the max and have to manually prune it, and then the next person to comment / quote having to do the same thing, so I am reluctant to change it. There is a new version of the boards software out that I am considering upgrading to in the off season (a complete rewrite from the ground up), I'm hoping they've addressed the issue by having the software prune the posts over the max setting (which is the way it should be done).

Wouldn't it be the 9th overall pick? Our 1st rounder is forfeited, not traded. Or are you assuming they end up with more wins then us?

Just a what if question...what if we just wanted to just get rid of him? Could we just send him to the minors and have him get picked up on waivers and bypass the no-trade clause? As I understand it, if you have a no movement clause in your contract, you cannot be put on waivers nor sent down to the minors.

A board of directors for any professional organization does not ever meddle in day to day affairs. Do you think, for example, that the members of the board of directors for IBM are all computer experts and make the decisions to decide which products get developed and how to design them? No. They hire a CEO. He doesn't do that stuff either. He hires the experts that oversee the departments that do those things. That's how businesses work. The Bombers board likely does care about the bottom line and making sure that bottom lines are being taken care of, in other words, profits. But they also know that the Bombers are an entertainment business and nothing sells tickets and generates income better than success on the field. They'll be asking the CEO what plans are in place to "increase productivity" (ie. win more) and if they aren't satisfied with his answers and steps are not being taken, then they will look at him. Not the GM, not the coach, because the GM and HC do NOT answer directly to the board. It will be left to the CEO to look at the GM and for the GM to look at the HC and his staff. It's called a chain of command and it's used because it works. So screaming about the BoD will do nothing because the on field product is not controlled by them at all, and it never will be. Every year it seems we have two or three people who want to rage about the Board and demand that they get involved without understanding that that will never ever happen, nor should it. I agree with what you suggest on how a boards should be run but I will put a few caveats in there. When firing a coach with term left on his contract, the GM (Walters) would have to go to the CEO (Miller) who may need board approval because of the cost of the payout of firing the coach. And while the board should not meddle in day-to-day operations of the club, The Blue Bomber board has shown in the past that they will meddle. When Bauer left after the Mike Kelly season, it was the board who brought Mack in as GM and vice president of football operations. At that point in time (2010) they put Mack in charge of football ops and put Jim Bell in as president. Then in 2012, Bell was demoted to Vice President and COO and Buchko brought in as President in CEO, hailed as having the background to promote and sell the advertising and sponsorships needed heading into the new stadium. Buchko, new to the job kept Mack as GM. Then when Buchko went to the board to have Mac fired a year and a half into his tenure as CEO, the board decided Buchko had to go as well. So for the 2 years when Bell was president, they really segregated the duties of Bell and Mack to running the business side of the club and football ops, and I don't believe Mack really even reported to Bell. Then the board brings in Buchko as CEO (won't even talk about that being announced so close to the long term deal CJOB got on the clubs radio rights) and lets him inherit Mack as GM. Not that I was a fan of Buchko, but he was given a bad deal. He inherited a GM that the BoD originally hired in his first year on the job, decided to keep him for that first year, then when he wanted to fire Mack a year and a half later, the BoD decided Buchko had to go as well. So Buchko never even got the chance to hire his own GM. I'm not saying Buchko should have stayed, it seems to me he was in over his head, but he was another mistake made by the board. So I agree that the BoD shouldn't meddle, but part of the problems with this club in the past 5 years is that they have meddled way too much. Things are probably back on the course to where they should be with Wade in as CEO, but the board is a big reason this club is where it is today. And when I've seen people rage against the board, it has mostly been for these reasons.

The first sign of adversity happened the second half of last season. I was willing to wait and give them a chance. A full year to scout and recruit and find better players. Heck, it isn't even the record that is the problem with this team. If they were at least competitive in games and still losing, I could see the progression to being a better team. I know this team had a lot to fix and a ways to go, but the problem is this team isn't getting better. They aren't even competitive anymore. And you can throw out the Willy excuse, but how many other teams lost their starting QBs this season. It is football, injuries happen. I'm really on the fence on Walter / O'Shea ... Part of me thinks they still deserve one more year, but I do know that right now there is absolutely zero fun sitting and watching these games in the stands. I'm tired of the mediocrity and I'm not the only one. Proof will be in the pudding with season ticket sales for next season. The team may be forced to make a change just to make their mortgage payment.

It is interesting that the Stampeders had 3 seasons where they were the joke of the league. The last year that Buono was there in 2002 (6 - 12) and the two seasons after that (2003 & 2004) at 5 - 13 and 4 - 14. Those were the Jim Barker and Matt Dunigan seasons. Those were pretty much the years where Feterik owned the team, messed it up big time, and chased Buono away to BC. In 2005 new ownership took over and the team has not missed the playoffs since and only had one sub .500 season since where they were 7 - 10. In that time frame they've been 116-62 with a .652 winning percentage. They made it to 3 Grey Cups, winning 2 of them and made it to the west final 3 more times that they lost. So in the last 10 years, they've made it to the West final 6 times. Maybe the problem with the Bombers really does start with the BOD. Look at what 3 years of bad ownership did to the Stampeders. What has been the one constant in the last 15 years in Bomber land? Certainly not the head coaches, we've had 7 of them, changing them roughly every two years. Could it be the GMs? Well, in that time frame we've gone through Ritchie, Taman, Kelly, Mack, and now Walters. So that is 5 in 15 years. We've changed our GM every 3 years. How about the CEO? Well, in that time we've had Miller, Buchko, then no real CEO for a while, then Bauer. BOD was directly responsible for hiring both Kelly and Mack. Who could it be on the Board of Directors? I really have no clue. Trying to find a history on who has served on the board through the last 15 years is seemingly harder then it should be. The Bombers website doesn't really say how long they've served, especially when they keep changing positions on it Even if you want to blame it on changing the coach and GM every 2 - 3 years, doesn't that still fall to the BOD for either being too impatient or making bad hires? Throw in the whole stadium fiasco which hasn't even been resolved yet, and this organization needs to change from the top down.