Rich

With free agency winding down, the CFL draft will be the next big milestone of the off season. Draft Date: May 3, 2018 CFL Combine: Will be in Winnipeg during Mark's CFL Week March 22 - 25 Draft Tracker: https://www.cfl.ca/draft-tracker/ Where do the Bombers pick: Pick 7 (Round 1 - 7th pick), Pick 16 (Round 2 - 7th pick), Pick 26 (Round 3 - 8th pick), Pick 33 (Round 4 - 7th pick), Pick 41 (Round 5 - 6th pick), Pick 49 (Round 6 - 6th pick), Pick 58 (Round 7 - 7th pick), Pick 67 (Round 8 - 7th pick), Prospect Rankings (December 2017) Rank Name Position School Hometown 1 (1) David Knevel OL Nebraska Brantford, Ont. 2 (2) Trey Rutherford OL Connecticut Markham, Ont. 3 (3) Ryan Hunter OL Bowling Green North Bay, Ont. 4 (6) Peter Godber OL Rice Toronto 5 (10) Julien Laurent DL Georgia State Toronto 6 (4) Godfrey Onyeka DB Laurier Brampton, Ont. 7 (12) Rashaun Simonise REC Calgary/Okanagan Vancouver, B.C. 8 (9) Regis Cibasu REC Montreal Kinshasa, Congo 9 (5) Darius Ciraco OL Calgary Burlington, Ont. 10 (-) Mark Chapman REC Central Michigan Port Huron, Mich. 11 (14) Dakoda Shepley OL UBC Windsor, Ont. 12 (-) Mark Korte OL Alberta Spruce Grove, Alta. 13 (19) Jackson Bennett DB Ottawa Cumberland, Ont. 14 (8) Kene Onyeka DL Carleton Brampton, Ont. 15 (13) Andrew Pickett OL Guelph Kitchener, Ont. 16 (15) Alex Taylor RB Western Winnipeg, Man. 17 (20) Nelkas Kwemo LB Queen’s Montreal, Que. 18 (16) Ryan Sceviour OL Calgary Calgary, Alta. 19 (11) Chris Amoah RB Laval Montreal, Que. 20 (-) David Brown OL Western London, Ont

Possible it was discussed, but this article just came out on 3downnation today. In fact the deal isn't entirely signed yet, just "imminent".

Grymes back in Edmonton. http://3downnation.com/2018/02/19/eskimos-re-signing-db-aaron-grymes-done-deal-report/?t=1&cn=ZmxleGlibGVfcmVjcw%3D%3D&refsrc=email&iid=14aa906d35dd402697c7273398f18f4f&uid=923907296966557696&nid=244+285282312

You’re right. Let’s start the fire Maurice threads after each game again.

Technically those leagues don't announce salaries. Here is the NHL free agent tracker from last year, only shows players and terms. https://www.nhl.com/news/free-agency-signings-2017/c-281090126 The salaries all come out onto 3rd party sites. https://www.tsn.ca/nhl/free-agency . Or look at sites like capfriendly.com that actually document salaries. Not created or shown by the league. One of the reasons is the CFL just isn't big enough for these sites and reporters to get the contacts and dedicate the effort into tracking the salaries.

Seems to be a lot of posts worried Hurl is going to be returning at MLB this year. Lets not forgot that as of right now, he isn’t even under contract and set to be a free agent. Lets see what happens starting Tuesday before worrying about MLB.

TSN1290 reporting that SK offered the most money, but he chose Winnipeg.

No

This is right. Was looking at his first year in the league, turns out he was in Toronto for 2 years before coming to Winnipeg.

I think the point is that neither of those guys were scouted by Walters and his crew. Adams was brought in by the previous regime and Dressler a FA. If this club continues its winning ways, there will be more and more churn and had decisions on players that can't be re-signed because of the cap (as we are seeing this season with Westerman, Heath, etc) As opposed to Walters first few seasons as GM, he could spend like mad in FA because there weren't a lot of established players eating up salary. As we now have a core to go forward with, scouting and bringing in quality rookies on cheap contracts is going to be paramount to continued success.

https://www.bluebombers.com/2017/01/27/number-55-2/

Turns out the Olympics start this weekend! These sure seemed to sneak up, didn't seem to be a lot of press or play time leading up to them.

Free agency is 6 days away. 24 pages to go. need to add 4 pages a day........ So here is my contribution.

The problem with those guys is their deals include more RFA years than Trouba's will. They may be comparable in terms of player, but the contract they are signing is not comparable. Those contracts include two more RFA years than Trouba would be signing for. Have to pay more if you are extending further into UFA years is typically the trend on how it goes.

Who are you using as comparables?

http://3downnation.com/2018/02/05/esks-release-receiver-adarius-bowman-report/

Since Kyle Connor is no longer the future but now playing for the Jets, I’ve rename the topic here to Jets Prospects

Courtesy of Ed Tait on Twitter. Going to keep this pinned at least until the season starts. February 13 - CFL Free Agency Opens (Noon ET) March 7 - Eastern Regional Combine (Montreal) March 9 - Ontario Regional Combine (Toronto) March 20 - 22 - Rules Committee and Competition Committee Meetings March 21 - 25 - Mark's CFL Week (Winnipeg) March 22 - Western Regional Combine (Winnipeg) March 23 - 25 - National CFL Combine April 30 - CFL Rosters Reduced to 75 May 3- CFL Draft May 16 - Rookie Camp Opens May 20 - Training Camp Opens May 27 - Preseason Begins June 9 - Training Camp Cutdown Day (10PM ET) June 14 - Regular Season Kickoff October 10 - Trade Deadline (4PM ET) November 11 - East and West Semi Finals November 18 - East and West Finals November 25- Grey Cup

If the evidence and awareness of concussions continues on its current trajectory, I wonder if it is really a smart thing to invest in a new football league. What happens over the next 10+ years if enough parents decide to just stop enrolling their kids in football? Are you coming into the game too late, (on its downtrend) or can you find a way to innovate and change the game to be safer and use that as a selling point. Might be too early if it is the latter.

CFL contracts aren’t registered to the NFL . They don’t know what’s in them or what date they are signed to. It is the agents through which all of this occurs. They are the ones who know the CFL and the contracts that have been signed there. Of course an agent is going to do what he has to for his client. And do whatever he can to get him to the NFZl. Because that gets him future clients and future revenue. But I would put this far more on the agents then the NFL.

First CFL contract so he has the 2 year minimum, just like Wilder. The problem is options don't exist in the CFL anymore. So this was a "verbal option" with an administration who is no longer in charge. Which comes back to the old rule unfortunately .... get it in writing. Or, even more likely, his agent did a poor job explaining what this option agreement actually meant.