Mike

Crompton is obviously a much calmer quarterback too, he had 70 less rushing yards than Willy. They're supposed to throw the ball, what is Willy so scared of that he's running away all the time? Crompton is much more composed.

I don't know, Crompton only threw three less touchdowns. That's pretty much even. Crompton is in line for a big raise now. Thanks Drew Willy

No real BIG surprise but the Ticats cut Cary Koch.

Either way, we just gained an asset.

Hey Mike, what about all your long-drawn out speeches about how it's not cool to post in here to prove when you were right? I guess it's different when you do it. Gotcha. You really make me laugh sometimes. Those are Walters' words not Mike's Yes, I know, but he's doing it and bolding it to prove he was right. Nit pick all you want, it's clear what he's doing. What was I right about? Honestly have no idea what you're talking about.

We had planned for this. The salary cap is not just a year-to-year thing. No big adjustment to the 2015 cap. Walters just said.

Penton saying he's been told the contract is valued at north of 400k a year. We'll see how it breaks down when the details leak though, a fair share of that will clearly be bonuses.

This post should be printed out, framed and placed in the Bombers fan community archives so that whenever anyone doubts your ability to spin even the best news into something you can complain about, we can just dust this one off.

Reaves should be a counter since his draft year was more than 2 years ago.Griffins is the only non-counter assuming he has never been to another CFL camp before ( I don't believe he has ) So that means the Bombers have 2 open spots on the TC Roster. How do you figure Reaves' draft year was more than two years ago? It was 2014 by my count.

Surprised they cut Downs, thought they'd give him and Wilson a chance after they JUST signed them. Not surprised by Montgomery. Bryant + Benton I thought were early front runners but the roster has improved since their signings. They do have only 74 guys now and I think Reaves is a non-counter so they have at least 1 and maybe 2 more roster spots to fill.

... are we really going to act like the potential downside of him signing elsewhere doesn't exist?

This. x1000

Anyone who wants a quick boost to their football knowledge, I'd highly recommend taking a look at this http://sports.yahoo.com/blogs/nfl-shutdown-corner/greg-cosell-s-draft-preview--are-there-any-starting-qbs-outside-the-top-two-152516444.html Shows you a brief idea of what the pros look at vs. what we as fans look at It's not CFL related, but there is a section that looks at CFL prospect Brandon Bridge. Still worth a read though.

That's just a silly game to play. If we played that game 2 months ago, why sign Stanley Bryant, cause he might get hurt. Go with the smart money, start Taormina and save 80 grand. What a silly answer. Bryant is a known upgrade over January and we sorely needed O line upgrades. Well worth the money especially over a guy who shouldn't be starting in the first place. Willy's a sophomore starter who was great for the first 5 games then looked like a rookie for the rest of the season. If he was one of the top 2 QB's in the league, we'd not be having this discussion. BTW: The point I was trying to make, which went over your head, is that we have a lot more on the line if we give Willy his 150K raise, 100K of it as a signing bonus than we do if we simply wait and let him earn his raise. You're right there's hardly any risk involved in allowing him to play out the last year of his contract and test free agency while we also have his heir apparent (to some) hoping to head to the NFL next offseason.

Or maybe the deal is easier than you think to make and it's just a matter of financing it in a way that suits the team and Willy the best. Either way, this is probably one of the better debates we've had on this forum this offseason so let's keep fighting.

I never said we were against the cap when I said Vega's cut may be related to a Willy extension. You're talking like you know, when in reality you have no clue what our cap situation is.Let's say Walters projects to be $300k under the cap before the season starts. A Willy extension puts him over that, so he cuts Vega to sign Willy and still allow that $300k cushion. Regardless of your thinking related to the cap, you're making it sound like one had to be done, in order to do the other.Yes that's exactly what I'm saying. I don't know for sure that's the case, but the two moves (Vega cut and Willy extension) might be related. I never once said that the Bombers were tight against the cap. I sense either a bit of backpedaling or a bit of misunderstanding between two sides here. TrueBlue just said "you're making it sound like one had to be done in order to do the other" - had to. And you said "yes that's exactly what I'm saying" but then say "I never once said that the Bombers were tight against the cap" If you're not saying they're tight against the cap, why would there be a need for them to release one player simply to afford another?

I never said we were against the cap when I said Vega's cut may be related to a Willy extension. You're talking like you know, when in reality you have no clue what our cap situation is.Let's say Walters projects to be $300k under the cap before the season starts. A Willy extension puts him over that, so he cuts Vega to sign Willy and still allow that $300k cushion. I don't need to know the specifics of our cap situation to know that we're nowhere near a position that forces our hand in personnel decisions. We have one of the cheapest starting quarterbacks in the league, we have very few players on their second CFL contracts and we've been involved in the bidding on multiple high price tag players even recently. A move like Vega, to me, wasn't about clearing space. It was about the reality of a price tag to performance ratio that didn't favor Vega. Our best player at mini camp was a guy looking to take Vega's spot, Vega probably had some kind of bonus due for arriving at training camp and they decided the chance of him actually winning the spot wasn't high enough to warrant paying that bonus. When Walters says moves are based on the salary cap, I think a lot of people take that to mean clearing space is necessary. That's not necessarily what he is saying. What he is saying is these days, cash isn't infinite. You only have so much to spend on players and if you aren't earning your contract, you're not going to stay employed. All I'm saying is we don't need to find a way to afford a Drew Willy extension right now. As mentioned earlier, I'm sure it's something they've already budgeted properly for, they're not irresponsible enough to have to find a way to come up with the money. Especially not in April.

I wouldn't bother because he's better suited to guard and we don't need a guard. That would be my guess as to why I cut him - the concern I'd have if I was BC is that they don't really have a Canadian to fit in there right now. I still think the bigger mistake they made was cutting Lavasier Tuinei and I really have a gut feeling the Bombers are going to sign him. Maybe it's just wishful thinking because I've been wanting us to sign an Oregon Duck forever but I can really see Tuinei being the type of receiver we'd want.

Also ... there's literally zero chance we're up against the cap at this point. We still have lots of money to spend. That's why isolating moves like the Vega release to suggest it was in order to afford Willy isn't a suggestion that carries much backing.

Exactly. Your contingency is still going to be there for guys like Mulumba or Bilukidi either way and anything you're going to have to pay them if they pop up spontaneously is worth paying the penalty for (and there's no risk of us falling into the draft pick loss zone at this point) so if the space is there, it'd be silly to not use it.

Getting married and wanting that security in a location could be part of it. Nothing is guaranteed but maybe signing now firms up a plan to set down roots in Winnipeg, instead of having to wait a year to see how it plays out.

The crux of the matter is... 'Is Willy a franchise QB'? If you think he is then you want to lock him down for as long as possible no matter the cost. If you think he's a JAQ (Just another QB) then you don't care if he's signed or not. If you're not sure (Me) then you want him to prove it before you give him the big bucks. The reality is either he's worth the money or he's not. I agree that we don't know the definitive answer to that yet but here's the catch. If he's not worth the money, then it doesn't matter what happens this year, we're not going anywhere as a team so it's not like the amount of money we have tied up in him will make a difference. If he is worth the money, then paying him and firming up control of his rights is a great move. The contract isn't guaranteed, the sooner we can get it signed, the better for us.

Exactly Rich. Take the opportunity when you can. And they will. So many thrifty Manitobans would rather let a franchise QB walk away than pay them anything more than a steal of a deal.

Walters will be working tirelessly to get a deal done. There's almost zero chance Willy walks into training camp without a new extension. It's clearly the right move, Willy has said he's open to negotiating, so play the game for a bit to make everyone feel like they worked their hardest at the deal and then sign it and get it done.

To be fair, the whole "Myers was bad" thing also had a lot to do with Buffalo being an absolute dogshit team. He was never as bad as people were making it seem.