Mike

Or maybe he was never a center prospect and he just turned out to be not very good

Sims surprises me a bit

IN: REC Braylon Bell (Abilene Christian) DB Matt Pierce (Valdosta State) K Brett Maher (Nebraska) DL Kashawn Fraser (Central Michigan) OUT: OL Quentin Saulsberry REC Quentin Sims DB Phillip Benning DB Gabe Loper DL Damario Jeffery

I would like to see us try and draft Alexander Fox. I believe he is the best receiver in this draft but he will fall due to being 5'8". He can play. Would be a nice pick in the 4th round. I like Kit Hillis for the same reasons, although I don't think he's the best, I just think he's better than people give him credit for.

But then you can point to O'Shea's emphasis on ST's. If we have one guy handling both jobs kicking and Wild as the longsnapper again, we'll have extra bodies available on D, they'll just have to be Canadian. True, it'd just be so unorthodox. Our Canadian depth scares me as it is. Our first rounder likely isn't going to contribute on D. I just don't know where those bodies would come from. Rene Stephan might work until he gets injured in the first half of week 1

The whole point to having one guy do all 3 jobs is to free up a roster spot. So no. Problem here is if the guy gets injured during the game. Then you have no kicker whatsoever. Usually if a punter gets injured during the game, the FG kicker can punt, and vice-versa. Renaud can't placekick, so he's no benefit in that regard. Remember a couple of years ago when a backup linebacker had to take over placekicking from Renauld b/c he was so terrible at it? He struggled just to hit a convert.Also, it shouldn't be that hard to get reasonable punting from a roster player for part of one game. Should've never let Etienne go.

The whole point to having one guy do all 3 jobs is to free up a roster spot. So no. im thinking the DI would be a all-in-1 kicker (Maher), a dedicated KR/PR (Wood or Tarver) and a 'Rover'? Can't see them dedicating two DI spots to special teams, especially with how much Etch likes to rotate guys.

The whole point to having one guy do all 3 jobs is to free up a roster spot. So no.

It's all about context though. If you look at the breakdown, a lot of the kickers with higher percentages also get to stat pad by kicking a bunch of 20-29 yard field goals. Maher only had 6 attempts inside 30 yards because Nebraska usually scored inside the red zone.

That's Jeff Sauer that you're thinking of, I believe. Sauer is the division 3 kicker that was in talks with Montreal and Winnipeg, he had pretty unimpressive numbers. Maher is from the Nebraska Cornhusker program, he was a pretty decorated kicker there. Bakken-Andersen Big Ten co-Kicker of the Year (2012) First-Team All-Big Ten Place-Kicker (Media, Phil Steele, 2012) Second-Team All-Big Ten Place-Kicker (Coaches, 2012) Second-Team All-Big Ten Punter (Coaches, 2012) Third-Team All-Big Ten Punter (Phil Steele, 2012) Honorable-Mention All-Big Ten Punter (Media, 2012) Lou Groza Award Star of the Week (vs. Wisconsin, 2012) Big Ten Special Teams Player of the Week (vs. Wisconsin, vs. Michigan, vs. Penn State, 2012) Nebraska Team Captain (2011, 2012) Nebraska Special Teams MVP (2011, 2012) First-Team All-America Kicker (Yahoo.com, 2011) Honorable-Mention All-America Kicker (Sports Illustrated, 2011) Touchdown Club of Columbus Vlade Award Winner (Nation's Most Accurate Kicker, 2011) Bakken-Andersen Big Ten Kicker of the Year (2011) Eddleman-Fields Big Ten Punter of the Year (2011) First-Team All-Big Ten Punter (Coaches, Media, Yahoo.com, Phil Steele, 2011) First-Team All-Big Ten Kicker (Coaches, Media, ESPN, Yahoo.com, Phil Steele, 2011) Lou Groza Award Semifinalist (1 of 20, 2011) Big Ten Special Teams Player of the Week (vs. Chattanooga, Ohio State, Penn State, 2011) Second-Team Academic All-Big 12 (2009) Big 12 Commissioner's Spring Academic Honor Roll (2009) Brook Berringer Citizenship Team (2012)

Deal signed, but unannounced. Good signing by Walters, Maher had legit NFL interest. You may remember reading about him in the mini camp articles, he was the kicker that was quoted as being really impressed with the club and how they operated.

I agree with all you say about Katz. That notwithstanding Jeffrey Rabb is still a good nominee. Like another poster said, the bombers need a liason for their Grey Cup. That person doesn't have to sit on the board of directors. But at this point I suspect the board played Lawless like a cello - and Rabb has been sufficiently dis-credited to withdraw his nomination. If Rabb is a good nominee, and I'll take your word for it on that one, then why doesn't he just apply when there's an opening for a spot on the board that doesn't have a prerequisite he doesn't meet?

Friesen continues to blow me away with his football acumen. In his article about the 2nd overall pick today, he says he has no idea what else the Bombers could learn from flying in Lavertu and Goossen for private workouts that they didn't learn at the combine. It's almost as if he is entirely unaware this is a common practice in the NFL and while less common in the CFL, it's not new here either. Flying a guy in for a private workout gets you a lot more time with him than a 15 minute interview at the combine does, which is time you can devote to having him go over YOUR scheme with you. Sure, the combine can tell you if he's a good football player but a private workout can certainly give you more insight into whether or not he's a good fit for YOUR team.

You'd think we learn by now that nothing in drafts is ever painfully obvious. There are always surprises.

I'm still not sold that it's a Lavertu or Goossen scenario. But it sure seems like it.

Walters said most scenarios he's played out in draft prep have Coombs and Gill both off the board in the first round

Walters: Bombers targeting a center and have two players in mind at the number 2 selection. Decision will be made based on who Ottawa picks.

Walters talking about the draft ... Lavertu is in town for a private workout with Bob Wylie and Goossen went through the same thing. He says other workouts are scheduled also.

Other than the fact that this falls under the umbrella of "Bomber politics", so you feel obligated to write up a tinfoil hat story about it, why does this even matter? The board of directors may be a pretty incompetent group, but this isn't an example of that at all. The board is just supposed to accept Sam Katz's nomination because why? He said so? And the guy is a long time season ticket holder? Sam Katz got rid of Phil Sheegl primarily because he was no longer representing the City of Winnipeg and that's what that particular spot on the board is for. If that's why he got rid of Sheegl, then why should the club just accept another nomination of his who doesn't represent CoW either?

That'd be nearly impossible because the CFL doesn't allow you to store anywhere near enough contracts to deal with a mass amount of injuries.

January is so underrated here it's criminal

You're very punny.

Probably dealt with those questions at the combine.

If they want Smith, they'd be silly to not do that deal.

Yep. Technically, the rule isn't a minimum amount of Canadians. It's just a maximum amount of Americans that leaves you with a balance of 7 spaces to fill with Canadians.