Mike

I would like to see us hire Doug Hocking as LB coach …. talented, extremely football bright, and the right attitude …. he is in the BC Junior football peogram …. Wade Miller knows him well Aren't you the guy who was swearing up and down that Doug Hocking was going to be our DC like two months ago?

its safe to say that his price gonna go up because of the interest coming from different club. Have other CFL clubs expressed an interest in Matthews? I haven't heard any team specific reports on that... He's got 4 CFL offers. Care to share who the other 3 teams are? I don't know who they are. I'm just repeating what I heard during a recent interview.

I wonder if the increase in Cory Watson's health insurance premium counts against the cap.

its safe to say that his price gonna go up because of the interest coming from different club. Have other CFL clubs expressed an interest in Matthews? I haven't heard any team specific reports on that... He's got 4 CFL offers.

That's a good way to bid against yourself and cripple your cap flexibility. You want to invest roughly 7% of your entire salary cap into two receivers, one of which didn't even rack up 200 yards last year? i'll shed Edwards salary for Matthews. But why would you pay that much if you don't have to? That's what I'm saying. There's no way anyone is going to make Matthews an offer anywhere near 180k annually, why would you even approach him with that ridiculous of an offer? I doubt he's even asking for that much.

That's a good way to bid against yourself and cripple your cap flexibility. You want to invest roughly 7% of your entire salary cap into two receivers, one of which didn't even rack up 200 yards last year?

Sweet.. And we probably have a legitimate chance at landing both.. Mathews, I assume, is pretty dang likely I'd say we'd get one. At best.

I sure hope so. If there's 6 rounds in the draft, we should be taking 6 OL in my opinion. That makes very, very little sense. You ought to believe the scouting department has more faith in themselves than that. Agreed. I'm not a proponent of drafting linemen for the sake of it .. talent, upside and how the team is built with respect to the ratio always come into play .. that said when all things are equal you can't go wrong drafting a lineman. But by taking 6 at once, you're essentially committing to throwing away at least 3 picks. It's not like they can do anything except play OL and there are only so many spots.

Round 1, 2nd overall Round 3, 20, 26 Round 4, 29 Round 6, 47. 48 Round 7, 56 They really need to figure out what direction they are taking with the ratio (long term) .. this is going to help us sort out our draft. I wonder if there is any market at all for those late round picks - everyone seems to be talking about this being a shallow draft What you'll probably see is a few more punters, kickers and long snappers being taken. Guys like Brett Cameron will get taken this year instead of being UDFA. Probably a bundle more offensive linemen too, just hoping that guys hit growth spurts or something like that.

I'm starting to think Matthews and Laurent are going to be back in the CFL.

Look at Martin's recent track record. It's not exactly flush with success. McDiarmid ... never keeps a job for very long and he doesn't really seem to specialize in anything. Not exactly a surefire candidate to do good things with our linebackers.

I sure hope so. If there's 6 rounds in the draft, we should be taking 6 OL in my opinion. That makes very, very little sense. You ought to believe the scouting department has more faith in themselves than that.

I wouldn't necessarily say so. I wouldn't be surprised either way.

I don't know what to make of McCune. He's going to be 35 going into camp, but he also started football real late. He didn't even debut in college until he was 22 years old so it's not as if he's got as much wear and tear as your typical 35 year old. He got drafted by the Redskins as a 26 year old and joined the CFL as a 31 year old rookie. He's an absolute specimen on the field and if you want a guy who is going to punish people, I'd say he's one of the hardest hitters in the league. That's a dude that makes you fear the middle of the field. I'd take him but I'd only count on it being for a year.

Yeah he was their OC from mid-December to mid-January. I'm not going to count that as any type of relevant experience.

Himebauch or Wylie as OL coach makes me feel very comfortable, but Himebauch doesn't have any experience as a CFL OC. As for the defense, I think Etcheverry is the least of our concerns. McDiarmid and Martin, especially the latter, worry me.

If they're going to draft a center, Lavertu would have to be well ahead of Goossen at this point.

I miss Raphael and Raphaol Ball from Ball State

Ottawa has god awful NI talent. Too much potential to break down.

He's not saying anyone is a coach killer. He's saying Poblah is a guy who is all potential, but counting on potential that never comes through is how coaches lose their job.

Etcheverry has a pretty simple philosophy on defense. His strategy is basically just to try and confuse the hell out of the offense. He wants guys who can blitz from pretty much any spot on the field, guys who can move from the edge back into coverage and he thrives on having versatile bodies who can basically just fly around out there. Defensive tackles that can come off the edge, defensive ends who are capable of filling the responsibilities of a LB, safeties that can blitz, it's a big giant attempt at organized chaos. The problem with it? The end result is that he often confuses the hell out of the offense but he confuses the hell out of his own guys too and you end up seeing blown assignments. That, and he tends to not adjust once he's been figured out.

Very different. First off, the QB-centre exchange is the most important skill in football. You can't do anything without it. You can't just plug anyone in at centre and expect them to be able to get the ball to the QB at a CFL level, which is the problem with guys like Kowalczuk and Parenteau etc. That is a huge skill in and of itself. The centre makes some calls to protections, but this is way overrated in Canadian football, most plays have the protections built in and basically what both the centre and QB both do is count how many guys are inside the tackles and which gap the defence is centered on, basically what they are playing as the strong side, which 99% of the time mirrors the offence or the width of the field anyways. This is different than American football, mostly the strong side of the field down south depends on the strong hand of the QB since the field is not nearly as wide. This is most of what the calls are, and the protection adjusts based on it, but every guy can see that when they look up, and if you're playing somewhere noisy, there's not a lot you can change at the line. Everyone is watching for potential blitzers, that mostly falls on the QB to make a call to react to that. adjust a route. OL have to block from their inside gaps out and do their best to take whoever comes...that's why you'll often see guys coming off the edge free when a defence sends more than 5. When you see guys come free through the 4 middle gaps, that means someone really screwed up, either took the wrong block or got completely dominated physically. Zone run blocking, it doesn't matter where the defence lines up or how many, they are blocking gaps and chipping upfield. Zone plays head to a side of the field, not a specific gap, you're basically creating a 3 on 2 situation for your blockers all along the LOS on the play side, allowing at least one of those guys to chip and get to the next level to take a LB or HB. The RB reacts and finds the opening. So really a centre doesn't call anything there, every OL needs to read their initial block and come out of their stance properly to get that done. The first 3 steps are key, can't waste any if you need to get upfield, or get a bit wider. I guess it depends what you think a sub-par lineman is. IMO, most of the centres in the league lately have all been subpar, meaning they'd really suck if you moved them to another spot where they actually ended up blocking someone 1 on 1 on the majority of snaps. But that's where the snapping part comes in, a guy who can snap very well and consistently can make a career, even if he struggles to make a block. Just look at a guy like Dominic Picard. If I had a dime for everytime he's literally been carried through the pocket by a DT, I could pay for my season tickets this year. Mostly you're just hoping they can be a good speed bump. Guards need to be more mobile, presumably you want them to be able to get to the 2nd level (LB's, HB's) in run blocking, although there are enough guys around the league lately that don't really have that ability (Kabongo for one). They both need to be smart enough to know where their block is and guards need to be patient enough in pass protection to not give up their inside gaps. Patience in OL is a sign of intelligence and football smarts IMO. This is really what the blitz is all about, challenging the OL to give up their inside gaps and a more direct route to the QB, the QB can read the outside rush, when it's coming right at him there's not much he can do. I just got a knowledge boner. This is probably the most intelligent post I've read on this forum.

Wally is a great GM. He's having a terrible offseason. You could also apply the same thing to Taman, but that's not really his fault.

Matthias Goosen

I have no idea. I know they were in on Ferri and Waters, but the money ended up being more than they were interested in.