Mike

seems like a hodgepodge of nice guys, bomber alumni and question marks. so of course, this will be the final staff.

If Calvillo doesn't retire, he's nuts.

yeah the new offence excuse doesn't fly when you have trouble hanging onto the ball. If you can't catch then you're not much of a receiver. That's what they said about Adarius Bowman.

I just don't understand why we'd play him in the slot either. Foster should be at the wideout spot opposite MSW/Kelly, instead they do exactly what we did to Bowman a couple years ago and play him in a spot that accentuates his inabilities. He's not more than average as a wideout either, but he's doing far below average in the slot.

Mike Kelly?

Foster over Jade Etienne is just another Tim Burke decision that I do not understand.

Worth pointing out re: Hall, he is also coming off a year out of football as a player.

I'm curious to hear more about this once you translate it back into English.

do or do not ... there is no try

If you can't figure out how your words in that post made you come across a bit rude AND you're going to backtrack on what you actually said (re: all this "middle ground" crap) then I don't know what to tell ya.

And why do you have to always get personal? I wasn't mad, dude. I always get personal? Alright... Anyways, how about that middle ground? Why would there be a middle ground? On what basis? Rids knows his stuff when it comes to salaries. He's worked with other CFL teams at arms length. Knows scouts on various CFL teams. Has had discussions with them about players. He attends the Senior Bowl every year & is on the field with the NFL & CFL scouts. He attends the E Camp the CFL holds in March. He is on a first name basis with most CIS head coaches across Canada. He talks to these guys & they all give him the scoop on what their former players are making. He is an equal partner with CFL player Shomari Williams in a college recruiting company. He has set up combines all across Canada. I didn't just pick those numbers out of the blue that I quoted. It was Rids who first told me what CFL first rounders make just a few days ago in a private discussion about this very thing. What a bizarre comment. You said "first round picks make 85-95k" and JBR said "no they don't" and you replied with "so what are you saying, they make 40-45k" and not only that, but you're extremely confrontational about it. How in the world can you not see yourself ignoring the possibility of a middle ground in that exchange? Truly a weird dude. If you honestly weren't mad, you need to take a long hard look at the way you talk to people because for a guy who was just engaging in a conversation and wasn't at all upset, you sure came across as a bit of a d-bag. Not attacking you, just being honest. I trust you when you say you weren't mad, but damn man ... you sure sound like it. A lot. And you don't? You make it very clear who you like or dislike here everyday just by the way you say things & treat people yourself. This place is small but is becoming very cliqueish. If some people want respect then they have to treat others the same way. Including yourself. It's easy to preach. Maybe you should follow your advice. When this place first opened, people seemed happy to be here. We all got along. There weren't many arguments. Then little disagreements became spats which became feuds, then grudges & seem to now becoming wars. A lot of times, I have to come here & put on a suit of armour knowing whatever I say will be attacked. So, I guess I'm defensive. I expect to be attacked so therefore I get the first shot in. Is it because the team sucks so we're grouchy? If we were 12-3 would this be a happy place? I don't know anymore. I know it's not as much fun coming here as it used to be. Maybe you just take everything a wee bit too serious. There are no "cliques" here. I don't dislike any posters here on a personal level. And what is all this about spats turning into feuds into grudges into wars? Wars? Really? Really? You talk about coming here knowing whatever you say will be attacked. And then you say you expect to be attacked. Which is it? Are your opinions being attacked (i.e. debated) or do you legitimately feel like you are personally being verbally abused? Honestly, you just take this place a bit too serious. It's supposed to be a casual place for a group of fans to talk shop, not a place that involves itself in "wars", as you put it. I don't mean to be rude, but there are very few posters here that I would not be interested in sitting down with and grabbing a beer over some Bomber talk. Unfortunately, your constantly combative attitude makes you one of them. I'd love to be able to say that it wasn't true, but you just don't seem to be able to separate yourself from this idea that people who don't agree with you are attacking you. In case you have not noticed, you have a strong personality. Because of that, when people disagree with your strong opinion, they're going to come back at you the same way. Above all else, I think you need to understand that this is an internet fan site. People seek out and participate in the discussions here because they enjoy analyzing and over analyzing opinions about this football team. If you are not thick-skinned enough to subject your opinion to debate from other participants on this website, perhaps this is not the site for you. It is not a blog where you are free to share your opinion for casual reading without room for debate. It is not the Free Press comments section where nobody has any accountability for what they write. This is a forum full of intelligent members who are interested in discussion and debate and if they see something written by you, me or anyone else that they do not agree with or believe in, it is not wrong of them to debate it. It's not wrong of them, nor is it wrong of you when you do the same thing. What is wrong is when you get your back up and come across rudely towards other members simply because you don't like that they dare challenge your opinion.

Obviously we're talking base salary though.

Also as a side note, I find it quite humorous that you say Etienne wouldn't get a sniff anywhere unless he took a paycut from his projected 85-95k a year and then in the very same post, you're quoted saying that Chris Bauman rakes in 135k a year. Maybe you should think about that one for a bit.

And why do you have to always get personal? I wasn't mad, dude. I always get personal? Alright... Anyways, how about that middle ground? Why would there be a middle ground? On what basis? Rids knows his stuff when it comes to salaries. He's worked with other CFL teams at arms length. Knows scouts on various CFL teams. Has had discussions with them about players. He attends the Senior Bowl every year & is on the field with the NFL & CFL scouts. He attends the E Camp the CFL holds in March. He is on a first name basis with most CIS head coaches across Canada. He talks to these guys & they all give him the scoop on what their former players are making. He is an equal partner with CFL player Shomari Williams in a college recruiting company. He has set up combines all across Canada. I didn't just pick those numbers out of the blue that I quoted. It was Rids who first told me what CFL first rounders make just a few days ago in a private discussion about this very thing. What a bizarre comment. You said "first round picks make 85-95k" and JBR said "no they don't" and you replied with "so what are you saying, they make 40-45k" and not only that, but you're extremely confrontational about it. How in the world can you not see yourself ignoring the possibility of a middle ground in that exchange? Truly a weird dude. If you honestly weren't mad, you need to take a long hard look at the way you talk to people because for a guy who was just engaging in a conversation and wasn't at all upset, you sure came across as a bit of a d-bag. Not attacking you, just being honest. I trust you when you say you weren't mad, but damn man ... you sure sound like it. A lot.

Duane Forde for GM Rod Black will be the assistant GM and a plate of Thanksgiving turkey will be leading the scouting department.

My favorite part is how you're acting as if any of us are saying the way the Bombers have been doing things is a good way to do them

Even if Collaros inevitably does not pan out, we can't afford to not be the team that finds out.

He's going to command starter money. And to those who ask "why would we pay it", why wouldn't we? He absolutely deserves starter money. He'd be signing here to be our starter, no sense in pissing around and trying to play the nickel and dime game. Pay the man and get him here. We can't afford not to.

I'd trust Atomic.

The fact that Goltz isn't doing short yardage is an absolute joke. Boltus looks like he's got concrete blocks for shoes when he's out there.

And I swear to god if I hear Iso make that "we should have picked him in the fourth round where he was projected to go" comment one more time, I'm going to lose it lol

I don't see how anyone can blame Etienne for his lack of production. Every time he's been thrown the ball, he's done something with it. Whenever he plays, I constantly notice comments on how much separation he can create for himself. It's not exactly his fault he's been saddled with awful quarterbacks and a brutal staff. Besides, his numbers over an 18 game season this year extrapolate to a 700 yard receiver. Really worth complaining about?

The fact that you'd try and make that claim again really goes to show that you haven't actually been reading what I've written. I have never gotten on a soapbox and told anyone how great Mack was, I have argued with people shitting all over everything guy did, there is a very big difference. With regards to you and Etienne you were all over the guy before he even came to training camp, you were all over the guy because he was on the roster but never playing, that's not something to ***** at Etienne for, you have a lot of misguided anger, you should have been critical of the people putting him on the roster when he wasn't ready to be there but no you took every chance to slag the kid. Yeah, so? Players get called out & criticized everyday. You slag Burke everyday. You've slagged Poblah & Buck. You're no better than me or anybody else here who has an opinion so get over it. I slag Burke cause he's done something no one else has done, he's made me stop caring about this team. Slagging Poblah (well all i've said is he's not living up to the hype and seems to have iffy hands) and Buck was done after they had been given chance after chance and failed. I didn't criticize anyone immediately after being drafted just cause they were off the board. oh and by the way, I *AM* better than everyone else here. Nice you can say negative things about players & coaches but of course no one else can. What have I said about Etienne other than I think he is a bust & was overrated? I didn't attack him as a person. It wasn't his fault Mack picked him so high but because all he did is set him up to fail. I just questioned why we'd draft a kid so not ready to play so highly as in a first round pick with a guy like Nate Coehoorn ready to be selected. I've never said anything else negative about him except as a football player. As far as #2 goes, no you're not. Not even close. I think the point that Dave is making is that it's very easy to think that you legitimately dislike Etienne because you didn't even bother to wait and see him suit up before you started shitting all over him, you've had your mind made up on him from the minute we drafted him. In fact, I could draw a very similar parallel to that and the way you talk about Kyle Walters as he gets ready to potentially become our new GM. The way you hint at it in your posts makes me think that if we do hire him in the permanent role, it doesn't matter what he does because it's very obvious you don't think he's right for the job. Your opinion (in my opinion) would hold a lot more weight if it didn't appear to be so based on your personal emotions and was instead based on information.

I'm sure we're all a little edgy given that the team blows. But yeah, you're right.

Why would we keep Delmonaco? The only player he's helped to get better here in his tenure is a defensive lineman conversion.