TBURGESS

I'm not ignoring the upgrade at DE. I'm simply saying it comes as the cost of losing a starting Canadian DT. We've basically moved the low salary spot on the D line from the DE spot to the DT spot. IF we draft a DT #1 overall and they don't get an NFL shot so they aren't lost for the year and they end up being the rare rookie who can start right away and they are somehow better than Sholo, they will still be more expensive than Cole was last year adding to our SMS issues.

Sholo's replacement is Thomas, not Okp..., which isn't an upgrade, in fact it's a downgrade in the level of our NI starters. Glenn having a solid shot at #1 elsewhere doesn't change the fact that LeFevour is a downgrade.

Look at the top guys in the missed tackle category and you'll find some very good players that get to ball carriers that lesser players can't. Look at Shologan/Cummings stats when they came to the Bombers. You'll find that they were way better than the stats they put up last year. I guess you can blame the players, but it's more likely the system IMO. LeFevour is certainly more mobile and athletic, but Glenn's been the best insurance policy in the league for years. The only place that I give LeFevour the edge is on short yardage. Glenn is a starting QB again and LeFevour is fighting for the #2 or #3 spot. The best players in FA have already been taken. You can't give points for things that haven't happened yet.

Any way to change your vote after you think about it for a while? I'd like to move down one to somewhat satisfied. We signed highly ranked, highly paid DT and DE and lost 2 highly ranked, highly paid DT's. So that's even. LeFevour < Glenn Coates < Kohlert Now that we've signed all of last years receivers, does Stafford even make the game day roster? If so, who does he replace? Extending Chungh was a great move, but that doesn't make us better than last year. Medlock and Bryant were extended to move some of their salaries from the 2016 to the 2017 SMS. I can't call that great GM'ing. Extending the rest of the players we did doesn't make us any better. Losing Bass, Burnett and McDuffie makes us worse. Overall, slightly worse personal wise. A stay the course off season on a team that was just happy to make the playoffs last year then went one and done. It looks like we are counting on doing the same things and getting better results or other teams taking a step backwards this year.

I don't hate the LeFevour signing. Not my favourite backup QB but better than no competition at TC.

That's truly laugh worthy.

Retiring.

Anyone got any links to what Hurl got this time around? I doubt he's making as much as last year, but $100K after $133K seems like an unrealistic drop to me.

The LaFrance situation reminds me a lot of the the Hurl situation when he signed with us. Paid like a starter and using him as a ratio breaker before he's proved he can be a starter. Could go either way for the Riders.

@scratchingpost Hearing former #Ticats REC Matt Coates has agreed to terms with #Bombers.

Walking from point A to point B to settle is the same act no matter if someone has drawn lines on a map or if maps have even been invented yet. You migrate from and immigrate to.

That's using a modern definition to split hairs. Everyone is an immigrant if you go back far enough.

Fun fact... the first nations people immigrated too, it was just a lot earlier in history.

Iannuzzi likely makes significantly more at RBC Securities than he does on the football field and he's well established in the BC Charity community. I'd guess it's BC or retirement for him.

I think Walters gave Davis the #2 QB money, so he only has #3 QB money left to spend. You won't get any experienced #2 CFL QB's for #3 money. Certainly not the top 2 or 3 prospects.

IMO Walters has way less cap space than every other year he's been here. He had to renegotiate both Medlock and Bryant's salaries last year, effectively putting some of their salaries into this years SMS instead of last years. You don't do that if you have any SMS space left. He has always signed players to extensions to use up the last of the SMS space until last year. Another indication that he hasn't got a lot of SMS space available. Because he didn't sign players to extensions using last year's SMS, all the extensions come out of this years SMS.

Not much left since he's already spent on Stafford and Okpalaugo and re-signed Nichols, Adams, Bryant, Medlock, Davis, Remple and Sheppard. I expect our DT's to be made up of Jake Thomas and a draft pick and a cheaper scouted guy. Knox seems to already be penciled in at MLB and JJ is just not needed.

I think that Lafrance is the only one on that list that we'll actually sign.

He also says that the available QB's are expecting #1 QB money, which I find hard to believe and that they aren't looking at any of the available QB's. IIRC (Listened to it once a couple of days ago).

Listen to Walters presser.

The people who make their livelihood as coaches also thought Willy was a starting QB and Brohm was was ready to be the backup. Look at the backup QB's around the league. Who, other than the Riders, who have Bridge, have #2 QB's with a similar amount of experience as Davis? We rightly ridicule them for overvaluing their players and they aren't the kind of team we want to emulate. We want to be competing with the Stamps and the Eskimos and that means being able to win games if our starting QB goes down. Is Davis that guy? No one knows which is likely the most compelling reason to bring in the best available competition and let them fight it out for the #2 spot, rather than giving Davis the #2 money and the #2 spot without any experienced competition.

We start driving for the playoffs when we go to TC. Competition in TC between Davis and a more experienced QB would help both and then we'd have a couple of QB's who know the system. Bringing a vet in later doesn't give them a TC to learn the system. We'd get to pick the best vet QB we think is out there if we bring them in for TC. Later in the season we have to settle for whichever one(s) didn't get signed by another team. The only downside I see with bringing a vet backup QB in to compete for #2 is cost and that could be mitigated by cutting whichever one loses the #2 spot in TC. You still end up with another QB who knows most of your system that you can bring back if Nichols goes down for an extended period of time or if Davis turns out to be a bad choice for #2.

I think that having an untested Davis as our #2 QB is the biggest risk we are taking this year. I'm pretty confident in saying that we will need to start our #2 QB at least a couple of times this year. I'd be much more comfortable if our #2 guy had actually won a CFL game or at had thrown for more then 170 yards. Last year, Walters understood that we needed a vet backup when he said he wouldn't make the Willy trade without being able to bring a vet QB in. This year we can't afford a vet QB and the out of work backup QB's are expecting #1 QB money.

I'd say all are more experienced and Cato and Matthews are better than Dom. If any of them expect #1 QB money, they're dreaming. If we are going to sign any of them, it needs to be before TC so they can get the reps and learn the offense.