TBURGESS

would you even read the answer though? your track record on these things is pretty shaky. Sometimes I don't read everything you type because you've been wrong so often and your obnoxious too. My track record? I'll put mine against yours any day. Lets review. I was against Mack in his last two seasons. Against the Jade and the Pencer draft picks. Wanted Laurent instead of Kito because we needed a DT more than yet another young receiver. Your track record is exactly the opposite. Loved Mack. Argued with anyone who didn't like the Jade or the Pencer draft picks. I can't remember if you wanted Kito or not, but I'm going to guess you supported that move too cuz you loved everything the great and powerful Mack did.

If you're going to continue the conversation, you might as well answer my question.

I hate the idea of losing a DI spot to a kicker.

I was a big Diamond Feri fan when he was in Montreal. Looked to me like he'd lost a step or two in Regina. I hope this rumour isn't true.

what does BD means? Beaten Defender? Big disappointment I thought it was Beaten Deep.

Not surprising. Good luck to him.

Pardon me for not going through each layer of the posts and only answering the last 'point'. If you know they made the best choice with the information they had at the time then the extra available Imports and NI's are red herrings and they make no difference at all to keeping or cutting Glenn. That decision is based on SMS and if they get any trade offers.

Because they were obviously thinking they could turn around and turn Glenn into viable assets. I dunno.. If the bombers or any other team were in their position, would they not draft the BEST unprotected QB they could to Guarantee they have at least one suitable starting QB? Then grabbing another future HOF QB in FA only maked them that much more secure at QB?? I'm not sure i buy that they drafted Glenn in order to trade him.. or that they signed Burris just so they could use Glenn as trade bait. Maybe they did, but is seems like the least likely situation. My guess is that they go into camp with all three QBs and see who produces the most with whatever system they run. One only has to look at our QB situation the last 5 years to realize that if you don't have a CFL quality starting QB your record is gonna be pretty shitty. it's not that they drafted Glenn with the intention of getting Burris and flipping Glenn, it's that when they started to pursue Burris they felt they could do it. Now they're paying 2 starting qbs, one who is angry to not be the starter and one who hates when someone else is breathing down his neck. The Bombers being the only other team that needed a starting qb coming out and saying "yeah we're sticking with willy" is a big FU to Ottawa cause now they've got their qb controversy and they haven't even hit training camp yet. Not sure Ottawa Cares.. They can just CUt Glenn if they want to and its no skin off their back.. Maybe after signing Burris they thought about possibly gettings something for glen via a trade (but what GM wouldn't). Sounds like sour grapes from up bomber fans.. And i wanted Burris.. But i'm not the slightest bit angry or upset with Ottawa.. Naming Willy the starter before training camp is kinda silly and childish if its just to say FU to ottawa. Especially since Willy is unproven and will most likely upset Hall / backup QBs. its really inconsequential in the grand scheme of things.. you don't want to cut glenn though because taking Glenn let Calgary protect more NIs, and wouldn't they have been better off taking one of those NIs than Glenn knowing how things worked out? If they can't turn Glenn into anything then yeah they got qb depth, but they got potential issues with a qb controversy and being an expansion team overall quality and depth will be an issue so they kind of need more variety of assets rather than just depth at one position. You're making the assumption that they knew Burris would be available and that they picked Glenn anyway. That's simply not the case. They could have guessed the Burris was going to be available, and not picked Glenn, but if it turned out they were wrong, they wouldn't have a starting QB. Makes more sense to pick Glenn so they know they have a starting QB and play the Burris card later if it comes up.

what we were actually trying to shout down was this ridiculous notion that he was a failure before he even stepped onto the field. Don't pretend that the hate (yes hate) that some of you showed for the kid was based on anything other than where he was picked in the draft and what your imaginary draft board looked like. It may have started out that way, but you kept it up for 3 freaking years. I personally never hated the kid, but he was a huge stretch where he was picked and he ended up playing 2 good games in 3 years. Every time he caught a ball, the 'I told you so's' came out. You were wrong. I know you won't admit it even now when Jade's not a Bomber. That wasn't Jade hate. It was Mack hate for wasting the 4th overall pick.

The $350 number was the first one I saw on a twitter search and I went with it. A further search shows everything between $250-350K. I DM'd Drew Edwards and asked him but he didn't get back to me. I wish they'd publish the real numbers so we wouldn't have to guess or choose the number we think it might be.

Everyone looked poorly prepared. O'Shea shouldn't have jumped in to say 'Willy's the starter' he should have let Willy answer the question. Are we happy with the QB situation? O'Shea is really happy. Walters then says we are always looking to upgrade every position including QB. Which is it? Figure out what the message is going to be before you get asked and get everyone on the same page. WIlly wasn't our plan C, it just looks that way because of the way is shook out? Really? Everyone in the CFL knows that Burris @ $450+K then Collaros @ 350+K were ranked as the #1 and #2 available QB's even if there is some disagreement about which is 1 and which is 2. Everyone also knows that the Bombers offered both Burris and Collaros more than WIlly. We got the 3rd best QB for the least amount of money. Sounds like plan C to me. Willy said uh more than anything else. A little media practise for him, but the story of his college team going from 0 wins to a bowl game was a great answer, so there's hope.

I liked Stewart, but he was always inconsistent. I'd hope that the Bombers would have told him they weren't going to keep him if that's in fact true. Always better to let folks know what's going on as soon as possible. I never like Jade. He was a huge stretch where he was picked and he only had 2 good games in his 3 year career. A lot of folks around here were pulling for him and would try to shout down everyone who said otherwise. If he makes the Riders, it won't be as a starter.

I guess they are waiting to see if they get a better offer.

It's not about the stats for me. It's about watching the QB's play. Only 4 young guns have made me think 'Starting CFL QB' in the last few years, Smith, Reilly, BLM and Collaros in that order. Willy is better than Hall and Goltz and the best available QB so he is a good pickup, even if he is our 3rd choice. Thats not the same thing as being excited that we just signed our QB of the future. Willy looked pretty good going through his progressions behind the Riders O line, but he was taking 4+ seconds to get the deep balls off which he won't have behind our O line. It's going to be very interesting to see if he can make the right decisions quicker behind our O line. I'm cautiously optimistic that Willy will play OK for a first year starter, but that's hardly anything to get excited about.

Good trade. Jade, I've only played 2 good games in my 3 year career, for Willy who will take the next big step in his career to starting QB. Even if Willy isn't any better than Hall or Goltz, and I believe he is better, it's still a good deal for us.

I wish I'd kept my Brock Busters T shirt. Used to love chanting Berrrrrnie, Berrrrrnie every time Ruoff came onto the field and chanting BC Sucks too. There's nothing like the feeling of being in the stadium and watching your home team beat the begeezes out of some other team or the feeling that you get when you know the other teams hate to come to your park because the chances of getting out with a win are slim to none and they are going to get beat up either way. Those were some fun days in Bomberland. I hope to see them again.

Well this should shut people up. I give Walters credit for not overpaying Burris. Who would've thought Gary Lawless would actually write a good article(his one about not overpaying Burris yesterday). Maybe the Bombers and the Lawman had an inkling about Burris signing with Ottawa. His agent stopped returning our calls on the weekend so yah, they knew he was negotiating with another team over us.

Three? Burris, Collaros and ?? Reilly Reilly was traded to Edmonton before free agency last year then was extended. He never hit the market. We could have made a trade before Edmonton did.

I don't know why anyone's upset that Burris hasn't signed. There is little or nothing in it for him to sign right away. Our offer isn't going to go away because we need a starting QB and he is the best one available. On the flip side, there is only one starting QB spot left in the CFL so if he wants to start then he will have to sign with us. Burris wants the most money he can get and he wants as much as possible as base salary + before the season starts bonuses. The Bombers want to get him for the least money possible and they want most of it to be reaching high plateau playing bonuses. I think they will come to an agreement because it's in the best interests of both sides.

Flipping through a rolodex while applicants are in the room? LOL. Talk about overreaching. Hiring the wrong folks is the crux of the problem. Trust is earned not given. If you make a bad hire, you need to fix your mistake as soon as possible, not wait for a few years while hoping it gets better. Giving people a couple or a few years without rating their performance is absurd. Of course it's not a fan poll to fire anyone. It's the GM's job to decide if his HC is worthy of another season at the end of each and every year. It's the HC's job to decide on the coaches at the end of each and every year and on the players each and every week. Everyone has a boss who decides if they are worthy of another year or week or day on the job. Berry came in turned us around and got us into the playoffs the first year he was HC. That's what the expectation should be for every HC we hire. If they don't make it, then we need to make the decision if they are on the right track and if they deserve another year. If the GM thinks they are then they get another year. If not, we thank them for their time and effort and wish them well in their future endeavours. The same thing continues down the line to every coach and player. GM's may not be able to prove they are on the right track in a year, but they can certainly prove they are on the wrong track that quickly. Mack had a good first year and bad years from then on. Keeping him after the 2012 season just threw away a year we didn't have to. A bad decision in a long line of them IMHO. Hiring good people starts with hiring folks who have proven they can do the job or at the very least folks moving up 1 rung on the ladder. Sure it costs more, but consistently hiring people who've never done the job will generally result in the same thing... rehiring new people sooner rather than later. That is liable to cost even more in the long run. Hiring a guy like Buchko who was basically a CJOB sales guy was an idiotic decision. I've got no idea why anyone thought it was a good idea. It's this kind of decision that has defined the Bombers in the last decade or more.

It will attract more solid applicants than retaining folks who suck at their job, thereby creating an atmosphere of failure. No one wants to come into that.

It's not lack of patience it's consistently bad hires. In fact, I'd argue we don't fire folks who aren't doing their jobs like Mack soon enough. it is lack of patience. They have fired good people who may not have been great but good people at the first slip up and blown it all up time and time again. How can you build anything doing that? Have to give people more than 2 or 3 seasons to establish a long term foundation and THEN judge where the team is at. Who are these 'good people' you're talking about? The only one they fired that I didn't think deserve it was Berry and that wasn't about the fans or the media, it was about Bauer installing 'He who must not be named' as our HC and kinda GM. There is no need to give people 2 or 3 seasons to see if they can turn a chicken **** into chicken salad. If they aren't moving in the right direction, pull the plug and move on. Again... it's about making terrible hiring decisions, which has nothing to do with patience.

It's not lack of patience it's consistently bad hires. In fact, I'd argue we don't fire folks who aren't doing their jobs like Mack soon enough.

I like this trade. KIto was a spare part who looked like a football player, but didn't play like one. Tons of potential that never became anything. Banks is a proven commodity who will become the leader of our defence. Wally had renegotiated Banks' salary every off season, but didn't this year, which pissed Banks off and he wasn't quiet about it. Basically asked to be traded and Wally did. The first rumour I heard was a low round draft pick from the Bombers for Banks. Kito may be an upgrade on that as a special teams player.

It's not the fans or the media's fault that the Bombers are a crappy team. Place the blame where it belongs... on the management and BOD. Patience has nothing to do with it. Every year we need to build a competitive team that makes it to the playoffs. The draft is the time to do the 2 or 3 years down the road planning. Other than that it's about doing the right things to win right now. Want to develop a QB? Don't give him playing time, make him earn it. Make him beat the incumbent to get the job. The coaches should be the first to know when it's time for the vet QB to lose his starting spot and the fans or media opinions means squat. It doesn't matter if we develop our own QB or if we get them from other teams. What matters is that we have a good QB who lead the team. The same holds true for every player and every coach. Our management needs to become way more aggressive. This year we have totally new management yet we have the same old problem. We target players we don't sign, then we make the same lame excuse... "They wanted to be closer to family: We are asked to ignore the facts that we have the worst team in the league, thats rebuilding from scratch yet again, with a rookie management team and a head coach who hasn't even been a DC or OC at any level, yet alone an HC. In short, we have the worst available jobs in the league right now so of course players with options want to be somewhere else, but that doesn't mean we don't have a shot at them. We can sign free agents if we pay them enough to overcome the fact that we have a horrible team. We can't sign them if we send out 'competitive' offers then wait by the phone to see if they want to negotiate with us. It's going to take 'overpaying' until we become a competitive team for a few years in a row and I couldn't care less if we go over the SMS limit as long as we don't go so far over that we lose our 1st round draft pick. It's simple... We need to stop losing out on players and coaches in the off season or else we will continue losing in the season.