TBURGESS

I don't think it matters. He didn't have a realistic chance of getting an offer anyway.

If I had to go with an inexperienced HC, Steinhauer would be my choice. He worked his way up the ranks very quickly and has been good to great in each coaching spot along the way.

Khari is a throw deep guy. Nichols isn't. Neither Dinwiddie or Buck have any OC experience. I'd much rather go with someone who has been an OC at some level of football. I doubt it matters though. PLAP won't likely be the #1 choice in Toronto or BC. My guess is Chamblin and Claybrooks.

That's Nichols level praise right there.

I hope the Jones situation doesn't cause the team to fire him. That would leave another HC spot available which means a greater chance of losing PLAP.

Nichols missed a wide open Adams on a designed and practiced play in the same game, when it mattered most. He's got 6 years more experience, was warmed up, wasn't throwing his first pass of the day or his first pass in a playoff game. Gotta hold the vet to a higher standard than the rookie.

This is a good example of why 'wins' is a team stat. In the first game of the year, it was defensive mistakes that lost us the game. They put almost 500 yards of offense up against us. In the last game of the season, we didn't start Adams, Dressler, or Chungh. Harris lasted 3 plays before he was pulled. Lankford was our kicker. To blame the QB for that loss is ridiculous. A conspiracy theorist would say that they wanted Streveler to lose so their'd be no QB controversy. I say we just rested our best players for the playoffs. I'll give you that Nichols is a halfway decent QB. I'd have no problem keeping him if he wasn't due $450K next year. That's too much money for halfway decent IMO. This isn't the Kevin Glenn situation. The coaches and fans have a pretty good idea of what they have in Streveler. His biggest knock is his lack of experience and the only way to get around that is to give him playing time. Short of injury, that isn't going to happen with Nichols around.

Neuf > Gray right now. We have no idea if Gray can even start at the CFL level yet. He's just a high draft pick trying to make the team. FTR: I'm not a Neuf fan, but he did play well this year.

Jesus Christ.... any halfway competent QB would have done that with our team. All we ask of Nichols is to not give the ball away and to throw for 150+ freaking yards. IT'S NOT NICHOLS. IT'S THE REST OF THE TEAM! Sorry for yelling, but this is getting ridiculous.

Would the designated Mexican (What a stupid idea) have to be a starter or would teams just bring in one token Mexican for contractual obligations?

IIRC the AAF's contracts let players out if they get an NFL look, so the only downside to playing for a young guy is the possibility of getting hurt.

I'd take that level of 'failure' over what we've had to endure every single time.

Loffler is a difference making, all star, Canadian starter. He's going to get paid this year. Losing him means changing the ratio and I don't see us as having anyone in house who can take the starting spot. Bringing in another NI starter will also be expensive, especially an all-star variety. I certainly hope we re-sign Loffler, even if it costs a bunch-o-bucks.

Streveler got 4 starts this year, 3 due to injury. I can't see him getting that many next year. I'd ask you to read it again, but that's obviously a waste of time. I didn't say nothing would change if we fired MOS. It's funny that folks get so upset that everyone doesn't agree with them.

I'm surprised that Harris isn't the RB. Singleton over Bighill could be debated too.

MOS didn't do any of those things. I don't hate him, either. The only thing I hold against him is his lack of post season success. Note that's not the same thing as lack of a Grey Cup win or 28 years without a cup to our name. This years team was the first time in this regime that I thought we had the talent to be a Grey Cup contender on paper. Turned out we didn't, even though most things went our way. We went into the playoffs on a winning streak with an incredibly healthy team (Only 1 starter out), rested starters and we got to play a team who was missing their starting QB. Winning that game turned it into the most successful year of our current regime. Without that win, we'd have had a less successful year than last year. We'd be talking about less wins, no home playoff game, and another complete failure in the post season. I doubt MOS would have survived an o-fer in the playoffs after 5 years. Firing MOS doesn't equal going back to square one, no matter how many times fans say it does. The core of this team and the locker room character is Harris, the O line and the Canadian content. None of that changes if MOS were to be fired. I'd happily trade some of the character in the room for post season successes. Next years team will look quite different anyway. We'll lose some good players and pick up some good players. MOS doesn't change that, unless you believe that players are ONLY signing with Winnipeg because of MOS. I fully expect MOS to be back. I expect that he will get a contract extension. I expect Nichols will be our starting QB and Streveler won't get as much playing time as he got this year unless Nichols is hurt again. I expect to see guys who are on our PR at the end of this year make it onto the team next year. I expect guys who get cut in TC being brought back later in the year. I expect the fans to talk about bringing in this or that player to help down the stretch. I expect to hear about how we like the players we have. I expect to have this argument again next year.

You don't consider 2-5 as the start of the free fall? 🤣 I wouldn't have fired Richie when we did. His successes both in season and in the playoffs out weighed his failures. The same can't be said for MOS.

You keep comparing MOS to Richie so lets 'go there'. Richie's first 5 years... 1 3rd, 2 seconds and a 1st. Made the playoffs 4 out of 5 years. 7 playoff games. Lost 4. 1st playoff win in year 2. One Grey Cup appearance. MOS's first 5 years... 2 3rds, 1 2nd, 0 1st. Made the playoffs 3 out of 5 years. 4 Playoff games. Lost 3. First playoff win in year 5. Zero Grey Cup appearances. Richie got a 6th year. His 2-5 start and being fired doesn't help your patience argument.

This regime has been in place for 5 years. They own the record, just ask MOS. Fans in Bomberland are so happy with MOS that they ignore how many years he's been a HC and pump up the in season wins, that got us 2nd once, 3rd twice and one playoff win. They say that changing poorly performing HC's hasn't got us a Grey Cup in 28 years and ignore the fact that keeping HC's for 5 or more years hasn't brought us one either. Is MOS the coach to take us from poor to competitive? Absolutely. Is he the coach to take us the next step to being a Grey Cup contender? Maybe, but how long will it take at the current rate of improvement? 5 years for a playoff win. 6? for a Grey Cup berth. 7? for a win. More? Less?

I don't think we made a big push for Matthews. I think that the 'we're happy with the guys we've got' is what management actually believes, not just what they say to the media.

I guess you just don't like successful teams.

When we were a bad team, it was hard to sign FA's, because we were a bad team. We had to 'overpay' to get good players, much like Montreal has to nowadays. Now that we're competitive we attract FA's. Walters opens his cheque book for FA's in part because our scouting isn't that good and in part because it's the fastest way to go from bad to competitive, which is where we are now. In any case, culture only takes you so far. In our case that equals 1 playoff win in 5 years. Not winning a cup, isn't what I'm talking about. We haven't even made it to the cup because we haven't been good enough to even win a single playoff game until this year. I'd trade Calgary's record for ours every single year of the current regime. Losing the Grey Cup or the Western final is better than anything this regime has ever done. Success isn't measured in Stats. It's measured in wins, playoff wins and championships. This regime gets one out of three on that scale. 4th overall this year is middle of the pack no matter how you want to spin it.

We were able to complete balls in the last 3 minutes because they were up by 10 and were playing prevent.

Calgary beat us once in those three years, so no, that's not the problem. The only folks who are talking about 28 years are those who are preaching patience. That's where the stupidity lies.

What if I told you that Calgary went to the Grey Cup every year in the past 3 and we only won 1 playoff game? No one is suggesting blowing it up.