James

How was Kyle Paterson doing over there? Very interested in Billy Peach and morin plante

While BC does poach, they don't play at the same level as the prairie conference. PFC teams have won 4 of the last 5, 7 of the last 10, and 15 of the last 20 national championships. By far the dominant junior football is on the prairies. True enough

I'm kinda interested in K/P Shott and LB Spoletini. Shott was kind of disappointing for me this pre-season, he's gotten a lot of hype the last few years as a guy BC was grooming to take over for McCallum. I'm guessing that plan has been scrapped to some degree. Looks like Anthony Daley made the Lions. He's a Winnipeg kid who played a couple years of junior in BC, 21 years old interior offensive lineman, was going to play for U of M this season if he didn't make the Lions. I hate that the Lions can claim any BCJFL player as their own, wish that the territorial rights went to the province where the player played midget/high school. Yeah, especially because of all the Poaching the BCJFL does in all the other provinces. They really clean up at the Junior level

From this list, I'll probably be interested in OL Wheaton, OL Dunn. I always thought Dunn is a better prospect than Penser. I'll add DL Miller on that list. Looks like Maher makes the Ottawa team. Good for him. Is James Lee a National or International? I only want Dunn if Wylie thinks he can do something with him. We certainly dont need all those Import OL so maybe we can cut one of those guys for him if Wylies interested. I doubt it though

I'm kinda interested in K/P Shott and LB Spoletini. I doubt we go after Spoletini because we just got Cornell I'm interested in LeMarquand... he did play under Etchevary in Ottawa(geegee's)

That Miller guy sucks, Im not gonna bother with him.

Aaron Wheaton OT 22 yrs old Drafted in the fourth round 2014 CFL draft http://varsityblues.ca/roster.aspx?rp_id=5991 Bench: 20 Vert: 22.5" Broad: 7'10" shuttle: 5.15 3 cone: 8.47

NI Rec. Simon LeMarquand http://english.cis-sic.ca/sports/fball/2012-13/files/player_profiles/ott-lemarquand Combine results Bench:12 40: 4.679 Vert: 41"(impressive) Broad: 9'7.5" Shuttle: 4.018(impressive) 3cone: 6.843(impressive)

Id like to see Knapp at Fullback and Turner at Tailback in a Goal Line Power I Formation. That would be sweet.

I have complete confidence in whatever line up we come up with on the OL. so awesome having Wylie here!

That was awesome

Watson is definitely best at SB. He brings a dimension out of that spot that is fairly rare... Last year I seen him taking on DE's one on one. That's ridiculous for a reciever. I'm hoping our boundary WR is Kohlert, with JFG at field WR.

Ah, the old spelling errors comment... Never gets old. Simple, Alexander is injured, Bucknor will be our starting field corner I say at all positions because we have enough Canadians that are capable of playing every other spot on offence other than QB and RB. I wouldn't say our most NI depth is at DB... We have good Canadian depth at field corner, they're not really capable of much else in the secondary Them being imports is the problem. Messam doesn't hurt the roster at all, he brings value that our current NI RB doesn't. I'm not sure how you fail to see this. Also, your example of them being able to find a bunch of import bruiser backs that are better then Messam is weak, because they are American. You don't DI an American tailback just to have him pound the ball in short yardage and goal line stands. Di's are to valuable to waste on such a role. Messam being Canadian, does not burn a DI spot, thus doesn't hurt the roster, and he can still fulfill that role! Says who? Even if he's not the same player(which we all know he isn't), he's still a great pounder... If he isn't demanding six figures, I see absolutely no harm in upgrading at that spot. I have no idea where your getting this from, Messam only improves the offence and certainly doesn't stop us from DI'ing Ford Competitive so far? #preseasonWhy would signing Messam surround Willy with weakness? #Makesnosense

Which looks like the plan. And having thought about the plan, I understand it and agree with it. I think the only person who would argue that is his mother. And Volny might be standing behind her going "mom - shhhhhhhh". Another Joe Smith is easy enough to get if we want him. No, we wouldn't have to DI Ford. OShea isn't DI-ing Ford because he feels forced to, he's DI-ing Ford because he wants to. At least within the confines of the team we currently have. There's the rub - all these defensive DI's don't improve our defense. Every time a DI goes in another import comes out. Every time. This is what I'm saying; Messam being better than Volny is irrelevant because adding Messam doesn't make the Bombers better. Injuries are always a wild card. Right now we have more NI depth in our secondary than I can recall in a long time. Ever? OShea is going to take advantage of that. The secondary probably does not get a DI. Not every positional group gets to have a DI backup in the CFL. You pick your poison. OShea doesn't want his poison to be an ineffective offence. He's been cut a few times now, so how good he is must be pretty debatable, no one cuts a good NI RB. Here's what adds the most versatility to the roster. - Don't sign Messam. - Cut Volny. - DI whichever RB. - Keep the best NI special teams player you can find in Volny's roster spot. - Pray our starting RB and his backup never both get injured in the same game (has only happened once that I can remember in 30some years of watching the Bombers). - Accept the Pontbriand will play the last quarter of football as RB if lightning strikes twice. It's not even a bad compromise. He has decent hands and no one covers him. None of this has ever been an argument for Volny. Why would anyone make that argument? The only argument is that Messam doesn't help the Bombers. My expectation is that the Bombers will have multiple guys handling returns as they have had for many years, but someone will see the bulk of the work. It might be Ford, but that's not the reason for DI-ing him. The reason for giving him a DI spot (or Grigsby) is to not have an impotent offence that flounders and gets it's kinda-rookie QB killed. It's to have an offence that can create and sustain drives, rather than stall over and over. How has the offence looked so far? I'm going to throw out effective as my adjective of choice. Take note of all the complaints there has been about our offensive coordinator so far this month. I can't recall one. Most of Bomber nation was disgusted when he was hired, and I'm sure they'd be pretty quick to point out all the failings of his offence. So far, no takers. Using a DI spot on a RB seems to be a pretty good plan, since giving Willy the best possible chance to succeed in this offence seems like a pretty good plan. And if we use a DI spot on a RB, which is a plan I like based on a concept I like, then having Messam anywhere on our roster is largely a wasted roster spot. If he was good enough to be a starter he would have tremendous value, just like he did when...he was a starter. Otherwise, he doesn't make any kind of positive contribution to our ratio woes. Unless we commit to having 6 NIs on offence and put the rotation there instead of on defence, a rotation featuring Messam, Goossen, and Feoli-G. That has value in terms of positively affecting our ratio, but has negative value in terms of giving Willy the best possible chance to succeed. OShea seems to be giving that the higher priority. When Goossen is good enough, they will just stick him in. No rotation. There are no points you have raised that I haven't considered. I have given them ample consideration and followed them thru to their logical conclusions. The end result comes back to Messam being better is not the same thing as Messam makes the Bombers better. Just like everyone else, when Messam popped free my thought was "Messam - I recognize that name! Sign him!". Having him back up our starting RB and DI-ing a DB weakens the offence relative to one of our imports handling the job, and this is an offence that already features starters that get bitched about all the time like Morley and Neufeld. The offence is a pretty fragile ecosystem. Give it the best possible chance to thrive. That is what OShea is doing. Also note - not showing up anywhere in my argument: - Volny's value to this team. - Messam's salary. This post is so flawed. DI'ing a DB is a very good Idea. You want Derek Jones playing half back if Washington goes down in a game? Having three DI's on Defence guarantees we still have great depth at all position in case of injury. Messam adds a different Dimension. You talk about DI'ing Ford instead of Woods... Great, I personally prefer that plan as well. But neither Ford nor Cotton can pound the ball on second and 2 like Messam Can, or on Goal line stands... Messam is a one Dimensional Back, But he is arguably the best at that Dimension. You cant Tell me that Pontbriand is as good as a former 1000 yard RB. The reason why he is being Cut, is because he is a one dimensional Back, Not because he is a bad player. Possible Attitude Issues, but who better than to clear that up than O'Shea? Weather you choose to admit it or not, Messam Makes our team better... And I sure as hell hope we DI a DB. By the way, I really wish you would stop painting me in this light of wanting Messam "just because I've heard of him". I follow this leaue closely enough to know the names of the majority of the players and what they are capable of so this is kind of insulting to me

Kohlert is also a similar size to Derrick Armstrong... So his physical size wouldn't be a problem there... He's good at stemming his routes and has a very impressive vertical... Good hands... I would mind seeing Kohlert at boundary WR. I think the way he was playing last season he deserves more of a work load in the offence... Or am I just crazy?

Do we have any Canadians that can play boundary wr, like Kohlert or JFG? Cause the Americans are very unimpressive

I think if etch wanted to move Muamba around that might be the point where OShea and Walters step in

Seems to me that Fords best asset as a runner was his speed.... He wasn't terribly elusive but if he got a hole he had the speed to hit it and run a long way.Yeah he's a real good slasher, I thought if they were used properly he and Simpson could really be a dynamic force running the ball for us.... But they weren't...Cotton appears to have it all though, minus pounding the ball that is.

Seems to me that Fords best asset as a runner was his speed.... He wasn't terribly elusive but if he got a hole he had the speed to hit it and run a long way. Yep, close to being his only asset compared other CFL backs, he doesn't break many tackles or make people miss, but if he hits a crease he can go a long way fast. When a speed back gets caught from behind... NEXT! You do know who chip cox is right?

Wasn't his contract with Montreal in the 80k range... If he's looking for anything more than that he will be unemployed longer than he expects

If we are going to DI a RB then signing Messam wouldn't make as much sense. He's still an upgrade on Volny however. The point we're trying to make is that if you sign Messam you don't have to DI Ford and he is actually valuable because we have no other backs who can pound it like him... Also if we had Messam as our game day back up, we could DI a returner like Woods, and have a DL, LB, and DB all as di's as well. Basically it adds a lot more versatility to the roster, because Messam is a GOOD Canadian RB. If you prefer Ford to Woods on returns then that's fine, Messam still is a hell of a lot more valuable then Carl Volny no matter which way you slice it.

Canadian vs import.Crappy vs exceptional.Start a Canadian somewhere else. where? CFL rosters are always built by slotting in your top canadians then filling imports around them and given the injuries we've had Thomas is one of the best we have.I personally think we would be better off with 6 on offence and one at field corneragain, where? 3 receivers? So that if we have a guy get hurt we're using the scrapings of the league to field enough guys? On the OL so our qbs can get hammered game in and game out again and god help them if there is an injury there? RB? We don't have a good enough RB to do that.... We could simply go 4 NI OL, and if there was an injury, then we could go 3 NI receivers. None of the import receivers really stood out anyway. \If there is to many injuries to OL and receivers we could then go back to rotating 2 on defence. I used to be a huge Morely basher, but he's fairly adequate at RG. I noticed a huge difference last season when he came back from injury in the OL play. I just think Anderson Getting the majority of snaps beside Turner could be really special. They could really form a good cohesion and dominate OL's together all year. I guess another way of putting it is this, the gap from Goosen/Morely to Morely/Knapp isn't nearly as big as the gap from Thomas to Anderson IMO. If Goosen truly isn't Ready, JFG looks pretty darn good at rec. and Renaud and Carter would be adequate depth for the first while until Goosen is ready. I suspect they will start the season with Morely at Center and Thomas at Tackle, but I also don't suspect it will last very long. Good post. I like your logic here. Thanks!

The most frustrating part for me, is that we have the horses to be very effective against both the pass and the run... but we're choosing to be one dimensional. Zach Anderson is strong enough to make up for his smaller physique in the NT position, and fast enough to effectively rush the passer out of that spot as well. Turner is the best pass rushing DT in the league. Peach and Vega are both good at Rushing and Run stopping as well. If we played Wild at WILL and Kuale in the middle our LBers would be pretty good to. But Thomas and Dunn are going to hamper us in the front seven against the run. I think Thomas is a decent pass rusher.... not good but decent, but he's going to get man handled against teams like Calgary and the riders against the run IMO. I think our secondary is going to be pretty fantastic though.. looking forward to the likes of Leggett, Sears, Randle and hopefully Bruce Johnson. I think Bruce Johnson and Leggett could be pretty great for us if they get regularly fair opportunities. Wouldn't mind seeing Johnson at HB.

I have a five and 3 year old who are obsessed with arts and crafts. As much as I love them and love seeing them grow and learn new things, its a bit much with all their arts and crafts everywhere. If they see any in the garbage its like 2012 all over again

Canadian vs import. Crappy vs exceptional. Start a Canadian somewhere else. where? CFL rosters are always built by slotting in your top canadians then filling imports around them and given the injuries we've had Thomas is one of the best we have. I personally think we would be better off with 6 on offence and one at field corner again, where? 3 receivers? So that if we have a guy get hurt we're using the scrapings of the league to field enough guys? On the OL so our qbs can get hammered game in and game out again and god help them if there is an injury there? RB? We don't have a good enough RB to do that.... We could simply go 4 NI OL, and if there was an injury, then we could go 3 NI receivers. None of the import receivers really stood out anyway. \If there is to many injuries to OL and receivers we could then go back to rotating 2 on defence. I used to be a huge Morely basher, but he's fairly adequate at RG. I noticed a huge difference last season when he came back from injury in the OL play. I just think Anderson Getting the majority of snaps beside Turner could be really special. They could really form a good cohesion and dominate OL's together all year. I guess another way of putting it is this, the gap from Goosen/Morely to Morely/Knapp isn't nearly as big as the gap from Thomas to Anderson IMO. If Goosen truly isn't Ready, JFG looks pretty darn good at rec. and Renaud and Carter would be adequate depth for the first while until Goosen is ready. I suspect they will start the season with Morely at Center and Thomas at Tackle, but I also don't suspect it will last very long.