JuranBoldenRules

Nichols is the starter now. There's no way anyone would toss a guy out there with one get-to-know you practice at Quarterback. Hopefully we see improvement from the quarterback position, because outside of QB, Greaves/Picard/Neufeld and Hajrullahu as a punter, this is a pretty good team.

It's not a video game. You can't just put a QB in with no practice time and he plays to his ability.

It's kind of funny when people rip the special teams because the one thing that would improve them the quickest is also likely to result in the same people whining, playing an American punter, or a punter of any nationality who actually knows how to punt and isn't just playing in a competition of who can kick the ball the furthest.

In his first scrum in Winnipeg he referred to himself in the third person three times in the same sentence. A real winner.

Keep in mind that a centre who can't block nor snap consistently anymore is getting $200,000 all in.

Chris Cuthbert says big names will be interested in Riders coaching job, then rattles off Higgins, Benevides, Kelly Bates, Glen Suitor and Lapolice. Cuthbert is losing it. He forgot Tim Burke.

I think Tate has Jason Maas syndrome. I don't think he'd be very good, nor last as a starter now. He's been worse each time he's played significantly.

Picard has negative value. His Madden rating would be like 65, and he's paid about 3x more than he's worth. I don't think the Lions are that desperate for a NI centre and if they were we'd have to take back their version of him, a crappy overpaid veteran who is paid for the rest of the season. Aren't the lions using an american center? Cuz rumors are they were going to go hard after Jones if he was let go. You could probably make a deal with the Lions around Picard but i don't think you get a 1st back. There's a big difference between Picard and Jones for many reasons, age and ability the most obvious.

Picard has negative value. His Madden rating would be like 65, and he's paid about 3x more than he's worth. I don't think the Lions are that desperate for a NI centre and if they were we'd have to take back their version of him, a crappy overpaid veteran who is paid for the rest of the season.

That "CFLCapGeek" really needs to qualify the numbers they have up. Is "cap space" an estimate of what teams have left to spend cumulatively? The SMS is tabulated by the league at the end of the season, teams don't have to be "under the cap" for each game like the NHL. It also defaults unknown salaries to the league minimum, so the numbers are going to be wacky regardless. To be honest there are way too many bonuses in CFL contracts to put together a database like the NHL cap geek.

Keep in mind Picard's making close to $200,000. *puke* I'd go to about $275,000, and that's pretty much the absolute ceiling I'd have at this SMS number for a non-QB. That's 5% of the total SMS over a whole season, about $110,000 over the last 7 games.

It wouldn't be hard to free up the money to pay Muamba, and with the way the CFL SMS works it doesn't have to be done immediately. I bet he waits a couple weeks on the NFL and likely only signs for the rest of this CFL season. The Bombers might be out of the race just based on that.

"Friends" is a relative term. If two people know each other, that doesn't automatically make them friends. And if it does, you'd be hard-pressed to find many working relationships in the CFL that didn't start that way, with someone hiring someone else that they are familiar with. O'Shea was a senior at Guelph when Walters came in as a rookie, and they were on opposite sides of the ball (Walters was an RB at the time). They played a grand total of one season together in Hamilton. Exactly what I was going to say. If you're going to call Walters and O'Shea "friends" or "buddies," then everyone who's playing or coaching in the CFL right now are friends and shouldn't work together. It's a pretty huge leap.

Veltung is injured. Willie is more of a YAC guy.Gordon is the confused one.

The point is that those guys hardly played as they were "developing." When they got the chance to play, they showed that they had a base of ability to build from, even if they did struggle. Marve did the opposite.

Excited to see some competent receivers and Collins return.

Wiecek is a dummy. If Turner is off the roster an import defensive linemen will be added to it. Just cause the one rep he watched Thomas was in doesn't mean he's starting.

There aren't even enough starters to go around. Nichols is about as good as it gets for backups.

Messam has had 20 carries in a game once in his career. Most of the time he's in the 7-12 range. He's never been a feature back.

Willy is making the same this year as he did last year. His new contract doesn't come into effect until next season. Usually extensions in the CFL come into effect immediately as the remaining contract is ripped up and renegotiated. Willy would be an exception if he's playing out his last contract.

Calvillo wasn't nearly as brutal as guys like Marve and Marsh have been. He played on some really bad teams and was extremely young, 21 as a rookie with Las Vegas. He had a bunch of big games, clearly showing potential. His problem in his young career was consistency and injuries, not an inability to complete a pass longer than 7 yards.

Except for the fact his throws have always been errant, as evidenced by his low completion percentage whenever he's seen game action. 60% completion percentage is fairly good for a rookie QB I would say my only complaint is not enough deep balls and when they did Marve's missed all of the longer throws his short throws where on the money ( except for the INTs ) Context is important. Average gain was less than 4 yards. 10 first downs. 60% completion percentage is truly lipstick on a 800 lb hog.

I don't get the fascination anywhere with QB's who can't pass. That said, Montreal's been running the same 4 option plays and screen passes for 3 games. Bound to have a night like this when you do that.

Marsh is terrible.

Sask will throw Messam at us as much as they can, we need to stop it early and hard. Messam is averaging less than 8 carries per game. My guess is because of his conditioning, that's why I said as much as they can. My other guess is that number goes up if they show any success with Messam this weekend. He's only hit 10 carries in 4 games since he joined the Riders, one was the first game in Winnipeg last season. I think the Bombers will be fine against the run. The Riders OL is really banged up too. Appreciate your point about their banged up OL but current stats I checked on the CFL official site might suggest otherwise. We're eighth in defending against the run and Sask is first in offensive run yards per game. (unless I read it wrong which I wouldn't put past me) Clark and Labatte both left the last game, hence the 10 sacks. Haven't really read any Regina media so not sure if they are playing this week or not.