JuranBoldenRules

In the standings yes, but you don't think they were concerned about their starting D coming out of that game based on how they played against Hamilton's starting O?

They got torched against Hamilton's starters in the first half last week. Torched for 500 yards tonight. It's a legit concern. In a ******* pre season game. Seriously, some perspective would be great. Ya, starters vs starters in a pre-season game. Not meaningless.

They got torched against Hamilton's starters in the first half last week. Torched for 500 yards tonight. It's a legit concern.

Too much blitzing, especially when it's completely ineffective, in the first half. Second half and 4th quarter in particular were much better. I'm worried about our DT's and our two real LB's (Hurl and Bass). They were overpowered tonight. 24 looked awful quite often at safety as well. Real weird angles he took on Messam and gave up yards because of it.

Running backs about the same? Last year we relied on a guy who couldn't do any of the basics well and our offense was basically one dimensional, leading to our quarterback getting killed because teams didn't have to respect the run at all. This is a huge difference coming into this season. We had no boundary wideout last season and relied on Aaron Kelly and Romby Bryant for stretches last season. Maybe you don't like Darvin Adams, but the receivers are better. Moving Watson out doesn't have much impact because he basically became a glorified tight end who could barely move around the field. Feoli-Gudino is probably better at this point.

JFG doesn't have to play every snap, and if a NI goes down in game we're not scrambling as we have had to in the past. This is the ratio flexibility. I'm sure you'll see Marshall and Veltung out there too. What's you read on Veltung? Lot of people doesnt seems to impressed with him espcially on the receivers position. Scared of him handling punts, he really struggled last Friday, can't let balls hit the turf. Thought he looked like one of the better new receivers in the pre-season games, like a Denmark type, good routes, good hands, good at adjusting to the ball.

JFG doesn't have to play every snap, and if a NI goes down in game we're not scrambling as we have had to in the past. This is the ratio flexibility. I'm sure you'll see Marshall and Veltung out there too.

It's hard to say. He was the horse they rode 2nd half of last year and it worked. His numbers never have been great but he's always seemed to do enough to get the job done. What's been a bafflement to the Als is that since Calvillo retired, why is it that they've lacked continuity now from every QB including the ones that looked so promising? For example, in 2013 after Calvillo, Neiswander, and Marsh all got hurt, they found Troy Smith, he played pretty good, looked like he was the QB of the future, and then the next year fizzled out completely and has now left the CFL. Then of course it was Crompton last year who got dubbed the man and was workin for them, but now he's been put on the short rope. I think one of the problems has been the offensive coordinator carousel that's gone around now for the last few years, from the Hawkins situation in 2013 and that turnover and the eventual bringing back in of Doug Berry, to then going to Worman, firing him before the season started, then bringing in Schonert and Garcia. I guess maybe that brings me to the question of how much was last year's offensive turnaround the work of Garcia, and how much was Schonert. Because Schonert last night didn't look nearly as competent of an OC as he did last year and perhaps not having Garcia's brains to pick has hurt more than they thought. It's still early though, and although their defense didn't play good last night, Noel Thorpe has been one of the best in the league the last few years and I'd have a hard time believing that at some point the D won't get turned around again. I see this happen all the time though, teams look dead early but then turn it around midseason. 99% luck, 1% bafflement Crompton is somewhat predictable in what he will bring, so they could build an offence around him where they couldn't around Smith. At his best he's well below average, but I think defenses are going to press him and make him basically useless in 2015. Hard situation for any OC. What play do you call when your QB doesn't have enough strengths to make anything work? You can only throw a swing pass or screen pass so many times.

I'm glad we're able to get Cotton and Marshall on the roster. Hope they use them both and don't leave one on the sideline like they did to Cotton last year.

Me too. Also interesting that it seems that Unamba wasn't even really a consideration to fill-in at safety. Why the hell do we keep this guy around and cut good players? I've asked myself that at the end of each of the last two training camps. Anybody with half a brain and a willingness to work hard can play well on special teams. Should always take the guy who can play D and train him to chase kicks over the guy who is scary to put on the field on D who can chase kicks. I really liked Unamba at sam last year when he filled in. Thought he could push for a starters spot this year. I guess maybe cause he's so versatile? He works hard but has no instincts in coverage. He's lost. He was ok at WIL because he could just chase the ball more in that spot, disaster at SAM the little bit he played there last year. Safety would probably be the ideal spot for him if there is one because you could put him in a position where he could react and play to the ball more, but seems they don't feel comfortable with him there.

Me too. Also interesting that it seems that Unamba wasn't even really a consideration to fill-in at safety. Why the hell do we keep this guy around and cut good players? I've asked myself that at the end of each of the last two training camps. Anybody with half a brain and a willingness to work hard can play well on special teams. Should always take the guy who can play D and train him to chase kicks over the guy who is scary to put on the field on D who can chase kicks.

Not many champions lately following that model. Look at Calgary's NI's other than Cornish. There are teams that heavily invest in a handful of NI's and their destiny rests on the razor-thin margin of the health of those players. Popp's always been like that, and his teams are hit or miss with or without an all-time QB. Taman does that too. Maybe the guys relying on starters with three torn acl's, a 32 year old receiver with a bum knee, a linebacker with a half dozen concussions, OL who's last two seasons have ended around Labour Day will pull it off this year, but the odds certainly aren't in their favour, particularly when they are relying on a lot of imports in the same boat.

They've got just as much depth as most other teams. If you're comparing them to the Alouettes, Ticats or Stampeders, yeah they're worse and they got a worse ranking. But if you compare them to the teams below them, including BC and Winnipeg, I think it's a fair ranking. Unless you think the Bombers have fantastic depth all of a sudden But I'm not quite ready to believe that.... I think the Bombers absolutely have more depth in terms of guys that are actual CFL level players. Inexperience is a factor. Beyond their starters the Riders don't have much, and many of their starters have lost entire seasons or nearly entire seasons to injuries already in their careers. Come on! We're looking at starting Hurl, JFG, and Bucknor, now which one of those guys would start on any other team? And our depth is totally raw. Goossen, Briggs, Waggonner, D. Jones, Sherman, Bastien. These guys are "actual CFL level players" and the Riders don't have that? The Riders have their own group of players like that. Watman, Demski, Haidara, MacDougall, Vonk, Steinhauer. Equal depth and better starters means a higher grade. Everyone who thinks the Riders are going to take a dive this season are going to be pretty disappointed. Other than Demski (who is likely a starter in rotation with Messam), I see a lot of guys who are likely to have a negative impact if they have to play a lot. Watman might end up being their centre, but the rest are pretty much at their limit as special teamers and Vonk is still a project. We have enough guys on D now that we don't have to rely on a guy like Bucknor to play every snap if he doesn't live up to it, we just need a group of guys to play their role. If injuries happen, that changes, but we're rolling with guys who have stepped on the field before and not just to chase kicks. The Riders are constructed very similarly to a lot of Taman teams we saw. High-end veterans, no depth. He's eroded that in the last few years and tied up a lot of cash in guys like Getzlaf, Emry, Bagg, Best who are near the end of the line.

They've got just as much depth as most other teams. If you're comparing them to the Alouettes, Ticats or Stampeders, yeah they're worse and they got a worse ranking. But if you compare them to the teams below them, including BC and Winnipeg, I think it's a fair ranking. Unless you think the Bombers have fantastic depth all of a sudden But I'm not quite ready to believe that.... I think the Bombers absolutely have more depth in terms of guys that are actual CFL level players. Inexperience is a factor. Beyond their starters the Riders don't have much, and many of their starters have lost entire seasons or nearly entire seasons to injuries already in their careers. If they have two season-ending or miss more than half a season type injuries among those guys they are in major trouble, like get Paris Jackson on line 1 trouble. I believe the Bombers could more easily absorb NI injuries. Montreal is also way overrated because of the NI tackles. Beyond that, they are very thin and their interior OL isn't that good.

The Riders ranking is a joke. A lot of things will have to go right for them to not end up in ratio hell this year. The probability that a number of their top NI's will be hurt or have their play continue to decline is very high and they have no one behind them.

maybe a situation of agree to disagree, Marve should have been competing with Brohm for #2, and portis vs Yantz, who ever didnt win the #2 then compete against the winner of Portis vs Yantz for #3. loser of that get PR. With willy the undisputed #1, Preseason game 1 goes 1st quarter: Brohm (or marve) 2nd quarter: Marve (or Brohm) 3rd quarter: Portis (or Yantz) 4th quarter: Yantz (or Portis). preseason game 2 1st half: Willy 3rd quarter: #2 4th: quarter #3 at least your giving ALL the QBs you invited to camp a shot, only guys who dont get 2 quarters of play is your #4 and #5 but they at least get a quarter to show what they got I'd rather they focus on getting the team ready for the season than making sure a guy who probably has the ceiling of a #3 QB in the CFL a fair shot.

He needs to learn how to pass. It's just way too easy to defend him now. After a couple runs, Hamilton started using a delayed blitz, filling all the gaps up front and daring Marve to make a good throw from the pocket. That is what will happen if he doesn't progress, everyone knows what's coming.

Unamba stunk in coverage last season when he played WIL where he had far less space to cover than he would at SAM. I'd be very disappointed if he played SAM, need someone way better in that spot. If Unamba is on the roster it's to chase kicks and sub in here and there. If he's starting anywhere in the secondary we're SOL.

Well, there are a fair number of OL available. Rockhill cut by Hamilton too. Haidara a bit of a surprise.

No. He's just a softer, less athletic version of Richards. Not sure why so much hype. I was shocked the Riders didn't cut him last pre-season.

Have you seen any of those anywhere in the league yet? Real games haven't started.

What's the status on Billy Peach? Riders released Vonk... Jas Dhillon was cut by the Argos.

I wonder if the Bombers bring in another NI OL relatively soon, like the next couple weeks. One of the guys on the 46 goes down and Tommy Griffiths is the 6th OL.

Veltung looked a lot better as a receiver than as a returner in the pre-season games. Had no idea what to do on punts and let balls hit the turf.

Gary's left his NHL brain on. Doubt it. Looks like Neufeld was put on the 6 game IR. Cap is nearly meaningless in this round of cuts and at this time of year. It's not tabulated until after the season, unlike the NHL where teams need to have a roster than fits under the cap prorated each game, and it's not a hard cap either way.