JuranBoldenRules

I think the chances of Blake long-snapping for us in game 1 are zero after tonight. Multiple screwups by long snappers don't usually result in roster spots for them. Also see Woods on the roster as a receiver/returner, and Unamba and Grigsby are PR at best IMO. Plus can't see them sacrificing Goossen at guard. He might make the game roster as the 6th or 7th OL (if we use the last Canadian spot on another OL).

Just kind of piecing a depth chart/roster together, and depending on who is injured, we might not even end up cutting any NI's. Say we have 4 NI's on some form of IR to start the season, we'd have 27 NI's available including kickers and spare OL, with 21 NI's necessary to dress, plus PR/reserve spots. Sad.

like who ? Like remember when Irving started feeling sorry for Burke last year and stopped asking real questions...? He may still be in that mode... 'So Mike, its roster cut down day tomorrow. Do you think you might have to cut some guys?' It's a good question, considering the number of injuries. Not sure what you expect. It's still freaking pre-season, you want Bob Irving to go old school 60 Minutes on O'Shea?

Thomas, Sherman, Richardson, maybe whichever one of Bucknor/Alexander who isn't starting at corner as the dime. I really can't see Stephan making the team, I mean we don't have a lot of NI's to cut, but surely we can do better from other teams cuts and guys who aren't currently on a team. We could really use NI DL too.

Maybe several of the players aren't that good? For instance, we had Rene Stephan playing the majority of the game, a guy who probably shouldn't be on a CFL roster in any capacity, let alone LB on defense.

Ugly knee injury blocking on a return. Broken ankle/leg from the looks of it. They had an air cast on his lower leg, weren't really looking at his knee.

This team is going to be handcuffed by the ratio big time, almost to the point now that it could affect the kicking decision, we might need that 4th DI spot on D so that we can rotate NI's through several spots.

I think we already know the answer to that one. The only scenario where we start 4 IMO is January-Greaves-Goossen-Morley-Neufeld, and that's not going to be a very good OL over 18 games, where we have some potential to get stuff done with Knapp in there at guard. I would flip Goossen and Morely in that 4 NI scenario.... and you're too hard on Jones in your pre-season analysis - he had a poor series but really got it together after those three plays. Anyway, I think we keep all three - Jan, Jones, Knapp - our OL depth is just too weak... The more I look at it, the more burning a DI on the OL doesn't seem that insane. I think some NI talent will shake out after Sunday - some teams are ridiculously deep at NI OL... and Wylie is good enough that we can plug-n-play someone at RG. Goossen didn't look good at guard. I'd be very hesitant to start him there week 1 as a rookie, at least at centre he'll see a lot less 1 on 1 scenarios off the snap. He lost ground pretty consistently at guard, but he at least made himself into a speed bump to give his QB a shot. Jones was getting beat off the edge in every series he played, most often by #6 the guy from Ohio State name is escaping me right now, the worst was the 4th possession after the Argos 2nd TD. Luckily Willy was at QB, would have been a lot of sacks in those scenarios with Brohm or Hall in there.

I think we already know the answer to that one. The only scenario where we start 4 IMO is January-Greaves-Goossen-Morley-Neufeld, and that's not going to be a very good OL over 18 games, where we have some potential to get stuff done with Knapp in there at guard.

They could save on post event cleaning crews though. I guess so, any development and it's success kind of depends on the surroundings. Unfortunately where the stadium is it will be very hard to complete any kind of permanent developments that depend on consumers, seeing as how there are a dozen events a year there and the location is extremely isolated, even on the U of M campus.

White just isn't a quarterback. Can't make a throw from the pocket and it doesn't matter how great of an athlete you are. He's like a tiny, left-handed lite version of Justin Goltz.

Americans who attend CIS and Americans at SFU won't be able to qualify as non-imports unless they spend 5 years in Canada prior to 18 years of age. People on student visas aren't permanent residents, and it's a whole process to become a permanent resident too. You need to be a permanent resident for 3 years minimum to apply to become a Canadian citizen, then more process. He spent years in Alberta as a kid. He'd still qualify as a non-import or "national" if he was coming into the league today, have to live in Canada for a minimum of 5 years prior to 18 years of age now to qualify. Basically the new rules are squeezing out guys who used to qualify as non-imports because they didn't play high school or university in the US, nor live in the US. The Australian kickers especially. A guy like Cassama isn't helped by these changes in terms of getting NI or "national" status.

He's making even Bryant Turner jealous...

Bottom line is that Knapp has been better than Jones this year so far. Last year is pretty irrelevant at this point. Except he hasn't... everyone just went nuts when Knapp ran as fast as Drew Willy. For me, I still don't see the benefit of an 'international' RG... especially if a 3 import OL means sitting Anderson and Kuale on certain plays. The only competition I see is Neufeld v. Jones... and if Neufeld can steal that spot then there is really almost no reason to have a 3 import line. Sure there's a reason, we don't have a solid non-import guard other than Greaves. There's the reason. Having a strong interior would be a big change for the Bombers, something we haven't had since Labatte left and Morley's decline. If Neufeld can beat the rush ends to the edge enough to keep them out of the pocket not necessarily be a beast but just help form a pocket, and he looked better than Jones on Monday, than we still go 3 by 2 on the OL, just deployed a little differently.

That's dumber than REDBLACKS.

True, but the example was Orlando Franklin, a player who would be draft eligible if he held NI status. If he petitioned for NI status and was confirmed as a NI, I don't see how he would be a free agent. The 25 year old issue in the CBA is an automatic entry into the CFL Draft regardless of where players are in their CIS/NCAA career, and it only applies to players who already have NI status. I don't see how it would apply to a player in the situation of Orlando Franklin, older than 25, without NI status, but would be a NI if he applied. I'm sure a certain team would try to have Orlando Franklin declared a free agent if he ever decided to play in the CFL, but 8 other teams would pull out the draft/supplemental draft by-laws and call BS on them.

Thoughts Between Pre-Season Games http://2ndand10.blogspot.ca/

The unions would care if the government went bankrupt because the first creditor that would get screwed in bankruptcy are the pension funds, that goes for public and private sector when it comes to companies/governments going bankrupt. The logic and reality behind Hudak's jobs campaign were both hugely lacking, and he didn't present it in a palatable way either. How can you cut 100,000 well paying jobs and not sink your economy? Not your provincial government budget, but the actual economy?

Pallister is also the wrong guy to win them votes in Winnipeg, where they need to win votes, but they don't have a lot of options.

Is there any source on the 25 year old age limit? My understanding is that players with NI status are automatically eligible for the draft following their 25th birthday if they haven't already been eligible for a CFL Draft, but I don't see anything that would limit someone from petitioning for NI status past 25 and being entered into a regular or supplemental draft, but it's never happened.

When the alternative is someone who is going to cut 100,000 jobs to create 1,000,000 jobs. The Ontario PC's are as incompetent as the PC's here in terms of putting together a legitimate platform and election strategy. You'd think some of these provincial parties would see Harper and the Federal Conservatives strategies and take some advice. Be the wolf, but at least put on sheep's clothing until you get power.

I thought Tillman had pretty much scouted Laurent on his own - no one seemed to have heard of him before the Supplemental...? The Laurent situation is a very unique one. Bruce Feldman (who was at ESPN at the time) came across a Duane Forde article ranking the top defensive linemen available in the CFL draft. He contacted me asking if those 10 guys were all better than Ted Laurent or at least why there was no mention of Ted. Bruce had written the fantastic book "Meat Market" and got to know that recruiting class very well at Ole Miss and Ted was part of that class. After a couple of emails it was confirmed that Ted would qualify for the draft but it was beyond the date to get onto the official draft list so he ended up in the supplemental draft in one of the largest supplementals in a long time. These kids that move with family members to the States during their teens are nearly impossible to keep track of especially when they move before high school. The high school kids are a little easier if they've made a name for themselves a bit. Hypothetically, what would happen if they found out a guy who had played in the NFL for a couple years (let's say he's 27 or 28) was actually eligible to be a NI. An established player. Would he suddenly be declared eligible for the next draft? To put a real name in here let's say that Orlando Franklin decided that he wanted to play in the CFL after his time with the Broncos was over. My understanding of it as that he could apply for NI status (and would get it in a heartbeat as he's more than eligible even before the rule changes) and would enter as a free agent. Likely he's already on a neg list somewhere and in his case he'd probably only want to play for Toronto. Worst case scenario he would go through the waiver process so the 9th place team of the year before would have first negotiating rights. Pretty sure any player in that situation would go through a supplemental draft, and they'd go to the highest bidder with waiver priority, or be eligible in the next CFL Draft depending on when their NI status is approved. NI players have to go through a draft, they are only free agents if they are undrafted. I don't think a non-import player can be a free agent without being eligible for a draft.

people should listen to me, I don't make **** up. Hall wasn't bad in that game apart from a few throws, the receivers let him down a hell of a lot. He had a pretty rough outing. Could have made a couple first downs by pulling the ball and rolling out on the zone read instead of leading the back into 3-4 defenders, by my count he made 2 good passes, underthrew one completion that Carter snagged off the turf, and over or under threw everything else. Wasn't bad apart from a few throws is basically a bad night when you're only making a few throws. He looked better to me live than when I watched the game again, but I wasn't paying much attention live. Brohm was equally poor. Only tossed a few catchable balls, a couple of his incompletions were on the money but total rockets that nobody could catch. He's got a gun but he might need to spend some time on the range getting it under control.

Braxton Miller will get a lot of NFL looks. Stephen Morris, we could do better. As for Jordan Lynch, his only problem as a QB is throwing a football, no big deal. I think both Lynch and Morris suffered from being forced to be NFL-style pocket passers. Miller 'might' fall off the radar... I would sign Morris just for his nickname, 'Tin Cup'... but that's just me. I'm guessing you haven't seen Northern Illinois and Jordan Lynch play. He's not a quarterback, he's a running back who throws sometimes. He definitely wasn't "forced to be a NFL-style pocket passer." Doesn't really matter how good of a scrambler or runner a guy is, if he can't consistently make throws from the pocket he can't be an effective pro QB. The easiest thing for a defense to stop is a running QB who can't pass.

Depends on how you're judging, but we've had 5 first rounders since 2011 and the only one on our roster is Goossen. That's relatively awful IMO. We just cut a 2nd rounder from 2013 who couldn't even stay on our roster past one pre-season game, when we aren't exactly brimming with talent. There was the analysis of the numbers of drafted players on CFL rosters and the Bombers were on the high side of average, but a lot of those players aren't Blue Bombers, and they didn't bring back quality NI's, so does it matter?