JuranBoldenRules

What about last year? Unless you really like Isaac Anderson.

Urrutia didn't really get a good shot in Calgary IMO. Hall underthrew pretty much everything at him. I liked his work vs Toronto, but we haven't seen him on a deep route in either game, which is kind of odd. I'd think one of Urrutia or Kelly would be starting game 1, hopefully Urrutia. Would be nice to give Willy at least one big target, otherwise Cory Watson is our only big body receiver. I do like Jaymar Johnson though, when he hits the break in his routes he gets a ton of separation, he's very quick, hopefully the drops vs Toronto were an anomaly. Bert Reed looked to have some attitude and hands, too bad we only saw him for about 5 minutes. I would think Reed and Johnson are pretty good PR bets, and everyone else among the imports outside of them are outright cuts, Barnes, Kemp, Tarver, maybe Kelly if they take Urrutia over him.

It's not that hard. Basically he'd get a DI spot that would otherwise go to an extra IMP DB/LB. Just a matter of whether there are enough healthy Canadians to backup on D, if Briggs, Sherman, Alexander, Bucknor and Jones are good to go it shouldn't be an issue. I'm assuming we'll use 1 DI on offense/returner, 2 on D, 1 on Maher, or 1 on offense/returner and 3 on D.

Our defense hasn't been good for most of the last two years. I don't get the "we'll have to win 41-40" stuff when guys who will mostly be cut or otherwise not on the game roster just gave up 46 points in 2 games playing extremely basic schemes. I think we can pump the brakes for now on the panicking.

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). Yeah Goossen or Neufeld... Not sure what options are besides Blake - haven't heard of anyone else practicing LS... and I think I still might be short one 'National' BC cut Tim Cronk. Wild could do it for a bit while they search for someone else.

We sucked in the preseason last year. People were worried and it turned out they had every right to be worried. We lost by a total of 7 points combined and our starting QB appears to be pretty good. I'd say we're miles ahead of last year at this time. The fact that our QB actually played in the pre-season puts us ahead of last year.

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.