JuranBoldenRules

It's just a little less detailed than the offensive line post. http://2ndand10.blogspot.ca/

Especially if Goltz wins the starting job in TC from Willy. Start planning the parade, it's a done deal. Did we hire a QB coach, or a QB coach/Miracle worker?

What you just described are a group of people who are paid to cover pro football in Winnipeg, but who really aren't fans of the game. You can tell when a reporter is actually a fan. He/she doesn't have to be a homer, but to be any good, they do have to understand and love the game. Growing up, outside of playing for the Bombers, a dream job for me was writing about them - and getting paid to do it! What an incredible job! Being paid to write about something I love so much. It wouldn't even be a job to me. I don't see anyone in the media in Winnipeg that truly loves the game of football, which is why they are going to spend as little time as possible in the stands, studying the players, and instead finding distractions on tablets and personal devices to get through their boredom. Give me a reporter who is also a fan, and try to be as unbiased as possible, and I'm happy as a Rider cheerleader at a family gathering. I'm not sure why that's a lot to ask of our current professional writers in Winnipeg, because it wasn't that way in the past. Vince Leah and Jack Matheson are proof of that in spades. Those guys just plain loved the game, and it showed. Agree 100%. And I don't understand the endlessly crummy attitudes from some too, that goes for a few reporters at the FP who get paid to watch Jets and Bombers games. If it truly brings you misery to do the job you have, find something else. There's a way to be critical and ask questions without being completely adversarial. One guy I really like who covers a CFL beat is Drew Edwards from the Hamilton Spectator. You can tell he enjoys the job, he's not a huge homer, and he doesn't act like a jerk either. He'll ask Austin a tough question after a bad game, but he doesn't do it in a way where he sounds like he's verbally rolling his eyes like some of the guys working the beat here when you watch a press conference. To me, he's an ideal beat guy.

Banks, Randle, Washington, Sears, Suber, Markett, Dunn. Starting 2 NI DB's means 3 of these guys aren't playing defense. Can't see it happening.

I wouldn't expect to find any accurate or relevant scouting reports, this guy is 27 years old and hasn't played meaningful football in almost 7 years. I'm not even 100% convinced that he's signed a contract. Sounds more like he was invited to another free agent camp or to the mini-camp down south. I'm surprised the media isn't complaining yet about the mini-camp being held in the States...Edmonton sure got raked over the coals for doing that last year. Wasn't the biggest issue with what Edmonton did that they didn't even tell the media about it until it was already over? Could be. Still doubt they would have paid for reporters to travel and stay in Florida either way.

At the training camp sessions I've attended over the years, I notice they mostly watch a few minutes, enough to satisfy the blurbs they need (best catch, scrap of the day etc.) but don't really watch enough to know what is going on beyond what they are told by coaches. I've been to training camp sessions where a guy literally makes one nice catch but drops everything else, slow out of his breaks, quitting on his routes, basically everything bad a receiver can do, and he's touted as a guy who should be in a battle to make the team because the reporter was watching for the 3 minutes where the guy made a great catch and didn't have any drops. The one I went to last year when I also picked up my tickets, I saw a number of media guys hanging out around the entrance of IGF and kind of watched for them throughout the practice, they didn't really come in and pay attention until they started scrimmaging, missing all the positional groups and 1 on 1's (2 on 2's and 4 on 5 pass pro) between OL/DL, REC/DB's, and the pass skelly, important stuff if you are going to actually look critically at guys.

I wouldn't expect to find any accurate or relevant scouting reports, this guy is 27 years old and hasn't played meaningful football in almost 7 years. I'm not even 100% convinced that he's signed a contract. Sounds more like he was invited to another free agent camp or to the mini-camp down south. I'm surprised the media isn't complaining yet about the mini-camp being held in the States...Edmonton sure got raked over the coals for doing that last year.

That would depend a lot on what Bellefeuille needs. His primary job should be to work with the QB's, but Bellefeuille will probably involve him somewhat in his offensive gameplanning, much like he would with all of the positional coaches on offence.

He's a positional coach. It should take him about a week to figure out CFL coverages. He'll advise the QB's and work with them on mechanics, which don't change a lot on either side of the border. Who knows, he might be the Bob Wylie for QB's. Wylie didn't work in Canada until he joined the Bombers in 2007.

With Higgins and his experience I really don't see the need for Popp, other than as a US scout. This must be sarcasm. One of the best GM's in the history of the league should be a US scout for a guy who has basically been blacklisted out of working in personnel and management?

Smells like desperation. If Wetenhall doesn't like what the team does for the first 3 weeks of the season, Popp will be back on the sidelines.

Wonder how many seasons of them being empty it will take for that to be figured out, particularly the corners. Give those away to kids or sell them for $15.

Quite a bit. The combo of our QB's both holding the ball too long in the pocket (Hall and Goltz) and leaving the pocket early (Pierce and Goltz) made the OL look a lot worse than it was. Hall probably had the best pocket presence out of them all, but he needs to get rid of the ball quicker. The QB scrambling too soon really makes their job impossible. As a tackle, you force that end wide, and all of a sudden your QB is bailing from the pocket right into that rush lane, when you're thinking he's back in the pocket about to throw, at that point it's just a free for all. On that theme, it will be interesting to see how Montreal's OL holds up without Calvillo and the quick strike offence, he made many good OL into great OL.

Thanks, should be fixed.

I don't have much knowledge on the prospects in the upcoming draft outside of Canada West, where there isn't much of note. The top OL prospects in this draft are out of Quebec and Simon Fraser, NCAA D2. As a child with large bones I was blessed with the experience of playing offensive line pretty much since the first time I put on shoulder pads at age 7. I played offensive line/defensive line and tight end (like 4 snaps when I was in grade 9, still wonder everyday why they didn't call my play and trust my sweet hands ) for 15 years, then started coaching it. I took my Level 1 NCCP through Football Manitoba, which is the positional coach level, I studied OL/DL. Most of what I learned is from my own coaches, and studying the game to make myself a better player, cause I sure as hell didn't like hanging out in the weight room.

Prices are similar, looks like there are more "cheap seats" towards the endzones in Calgary...and I'd be all over the midfield seats in the top rows for $350. You aren't getting those in Winnipeg. I'd assume almost all of those are locked in by season ticket holders in Calgary. I'd also be pissed if I paid $786 to sit in row 44 with the guy in row 45 paying $350. That's neat though, haven't seen Virtual Venue used with an older facilty before.

Part 3 of the mid-February roster analysis is up...the offensive line. http://2ndand10.blogspot.ca/

If he can get himself into position to just get in the way some of the time he'd be better than any NI we played at safety last season.

Don't mind solid golds as a 3rd jersey, the ones we wore in the 07 Grey Cup, but hate the current gold road jerseys. Home jerseys aren't bad.

He's better than any Canadian we have on defense since Muamba and Labbe are gone. Edmonton signed him to a stupid contract, which is probably why they couldn't deal him. I'd be interested up to low six figures.

I believe Williams sort of wandered around the league (Sask and Hammy?) and was tagged as locker room problem somehow before the Bombers took a bit of a chance in giving him another shot. Turned out rather well, if memory serves. Nope, started with us in 95. I'll always remember him basically winning a game for us against BC single-handedly when Andre Ware was their QB, and our offense was just terrible, I think he had a pick, 2 forced fumbles and blocked the game winning FG attempt. Traded to Saskatchwan prior to 97. Then traded to Hamilton with Lamar McGriggs halfway through that season for a draft pick because they were apparently disruptive in the locker room, they were also two of the best defensive players in the league at that time. Went to the NFL for 3 years, came back in 2002 with Saskatchewan as a defensive end, they cut him and the Bombers picked him up just before the playoffs, he got injured, then didn't make the team in 2003.

Where are his biceps? I was just chopping some wood and my dog ran away...HAVE YOU SEEN HIM?

If we have any leadership from the coaching staff this season that will be an improvement on 2013. Listening to Edwards phone conference yesterday...I kinda of hoped he would go off on the dysfunction that 2013 was, felt like he kind of wanted to, but also had too much respect for the holdovers (Walters) and the new staff to do that. Although by suggesting he had something strong to say he kind of did it anyway. It's one of those things that has to trickle down right from the top. Hard to pick on players for being leaders or not considering the total dysfunction of the last few seasons from the board to Buchko on down through the front office to the coaching staff.

The quick answer is to Google "football route tree" and read a bit about that, it's the same on both sides of the border with the obvious physical field differences, most teams usually run all their primary reads to one side of the field, the difference in field width is a big advantage to the offence, NFL QB's need pinpoint accuracy much more than CFL QB's and they need to use routes like back shoulder fades just to generate open space. The same route tree used in basically every level of football, communicated between the quarterback and receiver, often with a depth that becomes understood through repetition, live play in practice and at a certain level, film work. For example, the depth of a post route run by a slot will change on the down and distance, strength of the field (is he on the strong or weak side), what both he and the quarterback read the coverage to be (junior/CIS and beyond, not many high schools run advanced passing attacks) The QB needs to be able to hit guys on all of those routes, ideally from the pocket, although teams can work around that by moving their QB around ("moving the pocket") to open up one side of the field and lessen the difficulty of certain throws. My personal opinion is that if a quarterback can't consistently make a read and a good throw from the pocket, their success will be limited, of course there are some outliers like Doug Flutie or Damon Allen who lived on rollouts and scrambles, but for a defense a scrambling QB who can't throw from the pocket is the easiest QB to stop. There are some degrees of difference when someone says a guy can make all the throws. Michael Bishop can make all the throws, yet he's a terrible quarterback because he can't put the ball where it needs to be consistently. Is it a be all and end all, no. A perfect QB would be able to make the throws and reads in any situation, against any rush, against any coverage. That QB doesn't exist. It is a combination of arm strength (obviously most of us can't chuck a 50 yard pass with any purpose), accuracy, intelligence and release. Most QB's can't truly make all the throws, they all have strengths and weaknesses, so it is a relative statement. It is really saying (especially with young QB's), this guy has the raw stuff, he's shown the raw stuff, we can work with that and see if he turns into a good quarterback.

Yes he was. I did some internet digging and found some combine results from his pro day and a regional combine in 2010, they both measured him at a little under 6'2. Same as Brescacin, he's been reported at a few different heights, I went by the combine measurement.