JuranBoldenRules

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.

True, he could draw in for certain packages. I'll talk more about him in special teams.

Good timing, had the blog pretty much ready to post by bedtime last night, but didn't post it. Then Edwards retired ...truthfully it didn't change much, just took out a blurb about Edwards and where he might fit, didn't see him starting for the Bombers in 2014. Anyways, part two of six taking a deeper look at the Bomber roster...RBs and receivers is up. http://2ndand10.blogspot.ca/ Feel free to discuss.

Nasty Nate told me $150,000. Ahh...so they got him cheap.

Good guy who put up with a whole lot of crap in his career with the Bombers and is easily a Bomber HOFer. Good, productive receiver who did his job. Also glad to see him make this decision as a productive player and not try to squeeze out another couple of injury plagued seasons where he has to fight for a roster spot.

For sure. Drop questions in the comment section of the blog or ask on here too. If there are specific things people want to know/have questions about, we can try to put something together to answer, especially in season when we have some fresh games to look at. We're going to try to analyze every Blue Bomber dressed in every game (offence and defense) as much as we can in terms of some basic advanced stats (stuff TSN doesn't talk about), but we're also going to try to make it simple and practical so eyes don't glaze over, like mine sometimes do with some of the hockey advanced stats, like when Player X is on the ice in the state of New York after a neutral zone faceoff, his team spends 35% of his shifts in the offensive zone. We won't get that crazy, we'll do stuff like how many yards per carry do our running backs get when they run into Chris Greaves gap.

It's supposed to brainwash you so all you can see are W's...everywhere. Thanks for the feedback.

Hey guys, Had a brainstorm with a friend of mine who is also a football geek this weekend, and we decided to start a new blog on the Bombers and CFL. We were actually talking with a couple other friends about all the NHL and Jets blogs that we look at, and that there's not much on the Bombers or CFL. It will be long-form analysis, and will be really good during the season if we stay motivated. We were talking about it and we think there is a real demand for some in-depth looks at the teams, players and games, and that's what we're going to try to do. We'll really get going with the grading of players and advanced stuff during the season, but for the off-season we are going to do a critical overview of every teams roster, and we'll do some stuff around the draft. Our first post is up, part of our "Mid-February roster analysis," it is on the Bombers QB situation. We're going to look at the Bombers in 6 parts (QB, RB/REC, OL, DL, LB/DB and special teams) plus an overall assessment/discussion. Then we'll look at the other 8 teams, likely in much less detail. Check it out. http://2ndand10.blogspot.ca/

How much could he be making as an RB coach at a small NCAA US college? The University of Central Florida isn't a small US college. Their football program likely pulls double the revenue of the Bombers every season, and more in a season like the one they just had. Keep in mind that their players are a very low fixed cost through scholarships and housing, the only people they spend money on are coaches. They won the AAC (an AQ conference) over Louisville last season and beat Baylor in the Fiesta Bowl (BCS bowl). Their QB will probably be a top 10 NFL pick in the upcoming draft along with Louisville's Teddy Bridgewater. Barrett will be making well into 6 figures there, with stable benefits for himself and his family. The only way someone would leave a job like that might be for a CFL head coaching position.

Taman has never valued volume when it comes to the draft...which is why his drafting is all or nothing, compared to guys like Popp, Buono and Barker.

Because Gill is going to be a great CFL player, more likely to contribute right away (again, assuming no NFL) than any OL on the board too.

He looks like every red-headed trucker I saw any place I stopped on the interstate when I drove from Winnipeg to Toronto through the states.

There's a better chance of the Bombers winning the Grey Cup in 2014 than Coombs starting for anyone at running back in 2014. I think he'll be back with the Bisons, if he's unlucky he'll get stuck on someones PR, his best chance at football glory is 2014 with Yantz, Demski and the Bisons. He's a project as a CFL player. IMO if he turns out he'll end up being a less jacked version of a guy like Durie, he relies way too much on his crazy agility against CIS defenses, something he wouldn't be able to do in the CFL, more of a find the gap, hit the gap kind of running style needed play to play. Gill and Demski are the bonafide CFLers on the Bisons right now. Gill is who I would pick 2nd overall...unless he gets drafted by the NFL, best pick for now and the future.

Gagne-Marcoux had recurring back and shoulder injuries and retired last off-season.

I think there are about 5 iterations of the ratio that would happen before we saw the Bombers starting 2 NI DB's (out of the traditional 5 spots) willingly, including starting a NI tailback. I think the hope is that we can rotate NI's through 2 spots on defence, Some combination of 2 of the following: Thomas and Lucas playing some DL, Newman/Muamba at safety, Bucknor playing dime in some packages, Newman/Sherman/West playing dime/LB, Stephan playing some LB.

So Ottawa is a bunch of hacks, Montreal has no depth... hate to think what you have to say about Winnipeg... I guess that leaves pretty much Sask as the only team with a good OL in the league? Saskatchewan and Calgary. Toronto and BC both have a lot of high-end young guys. Everyone else is pretty much in the same boat with Edmonton and Hamilton standing out as especially bad among the bad.

Not necessarily...but it's a different style of football, especially for OL, so it adds something on top of what any rookie would need to adjust to coming from CIS which could make it a longer transition, but depending on the individual it could be smooth or it could be tougher...much like it would be for any rookie. I'm sure it is something he'll be quizzed on.

Huh? Goossen doesn't play CIS?Simon Fraser plays in the GNAC since 2010...NCAA D2. Interesting I didn't know that. How does it compare to CIS? Pretty similar, a little better. They went winless in their first season, but they weren't the greatest team in CanWest either. It's the 3rd tier of NCAA football after FBS (1-A) and FCS (1-AA).

KGroh was handed to the Redblacks by a team who didn't have another option at centre and ended up signing Sorensen. Has Albright even dressed for a game? Montreal completely let Barrette walk after the season and they have no depth. They have marginal prospects, failed prospects and injured guys. It's an expansion team.

Huh? Goossen doesn't play CIS? Simon Fraser plays in the GNAC since 2010...NCAA D2.