JuranBoldenRules

I know Chad Owens trains as a MMA fighter, but I don't think he wants to take on Johnny Sears.

Why would Collaros sign to backup/compete in Ottawa if he could start here, and likely make more money too?

First two drives, looks like the Argos learned the lesson from the 2nd half last week. Drop 8 into coverage and make Hall beat you with his arm.

Start the firings with whoever decided to wear gold pants with gold jerseys.

Irving & Penton thought Bombers could trade for Collaros then he decides to test free agency to see how much Ottawa is willing to offer. Why would Ottawa take that gamble? Ottawa will have a starting quarterback long before February 15. They need to sell tickets. Collaros could decide to wait for a NFL contract too.

If they trade for Collaros they are going all out to sign him too. Very hard to imagine a circumstance where Collaros would balk at the chance to start and earning starting money with 2+ months to negotiate. This isn't like Reilly where Wally put a gun to everyone's head 3 weeks before free agency.

Heaven forbid we lose Max Hall! What would we do?

The Argos blitzed 7 men only three times during the whole game. They were rushing 5 or 6 about half the time, but we were protecting with 6 the majority of the time, so it was rare that the Argos brought more men than we had in protection. Hall was completing passes at about the same rate regardless of how many Argos were rushing him. Completing 6 yard passes against aggressive coverage and 20 yard passes against the blitz...at the same rate.

From the Argos perspective, do they prefer a 3rd rounder or keeping their 7 & 8th best non imports? And a 2015 1st rounder conditional on signing Collaros. You can only lose one non-import, so that's a more than fair deal IMO.

For some reason Toronto started blitzing in the second half, and Hall was able to get around it. If the Argo defence had just played the same way as the first half, the score wouldn't have been close. We probably would have only gotten another 3 points. They would have scored more points on turnovers that our offence would have for sure You keep saying he was inaccurate -- how many passes did he throw that were off the mark during the first half? You seriously think our second half pass protection was above average? Well, if they blitz 7 they are going to get pressure. That also gave Hall a chance to complete a pass to someone wide-open, because he has trouble fitting the ball in against man or match zone coverages.

His broken leg has to heal first.

Explains the usually terrible preparations.

He's proven himself as a GM. He's a mediocre coach, but he's proven he can hire the right coaches and support staff, stay out of the way and find players.

http://www.winnipegsun.com/2013/10/22/season-of-new-quarterback-in-cfl Not a random Penton musing, a quote from a league source.

Nobody wants to acquire players unless they have room to protect them in the draft. Argos also need compensation for losing a better NI than they would if they had Collaros as bait in the draft.

I think the offer would be a draft pick this year, maybe our 3rd, and a conditional 1st in 2015 based on the Bombers signing Collaros. Barker would have to decide if that's better value than being able to protect his 7th and 8th non-imports. Who knows, maybe he makes that decision knowing in the back of his mind he's heading to Winnipeg to be football operations overlord.

Ya, but if someone took Andy Fantuz 2nd overall, you can't take him 3rd overall, similar to what happened with Westerman. You have an exponentially better chance of getting the player you want the higher you are in the draft order.

could be a good deal for both sides... but i wouldn't do it if i was Winnipeg at this time. not because i don't think that it's a fair exchange of values, but because you may not have your starting NI LB after Feb 15 so trading away a prospective starting NI until the one you have is locked in is a bit dicey. agree on that. besides collaros is a free agent why trade if the bombers can get him from free agency. Because Ottawa can acquire his rights for nothing and have him signed by February 15. If the Bombers identify Collaros as they guy they want, they need to move on him before the expansion draft.

If we want to have a good offence, we should plan to "start" 5 NI's on offence, 2 on defence. If Pencer or Neufeld win the RT spot, great, Swiston is the better of the 3 so he'll probably end up being our RG by default. We shouldn't rely on it. That's a recipe for a bad season. We really need to solidify the interior though. For some reason the Mack/Lapo regime had this great fascination with the NI tackles and we've done nothing to procure or develop any interior guys other than Greaves and even Greaves was looked at as a tackle prospect.

If we can find 4 NI OL who are ready to play this off-season with the addition of another team, great. We have one guy who is an above average starter right now in Greaves, and even he is pretty inconsistent. You might want to look into the "Montreal model." Other than the last 5-6 years, Popp used import OL more than anyone, perhaps because of his experience with Baltimore. It would be hard to pin Popp down to any blueprint, he drafts NI's who can play and he'll deploy them anywhere from CB to MLB to OT. Berry was very rigid with how he deployed his NI's and didn't use many more than 7 players on offence or defence, the rest were strictly special teams.

3 OL, 2 receivers/tight end/running back, 3-4 guys rotating between 2 spots (DL, LB and DB) on defence. IMO we'd be stretching to claim that we have 3 starting quality NI OL now, so we need to do some work/development just to fill 3 spots, forget 4. Quantity does not equal quality. We can add every halfway decent NI OL prospect from around the league, doesn't mean we can build a OL out of them. Makes sense. Not sure we have the DB or DL right now though. There are enough DL who will be available that can take 20-25 snaps a game. Ideally we'd have 2 DL who can basically take a spot on the DL between them every down in a 40 front. Labbe can play in a 30 front, that's 20 snaps. Sherman isn't bad at playing dime. We could stand to add NI's at all 3 spots on defence, and will absolutely need to if Muamba leaves.

3 OL, 2 receivers/tight end/running back, 3-4 guys rotating between 2 spots (DL, LB and DB) on defence. IMO we'd be stretching to claim that we have 3 starting quality NI OL now, so we need to do some work/development just to fill 3 spots, forget 4. Quantity does not equal quality. We can add every halfway decent NI OL prospect from around the league, doesn't mean we can build a OL out of them.

Who? Anybody who can start likely won't hit the market. At best you are looking at utility guys who can step in and be average (like Parenteau), or guys that price themselves off of rosters like Picard. You can't count on draft picks to step right in. For one, guys that have that talent ready to go will probably get a NFL shot, and the others likely won't be ready. If a rookie steals a spot that's a bonus, but you can't plan for that. If we are lucky, one of our NI "tackles" will develop into an adequate guard and we'll able to acquire an average centre, which we don't have. Starting 4 NI's on the OL would just be pure ratio desperation because the players needed to do it aren't on the horizon. Well, unless there are zero linemen as free agents coming, I don't know how you can even makes that statement now. Doug Berry turned the oline around in one season using cast off veterans, it happens and should happen again with the right man in charge. I don't know which Berry team you're talking about. Taman traded a 1st round pick and Garrick Jones (probably the best import tackle we've had since the 80s) for Gauthier, Abou-Mechrek returned as a free agent the year before Berry was low-balled after 06 and hoisted the Grey Cup for the Riders in 07, Khan was a dispersal draft pick, Picard was a draft pick, Goodspeed was added in 05. What's it matter how he acquired them, Gauthier & St Germain allowed them to start 4 NI's and the team went from 5 wins to 9, just do it. Gauthier and St Germain were never teammates with the Bombers.

Who? Anybody who can start likely won't hit the market. At best you are looking at utility guys who can step in and be average (like Parenteau), or guys that price themselves off of rosters like Picard. You can't count on draft picks to step right in. For one, guys that have that talent ready to go will probably get a NFL shot, and the others likely won't be ready. If a rookie steals a spot that's a bonus, but you can't plan for that. If we are lucky, one of our NI "tackles" will develop into an adequate guard and we'll able to acquire an average centre, which we don't have. Starting 4 NI's on the OL would just be pure ratio desperation because the players needed to do it aren't on the horizon. Well, unless there are zero linemen as free agents coming, I don't know how you can even makes that statement now. Doug Berry turned the oline around in one season using cast off veterans, it happens and should happen again with the right man in charge. I don't know which Berry team you're talking about. Taman traded a 1st round pick and Garrick Jones (probably the best import tackle we've had since the 80s) for Gauthier, Abou-Mechrek returned as a free agent the year before Berry was low-balled after 06 and hoisted the Grey Cup for the Riders in 07, Khan was a dispersal draft pick, Picard was a draft pick, Goodspeed was added in 05.

Who? Anybody who can start likely won't hit the market. At best you are looking at utility guys who can step in and be average (like Parenteau), or guys that price themselves off of rosters like Picard. You can't count on draft picks to step right in. For one, guys that have that talent ready to go will probably get a NFL shot, and the others likely won't be ready. If a rookie steals a spot that's a bonus, but you can't plan for that. If we are lucky, one of our NI "tackles" will develop into an adequate guard and we'll be able to acquire an average centre, which we don't have. Starting 4 NI's on the OL would just be pure ratio desperation because the players needed to do it aren't on the horizon.