17to85

Your Hamilton run down is my favourite of the ones you've done so far. Good stuff in there and touches on a lot of points no one seems to want to bring up.

and braley was probably pretty unhappy he had to shell out cash to the bombers last time they moved divisions... #OnlyBraleyGetsLeagueHandouts

The Bombers might well have had a Grey Cup if they'd stayed in the east last time.... I mean the renegades and ticats both absolutely sucked at the time, the argos were no screaming hell and the bombers in 2002 and 2003 were actually solid teams but the west was so tough those years and in 2002 especially the esks just absolutely killed the bombers by injuring Stegall at the end of the regular season and roberts at the start of the west final... that's a real big what if year to me because I think the 02 team was actually better than the 01 team, just got put in a ***** of a conference. and to expand on that... I don't see the redblacks being great off the start since they're an expansion team, I see Montreal taking a step back once Calvillo retires and that's coming sooner or later, Hamilton hasn't made any significant progress in the win/loss record lately. The east is where I want to be in the next few years cause the west is still tough and there's poised to be a softer conference in the east IMO.

It's the only sensible thing to do. With Ottawa having folded as many times as they have it's best to keep the bombers there rather than constantly flipping them back and forth. Plus who doesn't want to pick up the easy wins against an expansion team rather than slugging it out in the tougher conference?

I think it's still up in the air but upgraded from questionable to probably.

That's really the biggest thing, Taman was the local medias best friend. He told them so much about what was going on and Mack runs things in his own way and that doesn't include keeping the media in the loop as much. It's funny really. Kelly and Mack do have one thing in common, they both want to control the message rather than letting things out in the media first, the difference is that Kelly came out brashly stating it while Mack just went ahead and did it without announcing his intentions.

As far as depth players all of those guys are fine. Like I said, you can talk about whether or not the top end is up to snuff, but as far as depth goes the bombers are fine.

Things that make a guy feel old for 1000 please

well the bombers with Parker at lb, washington in Hefneys spot and Muamba in Logans spot are closer to that team from last year than anything you saw in preseason....Or are you still pretending that preseason was the actual team playing? That's the thing about preseason, we don't know what the team will look like cause the starters got almost no time. You choose to assume cause guys who wound up being cut got their asses kicked that the starters will suck too, last year with the actual starters begs to differ, we'll just see how rusty they are to start the season.

Disagree with the suspect NI depth. I think the depth is fine. The question is whether or not the top end of the NI roster is good enough. The potential is there, it's whether they play like it.

Hey it's something that seems to fit. We know that Brown didn't like Kelly and Kelly has come out and said that he viewed Brown as a problem player and that he would have got rid of him if he had got a year 2, we know that Kelly was desperately trying anything at the qb position except patience. He had ties to Edmonton already having coached their prior to Winnipeg. Tillman came in at the right time and his tendencies are known. It's really not a far fetched scenario. No more so than Ray going to Toronto for scraps.

I just don't think you get Ray as cheaply as Toronto did unless you're in the situation that Toronto was in. That would be being owned by the king of the CFL in Braley, being recognized as the #1 must fix problem in the CFL by everyone, and hosting the Grey Cup. It was a perfect storm for something to get cooked up to help a pathetic market. It took advantage of Tillmans well known idiocy. Here's something to keep in mind... there were rumours that if Kelly had stuck for a 2nd year he might have gone and got Ray... but the cost would have been starting with Doug Brown... now doesn't that sound like Toronto got a great deal on what the asking price was compared to another place?

Yeah but I'm not denying it at any point.

Got old.

no but it does all come down to the same reasoning. Mack doesn't make moves if he doesn't like it, some guys will go after players they want whatever the price, that rubs people the wrong way if they feel that a guy is being inflexible with them. We know what you think about the bombers roster, but like I said before, you're as big a homer as there is. GIve the bombers stable quarterbacking and the roster looks a hell of a lot better all over just because of that.

There are lots of players who have gone from one teams garbage pile to being gems for another team. It all depends on what the fit is like. Remember people, Vega was cut by another team before the bombers brought him in... hell the best example I can think of is Anwar Stewart being a cut from Calgary when they were absolutely terrible but he went to be a star with Montreal. It's all about who fits with what teams.

Haha you always manage to make me chuckle. Such a raging homer but you're nice and subtle about it. Pretend that it's all the argos guys doing this and not giving credit where you should which would be Trestman and Calvillo. I see what you did there.

I highly doubt that people don't respect Mack. If that were the case they wouldn't always be signing players that Winnipeg has had in camp. I would buy that they don't like him. You can see why that would be in some of the draft videos that are out there. I'm thinking specifically about when they were talking about making a trade and the other team was trying to haggle a bit and Mack just shut it down with a "no we won't do it then" He doesn't play games, he doesn't care to haggle and negotiate, either the deal is there or it isn't and maybe some people don't like it. I agree with Mike though, the roster is only lacking in one position, it's the big one, but once that gets taken care of then I'll take this roster against anyones I don't care who does or doesn't like Mack in the media or around the CFL. I've said it before and I'll say it again, Joe Mack operates in pretty much the exact same way that Jim Popp does, the big difference being that Popp has had Ham and then Calvillo at qb since the Als came back to Montreal, pretty easy to build a team when the most important position has had that kind of stability. Could you imagine what the bombers might have looked like over the years if Khari Jones (same age as Calvillo) had had that kind of longevity?

Good idea for a post. I think a big part of the problem is that people are so focussed on the bombers that they don't pick other teams apart like they pick the bombers apart,

Watchin Roberts run when we had big guys like Bobo and Sheridan was always fun. He'd just disappear behind some of those guys. And a tough little bugger too. He ran like a much more powerful back, he didn't get his yards by running away from guys, he went right up the middle and just made people miss. Really makes you wonder how good he could have been if he took things as seriously as a guy like Stegall did. It's no secret that Roberts really did get by on his god given natural talent.

Last time they tried to mess with the way Calvillo played the game everyone was writing him off as done. Seems risky, I'd have just kept with what was working oh so well for the als offense if I was coaching.

Here's hoping Etienne grabs the spot and never lets go.

but Johnson was getting burned, the safety was getting burned, Hefney was getting burned. Just a lot of guys did not play well on defense last year. It took a while for the d-line to really shape up, Hall especially took a few games to figure the CFL out so the pressure wasn't as good as it could have been, took a while to settle in at the T spot. I'd expect a much better start from the entire defense this year just based on things being relatively settled and continuous on the defensive line, ideally the secondary plays better than they did last year, linebackers should be less of an issue if those areas do better and I do think Parker can do the job at one spot, and Muamba came along quite well as last year went along.

however last year guys were getting burned all over the field so I think it's unfair to single out the one position.

Cornish