bigg jay

No, you're not crazy for thinking that. I don't think anyone puts out mock drafts worse than Ferguson's. In the past, he's had versions that did not end up with a single correct pick. It gets people talking though so I guess that's the point.

Once they hit 300k is when they lost their 2nd pick. Had they been 100-300k over, it would have cost them the first round pick only. Anything under 100k is a dollar for dollar fine.

Agreed but they've been rewarding mediocrity through the draft for a few years now. This is just a step from the extra territorial draft picks they've been handing out.

Yep, Bombers left him on the PR to end the year so he clearly wasn't a top priority for them.

Bombers were one of the 4 CFL teams to be on hand to check out Ali Saad. Canadian DL Ali Saad tests for 25 NFL teams, four CFL teams at Bowling Green pro day - 3DownNation

Sliding in the draft and sliding in the rankings are 2 different things though & he slid in both. If there was legit NFL interest, his ranking would have gone up, not down. There were a couple knocks on him (weight and foot speed) but nothing that couldn't be improved on over time. It was also a deep draft after a bunch of players deferred from 2023 - he probably would have gone higher in other years. Whatever the reason, I'm glad he fell far enough for us to grab him!

He was fairly highly regarded. The CFL had him as their #2 ranked player in the fall before he started to slide (#6 in the winter & # 12 in the spring). We got him at 17 so a bit of a steal when you figure a few of the guys rated higher would be getting NFL looks. FWIW, Ferguson had him going 3rd in his final mock draft while Hodge had him going 4th in his first mock (16th in his 2nd).

This. Sideshow Ed is now claiming he meant there's no Michael Jordan level superstars. That's true but there are very few people in any sport that have achieved that level of fame - that's beyond a superstar to me and is more like a cultural icon. The CFL absolutely has it's own superstars, even if they aren't known world wide.

Canadian DE Isaiah Bagnah posts pedestrian numbers at Big 12 Pro Day - 3DownNation Less NFL interest is great for CFL teams but probably not so great for the player. Bagnah was ranked 4th in the latest rankings and is the highest rated player scheduled to be participating at the national combine.

It was listed on the CFL transactions page a while ago (March 7th) but the club only announced it officially yesterday. Winnipeg Blue Bombers add defensive back - Winnipeg Blue Bombers

Probably has a pretty decent scarf collection too!

He's highly impactful on the number of posts on MBB but on the field...

Tbf, there haven't really been a ton of Bisons go at the top of the draft. Demski is the only one I can think of that we passed on (took Chungh at #2 that year). Maybe Zach Williams but he was the last pick of the 3rd round so not a late pick but not a super early one either. There are 5 Bisons currently playing in the league (not including guys like Gassama who have yet to crack a roster) and we now have 3 of them so we do like having them here.

That's why I said startling line-up. Thomas getting cut is too much to ask for! 😂

Star Wars has always had a huge British element to it (from the Empire being based on Imperial England, to many actors being British and much of the filming/production being done in England). Lucas, at times, gets too much credit and not enough blame (IMO). His writing has always been a bit clunky - his ex-wife cleaned up a lot of the dialogue in the original trilogy to make it work. She did not work on the prequels and it showed. You also can't really say anything past 1981 strayed from his vision when then prequels (1999-2005) were 100% him and they were no where near as good as the original trilogy. The original series had different directors/producers and such so that wasn't a huge change (those 3 films each had a different director, 2 different producers and 3 screenwriters) but Lucas was there to handle the overall story for the first 6 movies, which the last 3 did not. I think the last 3 films could have been better if there was some continuity off the screen in overseeing the story to make it consistent. They started out good on that path by bringing Lawrence Kasdan (co-writer on Empire Strikes Back & Return of the Jedi) to co-write The Force Awakens so they fit well with the original trilogy. Abrams was offered The Last Jedi but turned it down (because Disney's schedule had no time off between filming the projects & he needed a break) so they brought Rian Johnson in. Johnson had no connection to the series and he had his own vision, so he went in a different direction with some things. Abrams came back for Rise of Skywalker but now had to to tie his original story into what Johnson had done and it wasn't great as a result. I think if Abrams had been able to do all 3, it would have been much better but we'll never know.

I don't think Miller had any coaching aspirations but it happened. I only thought it might be a possibility for BA based on the way he's been described as essentially being an on-field coach for us.

Hoping that's 95 days until Thomas is kicked off the starting lineup!

Yeah was hoping he'd go the Mike Miller route and stick around as a coach but if he still has the itch to play then I guess it wasn't meant to be.

3DN misinterpreted his goodbye to the Bombers as him announcing his retirement. His agent clarified he's still looking to play next season. "He took to social media on Sunday to thank the team for their time together, which some outlets, including this one, interpreted as a retirement message. Instead, Alexander’s agent reached out to 3DownNation to explain that his client isn’t retiring and is still actively looking for his next playing opportunity."

Found this interesting: Some in CFL circles believe the team will lose not only its first-round pick but also its second-round pick, meaning the violation will be over $300,000, though this remains unconfirmed.

Currently pick 7th as Edmonton used their first round pick in the supplemental draft. We'll move to 6th if BC does lose their pick too.

Yeah bit of a brain fart on my end, not sure why I was remembering Babych as a forward. I was looking at Christian's last season with the Jets (82-83) & almost half of his points involved Babych somehow (meaning both guys a point on the play). He was putting up points with MacLean early that season but that didn't seem to last - DeBlois was the only guy he really kept scoring with all season. Hopkins was mostly in the minors that year (only 12 games with the Jets).

Not so sure about that. Christian did put up some good numbers but he wasn't here all that long (just over 3 seasons) and was more than happy to get out of here at the first opportunity. He was pretty open about it when we traded him to Washington. He had a far longer career with the Caps than he did here. His time with Arniel as a team mate did briefly overlap but they rarely played on a line together. Christian was mostly with Dave Babych and a rotating 3rd player (mainly Luchowich, MacLean or DeBlois) while Arniel was with Smail/Boschman/Watters. Christian did get the only assist on Arniel's first ever NHL goal so they did have some brief spots together.

Not a surprise. He had a bad season and was targeted/picked on a ton. Also dealt with injuries all season so maybe he bounces back next season.