Zontar

Rumour is he has one offer on the table which fuelled his urgency in bailing on HAM.

What's to "close" ? the guy is already under contract.

Hard to say but this has been ongoing since at least the end of last season and not since CW's tweet.

This .

Affair was a charade from the start. A lot of this poor Chris Wms . as victim "the system is broken" reaction was laughable. He and his agent rolled the dice, like the indicted turning down a plea and taking chances with a jury, and they lost. Move along.

Imaginary report card written by a WPG columnist based on offseason absolutley no one will care about by the end of the weekend nevermind by the start of the season.

Hamilton Tiger-Cats. Offense: QB Burris. OL: Simmons, Hennesy, Hage, O'Neil, Husband, Dile and the addition of RT Greg Wojt. HAM is very deep at NI OL with both youth and experience. Has some tough choices to make especially with vets like Hage. Rec: Grant, Fantuz, Charbonneau-Campeau are locks. Like the OL they are deep and young here and have decisions to make. Williams' depature makes room for a rookie import - HAM has signed several in recent weeks. But how players like Stala, Giguerre and Jones fit in is a challenge. RB: Walker. Rookies Gable and Lamar have also looked good at camp. Three other rookies being looked at presently. Defense DL: Boudreaux, Davis, Moore, Peach. Like the OL a lot of people are being looked at. Need an NI to step up for a tackle spot. Hazim or Gascon-Nadon. A newcomer could very well steal a DE job.Look for lots of rotation with NIs like Shomari Williams. LBs : Lawrence, Johnson, Knowlton, Bowman. Question mark here is when and if Bowman becomes healthy and how he is plugged in and if Lawrence can handle a starter's work load. DBs : Hinds (NI) , Webb, Bucknor (NI), Patrick, McCullough, Colclough should form the core but unit is a major state of flux with lots of talent being looked at. Special Teams : Lamar, Gable, Giguerre and and recently acquired rec. Leong are in the mix in the post Williams era. Trick for imports is finding a roster spot. Lost some experience on coverage but a raft of young NI talent via the draft should negate. New Additions : LB Lawrence, DB McCullough, LB/DL Williams, OL Wojt. QB Brohm. Draft :Number one selection DL Linden Gaydosh (currently in other league). DL Urban (injured, expected later in season).Rec. Marquand. Previous draftees signed : DB Stephen, DL Gascon-Nadon, DL Atkinson. On the Bubble : New regime and a 6 win season doesn't add up to job security for some. Would not be shocked if vets like Peach, Knowlton are let go, Rec. Jones may have trouble fending off influx of new recs. Same goes for some OLs like Dile. 2012 Summary. Cats proved beyond doubt the addage that defense wins. Despite often spectacular offense a highly porous and , frankly, unprofessionally prepared defense was the number one reason for last year's failure. Cats were elite or near elite it almost every other department. Its no mystery as to why there's so much change there this offseason. 2013 Outlook Defense, defense, defense. Has to be better. New DC Steinauer should lend some credibility and respect back to that job. Addition of MCullough will go a long way to shoring up that unit. Despite underperforming there's talent on the D-line worth building around. Challenge for offense is Burris maintaining last year's high level. No Williams means the ball could be spread out even more and less focussed on one player - Cats still have lots of weapns here. New coach Kent Austin has already putting his philosophical stamp on the team a mix of postivity and perfectionism in contrast to Cortez's grumpiness that the team never really could get past. How playing in Guelph affects things is unpredictable but there is no reason to say the offense wont be effective again and even a modest improvement on defense means Cats are in the mix for a playoff spot as anyone. 10 wins.

This is what is baffling to me - They literally did nothing besides sign a flashy coach. I hardly think that warrants a C especially considering where they finished last year. Not to mention the whole Chris Williams fiasco. Fuuny, people are usually complaining HAM getting A's for their usual big offseason moves and now a C is too high.

What salary cap ?

Odd 'cause Mack never cheaps out...

With cool logo they salvaged something good out of the naming fiasco and media leak . Name and logo was never going to please everybody anyway. Anything old school would be seen as "too old fashioned". Anything unusual or new would be "ridiculous".

Funny, he'll get a relative boatload of cash from SSK and does anybody really know how many starts they'll get out of him nevermind quality starts ?

Sounds like the game is down to short strokes. Chick's agent is telling interested parties to step up quickly.

Wonder if the Austin/Tillman connection he had means anything for HAM. Interesting, but have no clue if he's effective anymore.

Hearts were a flutter in SSK a few weeks ago when Chick was released from his NFL team and informal talks with Riders began. "Only a matter of time " was the prevailing prediction and SSK fluttering hearts were almost jumping out of bodies. But now his agent , the infamous Gil Scott , sez its not as easy as that and other teams are interested too. Worth the cap hit ? What could he bring to the table anyway ? Thoughts.

Best thing is it wont be controversial and we wont have any disagreements.

Will be happy to do HAM preview. Nice looking site. Decent chaps too.