Captain Blue

I hate Lawless with a burning passion. He hides behind his "I'm a columnist" line for everything. I'm not really sure how much he actually knows anything about the Bombers, or if he just purposely trolls since that seems to be the way of print journalism nowadays.

I can report that Friesen doesn't have a clue about anything. Sources say.

Good for him. Interesting to see if it leads to something bigger later.

Eh, not sure I want him. He'd be a really good backup, but I'm concerned they'll want to start him, either right away or if/when Willy struggles. And then we start the QB carousel all over again...

And yet you are basing your opinion on media interviews. We are all basing our opinions off what we see. I place more emphasis on what I saw on the field.

Just out of curiosity ... why? Doesn't strike me as cerebral enough to coach. How cerebral must one be for a QC role? How would you like me to answer that? I have seen Buck read defenses - coverages, protection schemes, blitzes. Perhaps he will make a great coach one day, since play on the field isn't the complete indicator of coaching success, but I wouldn't be the one to take that gamble.

Just out of curiosity ... why? Doesn't strike me as cerebral enough to coach.

I'm fan with him being an ambassador. Tremendous guy, who is pretty much well-liked by anyone who's met him. Coach? No thanks.

I hope the meme of getting all "name" players to coach here dies. I don't want Pierce back at all. Outstanding person, but really we need to focus on football and not employing former Bombers.

Considering the price tag of the trade and how a lot of people feel about him (including Danny Mac) I think there is a really good shot that Brohm gets groomed ASAP for the backup spot to Willy. He was a big time player in college. Like most guys coming to the CFL they will come with the "weak arm" label attached to them, but he was pretty accurate. Willy, Brohm and Hall is a decent stable of QBs. Pretty much all unproven still but at least they come with potential. We knew what we had before wasn't good enough.

I think there's a lot more to the situation than just the cash on the table. Lots of variables in play. A player's looking for money, a chance to win, maybe be close to home, perhaps a coaching staff that's familiar with him or a place where he thinks he can become a star. Teams are looking at finding players that fit their system, manage a cap, not overpay for someone but not cheap out, and certainly no team will ever put themselves in a position saying that they need to get Player A at whatever cost it takes. There is always a cut-off point. That's just good business.

Eh, I'd rather really look for a new running back.

At the training camp sessions I've attended over the years, I notice they mostly watch a few minutes, enough to satisfy the blurbs they need (best catch, scrap of the day etc.) but don't really watch enough to know what is going on beyond what they are told by coaches. I've been to training camp sessions where a guy literally makes one nice catch but drops everything else, slow out of his breaks, quitting on his routes, basically everything bad a receiver can do, and he's touted as a guy who should be in a battle to make the team because the reporter was watching for the 3 minutes where the guy made a great catch and didn't have any drops. The one I went to last year when I also picked up my tickets, I saw a number of media guys hanging out around the entrance of IGF and kind of watched for them throughout the practice, they didn't really come in and pay attention until they started scrimmaging, missing all the positional groups and 1 on 1's (2 on 2's and 4 on 5 pass pro) between OL/DL, REC/DB's, and the pass skelly, important stuff if you are going to actually look critically at guys. Most of them are just on their phone or tablet throughout the practice. Sometimes they're just in a group mingling. They've just got to get enough to make a fluff piece, that's really it.

That'd require our media to actually pay attention and notice. Just for fun, has anyone actually seen some of the media members at training camp? I get that they are long practices but sometimes I swear they're not even paying attention to the field.

I'm interested to see what they do with the Canadian(s) in the secondary. They seem to be loading up to ensure some flexibility there.

Officially confirmed as Alexander, I am pretty stoked. Nothing wrong with more Canadian competition, plus familiar with Etcheverry's defense.

I don't see the allure of Higgins. Firing Popp would be a huge mistake.

Can't imagine Alexander's price would be high right now. Love it. Increase the Canadian competition at camp.

Also how come Montreal isn't being blasted for not having a head coach? I can imagine the media here would really be in a tizzy if the Bombers didn't have a coach in place.

I think O'Shea has done a pretty decent job with the staff. Decent with potential is how I would describe it. It's not great or even thrilling, considering both coordinators have had some rough patches in recent memory. Still, I don't think we should discount the positives either. Etcheverry's Sask defense was really good. That shouldn't be overlooked. Nor should MB's offense in Hamilton with Glenn at QB. I think you can make an argument, depending on how much emphasis you put on their succesess or failures, that they were good or bad hires. I think we are trying to classify hires immediately as good or bad when really, the lines are blurred.

Why not? Proven Canadian. As long as the money isn't ridiculous, I'd sign him.

While I still far prefer the royal blues, I don't really hate the uniforms as much now. I actually really like our away ones. The home ones are still meh. They overdid it and so it looks weird. Because of the design, they also look terrible when fans wear them. Shoulder pads are needed for it to look decent. If not you end up with trim for the shoulders down on the fans' arms.

I think we can find a way to get the best players on the field. Are we certain we want Banks at LB? I understand all the concerns about wanting to see Player A or B on the field, but I also think having too many good players at the position isn't a bad thing. We suffered a lot of injuries at OLB last year too. I want Parker on the field personally, but having too many good 'backers isn't really a concern for me at this point. Strengthen the roster and figure out the rotation in camp.

This will be different in June and July...around the time the depth chart really matters.

Thought Edwards was going to be cut last training camp, and didn't think he'd have much of a role with this team going forward. Happy to see him retire and not try and hang on by a thread. He's a really good guy, was a tremendous player for us and someone we and the organization can be proud of.