AKAChip

Murphy was the best candidate last time and if he would come here, you give him whatever he wants. Best young potential GM this league has seen in a long time. No way Calgary has the same success in recent years without him. The depth he has built is unparalleled.

Good.

Well it was pretty great, wasn't it?

Or if you want a more intelligent retort, Mack built a team that went to the great cup with buck pierce. Walters has not made the playoffs.

Please don't insult mack like that.Not much football knowledge for you eh? Funny coming from you.

Please don't insult mack like that.

See ya, Kyle. Maybe chevon walker wants a job with Guelph too.

You'd think so, wouldn't you?

"Almost" 300 yards passing against the worst D in the league by far is a rather small thing to be pleased with. I'm reasonably happy myself but that's more a testament to the crap we've had to deal with for years.

Nichols played fine for a backup QB. Has to be more careful with the football but made some nice tosses. Perhaps he's good enough to buy us some time for Willy but this was hardly a Rembrandt. Let's remember how terrible the Rider D is.

I mean I guess the bump was classless and out of line but I kind of think it's hilarious. To me Stala is far and away the biggest dickhole I've ever seen play football. I've never seen a complimentary piece at best be so outwardly arrogant.

I can't handle any more chevon walker.

Yeah, I don't get it... basically Willie sits because Longo is in - going with JFG and Kohlert again... Starting Shell at Safety instead of Sherman or Jones seems strange to me as well Longo slides in relatively cleanly, just needed a roster spot, no ratio issue. Just means that both of the scratches to get to 44 will be imports, likely Kearney and Johnson. Veltung is knocking Willie off. Sherman can't cover well enough to take a regular spot in the secondary, Jones is a corner, not a safety. If anything I'd use Simmons at safety a bit. Shell has lost many steps. Leggett is a cornerback too, what's your point. Sherman and Jones are probably the fastest guys on our roster... I'll take a safety with closing speed over Lin-J Shell - if anything he should backup at SAM Veltung and Johnson probably sit... still drives me nuts that Rempel, Cronk AND Pontbriand take up spots on this roster Has Leggett ever played corner in the CFL? He's been a safety/outside linebacker since day 1 up here. My point is that you can't just plug a guy into a significantly different position he's never even practiced in and expect him to succeed. It's not a video game. You're really shocked that there are players in the bottom third of our roster who are on it to play special teams? Welcome to the CFL. I'm shocked that our bottom three are a downgrade from west, labbe and cvet Lol.

I'll refer you to the topic A Comprehensive Review of Kyle Walters by AKAChip. His take is hardly flattering and while the recruiting process may be on a better footing who are the key acquisitions Walters has made? Surely not Moore or Picard and the QBs have been a disaster although it remains to be seen what Nichols may be able to do. Walters entire body of work to date has done little to improve this club. We are agreed on O'Shea and I suspect Walters will get another year but I don't hold out much hope of seeing any earth shattering personnel moves. I hope I am wrong. willy isnt a disaster.. Nichols is still a to be determined. moore, ok. picard has been serviceable.. We havent had to forcefully yank him yet and he hasnt had any brutally bad snaps. He also brought in Westerman, Bryant, Bass and even hurl could be argued to be better then what we had last season. Your myopic view of what walters has done betrays you yet again. Our canadian depth imo is better then its been in a long time. We could be looking at some good pieces in the future at LB, DB and Safety. You can't honestly believe that Picard has been anything but a disaster, can you? Sure none of his snaps have been over the QB's head, but they are either extremely low or floaters that take nearly a full second to get to the QB. Combined with his atrocious blocking, undisciplined penalties and salary and you get a disaster. Just because he hasn't been forcefully yanked doesn't change that. In fact, it's a testament to O'Shea's lack of accountablity for veterans. No.. Hes been supbar and borderline useless BUT disaster is a bit much. If he was a disaster, Goose or an american would be in there. Hes far from dominant and hes far from the best but whos to say he wasnt selling out hard to cover up greaves play? I'd argue that fighting over an adjective to describe Picard's awful play is pointless but you can call him borderline useless and I'll call him a disaster with no purpose playing pro football. Close enough.

I'll refer you to the topic A Comprehensive Review of Kyle Walters by AKAChip. His take is hardly flattering and while the recruiting process may be on a better footing who are the key acquisitions Walters has made? Surely not Moore or Picard and the QBs have been a disaster although it remains to be seen what Nichols may be able to do. Walters entire body of work to date has done little to improve this club. We are agreed on O'Shea and I suspect Walters will get another year but I don't hold out much hope of seeing any earth shattering personnel moves. I hope I am wrong. willy isnt a disaster.. Nichols is still a to be determined. moore, ok. picard has been serviceable.. We havent had to forcefully yank him yet and he hasnt had any brutally bad snaps. He also brought in Westerman, Bryant, Bass and even hurl could be argued to be better then what we had last season. Your myopic view of what walters has done betrays you yet again. Our canadian depth imo is better then its been in a long time. We could be looking at some good pieces in the future at LB, DB and Safety. You can't honestly believe that Picard has been anything but a disaster, can you? Sure none of his snaps have been over the QB's head, but they are either extremely low or floaters that take nearly a full second to get to the QB. Combined with his atrocious blocking, undisciplined penalties and salary and you get a disaster. Just because he hasn't been forcefully yanked doesn't change that. In fact, it's a testament to O'Shea's lack of accountablity for veterans.

Add James Franklin to that list too. The worst part is that aside from Bell, the other 5 look to be great players.

Signing Romby Bryant didn't worry you even a tad?

Well yeah, I would hope the GM would have say on who is brought in and who isn't. It's a tandem of the GM with his scouting department. I also loathe Jim Barker as a person and as a coach and he still makes some questionable moves (Dave Stalah *cough*) but he brings in a lot of young and young-ish American talent.

I'm enjoying this process because it's truthfully even worse than I expected. The following are players on the Argonauts brought in over the last two seasons to either start or make a significant impact on their current roster: Bruce Campbell, Euclid Cummings, Kevin Elliott, Tori Gurley, Travis Hawkins, Vidal Hazelton, A.J. Jefferson, Greg Jones, Tristan Okpalaugo, Akwasi Owusu-Ansah, Devin Smith, Diontae Spencer & Greg Van Wroten. That's 13 players. Most of whom are regular starters with this team. And this is purely imports new to the CFL.

Thanks for the response, Rich. I'll start by saying I know Mack isn't a benchmark that a good GM should be compared to and I recognize his flaws. That's sort of the point of this though. After all that Mack went through with the fans, Walters isn't faring much better and had he not directly followed Mack, I guarantee he would be on a much hotter seat. I also felt like I did give credit to Walters for his truly great moves. He does deserve full marks for Westerman, Hajrullahu and the Randle trade. Frankly, I don't think that's enough to warrant praise when you put it into perspective with all his questionable moves, but the great ones are great moves. I understand what you're saying regarding me listing Walter's finds and then other finds from across the league being an unfair comparable but I listed those players while trying to make an entirely different point. Sure, Mack had 4 years to build a team. I'd argue that save for QB, it was comparable to many middle of the road teams in the league. It was also the youngest team in the league for 3 straight years iirc. The bottom line is, this roster still has a number of Mack's footprints left on it. If Mulumba and Bilukidi make it here, there will be even more. Two years is a looooong time in football when the shelf-life of players is so short. The fact that in two years he hasn't replaced Peach and last year he couldn't even replace Kuale, Romby, Kelly and even Desia Dunn is terrifying to me as a fan of the team. If you gave me some time, I could look into any team in the league save for probably the Riders and come up with a laundry list of talent brought in over the last 2 years. I can't say for certain right now but I'd guess Toronto, Montreal, Hamilton, Calgary and Edmonton have brought in almost double the starters or impact players that Walters has over that span. I'll have to get back to you though. Just as an example, Elliot, Gurley and Hazelton are all three better than any one player Walters brought in at WR over two years and all three are new to the CFL this year.

This is likely going to be a long post but I've been thinking about doing this for a long time. I will preface this by saying I have never been a fan of Walter's work. I think because public sentiment had soured on Mack to the degree that anyone would have been seen as a massive improvement. I will also admit that I have always had a soft spot for Joe Mack and thought while he failed in getting us a QB, his team did bring us to a Grey Cup with Buck freaking Pierce at the helm. I will divide this into three sections; import recruiting, free agency and drafting. I recognize that some of the failures of Walters are also failures of McManus and Goveia so consider the import recruiting section to be a criticism of all three. Import Recruiting: Walters was hired in August of 2013 as the interim GM to replace the fired Joe Mack. That offseason, the search was on for a permanent GM that included Walters, Duane Forde for some reason and Tom Higgins. I am confident that none of those three headliners would have been good options but that's a story for another time. So if we take into account that Walters has been in charge for more than two calendar years, the following are the players he has brought in with no previous CFL experience that are currently making an impact on the team: Justin Veltung, Jace Daniels, Khalil Bass, Johnny Adams, Bruce Johnson, Moe Leggett & Cam Marshall. I will admit there are some good players on that list but considering that he has had two full training camps and offseasons to build the talent on the roster and to only have 7 of your own recruits become regular CFL players? Joe Mack, fired over two years ago, still has Washington, Turner, Anderson and Denmark on the roster of CFL rookies he brought in himself. Considering the lifecycle of professional football players to have only a 7-4 advantage in import recruits at this stage is pretty terrible. Let's also not forget, arguably our best defender last year was Ian Wild, another Mack guy. To move onto the QBs for a moment, this was something I will agree that Mack had limited to no success with. However, while I will get to Willy in a moment, Walters has failed equally if not more in bringing in his own QB prospects. Say what you will about Brink, Elliott and Goltz but are any of them worse than Brohm, Marve or Portis? Having a marquee starting QB doesn't mean you can fail at finding a developmental or adequate backup QB. We are fully aware at this point what that failure leads to. Franklin, Cato, Collaros even Brett Smith are first year CFL quarterbacks who have at the very least shown they can move the ball. The bomber are stuck with Brohm, a 30 year old journeyman who has yet to show he can even make a 5 yard completion consistently and Robert Marve, a scrambler with no accuracy to speak of. Running back has been a position that in the past has been a boon for the Bombers. Even going back 15 years, Roberts to Reid to Garrett to Simpson. I'm not saying Marshall and Cotton aren't good players as they are fine and injuries have certainly hampered our ability to fully evaluate Cotton but here's another issue. Walters didn't even find Cotton! He was originally cut in Hamilton's TC and then brought here. Not to say you can't find good players that way as Vega was brought in by Mack in a similar manner but it just continues to contribute to the idea that Walters struggles to bring in his own recruited talent. RB isn't even a sore spot for this team without decimating injuries but bringing in Chevon Walker tells me all I need to know about Walters' confidence in his ability. One of the two biggest sore spots for me when it comes to Walters is Receiver. Yes, Veltung looks like a solid enough prospect but to have only one Import recruit to speak of after two years of trying is a complete and utter embarrassment. Toronto brought in three contributing rookies this year. Hamilton has brought in Underwood and Tolliver. Calgary brought in Rogers last year. The list goes on and on and on. Denmark, Moore and Adams are fine players but none are the best at their position to the point where competition should not be pushing them. Jhomo Gordon was the best of what we brought in in the offseason according to the coaching staff this year and he's been a mess in three games played. The fact that last year we not only brought in Romby Bryant (a complete joke and truthfully the biggest red flag last year of Walters' incompetence) but also started him for over half the year is something that would not go over on any other team in the league save for Taman's Riders. Also keep in mind that no one could displace Aaron Kelly from Walters' recruits either. Joe Mack brought in Matthews, Denmark, Wallace Miles, Greg Carr and TJH. All players that made an impact at the CFL level and shames the talent that Walters has brought in. I'll lastly look at the defensive line. Up until this year, Turner and Anderson were guys that we really had no reason to replace but that's also another check by Joe Mack's name as they were his recruits. Meanwhile, while Nate Collins looks like a player, the rest of the linemen he has brought in have been a who's who of nobodies. The fact that no one has displaced Greg Peach in two years and the guy who has shown the most of the other imports, Thad Gibson, was not even a Walters find! Fraser, Willie Mosely, Marvin Booker, Tre Harlan and so on have all failed to make an impact while guys like Alex Bazzie, Gabe Knapton, Willie Jefferson, Tristan Okpalaugo, and Bryan Hall have all come into the league over the past couple seasons and have been great for their teams. Free Agency: Over two offseasons and seasons, the Bombers have brought in the following players; Graig Newman, Nick Moore, Darvin Adams, Stanley Bryant, Ivan Brown, Sam Hurl, Romby Bryant, EJ Kuale, Greg Peach, Aaron Kelly and Dom Picard. I will be generous by saying 5 of those players are hits (including Hurl) while admitting that Ivan Brown is who he is and his was hardly a make or break signing. That being said, Moore and Bryant are the best of the Import lot there are Bryant has not had a great season by any stretch and Moore has been solid, if unspectacular and frequently injured. I'll admit I was never a Moore fan and thought we paid too much for him, but that's the price of not bringing in Import receiver talent I guess. On the other hand, Mack was universally panned for standing pat during free agency and preferring to build with his own guys. Sometimes that worked, sometimes it didn't but looking at that list of players brought in via free agency by Walters, would any of you say that had they all not been signed we would be missing out? Truthfully, I didn't have a category to put Westerman and Hajrullahu in they were of course likely Walters' two shining moments as GM of this team but again, this was a case of signing a kicker off the street and giving him a chance when pretty much every other team was set at kicker and throwing money and a starting spot at Westerman. He deserves credit for landing them both but it doesn't change much. Let's also remember that Walters traded for a 35 year old Korey Banks as an attempt to solidfy the linebacking corps. I will also put the trade for Randle down here and again, another solid move by Walters that I really can't criticize in any manner. Randle, Westerman and Hajrullahu are three difference makers on the roster and all three are Walters' moves. Good for him. This brings us to the situation of Drew Willy. Last offseason, the QBs available were Willy, Collaros and Burris as everyone remembers. Ottawa had the freshly drafted Glenn as their QB but badly wanted Burris for some insane reason once he became available. Collaros was always seen as the best QB on the market followed by Willy. Despite Collaros' success in Hamilton, I am still happy and content with Willy as our man. The problem is, there was almost no way that the Bombers were going to end up without one of the two. Burris was going to Ottawa and the scary part was, the Bombers were making a push for him! Can't imagine Joe Mack ever doing that. In the end, Walters made the trade with the Riders for Willy's rights that Mack didn't make with BC for Mike Reilly's. I'd argue that the price Taman wanted for Willy (Etienne) was pittance compared to Wally's price for Reilly (A first rounder without the right to speak to Reilly beforehand iirc). I obviously can't prove this but put Mack in the GM chair last offseason and you likely get the same result. Collaros to Hamilton, Burris to Ottawa and Willy to Winnipeg. Other than Montreal, who was more than happy to enter the season with Troy Smith, no other team needed a QB. Collaros and Willy were both going to hit the market no matter what and Ottawa wanted a veteran QB to lead them through their first season. I guess Walters should get credit for getting the job done, but I find it difficult to give him a ton of credit. Especially considering Collaros at this point is clearly the superior QB anyway. The Draft: This is where I think Walters actually deserves the most criticism. Mostly because he was never touted as a great American scout with a ton of connections down south, but rather a cerebral CIS guy who could be trusted at draft time. Before we get to Walters' drafts as GM, I want to go back to the 2013 draft, Mack's last as GM of the Bombers. The story was that when Mack was going to pick Mulumba, Walters was convinced Edem was the better pick. After Mulumba stuck in the NFL and Edem had a decent to good rookie year with the Als, everyone was lauding Walters' genius. In the years since, Edem has lost his job to Marco Brouillette and has failed to come close to his rookie season's productivity. Mulumba is still in the NFL but this has been touched on before, I still would rather have a guy like him in the pipeline that Edem who at this point it's known what he brings and it's special teams work for the last few years. The 2014 draft was a weak one and I love the Derek Jones pick while Briggs looks solid enough. Goossen was picking based on need which I hate, but we can't close the door on him yet and save for Pruneau, no one selected after pick two is anyone I feel we really missed out on. I have no negative things to say about this draft so good job Walters. 2015 is where things went off the rails. I love the Chungh pick but people loved the Muamba pick too. It was a need and we picked the best player available. That's what a GM should do. The next rounds were colossal let downs and as bad as anything Mack ever did (Robertson in the 2nd round was just as bad). Richards and Morgan may turn out to be good players but passing on Durant, SML, Waud, Shortill or even Brett Boyko will be mistakes that we will feel for years to come. Conclusion: Since he was hired in August 2013, the Bombers are 12-27. This is not all on Kyle Walters but despite some great moves (Westerman, Randle, Chungh, Hajrullahu) the bad ones and the REALLY bad ones greatly outweigh those positives. I know most of you probably know or remember all this stuff but now with Taman out of the picture in Regina, Walters is the clear bottom of the CFL GM barrel.

Walker is a bum. Sadly this is only Walters' third most embarrassing Free Agent signing after Kuale and Romby.

But just because we're fed up, let's not jump to the conclusion that anyone would be an improvement. Let's hope the next hire is actually the right one. No morons like Higgins or Khari.

Better than Marcel but also not a great option. Bothe are proven HC failures at this level.

I think that's a bit of an over-reaction, generally other than a few positions like MLB, backup QB and overall O-Line strength I believe the Bombers have the personnel in place to compete with any team. Moving Bass to MLB and allowing a rotation of Hurl, Sherman and Newman at OLB would show an immediate improvement in the D imo. While the other two areas are more difficult to fix I think adding an extra import on the O-line would be a rational move to make at this point. We brought in someone to play MLB so why not play him there? We could not play him yesterday because we used four import receivers but between Veltung and Gordon they caught one pass between them. Our Canadians would have done no worst. They killed us with curl ins because the middle was a free spot. Bass should be playing MLB as he's strong, fast & a tackling machine. Hurl should be moved outside where he would be more effective. Not sure I agree with this. Bass is thriving where he is and has the speed to cover a lot of ground which has come in handy on outside runs and rollouts.