AKAChip

Is there a chance the track could bend?

You don't think that a lot of scouts and NFL resources who look highly on a player doesn't mean anything? I know some guys slip through the cracks but for the most part anyone with talent is on the NFL radar, cfl radar or even arena football radar. Ricky Williams, David Boston, Bethel Johnson, Limas Sweed, J.T. O'Sullivan, Aaron Maybin and hundreds of others say otherwise.

I have no doubt that Willy and Hall are locked in at 1 and 2. I have no reason to believe that Brohm will beat out Marve for number 3 because of his "NFL experience." Ideally the better man wins the job. Today, it was Marve by a long shot. Tomorrow, it may not be.

Disagree with this. Maybe it was only one practice but this guy has all the tools. I'm in love. Brohm was easily the weakest of the QBs and while I like what Hall brings to the table, he is what he is. Marve has zip on his throws and one particular example I have is on one play, he showed great mobility on a roll out to his right while being chased by a lineman and while on the run fired a bullet to Donovan Kemp. Perfect throw and a good example of what he can do. It's early, but I think he easily gets the project 3rd QB job on this squad. Yantz surprised me as well. He has a much better arm than I expected. I liked Willy as well. Good arm and he looked like a leader out there. The talent at QB in camp this year is light years ahead of last year. I finally see what other team's fans see when they have a young QB who comes in and really impresses. I know it's early and I can't get too excited but damn. I'm impressed. Nothing like Clement from last year or other first year camp QBs that we've had in the past. It's really tough to gauge anything other than QBs, DBs and receivers so I'll just go over the DBs and receivers now. The pick 6 was Matt Pierce from Hall, not Unamba from Willy but afterwards Unamba chest bumped with Pierce and I really liked that show of camaraderie. Unamba and Pierce are two of the less heralded DB prospects but from a straight up coverage standpoint, they both stood out the most. Still, the receivers on the whole were making the DBs look bad. It's nice to see since that's how 1-on-1's should be but with so much space. It feels like in years past poor QB play and other factors made the O look bad even in practice. Today wasn't like that at all and I'm glad. Hogan also showed decent coverage skills and no one looked flat out bad. Other than one nuts move from Donovan Kemp on a DB that I don't remember. No receiver stood out all that much to me. Kemp made some nice moves and really nice grabs and showed very good speed but also had a bad drop late in the session. Urrutia and Bell are HUGE. Bell is skinnier in the mold of a Doug Pierce and wasn't all that noticeable but you can tell that Urrutia and Brohm have chemistry from their college days. Urrutia probably had the best hands of the session. Tarver is tiny. It looked like none of his equipment fit him but he looked to have great speed and good hands. I think his age will make him in tough to land a spot on the team and these smaller guys rarely get a shot in the offense but it was a good first day from him. Taylor Renaud also caught a few deep balls in good coverage. I don't have high hopes for him but it was nice to see him play well. Barnes made some very nice catches and also had some drops. #45, who I believe is the FB from the Rifles is absolutely massive. In blocking drills with Buck he was knocking Buck off balance every time. He has hands of stone but I wouldn't mind having this guy blocking for me if I were a RB. It looked like Garvin was missing from the session this evening and there was another player who was not in uniform just hanging on to a ball. If anyone knows who this was, I would appreciate the info. Also ran into Gary Etcheverry in the parking lot and he smiled at me. This turned my impression of him around immediately. He will be the greatest coordinator this team has ever seen. Overall, I like the talent crop this year. Didn't watch a ton of the D-line but even with limited reps Kenny Tate looks like an absolute beast. Makes me salivate at the thought of him starting for this team.

I'd rather have a more intuitive, and more physical safety like Sears. An instinctive safety with a presence like Sears has can improve every position in the secondary. No offense to Alexander at all, but Sears wasn't an outstanding corner. He could well be above-average at safety, so if Alexander is even close to Sears ability at corner, that's the better use of the 2 players. Sears was a pretty damn good corner.

I will be there tonight and tomorrow and will happily give my thoughts.

I don't want to completely derail this thread but the Als really don't scare me at any position other than receiver and maybe o-line. On top of it all, Higgins has never really seen a ton of success as a coach even with his long CFL history. He's no Marc Trestman. Never got all the love Troy Smith has been getting either. He was alright last season but he's hardly more proven than even Drew Willy. Bowman, Billy Parker, Jerald Brown, Hebert and Cox are all in their early 30s and while Cox at the very least looks like he has a few years left, the rest of them have shown declining play in recent years and they all play key roles in the defense. It seems like a case of everyone just assuming they will be good because they are the Als. Sure, being in the East helps but Toronto and Hamilton will likely be as strong if not stronger than both BC and Saskatchewan next season.

Yeah, not sure why people could assume Montreal will make the playoffs. Troy Smith is no Calvillo and they aren't nearly the team they have been in the past. They'll have to fight for it.

I am quite certain this was taken out of context.

Schultz was notoriously bad this draft and that's saying a lot. Him saying Toronto were the winners of the first round made me want to chuck my milkshake at the TV.

This is the panel from hell.

Now that Schultz says it's a good move, I'm convinced they messed up bad.

I wonder if Anthony Coombs will skip the draft and sign with us...

Do not want.

But it's not similar because Kelly didn't outperform Etienne. The numbers here don't really lie...

I'm not the biggest January fan but at 30 years old, he has more than one year at best.

Pryor was in a crap situation in Oakland and actually played reasonably well for a first year project starter. I'm skeptical of all NFL washouts (which he isn't yet) but he would have a reasonable chance of success. I would like him more than Troy Smith, no doubt in my mind. Pat White is garbage and always will be.

Every goalie in the NHL has good games, they just have significantly less bad games than Pavelec.

I suppose the argument is that even if he can't, would any backup that we could play in his place even be close to as bad as Pavelec? Stats suggest no.

In what world is Demond Washington not a lock?

Ladd has a great effort level, he's just an average hockey player in every way other than having a great wrist shot.

I think Burmistrov comes back and I think he surprises. I also think that had he not been Russian more people would love him and praise the defensive role he provided while he was here. He was picked around the same time as Couturier and while he may not be quite the defensive player that Couturier is, he's not far off. Their offensive games are similar as well. Couturier is praised as one of the best defensive forwards in the game and a prized young player and Burmistrov is scum? Give me a break.

I wouldn't pull the trigger on that since we could easily get far more for Kane than Eberle who is the definition of a one dimensional player who puts up numbers almost exclusively due to volume. He's not a star and he is not a smart hockey player. He may have more hockey sense than Kane but not by much and his defensive game is laughable.

Yup. What an idiot for declaring the highly paid new addition the starter. Especially since this comes as a shock to all of us.

This truly is the best time of year.