AKAChip

I say we leave Bruce uncovered and just double one of Green and Richardson. Bruce will find a way to screw up any opportunity he gets anyway. Chip Cox is the other person on D that worries me a bit but other than that, the D is certainly beatable. Of course I mean beatable by a passable offense so let's hope that we have one.

Hamilton: Is Kent Austin a proven HC? I suppose to some he is and to some he isn't. He won a Grey Cup as we all know but that season as a whole was fairly average and they did run into some favourable circumstances. His NCAA career was fairly lacklustre but that probably has little to do with how successful he will be in the CFL. In my heart, I believe he will be an upgrade over Cortez (but how could he not be?) but I also thought Cortez would be a good fit last year. They have a rookie DC in Orlondo Steinauer and as terrible as Cortez was last year, the one thing no one can dispute is that he ran a great offense. It is probably a good thing for the Ti-Cats that he is gone, but they will be implementing a new offense which could easily not be as potent as it was last year, especially considering the fact that their offensive personell is not nearly as good as people make it out to be. I'll start with Hank Burris. No one can dispute the career year he put up last year but that's the thing, it was his best statistical year in his career at age 37. The years prior to his change of scenery had been a steady decline and he is only becoming less and less mobile with age. People talk all the time about Calvillo being primed for a down year but I have heard little speculation that Burris will struggle. Frankly, a mobile QB at that age who had a "resurgance" after a few bumpy seasons is a prime candidate to disappoint. Of course I could be way off here but all those facts combined with the loss of Chris Williams and Avon Cobourne (who as underwhelming as he was as a runner, was a great blocker and an above average receiver out of the backfield) leads me to this possible conclusion. I am also not even remotely sold on Chevon Walker as an every down RB. He had a sensational start to the season using his premiere speed but between getting hurt and becoming VERY underwhelming after the first few games, leads me to believe he isn't the second coming that TSN wanted us to believe. When compared to Cobourne, his blocking is atrocious and he isn't the between the tackles runner that is generally successful in the CFL. He does have great speed and is a good receiver out of the backfield but in my mind he is in a race with Hugh Charles for the worst starting tailback in the CFL and it's not really close. At receiver, without Chris Williams these guys are not scary. I'd like to remind everyone that their number one import receiver is Bakari Grant. He's solid as a number two or three I suppose, but does he compare to Edwards or Matthews? He may even be just barely on par with Denmark. Fantuz was a sure-handed but slow SB who wasn't so sure-handed last year. Signs do point to a bounce back from him, but as of now he is not the dominant SB he was in his one great season. Giguere is no better than Poblah at this point in his career and Onrea Jones is the epitome of painfully average import receiver. Greg Ellingson had a good pre-season but does that mean anything at this point? Questions galore here. I won't go into too much detail about the O-line. The interior should be good with Hage, Wojt and Dyakowski backed up by Husband and O'Neill but import tackles Marc Dile and Brian Simmons have been average for the couple years they have been around. All I've been hearing is how much the defense has been improved this offseason. Sure, they couldn't get much worse than they were last year but other than McCollough, I don't really see it. They added Shomari Williams and Brian Bulcke to the defensive line. How those additions get anyone enthused will be an eternal mystery to me. As of right now, as far as I can tell the starting ends will be Greg Peach and Brandon Boudreaux. Both are decent if unspectacular players but both were also the ends for most of last year's debaucle on defense. Williams and Bulcke should sub-in at some points but as of right now, they are both overpaid NI spot starters. Terrence Moore looked good in spurts at tackle last season but the season before, so did Robert Rose and he washed out of the league last year after the obligatory couple of games for Saskatchewan. Torrey Davis is starting the year on the injured list but he will also be in the mix at tackle. I have an immense amount of respect for Jamal Johnson at linebacker and he is really one of only a few really solid spots on this defense. Markieth Knowlton was once the premiere SAM in the CFL and was a deserving defensive player of the year a few years back. The last two seasons have been rough on him, however and he is at this point merely average at his position. The good thing about this group is that they no longer employ the abomination that was Kevin Eiben, but the third LB spot will either be Simoni Lawrence and MLB or if Johnson plays MLB, Ricardo Coclough at SAM and Knowlton at WIL. Both of them are former Eskimoes and had some success last season but neither are the big name free agents that everyone always hopes Joe Mack brings in. In the secondary, I'd first like to discuss their starting safety James Patrick. I realize this guy is a "big name" and that gets people all hot and bothered but I can't stress enough how atrocious this guy was last year in Saskatchewan. He was never a strong tackler and made his money on turnovers much like Jovon Johnson. When the INTs stopped, the poor tackling became a bigger issue and his cover skills are in decline. He is most certainly a shaky part of this secondary. Evan McCollough and Dee Webb are both good players and should be solid parts of the secondary for the new few years. I imagine Ryan Hinds will probably start at corner and two years ago when he was a regular starter, he was a real nice place to attack every game. Based on what I read on the roster, the other starter at DB will be Delvin Breaux. I'm not saying this guy is not going to be good, but how in the hell would we know at this point? At least Demond Washington has some CFL experience. I didn't even realize how many potential problems the Ti-Cats will have until I went through in all in my head. This is a team that many people have fighting for first place in the division (as per usual). I personally just don't see it. I realize that some of these questionable spots will probably work out for them but looking at the big picture, other than QB and mayyyyybe LB (but that's questionable) where are these guys better than the Bombers? And don't say Punter even if it's true. Riders next.

The Bombers are very clearly better off in the East than the West for the forseeable future. Ottawa won't be good for at least a few years, soon enough Montreal will be in decline and pardon me if Hamilton hasn't ever caused me to shake in my boots.

Thanks for your input and reply, bluto. I appreciate hearing your end of things. I try my best to be in tune with the other teams in the league by reading TC reports and such but it's still not the same as having someone who is genuinely a fan obviously.

I was being sarcastic.

Come on Mike, Saskatchewan has three long snappers on their roster + PR. How could we let Matechuk get away?

This is something I really disagree with. I think people take for granted how hard it is to field 7 quality NI starters let along backups that can be adequate starters. Labbe is far from perfect but he is a very good special teams guy who in an absolute pinch can play defence. Too much has been asked of him in the past but to say he is part of the reason for suspect NI depth is pretty unfair. I won't speak for Carter or Etienne (yet) and I am the furthest thing from a Poblah fan (oh how I wish we had Ted Laurent) but at the very least Poblah and Kohlert are serviceable depth guys at worst. The bottom line is, our NI talent is far from the bottom of the league and is consistently improving. We have 7 NI starters that don't bring the team down (Swiston over Morely would be nice but for now, I can live with it) and there are young guys in the pipe. To expect us to have not only 7 NI starters that can play but also world-beating backups is pretty unfair. Just put it this way, who is backing up Emry in Montreal? Brian Ridgeway? Nicolas Boulay? Exactly.

Alright, moving on to Toronto. I know everyone is talking about how good these guys are and all that and I recognize they are the defending champs so they've earned the benefit of the doubt to some degree. That being said, I can't think of a team with more question marks on defence than these guys. I will get to that later though. On offense, Ray is obviously a top-tier QB so there is no qualm there. Again, as Mike mentioned earlier, that main thing that separates the Bombers from every other tea, in the league is obviously quarterbacking. I do agree that at every other position, they at the very least stack up to most other teams but Pierce is at the very best an average QB, if even that. But this is supposed to be about the Argos and I have digressed. I should also mention, that Harris and Collaros are both impressive at backup QB and I actually like their QBs 1-3 more than anyone else's in the league by far. Your third string QB can of course only get you so far but it's worth mentioning. Kackert is a dynamic and effective RB so again they have no real question mark here and although their receivers aren't as good as Montreal's are, it isn't a real position of concern. I still don't think Owens is that great of a receiver and Durie is a good receiver buoyed by his NI status but they are a serviceable 1-2. The real key here is Inman who in my mind is a tremendous talent who should only get better in his second season. Barnes and what's left of Romby Bryant are average enough 4th and 5th options. At OL, they are good but not great. I will be honest in saying that I don't really know who is going to start in this group, perhaps bluto can enlighten us, but Eppele and Reinders are good prospects at the very least. I imagine Tony Washington will start who is certainly not dominant for an import OT but at least decent. Van Zeyl, Keeping, Parenteau and Wayne Smith are also in the picture in some capacity and all are average to good NI starters. This is a good group nonetheless. I didn't discuss special teams much with the Als because Sean Whyte is solid but I would like to discuss the kicking game of the Argos. To me, this is a question mark. As of now, their kicker and punter is Swayze Waters, an import. I am not a huge fan of this guy personally as he has a strong leg but his accuracy is very questionable. They also recently signed Noel Prefontaine, which isn't a ringing endorsement of Waters as well in my eyes. The defence is a huge question mark outside the outside linebackers. I know some will say that they were in a similar situation last year and brought in guys like Pacino Horne, Pat Watkins, Ahmad Carroll (who himself wasn't all that good but that's another story), Marcus Ball, among others and will lightning strike twice? Perhaps. Chris Jones does know what he is doing, there's no doubt but no matter what his track record is, doesn't take away the fact that there will be many new faces and CFL rookies on the Toronto D this year. Their D-line is all new faces and should end up being 75% rookies. We all know Khalif Mitchell is a great talent and frankly, I don't care one bit that he's a nutjob since his play hasn't really declined in his three years in the league. He should be a standout on the line. The other tackle position will be filled in part my Jermaine Reid or newcomer Kiante Tripp. Reid has been a serviceable NI spot stater in the league and Tripp is completely green. There should be some growing pains there. At end, Flemons and Foley are gone (not that they were world beaters anyway but they were veterans who could play). In their place should be a combination of newcomer imports Johnathan Williams and Nekos Brown and NIs Cleyon Laing and David Lee. The two NIs are talent players, no doubt but they are in their first and second seasons respectively and have little to no in game experience. At LB, Marcus Ball is already one of the best WIL LBers in the CFL, if not THE best and Brandon Isaac parlayed a reasonably successful career as a HB into a very good season at SAM. Both are very solid. The MLB position however, should be an adventure. As of right now, I assume the 35 year old Robert McCune will start the year there, but I could be mistaken. Don't get me wrong, he's a serviceable and respectable player but even at a younger age, he wasn't among the top LBers in the league and at 35 one can only imagine that he doesn't have a ton left in the tank. NI Jason Pottinger has played the position in the past as well but his best days are behind him. The secondary, outside of Watkins will be entirely new as well. Watkins had a sensational year last year and for my money is a top 3 CB in the league if not better. I have an immense amount of respect for him as a player. On the other hand, the Argos will really miss Horne and especially Evan McCollough, a player I really thought the Bombers should have signed. He is probably the most underrated DB in the entire league and is not even remotely easily replaced. Of course there are some promising new faces that are going to try to fill the void but they are just that, promising. Who's to say that their new faces at crucial positions are any better prepared than the Bombers'? The names Jalil Carter, Jermaine Gabriel, Joshua Gatlin, Shane Herbert and Jamie Robinson don't mean much at the moment and any one or few of these guys may end up being as good as McCollough but as of now, they are question marks. Very similarly to the Als, the safety position is the one of most concern. Jordan Younger was not a spectacular athlete in his older age but he did do a very nice job of quarterbacking the defence. As of now, NI Matt Black is the new safety and how he does is very up in the air. I'm not going to write the guy off, but he always seemed like a career special teamer to me thrust into a starting job because the Younger retirement took the team by surprise. The Argos have many excellent players and that pains me to the bone to say but there are holes in the lineup. Could they find more Marcus Balls and Pacino Hornes? I'm sure some newcomers have what it takes but the fact remains that there will be at least 8 new starters on this defence and that could certainly lead to some problems. Hamilton next.

Yes, thank god they signed Anwar Stewart to put themselves over the top. Surely he was the missing link.

I highly doubt the fans of other teams hate Mack so much that they want to see the Bombers suffer and lose. The media mayyyybe and other GMs I can understand but the average fan I can assure you doesn't care one bit about Joe Mack.

So basically the general thoughts that I have been hearing around this and other Bomber boards as well as from fans of the other teams in the league is that the Bombers are basically the consensus last place team for this season. I realize that most of the time these pre-season predictions are pure garbage and that on paper, the Bombers do have their work cut out for them but looking over the other teams in the league, there are pressing questions for every team based on personnel and why the positions in question for the Bombers are thrust into the limelight while other team's concerns are largely ignored, I'm not entirely sure. It's probably mostly due to the fact that our QB situation is by far the most questionable in the league and that is obviously very important but I'd like to take a moment or two to go through the questionable areas of the other teams in the CFL. Montreal: First of all, I'm not going to say that Calvillo one year older is primed for a decline because we say it all the time and it never happens. It's going to happen one day, but to say it will be this year is very premature. There is no doubt that on offense, these guys are set. At OL, QB, WR/SB and RB there is no real issue. Whitaker had an injury plagued season which could be considered a question mark because of his style of play and Messam isn't an everyday tailback at this point in his career but for now, let's say the RB position is solid. You could make an argument that they need to replace Brian Bratton at WR but Bratton was the epitome of painfully average so I can't imagine even a downgrade of their 4th option is that big a deal. The real questions are at HC and Defense. As far as Dan Hawkins goes, Marc Trestman's success in this league was a large exception to the rule. Popp has proven to be prudent when hiring Head Coaches, but history shows us that rookie Head Coaches rarely step in to immediate success, especially those with no previous CFL experience. I feel like this is something frequently overlooked. On Defence, there are even more questions than the Bombers have had. Let's remember that this was a below average Defense a year ago and they have lost their most steady DB from a year ago in Seth Williams. Other than John Bowman, their D-line is incredibly unproven with A-M Cash, Scooter Berry and Ejiro Kuale by all accounts going from LB to DE. I'm not saying that these guys do not have the potential to be good but with the three of them plus John Bowman coming off a down year, why do these guys get the benefit of the doubt when the Bombers' D-lIne with two proven players in Turner and Hall plus Mainor who has had success in the league has everyone fearing for their lives? Even Gilmore has about as much experience as both of the Montreal DTs for this season. At LB, SAM and MLB are obviously not a concern but with Kyries Hebert moving to WILL, is this really an upgrade over Rod Davis? We all remember how painfully average Hebert was at LB when he was here, and now he's 33 years old and no doubt slower. The secondary probably has the most questions of all. Anderson and Williams are gone, replaced by Geoff Tisdale (who had a terrible year last year) and Byron Parker (who has clearly lost a step and is in the downstroke of his career). Neither of these guys put any fear in my mind. Billy Parker and Jerald Brown have been good but not great players for the Als in the past but they are now 32 and 33 respectively this season and are above the age when DBs begin to decline. It's not like these guys were consistant All-Stars at the position anyway. I am under the impression that at S they are using either M-O Brouilette or Mike Edem. Edem is a raw rookie who has talent, but is still completely green and Brouilette is a special teams guy who I relate to Labbe playing MLB. This should be an exploitable area. My goal for these posts is not to say that these teams are terrible, because they aren't. I just want to point out that every other team in the league has question marks, some have pretty significant ones. I will move on to the Argonauts in my next post.

meh I wouldn't read too far into the list. I mean you could argue very easily that right now Shawn Gore is better than Fantuz but it doesn't matter much since it's pretty close anyway. Sure, the position is technically weaker now than it has been in the past but there are a ton of above average Canadian receivers in the league right now which I doubt we can say about most other eras even if they did have the bigger names. Even on the bombers, they have 4 guys at the moment who I would have played over Geoff Drover and Jamie Stoddard any day of the week. As far as Fantuz's overall ranking? TSN has always had a thing for guys that have one massive year, especially if they are Canadian (Foley, Labinjo, even non-imports like Baggs are still garnering press from TSN long after they stopped being great or even useful players) so it will take a lot of drops to bump him off the list but the fact remains that even as a slightly above average receiver, he is still either the best or second best Canadian receiver in the league.

I can understand the other two but Cauchy was a starter in the league. Whether he was an average starter or not is up for debate but to say he doesn't have experience is completely untrue. Dunn at SAM is worrisome I agree but it shouldn't be for more than one or two games. I won't say it doesn't worry me because it does but no team in this league has CFL experience at every position. It's a spot we will just have to bite the bullet and take a chance with for a game or two until Sears comes back. As for Parker. He has little in-game experience but it is far better than going into a season with a raw rookie. He has a season to learn the league and position and had a good camp. Is he destined to be a game-changer at the position? Chances are no, but he has given every indication of being able to play the position.

There's not much to discuss about the LBers. Muamba is obviously not an issue, Bowman started as a raw rookie and no one seemed to care, with Parker he has a season under his belt and has looked good. Lack of experience doesn't mean it's a sore spot. Sears is hurt and has the ability to be a very good nickel. What exactly is the problem here?

This is a pretty odd thing to be sarcastic about. Look, I hate the Argos with every fibre of my being and I loathe Kackert's smug face but I can't deny that he is probably a top 3 maybe even 2 back in the league. He's really good.

Can't argue with that.

NIce to see all that waiting paid off for him

I suppose, but why bring in a guy who is not only 30 but has little to no success in the league when they have a guy like Jennings who is younger and was serviceable in their own system last year. I mean this argument is kind of silly since we're speculating a situation that will by all accounts never happen but there are better options for any team than Riggs. Bringing in a 30 year old running back is silly in most circumstances because there is literally zero upside.

Gerald Riggs is also 30 this year. Not prime RB age.

What does this even mean?

Well then thank you for stating the obvious.

I agree with everything JBR says but I will add my own two cents. Let's say for example you are concerned about the WIL position this year. Obviously we weren't bringing in anyone in the past because we had Bowman and bringing in a veteran backup to a proven commodity is both expensive and generally completely uneccessary. Parker is by no means a proen commodity in the CFL and even if I personally am high on him, it doesn't mean squat. However, we are at the VERY least better off with him than we would be with Shomari Williams who is the closest thing to a WIL LB who hit free agency this year. Or if you're in the mood for a DB, last year we could have signed Byron Parker who was signed by BC and had a less than stellar year only to be released and signed by Montreal. Let's see if he lasts more than one year there. To say one "marquee" free agent in the last 4 years would solidify four positions is absolutely ludicrous. Remember when everyone in Winnipeg was crestfallen that we couldn't finalize a deal with "marquee" free agent Richard Karikari a few years back? That one sure bit us in the butt.

By all means, tell me which veteran free agents you would have liked to sign that would have filled a need. This is consistantly the worst anti-Mack argument out there.

He was cut weeks ago.

As much as I appreciate the coverage TSN gives the CFL and these lists can be fun, this particular type of list for CFL players is doomed to inaccuracies because of the nature of the league and how random guys can seemingly step in and become top-flight players. I have no real issue with no one on the bombers being above number 28 since arguably our best players in reality and as judged by the voters (Turner, Matthews and Hall) haven't had success for more than a year or two so the pedigree won't win them a top 20 spot which they probably don't deserve anyway. The real crime here is Chad Owens at number one. Forgetting the fact that his MOP award was thoroughly undeserved and he's merely an average receiver made far better by an elite quarterback but in a QB driven league in which every single other year this poll has been conducted QBs have been at the top by an incredible margin, why all of a sudden does this clown take the top spot? He's a good returner but considering his fumbles and even overall productivity, was no better than Chris Williams or even Larry Taylor. I recognize that he lead the league in receiving last year and me just saying he's really not that good doesn't hold much water but it's obvious that had he just been the league's leading receiver, he would not be number one on the list. His return numbers were pedestrian last year, buoyed by the fact that he returned kicks, punts and missed field goals in high volume.