GCn20

Time for my wild prediction of the year before the season starts: Jake Maier plays well enough but not great in Ottawa, in game 4-6 Dinwiddie gives Dru Brown the start and he gets concussed and sidelined in his first start. Maier returns to action the next game and begins playing better while Brown languishes on the bench. In week 13 Zac Collaros suffers a season ending injury, and Elgersma gets the tap to start. After a couple games TE suffers a broken foot leading to a Winnipeg QBing crisis. A trade for Dru Brown is worked out with Ottawa bringing him back to the Bombers. Brown catches fire, while at the same time Winnipeg shuffles the deck on defence to tighten it up. Bombers who are 3rd in the West go on the road and begin a heater culminating in bringing home a Grey Cup. Taylor Elgersma, plays a pivotal role on a broken foot throughout the playoffs as the Bombers change of pace QB. At the Grey Cup parade both Taylor Elgersma and Chris Streveler show up shirtless and wearing fur coats and smoking cigars. Life is right in Bomberland again. (I would like to note that I am not wishing injury on any QB in this post and would hate to see this exact scenario roll out with the exception of the Grey Cup part)

I would put TE on the 1 game IR, not sure how being released to the PR would affect his rookie contract status.

Tony Jones could be upgraded on, no doubt about it, but I don't see anyone in house that could take over his role...full time anyway. We should probably start platooning him though...on that we agree. I don't mind Woodby or Smith in passing situations coming in but I think that Jones is a superior run stopper to both of them. Woodby I don't like at MIKE because he seems to get lost in the wash in the tackle box. His strength is on the outside edges of the LBer corps where he can excel. Kyrie, and I believe you and I discussed this at length a couple years ago, I've always liked at MIKE. However, he does have a harder time against bigger backs in this league and that seems to be the direction all the teams are going now. I think on second and long situations any of Woodby, Smith, Kyrie and possible even Shay might represent an upgrade. In all honesty, I thought that JSK had a real legit shot at being our starting MIKE this year, and I believe that is where he was brought in to compete. Unfortunate he was injured.

Woodby is not a MIKE. PERIOD. Ayers could be but the reverse of your argument is also true....prove he is better than TJ, you can't. Every year we do this song and dance with someone that is being "wasted" on the bench because of OSH, then they play and we hear crickets about it afterwards. Getting younger is good, but so is winning. This whole Tony Jones should be replaced because he can't cover theory is nonsense. We rarely put our MIKE in any kind of coverage situation. Younger's coverage schemes put a lot more of our WIL and SAM into those coverage roles and keeps the MIKE out of coverage. I mean honestly, Tony Jones was one of our better defensive players last year. If we are going to grouse about LBers let's talk Kyrie, that validates everyone's point yet we seem to be fixated on the one guy in our LBer corps that actually earned his paycheque.

Tony Jones was good but he didn't start playing at a higher level than Bighill until after Bighill's injury. It was at best a coin flip between the two and Bighill was the QB of the defence at the time. The argument is not false. Soooo many times the guys that this forum pines for finally get their chance and then fall flat on their faces. It really is becoming a bit ridiculous. Jon Jones last year is an example. Guy was a complete turd out there when he finally came off the bench, so bad he got immediately returned to the bench. Yet, he was the guy all season long that was being "Oshed". Turns out OSH was 100% correct in having him on the bench. I could go on and on but our depth the last couple years was almost comically bad. This year it looks a little better but we are still very thin in a couple areas.

Our defensive strategy works, that is all that matters.

We did have 3-4 candidates in camp, and we even signed Santos Knox to compete. Not sure where this fictional narrative of no competition comes from? Because TJ keeps winning the job? I get that Jones isn't at all adequate in pass coverage but he is great in the tackle box. JY runs his defensive scheme so that the MIKE really isn't in coverage except once in a blue moon therefore that criticism is kind or a red herring in our particular defensive style. I'm certainly not going to anoint TJ as a world beater on D, but he is not at all the poster boy for MOS loyalty. Look to the guy on his right on the depth chart and then Bearpants may have been onto something.

I would too but Bighill is gone. Look around the league, the role of the MIKE has changed in the CFL. We did have 3-4 candidates in camp, and we even signed Santos Knox to compete. Not sure where this fictional narrative of no competition comes from? Because TJ keeps winning the job?

Tony Jones was a West all star last year. I get your point but TJ is not a pet. He is a good MIKE, he's no Bighill in his prime, but the disrespect he gets around here is 100% unfounded. If you wanna talk about pets we have half a dozen MUCH better examples than that. The guy lining up next to TJ for instance.

I'll wait to see what we do when injuries hit first but I agree the 3NAT receiving is extremely thin. I would kick Mayala's tires if I were Walters. I would hope that we would go 3NAT OL if Nield/Demski go down. It's unfortunate that Tui couldn't win the centre job because that would have allowed us another IMP receiver.

Couldn't agree more. I hope this 3 NAT receiving group works because it doesn't look great to me.

Who has been picked up at of our cuts, releases, or guys that we didn't re-sign that suddenly started jumping off the page somewhere else. NOBODY. It is complete fallacy that we have some hidden trove of starters languishing behind our starters. Completely fictional narrative. As bad as our roster management is, some of it is because we haven't added the talent to push some of these veterans out. Munier-Bailey had a job for the taking and just didn't play good enough. Same goes with Randall and others we released that were hyped to no end on this forum. Like it or not, the talent evaluation at MBB is piss poor. It is huberus on our part to sit here and think the one practice session a year, some 4 minute highlight reels, and a couple of read scouting reports makes our opinions on new recruits and backups viable. Our professional scouts, GM, and coaches have a zillion percent more information to work from than we do. If Munier Bailey, or Randall, or whoever gets cut or PRed none of us should be butt hurt about it and start with the same old bitching and moaning about roster mismanagement. We haven't even seen a goddamn roster yet. I don't like going 3 NAT receivers, but if that is what coaching feels it needs to do so that we can have a 3 IMP OL...so be it. They would know better than anyone here. If they see more upside in Gatkuoth then in Munier Bailey, so be it. We can't roster everyone, and we can't convince everyone to spend time on our PR.

Yes we absolutely need Gatkuoth's passport on the DL, like desperately. Munier Bailey and Gatkuoth are not every down DE's. Both fill the same role. There is no world where dressing both of them makes sense unless one is a starter. I agree with your point on DL roster numbers, but it is the interior of our line that needs more bodies to rotate, not DE. Look around the league at the number of 30+ starters on any team. I agree that we are probably needing a roster refresh age wise, but we are not way out of bounds by league standards here.

I dont like but can understand the Bailey cut. Gatkuoth and Bailey were vying for the same role and we really need Gatkuoth's passport on that unit. In a ratio world tough choices need to be made sometimes.

This would be the complete opposite of that though. If it was a Jake Thomas situation then Wilson would still be here....he is the Jake Thomas.