GCn20

The HC will only very occasionally over ride an OC's play call and it is almost always in a decision like you described above. 2nd and short and the OC wants to go into the bag of tricks or something and the HC will dash his dreams by over riding. Specific play calling on 2nd and long for instance...nope...doubt the HC even knows the offensive playbook well enough to do so. Growing pains is my way of saying that we couldn't run the complexities of our offence totally because of unfamiliarity with the playbook, and that chemistry was not there yet either. Those first few games last year the timing was brutal as well. Just out of synch and it is my opinion it is because players were somewhat confused and just not enough reps to get comfortable yet.

Yes and no. Buck didn't do a great job last year but it was a mix of things, personnel being one issue as well. We went into last year trying to get younger. Realistically, anyone should have expected some growing pains early in the season to allow us to do that. MOS gave the benefit of the doubt to an OC, that up to last year, did a decent job. Also, not a single one of us knows what conversations MOS did/didn't have with Buck last year regarding the offensive inconsistency. Our offence got better as the season progressed so there is that as well. The GC game....short of MOS running upstairs and kicking Buck out of the booth there was little he could have done.

Should you blame a cold virus for a runny nose? Yes. Throwing into double coverage is a symptom of a weak offensive scheme. Should the QB do it? No....obviously not, but he is paid to make plays and when he is throwing into double coverage one has to ask why the QB felt that was his best/only option. Also, he may have thrown into double coverage 3-4 times all season. Don't exaggerate to try and make your point, we've all watched the games and know this was not something that happened game in and game out. Did he throw into tight coverage often, yes, and that is the DB reading the route far easier than he should have been able to. That's on the OC mostly, and partly on the receiver not recognizing his route tree options based on the DB positioning.

I just hope that at the trade deadline we don't make moves that will compromise our team speed like last year. Monahan and Toffoli, while good players, brought down our ability to roll 4 lines that play with speed. That is key to our success thus far this year, and will be in the playoffs.

Yes, that definitely was a factor in the loss. Kelly was a far more mobile QB and we lost contain often.

Running game certainly helps, but it's pretty straight forward really and doesn't really simplify the passing playbook. You are right that it does allow the passing playbook to be simplified though. The last 2 years we ran the ball more than anyone. We can't blame our offensive woes last year on a lack of running. It was the fact that half our offence were new players and we didn't simplify the play book to reflect the fact that there would be inevitable growing pains because of that imo.

An issue that can't be understated from last year for sure. Buck is a very good OC if you give him what he had to start with. the second we started to rebuild our offensive player group the wheels fell off. That's not a knock on Buck's offence, just that it needs continuity of personnel and perhaps a slight criticism of his ability to tweak his offence to accommodate a bit of a rebuild of our receiving corps.

I think that clip board holders, and QBs that are not highly athletic, usually HAVE to be more well versed in the X's and O's. However, personality and ability to lead is just as important. Anyone think that a guy like MBT would make a great coach?

MOS's roster work and who is kept/released is fair game in-season. Right now roster composition is on KW. There is no pro coach in the history of pro coaching that has ever told a GM to not sign talent for training camp. Anything being done right now is on the GM.

Yep. Even when it's undeserved, coaches wear their record for good or for bad, that's how they are judged. The GM gets the talent assembled. That's his job, he gets the praise/fault for it. The HC doesn't sign the players. The HC is then responsible for taking the assembled talent, evaluating them, and then putting out a winning lineup and putting the talent in a position to win. Anyone suggesting otherwise is talking out their ass. Does the GM and HC talk to each other. Absolutely. At the end of the day though KW decides who stays, who goes, and who to sign and MOS decides how to use them. That is their respective job. KW has an SMS in which HE has to decide the best use of the dollars. MOS has input but the person deciding any players fate is KW in the offseason, and MOS during the season.

I'm not ignoring anything. Jake Maier is not a starting quality QB in this league, Good back up...but that is all.

Nick Arbuckle? Now you are just arguing in bad faith. One win, or one season, does not a QB make and that is why you look at the past several years when looking at a QB's winning pedigree. Harris is not a winner, Collaros is that is why the Bombers can give ZC a little extra rope and why the Riders should have moved on. Simple as that really. How does Zac give us a better chance to win? Really? He's a demonstrated winner. Harris is a demonstrated loser. As to whether the Riders could have made a better offer for Adams? Look at what Calgary gave up and then ask that question again.

I think Harris was a good QB, not great, but certainly passable. What he is now is 40. I don't care if he's Peyton Manning, running it back with a 40+ QB is not a good idea. Could it work out? Sure. However, there was a ton of QB movement this year and the Riders decided to run it back with an ancient QB. If there were no options whatsover, sure bring him back. However, there were options....many of them.

Once again, the right move would have been to pick up the phone and make a better offer for Adams than Calgary did. Hell, half of me thinks we should have done that as well. However, Zac gives us a far better chance to win than Harris gives the Riders. At the end of the day you can put the stat sheet up for Harris but he is aged out. Bottom line is that every time you start a 40 year old QB you are taking significant risk in losing your season.

You don't think O'Day is capable of completing a trade? You may be right, Idk, but the option was most certainly there for them too. Harris has been a league leader in dink and dunk for his entire career. The past 5 years has seen him, WHEN HEALTHY, put up great stats with a losing record to go with it. He has not been healthy much though, and there is no QB I would rather have on the bench or on the IR when the rubber hits the road then Harris. The guy is NOT and never will be a gamer. He is Kevin Glenn 2.0

What was Harris's win/loss record last year? Past 5 years? I don't give a fig about stats. I judge a QB by their ability to win. Selling paper is just to pay the beet bills. Farming is tough nowadays.

Tburg is a beet farmer too....weird...

The CFL has always rode it's starters until they fall off a cliff. Nothing new. Very seldom in my 45 years of following the CFL can I recall a year where every team had a quality starter. I have watched a semi-load of once great QBs just sadly stink up the joint and get shuffled off to retirement though. I expect this to be Harris's year to do that.

Yes Collaros is no spring chicken either. We have discussed this a lot over the months. What aboutism doesn't make the Riders decision to stick with a 40 year old QB any smarter though. Many here are of the opinion that we should stick a fork in Collaros due to his age or at the very least move on after our home Grey Cup this year. He will be as old as Harris 3 seasons from now. I'm a huge Zac fan, but if we are rolling him out 3 years from now I'm call that stupid as well. The reality is that all our young and talented NAT OL keep getting snapped up by the NFL. The NFL seems to have dropped it's Canadian bias when it come to OL. A lot of teams have to rethink their ratio on the OL, us probably included.

Harris not better than Zac, nor is he less injury prone. He is 40 something though and putting all your eggs in a 40 year old QB basket is as risky as it gets in the game of football. No better options? Vernon Adams was there for the taking.

The plan to stick with Harris is foolish.

That's what Lawler made last year. There would have been minimal cap impact. We shed a ton of salary and have not spent much of it at all. We could have easily signed Lawler at 275 and still gone big game hunting. Bighill, Alexander, Lawler..that alone is 300k in new SMS space. New players probably around 100k into that so far.

You are not alone in failing to see any sort of plan either. I don't think we took a "we good" approach, but I think we were sleeping at the wheel on at least one, and maybe more, players. OShea doesn't negotiate contracts Walters does. All O'Shea needs to have is his phone and the ability to answer it. Walters SHOULD HAVE had a priority list of our own FA's already done, and a target list of other teams FA's. That discussion should have been done by January with Walters on the clock to get it done. Not like we needed to pivot because we were tapped out of SMS. We lost out on players we could have kept and didn't add anyone of significance, That's poor GMing unless Walters has a couple aces up his sleeve.

Yea...it really feels like Walters did not come into this offseason well prepared at all. We can speculate as to whether other players may have opted not to come here, but we KNOW for certain Kenny wanted to stay. That is Walters dropping the ball right there. I know Hammy made him an offer he couldn't refuse, but we should have locked him down before that.

I'm not sure. I do know that Lawler would have stayed if we offered him the same as Hammy so it can't be a player(s) not wanting to be here necessarily because that's one big fish we could have easily kept. Just can't get a feel for what Walters is doing right now. Maybe his pipeline is telling him that a couple NFL guys are just TCF and he's waiting on that?