GCn20

Wilson is gone to the NFL.

Great replacement for Wilson. Well done Kyle.

There is limited time under the CBA to do so without robbing reps from other guys. It's a balancing act. We brought in Dolegala at a time that left us very constricted with what we could expect. Dolegala being a pocket passer offered very limited skills without knowing the playbook well and having reps. He is not a scrambler or a guy that can go sand lot. In retrospect given our timelines it would probably have been wiser to bring in a different vet.

Yes, it is difficult. Arbuckle was about as good a backup as anyone though with the exception of Vernon Adams.

That is true. Not bringing in an adequate veteran backup was a big mistake.

How many people here think we stay with Collaros if Streveler was available? Imo, if anyone thinks that who was available behind Collaros wasn't a massive factor in this decision then they are being biased.

Allstar NAT talent is not easily replaceable at any position. I realize we have a head scratching use of the ratio, but that just speaks to our ability to recruit and RETAIN NAT talent. However, of every one we let walk we lose a ton of flex. Ford is young, improving, and was arguably a top 3 DB in the entire league last year. We gotta do our best to retain him. Yea...he has those kind of skills for sure. Sucks for us if we lose him.

My biggest worry on losing Ford is losing an allstar calibre NAT. At any position you just can't let those walk.

Our defence was excellent last year. I do have a problem with this strategy against shaky QBs tho. Would have liked if we used it less in the GC.

Because you have to take who you are playing into consideration. Realistically there was only one QB on our roster that was going to beat Toronto. His name is Zac Collaros. He was injured, but realistically our only chance of victory is if Zac is able to suck it up in a championship game and overcome the injury. We put Wilson in and he promptly threw 3 straight incompletions. It's not like we didn't try him. Time was of the essence, instead of going back to Wilson we went with our MOP QB even though he was injured. It backfired, and therefore became the wrong choice, but at the time it was a decision that was made on some sound reasoning. Zac's first pass is a long ball to Wilson that was an inch away from being a perfect long bomb for a TD. Football is wicked that way, and inch here or an inch there.

Yea..we were doomed when it became a choice of an injured QB, a rookie QB, or Jake Dolegala. All 3 choices contained more bad than good.

It was a one score game at the time of Zac's injury. Also, I am not sure why everyone is talking like Toronto and Montreal were gimme. These were very good teams that would require us to step up and execute at a very high level in order to win. Some players let us down in that regard. BS to coaching being the biggest issue. It was a factor, for sure, but at the end of the day these teams beat us by capitalizing on our players mistakes, and our players didn't step up enough to make them pay for theirs.

I am assuming Penn is not the last casualty here. We have hired 3 to replace 2. Not something regularly done in the Operations Cap era. I sure hope we aren't losing McManus as well.

Wilson, may reward us with loyalty for releasing him early.

Are they? How so?

Darvin Adams and Andrew Harris wish that were true. We played good football in those games, other teams played better. In this last GC we were seriously hampered by ZC's injury.

Not only that we have turned over roster each and every year. People would like to say we never move on from aging players. That is simply not true, Andrew Harris will tell you that. What we don't do is move on without having a replacement ready to go. It is a complete myth that we never move on from players. Some long time Bombers that were very productive but dropped off were replaced. Darvin Adams and Jeffcoat are others just off the top of my head. Last year we started rookies at numerous positions. SMS forced some of that and will this year too, age also caught up with some and we moved on. We will this year too. I have zero issues with returning Biggie and Alexander for instance. Let them compete for their jobs. If they cannot keep up and we are sitting a better player...that's a different conversation.

Couldn't agree more. I really think we have a very good chance of hoisting the Grey on home soil this year. All we can ask management and coaches to do is to get us the chance to do that. The players then have to bring it home. All 3 years we have lost the championship game, many on this forum have let the players completely off the hook and blamed the coaching. While some coaching has been questionable there were ample opportunities for us to win all 3 games if players make plays despite whatever coaching issues there were.

I get that it is frustrating to lose 3 consecutive championship games. There are certainly some improvements that could have been made, I just don't buy into this whole sky is falling nonsense agenda that seems to be permeating the forum. We are a well managed, well coached team with an excellent culture that players want to be a part of. Would I like to see some different roster management...sure....would I like to see some better coordinating in the big games....sure. Do I think these are firing worthy offences on a team that just went to 5 straight Grey Cups....not even remotely. Do I see an end of our ability to legit compete for yet another GC...not even remotely. Do I think players want out because of anything the coaches or management has done or not done....only those that are seeking more playing time or who we can't offer nearly the same money to because of SMS restraints but that is no different even in a GC winning year. The Bombers now have an excellent reputation around the league amongst the players as an organization that will treat you well and provide you with a chance to win, and that includes our own pending FAs.

Twenty five years ago there wasn't social media. Teams weren't coursing guys on shutting the hell up. They are now. I used to be one of the owners of a popular Bomber player watering hole until a few years ago. Had many great conversations with many of the players, they were very guarded as to what they would share and what they wouldn't share and NO ONE talked contract in public. NO ONE. They vented, they discussed a lot of things, but anything that belonged in the dressing room stayed in the dressing room. If someone looked like he was about to spill some beans after a few beers, he quickly got pulled aside by team mates or the subject was very quickly changed by another team mate. Sure they would make little comments about being frustrated by this or that, or how they were hoping to get a better contract next time...but that's as far as any conversation ever went.

We have played excellent football as a team. Are you suggesting we haven't?

Sure....it can happen with people close to and trusted by the player. These are professionals, they know that what they say and what they do can easily end up as talking points on social media or even in the press. They receive this training as players, and are very careful about what they say, and to whom they say it, outside the dressing room. They aren't sitting around airing out team laundry as the public observes.

Baloney. It's probable that players do all of that for sure but it ain't happening in the public gym for Joe Q Public to go run his gams about it online afterwards.

Couldn't agree more. The whole narrative is overblown. It is frustrating as well...but how the bottom of our rosters shake out week to week is not something that is of huge consequence. The whole hanging onto vets too long is also overdone. Sure there might be 3-4 headscratchers over the past few years but it's not like they were costing us. They still played decent football for the most part. It would be gobsmackingly stupid for the Bombers to fire either Walters or OShea. Idiotic.

You don't know squat about what WJ is going to do. NOTHING. You want us to believe he goes around blabbing his mouth like a school girl? Gimme a break. The only people who know what WJ's intentions are right now are living under his roof....and that only IF he has decided himself. Booch you are way overplaying your hand on this one.