GCn20

Luckily our receiving from the backfield is not as important to our success as in past years. We can shut Andrew down for the regular season, put in Brady who will go for 70-100 yards rushing a game and not miss a beat. We are not running the Lapo short game anymore. Had this development occurred in late 2019 it would have been far more devastating to us than it is now. I think Oliveira has been very impressive so far in his first season. Like all rookies he will become more consistent and just needs more reps. The guy can run. I would like to see him get more involved in the short passing game in the flats and then we will not miss a beat post-Harris. I certainly would give BO at least another season of FT duty before even thinking about that. He's shown he is capable imo. Also, Harris is not just the best NAT RB he has been the best RB period. There is no reason to believe we will find an IMP of that quality very easily either. I will add that Buck seems to be a lot less reliant on monster performances from his RBs game in and game out.

No surprise really. I think if he had to play he could but we have the luxury of shutting him down for the season. I would be shocked if he wasn't back for the playoffs.

Nah....snowmobiles have awesome suspension nowadays and groomed trails really save your back. I had an 08 Seadoo and it was a backbreaker...but I am upgrading this year and buying my buddy's FishPro. I drove it last year and it has built in suspension on the seat. Night and day. I have a pontoon on my home lake but it's nice to have an easy load, trailer. tow unit for when I want to go to other lakes. Not sure about travelling in avalanche country though....that would likely make me nervous too.

I trust the coaches to use our talent to the max.

Don't get me wrong....Rose is a top 3 DB in the CFL. He will upgrade us too, but we were fine without him is what I'm getting at. For us he is a luxury signing, for our rivals he would have been a HUGE instantly make their team a lot better and close some of the talent gap kind of signing.

Rose was not a necessary signing for us because he significantly upgrades us, he was a necessary signing for us because of the amount he would upgrade someone else if we didn't sign him. There is no way we could let Rose walk to a division rival at this point of the season. Imagine the upgrade he would represent to Calgary, Saskatchewan or BC's secondaries. I wouldn't want Zach facing him and now we don't have to worry about that. I guess a lot depends on how fast he can pick up their offence really.

I think Eli is our most likely candidate to get a legit NFL chance. He has the huge advantage of actually being on the NFL radar before. Desjarlais, Stove, Alford all have UDA pedigree and would need to go the workout to futures route. The NFL is not coming for them they have to have good agents working them hard for opportunities. Eli likely has some eyes looking at him already though. Whether he has done enough for a team to bring him in remains to be seen though. Name recognition is huge in the NFL though, and NFL scouts have actually heard of Eli.

I'll vote Walters for Canada's next PM even if he doesn't get Oakman....heck I'll vote for anyone over our current slate of choices. If Walters can build Canada like he did the Bombers we'd be in far better hands than we are now.

Yea..I heard he still has access to the Bombers training facilities and medical staff. Can't participate in meetings or practices and is not under contract but not out of the Bombers plans yet. Reports were he was having a great camp until his set back.

I think that Bryant comes back for another year at least, he is still playing at a high level. Jeffcoat is in line for a big raise, hopefully, we can afford him. No chance Biggie retires imo. He is still balling and loves the game. Imo, there is no chance Harris retires unless we really lowball him. He wants to pass Roberts for the Bombers record and he won't get it done this year. We've outbid teams for Jefferson before, no reason we can't do it again. That being said, Jefferson stayed with us in 2019 even though the Argos offered him more money.

Supposedly 100% according to MOS in late August.

I think that Harris will come back but it will require a big shave in money. Biggie will be back, and I think we have a great shot at Willie J again. Players of concern for me are Nichols, Alford, Jeffcoat and Lawler. Players we may move on from are Adams and Neufeld. I think another GC run and a chance at a dynasty would cement our chances of bringing back who we want from both our team and any FAs we would target.

He wasn't under contract so it's not tampering. BC had the option to sign him.

Loyalty and class were never his strong suit. Glad that Rider fans got their come uppance with him after bragging relentlessly about how he chose them over the Bombers. Now they can see Labatte cares about Labatte and that is all he cares about.

That O'Shea loyalty has paid off in spades. The proof is in the pudding. We all questioned it....and we were all wrong.

Salary cap can't change until the CBA expires. Didn't even change this year. Teams were asked to commit to the SMS floor is all.

Labatte bailed on them for sure, and I'm not sure he would have been any better had he showed up. I think old Brendan saw the writing on the wall. Apparently he was in awful shape just prior to opting out. Some Rider fans were reporting that he looked to be about 400 lbs.

I agree. You can DEFINITELY lessen your odds dramatically of your picks ending up as busts. You'll still get some busts. that's the nature of any draft, but by scouting thoroughly, knowing what you are looking for, and doing a good assessment of character your draft record can be improved dramatically. Take the Riders for instance, under Jones they took futures consistently and drafted guys like Shepley who let it be known their priority was the NFL. While compiling rights to a bunch of skilled players it does nothing to put players on the field. Drafting guys who will never show up in a CFL camp, or will look to leave first chance they get ala Judge, Demski, Shepley is not a recipe for success even if they are the most skilled guys when your draft number comes up.

I'm not sure why Edmonton did that either, a little more understandable though as they are kind of in rebuild mode so getting your NATs a little playing time instead of airlifting people in is a little more excusable....still strange though. I know that the covid protocols make airlifting a lot more problematic but in Saskatchewan's case if they get an OL they are a contender, and without one they are dead, seems really weird that O'Day doesn't seem to want to address this? Not only that but they have been awful from day one...it's not a recent development.

Walters was our ass't GM and director of canadian scouting under Sleepy Joe so he was definitely involved in the decision to draft Mulumba. However, at the end of the day Mack has to wear that. All in all though I don't have a problem with the Mulumba pick as he was NFL calibre talent. Not a bust. Just a guy we could never get signed in the end. We had our shot at him a couple years ago and Walters wouldn't do the deal because he was asking for too much cash. If we had signed him who knows how that pick is viewed now. A swing and a miss to be sure and a wasted pick in hindsight but really not an outrageously bad one. A gamble that didn't pay off. I still say that I think Mack drafted him because his buddy in Green Bay was going to do him a solid and release him but Mack got fired and Dom gave the Bombers a screw you instead. It can't be overlooked that Mulumba did come available in his prime and we were unable to come to terms with him though.

A trade would be tough. However, the RIders are currently starting 9 NATs. 4 along the OL. Why they aren't airlifting a couple IMP OT and OG prospects is beyond me. They could go 3 IMP OL without breaking a sweat and get pylons like Ferland and Boyko immediately off their OL. Corney was a 2nd rounder so I wouldn't call him a bust. With Waggoner we bid our 1st rounder and paid dearly since it turned out to be the 1st overall but he was developing nicely until he decided making sports drinks was more profitable than football.

Corney and Waggoner weren't busts. Both played well in there time here. Waggoner was a good STer and valuable back up and Corney was about the equal to what we have in Kongbo now but his career was shortened due to injury.

You forgot 1st overall Faith Ekakitie in 2017. Wolitarsky cost us a 3rd rounder. Ekakitie was easily Walters worst solo pick in the 1st round but the Wolitarsky supplemental made up for that boner.

Not a cultural fit is code for he openly questioned the teams coaching or management.

What absolutely astonishes me is how a CFL GM can allow 5 OL to walk away, or retire in a single offseason and not do a damn thing about it. I get that O'Day was caught off guard by Vaughn's injury and Labatte's retirement but he absolutely failed miserably in signing Bladek, Blake, or Shepley to extensions or to properly guage that Cofield's knees were so wonky he had to retire. But even if all of that was excusable how on god's green earth does he justify continuing to roll out that abomination of an OL 10 games into a 14 game season. Lauderdale, Ferland, and Boyko are PR level OL at best...maybe not even that and there are no other options even. O'Day has had 3 months to bring in adequate OL...he has done nothing but supply his coaches with absolutely sub par OL. Why on god's green earth is this guy not bringing in or trading for OL? Poor old Craig Dicky is going to get terminated for some god awful GMing by O'Day and Fajardo will likely have his career ruined due to shellshock the same way Drew Willy did.