GCn20

Just found some interesting information from an ultra reliable source on Riderfans. He is our Mike. Apparently, when the Riders signed Chick last year they were already tight to the cap so they deferred 120k of his salary to this year in the form of a roster bonus. This apparently happened to various degrees with a few players. He believes the Riders may have deferred as much as 300k to this year's cap.

I also have to question, what if anything, represents the Bombers and the fan base.

These jerseys would have been really nice if they had worked the gold into them.

It has been reported in both the Winnipeg and the Regina media that Taman, even with the 100k overage, doesn't have the cap space to sign both players unless they are willing to go to the Riders for a hefty discount. Taman blew the wad last year. This year he has to budget for that. Not saying it's all Taman's fault. Hoppy wanted the Riders in the Cup at home and likely told Taman he better make it happen.

I'm sure that Toronto does have some very handsomely paid players. Just not as many as Regina. The Rider OL is close to a million dollars all by itself.

Let's correct what I will charitably call misconceptions that you have. TBrack is in the final year of his contract that he signed prior to the 2013 season. Since then he had an allstar year and was nominated by his team for Defensive player of the year. His contract is going up. Sheets was playing on an entry level contract when he left. Ford is making more money this year with the Riders than Sheets was getting. The Riders signed lucrative contract extensions with big signing bonuses to Labatte, Getzlaf, Rob Bagg and gave Durant an almost 500k a year contract. Also, Taman backloaded a bunch of salary from 2013 to this year. Rumor has it that a hefty portion of Geroy and Chick's 2013 salary on the books for this year's cap.

They have already replaced him with _____. I will quickly paraphrase the 100 page thread that would ensue on Riderfans. First 15 pages... Taman lowballed him and he should be fired for not making sure he had enough money to sign him. ( I call this stage 1...blame) Next 30 pages....Dressler wasn't the same player as he was before and the ________ overpaid. We don't need him anyway because Ryan Smith is as good as he is. (I am not making that up...there are some at Riderfans suggesting this) (Stage 2....denial) Next 50 pages.....Dressler is a traitor who obviously has a bad attitude anyway. He will never be as good as he was in Regina anyway and wasn't worth the money we would have paid him. Search for silver lining (more money for Chick etc.) (Stage 3...acceptance) Pretty much how it goes with every player who chooses to move on from the Riders...even though they were a slam dunk to re-sign because money doesn't matter to a player once they've played for the Riders. So far, with the exception of Fantuz and Butler, Taman has been able to pull out the cheque book and keep Rider fans illusions of Shangri la alive. These guys will soon realize that after so many times of doing that SMS room becomes extremely tight and he can't bust out the chequebook with the highest bid every time. Dressler may turn out to be the guy where eyes get opened in Shangri la.

He sold his house in Regina in the offseason and his girlfriend now lives with him. Unless she has a piano tied to her arse she can move with him elsewhere in the CFL. You are probably right that he ends up back in Regina, but it won't be the no-brainer you think it is. There are 2 teams who have already confirmed they will be throwing their hat in the ring on Dressler. (Ottawa and Toronto)...wouldn't surprise me if there are more. It never ceases to amaze me how Rider fans seem to think there team and city is some kind of Shangri-La that players would never consider leaving elsewhere for. Heard the same tripe about Andy Fantuz, Craig Butler, etc etc. Taman will need to break out the cheque book in a big way for Dressler, if he doesn't he will lose him to someone else. Unfortunately for the RIders that probably handcuffs them if Sheets comes back or in renegotiating new contracts for guys like Chick, TBrack etc. before FA. Taman may be considered a hero now over there, but they are about to find out that his long term SMS strategy is not fundamentally sound. So how would Toronto be able to offer any more money than Sask? They have just as many big names to 're-sign'... would think Sask has the advantage in that people actually show up to their games. What does attendance have to do with anything? Are you aware of what Toronto's cap situation is, or are you just rambling? The Riders have been documented by several media sources as being very tight to the cap presently. Haven't heard that about Toronto. The fact that their media is reporting that Toronto has strong interest in Dressler leads me to believe that they either have the cap room to offer him a big contract, or they are willing to make cap room for him.

He sold his house in Regina in the offseason and his girlfriend now lives with him in Kansas City. Unless she has a piano tied to her arse she can move with him elsewhere in the CFL. You are probably right that he ends up back in Regina, but it won't be the no-brainer you think it is. There are 2 teams who have already confirmed they will be throwing their hat in the ring on Dressler. (Ottawa and Toronto)...wouldn't surprise me if there are more. It never ceases to amaze me how Rider fans seem to think there team and city is some kind of Shangri-La that players would never consider leaving elsewhere for. Heard the same tripe about Andy Fantuz, Craig Butler, etc etc. Taman will need to break out the cheque book in a big way for Dressler, if he doesn't he will lose him to someone else. Unfortunately for the RIders that probably handcuffs them if Sheets comes back or in renegotiating new contracts for guys like Chick, TBrack etc. before FA. Taman may be considered a hero now over there, but they are about to find out that his long term SMS strategy is not fundamentally sound.

Dressler still has full PR eligibility left. Wouldn't shock me to see the Bears bring him in for a look see.

Interesting indeed. Love to see Stoudermire doing sweeps in the offence. Would be a new wrinkle that's for sure. Wonder if he was supposed to tweet this though. Might have been something we were installing to throw Montreal off.

Kromah is a very physical LBer and good against the run. Should help in that regard.

Muamba is a lock to stay in the NFL this season.

"he utilized his strengths. Too bad Bellefeuille doesn't do the same" ... to me this is the big deal ... run where you can do the most good ... don't have a philosophy that says you must balance the offense by running up the gut ... hit 'em where they ain't! btw I believe we need to use the pass to set up the run ... not the other way round Well that's a novel approach. You be sure to pass that along to our competitors.

You forgot to bold your all-caps statement. NEEDS MORE HYPE!!! Duane Slay level hype!!! Why you gotta go there? Duane Slay was robbed by a coaching staff that didn't realize how good he was. He was the best LB to never play in the CFL. lol.

Would love to see him debut for the Sask game... this is the RB that Bellefuile needs. Seems like the Colts have replaced the Eagles as our main scouting relationship...? Debut? This guy is not even on our team?

Still a lot of season left. QBs didn't start dropping last year until around Labor day.

He is considered an extremely long shot to make the 53 man. However, he does have PR eligibility left, although most of the NFL pundits are suggesting he won't be asked. I have heard rumblings of a verbal agreement being in place with him for his return. Don't know how accurate that might be.

There isn't a single person on this forum who is qualified to make an informed decision. All we can do is point the indicators of success. Our offensive rankings are pretty good.

Stoudermire was released because Green was the Rider's "big" offseason FA signing. He played decently as a backup last year in Calgary. I think a lot of Rider fans were upset when they kept Green over Stoudermire.

Absolutely, he would be a beast at DE or even MLB.

I'm not sure how he could be eligible. But I've heard some say he is and some say he is not. Just looked into it. He was active for a minimum of 11 games last year (stats recorded in 11) so I don't see how he could be eligible. Baseline is 9. Yep. He is ineligible for the PR. Not sure if he gets any other sniffs around the NFL but if he does it can only be on their active roster. The NFL dream may be coming to an end for Mulumba. Suddenly, that pick is looking a lot better.

The lateral is technically considered a passing play. I'm not suggesting we don't use it, but you will note that not many teams do it very often. It is becoming obsolete. 20 years ago they were used a lot but now teams stay away from them because of the increased possibility of a turnover, and the RBs are so fast nowadays that the sweep is a better option. We could run more of those. Bring back the JET package. lmao

Stoudermire....nice. I was hoping we would play him against the Riders but I'm happy to hear that we may get to see him Tuesday.

Why the hell would we sign matthews and then trade him? That makes zero sense... and as much as i like Allen, what has he done exactly? He's shown he can run behind SASKs oline, just like Ford, Charles,Messam and really name a guy, whoever they put in at RB, puts up big rushing yards....It's really irrelevant who is back there for them, This is the same team that leads the league in rushing and have used like 5 or 6 different backs so far in 5 games... What does that tell you? Tells me, it's not the running back, it's the oline. There's been successful RB's in this league behind worse Olines... Grigsby has been very unimpressive I agree. I think that Grigsby could be better if our OL was better, however, I think that there are RBs out there that would have had more success than he has had behind our current OL incarnation.