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Totally agree. Walters need to find a suitable replacement ASAP. What you won't convince me of, after watching him for 6 years, is that Eli is that guy. We really should cut bait on him too.

Eli has clearly demonstrated that he is not a particularly good OL. The coaches know this. This isn't some fresh faced guy, he's had numerous games under his belt and has been well below average in all of them. Why would anyone think he would be better all of a sudden? I get that no one is particularly impressed by Kola, and rightfully so, but change has to be for the better or why bother. Replacing an inferior talent with an inferior talent is not a particularly bright idea. If we want Kola gone then Walters has to get to work.

I agree, better would be good, now direct that anger at who is responsible for bringing in the talent. There seems to be a huge disconnect on this forum in that regard. Look, I'm not going to sit here and say that Osh doesn't make some poor roster decisions, but I will defend him when someone says we should bring in inferior talent just for the sake of change. That never works out. When someone better is behind someone and not being played the point is valid. However, you brought up Kola and Neufeld as examples of players taking up spots over better players in house. That is fiction.

Yes, that surely does say something about Walters work doesn't it? You have to be off your rocker to think that coaches would rather lose than upgrade their roster. This forum sometimes.....

In a rotation with Bighill was the best use for him at the time and probably would have remained so if Biggie didn't get injured. Biggie may have been eclipsed in stopping the run by Jones, but he is a way better cover LBer than him on passing downs. That is a Jones weakness. I have defended Tony Jones all year here, and will continue to do so, because I think he is a decent MIKE but he was no better than Biggie on passing downs and in fact was not as good. Where we saw the real improvement was against the run where Biggie was struggling. I agree on finding someone else. Like I said, I am no Kola fan. I just don't believe the answer is in house and that is on Walters. If Eli showed any ability to be a starting Centre he would have gotten a look by now. Sorry if some guys want to live on what we saw early in his career, but he never reached his potential.

I agree. He looked promising before he stepped away from football after 2019 but he has clearly not been the same player since.

Yes, a veteran guy we brought in and he definitely helped but he had a bunch of playing time prior to Biggie's injury already. We were using him on running downs in rotation at both MIKE and WIL. Eli has not shown the ability to play at a high level when inserted into our line up. What confidence should the coaches have in him after what he has displayed thus far? The guy has stunk when he has been put in as an injury replacement. I will concede that has not been at Centre, but the crux remains that you still have to show an ability to block even at centre.

Teams barely scout PRs of each other? Based on what are you saying this? Who says? I've seen umpteen examples of teams taking prospects released by other teams and getting good use out of them. We've had several players released by us get looks in other places only to be released by other teams. You are not arguing with facts in any way, shape, or form right now. You believe we are not giving players development? How so? Do you think that playing players that are not developed is the way to develop them properly? That is nonsense. Not one iota of your counter argument is grounded in reality.

How can you say that? Who has come in as an injury replacement and pushed a starter out lately? Can't think of one. Therefore you suggesting something is demonstratively false is completely opinion, and without any basis in fact to back it up. That is called opinion, not fact. That is arguing in bad faith. If you can give me some tangible facts, I am willing to reconsider my opinion but just saying this is the way it is based on nothing is not a particularly compelling argument.

You can use that as a metric though, if we are passing on quality starting level talent other teams will gladly bring them in. Every team, no matter how much they scout, will not gladly take a quality player that slips through the cracks elsewhere. We've had numerous players that we've cut get looks elsewhere only to be cut again.

If we had a coach that was keeping inferior players on the regular for some unknown reason, we would see these players surfacing elsewhere and realizing their potential. I don't see a single guy we brought in that is making any sort of meaningful impact anywhere else. Can you name on guy who we passed on that is more than a rotational guy anywhere else? Therefore your theory that we are letting gems slip through the cracks isn't really supported by anything tangible. Not saying it isn't the case, maybe it is, but at this point that's purely conjecture.

Yes and no. Surely Collaros made some bad decisions, but mostly because Buck allowed him to do so. Sometimes and OC has to take the green light away and that was Buck's biggest flaw. What we have in Hogan will be really put to the test with Schoen and Wilson (almost certainly going to be cut by the Jets) set to join us soon. That vastly improves our receiver set. If our offence can't get on track with the addition of these two guys then we know we have a huge problem at OC.

Neufeld has been rock solid the past several years. Old? Yes. Still playing good football? Yes. Really kind of an odd guy to pick if you are talking about a guy not earning his spot. Has Eli ever gotten a chance at C? Nope, has he earned that chance? Nope. The guy is here because if he ever gets it together he has all the skill in the world, unfortunately, he doesn't seem to bring it on game day. I am no huge Kola fan by any stretch of the imagination but thinking we have an in-house replacement for him right now is wishful thinking.

Yea...I think you could say that about every football forum ever in any pro league. An OC has never been good enough even when they clearly have been. That being said, I am not a huge Hogan fan right now. Sometimes a football forum does have a valid reason for criticism. That being said, Walters didn't give the coaching staff much to work with in the passing game.

I can agree that it's not one or the other, both management and coaching staff are not performing well. My point is that at the end of the day, talent level is a GMs job not a HCs. How that talent performs on the field is coaching. We have a talent defiiciency for sure, and the talent we do have is not performing up to snuff...or at least to the level we now demand as an organization. Top teams stay top teams by demanding excellence and we are not getting it from Walters on down to the players on the PR.

Eli might be good enough, but he certainly hasn't earned any opportunity with his play thus far. If he wants the job, and this is the biggest problem with Eli, he has to perform. The guy has all the talent in the world but plays half arsed when he gets into the lineup. That is not even debateable. Any time we have called his number he doesn't show up to play at the level he probably can. Problem with Eli isn't talent level, it's effort level. If he wants the job, he needs to demonstrate that he will bring it.

I'm not going to argue that he should have been sat earlier, or that our coaching could use improvement, but a call down to the sideline? Nope not buying it for one second. I'm not going to let Walters off the hook just as you won't let Osh off the hook. IMO, Walters is the worst of the underperformers. Guy has had a terrible last 2 seasons in the job.

Neufeld and all big men occasionally look like they are done for by the 4th Q. Did you have a problem with his play? I agree that at the moment we could use another NAT OL for our PR. Fact of the matter is that we are almost certainly not going to find a NAT OL that is nearly as good as Neufeld either internally or externally. That needed to be done in the offseason. It is not a case of a coach being loyal to a fault to a veteran when the veteran is by far and away the best option.

Why would Neufeld feel threatened? He has been a stud for us. Who should replace Kolankowski? Eli? He has been awful when we have put him in. I get that our OL is not good enough right now, but changing out players for weaker players just to try something almost never works out.

The guy was benched and then released. PERIOD. To say that it was Walters that made that decision is nonsense.

Yes, because we have never let young OL get into our starting lineup. I mean c'mon...you guys are laying it on a bit thick. We have swapped out a ton of guys on our OL over the years.

That's nonsense. It was the coaches who sat him out prior to his release. It was the coaches that forced him to the PR. At least give credit where credit is due instead of coming out with some narrative to explain away one of there better moves. You are showing your bias.

Tony Jones has been solid all year.

Yea..the play was there. I don't mind it either. Just a real nice close by OTT safety. If you don't take that shot with that read then fold the tent and never toss the long ball again.

Easy on Randolph, that is something that happens on literally every play and is rarely called.