TrueBlue4ever

This might be my favorite thread for that Simpsons screen grab alone, lol. Mike Reilly for week 1.

Miller offers way more on special teams, and hard to compare a #1 blocking back with a #5 Canadian receiver. Maybe they could have given up Rush instead of Simonise, but then no back-up FB (don`t think they`d want to beat up Oliveira there, and Augustine is too small).

All fair points, which is why I have Hamilton this week. And I was not fully appraised of the injuries, thanks for letting me know.

Calgary 13-5 - purely a reputation pick, but they have reloaded on the fly for so long I won't remove them from tiop spot until they do it themselves Winnipeg 12-6 - All the positive hype scares me to be honest, because the west will be tight, and if they stumble at all the wolves will be at the door in this city, not sure how they will handle the negative pressure if that happens. BC 11-7 - May start slow, but Reilly will inject a spark into that team and fanbase, and they - will be "the lower seed team no one wants to face" come playoff time. But injuries and little back-up depth could hurt them lots. Edmonton 10-8 - Great job re-building quickly after being gutted in free agency, but they were 9-9 last year, and not sure they upgraded anywhere. Saskatchewan - 10-8 - Will be better than anyone here will give them credit for, but not sure they overcome the defection of Chris Jones, since his defence was so integral to their winning record last year. But I don't see them being the tire fire like out East (happy to be wrong though) Hamilton 9-9 - The class of the East, which is like being the tallest midget (my apologies for the un-PC term, but that is the quote). Toronto 8-10 - Franklin may just carry this team offensively and surprise with Derel Walker at his disposal. Ottawa 6-12 - Jennings will briefly inject some life into the team when he replaces Davis at QB by week 8, but the resurgence will be over by Labour Day. Long year in the nation's capital. Montreal 2-16 - I give them one upset win at home somewhere around week 11, and then the last home game gimme when their opponent rests their starters. Bombers over BC, Toronto over Edmonton Calgary over Bombers (since I always get my predictions wrong, you can all thank me now for jinxing the Stamps), Hamilton over Toronto Hamilton over Calgary in the Grey Cup Reilly MOP over Masoli Bighill MODP Harris MOCdn

If this was not a Bomber site, the Leos would get a bunch more votes, if for no other reason than being the home team. And the Bombers have had a tough go in BC of late, losing 3 of their last 4 games there (and in all 4, the team leading going into the 4th quarter blew a double digit lead). And we know that Mike Reilly can be a Bomber killer on his own. But I picked the Bombers because if I'm wrong it won't cost me a position in the pool to everyone else. But a loss to BC wouldn't shock me. I will say on paper the Bombers are better and certainly deeper in talent, it just might take a bit for them to gel. I envision a 3 point game. And on the flip side, it is easy to dismiss the Riders on this forum, but yet they always seemingly do better than the doom and gloom everyone predicts for them. And 12-6 was pretty far from doom and gloom last year. So Jefferson is out, but they added Micah Johnson, and Elimimian may still have something left in the tank (and even 75% of his best is still better than a lot of players in the CFL), and we know how good that D was last year. Although I can't see them winning as many games solely on defensive scores like they did last year. And their offence is not fearsome (Arceneaux, unlike Solomon on D, does not appear to have anything left in the tank) and not sure if Collaros can ever be half of what he was in his best days in Hamilton, even if he stays healthy, but Powell will be a great equalizer there to keep drives going offensively. Again, I picked Hamilton because they are the class of the East and playing at home, but I'd likely pick the Riders against any of the other Eastern teams, even on the road. We finally saw the 5th place team in the West be better than the second place team in the East but miss the playoffs, fuelling the "one 9 team league and no East and West" debate - this could be the year the top 5 teams in the league are all from the West. Calgary doesn't traditionally lose in July and August, and doesn't traditionally lose at home. And Ottawa by far lost the most talent in the off-season. Stamps are an easy call. Who knows what Edmonton has? Lots of offensive talent last year but no playoff spot, and they seem to have re-built well as "Ottawa west" this year, but Trevor Harris is like Reilly in that he can put up huge numbers but it doesn`t translate into more than a 9-9 record at season`s end. But none of that matters, they are playing the Als. I thought Montreal was in tough to stay out of the basement before they decided that Antonio Pipkin was their saviour. His promotion clinched it. AND THEN they canned Sherman and promoted K. Jones, who ran the worst offence by far in the CFL last year and did all the play-calling because Sherman couldn`t grasp the CFL game apparently. Now Khari is doing both jobs, yikes. Most of the assistants were Sherman`s guys too (including his son, who is still on the team). Here`s a Vegas wager - will Montreal be the underdog for every game this season? The Esks are another easy call here.

The potential problem now is that the Winnipeg market has experienced price slashing in the past (the last Grey Cup here where $100 per ticket was knocked off a few weeks before the game, various concerts that sold poorly and then sold at 2 for 1), and I am hearing some say they will wait for the ticket prices to be reduced, so some in this market may gamble on the same kind of reduction and hold out, keeping sales down in the process (which may hasten the move to cut rates, vicious circle). So does the promoter slash sooner to paper the house, or bite the bullet and wait out the stragglers? The NFL is not hurting for cash, so I don't see them caring about what prices they sell at, but they also aren't too worried about the optics of a Winnipeg pre-season non-sellout hurting the brand in their global scheme, so I don't see the prices dropping. But yes, a bad mis-calculation on what this market could bear, or what their brand is truly worth in a non-market.

When I checked Ticketmaster price ranges before the tickets went on sale I did not see a price offered for the Pinnacle seats. It seems odd that those 4 sections are completely sold out on that side (and were the minute tickets went on sale - I was checking), but there are still a bunch of seats available on the other side of the field that are the same viewpoint. Bottom line, aside from the 4 Pinnacle sections, there are only barely over 3000 lower bowl seats sold based on the Ticketmaster website. EDIT: I have a friend who got seats in the Pinnacle section and he said he got them through a corporate sponsor friend of his, without that connection the ticket would not have been available to him. Just going on what I was told.

Those $400 seats were never available for the public to buy. Held for the corporate folks.

According to Ticketmaster site, tons of seats left. Only 5 available sections have sold out - the 4 cheapest ($75) end sections, and one of the 8 of the next cheapest ($140) sections. I’m no sales and marketing expert, but I don’t usually see seats sell from the worst locations to the best.

Those seat were never on sale to the general public in the first place, impossible to say how well they have sold.

Maybe Simonise, and more likely Bennett, are victims of the salary cap crunch as well. Surprised about Bennett given his special teams work and FG holding when Dressler was out, not sure McGuire was clearly better, but if you are primarily here to hold a clipboard, then you might as well be the cheapest guy on the team.

Well, the QB spot specifically mentions "#3 QB", so not surprising not to see Streveler mentioned. With a blanket "receiver" designation, thought they might include all remaining receivers. And odd to think they have already deemed Simonise (and Petermann for that matter) as a guaranteed back-up when there is still a spot up for grabs. As long as they are still around though, good enough for me.

No mention of Simonise in the receiver battle. He hasn't been secretly cut, has he?

Wonder if the Rum Hut standing zone will be open? I could see a lot of people buying the $75 seats and opting to stand the whole game rather than spend almost $300 just to get any seat in the lower bowl.

People paying this price are going to be sore when the Packers opt not to dress Aaron Rodgers.

Ok, thanks for clarifying. Boy, my assumption was way off.

So, what are you saying?

Final roster. Mount Rushmore is Stegall, Walby, Ploen, and Grant.

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I believe they prefer to be called “thread etiquette white nationalists (#MAGA)” nowadays.

Has Neufeld had even one rep at camp yet?

“Unofficial and of questionable value”. Is he referring to the ‘Riders final roster of players?

He routinely finished last in fitness testing, and Marc Crawford wouldn't trust him in the shootout.

Judging by the early voting, it looks like you'll have a lot of partners on your side and no one on the other side to fight with.

That was the hard part of defining the list - keeping it down to only those who top their respective positional categories. Since Ploen beat him out at QB, I did not include him. But certainly worthy of consideration. Sadly, I had to draw a line somewhere on the nominations.