HardCoreBlue

I'd rather bring Palardy back than Congi. Yuck. Same problems, "accurate" kickers with no leg. If they aren't hitting 90% inside 40, they are killing you with lousy kickoffs and lack of range. Biggest pet peeve I have with kickers. If they can't provide reasonable consistent kick-off distant, then no thanks.

I would have thought Ottawa if anywhere but having him here for training camp tryout with no guarantees can't hurt for us.

This is, by far, the most ruthless position to play in the CFL in terms of sticking.

Plus I don't think he wants to be a Bomber.

Danny McManus disagrees with you. He might know a little something, something about quarterbacks. He might know something about being a cfl qb in the league a few years back.. But he doesn't have a history (yet) for succesfully spotting and developing cfl QB.. Time will tell and Danny mac was a great HOF QB.. but that doesn't always translate into be a great scout, mentor, etc. I'm hoping he's right.. But i've been hoping for 5 years that the "pros" knew what we needed, could scout, sign and assign roles that players could excel in.. But it hasn't happened yet..[/quote Jeezus can we just enjoy this for a while Debbie Downer ]

Ya kno, it doesn't surprise me one ounce that you already think this without even getting out of the off-season.. Stay classy bud. Keep the faith!! Forget class, sell me on all the great things that have transpired this off season. Granted, he still has many months to make it happen, but so far are you honestly impressed? Or are you just being "positive?" Oy. Can we sell you on the fact that we avoided a giant albatross of a contract on Burris; and that Hamilton and Kent Austin were a flashier sell for Collaros instead? Way too early to be passing judgment on Walters. The mess that Mack left the organization in... pile on all that you want. But way too early to judge Walters. Fair response and I appreciate you indulging my question. Still, he could've easily over paid for Burris and just cut the guy next year. I am fine with Glenn, but Desjardins is going to anally pound us for him. And Lizard is going to have to take it. Which is a great idea if you're looking to solve one problem by creating another one. If that's how he thinks business is done, he'll quickly develop a reputation that is just as bad as the one we have now. We're trying to rebuild our image as an appealing football club to join up with. Signing guys only to cut them a year later for no reason other than money troubles is not how you establish that. .... as opposed to the reputation the OTT management group has after the Glenn thing? No one gives a shite about "reputation" -- they care about money, wins, and opportunity. And I seriously doubt anyone would say "they signed a rock solid personality like Henry Burris and then turfed him after just a year. That guy was all class and deserved so much better!" No one? If your answer is yes, then you're misguided. First, evidence suggests organizations with horrible reputations are the ones who usually don't have the money, the wins and the real opportunities over a sustained period of time. Second, organizations reputations are built by the individuals who manage and lead it. If these individuals, even if their highly skilled in their craft, predominatly lack in the areas of emotional intelligence and interpersonal skills sets, it significantly affects the reputation of the organization, ergo, the ability of the organization to attract quality people, from a player perspective, from a management perspective, from a sponsor perspective etc etc. Reputation affects an organizations bottom line no matter how you spin it, some more than others, but plays a part in the equation of success.

What exactly were you expecting Henry Burris to win for us? And yes...Walters should be sure to sign Steve Myddleton, the mystical free agent NI OL, just give him a blank cheque. It is going to be a couple years of rebuilding in terms of NI's and QB's. That's the price we pay for relying on Buck Pierce for 4 seasons, wasting picks on Etienne's and Pencer's. If this rebuild isn't done right and we chase mediocre players like Burris to the detriment of developing better players, it will take even longer. But if the fans sit through two more years of medirocity there won't be any fans left to pay the bills... Pierce was a stop gap to help fill the void while we looked for / developed a future starting QB.. it didn't happen.. The qbs that we had failed to perform and have been cast off. If you are okay with 2 more years for 4-14 - 6-12 years you will be mightly lonely in the stands.. The major fallacy spewing from yourself and a few others is that Burris and a couple free agents in this year's market are going to change the fact that we are the worst team in our division...they won't. Need to rebuild this football team from the ground up, starting with management and coaching, now on the field. Simple yet sophisticated. Absolutely bang on.

Great point. Never thought about that.

Actually I'm looking at it the other way. My first thought in seeing yet again another headline of missing out, in this case the headline that Burris will be signing in Ottawa, is motivation. Motivation to build a culture that players/coaches want to come/stay here. After the last few shite years of mismanagement at all levels, what did we expect? It's time to right this ship, look at the players we have who want to play here and use that as motivation. This year we turn the corner in moving back to respectability, mark my words.

Great post. That being said I still believe paying a soon to be 39 year old wildly inconsistent quarterback is extremely short sighted even if it doesn't handcuff us financially. I just don't see the point in investing money in a QB that by the time he is ready to ride off into retirement, the team will be in a position to compete for a championship. I think it also delays the development of whoever will be #2 on the depth chart for the season whether that be Willy or someone else. Because in addition to making this franchise consistently competitive long term, Walters, O'Shea and co. are tasked with making this team respectable NOW - like, for this upcoming season. I know some will disagree, but we just can't be okay with another 3 win season. To even try and make this team consistently competitive and challenging for the Cup, we need to gain some ounce (sorry, litre) of RESPECT from around the league - and we're not doing that until we win some damn football games. Burris needs to be brought in because he's the best available right now - Willy or any other QB is a non-factor at this point b/c they're still FA. Not getting Burris, and potentially not getting Willy would be an absolute disaster for this team - going in with some sort of Hall, Goltz and newbie combo? Puh-leaze! I don't think you'll find anyone who thinks Burris will win us a Cup, or that he's the long term solution - but he absolutely makes us a FAR better team the second we sign him. If we sign Burris, Goltz gets released? If we don't sign Burris, Goltz gets what? Outside of the money, what does Burris really think of our organization? Does it matter what he thinks? I think it does, but it's hard to measure tangibly. I'd rather go get Willy and keep Hall, who are both newer to the CFL, work hard on upgrading our o-line and offensive schemes to fit these guys and throw the dice. But hey, if Burris wants to come here, embrace the province and the fans and prove to the ***** cats that it was a mistake, then I'm all for that as well if it results in a playoff position and some grooming our our back-ups. Hopefully both scenarios will result in a win-win not a lose-lose. Would a third scenario actually be that we still have Hall and Goltz as our one-two come training camp?

No kidding. No other fanbase has been forced to endure the brutality we've seen over the last two+ decades. Other fanbases don't have as much to complain about as we do. Again, we're not hiring the right people if they let fan complaints dictate personnel moves. Get somebody with a good plan and a set of balls who can make a plan & stick to it & maybe the fans will have less to complain about. Ah yes. Two posters taking opinions out of their butts and presenting them as facts. What evidence do you have that that the fans here are the worst in the league? Do you actually take the time out to look at how other fans treat there teams..and I don't mean watching a game here or there on TSN and looking and listening to the crowd on TSN and basing your judgement on that. I mean really looking - visiting fan forums, reading newspaper articles written in that city about the team, being at that team's games to the get the pulse of the fans. Somehow I doubt it. What stupid things have the fans caused the Bombers to do?? Please tell me. Fire Doug Berry? No, because he had lost the locker room. The players were tuning him and his ridiculous out-of-control sideline rants out. The fact he hasn't been hired as a head coach since and has lost two jobs as OC proves the Bombers made the right decision. Fire Mike Kelly? Ha! Guy who was fired because of his lack of professionalism both on and off the field, his callous disregard for our free agents and draft picks, his poor handling of the QB position. Getting into a fight with his girlfriend was the last straw. Firing Joe Mack? A guy who hadn't been with a CFL organization for nearly 25 years and we were foolishly led to believe would turn this franchise around. A guy whose only saving grace with the Bombers was bringing in decent import talent from the US, and really no better than the average Gm in the CFL at that when you think about it. Our O-line was crap when he came, crap when he was fired; our Canadian content was crap when he came and only slightly less afterwards (still worst in the league) and our Qbs were crap when he came and still crap when he left (Hall is a decent backup who can start the occasional game). Joe Mack was the Ol Gill of the CFL - couldn't sell the good players on the Bomber organization if he tried - see Brendan Labatte, Greg Carr and Mike Reilly. Were the release of Brink or Elliott on the fans' lack of patience? Consider this - no one picked up Brink and kept him on a roster for very long. Joey Elliott had to pay his way to BC for a tryout and was released a few games into the season only to be picked up again because of injuries to two of their QBs. He might be back as a third stringer only due to circumstances. Wally's criticisms of Elliott was pretty damning. So it doesn't seem like any of the managers and coaches in the league think too highly of our ex-Qbs otherwise they would be kept on some CFL teams and groomed to at least be a semi-competent backup. Geez maybe that's the reason these QBs were released by the Bombers - not due to fan pressure to see immediate results, but because their talent level and/or their abilities to take instruction and handle pressure are not at a level needed to be a starting or even backup QB. I would apply this label to Goltz as well. The only reason the media and fans appear harder on this team than other cities (and that's debatable) is due to the 23 year Grey Cup drought. HOw incompetent can a franchise be to not win one Grey Cup in a 23 years in a 8 team league? The last ten years have been especially embarrassing - something like a .350 winning percentage. Those results rest on the BOD making questionable hires over the past decade and a half and in turn, the management they hire making questionable coaching hires themselves. Jeff Reinbold, Mike Kelly, Joe Mack, Tim Burke, Creehan. These guys were truly terrible at their jobs and yet the blame lies at the feet of the fans? More like the blame lies at the feet of the organization, the managers and coaches hired, and the crap talent brought in at most positions to compete. So please provide me with some specific examples as to how our fans have prevented us from going into a true rebuild? Because this is a 9-team league where all the GMs have access to the same pool of players (the majority of CFL teams are American) from down south deemed unsuitable or lacking the talent to make the cut in the NFL. Rebuilding or rather reloading is something that should only take a year or two at most. This isn't the NBA, NHL, MLB or the NFL - rebuilds in the CFL do not require 3 - 5 years..at least they don't if upper management hires a GM and coach who are capable of bringing in adequate talent, something that Joe Mack was unable to do. It certainly is not the fans fault that he couldn't identify and sign the proper talent. Testify!

Jessuz, really. I sure hope not.

Actually, based on what I've read overtime on this site when it comes to our QB situation or any other situation for that matter, there's very few posters like you described here, which btw I find a bit exaggerated. It's an emotional game for the fans too, cut people some slack, actual blue bomber fans (e.g., the ones who have NEVER said I give-up on this team) can safely say they've been very patient with how this team has been managed over the last few years. The luxury of being a fan (i.e., no real accountability with team results) is we can be armchair QB's as much as we want. That's the beauty of being a fan.

A tried and tested leader at bare minimum, for a young receiver that has shown signs of regression, instead of development. I'd agree with this observation and add, as I've said all along with Kito, great skill set but the times he did play seemed very nervous on the field for some reason, impeding his ability to use his skill set appropriately. Probably the main reason, as other posters have said, he's a great practice player. If the coaches in BC can coach him to be calm and just play the game the way he knows too, then watch out. I've always been a begrudging fan of Korey Banks, so welcome aboard, he'll bring some confidence to the locker room and to the field for sure.

To go with our organization now saying our plan b or c was always our plan a. Historically this is what most organizations do because their not going to promote a signing as their third choice. I don't believe that for a second. That's why it's called plan a, plan b etc. Everything I've seen from the Bombers was a) Collaros Burris c) Willy Looks like we're moving on to plan b. On the surface, and in theory, the plan of acquiring a vet QB along with a young upstart, has more merit than acquiring a somewhat new, less experienced QB, no matter our personal opinions on said QBs. My point is that the Bombers, regardless of whether you are right about what their actual plan a, b or c is, will not report it that way when it all shakes out. For example, if we land Burris, the presser is not going read we really wanted Collaros, but we did get our second choice, plan b. They will package it so one can infer, assume, that it was one of our option plan A's they had in place. Suttle yet effective difference to ensure their fans don't interpret it as we got our third choice! They have to market it that way, it's a business.

Bad goaltending is something Maurice can only do so much with...... The goal at the beginning of the Chicago game was an old Noel tendency... (throwing the puck carelessly from behind our net in front of it) Against Nashville all I noticed was Pavs sprawling around way out of place and letting a couple of real bad goals in, also noticed that Andrew Ladd is missing and appears to be invisible on the ice. Other frequent issues... Bogosian can't hit the net if his life depended on it, bad hustle from our forwards coming back, Wheeler holding onto the puck to long, Stuart the unsung hero on our team, Setoguchi is invisible, Thorburn should not be on our first two lines and Scheifle in desperate need of getting 15 lbs of man muscle to help prevent him from being pushed around. Lots of the under the radar guys like Trouba, Frolik and Stuart really do have lots of hustle and play hard. Also Montoya definitely should be given a shot at starting job.... Pavs is to streaky and is out of place so frequently and loves to give up the big rebounds. Completely agree with you on this. His happy feet drives me insane. At this level, he makes standard saves look like he just robbed someone of a goal. Maybe that's his way of marketing his ability. I don't think it's working. Lawless wrote a while back on the dependency the coaching staff have with Buff and the need to wean off that. I think he was right but chose the wrong player. I know a lot of teams struggle with consistent goaltending but it shouldn't stop the Jets at seriously looking at alternatives and trying it out, whether it means giving more starts to Montoya or looking elsewhere. I really don't see this as only defensive scheme issue. Something Pavs said disturbed me when he commented about the coaching change, he said the new coach talks about what great players they are. If that's what he believes has been the significant influencing issue with the inconsistency of his play, then I say Wow really? Me thinks not.

To go with our organization now saying our plan b or c was always our plan a. Historically this is what most organizations do because their not going to promote a signing as their third choice.

How do you do that exactly?

I'm not trying to be crass nor overly simplistic but I would think this is one of the many areas where our scouting team needs to deliver.

For the love of God, whatever God you may or may not believe in, please stop.

When you look at the teams he had to beat to get to those grey cups, yeah it kind of does. When you basically have an automatic bye into the Grey Cup because you might have an easy division getting to the game is less of an accomplishment. I mean every time the Bombers had an above .500 season in the east the Als were not in the Grey Cup. You're suggesting AC was 'kind of' a bad QB? I feel obligated to say this on behalf of anyone (whether I like them or not) who has proven themselves over and over again, that's an extremely ridiculous uninformed statement, it really is. You sound more sour grapes than anything. He's a guaranteed HoF.

??? Nothing wrong except that he could have at least tried to play the field. Anyway, with what we now know about Mack, I don't think it would have mattered anyway, Seleepy Joe wouldn't have got the job done anyway, even if Reilly had given us a shot at signing him in FA. I think that players need to look at all options and do what is best for them. In that regard I will be sad if Collaros signs with someone else, but I'll understand that he and his agent weighed all options and did what was best. I didn't get that feeling with Reilly, I think he had tunnel vision for Edmonton, and look how that worked out, the guy is lucky to be alive right now. Of course, so is Max Hall. Tunnel vision works both ways. I just hope our team doesn't have tunnel vision with Collaros, an overall unproven commodity. It takes away from the investment, energy and focus needed to recruit, scout and sign other potential QB's.

Ouch. At least they acted (whether it was AC throwing or Cahoon catching) like they've done it before. I can't remember Cahoon or AC ever celebrating a seven-yard pass and catch toss unless it was a game winner. They were professionals in the true sense of the word. Personality wise, if your suggesting more colour that's not they way they were wired, can't change much of that.

I was more amused by the reporter and her reaction. Caught her off guard, her expression was priceless. She looked annoyed, didn't get that canned response she was looking for. I love it when an athlete now and then breaks away from script, makes for good tv.

well, they were not in the sweepstakes from the beginning. they got BLM who is better than Collaros and 2 vet backups in Tate and McPherson. A few possoble scenarios would be that Hufnagel either believes a little bit more in Tate that some posters I've read here, or it's simply an insurance tactic or a bargaining chip to use with other teams.