BigBlue

What makes you think the Riders will pull ahead of the Eskimos? I keep underestimating Edmonton probably because they have the best QB in the league .... but how long will Reilly's body hold up?

Every team had salary cap decisions ... we had to let Bond and Westerman go .... Jake Thomas won't be around but Demski will ... we are all cheering Hurl on in Regina now and we have this ex Rider QB US recruits have their usual expectations with hopefully a couple nice surprises forthcoming ... and we will get a couple of developmental players in the draft So my question is what has changed for us really especially relative to Calgary & Edmonton We lost two very good linemen and we have made some coaching adjustments ... did Calgary & Edmonton lose more? Do we have better depth? Why would we be better, really? Do we have more reason to be optimistic about our defense? How big a role is coaching going to play? Are we anywhere close to matching Calgary's organizational skills? Has Edmonton suddenly become Swiss Cheese in the off season? Has the whole team gained a critical maturity and potential "swagger"?

Why do you want to get rid of Okpa?

This seems like an underwhelming nothing in terms of improving the game

Is there Board of Governor's meetings going on as well this week?

Do we bring our own Beer?

Winnipeg wins 2018 Grey Cup

At league meetings next week I expect the rules committee will focus on "challenges" and salary cap violations I wonder what Ambrosie has up his sleeve .... he seems very innovative and proactive ... I bet he has been sitting on several ideas for years

agreed .... Enoch is talented but is having a reality check ... I hope he comes to terms with us, settles down with us, and prospers here for the next 5 years

So Mr Atomic what part applies to commissioner Anbrosie and the CFL? He is obviously talkng about marketing and increasing CFL interest ... what are you suggesting?

Its a completely separate discussion

Amrosie wants to raise interest in the CFL during "the business season" (six month)s: https://www.tsn.ca/cfl/video/naylor-ambrosie-in-halifax-with-potential-ownership-group-members-a-positive-sign~1325194 What does he have to do to bring that about?

So Phillip Nelson (6'1 220, 24 yrs old) Nelson played two years for the University of Minnesota Golden Gophers and later finished his collegiate career with the East Carolina University Pirates. At ECU, Nelson posted career passing numbers throwing for 2,621 yards and 16 touchdowns at a 68% completion rate.

Who do we have signed for 3rd string QB?

Well we are back to "will Walters go all out for a MLB" .... Bear Woods or Enoch the Persecuted I don't care .... just get 'er done ..... its the final piece solved

Regina donating Muamba makes me feel good

Durant, Bowman, Demski I thought were all big for us ... Bond was already penciled out along with Heath ... salary cap is real Looks like BC & Montreal are relying on scouting Regina's moves make me giggle

Hoping big time on Westerman ..... I am most curious what the one big prize Walters is looking for on Tuesday

We've had some fine discussions over several threads about free agency. I have enjoyed flipping back and forth between the various discussions. But in the next few days the news and rumours are going to be coming fast and furious, particularly on Monday night and Tuesday. What I don't want to have to do is to keep searching several threads to make sure I don't miss any of this juicy stuff. So I thought it would be cool if we could have a central place to keep up to the latest. I'm not saying this thread would be the only place to post and I'm not saying that some news might deserve a whole thread for itself. I'm just saying it would be nice to post the latest tidbits, speculations and announcements over the next 3 days to a week in this one spot - - so none of us miss anything because we are not looking in the right thread. So do you want to try this spot as the central posting place for this week? Meanwhile as we are waiting for announcements tomorrow and beyond, I have a question. With sports salaries being so widely published everywhere else, why is it that we keep CFL salaries so closely guarded?

This is the most boring thread .... a big nothing burger that won't go away

NFL makes changes every year and it does make the game better & safer .... I want to see more refinement

So the rules committee meets in March What is your best recommendation for improving our game this season ..... personally I am going with contacting a receiver away from the play ... mot as a rule and how the reffs call it but as a challengeable play ... if the reffs miss it , too bad

Its no secret what the weakest position on the team is ... how far is Kyle Walters willing to go to acquire a top notch middle linebacker? What strategies might he use to get the job done?

We saw the league Commissioner change the challenge rule midseason 2017. I believe his change put an end to the horse hockey where the head coaches were trying to leverage the delicate rules on pass interference and defensive back obstruction on receivers. It took control of the game out of the referees hands in using fine judgement or in evening up the calls. Still, the zebras make multiple mistakes per game, often more than one critical call. Increasing the tempo of the game needs to be balanced with eliminating egregious referee decisions. Personally, I would like to see more timeouts per half (perhaps two or even three). I think it would prove the quality of the game and increase scoring. To that end what I would prefer to see changed is an increase the number of challenges available to the coach BUT that an unsuccessful challenge would have a severe penalty: for instance, an unsuccessful challenge would cost the challenger a 10 yard penalty for delay of game plus the loss of a timeout. The end of frivolous "it won't hurt to try" challenges might prove to provide better balance and tone to the game. Challenges would only be made when the coach was sure the referees had made a serious blunder. Another rule change I would like to see is making the safety touch more onerous. Often football is a game of field position and the coaches know that giving up 2 points is better than giving up 3 or 7 when having to punt from deep in your own end. What can be done on the safety? One solution would be to kick off from deeper in your own end than the 25 yard line. Another would be to have to punt instead of kick off from the 25 (as we see in the NFL). A third possibility would be to increase the scoring of a safety from 2 points to 3 points. The goal is to get teams to punt instead of taking the safety. Then all the hard work of a good defence would not go so severely unrewarded. I would also like to see an increase in the number of players that can dress for a game and also to increase the roster size to include players that have typically been hidden on the injury list; the goal would be to get some who are on the practice roster onto the main roster. There is an economic challenge here but I believe it can be worked out without too much damage to profitability. I would also like to see more designated imports dressed to improve the quality and flexibility of each team. The last suggestion I have right now is the next time there is a negotiation with the CFL PLAYERS ASSOCIATION I hope that instead of just increasing the salary cap we would see an increase in the number of Canadians on the roster, perhaps by a factor of 4 to 6 players. There is a shortage of quality players coming out of the Canadian college system and the junior teams. Having more Canadian players (who might not even dress game day) would allow for a higher level of learning and instruction thus increasing the size of the Canadian talent pool that all teams could draw upon.. In the NFL, not that we need to clone them, their rules committee makes changes every year to lower the number of potential injuries and also to improve the flow and quality of the game. I believe the CFL also needs to continue to amend their rules to make the game safer and more entertaining. The changes I have proposed here have been on my mind for a long long time. Some proposals made in the past on the site by me and other members have been adopted by the league. I don't know whether we were originators of the ideas but in the very least we provided the league's rule committee with some confirmation of what the fans thought would improve the game. What do you have in terms of ideas to improve the CFL?

Does anybody know about QB Bo Levi Mitchell's injury status? Anybody can see he played most of the season hurt .... wondering if he had any off season corrective surgery or if he is just resting his bo-bo ...