mbrg

Interesting combo - undersized (by NFL standards) yet runs between the tackles well. Elusive, powerful, and with a decent burst. And can't catch worth a crap.

I have more confidence from him being here for the last month, in meeting rooms and working with players and fellow coaches before he was hired, than anything he accomplished in junior football. Although him being successful there is also a fine thing too. But the point was that his vetting process was longer than most of the other coaches we currently have on staff.

It's such a small league, if all teams agree on a practice any "unwritten rules" should be quickly turned into "written rules". Avoids confusion and misunderstandings. Not only that, teams should be afforded protections over recent draft picks no matter where they go. Back to school for a year, whatever.

Missing 12 pages of posts makes for a lot of catchup reading: - We desperately need a NI who can rotate with Thomas. That has to be the top priority. Finding uber-talented NIs at other positions is unlikely. Finding someone of equal talent to Thomas is very doable. Do it. - To a lesser extent we also need a NI backup receiver. Of the players cut loose we're obviously most familiar with Etienne. I'd bring him back if he's the best one out there, but I'm not really the best judge of how good guys like Morin-Plante, Bamba, Sisco, etc have been so far in their CFL careers. Sisco I've seen more of than the other guys, I'd have Etienne ahead of him for sure. - All other positions are of course NI desirable as well. - Lots of talent shook loose this year. I think we could easily put together another team that is a QB away from being able to beat Ottawa. - Every Marcel Desjardins comment made me laugh. - Mike Kelly was a boob(scratch that, I like those) an onion (I really hate onions). Here are the list of "bad players" from the Kelly era: Armstrong, Bryant, Simpson, Bates, Franklin, Brown (?) help me out here, there is at least one more. In short, all aspersions cast upon players on our roster in 2009 are null and void in my books. That colostomy bag of a coach bad-mouthed people every chance he had. Ten years of service to this club and what does Taman get on the way out? Insults. He was a ****** of the highest order. When guys like Bobby Dyce and Richard Harris - two of the nicest people in the CFL - are getting squeezed out as being impossible to work with, that really says it all. - Peach, Etienne and Alexandre would be very nice additions.

Sorry iso, I have to call you on this one. 1) First, quality control coach is about one step above water boy in the grand scheme of things. Its just another set of eyes on the game film, and some of their job is to collect and sort it (from what I've heard, maybe this won't hold true for the Bombers). 2) You would like the staff to "encompass a lot more experience" but both our coordinators have been in the CFL for over a decade (with brief stints out). 3) This hire isn't meant to 'inspire a lot of confidence.' Its a quality control coach. 4) Re: cheap. The Bombers now have added a ton more coaches than last year (hell, almost double) which would indicate that they are spending quite a bit more in the coaching department in previous seasons. But yes, I am assuming a quality control coach came cheap, because its a low, entry-level coaching position... You are being way more polite in response to that post than I could have managed. Kudos for that.

IIRC the main duty involves game preparation such as breaking down film. They do help out on the field during practices. It is considered an entry level position. I suspect it's really whatever they want him to do, but past instances from other teams I've heard job responsibilities that include scouting (on film) the team you are playing in the following week as well as breaking down film of your own team's previous games to see if you can spot tendencies. For a defence that will rely heavily on deception and disguising looks, scouting yourself for tendencies could actually be very important to it's success.

I'm not saying success or failure as a whole. I'm just saying as far as the class of rookie imports goes, it's pretty underwhelming. One thing I will say, this is the CFL - a lot of you tend to forget that. Sorry guys, I love the sport, and I love our game, and I love our league. But for the upteenth time, we are not a MAJOR league. We are not viewed that way. I won't call us a 'bush' league, not by a long shot, but we are not the answer to anyones prayers. My point? Mike, the best imports aren't here yet my friend. They're with Henoc, chasing their 'dreams' in the NFL. I think our import talent was fine. I also think come late August/September when the NFL cuts start you'll find more players coming that we can 'upgrade' with. That's just a CFL fact, not bias, not an 'opinion', but fact. I think the quotation marks, as you are using them, needed to be around "fact".

Halfway thru, around the 6 minute mark or so, from what I recall. No, it will still be painful to watch. OShea handles the media about as well as possible. "What keeps you up at night?" Coffee?

Briggs & Eisho, that's 22. (maybe I should just go look it up)

QB... WILLY, Brohm, Marve OL... JANUARY, GREAVES, MORLEY, NEUFELD, KNAPP, Goossen REC.. KELLY, MOORE, WATSON, DENMARK, KOHLERT, Feoli-Gudino, Carter, Woods RB... GRIGSBY, Volny, Pontbriand, Fitzgerald DL... VEGA, TURNER, THOMAS, PEACH, Anderson, Richardson LB... BANKS, KUALE, DUNN, Sherman, Wild, Stephan, Cornell DB... RANDLE, WASHINGTON, LEGGETT, SUBER, ALEXANDER, Markett, Bucknor, Jones ST... Hajrullahu, Renaud I can also see us field Everettt as Backup OL/DL in place of an Nat'l LB or CB. Bucknor can also start ahead of Alexander. Knapp can be RG and Neufeld at RT. Not a bad line-up actually, and only 2 - Willy and Leggett - rookie starter in the mix. The soft spot I can see is the LB and RB units. Just out of those rostered names I can count 18 guys who are Walters additions. Plus Everett, Cotton, probably a couple others that I won't waste time looking up. Stuff has happened. Also, having watched the presser video now, OShea does say that some of the 11 cut may be invited on the PR.

You usually tell a guy that you're interested but that doesn't mean much because some guys don't want to sit around, not play, and only get paid $750 (? what is it now ?) a week for zero guarantee of playing time. If they express interest in that spot, well they still have to be released and clear waivers - other teams can sign them if they want. After 48 hours (I think), if they are still free agents then they sign that PR contract and get back out on the field. It is possible that several of these 11 guys were approached about taking a PR spot and declined. That happens every year. So if that Bauming tweet is correct and none of these guys are going on the PR, then there are likely some more cuts to come, since that is part of the process. Likely will wait until our injury situation has a bit more clarity to it.

A Danny Mac clone? If he's going to be on any posters we should get him a more form-fitting girdle flack-jacket than what Dmac had. I would like to apologize to Mr. McManus for this and all future cheap jokes at his expense.

And we were concerned with 3. Collaros is going to be running for his life this season. The Ticats in a way remind me of the Philadelphia Eagles a few years ago, when Vince Young referred to them as the 'Dream Team'. They ended up sucking that year. Could be that type of season for the Ticats. I still never put too much stock in pre-season. Coaches are still playing guys who will be working at Jiffy Lube next week, moving players out of their natural spots and trying them elsewhere. QBs eating balls because receivers went the wrong way. Pre-season always has a lot of ugly to it. Really the way our offence performed was remarkable. I can't recall any pre-season where we made that few mistakes. And the football was actually entertaining to watch. That's pretty rare for pre-season. Not saying 9 sacks isn't a lot. Ticats might have a big concern on their hands.

Unless Everett is really really good already I can't see switching out Swiston before 2015.

What about one where you are not trying to push the pocket? That's the defensive equivalent of saying "why would we want a centre who snaps the ball?" Unless the tackles are going to run back and cover receivers every down, you need guys to move the line and fill gaps. If Ted Laurent was interested in being a Blue Bomber, we wouldn't be having this discussion. If Laurent was interested in being a Blue Bomber we wouldn't be having this discussion. But I still don't see Etchevary designing many plays that would involve someone playing the role of nose tackle.

I expected at least one NI receiver on the PR, so Renaud not getting a spot there is a bit of a surprise.

I imagine Brohm going from sub-mediocrity in the first half of camp to showing glimpses of promise in the second half was far more important in this decision than Hall's ceiling.

I expect he would plunge deeply into the charitible associations he is already involved with once he retires. He is very passionate about them Would he put them off for a year or two just to play in the CFL? Only if he is still having fun playing football, doesn't want to quit, and has no NFL takers. And even that doesn't get him in a Bomber jersey. Pretty remote chance.

Is Swiston that close to being healthy? To this point I assumed that if he hasn't been on the field yet because of his surgery that the 6 game IR was a pretty sure bet for him.

Might end up on the PR. Might be cutting him for the same reason Edmonton cut him. Pick whichever one you prefer.

What about one where you are not trying to push the pocket?

For the first time in a long long long time, thinking about our Oline doesn't fill me with feelings of dread and remorse. Confidence? No, not quite there yet. But, maybe, someday, someday soon perhaps. We can be average. Blessed blessed average.

I tend to agree but I'm going to ask anyways, What the hell type of scheme are we running when we have no interest in Laurent or Hickman? Don't you normally want the best players who are available and you make it work? If we aren't signing guys based on schemes we are setting ourself up for failure. Ratio breaking tackle in Laurent, pass cuz he doesn't fit the scheme? Hickman, i'm not sure what you'd get with him, he's been gone a while but to pass on him just because of scheme? Seems ridiculous. How many guys are we going to not be interested in due to scheme? Much as we would have liked to have Laurent here and will undoubtedly never hear the end of it from some guys, Laurent was a free agent and not terribly likely to come here regardless of scheme. In my opinion, Winnipeg would have been last on his list of teams to play for. As for the DL, they will be expected to attack from multiple angles, overload sides, drop into coverage on occasion and disguise blitzes. As I understand our defense that is. To do any of this they will have to be fast and dynamic. I don't know how well Peach is suited to this. Vega and Turner would seem ideal. Thomas is Canadian, but if he can also be relatively fast with this feet, that's a big step. If we were living in 2011 and looking for someone to replace Doug Brown in a 4-3 Greg Marshall defence, Laurent would be the best choice I could think of. Sticking him in this defence would likely be a disaster. He would not be able to do anything required of him.

I don't. The guy people have bitched about for 3 seasons? Trade him for anyone is what most people would have said. Cherry picking the best players from other teams (while ignoring the best players from our team) isn't a comparison of depth. If you're comparing depth you are comparing the entire package of 20-30 NIs against that of another team. Ottawa, Edmonton and BC all have some NI's that would help us. Guess what, we have some NI's that would help them. And a helpful reminder that Morley is doing fairly well for himself so far at center.

Why would you want to start a player if he is not that great? Unless you start him it doesn't put another import on the field. And if he's a backup, then every time you put whatever DI you kept on the field you still have to take a starting import off the field.