mbrg

For what it's worth, Messam would have at least made a minor upgrade to this team last year, before the extra DI spot was added.

Seems pretty straightforward, they will be using a DI spot for the backup RB, who will get some amount of returner duty. Perhaps all. I don't think anyone will dispute that 2011 Messam is a better RB than Volny. Who knows what he is now. He can't hold a job despite being a potential ratio-breaker, so he's probably not really a ratio-breaker anymore. However, for the sake of argument, let's say his superiority over Volny is not in dispute. I don't think anyone will dispute that Volny is a better ST player than Messam, since Messam doesn't play teams. So if Volny is not likely to touch the ball as a RB more than twice a game all season (rewarding the worker bees) but plays 18 snaps a game on teams, which Messam can't replace, and Messam is unlikely to get any more snaps at RB because our DI is outright better, then yeah, Messam is a waste of a roster spot. If his last name was Etienne you'd all be losing your minds about how big a waste of a roster spot he would be. Unless they want to DI a guy like aaron woods for returner and still have a good RB on the roster You know there's one more DI spot on the roster this year, right? It's up to 4. OShea is saying he's using one of those spots on a backup RB. That's why upgrading Volny to Messam is irrelevant. It accomplishes nothing. Cotton needs a rest, Ford goes in. Not Volny. Messam being better than Volny doesn't help the Bombers get better, unless he can play Oline, Dline, LB. Something like that. I'm all about upgrades but there has to be a point. OShea is telling you there is no point.

Seems pretty straightforward, they will be using a DI spot for the backup RB, who will get some amount of returner duty. Perhaps all. I don't think anyone will dispute that 2011 Messam is a better RB than Volny. Who knows what he is now. He can't hold a job despite being a potential ratio-breaker, so he's probably not really a ratio-breaker anymore. However, for the sake of argument, let's say his superiority over Volny is not in dispute. I don't think anyone will dispute that Volny is a better ST player than Messam, since Messam doesn't play teams. So if Volny is not likely to touch the ball as a RB more than twice a game all season (rewarding the worker bees) but plays 18 snaps a game on teams, which Messam can't replace, and Messam is unlikely to get any more snaps at RB because our DI is outright better, then yeah, Messam is a waste of a roster spot. If his last name was Etienne you'd all be losing your minds about how big a waste of a roster spot he would be.

I noticed that SSK lost Durant and Willy... Is that normal for so much turnover on a Grey Cup team? It was an unusual offseason for all teams - there was an expansion draft for Ottawa, so teams managed their rosters quite differently this year. Some traded away players they thought Ottawa might take, others held off on re-signing potential free agents in the hopes that Ottawa would not touch guys who they couldn't guarantee showing up for camp. Also, Collaros becoming a free agent in the same offseason as a team was added had a domino effect at that position, with eventually a total of 4 QBs starting this year on teams they were not on last year (if you count Glenn), almost half the league. Some of that would have happened anyway, but there was definitely more activity this year because of Ottawa, and not just the 24 players they took from other rosters.

I'm still regretting the amount of work I put into learning how to spell Oramasionwu. If he's still our kicker in 2018 I will strongly consider it.

And the primary role of pre-season is to evaluate all the players and decide who will remain on the final roster. The easiest way to do this is to give them all comparable assignments. Use your best move to try to beat the OT to the outside. Push back the line. Knock his arms down and cut between him and the guard. Apples to apples, oranges to oranges, who's best at their job? There was plenty of sloppy tackling on display. A lot of that falls on the players. They also did not look like they were in position to make tackles on many of the runs. If that happens in the regular season I will be very concerned. In pre-season games linebackers get a lot of evaluation done on their ability to cover passes, as that's the most difficult part of the job for most linebackers. That's the main reason DBs are getting LB jobs in the new millennium CFL.

Lol. Although his position says LB/LS, he was exclusively brought in for LS'ing... and he has no competition. He makes the team. Wild was a good enough long snapper last year that Cvetkovic got a head start on retirement. Lots of different ways to put this puzzle together. Blake may make the 46, may get a PR offer, may get shown the door.

Might be. Or it might be Woods at receiver, or one of the DBs. We shall see.

He left the game after 2 series with about enough time to give Marve 2 series (and after Brohm had 2 series). The way he left the game wasn't telling, it was numerical. As for the pick the one thing I took away from it is that whomever was on the edge probably shouldn't get the starting left tackle job. Ummm he was. Don't you recall how we got him? He retired from football and was coaching, wanted an OC job in some lower level college in California, didn't get it, and the immortal Joe Mack figured this bum would be the guy to 'save the bombers' since Buchko's mandate was for Mack to get a QB. I wanted Mack fired last March when all this went down (cutting two guys with experience, signing two bums to replace them, and keeping Buck even though he was two years past his best before date) Agree, and I think that was the plan all along. Though Hall is on shaky ground. I think what will happen, as what always does, is as QB's are either released from the their CFL camps or from their NFL Camps, the bombers will airlift a few in, and when one impresses, they'll have to make room for him, exit stage left for Mr. Hall. Don't let the door hit you on the way out. Considering Hall has been a class act the entire time he has been with the Shrine Circus.... errr... the Winnipeg Blue Bombers as well as doing everything asked of him, I don't understand your hate for the guy. Did he do a Diva routine at any time like Justin Goltz? Has he ever mouthed off to the media about Drew Willy being given the starting spot? No, the guy has been a professional the entire time he has been here. And just what we ******* well need, a revolving door at the ******* qb position. Again???? Every ******* year it's the same godamn thing. Iso - you like 'losers'? What's Hall's record. I have nothing against him personally, but then again I don't really invite him or other bombers over to my house. Willy should have been here LAST year. We needed a QB and who we got was Max Hall. I'm just stating facts sir, that's all. And getting rid of Hall is not exactly a 'revolving door' when he's third string so I fail to understand your point here? Then why do you keep insulting him?

I'm guessing Newman being injured for the rest of the year basically guaranteed Maher wasn't going to make the team - we simply don't have space for an Int kicker now If the Bombers have any kicking struggles at all this year, Maher will be back. Until all the NI pieces fall into place he will have some diaper changing reps. All the injuries should not have an impact on Maher; the extra DI still can't come in for a NI. Sign Messam and then we don't have to use a DI spot on a backup RB, bippetyboppityboo, room for Maher is created. With the injuries and low numbers of NI Olinemen, this roster will definitely evolve over the next 2 months.

It is not typical to have so few NI olinemen, but 6 guys should be able to fill 3 spots, at least in the short term. As for Kowalczuk, what is the point of keeping him around if he's simply not good enough? We wouldn't want him on the field then anyways.

Half way thru the slow-mo replay we knew he was done for the year. That looked awful. Hope they give him the finest morphine Calgary has to offer, and hope he gets well soon.

There will be growing pains for sure, and it's hard to say what kind of ceiling he has, but right now I am very comfortable going into the season with Willy as our starter.

As long as we put our 6th man in his guard spot and Knapp remembers to declare himself as an eligible receiver, absolutely.

I'm not sure how that changes that much. Guys from the states aren't going to come up and get Canadian citizenship in time to get a contract in place. You would still need to be a Canadian Citizen long before you ever get a football contract. It's not like they can come get one and then the next day sign a CFL contract and be a national player. Using this as part of an evil mastermind plan - moving Adrian Peterson up here, having him live here for a few years and apply for citizenship, all while NOT playing football, only to sign a contract with the Bombers once it's all happened just to skirt around the ratio rules - that's probably never going to happen. Not an absolute certainty though, once Tillman gets to run a team again the chances increase. There are other implications though.

Does this eliminate all of the paperwork some guys have to dig up to become draft eligible? If they have ever been a Canadian citizen growing up and have not changed or renounced citizenship, they would automatically be what we will probably still call a non-import.

That's a great read, thanks for doing all that typing.

If Neufeld can hold his own at RT then this could be a good thing. Dan Knapp seems to have won the RG position purely because of his physical awesomeness? And because he's such an upgrade over Morley? Not sure why else we'd start an import at that position in the future, unless we have that kind of roster flexibility. Physical awesomeness? HAIR AWESOMENESS!!!

Despite the entire CFL internet community talking like it was Mitchell's job, Huff has never indicated anything other than Tate is their starter.

And how do you see that playing out when they haven't even played the Saturday game yet, nor do any of us have access to the grading of the QB's that the coaching staff do from the day training camp started? Because as a rule the WBB's will usually keep a developmental QB on the PR. Barring a trade we need to keep both Hall and Brohm on the roster just in case Wiley fails miserably or sustains an injury that will keep him out of games. 4 QBs on the roster is the new normal for all CFL teams. Toronto carried 5 last year. Whether these guys we have now are the 4 we have in September will be determined by the game Saturday. Brohm needs to do something. Hall already has a body of work from last year and at least a solid week of camp under his belt. Marve has obvious potential. If Brohm can't put something together then Walters may be calling our neg list QBs and asking them if they're ready to try the CFL now.

Last year, yes, I agree that is the way it plays out. This year? OShea has not been conventional or safe. Hall as backup is the smart safe choice, the high percentage play. Marve spending 2 years on the sidelines holding clipboards and charting plays is the conventional route. If Marve does anything in Calgary like what he did here I'd put the odds at 2 to 1 Marve starts the season as backup. OShea is rewarding performance and nothing else. Some might say that he's not looking at the big picture if he does something like that. He'd probably say performance is the big picture. As for me, I've just seen too many guys flame out because of the difficulties they have understanding the CFL. Marve holding that clipboard for a year or two is how I'd approach it, but I'm not getting the big bucks or wearing the headset. Hopefully we never have to see our backups play anyways. Except for those games when we're up 70-0 and the cheerleaders have already dragged Willy off to the dressing room with 10 minutes left.

yeah not sure how we could replace his 5 career special teams tackles over a 3 year period... It's not all about tackles.. Blocking is just as important. volny wont be released just like tyson pencer won't be released.... That extra DI spot takes away some of the comfort Volny might have had on this roster. Some years we would not bother carrying a second import running back on the roster unless he is returning kicks. This year we have flexibility. 2 DIs on defence, 2 on offence if we choose, and if we do then 1 of those being a second RB is almost assured. If Brooks shows anything good in the next while Volny being a NI backup RB won't carry nearly as much weight as it used to. If our gameday roster already has, for example, Ford, Cotton, Pontbriand and Fitzgerald on it, does Volny really need to be dressed? If Brooks steps up, Volny might be an ex-Bomber soon.

Who knows. After Saturday they might both be unemployed and Walters might have made a trade for DeMarco. Marve might end up as a footnote in the 2014 season and nothing more. I was just (sarcastically) pointing out that we all know that having a QB with a strong arm in addition to smarts and accuracy is better than having one without a strong arm. The point was that if your QB is not smart and accurate, that strong arm is of almost no value at all.

With the extra DI spot available to us this year, we could keep a guy solely for his return skills, especially if we use NI kickers. Talent at his position could be nothing more than an afterthought.

With Mack, Pencer, Etienne and Poblah now gone, what are we going to argue about? Poblah was a pretty silly argument to have anyway, everyone and their dog agreed that he was a prospect well worth using a first rounder on and if he was in the draft he likely was the #1 pick. Just happened that the guy couldn't translate all those physical tools into anything of substance. Exactly. Sometimes a pick is bad because you don't do your homework. (Pencer) And then sometimes a pick is bad just because they can't figure it out. (Poblah) Poblah was about as surefire of a choice as there was coming out of college. Hell, he was being recruited as an import before his eligibility was established. Remember how dominant he was in training camp the first year he was here? I remember Jovon Johnson saying he's as tough a matchup one on one as he had ever faced in practice. And then as it turned out, he sucked when the lights came on. We used what would become the 7th overall pick in the 2012 draft to select Poblah. Someone asked Forde prior to the 2012 draft if he thought Kito would have been taken in the first 7 picks if he was part of that draft class. Forde said yes. Of course that is only his opinion. We did not go off the board taking Poblah, we paid proper value for the assessment of his talent (at that time), and we got to have him on our roster for the 2011 season rather than waiting for a player in 2012. There were many smart things about that pick. It did not pay off. Bummer for us.