mbrg

Although he was their 3rd string most of the season, they didn't trust him enough to hand the team over to him when Palmer and Stanton went down. Brought back Ryan Lindley instead, one of their training camp cuts. Which doesn't say much one way or another when it comes to a QB's potential in the CFL.

That's kind of like standing in front of the condiments at McDonalds and trying to sell people straws for a dollar a piece. You're not going to get any takers. Except of course for Marcel Desjardins, who will aggressively pursue all straws, and will offer an opening bid of $60 for that straw.

Walters is going to fly around the country punching other GMs in the nose. Aggressive.

Two jokes? You have to choose just one. It's Friday.

6'8", 350? That's all? Wake me when he's closer to 400. 6'8", 350. What trucking company is bringing him to training camp?

I don't think that was Brandt's point - more that the expectations people might have of Matthews going forward will be magnified because of the stage he had his breakout game on, and he probably can't and won't meet those expectations. Should other teams be making trade offers, and should the Seahawks extend him with a multi-million dollar contract to make sure he doesn't reach free agency at the end of next season? Did the next Randy Moss just jump out from behind the curtains? Probably not. He went for 100+ yards and a TD in what was essentially his first NFL game, which also happened to be the Super Bowl. It's pretty easy for the hype to snowball into ridiculous proportions when something like that happens. He isn't the next great player, but he still can be a good one. And considering how underwhelming the Seahawks receiving corps is, it's a better situation for him to be in than most. Plus a large percentage of their passing game is deep, so a role as 3rd receiver going up for jump balls against other team's weakest DBs is also ideal (as shown last Sunday). Just don't expect 100 yard games with a TD to become a common thing going forward. His good game was no fluke, but it was a set of perfect circumstances for him to succeed in. Would the same thing happen if the circumstances change? Brandt thinks it's unlikely. I hope Matthews proves him wrong, but the explanation as to why he probably won't makes sense.

He's a pretty nice guy. Had a chance to chat with him last week. I suppose this isn't a surprise for anyone who saw Greaves' tweet oopsie last month. Renaud has the unique distinction of being the only good thing Mike Kelly ever did with a Bomber draft pick to improve NI talent. Congrats to him on retiring and the career. Glad to have a quality guy like this make Winnipeg his home.

That alone seems like enough to play in the NFL doesn't it? It's not enough to turn it into a legit career. The narrower confines of a NFL field make the speed and route running a bigger job requirement. Being a tall guy who can go up and grab the ball will get you a career as a tight end though. It's not like he's slow, but the guys who catch balls in the NFL are the biggest, fastest, best receivers in the world. That he is not. Seattle will likely reward Matthews in some manner, and he'll probably get on the roster with some regularity next year. I don't think he'll move ahead of anyone though, and Robinson Richardson (oops) is the guy they're looking at as one of their future stars at receiver. If Matthews can continue to do enough to remind people that he's a quality role player, he'll stick around for a while. Every team needs guys like that. But it's unlikely that a star emerged last Sunday. His future in the NFL is as a role player, there is nothing wrong with slotting in as the 3rd/4th receiver and taking advantage of favourable matchups. But as a number 2 guy in Seattle's offence? There is a pretty good chance those deficiencies Brandt is talking about get exposed and highlighted, and what could have been a five year career making occasional contributions of great value turns into "not good enough, cut ties, let's move on". He was/is a bubble guy in the NFL, but I hope it works out for him.

If all of a sudden Bilukidi or Mulumba fall in our lap, we're laughing. If Bilukidi falls in my lap, I'll probably wince.

You forgot the coffee! The swill of the unwashed masses? Her majesty would never approve. English breakfast tea is the only civilized beverage for that time of day. Earl Grey is paired with the afternoon crumpets. Yep, just know nothing about these guys. That guy certainly seems to have a name spelled with letters of the alphabet. Yay? Boo? Training camp, wherefore art though training camp?

That said, as the season goes on the crop of young guys we have will get trial-by-fire opportunities, and if they handle those well, making 3 on D a full time thing may happen.

Unless something major happens over the next few months we'll be starting 2 NI's at receiver - I just don't think we'll end up with the horses to start 3 on D. Between Thomas, Newman, Bucknor and the others on the roster, running them thru as 2 starters in a situational rotation and having JFG as the 7th starter just seems like the better all-around 24 package we could put on the field. Not that a similar rotation with 3 starters on D can't be done in nearly the same way, I just don't think we have all the pieces to that puzzle yet. Just one hobo's opinion, of course.

These are the worst signings I've ever seen.... ...I know nothing about these guys.... ...these are the best signings I've ever seen... ...Chauncey, fetch me my morning bagel!

He's got 4 years to work on his technique and fitness. Best of luck to him, maybe we'll be talking about him again in a few years.

I understand they position they are in, or at least that they think they are in - it's the official team chat room found on the official team site, so they want everything there to be on the up and up. But no one expects that of them, no one is going to blame them for the content of the individual posters. Lighten up. IT'S NOT OFFICIAL UNTIL THE BOMBERS SAY IT'S OFFICIAL!!! Great, I don't have the time in my day to get a notarized document from Walters every time we're about to sign a player. Relax. No one will mistake the ramblings of mbrg or new earth mud for the Blue Bombers mission statement. There's a difference between wasting $20 on a movie and burning a $20 bill. If I waste 20 minutes of time just to look up some stats or make an extra-long post, well that's different than if that post gets deleted a day later. Yes, both involved wasting 20 minutes. In the former I at least feel like I'm getting something out of it. It got a bit Roger Goodellian over there, with the randomness and arbitrariness of the rules. I know why they do it, but they just don't have to. No one is holding them to that standard.

Ok for the uninformed - what is TEP? Is that a CFL site somewhere? I'd long forgotten that it had a name - the official Bombers chat roomy thing is called The Extra Point. I left a couple years ago due to a mod interaction I didn't care for. I'm not going to blame him over that; it was more that I'm already here wasting my time - I don't want my time wasting to be a waste of my time. Deleting my posts better have a much better reason than the totally valid point I made eventually led to other posters getting into a fight. Guess I have a few thousand posts over there lying dormant. Anyone know if I can convert them to aeroplan points or redeem them for luggage?

Totally legal to talk to him now. "Significantly less than what you'll make in the NFL." There might be rewards for patience, but probably not, most guys that get out of their contracts early are already half way to having a NFL deal done.

I did not watch the game, but as I've said previously, I hope these 2 are never partnered up again for any reason at all. It was a terrible defensive pairing for the 3 seasons prior; why would that change now?

The only definitive statement Maurice has made about the goaltending situation that I've seen is that he wants to make sure each guy sees action once every 7 days to make sure they keep their edge. Almost everything else is other people inferring things based on press conference generalizations.

I guess there is a segment of the population that can't get enough of a man saying "cameltoe" on the radio. That seems to be what he's built his career on. The move to 92 was fine by me. It took the average number of times I said "Shut up Wheeler" on my drive to work from 5 all the way down to 0.

Slogging thru 6 pages of garbage was painful. Sooooo painful. But this: made it all worth it. Truer words, as they say. Truer words.

I like football, so being able to watch it 8 months of the year instead of just 6 is a good thing. But outside of Bombers games, it's all a low priority to me. Watching a football game on TV instead of doing almost anything else? No thanks. In the absence of all other interesting things, sure, I'll watch a game. Had family over last night for supper and to watch the game - I declined the offer of a seat facing the TV during supper - I'd rather visit with the people we've invited over than pretend to care about 2 teams I don't care about. Yes, if push comes to shove, screw the Patriots, but whatever. Coach grumblelord and the evil empire won another championship; I can't pretend to be indignant about their ways anymore.

But we're one day closer to spring than we were yesterday plus we've had a pretty decent winter so far, particularly compared to last winter. By far the most interesting non-circusy offseason I can remember. Things that seem fairly positive have happened early and often. Negatives? Not too many, and even most of those are the eye of the beholder type. (Redacted) will be by to list all of those later.

Yes. This is a democracy. I can vote how I please.

Romby Bryant is a pending free agent. And yes, so is Aaron Kelly. Thanks to Kuale for his contributions to the Winnipeg Blue Bombers Football Club (established 1930), and best of luck in all his future endeavours. I missed that. Thanks. As are Brohm, Carter, Cornell, Dunn, Hinse, January, Knapp, Sears and Volny. (For all the people who have players they don't like - if they're on that list, keep partying I guess). With 11 days to go until free agency, this is the least I can ever remember the interwebs talking about our own free agents. No panic, no multiple threads titled "Walters, please re-sign _________ right now!!!". It's all rather strange. I like predictable.