Jesse

Personally, I'm thrilled that the club is taking such a careful approach with our young draft picks. If Richards is expected to play this season, he'll need to be treated carefully. A 21-year old kid can't be expected to jump into an 18 game season against men from an 8 game season against his peers. Telling him to 'tough it out' is just asking him to get I jured and throwing away your assets rather than developing him, imo.

I just hope they start to display play-off stats.

Oh my god, it's about time. Great to hear.

I really don't think Lattanzio is competing to be the starting FB. I think they're looking at him to be used as a FB in certain situations, like Vega lining up as a TE on the odd occasion. Sure. But they're also looking for impact on ST, especially with the rule changes which will change the kick game substantially. Didn't Walters call Lattanzio "a rolling ball of razor blades?" So what's the point of having a guy like that sitting on the PR? Exactly. He will be a special teamer who may line up in special packages on Offence. And perhaps serve as an emergency replacement on the DL, which is his true position.

I really don't think Lattanzio is competing to be the starting FB. I think they're looking at him to be used as a FB in certain situations, like Vega lining up as a TE on the odd occasion.

I think it's more likely he's here to get a look at CB. We might be looking at going all import in the secondary. Like MIke said, if this guy's a world beater and makes us sit Buchnor, great. If he's not in that category, he's gone.

Play-offs. I expect our OL to be settled and to come toegther as a solid unit. Goosen/Chungh pushing for starting jobs, of course, but for us to not be rotating through a new RT every week. I expect that cohesion to become a more consistant running game and significantly fewer sacks for Drew. I expect Drew to throw more TDs than INTs. I expect to have a top 4 Defence that puts pressure on the opposing QB. I expect a heated argument at the end of the season when discussing our nomination for Most OUtstanding Canadian.

And I hope we take an OL with the number 2 pick, otherwise I have to eat Mike's shorts I wasn't so sure a few weeks ago, but it seems really likely now that we're going OL. If Mateas goes 1, we pick Chungh at 2, and I'll be fairly happy.

You could probably get the Bombers to match whatever is raised, try to get a bit more publicity to the event. We had a similar conversation on the other forum and it quickly turned ridiculous, but it would be great having one of our perspectives in there. Someone who would actually pay attention to what's happening on the field instead of looking for a quote or controversy.

I agree with all of this. We seem to have a NI LB spot locked up. I'm not too worried about the MLB, I think Richie Hall can find one he likes in one of these FA camps we've been having. I'm wondering what the SAM spot is looking like this year, is it going to be a glorified DB? Or are we totally converting the LBing core to something more traditional? There should be a good RB competition. I'm sure we'll see a couple of them throughout the season. It looks like we have found an edge rusher in Derrell Johnson, I have high hopes. If we can stay relatively healthy along the DLine, should be a huge improvement over last season. I am honestly most worried about our receiving core. I was pumped about the Nic Moore signing last year and I hope he can finally live up to that promise. I definitely wouldn't mind Walters taking a hard look at Demski, and I really hope there were some good finds at the position in mini-camp. We need to surround Willy with all the talent we can.

Agreed. Or at least slowly phase them in slowly over a few seasons. They change 3-4 rules every season, so if their plan is to completely change the game, then you can make the arguement they've been doing it slowly over a few seasons.

A country does a disservice to itself and all of its citizens to not apply the rules for immigrating. You don't meet the standards set forth then you should not be allowed to be a citizen. Those of us who were born here are damned lucky and privileged. We shouldn't make it easy for just anyone to get in. I think we'd be doing ourselves a disservice if we make the rules such that a person like Henry, who lives, works, and does a tremendous amount of community service here in our country, cannot become a citizen, despite multiple attempts.

The draft falling that way seems quite unlikely.

I don't think we can trade a player that every news source says we'll be releasing.

Amazing the number of times the word STUPID is used ... total unreasoned emotion .... no logic ... no examination ... no justification ... "fraidy-cat of change" thinking .... the convert changes add real excitement and an outcome difference maker .... adding more pass completion to 2 down football means more drives and scoring ... who wants two bucks and a kick type offence, yawn? .... kick returns even off converts for more big plays .... less driving through the 5 yard zone .... I love CFL over NFL because of the higher levels of excitement To those who cry STUPID I can only say KILLJOY in its most literal sense Stupid is the right word in this case. I'm not afraid of change. I just don't like change for change sake and that's what most of these rule changes are about. No form of football that I've ever seen have any of the PAT rules for good reason. They don't make any sense. The current rules allow for 1 and 2 point conversions. If you can't score from the 5, then you should go for 1 point. Most of the PAT's will still go through the uprights from the 32. Those that don't will almost certainly go through the end zone without any chance for a run back. The extra chance to score would be from a block or partial block, which is an extremely low chance or a huge wind in which case, you'd take it on the 3 and try for 2 which won't result in a run back anyway. The 'Down lineman can't leave until the punt happens' rule will create more flags which is bad by definition. It will reduce the number of down field players by 5 big guys, which will mean that the the Special Teams coaches will have to change the way they cover punts. I expect it will produce additional big run backs in the short term, but I think it will be short lived as the coaches figure it out. The PI changes will create more flags and is closer to 'flag' football rules than 'real' football rules. A rule change that's black and white would be a step forward, but this one isn't that. The refs still have to figure out who initiated the contact and if it affected the play before they throw the flag. More flags with more interpretation by the Refs, who've already proved over and over that they cant handle interpretation is a bad thing for the CFL. Offensive PI being subject to video review is the right thing to do if you have to have video reviews of calls/non calls, but the CFL refs have proven time and time again that they can't get video replays right so the better route is to just get rid of coach initiated video review completely. BigBlue... You seem to be the only one who likes these changes. Exactly. You cannot call them 'fun changes for the benefit of fan experience" when all of the fans think the changes are ridiculous.

I think people are feeling some initial shock at the number and the comparisons it evokes to more established players, but this is a starting point in a negotiation process. The final numbers, I am sure, will be palatable. As long as Willy continues his development, I think it will all work out. If he's peaked, of course, we're still looking.

Other than our first pick, where we can essentially get anyone we want, I doubt Walters is looking at the draft like that. We really need to look at who is available and not reach for certain positions. I don't see anyway we don't go OL with that first pick though, unless every single guy worth selecting has NFL interest that makes another position look more attractive.

That seems....excessive.

No way we sink money into another receiver. We needed to make a big splash last off season to prove to players/agents we would spend money. We tried going after Butler but lost out, Moore was an awesome consolation prize who tragically ended up being injured most of the season. We're going to go hard after Heenan for sure, and probably check the potential of Holmes and Bryant as well.

Heard an interview with Wally today, says Tedford will have fee reign on his coaching staff. Wally will give him his opinion, but Jeff has the final say. With that in mind, I can't see Khari surviving the potential purge. I would normally be excited for this prospect, but there doesn't seem to be a place in our staff for him at the moment with our OC and QB coach already in place. Unless Dahlquist "retires".

Locked up for the next three years too, that's awesome.

I can't help thinking that Hammy will make it closer than people are betting. Calgary didn't run away with many games this season and their wins over Hamilton (who were without Collaros) were tight games. I don't think Hamilton is going to win, but I certainly don't see it being a blow-out. Hammy's probably my least favourite team over the past 10 or so years, so definitely rooting for a Calgary win. Looking forward to Huffer moving out of the HC chair.

I just heard Walters and O'Shea do an interview with H&L on Friday where Mike was asked if he has finished doing his evaluations of his staff. He said no, and bought himself some time by saying that this is his first time going through the process and that he has to develop a way to evaluate the staff and different components of the team and that is the part that is taking so long. I'm not sure where each of our three-headed monster stands on the state of our coordinators, but hearing O'Shea speak on it made it seem that nothing is set in stone. I personally think we might be waiting to see who is available before deciding to part ways simply to make a change.

Agreed. This whole season has been brutal. I've been thinking this too. Front to back, across the entire league, I can't recall a more boring season.