Around The League: 2018 Offseason

[Floyd]

Right now our 7th cdn appears to be coates or lafrance 

unless corney and ekakitie are rotating... but ekakitie is a huge question mark for me

our NI depth actually seems razor thin this year - lots of it based on potential...

[Mark F]

1 hour ago, Floyd said:

Right now our 7th cdn appears to be coates or lafrance 

also ,Wolitarski.

[kelownabomberfan]

16 hours ago, Throw Long Bannatyne said:

I don't see Simonise still being available at #7, also with his size pretty good chance he will head south.

http://3downnation.com/2016/09/14/canadian-receiver-rashaun-simonise-signs-cjfls-okanagan-sun/

Speedflex has some experience with Simonise.  Apparently not the greatest attitude.  Maybe he has fixed that now.

[Bigblue204]

23 minutes ago, Mark F said:

also ,Wolitarski.

And Jones

[Floyd]

40 minutes ago, Mark F said:

also ,Wolitarski.

Kind of my point - wolitaraky is a big question mark

[Mike]

Harris, Demski, Coates, Neufeld, Goossen, Chungh, Loffler

Seems pretty straight forward to me. Not ideal, but I don't mind Coates as a player anyways.

Don't think we have to count on anyone to make huge strides this year ... just health, which is any team. I'd love to have Muamba ... don't much care for him as a professional, but he is a good football player ... but really, the best thing you can do is make your best offer and it appears we've done that. If we don't get him, fine. Oh well.

[Mike]

And FWIW, I don't think we are the only "top flight" West team with Canadian question marks. I don't even think ours are the biggest question marks. Calgary, way more issues than us IMO ... they've got Singleton, Bergman, Erdos, Wilson, they've got to find 2 receivers to play for them between Brescacin/Parker/Durant and then they still need another starter somewhere whether it's Wiggan/Colling at DT or Adeleke at SAM. Don't know about the health status of Lavertu or Turner, but I suppose they could be factors (Turner more so than Lavertu, who I think may be finished)

Saskatchewan is in just as rough shape if not worse, Edmonton has a few question marks but they're looking alright.

I guess all I'm saying is it's normal to have questions that need answering in March.

[Floyd]

15 minutes ago, Mike said:

Harris, Demski, Coates, Neufeld, Goossen, Chungh, Loffler

Seems pretty straight forward to me. Not ideal, but I don't mind Coates as a player anyways.

Don't think we have to count on anyone to make huge strides this year ... just health, which is any team. I'd love to have Muamba ... don't much care for him as a professional, but he is a good football player ... but really, the best thing you can do is make your best offer and it appears we've done that. If we don't get him, fine. Oh well.

Just a matter of opinion, I guess...  Muamba vs Coates as our 7th NI - seems like that's worth $200k to me

Not sure I agree with WAY more issues in Calgary - their three NI receivers all look pretty good to me as well as Mrabure/Wiggan/Colling to cover the 7th NI - would also suspect Quinn Smith goes back to DL - plus you add Lavertu and Grozman to the OL depth

Sounding like we're going to lose out on Muamba over $20-30k (?) - doesn't make a ton of sense to me...

There IS depth on this team but we just have a lot of unknowns as our national depth - even LaFrance and Demski are unknowns, I think they will exceed expectations but there's actually not much proof for this view...

 

 

 

[Mike]

I did forget about Mrabure ... I'd be failing myself if I didn't point out that you may be slightly "grass is greener on the other side"-ing the depth in Calgary if you're going to talk up guys like Grozman and Colling and then turn around and say you have question marks about guys like Ekakitie and Wolitarsky - but still, I think both teams have questions to answer.

I think Muamba is worth the price tag. I also think there's more at play than just deciding if we can trim salary and add Muamba. Quite honestly, if it was up to me and I was making moves without considering the collateral damage you can do to your franchise, I would've cut Wild yesterday to bring in Muamba but there are things that I don't think we can discount that impact a decision like that - is this franchise in the business of cutting guys they JUST signed (aka ****ing them over big time) to new deals? I don't think they are. That limits the moves they can make. Do they want to bring in a guy who doesn't come across as much of a "team first" type? Or if you want to go one step further, a "winner"? I'm not sure they want to make all these decisions for a guy like that.

Would I? Probably. But I don't think I'm in a position to say that we can just ignore those other factors. Whether I agree with it or not, I do think this team places a lot of value on the idea of a "all for one" mentality in the locker room and it's not just about assembling the most talent possible - when you look at Calgary, you can kind of understand why. They want pieces that fit the room. Maybe they're not sure they want to pay the premium for a guy who may not accomplish that.

 

[mbrg]

While it's pretty difficult to quantify talent as you move deeper into the roster, describing our NI depth as razor-thin seems way off the mark.  I'd expect that at least 4 teams in the league would gladly trade for our terrible NI predicament.

 

So which unrealistic expectation is the reason for describing our NI roster as razor-thin?

- The idea that our 7th NI starter isn't as good as our 1st?

- The idea that half of our NI's probably aren't good enough to be trusted with regular snaps on the starting 24?

- The idea that if we have a couple of injuries to our 7 starters our team won't be nearly as good as when they were healthy?

 

Seems to me all 9 teams are in that same situation.

Edited March 17, 2018 by mbrg

[mbrg]

I like the ratio flexibility that Muamba would provide and I hope we can find a way to sign him.  I would prefer to not have to declare more than 5 NI's on offence until it is necessitated by injury.

 

That said, he wasn't scheduled to be a free agent this year.  This team had a plan for the roster and who they wanted to sign.  Presumably they have already done that.

 

If we are unable to sign Muamba, it does not affect the plan.  Muamba was never part of the plan.  He is an unexpected opportunity; one I hope we can take advantage of.

[WBBFanWest]

2 hours ago, kelownabomberfan said:

Speedflex has some experience with Simonise.  Apparently not the greatest attitude.  Maybe he has fixed that now.

I think we'll  have to face the fact that Speedflex is who he is.  He's not going to get "fixed" 

[Floyd]

1 hour ago, Mike said:

I did forget about Mrabure ... I'd be failing myself if I didn't point out that you may be slightly "grass is greener on the other side"-ing the depth in Calgary if you're going to talk up guys like Grozman and Colling and then turn around and say you have question marks about guys like Ekakitie and Wolitarsky - but still, I think both teams have questions to answer.

I think Muamba is worth the price tag. I also think there's more at play than just deciding if we can trim salary and add Muamba. Quite honestly, if it was up to me and I was making moves without considering the collateral damage you can do to your franchise, I would've cut Wild yesterday to bring in Muamba but there are things that I don't think we can discount that impact a decision like that - is this franchise in the business of cutting guys they JUST signed (aka ****ing them over big time) to new deals? I don't think they are. That limits the moves they can make. Do they want to bring in a guy who doesn't come across as much of a "team first" type? Or if you want to go one step further, a "winner"? I'm not sure they want to make all these decisions for a guy like that.

Would I? Probably. But I don't think I'm in a position to say that we can just ignore those other factors. Whether I agree with it or not, I do think this team places a lot of value on the idea of a "all for one" mentality in the locker room and it's not just about assembling the most talent possible - when you look at Calgary, you can kind of understand why. They want pieces that fit the room. Maybe they're not sure they want to pay the premium for a guy who may not accomplish that.

 

I wouldn’t say I’m talking them up... it’s just a fact that the depth guys in Calgary have played games and most of our guys haven’t...

im more comparing this year’s bombers to last year’s bomber depth...  I like the moves but we haven’t really replaced a weatherman/corney/Thomas NI position

that and we all know couture will be starting by game five and spooner will be our 6th OL

[Atomic]

Maybe between Miles/Briggs/Corney/Ekakatie we can start a second Canajan on defence

[bb1]

If we have Neufeld  pencilled in as a starter that is a big time roll of the dice. As a back up great but Neufeld as a fulltime all year starter? Hopefully one of our young guys behind him will shake out.

[pigseye]

3 hours ago, Atomic said:

Maybe between Miles/Briggs/Corney/Ekakatie we can start a second Canajan on defence

I think they will, they like pencil in 8 for flexibility so I don't think that will change. 

[wbbfan]

6 hours ago, Atomic said:

Maybe between Miles/Briggs/Corney/Ekakatie we can start a second Canajan on defence

Thomas was far under the level of poop + nevis, and ekakatie is behind thomas. Corney is closer but still well back of our 3 headed imp monster that is defensive end as well.

miles n briggs are an interesting thought at wil with jsk at mac. 

On 3/17/2018 at 1:35 PM, Bigblue204 said:

And Jones

This,  now more then ever we seem poised to start a ni db (other then saftey) 

Though I suspect we will see it be on offense to start. Coates, lafrance and wolitarski.  Thats a bloody strong rotation. I dont think itll be on the OL short of gray coming sooner then expected. I think we will plug foketi in on the OL.

We have an opening for the 7th canadian, but the difference between us and teams in trouble with the ratio is we have a few good options to fill out that 7th spot. And a few good bodies at those positions. 

[JuranBoldenRules]

3 hours ago, pigseye said:

I think they will, they like pencil in 8 for flexibility so I don't think that will change. 

And it shouldn't be too hard to have 2 Canadians on the field on D with the depth of decent players we have, plus anyone added in the draft.  That's all it is.  They don't have to designate certain positions as Canadian.  For ultimate flexibility, 5 on O and 2 on D looks best to me with an extra Canadian used on O quite often.

[Mark F]

possible CFL players

(if you need a football fix)

live stream 

 

[wbbfan]

1 hour ago, JuranBoldenRules said:

And it shouldn't be too hard to have 2 Canadians on the field on D with the depth of decent players we have, plus anyone added in the draft.  That's all it is.  They don't have to designate certain positions as Canadian.  For ultimate flexibility, 5 on O and 2 on D looks best to me with an extra Canadian used on O quite often.

This is the big thing. Where ever we put the last starting NI, it wont be a dud like previously with hurl.  The depth of canadian talent on this team is what will continue to carry us into the play offs for years to come. 

[Tracker]

3downnation is saying pretty definitively that Muamba intends to go to Montreal, so it looks like he was using the Bomber interest as a ploy. So, screw him and that big white horse he came in on. I hope he gets what he deserves in Montreal. With a massive contract,  he will be expected to carry at least the defence on his back.

Edited March 18, 2018 by tracker

[wbbfan]

58 minutes ago, tracker said:

3downnation is saying pretty definitively that Muamba intends to go to Montreal, so it looks like he was using the Bomber interest as a ploy. So, screw him and that big white horse he came in on. I hope he gets what he deserves in Montreal. With a massive contract,  he will be expected to carry at least the defence on his back.

I think (just my opinion) he would have come here if we matched dollars. 

If we are tight with the cap including the rookie money etc for when PR expands, it makes sense that we leave a good chunk of it alone. Forget mid season replacements etc, what if some one like gray shakes loss mid season? He is going to demand serious money, and it isnt a one and done thing. he is a guy youd hope to have around and build with. I guess im just resigned to us not getting him. It is upsetting that we didnt get one of the three MLBers available though. I love JSK, but its a huge difference between sustaining that kind of play and showing flashes early.  And im leary of depending on wild too.

[SpeedFlex27]

On ‎3‎/‎17‎/‎2018 at 3:00 PM, WBBFanWest said:

I think we'll  have to face the fact that Speedflex is who he is.  He's not going to get "fixed" 

As far as I know,  when Simonise came back to the Sun in 2017 his attitude was fine. He has a lot of confidence. Now he's eligible for the CFL Draft & he won't be the Big Dog anymore like he was in junior football.  He'll have to work hard to crack a CFL lineup. 

[GCn20]

On ‎2018‎-‎03‎-‎17 at 2:04 PM, Mike said:

And FWIW, I don't think we are the only "top flight" West team with Canadian question marks. I don't even think ours are the biggest question marks. Calgary, way more issues than us IMO ... they've got Singleton, Bergman, Erdos, Wilson, they've got to find 2 receivers to play for them between Brescacin/Parker/Durant and then they still need another starter somewhere whether it's Wiggan/Colling at DT or Adeleke at SAM. Don't know about the health status of Lavertu or Turner, but I suppose they could be factors (Turner more so than Lavertu, who I think may be finished)

Saskatchewan is in just as rough shape if not worse, Edmonton has a few question marks but they're looking alright.

I guess all I'm saying is it's normal to have questions that need answering in March.

Yea...other teams have problems too. That should only serve as a silver lining though. I could care less what problems other teams have. The Bombers only focus, and I'm sure it is, is the problems the Bombers have right now. While I agree that March may be a little early for hand wringing it is also after FA, and the majority of other teams releases have been done. The window for improving our ratio and ratio flex is very narrow now. There are still a couple good options, but man losing Westerman hurt. It's repairable, and certainly not a death blow to our club if we do not have 2 NAT defensive starters.....but it sure would help us because we need to upgrade if we want to be a Grey Cup contender.

[FrostyWinnipeg]

Calvillo joins Argos? Big O now Big Woe.