So who won free agency?

[do or die]

Riders beefed up their OL/DL......but had to pay Paul in other areas.

[Booch]

as it sits they have lost so far 3 on dline (steele..Leanard..Mraubre) and added one...pricey Evans

O-line added Bond...lost Dennis..looking like Campbell...hardly beefing up 

[SPuDS]

can we really say who has or hasn't at at this point?

[Tracker]

Judging from the hysteria over at Riderfans, the Roughies have lost. Big time.

[do or die]

32 minutes ago, tracker said:

Judging from the hysteria over at Riderfans, the Roughies have lost. Big time.

By tomorrow, they will of won, decisively.....

[blueingreenland]

Rider fans on Tuesday: "We won free agency!!"

Rider fans on Wednesday: "Awww! Nevermind."

 

[do or die]

Everybody else simply scrapheaps......

[blue_gold_84]

Flatbillies on Feb. 13: "Enjoy those scraps, Bombers!"

Flatbillies on Feb. 14: "Hurl and Bond are great signings! Dennis and Muamba are overrated!"

Flatbillies on Feb. 15: "What a great time with sister last night."

[TrueBlue4ever]

1 hour ago, do or die said:

Riders beefed up their OL/DL......but had to pay Paul in other areas.

Football 101 says you build a team from the lines out, no?

[TrueBlue4ever]

Rather than the usual Rider bashing or Bomber circle jerking here, let me throw out some questions for the masses along with my two cents. The winner in free agency will not be the team that necessarily landed the big fish, or spent the most, or retained the most, but rather filled their needs. So what did the Bombers need?

Well, according to everybody here, the biggest need was middle linebacker. Given the stats, the secondary could arguably use an upgrade. And despite the gaudy stats, once the injuries hit and Thorpe walked out, our receiving and quarterbacking got a little thin. Kicking game, o-line, starting QB  and running game were all top notch,  d-line was good (decent, serviceable - pick your adjective depending on your mood).

So what did we gain? Well, we took care of our back-up QB and added some nice pieces at receiver. Nothing I don't like about the Durant signing, except maybe the price and how it would hinder us elsewhere. Nothing I don't like about the Bowman signing ( I say this unaware of his price tag), provided he is healthy and we can squeeze a couple of years before his age starts to show. Are we there yet? I'm going to say no, but he isn't the receiver who left us and then learned how to catch every(any)thing a few years back.  As for the Demski signing, if the talent matches the hype, we may have hit the jackpot. That is a MASSIVE "if". His history shows us a guy who (if he stays healthy, another big "if" after last year) will get us about 300 yards receiving and maybe one TD. If he wasn't a local boy, would anyone be that excited by this signing? And again, at what financial cost?  And hands up anyone who can tell me Mitchell Baines' stats.

We also added Keinan LaFrance. Cool signing of yet another local boy, and I think he could be a good one if he got starting reps, but why exactly did we covet him? If this was a 3 year contract and we were going to shift from an aging Harris to him by the end of next year, sure, but LaFrance signs a one year deal when we have a better Canadian running back and Tim Flanders already in the fold. I think he's a good player, but that doesn't make this a good signing, especially if the cost of it prevents us from bidding elsewhere on other areas of need. We did not need help at running back.

As for Fenner, I cannot pass judgment as I don't know enough about him. Hearing good things about his versatility, and it sounds like he is our back-up plan if Mo Leggett has not recovered from his Achilles injury. Maybe we knew Heath was gone, so we grabbed him when we could. If so, good foresight, Walters.

Who did we retain? Officially no one yet as none of our players who made it to free agency have been re-signed. Obviously, we must also consider those we re-upped before Feb. 13. Leggett is the biggest signing so far, but oh boy if he is not healed up - any history of 31 year old undersized linebackers (converted DB's) recovering from an Achilles tear at that age? We shall see. Stanley Bryant was also a must-sign. Chris Randle would have been a big loss too, if not quite as devastating. Happy to have Fogg, Dressler, and Medlock back (and I guess Nevis and Wild as well), but none of them were irreplaceable (even Medlock - Hajrullahu was available and had the right passport if we absolutely needed a new kicker). But consistency is important. Good job here.

Who did we lose? Well, on a club whose biggest problem last year was not either its offence or its special teams, we sure haven't done much to shore up the third leg, have we? Maybe Fenner for Heath is a trade-off, maybe Westerman's departure ensures that the loss of sack totals is offset by a lack of roughing penalties, and no one liked Sam Hurl here, but the fact is on a club that "isn't going anywhere in the playoffs until we improve our defence" (quoted from, oh, I don't know, pick any one of a hundred or so posts last year on this site) we have dropped two Canadian starters and two recent all-stars. And we have no middle linebacker at all now, which was the biggest area of need according to everybody. Why have we loaded up more on offence then in the past 2 days? Why for all our spending on big name Winnipeggers have we not aggressively pursued a known name like Bear Woods or Larry Dean. And the single biggest question - has our spending on offence now taken out of the bidding for that big defensive piece at linebacker, be it Woods or now Muamba? And am I the only one who cares that we lost the one piece that transformed our o-line from mediocre Drew Willy killer to dominant with a slice of nasty in the form of human eclipse Travis Bond? That one is going to sting.

So right now, grading only free agency performance our DB's are weaker/even, our linebacking is weaker (yes it is, we now have no player at all, and lost a Canadian starter to boot, ineffective as he was), our d-line is weaker, our receivers are even/better, back-up QB better but more pricey, o-line weaker, and our running backs better (thank God, cuz THAT was a real problem area last year).

Sorry to throw a little reality into the mix. Now flame away.

 

 

[Nash00]

Fenner for Heath is a definite upgrade.

[Nash00]

2 hours ago, Booch said:

as it sits they have lost so far 3 on dline (steele..Leanard..Mraubre) and added one...pricey Evans

O-line added Bond...lost Dennis..looking like Campbell...hardly beefing up 

You could say they also added Hughes (not FA but splitting hairs) but I agree completely on the O-line. Right now they plan on playing Bond at tackle, who knows how that experiment will work? Is he mobile enough to play T?

[Floyd]

If the Bombers did in fact sign Fenner to play SAM and are moving Leggett to Boundary HB or S...  

And if they have the ratio flexibility to play an all-import front seven... or all-import DBs

I think there's a very legit argument that they won FA

[TheSource]

7 minutes ago, TrueBlue4ever said:

Rather than the usual Rider bashing or Bomber circle jerking here, let me throw out some questions for the masses along with my two cents. The winner in free agency will not be the team that necessarily landed the big fish, or spent the most, or retained the most, but rather filled their needs. So what did the Bombers need?

Well, according to everybody here, the biggest need was middle linebacker. Given the stats, the secondary could arguably use an upgrade. And despite the gaudy stats, once the injuries hit and Thorpe walked out, our receiving and quarterbacking got a little thin. Kicking game, o-line, starting QB  and running game were all top notch,  d-line was good (decent, serviceable - pick your adjective depending on your mood).

So what did we gain? Well, we took care of our back-up QB and added some nice pieces at receiver. Nothing I don't like about the Durant signing, except maybe the price and how it would hinder us elsewhere. Nothing I don't like about the Bowman signing ( I say this unaware of his price tag), provided he is healthy and we can squeeze a couple of years before his age starts to show. Are we there yet? I'm going to say no, but he isn't the receiver who left us and then learned how to catch every(any)thing a few years back.  As for the Demski signing, if the talent matches the hype, we may have hit the jackpot. That is a MASSIVE "if". His history shows us a guy who (if he stays healthy, another big "if" after last year) will get us about 300 yards receiving and maybe one TD. If he wasn't a local boy, would anyone be that excited by this signing? And again, at what financial cost?  And hands up anyone who can tell me Mitchell Baines' stats.

We also added Keinan LaFrance. Cool signing of yet another local boy, and I think he could be a good one if he got starting reps, but why exactly did we covet him? If this was a 3 year contract and we were going to shift from an aging Harris to him by the end of next year, sure, but LaFrance signs a one year deal when we have a better Canadian running back and Tim Flanders already in the fold. I think he's a good player, but that doesn't make this a good signing, especially if the cost of it prevents us from bidding elsewhere on other areas of need. We did not need help at running back.

As for Fenner, I cannot pass judgment as I don't know enough about him. Hearing good things about his versatility, and it sounds like he is our back-up plan if Mo Leggett has not recovered from his Achilles injury. Maybe we knew Heath was gone, so we grabbed him when we could. If so, good foresight, Walters.

Who did we retain? Officially no one yet as none of our players who made it to free agency have been re-signed. Obviously, we must also consider those we re-upped before Feb. 13. Leggett is the biggest signing so far, but oh boy if he is not healed up - any history of 31 year old undersized linebackers (converted DB's) recovering from an Achilles tear at that age? We shall see. Stanley Bryant was also a must-sign. Chris Randle would have been a big loss too, if not quite as devastating. Happy to have Fogg, Dressler, and Medlock back (and I guess Nevis and Wild as well), but none of them were irreplaceable (even Medlock - Hajrullahu was available and had the right passport if we absolutely needed a new kicker). But consistency is important. Good job here.

Who did we lose? Well, on a club whose biggest problem last year was not either its offence or its special teams, we sure haven't done much to shore up the third leg, have we? Maybe Fenner for Heath is a trade-off, maybe Westerman's departure ensures that the loss of sack totals is offset by a lack of roughing penalties, and no one liked Sam Hurl here, but the fact is on a club that "isn't going anywhere in the playoffs until we improve our defence" (quoted from, oh, I don't know, pick any one of a hundred or so posts last year on this site) we have dropped two Canadian starters and two recent all-stars. And we have no middle linebacker at all now, which was the biggest area of need according to everybody. Why have we loaded up more on offence then in the past 2 days? Why for all our spending on big name Winnipeggers have we not aggressively pursued a known name like Bear Woods or Larry Dean. And the single biggest question - has our spending on offence now taken out of the bidding for that big defensive piece at linebacker, be it Woods or now Muamba? And am I the only one who cares that we lost the one piece that transformed our o-line from mediocre Drew Willy killer to dominant with a slice of nasty in the form of human eclipse Travis Bond? That one is going to sting.

So right now, grading only free agency performance our DB's are weaker/even, our linebacking is weaker (yes it is, we now have no player at all, and lost a Canadian starter to boot, ineffective as he was), our d-line is weaker, our receivers are even/better, back-up QB better but more pricey, o-line weaker, and our running backs better (thank God, cuz THAT was a real problem area last year).

Sorry to throw a little reality into the mix. Now flame away.

 

 

This is an excellent analysis, and bang on in my opinion.

Bombers have not made the moves on defense to win a Grey Cup, but they will be an exciting team to watch this year, which will put people in the stands and $$$ in the coffers.

My thoughts are that the problem with the Bombers is that being frugal and putting $$$ away is always more of an objective than winning it all...

Really wish it were otherwise, but that is why other teams spend the cash when the Bombers never do.

[DR. CFL]

MLB.......still more questions than answers in that department

[Floyd]

If The Source and Dr. CFL are not happy with our FA signings, its probably a good sign.

[WBBFanWest]

5 minutes ago, TheSource said:

This is an excellent analysis, and bang on in my opinion.

Bombers have not made the moves on defense to win a Grey Cup, but they will be an exciting team to watch this year, which will put people in the stands and $$$ in the coffers.

My thoughts are that the problem with the Bombers is that being frugal and putting $$$ away is always more of an objective than winning it all...

Really wish it were otherwise, but that is why other teams spend the cash when the Bombers never do.

You do realize that there is a cap minimum too right?  There is no "putting away $$$".  Every team spends as close to the cap as they can.  But it's nice to recycle that old saw if you want to complain for the sake of complaining.

[TrueBlue4ever]

8 minutes ago, TheSource said:

This is an excellent analysis, and bang on in my opinion.

Wow, my whole post  just destroyed in one sentence.

[blue_gold_84]

16 minutes ago, TheSource said:

Bombers have not made the moves on defense to win a Grey Cup, but they will be an exciting team to watch this year, which will put people in the stands and $$$ in the coffers.

My thoughts are that the problem with the Bombers is that being frugal and putting $$$ away is always more of an objective than winning it all...

Really wish it were otherwise, but that is why other teams spend the cash when the Bombers never do.

Another garbage dump of a post. The bolded part is particularly ridden by the stench that only otherwise exists in a rotting, rancid pile of a garbage.

Seriously, what proof do you have of the WFC being more frugal than any other team when it comes SMS spending? Please present your evidence. If not, STFU and get lost.

Edited February 15, 2018 by blue_gold_84
**** TheSource

[Atomic]

18 minutes ago, TrueBlue4ever said:

And am I the only one who cares that we lost the one piece that transformed our o-line from mediocre Drew Willy killer to dominant with a slice of nasty in the form of human eclipse Travis Bond? That one is going to sting.

I love Travis Bond but I've read this a few times from various sources and it's not the full story.  Bond did not transform our OL.  He was very, very good and a large part of the transformation.  But it was not done in isolation.

Our OL went from Bryant-Hardrick-Goossen-Chungh-Neufeld to Bryant-Bond-Goossen-Chungh-Hardrick, but most importantly, Willy came out and Nichols came in.  Nichols gets rid of the ball much faster than Willy.... and I mean it's not even close.  We're going from worst QB in the league in terms of release-time to one of the best.

This all happened at the same time so it's not fair to pin it all on Bond.  He was great... but the OL isn't going to disintegrate without him, just like it didn't disintegrate without him at the end of last season.

[WBBFanWest]

29 minutes ago, TrueBlue4ever said:

Rather than the usual Rider bashing or Bomber circle jerking here, let me throw out some questions for the masses along with my two cents.

Sorry to throw a little reality into the mix. Now flame away.

Point one:  If you think it's surprising that on a Bomber site people would be excited about the Bombers and make fun of the Riders, then it's sort of hard to take anything else you're going to say seriously.

Point  two:  Your opinion is not reality

[Booch]

Yeah saying an offensive guard was the sole reason we started to play well is way off base...Sure he was good and dominant...but last year he wasn't as good or dominant and when he went out...did you really notice?...nope

The key..as was said above was the QB switch...which made the "whole" offense better...The line didn't have to block as long...receivers were able to get the ball sooner and when they were actually in the right place to make the play successful...and that allowed us to actually utilize Harris more effectively.....if anything the turn around was pretty much all on Nichols

Bond was good...is good...but his loss won't make our offence all of a sudden ineffective..and if his absence allows us to play a Canadian there...and replace one of or both of Hurl..Thomas as starters on defense we are better for it...Even with Westermans departure because if you look at games..stats...the d-line grades and pressures...our D-line improved in all areas after he got hurt...food for thought

[do or die]

IN

Durant gives us the proven and experienced back up OB we have lacked...forever.  
Bowman is a big, strong physical R, who can go deep... but will covert a lot more of the famous short stuff past the marker......and create more elbow room for Dress and Adams.  His skill set is perfect in the Lapo O
Demski has potential as slotback/R hybrid guy......who might do well in this O,  and offsets some of the ratio hit, from the loss of Westerman.   Might help out in KR's
LaFrance still living off of 1 playoff game.....but has passport, for backup to Harris and is another hybrid project for Lapo
Fenner is perhaps the sleeper here .......fair cover guy, good hitter/tackler ......27 ST tackles last year as well.   Gives the back 7 more physicality and flexibility (ie moving Leggett to backfield)
 

Out

Westerman.....took a ratio hit here, but actual production should be alright with Jeffcoat and Opo, with perhaps less penalty issues.
Heath.....good ballhawk, gambler, sometimes indifferent with the tackling  - actually got roughed up a bit in some games, particularly in the Rider series.
Bond .....physical force.....hated to lose his run blocking at G.   Organization has confidence in OL depth.....we'll see.

 

Worries

MLB....proven answer to the hole in the donut, not here......yet 

[Jaxon]

23 minutes ago, TrueBlue4ever said:

Rather than the usual Rider bashing or Bomber circle jerking here, let me throw out some questions for the masses along with my two cents. The winner in free agency will not be the team that necessarily landed the big fish, or spent the most, or retained the most, but rather filled their needs. So what did the Bombers need?

Well, according to everybody here, the biggest need was middle linebacker. Given the stats, the secondary could arguably use an upgrade. And despite the gaudy stats, once the injuries hit and Thorpe walked out, our receiving and quarterbacking got a little thin. Kicking game, o-line, starting QB  and running game were all top notch,  d-line was good (decent, serviceable - pick your adjective depending on your mood).

So what did we gain? Well, we took care of our back-up QB and added some nice pieces at receiver. Nothing I don't like about the Durant signing, except maybe the price and how it would hinder us elsewhere. Nothing I don't like about the Bowman signing ( I say this unaware of his price tag), provided he is healthy and we can squeeze a couple of years before his age starts to show. Are we there yet? I'm going to say no, but he isn't the receiver who left us and then learned how to catch every(any)thing a few years back.  As for the Demski signing, if the talent matches the hype, we may have hit the jackpot. That is a MASSIVE "if". His history shows us a guy who (if he stays healthy, another big "if" after last year) will get us about 300 yards receiving and maybe one TD. If he wasn't a local boy, would anyone be that excited by this signing? And again, at what financial cost?  And hands up anyone who can tell me Mitchell Baines' stats.

We also added Keinan LaFrance. Cool signing of yet another local boy, and I think he could be a good one if he got starting reps, but why exactly did we covet him? If this was a 3 year contract and we were going to shift from an aging Harris to him by the end of next year, sure, but LaFrance signs a one year deal when we have a better Canadian running back and Tim Flanders already in the fold. I think he's a good player, but that doesn't make this a good signing, especially if the cost of it prevents us from bidding elsewhere on other areas of need. We did not need help at running back.

As for Fenner, I cannot pass judgment as I don't know enough about him. Hearing good things about his versatility, and it sounds like he is our back-up plan if Mo Leggett has not recovered from his Achilles injury. Maybe we knew Heath was gone, so we grabbed him when we could. If so, good foresight, Walters.

Who did we retain? Officially no one yet as none of our players who made it to free agency have been re-signed. Obviously, we must also consider those we re-upped before Feb. 13. Leggett is the biggest signing so far, but oh boy if he is not healed up - any history of 31 year old undersized linebackers (converted DB's) recovering from an Achilles tear at that age? We shall see. Stanley Bryant was also a must-sign. Chris Randle would have been a big loss too, if not quite as devastating. Happy to have Fogg, Dressler, and Medlock back (and I guess Nevis and Wild as well), but none of them were irreplaceable (even Medlock - Hajrullahu was available and had the right passport if we absolutely needed a new kicker). But consistency is important. Good job here.

Who did we lose? Well, on a club whose biggest problem last year was not either its offence or its special teams, we sure haven't done much to shore up the third leg, have we? Maybe Fenner for Heath is a trade-off, maybe Westerman's departure ensures that the loss of sack totals is offset by a lack of roughing penalties, and no one liked Sam Hurl here, but the fact is on a club that "isn't going anywhere in the playoffs until we improve our defence" (quoted from, oh, I don't know, pick any one of a hundred or so posts last year on this site) we have dropped two Canadian starters and two recent all-stars. And we have no middle linebacker at all now, which was the biggest area of need according to everybody. Why have we loaded up more on offence then in the past 2 days? Why for all our spending on big name Winnipeggers have we not aggressively pursued a known name like Bear Woods or Larry Dean. And the single biggest question - has our spending on offence now taken out of the bidding for that big defensive piece at linebacker, be it Woods or now Muamba? And am I the only one who cares that we lost the one piece that transformed our o-line from mediocre Drew Willy killer to dominant with a slice of nasty in the form of human eclipse Travis Bond? That one is going to sting.

So right now, grading only free agency performance our DB's are weaker/even, our linebacking is weaker (yes it is, we now have no player at all, and lost a Canadian starter to boot, ineffective as he was), our d-line is weaker, our receivers are even/better, back-up QB better but more pricey, o-line weaker, and our running backs better (thank God, cuz THAT was a real problem area last year).

Sorry to throw a little reality into the mix. Now flame away.

 

 

MLB   Still an area to be looked at either through FA, (Muamba, Reed, Woods) or other adjustments (draft, available Americans, re-positioning current players)

I think you've underestimated Demski's potential.  Before he got hurt, in game one last year he went 7 catches for 87 yards.   Game two he went 7 catches for 82 yards and a TD.   That was on a team that was loaded at receiver, so it wasn't like he was the only target.    If he stays healthy (a legit question for any football player).  I think he is an 800 yd guy receiving plus punt and kick return rotation.  The price paid was very much in line with what teams pay for starting quality Canadian receivers.   This will be his 4 season in the league, so he ought to be in his prime.

LaFrance has shown that he's a good RB (Career averages 4.1 yards per carry,  Total 453 yards on 111 carries).   Those aren't Harris numbers, but they're decent given that he's  primarily been  in a back-up roll.   We also saw him go 157 yards on 25 carries in the eastern final back in 2016 when he was pressed into the primary spot.   He's also got 28 catches for 200 yards, which is a good average coming out of the backfield.  The rumoured salary is very much in line with backup salary.    Don't forget that the Bombers have had Chris Normand in this roll and he is yet unsigned, so they needed to fill that spot.

Personally, I'm very sad to see Bond leave.   I thought he was a significant part of our O-line improvement and would have been much happier if he was still with us, so I agree with you there. 

Heath for Fenner is a reasonable adjustment.   Time will tell.

We also do need more depth at DL with Westerman gone and Jake Thomas still unsigned.

 

 

[do or die]

1 hour ago, TrueBlue4ever said:

Football 101 says you build a team from the lines out, no?

Yes, but you have to manage ratio/cap issues as well.....