Rookie Camp Discussion

[Jpan85]

You could copy and past what Tburg said for all the top teams. Lots of turnover.

[wbbfan]

15 minutes ago, Arnold_Palmer said:

100 percent. I remember when we had to over pay veterans to even consider signing with us. I’m loving the way this team looks. Lots of depth, good Canadian starters, and a ton of play makers on both sides of the ball. Unfortunately a good football team will lose good players. I get it, players have to make a living too but when they leave another team for more money rarely does the team get the value for what they’re paying for. I’m glad we’re on the other end of the spectrum like a team like Calgary instead of a team like Montreal. 

Teams have been diving on our PR guys and TC cuts the last couple of years. Some of the best rookies in camp (Montgomery last year) didn't make the team. Instead of our depth ranks being filled with airlifts, and guys who have been cut by half the league they are filled with young hungry guys who have been groomed to take spots under excellent vets.

 Those raw guys battling for spots on the OL with little experience, if we cut all but our projected 5 (bryant, hardrick, foketi, nuefeld, and couture) all the rest of the guys would be instantly snapped up by other teams. Atleast half of them would be active roster guys this year on other teams as well. A few of those guys would start for a decent chunk of teams trying to develop the OL this year. 

DB is one of the easiest positions to recruit, Jones has played S and corner and is easily ready to go into camp as the incumbent. 

[Colin Unger]

42 minutes ago, TBURGESS said:

This years team is very different than last years team.

We've drafted pretty well since Walters took over, getting 3 all stars in 5 years. We lost all of them in the off season.

We've replaced 2 NI all star OL with guys who have a start or two under their belt or are rookies.

We lost our WIL and our shutdown corner.

We lost our all star safety who we are replacing with a guy who didn't win the spot out of TC last year as he got hurt in game 3 having not played safety at all. He is coming off of a big injury and is currently on the vet injured list.

We lost some veteran backups like Wild, Leggett and Fogg.

We're making a bunch of changes at DB.

We only made 2 known upgrades.

We're counting on our QB getting back to his 2017 form, that the guys who have been around the club for a while are now good enough to be starters and that this years draft will net a starter this year.

Every team in the CFL every offseason has a list similar to this. Calgary's is much worse. You're always going to have turnover if you're a good team in the CFL.  The teams in the CFL that get good and remain good do so because the upgrades they get from year to year come through drafting, American scouting, and development. There was a lot of bellyaching last year when the team lost Jamaal Westerman and TJ Heath.  The defense ended up being vastly better and not just because of Adam Bighill.  Sayles ended up being an upgrade over Heath and Alexander took huge steps forward making the secondary a lot better than it had been previously. If in fact Walters didn't build the team he had last year by complete fluke there's no reason to think that this team won't continue to move forward.  There are plenty of candidates to be improvements over what we had last season beyond Jefferson and Matthews who are both massive upgrades at key positions.

If Nichols gets back to his 2017 this team is much better.  The passing game will likely be better even if he doesn't because Matthews is a big upgrade and the Canadian trio all have an additional year under their belts. 

 

[Noeller]

 

[Brandon]

Lol I like in TBurg's world whenever we lose a player that guy was playing at his absolute peak and prime and that any new guy who replaces him cannot at all have a higher ceiling. 

Wild , Leggett and Fogg are easily replaceable and were all done. 

Nichols was crap last season and at least was looking better as the season went on.  Apparently Streveler has no chance of taking the next step and is completely forgotten.

Loffler was extremely mediocre for the last 2 seasons...  is he a huge loss? 

The only spot that we really took a step back was at o-line and it's not like they don't have a plan to fill that void. 

[Dirty30]

Any updates for today?

[Arnold_Palmer]

I don’t know why people keep bringing up Loffler. He gained his all stars by reputation. He was good in his first year but sub par in years two and three. Sure he’ll make you pay over the middle but he was slow and always a step behind in coverage. Jones is excellent in coverage and even if he isn’t 100 percent Hecht is more than adequate to start If he needs to. 

[Jpan85]

Wonder if they have to make any cuts before main camp.

[blueingreenland]

2 hours ago, TBURGESS said:

This years team is very different than last years team.

We've drafted pretty well since Walters took over, getting 3 all stars in 5 years. We lost all of them in the off season.

We've replaced 2 NI all star OL with guys who have a start or two under their belt or are rookies.

We lost our WIL and our shutdown corner.

We lost our all star safety who we are replacing with a guy who didn't win the spot out of TC last year as he got hurt in game 3 having not played safety at all. He is coming off of a big injury and is currently on the vet injured list.

We lost some veteran backups like Wild, Leggett and Fogg.

We're making a bunch of changes at DB.

We only made 2 known upgrades.

We're counting on our QB getting back to his 2017 form, that the guys who have been around the club for a while are now good enough to be starters and that this years draft will net a starter this year.

Yup! We probably shouldn't even bother to play the games this season. I guess the only team we might have a chance against is Montreal. 1 or 2 wins then??

I guess it's easier in life to be an all out pessimist, that way if your team stumbles you can say, "Look, I told you guys!"

[Colin Unger]

27 minutes ago, Jpan85 said:

Wonder if they have to make any cuts before main camp.

Lets hope any cuts this point forward come from players being beat out by somebody better. 

[Colin Unger]

1 hour ago, Dirty30 said:

Any updates for today?

Well..  Nichols and Streveler were not participating but they were kind of loosening up.  I noticed that Matty Ice was still wearing a knee brace.  

[Floyd]

10 minutes ago, Colin Unger said:

Well..  Nichols and Streveler were not participating but they were kind of loosening up.  I noticed that Matty Ice was still wearing a knee brace.  

I think he always wears it now no?

[Colin Unger]

6 minutes ago, Floyd said:

I think he always wears it now no?

It looks that way.  I imagine it will be as a precaution for the rest of his career.  Honestly considering how he hurt it the only time he should take it off is to shower.

[TBURGESS]

You guys never fail to make me laugh.

I outlined our off season changes. I didn't say the sky is falling or that everything is the worst or that the only team we can beat will be Montreal. I didn't make any comment at all about where I think we'll end up this year.

I didn't compare our team to any other teams, because the post was just about our off season changes. How well teams react to their off season changes will in a large part define their seasons.

We're not Calgary no matter how much folks want to make that comparison. We won't be until we can prove A: that we can win the west then the Grey Cup and B: that we can replace our all stars with our backups without losing a step. MAYBE that happens this year. LIKELY not.

I'm not alone in thinking that Eli, Desjarlais and Gray have valid shots at starting this year. All of them are rookies. (No... NFL practise time and a couple of games last year don't make Gray a sophomore.)

I called Wild, Leggett and Fogg vet backups, not hard to replace starters. We'll likely miss their leadership tho.

I didn't suggest that every player we lost was playing at their peak, but I believe that our 2 NI OL were.

I don't think Foketi is a projected starter. He's insurance in case we don't have a starter ready NI OL. If we play him we have to play 3 NI receivers or start a NI DL to go along with our NI safety.

The all star starters we drafted over 5 years are gone. Woli is the only NI starter from last year that Walters drafted. 3 more draftees will get a starting spot this year. None will have to beat out a vet starter.

Jefferson and Matthews are known upgrades. Rose takes Randles spot. We'll see if he's an upgrade or not, but I don't think he is.

I didn't mention Streveler cuz he's not a change from last year. Unless Nichols gets injured or really really really sucks for 3 or 4 games in a row, we won't see much of Streveler anyway. Personally, I'd rather have Streveler as the starter but I know that ain't happening. I don't see Nichols getting his 2017 form back behind a reworked O line that won't give him as much time to make his decisions and who will be fooled by defences way more than the guys they replaced. I expect a lot of throwaways.

I'm not the one who says I told you so. I leave that to the cheerleaders around here.

 

 

 

[JuranBoldenRules]

3 hours ago, Arnold_Palmer said:

I don’t know why people keep bringing up Loffler. He gained his all stars by reputation. He was good in his first year but sub par in years two and three. Sure he’ll make you pay over the middle but he was slow and always a step behind in coverage. Jones is excellent in coverage and even if he isn’t 100 percent Hecht is more than adequate to start If he needs to. 

Loffler might as well have not stepped on the field until Labour Day last year.  He had a decent 2nd half but was not a factor at all in the 1st half of the season.

I think Fogg is a guy we’ll miss and they didn’t want to lose but he cost more than they could pay for the dime spot.  Fogg is the best DB in the league at generating turnovers in the span of his career (since 2016).

Edited May 17, 2019 by JuranBoldenRules

[NorthernSkunk]

I wonder how many bad throws by Nichols to Mathews deep,  before the fans start chanting for Big Chris.  

 

[Mr Dee]

Ridiculous...

[JCon]

1 hour ago, NorthernSkunk said:

I wonder how many bad throws by Nichols to Mathews deep,  before the fans start chanting for Big Chris.  

 

Zero. 

[17to85]

2 hours ago, NorthernSkunk said:

I wonder how many bad throws by Nichols to Mathews deep,  before the fans start chanting for Big Chris.  

 

Good thing Matthew's can make a QB look like a million bucks.

[Floyd]

1 hour ago, JCon said:

Zero. 

Man I don’t regret blocking northernskunk ha

[JCon]

21 minutes ago, Floyd said:

Man I don’t regret blocking northernskunk ha

Me too. Just got weak and thought maybe he had something to contribute. I was wrong and have been duly punished. 

[NorthernSkunk]

2 hours ago, 17to85 said:

Good thing Matthew's can make a QB look like a million bucks.

That is kinda what I was thinking... when people blamed Nichols for bad throws last year,  some people put the blame on the quality of receivers  the Bombers were using.  And from what I am reading the quality of our receivers has increased.  So less blame there this season I would expect.  

[SpeedFlex27]

8 hours ago, Colin Unger said:

Well..  Nichols and Streveler were not participating but they were kind of loosening up.  I noticed that Matty Ice was still wearing a knee brace.  

Is that some kind of Big News? Guys wear knee braces to protect themselves.

[Brandon]

10 hours ago, NorthernSkunk said:

That is kinda what I was thinking... when people blamed Nichols for bad throws last year,  some people put the blame on the quality of receivers  the Bombers were using.  And from what I am reading the quality of our receivers has increased.  So less blame there this season I would expect.  

Lol it's ok to say Nichols was off the mark. 

[NorthernSkunk]

19 minutes ago, Brandon said:

Lol it's ok to say Nichols was off the mark. 

I totally  hope is not off this season,  I just don't want to listen to excuses being made for him for the whole season if he is.  Not many players get this much time to return to how they played over a season ago...