2023/2024 Blue Bombers Off-Season Thread (BRADY’S BACK! DALTON’S BACK!)

[GCn20]

Just now, Jesse said:

And carrying the 36 year old punter on the roster for most of the season. GCn20 must be right, it must have been their global plan.

Need to shore up those global players next season.

Easier said than done unfortunately.

[JCon]

Why didn't keep Liegghio to do the punting and act as a back-up kicker? 

[Tracker]

1 hour ago, GCn20 said:

We also know that he has led us to 2 GC victories, 4 straight GC appearances, 3 straight West division 1st place finishes, led the league for 3 straight years in QBR winning MOP 2x in that span. Under the gun? That's crazy talk. 

To state the obvious, this is a results-based business, and it comes down to "what have you done for me lately"? The steadiness and ability to ad lib seems to have deserted Collaros of late. We have seen in Calgary the futility of keeping a QB past his good years- it is expensive, non-productive and blocks the development of other pivots. That day is coming for Collaros if it is not here already- it is just a question of time. Smart GMs know when to move a player before he becomes a liability.

[blue85gold]

6 minutes ago, Tracker said:

To state the obvious, this is a results-based business, and it comes down to "what have you done for me lately"? The steadiness and ability to ad lib seems to have deserted Collaros of late. We have seen in Calgary the futility of keeping a QB past his good years- it is expensive, non-productive and blocks the development of other pivots. That day is coming for Collaros if it is not here already- it is just a question of time. Smart GMs know when to move a player before he becomes a liability.

All true but we also saw in Calgary that moving on to the hot hand young guy doesn't always work out. 

I'd argue Collaros was never steady. He's a gunner, wants to attack. That will lead to INTs and TDs.

[Mark H.]

19 minutes ago, blue85gold said:

All true but we also saw in Calgary that moving on to the hot hand young guy doesn't always work out. 

I'd argue Collaros was never steady. He's a gunner, wants to attack. That will lead to INTs and TDs.

Exactly. He's going to throw downfield more than most. 

[JuranBoldenRules]

22 minutes ago, blue85gold said:

All true but we also saw in Calgary that moving on to the hot hand young guy doesn't always work out. 

I'd argue Collaros was never steady. He's a gunner, wants to attack. That will lead to INTs and TDs.

Collaros has had a lot less consistency as well as bursts this season.  A few giant games and a lot of games with very mediocre production.  And that's with an all-time season out of the tailback plus a guy like Schoen.

I guess what they really have to drill down onto is what is him and what is the offense.

[17to85]

Collaros would help himself so much if he ran with the ball more. 

[Booch]

3 hours ago, GCn20 said:

Castillo is also a pretty good punter that we haven't even tried. Sheahan might be a roster thing to have that 2nd global.

Thing is we could have rostered Mauro and Hansen when he got healthy...Our Mauro and Karamoko and let him develop actually getting reps...The punter wasn't required and Castillo is a more than adequate punter and could have gave us likely better over all results with what the Aussie gave us.....sure his net avg seems decent, but the eye test of consistently losing the field position....not even being able to get it to midfield when punting from deep in our end, and the cover issues were abysmal all yr...and hurt us often.

Osh got all enamored with the goofy crap he was doing in camp, and in pre-season and from that point on we were hooped and stuck with him regardless...thats The Osh way...Just as we were stuck with a pointless FB....A non-use of the Nationalized American rule, his commitment to continually having Thomas trot out, and the wasted use of Bennett who offered nothing, but was a first pick so we had to save face....hopefully 2024 was a learning season

[Tracker]

2 hours ago, blue85gold said:

All true but we also saw in Calgary that moving on to the hot hand young guy doesn't always work out. 

I'd argue Collaros was never steady. He's a gunner, wants to attack. That will lead to INTs and TDs.

I believe I have seen more happy feet, critical INTs  and indecision this past season than in previous ones, and that concerns me.

[Bigblue204]

On 2023-11-23 at 9:56 AM, Bigblue204 said:

Feel free to quote me saying the team needs to move on from ZC. 

I'll wait.

...still waiting...

Still...

...waiting....

 

Yeah I'm petty

[HardCoreBlue]

4 hours ago, 17to85 said:

Collaros would help himself so much if he ran with the ball more. 

Yup cuz opposing D's don't respect that from him at all which allows them to do different things with less difficulty.

At least get to the point where they have to respect that from him so they can't load up in other areas as much. 

[Noeller]

it's all well and good to ask Collaros to run until he gets popped and is done for the year. The only reason we've been able to keep him as healthy as he's been the past 4 years is because we surrounded him with the biggest, most protective bubble possible. I don't know if it's his own personal desire or what, but he does seem terrified to leave that pocket, even if only to scramble and try to buy time. When things start to collapse, the whole game goes to hell. 

[Wanna-B-Fanboy]

9 hours ago, JCon said:

Why didn't keep Liegghio to do the punting and act as a back-up kicker? 

Cuz he lost us a Grey cup.

Notice Sayles is not around...

Poopkup was let go... then rejoined  because piggy was garbage.

 

Edited November 25, 2023 by Wanna-B-Fanboy

[wbbfan]

9 hours ago, JCon said:

Why didn't keep Liegghio to do the punting and act as a back-up kicker? 

We would’ve been drastically better with that. I’d a had legs kick off as well. 

 

1 hour ago, Noeller said:

it's all well and good to ask Collaros to run until he gets popped and is done for the year. The only reason we've been able to keep him as healthy as he's been the past 4 years is because we surrounded him with the biggest, most protective bubble possible. I don't know if it's his own personal desire or what, but he does seem terrified to leave that pocket, even if only to scramble and try to buy time. When things start to collapse, the whole game goes to hell. 

He’s very different now. 19 and 21 he played with no fear as his career had basically been over and he got amazing pass pro. Since then it’s struggled more and more and he’s played very choppy and un certain when under pressure. 
 What’s worse when he throws from the pocket he is not able to hit his spots reliably with the poise issue. 
It is fixable, idk if he will fix it again at his age, or If he/we can fix it here or if we have the right person to do it. 

[SpeedFlex27]

15 hours ago, Tracker said:

To state the obvious, this is a results-based business, and it comes down to "what have you done for me lately"? The steadiness and ability to ad lib seems to have deserted Collaros of late. We have seen in Calgary the futility of keeping a QB past his good years- it is expensive, non-productive and blocks the development of other pivots. That day is coming for Collaros if it is not here already- it is just a question of time. Smart GMs know when to move a player before he becomes a liability.

We don't have a GM or 2 Asst GMs right now. Well, officially as of December 31st. anyway. All we have is Mike OShea running the show. The other 3 don't have contracts or the authority to redo contracts or make decisions. They're lame ducks getting paid (for now) to do little, if any work. Thanks to Randy Ambrosie & The CFL Board of Dinosaurs for the damned Admin Cap nobody wants & Wade Miller for making O'Shea The Guy. 

Edited November 25, 2023 by SpeedFlex27

[Bigblue204]

6 hours ago, SpeedFlex27 said:

We don't have a GM or 2 Asst GMs right now. Well, officially as of December 31st. anyway. All we have is Mike OShea running the show. The other 3 don't have contracts or the authority to redo contracts or make decisions. They're lame ducks getting paid (for now) to do little, if any work. Thanks to Randy Ambrosie & The CFL Board of Dinosaurs for the damned Admin Cap nobody wants & Wade Miller for making O'Shea The Guy. 

Just making things up as you go along now?

[Jesse]

1 minute ago, Bigblue204 said:

Just making things up as you go along now?

There could be a grain of truth in that, they may be focused on getting the GMs in place before moving onto any player deals. 

If Walters comes back, it's probably at the expense of one of the GMs, if he's not, Teddy probably slides into his place. Either way, gotta get everyone settled in their roles before they start working those roles. 

[Bigblue204]

4 minutes ago, Jesse said:

There could be a grain of truth in that, they may be focused on getting the GMs in place before moving onto any player deals. 

If Walters comes back, it's probably at the expense of one of the GMs, if he's not, Teddy probably slides into his place. Either way, gotta get everyone settled in their roles before they start working those roles. 

There's no way for any of us to know 

[Jesse]

38 minutes ago, Bigblue204 said:

There's no way for any of us to know 

Nope, just seems semi-logical that they will work top down. Bit of a time crunch with the GMs that the player deals don't have. 

[Fatty Liver]

2 hours ago, Jesse said:

There could be a grain of truth in that, they may be focused on getting the GMs in place before moving onto any player deals. 

If Walters comes back, it's probably at the expense of one of the GMs, if he's not, Teddy probably slides into his place. Either way, gotta get everyone settled in their roles before they start working those roles. 

There's only been one firing around the league so far, that's usually the event that triggers personnel movement, limited openings, limited movement.  The management cap "handcuff" has forced stability on all organizations and has given each management team time to work through their plans and prove they know what they're doing...or not.  "Wasn't given enough time to implement our plan" is no longer a valid excuse.

Edited November 25, 2023 by Fatty Liver

[SpeedFlex27]

3 hours ago, Bigblue204 said:

Just making things up as you go along now?

No, check out Farhan Lalji & Dave Naylor's discussion on TSN during GC week. It isn't pretty & not all 3 will be back. In the meantime, work to sign veteran free agents has already started with other CFL teams but not us. There's no one there who can do the work, according to Naylor & Lalji. So. I didn't make it up. The info comes from TSN. 

3 hours ago, Bigblue204 said:

There's no way for any of us to know 

Listen to sources. 

[17to85]

19 hours ago, Noeller said:

it's all well and good to ask Collaros to run until he gets popped and is done for the year. The only reason we've been able to keep him as healthy as he's been the past 4 years is because we surrounded him with the biggest, most protective bubble possible. I don't know if it's his own personal desire or what, but he does seem terrified to leave that pocket, even if only to scramble and try to buy time. When things start to collapse, the whole game goes to hell. 

No one is saying turn into Chris Streveler out there... just that when there's a wide open area use his legs and run. Make the defense account for that possibility.  He got hurt screwing around behind the line of scrimmage this season. Guy like that can get hurt anywhere. 

[Noeller]

5 minutes ago, 17to85 said:

No one is saying turn into Chris Streveler out there... just that when there's a wide open area use his legs and run. Make the defense account for that possibility.  He got hurt screwing around behind the line of scrimmage this season. Guy like that can get hurt anywhere. 

And that's exactly why he's terrified to do anything but sit there and get rid of the ball. The risk of injury is too great. I also wonder if because he knows how good Dru Brown is (his recent comments) he was absolutely terrified of doing anything that might cause injury and make the Bombers have to go to Brown full time, and then that's the end of the fairy-tale. Maybe a bit of a stretch but you could see it... "Gotta do whatever it takes to stay on the field otherwise it's Browns team forever.... Even if that means taking ZERO chances"....

[SpeedFlex27]

3 minutes ago, Noeller said:

And that's exactly why he's terrified to do anything but sit there and get rid of the ball. The risk of injury is too great. I also wonder if because he knows how good Dru Brown is (his recent comments) he was absolutely terrified of doing anything that might cause injury and make the Bombers have to go to Brown full time, and then that's the end of the fairy-tale. Maybe a bit of a stretch but you could see it... "Gotta do whatever it takes to stay on the field otherwise it's Browns team forever.... Even if that means taking ZERO chances"....

Terrified? Zach wouldn't be playing pro football if he was terrified. 

[17to85]

27 minutes ago, Noeller said:

And that's exactly why he's terrified to do anything but sit there and get rid of the ball

Except for those times he doesn't get rid of the ball. He uses his legs to move around the pocket so it's not like he's late stage calvillo, teams are just not letting him escape like he used to. Which is where actually running for some yards would help. He wants to pass, someone needs to tell him sometimes running helps the passing long term.