2023/2024 CFL (Non Bombers) Off Season News

[SpeedFlex27]

24 minutes ago, Stickem said:

AND I doubt Brown will sign anywhere for 1 yr. ...He'll be looking for something a little more stable ...  Why would he leave here for almost the same situation but minus playoff money AND a chance at another Cup....No one is backing the truck up for an unproven qb. .....BUT there might be someone out there willing to throw the dice....We'll see in Feb.

MBT is out there as well. That complicates things for Brown. 

[rebusrankin]

1 hour ago, SpeedFlex27 said:

And the problem is, coaching. The Stamps can't develop qbs anymore because they don't have the expertise to do it. There are no young John Hufnagels or Dave  Dickensons waiting in the wings. Canadian teams are cheaping out by hiring more & more Canadian coaches who just don't have the knowledge to develop young qbs, Does anyone really think Mark Mueller can do it with the Riders? 

Rider fans do.

[SpeedFlex27]

1 minute ago, rebusrankin said:

Rider fans do.

We're talking about an organization that has won 4 Grey Cups. 

[Noeller]

1 hour ago, Stickem said:

AND I doubt Brown will sign anywhere for 1 yr. ...He'll be looking for something a little more stable ... 

As someone mentioned before, it'll be a 3 year deal with escalating money....

[SpeedFlex27]

39 minutes ago, Noeller said:

As someone mentioned before, it'll be a 3 year deal with escalating money....

If you were Dru brown, would you sign with Ottawa knowing the history of that team as well as bad management & coaching? If I was Brown, I'd be hesitant if they offered me the most money to play for a tire fire of an organization like that. I truly hope he uses common sense to know that money might buy him more problems than he really needs. Brown reminds me of Nick Arbuckle. Small body of work. Thought he should be a starter. Has been bouncing around since. He'll probably bounce his way out of the CFL now the way he's played. 

[TBURGESS]

14 minutes ago, SpeedFlex27 said:

If you were Dru brown, would you sign with Ottawa knowing the history of that team as well as bad management & coaching? If I was Brown, I'd be hesitant if they offered me the most money to play for a tire fire of an organization like that. I truly hope he uses common sense to know that money might buy him more problems than he really needs. Brown reminds me of Nick Arbuckle. Small body of work. Thought he should be a starter. Has been bouncing around since. He'll probably bounce his way out of the CFL now the way he's played. 

If I'm Dru I absolutely want to sign with Ottawa. It gives him the best chance at being the starter which is what he needs to get better. 

[bluedawg]

2 hours ago, Stickem said:

AND I doubt Brown will sign anywhere for 1 yr. ...He'll be looking for something a little more stable ...  Why would he leave here for almost the same situation but minus playoff money AND a chance at another Cup....No one is backing the truck up for an unproven qb. .....BUT there might be someone out there willing to throw the dice....We'll see in Feb.

There is 0 chance Dru is back in Winnipeg if they plan to pay either of Schoen or Brady. With raises kicking in this year for Lawler and Demski plus re-signing young pieces to bigger deals, there's 0% chance they have the money to pay Dru to backup Zach for 2 more years. Dru will likely look for the biggest possible deal and I doubt a team gives him more than 1 year if they pay him well since he's unproven as a start/outside of the Bombers' nest

[Jesse]

3 hours ago, Noeller said:

They found BLM... Who else did they find, and who did they develop....? 

It went something like, Burris, Glenn, Tate, Mitchell, Arbuckle, Maier.

All were at their most successful in Calgary, whether they were developed there or not.

[wbbfan]

2 minutes ago, bluedawg said:

There is 0 chance Dru is back in Winnipeg if they plan to pay either of Schoen or Brady. With raises kicking in this year for Lawler and Demski plus re-signing young pieces to bigger deals, there's 0% chance they have the money to pay Dru to backup Zach for 2 more years. Dru will likely look for the biggest possible deal and I doubt a team gives him more than 1 year if they pay him well since he's unproven as a start/outside of the Bombers' nest

Not at all true. We had soo many 100k cheques to guys who don’t need to be back from Thomas to Augustine we have all the room in the world to make it work. Zach could renegotiate and go back down to 500k as well. 
 Dru isn’t going to be fishing for the biggest deal, the best opportunity to play and have a good supporting cast is what he will go for. 
 He isn’t signing for 1 year and no one is going to sign him for 1 year. Makes no sense for any one to do that on a new team. 

[bluedawg]

1 hour ago, wbbfan said:

Not at all true. We had soo many 100k cheques to guys who don’t need to be back from Thomas to Augustine we have all the room in the world to make it work. Zach could renegotiate and go back down to 500k as well. 
 Dru isn’t going to be fishing for the biggest deal, the best opportunity to play and have a good supporting cast is what he will go for. 
 He isn’t signing for 1 year and no one is going to sign him for 1 year. Makes no sense for any one to do that on a new team. 

Saving 20-25K here and there from a few players not being brought back is not going to make up for Schoen and/or Olivera getting an extra 150K next season... I would like everyone back too including Dru but let's be realistic here

[rebusrankin]

If you're Brown, why sign a one year deal with another club? That's a lack of commitment by a new team 

[SpeedFlex27]

2 hours ago, TBURGESS said:

If I'm Dru I absolutely want to sign with Ottawa. It gives him the best chance at being the starter which is what he needs to get better. 

That's how Nick Arbuckle thought. Now he's nothing. His CFL career is on his last legs. If he signs in Ottawa, it'll be painful to watch. 

2 hours ago, Jesse said:

It went something like, Burris, Glenn, Tate, Mitchell, Arbuckle, Maier.

All were at their most successful in Calgary, whether they were developed there or not.

Exactly. It goes back further with Barrett, Flutie (Huff was his mentor & taught him the Canadian game), Garcia, Dickenson then Burris...

Edited December 25, 2023 by SpeedFlex27

[GCn20]

6 hours ago, wbbfan said:

Not at all true. We had soo many 100k cheques to guys who don’t need to be back from Thomas to Augustine we have all the room in the world to make it work. Zach could renegotiate and go back down to 500k as well. 
 Dru isn’t going to be fishing for the biggest deal, the best opportunity to play and have a good supporting cast is what he will go for. 
 He isn’t signing for 1 year and no one is going to sign him for 1 year. Makes no sense for any one to do that on a new team. 

100k salary lost is a 28k savings if we dress a rookie. We would need to cut most of our vets to get both Schoen and Brown.

4 hours ago, bluedawg said:

Saving 20-25K here and there from a few players not being brought back is not going to make up for Schoen and/or Olivera getting an extra 150K next season... I would like everyone back too including Dru but let's be realistic here

Yea..it's not happening without 3-4 of our highest paid players getting replaced by rookies or 6-8 of our mid tier vets. That's just the math unless we had 150-200k cap room saved from this year going against next year's cap.

Edited December 25, 2023 by GCn20

[Booch]

13 hours ago, bluedawg said:

Saving 20-25K here and there from a few players not being brought back is not going to make up for Schoen and/or Olivera getting an extra 150K next season... I would like everyone back too including Dru but let's be realistic here

Yeah...it does all add up....and if BO wants 150k more which is ridiculous and puts him over 250k which will never ever happen...anywhere u walk away and run with a first yr import for dirt cheap and his and JA' s salaries alone go a looong way to resigning who we feel is vital

[wbbfan]

14 hours ago, GCn20 said:

100k salary lost is a 28k savings if we dress a rookie. We would need to cut most of our vets to get both Schoen and Brown.

Yea..it's not happening without 3-4 of our highest paid players getting replaced by rookies or 6-8 of our mid tier vets. That's just the math unless we had 150-200k cap room saved from this year going against next year's cap.

Not for rookie Canadians. That’s 50k savings for Canadians. We would not need to cut most of our vets. 
 

 

14 hours ago, GCn20 said:

100k salary lost is a 28k savings if we dress a rookie. We would need to cut most of our vets to get both Schoen and Brown.

Yea..it's not happening without 3-4 of our highest paid players getting replaced by rookies or 6-8 of our mid tier vets. That's just the math unless we had 150-200k cap room saved from this year going against next year's cap.

Our 4 highest are all making more than what schoen or Brady would get. 
 
We can also use the yearly bonus cap to get them extra money. We always use it in that way just generally in reverse. 
 
we could also cut down the savings for mid season additions, get vets to take pay cuts, etc. 

 Wiggling under the cap in the cfl is easy compared to most pro sports. And the charge for going over is very mild. We could cut the mid season addition fund in half and then if we are close bad in dire need and a player that fits the need arises we can use the overage on that and pay the fine, even give up a pick. 

[wbbfan]

5 hours ago, Booch said:

Yeah...it does all add up....and if BO wants 150k more which is ridiculous and puts him over 250k which will never ever happen...anywhere u walk away and run with a first yr import for dirt cheap and his and JA' s salaries alone go a looong way to resigning who we feel is vital

We could replace the marine with an ni and save money. 
 If we go with a proper ni fb we could back up by committee with Demski, bailey if he stays, grant, and have a guy like gmc (but hopefully better) on the pr to replace any injury more than in game at rb/wr/kr. 
 

Keep in mind we were competitive in the market for desjarlais and kongbo coming back. In the cfl the cap is very easily workable especially with the amount of 1 year deals.  
 
also some back up positions are cheaper for each ni/imp. Back up ni dl market is cheaper than ol. Back up QBs are the most expensive of course. We could go ultra cheap ni for qb3. 
 Keep in mind dom Davis got 94/134, Dane evans got 94/150, arbuckle got 130/229, Shiltz got 125/205. 
 Basically every team has been paying starter plus fringe star wr money to qb1 and 2. 
 Brown got 82/97 last year. Realistically I think our market for him would be 170/220 range with incentives for playing. 
 Go from Thomas to rookie, Augustine to in house or ni rookie alone puts us at that range. Going cheap ni at 3rd string qb and having a future developmental imp qb on the pr would easily put us in that position. 
 

 We can also go global, like Karamoko/maruo at di over an imp and save a further significant chunk as globals are the cheapest guys on the roster. 

[GCn20]

1 hour ago, wbbfan said:

Not for rookie Canadians. That’s 50k savings for Canadians. We would not need to cut most of our vets. 
 

 

Our 4 highest are all making more than what schoen or Brady would get. 
 
We can also use the yearly bonus cap to get them extra money. We always use it in that way just generally in reverse. 
 
we could also cut down the savings for mid season additions, get vets to take pay cuts, etc. 

 Wiggling under the cap in the cfl is easy compared to most pro sports. And the charge for going over is very mild. We could cut the mid season addition fund in half and then if we are close bad in dire need and a player that fits the need arises we can use the overage on that and pay the fine, even give up a pick. 

It is not 50k savings on Nats unless they are making 120k. What Nats making 120k should we cut and replace with raw rookies.

I agree with replacing the marine but he is making league minimum. There is no savings there.

What yearly bonus cap? No such thing. The SMS is the same year round.

Edited December 25, 2023 by GCn20

[bluedawg]

People in this thread seem to think Canadian rookies and Globals make less than American rookies? The league minimum across every player is 70k. In the event that Damian Jackson was replaced by a rookie Canadian fullback, there would likely be no money saved for example.

Obviously recent signings like Deatrick Nichols, Cam Lawson and Redha received big pay raises. Lawson and Redha especially coming off rookie deals and I bet Nichols is one of league's highest paid DBs now. And guys like Lawler and Demski are going to getting more money after taking less last year to make the cap work.

I think as fans we've got to temper expectations about how many guys can be brought back. The cap is not fluid it is very real and it is going to force the team to make some very tough decisions this offseason. I'm excited to see what direction we go in, who gets brought back, and which new young guys step up!

[Booch]

3 hours ago, bluedawg said:

People in this thread seem to think Canadian rookies and Globals make less than American rookies? The league minimum across every player is 70k. In the event that Damian Jackson was replaced by a rookie Canadian fullback, there would likely be no money saved for example.

Obviously recent signings like Deatrick Nichols, Cam Lawson and Redha received big pay raises. Lawson and Redha especially coming off rookie deals and I bet Nichols is one of league's highest paid DBs now. And guys like Lawler and Demski are going to getting more money after taking less last year to make the cap work.

I think as fans we've got to temper expectations about how many guys can be brought back. The cap is not fluid it is very real and it is going to force the team to make some very tough decisions this offseason. I'm excited to see what direction we go in, who gets brought back, and which new young guys step up!

globals are on their own payscale, and yes make less

[MOBomberFan]

It's a fairly recent change, when the newest CBA bumped the minimum to 70k they made the minimum apply to all players regardless of Nationality

"The CFL minimum salary will increase to $70,000 in 2023 and $75,000 in 2027. That minimum will apply to players regardless of roster designation — National, American and Global. Global players were previously limited to contracts of $54,000, lower than the league minimum."

Man, if Hansen was only making 54k talk about bang for your buck (or Euro)

[Fatty Liver]

1 hour ago, MOBomberFan said:

It's a fairly recent change, when the newest CBA bumped the minimum to 70k they made the minimum apply to all players regardless of Nationality

"The CFL minimum salary will increase to $70,000 in 2023 and $75,000 in 2027. That minimum will apply to players regardless of roster designation — National, American and Global. Global players were previously limited to contracts of $54,000, lower than the league minimum."

Man, if Hansen was only making 54k talk about bang for your buck (or Euro)

He was and he also considered it not worth the time put in to continue playing for such a ridiculous wage.  Luckily Walters stepped up and convinced him to come back.

Edited December 26, 2023 by Fatty Liver

[GCn20]

On 2023-12-26 at 6:44 AM, bluedawg said:

People in this thread seem to think Canadian rookies and Globals make less than American rookies? The league minimum across every player is 70k. In the event that Damian Jackson was replaced by a rookie Canadian fullback, there would likely be no money saved for example.

Obviously recent signings like Deatrick Nichols, Cam Lawson and Redha received big pay raises. Lawson and Redha especially coming off rookie deals and I bet Nichols is one of league's highest paid DBs now. And guys like Lawler and Demski are going to getting more money after taking less last year to make the cap work.

I think as fans we've got to temper expectations about how many guys can be brought back. The cap is not fluid it is very real and it is going to force the team to make some very tough decisions this offseason. I'm excited to see what direction we go in, who gets brought back, and which new young guys step up!

 The players signed pre-January 1 likely had big portions of their salaries paid from this year's SMS.

Edited December 27, 2023 by GCn20

[bigg jay]

16 minutes ago, GCn20 said:

 The players signed pre-January 1 likely had big portions of their salaries paid from this year's SMS.

Not necessarily. 

Last year we re-signed Willie at the end of November but we ended up going over the cap so they either paid the fine to have more room in 2023 or his salary did not count against the 2022 cap.

3DN reported it was the club's option whether or not they wanted his 100k signing bonus to count against last year's cap or not.

[Colin Unger]

23 hours ago, Fatty Liver said:

He was and he also considered it not worth the time put in to continue playing for such a ridiculous wage.  Luckily Walters stepped up and convinced him to come back.

I wonder how much Hansen had been making in the German league? 

[MOBomberFan]

4 minutes ago, Colin Unger said:

I wonder how much Hansen had been making in the German league? 

I was curious myself and found this bit on the European League. So with a 14 week season it sounds like top-end import talent makes less than 20k salary, plus whatever perks and accommodations can be negotiated.

---

Salary Cap

The league’s salary cap is divided into 3 salary groups. The first is for a team’s main import players, who are paid a full-time salary ranging anywhere from 600 euros ($700) to 3000 euros ($3,500) per month. The second is for 4 transitional players (international or homegrown) with a part-time salary that varies from player to player. The last is the homegrown salary group with marginal employment, making a monthly income ranging from 100 to 450 euros.

Every player under contract with the European League of Football gets health insurance and participates in state pension insurance. Further benefits such as housing, meals, and other memberships during the season have to be negotiated individually.

---

Getting paid to play a game is great, but that ain't a lot, especially if living abroad. The lesser local guys probably have to car-pool so their salaries cover gas to and from the practice field.