Blue Bombers - 2024 Regular Season - Discussion Thread

[JohnnyAbonny]

48 minutes ago, bigg jay said:

If I had to guess, I'd say Ryan Rigmaiden was responsible for that.  He was the Lions main US scout in 2015 when Sheed signed with them.  He was working for us when we signed him in 2019 so Rigmaiden may have kept tabs on him.

Yeah, we can see the effect after him being in BC for a couple years. I’ll echo that he was a huge loss. 

Edited June 11 by JohnnyAbonny

[Arnold_Palmer]

2 minutes ago, voodoochylde said:

Zach is our starter .. no doubt about it.  But ....

As I alluded to in the game day thread, you can't make Streveler just a gadget guy.  He's an athlete and god yes, take advantage of that athleticism but he's needs to execute in passing situations as well - if for no other reason than to keep teams honest when he's on the field.

No kidding. It’s like why did you bring him in at all if you were going to use him like Prukop. The offense was sputtering with Zach, give Streveler a couple of series as a change of pace and let him throw the ball. 

[GCn20]

27 minutes ago, BigBlueFanatic said:

Rigmaiden is a front office loss that sucked.  Glad he left for a promotion but he took our scouting to another level.

Rigmaiden was a massive blow for sure. We are actually quite lucky we even had him for a couple years because of clash of personalities in BC.

[HardCoreBlue]

1 minute ago, Arnold_Palmer said:

No kidding. It’s like why did you bring him in at all if you were going to use him like Prukop. The offense was sputtering with Zach, give Streveler a couple of series as a change of pace and let him throw the ball. 

I know there's an argument that you gotta keep your number 1 in to work out the kinks, get into a grove, keep his confidence etc etc but I think there's benefits in going with a two qb system not just because your Number 1 is sputtering (especially with have Strev as our 1b) where you interchange what qb you send out for the next series and even within series depending on the sets of plays you call.

Try it out and see how it goes, that's all I ask, my guess is you'll be pleasantly surprised with its results.

[wbbfan]

1 hour ago, HardCoreBlue said:

He's gonna turn it around, He's gonna turn it around, He's gonna turn it around said in fetal position.

Qft 

1 hour ago, BaconNBigBlue said:

I hope that if Zach is throwing up goose eggs he's pulled early and let Strev have several series to see how things shake out.  Let Zach watch from the sidelines to see how the defense is playing, then bring him back in.

 

I have no hope for that happening. 
 

23 minutes ago, Fatty Liver said:

It's probably going to take Zach getting knocked out of a game before we get to see Strev. in an expanded role, till then he's stuck with a pretty small playsheet.

along with a bunch of other guys. Thomas will have to be carted off to stop playing.  

[17to85]

I said in the post game thread, game 1 after no preseason I can understand keeping collaros in to work out the kinks, especially with strevelers ankle getting the twist from douchebag earlier, but going forward he needs to be used.

[Dr. Blue]

1 hour ago, BigBlueFanatic said:

Rigmaiden is a front office loss that sucked.  Glad he left for a promotion but he took our scouting to another level.

This is what I was thinking. I don't know who does what and who recruited who from our staff, but I felt that when we had Rigmaiden we were bringing in much more quality players. Lately I haven't been underwhelmed with who they've brought in. Sure they can find DB's...

Maybe it's just harder to convince players to come to Winnipeg knowing how hard it is to crack our roster.

[ShyGuy]

55 minutes ago, Arnold_Palmer said:

No kidding. It’s like why did you bring him in at all if you were going to use him like Prukop. The offense was sputtering with Zach, give Streveler a couple of series as a change of pace and let him throw the ball. 

I think it would be weird to not have Collaros take any reps in preseason and then not let him try to work through his issues in game 1. Even Streveler only got 2 drives in on preseason... it kind of seemed like a whole offense issue rather than just the QB.

[Mike]

28 minutes ago, Dr. Blue said:

This is what I was thinking. I don't know who does what and who recruited who from our staff, but I felt that when we had Rigmaiden we were bringing in much more quality players. Lately I haven't been underwhelmed with who they've brought in. Sure they can find DB's...

Maybe it's just harder to convince players to come to Winnipeg knowing how hard it is to crack our roster.

Honestly, I’m not sure you can ever quantify something like this but I would have to suspect word gets around by now about Winnipeg has to be one of the worst places for a young player to come to in the CFL if they want a legitimate opportunity. 
 

And don’t give me all that “what, they don’t wanna win and be a part of an amazing locker room?” nonsense. No, they want an opportunity to compete and maximize their earning potential and playing potential. That’s not here anymore. Veterans don’t even have to participate in training camp but they’re handed spots. We have mismanaged our use of training camp two years in a row.  The practice roster is wasted.

 

I’m not saying every spot needs to be an open competition. But look at Brandon Alexander, he has been clearly falling off in performance for a few years but hasn’t been asked to take a single snap in camp since 2022 and is just handed a job. We had a ton of options to get younger in lieu of trotting out Kyrie Wilson, who was already having his workload managed in camp, but we just hand him the spot despite new players showing incredibly well.

 

How does McManus sell that to a young American player, especially when we’re now competing with other leagues. 

[wbbfan]

3 hours ago, Mike said:

Honestly, I’m not sure you can ever quantify something like this but I would have to suspect word gets around by now about Winnipeg has to be one of the worst places for a young player to come to in the CFL if they want a legitimate opportunity. 
 

And don’t give me all that “what, they don’t wanna win and be a part of an amazing locker room?” nonsense. No, they want an opportunity to compete and maximize their earning potential and playing potential. That’s not here anymore. Veterans don’t even have to participate in training camp but they’re handed spots. We have mismanaged our use of training camp two years in a row.  The practice roster is wasted.

 

I’m not saying every spot needs to be an open competition. But look at Brandon Alexander, he has been clearly falling off in performance for a few years but hasn’t been asked to take a single snap in camp since 2022 and is just handed a job. We had a ton of options to get younger in lieu of trotting out Kyrie Wilson, who was already having his workload managed in camp, but we just hand him the spot despite new players showing incredibly well.

 

How does McManus sell that to a young American player, especially when we’re now competing with other leagues. 

100%. If you are an agent that reps football players, and you have an imp rb, and we offer them a deal going into camp, what do you do? Get this guy to up root his life go to another country, risk injury for modest money and no chance at playing? 
 I suspect the large portion of good prospects we sign are neg list. Come here or no cfl, or low level guys playing d2 and lower or schools that barely register when it comes to football. 
 We managed to bring in a bunch of long term nl guys with tons of upside this camp, and hardly any are left. I don’t have hope that we will have such a bumper crop next year. 
 

Even cfl vets. Who wants to come here? We bring in guys like Rosie and Muhammad, and leave them on the pr while struggling at their position. 
 We had a lot of trouble attracting key free agents prior to 19/21. We got spurned by virtually every major fa wr. Biggie fell to us because when he left the nfl we were the team with an opening and cap spend. We made wj the highest paid dl in the league. 
 A guy like McManis would never sign here given another option in the league. 
 We even passed on lemon to play a dt at de which bit us in the butt last year. 
 

Our only chances at improving are vets retiring and leaving no option, vets leaving in fa for over pay leaving no option, hitting the lotto in the cfl draft, and guys becoming all stars late in their career. 
 

Some one in the top end of the mafia needs to put on some big boy pants and lay down the law. Improving the team is more important than having the team self coach accountability, more important than nationality, more important than the old boys club, and more important than being comfortable. 

Edited June 11 by wbbfan

[Mark H.]

27 minutes ago, Mike said:

How does McManus sell that to a young American player, especially when we’re now competing with other leagues. 

And with teams like the Argos, who have turnover every year.

[Goalie]

10 minutes ago, Mark H. said:

And with teams like the Argos, who have turnover every year.

Probably a bad example as most pro athletes probably prefer to play in front of more than 1500 fans. 

[Super Duper Negatron]

39 minutes ago, Mike said:

Honestly, I’m not sure you can ever quantify something like this but I would have to suspect word gets around by now about Winnipeg has to be one of the worst places for a young player to come to in the CFL if they want a legitimate opportunity. 
 

And don’t give me all that “what, they don’t wanna win and be a part of an amazing locker room?” nonsense. No, they want an opportunity to compete and maximize their earning potential and playing potential. That’s not here anymore. Veterans don’t even have to participate in training camp but they’re handed spots. We have mismanaged our use of training camp two years in a row.  The practice roster is wasted.

 

I’m not saying every spot needs to be an open competition. But look at Brandon Alexander, he has been clearly falling off in performance for a few years but hasn’t been asked to take a single snap in camp since 2022 and is just handed a job. We had a ton of options to get younger in lieu of trotting out Kyrie Wilson, who was already having his workload managed in camp, but we just hand him the spot despite new players showing incredibly well.

 

How does McManus sell that to a young American player, especially when we’re now competing with other leagues. 

You see this in almost every industry. Young employees look at the top of the company, see a bunch of experienced guys that have been there forever and aren't going anywhere and rightly determine there is no ladder for them to climb, so they leave. Even if they love the work and the people.

[17to85]

I think the big flaw is simply the head in the sand attitude about the age of some of the teams key players. Bighill gonna play after being injured all camp on just a weeks practise? Didn't we learn a lesson about playing him hurt in the grey cup? 

Sadly this appears to only end one way. Oshea hangs onto vets well past their best before date and the depth suffers and it all come apart and he gets fired and then a rebuild has to happen.  

Last year I felt the talent in camp was subpar, but this year it looked good to me. Just the roster was already set so it didn't matter. Need some more bold moves from the coaches because same old doesn't work with the age of the group that won you you in 2019/2021.

[Arnold_Palmer]

1 hour ago, Mike said:

Honestly, I’m not sure you can ever quantify something like this but I would have to suspect word gets around by now about Winnipeg has to be one of the worst places for a young player to come to in the CFL if they want a legitimate opportunity. 
 

And don’t give me all that “what, they don’t wanna win and be a part of an amazing locker room?” nonsense. No, they want an opportunity to compete and maximize their earning potential and playing potential. That’s not here anymore. Veterans don’t even have to participate in training camp but they’re handed spots. We have mismanaged our use of training camp two years in a row.  The practice roster is wasted.

 

I’m not saying every spot needs to be an open competition. But look at Brandon Alexander, he has been clearly falling off in performance for a few years but hasn’t been asked to take a single snap in camp since 2022 and is just handed a job. We had a ton of options to get younger in lieu of trotting out Kyrie Wilson, who was already having his workload managed in camp, but we just hand him the spot despite new players showing incredibly well.

 

How does McManus sell that to a young American player, especially when we’re now competing with other leagues. 

100 percent. The coaching staff have become a victim of their own success. We didn’t always run things this way. I’ve been saying it for over a year now. What’s the incentive for a young prospect to come to play in Winnipeg? In 2023 we were praising Walters for keeping the guys together for another run but that meant there was literally no position battles. Do you think someone who is looking to make their mark in the league wants to sit on a PR or play in a reduced role? Hell no he wants to play and show what he has. Now we’re into 2024 and we’re coming off two straight grey cup loses yet the attitude is to run it back with the vets, I don’t blame Walters or the scouting staff. It seemed like there was some good prospects in camp but it was obviously the coaching staff is going to favour vets who really should have been moved on from since 2022 if not 2023. 

[Mark H.]

26 minutes ago, Goalie said:

Probably a bad example as most pro athletes probably prefer to play in front of more than 1500 fans. 

Argos' roster is built largely via recruitment - they are not a bad example.

[GCn20]

I can't wait for the win this weekend. We need it around here.

[Fatty Liver]

2 hours ago, GCn20 said:

Rigmaiden was a massive blow for sure. We are actually quite lucky we even had him for a couple years because of clash of personalities in BC.

It appears the top seat in BC is occupied by two butts with Rick Campbell and Neil McEvoy sharing the GM role, in reality this is probably little more than Campbell having a veto over stupidity, which he never had when he was in Ottawa.  Ringmaiden may have to look elsewhere if he wants to progress his career above his current position as it's crowded at the top.  

 

[Goalie]

That Petrishen linebacker I thought was a beast and stood out every play. Cut. 
 

what’s the point. 
 

but apparently chipped balls are more important since apparently that’s all O’Shea talked about yesterday like we lost by a missed fg. 
 

 

Edited June 11 by Goalie

[JuranBoldenRules]

53 minutes ago, 17to85 said:

I think the big flaw is simply the head in the sand attitude about the age of some of the teams key players. Bighill gonna play after being injured all camp on just a weeks practise? Didn't we learn a lesson about playing him hurt in the grey cup? 

Sadly this appears to only end one way. Oshea hangs onto vets well past their best before date and the depth suffers and it all come apart and he gets fired and then a rebuild has to happen.  

Last year I felt the talent in camp was subpar, but this year it looked good to me. Just the roster was already set so it didn't matter. Need some more bold moves from the coaches because same old doesn't work with the age of the group that won you you in 2019/2021.

I think they've lost their way.  The advantage the 16-19 teams had was being better prepared and willing to play harder than opponents.  Think of all the key special teams plays, the way they forced turnovers, the straight effort plays that won them games.  Coming out of the pandemic year that has changed and back slid each year.  The preparation isn't the same.  They think they can show up and things will bounce their way.

We get none of that anymore.  It's whether Collaros and the receivers can make up for the overall **** ups in a given game, including their own.  It's not really a sustainable way to win.

[Super Duper Negatron]

Be interesting to see how many targets the young receivers get. Zach has a habit of forcing things to Schoen or Demski and ignoring the new guys altogether. It was kind of weird how Bailey seemed to re-emerge every time Dru played...

[Mike]

Feels like at this rate it’s going to be January 2026, Collaros, O’Shea, Bighill, Willie and BA will all be gone and we’ll be wondering how we got beat in the divisional semi final in a GC host year 

[wbbfan]

1 hour ago, Fatty Liver said:

It appears the top seat in BC is occupied by two butts with Rick Campbell and Neil McEvoy sharing the GM role, in reality this is probably little more than Campbell having a veto over stupidity, which he never had when he was in Ottawa.  Ringmaiden may have to look elsewhere if he wants to progress his career above his current position as it's crowded at the top.  

 

Edm ott ssk are the prime candidates imo. First team to move on ringmaiden will be very very happy. 
 

34 minutes ago, JuranBoldenRules said:

I think they've lost their way.  The advantage the 16-19 teams had was being better prepared and willing to play harder than opponents.  Think of all the key special teams plays, the way they forced turnovers, the straight effort plays that won them games.  Coming out of the pandemic year that has changed and back slid each year.  The preparation isn't the same.  They think they can show up and things will bounce their way.

We get none of that anymore.  It's whether Collaros and the receivers can make up for the overall **** ups in a given game, including their own.  It's not really a sustainable way to win.

QFT

Teams and D each played to win the game solo. O alternated between playing to win and game managing. But all 3 phases put in the work to be the reason we won. None seem to be in that position now. 
 

9 minutes ago, Mike said:

Feels like at this rate it’s going to be January 2026, Collaros, O’Shea, Bighill, Willie and BA will all be gone and we’ll be wondering how we got beat in the divisional semi final in a GC host year 

Sad but true. 

[Goalie]

It does appear based on the first week of the season that other teams are getting better and we are indeed regressing. 

[JCon]

1 minute ago, Goalie said:

It does appear based on the first week of the season that other teams are getting better and we are indeed regressing. 

We just need Brian Dennehy to show up with those cocoons and we'll be fine.