Blue Bombers - 2024 Regular Season - Discussion Thread

[Fatty Liver]

1 hour ago, Atomic said:

Thought the above quote from John Hodge was interesting.

https://3downnation.com/2024/07/13/winnipeg-blue-bombers-win-game-season-series-against-stampeders-13-other-thoughts/

Another tidbit from that article. 

"For the record, Grant’s contract with the Argos will pay him $84,000 in hard money this season with playtime bonuses maxing out at $92,500, per source. It’s hardly a rich deal."

Fiscal mismanagemnnt!!!

[Goalie]

For a guy who basically just returns kicks I’d say that’s a pretty decent amount. He doesn’t really get many O reps 

Edited July 14 by Goalie

[Noeller]

18 minutes ago, Fatty Liver said:

Another tidbit from that article. 

"For the record, Grant’s contract with the Argos will pay him $84,000 in hard money this season with playtime bonuses maxing out at $92,500, per source. It’s hardly a rich deal."

Fiscal mismanagemnnt!!!

It was never about money. It was about injury concerns and wanting to bring in fresh bodies to try and get younger. Both Tait and Hamilton have said as much in recent articles and on the radio. 

[Fatty Liver]

2 minutes ago, Noeller said:

It was never about money. It was about injury concerns and wanting to bring in fresh bodies to try and get younger. Both Tait and Hamilton have said as much in recent articles and on the radio. 

That's your ongoing narrative, please find me a quote from Walters saying the same, I believe in the few interviews he gave he indicated he would like to see both Grant and Jeffcoat return.

[bb1]

I have to admit after seeing Woods play a great game i would not mind seeing Willie Fox Woods and Adams or Garbutt on the end just to see...not going to happen unless there is injuries imo.

[wbbfan]

1 hour ago, Goalie said:

For a guy who basically just returns kicks I’d say that’s a pretty decent amount. He doesn’t really get many O reps 

Half a kramdi deal, 10k less than Augustine, what 15k more than the vet min? For a guy who would lead our none qbs in tds. Pretty good value imo. 

[Booch]

8 hours ago, Fatty Liver said:

That's your ongoing narrative, please find me a quote from Walters saying the same, I believe in the few interviews he gave he indicated he would like to see both Grant and Jeffcoat return.

Walters said they were not sure if they coukd fit him in the sms...it wasn't an injury issue

 

7 hours ago, wbbfan said:

Half a kramdi deal, 10k less than Augustine, what 15k more than the vet min? For a guy who would lead our none qbs in tds. Pretty good value imo. 

Yup..we allocated too much money in poor spots...

[Colin Unger]

23 hours ago, Fatty Liver said:

That's your ongoing narrative, please find me a quote from Walters saying the same, I believe in the few interviews he gave he indicated he would like to see both Grant and Jeffcoat return.

I wouldn't base much on Walter's public comments. He's not going to say "we believe X player is an injury concern so we didn't offer a contract".  That would negatively affect their ability to find work elsewhere in football. 

[GCn20]

Grant is always a great player when healthy. He hadn't given us a full season in 2 years. We all talked about the impact of his injuries all offseason. I will wait to see if he gives the Argos a full season before deciding whether or not he was a missed opportunity. Others may want to dissect it now but Grey Cups aren't won or lost in July.

[voodoochylde]

A few random thoughts on Grant:

He's a game changer and was a catalyst on special teams that, when the offense wasn't clicking and the D was holding down the fort, that changed the dynamic of games.  He could (can) score.  We won games because of him. 

I think it was foolish to let him walk.

Maybe he wanted more of a role on offense and that was something we weren't willing (or able) to provide him. 

I view him in the same vein as Jeffcoat .. when he's on the field he's an absolute beast, a difference maker, a guy who can flip the script and make others better (the special teams unit) .. but you couldn't count on him for a season and those stretches where he was at 100% were getting smaller and smaller.

[wbbfan]

14 minutes ago, GCn20 said:

Grant is always a great player when healthy. He hadn't given us a full season in 2 years. We all talked about the impact of his injuries all offseason. I will wait to see if he gives the Argos a full season before deciding whether or not he was a missed opportunity. Others may want to dissect it now but Grey Cups aren't won or lost in July.

100% the primary limiting factor with grant is health. 
 I get that we needed a young guy who’d stay healthy. Imo, with grants salary we could’ve easily continued to bring him back for half a season and used the other half to develop a replacement. 
 Like the deal we handed to kramdi, Zachs guaranteed money, and Brady’s deal, it isn’t the biggest issue with our roster decisions, but it is an issue. 
 
We could make a whole list of all those mistakes and rank them, grant probably wouldn’t be top5, but we certainly lost value and made our self worse for a tiny bit of money. The grant move hurts, jj hurts less due to his salary but our dl sure would’ve been better with him here. 

[GCn20]

13 minutes ago, wbbfan said:

100% the primary limiting factor with grant is health. 
 I get that we needed a young guy who’d stay healthy. Imo, with grants salary we could’ve easily continued to bring him back for half a season and used the other half to develop a replacement. 
 Like the deal we handed to kramdi, Zachs guaranteed money, and Brady’s deal, it isn’t the biggest issue with our roster decisions, but it is an issue. 
 
We could make a whole list of all those mistakes and rank them, grant probably wouldn’t be top5, but we certainly lost value and made our self worse for a tiny bit of money. The grant move hurts, jj hurts less due to his salary but our dl sure would’ve been better with him here. 

We needed to get younger. Still do. The plan is to be a contender for our home cup. The growing pains suck but another year of Grant or JJ and a few others would have made that goal be further away than now. Our 2-4 record sucks but in a transition year it was going to be tougher to win. Injuries made it even tougher. At the end of the day we could have run it back again and contended this year or started the build for next year and learn to live with a butt load of rookie mistakes until cohesiveness is built. I will take the latter. I will even argue we didn't go far enough.

20 minutes ago, wbbfan said:

100% the primary limiting factor with grant is health. 
 I get that we needed a young guy who’d stay healthy. Imo, with grants salary we could’ve easily continued to bring him back for half a season and used the other half to develop a replacement. 
 Like the deal we handed to kramdi, Zachs guaranteed money, and Brady’s deal, it isn’t the biggest issue with our roster decisions, but it is an issue. 
 
We could make a whole list of all those mistakes and rank them, grant probably wouldn’t be top5, but we certainly lost value and made our self worse for a tiny bit of money. The grant move hurts, jj hurts less due to his salary but our dl sure would’ve been better with him here. 

Your KR/PR needs to be reliably healthy in this league. Smith isn't chopped liver either, and is a rookie getting better week to week. 

[GCn20]

2 hours ago, Colin Unger said:

I wouldn't base much on Walter's public comments. He's not going to say "we believe X player is an injury concern so we didn't offer a contract".  That would negatively affect their ability to find work elsewhere in football. 

Walters took the high road and didn't sewer Grant's reliability on his way out the door. Nothing more. Salary and ability had nothing to do with us not resigning Grant. That shouldn't even be a discussion. It's as obvious as the sky is blue.

[Colin Unger]

Anyone know who’s going to be block Garbutt this week?  Ssk used to have Loften and Hardrick not sure who they have left. 

[Noeller]

 

 

 

 

 

 

[BBlink]

15 minutes ago, Colin Unger said:

Anyone know who’s going to be block Garbutt this week?  Ssk used to have Loften and Hardrick not sure who they have left. 

Could be a nice matchup if Garbutt is back to full power and ready to go.

[HardCoreBlue]

18 minutes ago, Noeller said:

 

 

 

 

 

 

I have no idea how BO prepares for upcoming games but if this doesn't impede it too much I'd have him on maintenance days for most of the week leading up to the walk thru for game day.

Protect BO at all costs.

[BomberBall.]

55 minutes ago, Noeller said:

 

 

 

 

 

 

I wonder if DT referencing Eli practicing on day one as a ‘good development’ is any indication he’d like to see him takeover the starting C job… and practicing all week is a potential step in that direction.  I’d be shocked if it happened, but also thrilled.  I’m probably grasping at straws.

[Jpan85]

 

[Piggy 1]

21 minutes ago, BomberBall. said:

I wonder if DT referencing Eli practicing on day one as a ‘good development’ is any indication he’d like to see him takeover the starting C job… and practicing all week is a potential step in that direction.  I’d be shocked if it happened, but also thrilled.  I’m probably grasping at straws.

Think we'd all be doing the happy dance if he started......

[Atomic]

I could see Garbutt, Hallett, and Murphy all in this week - take out Ogbevoen, Mitchell, and Chris-Ike

Actually now that I think about it, they could even bring on Lucky Whitehead instead of Murphy and still be fine on the ratio

Edited July 15 by Atomic

[wbbfan]

1 hour ago, GCn20 said:

We needed to get younger. Still do. The plan is to be a contender for our home cup. The growing pains suck but another year of Grant or JJ and a few others would have made that goal be further away than now. Our 2-4 record sucks but in a transition year it was going to be tougher to win. Injuries made it even tougher. At the end of the day we could have run it back again and contended this year or started the build for next year and learn to live with a butt load of rookie mistakes until cohesiveness is built. I will take the latter. I will even argue we didn't go far enough.

Your KR/PR needs to be reliably healthy in this league. Smith isn't chopped liver either, and is a rookie getting better week to week. 

We do, but we haven’t done much of that soo far. 2025 should be the plan, but I don’t think the mafia work that way. 
 30 for grant is probably our overall average starters age. 
 
we are at a point where it isn’t even about age, it’s about quality. Our worst players are really old. We can get younger and better at the same time by either going to a better player who wouldn’t be nearly as old or going to a young guy. 
 

Thomas, biggie, ba, kola, neuf all need to go. Even if they went for an average age of 29 we’d get a lot better and younger. 
 

keep in mind strevy is 30, lofton is 31, bonds is 28, then we just brought back lucky who is 32. Mainly we’ve gotten younger through rash of injuries. We’ve actually gotten older and some spots like db and qb. 

8 minutes ago, Atomic said:

I could see Garbutt, Hallett, and Murphy all in this week - take out Ogbevoen, Mitchell, and Chris-Ike

Actually now that I think about it, they could even bring on Lucky Whitehead instead of Murphy and still be fine on the ratio

Don’t expect mci to come out. I doubt ogbevoen will be though he should. 

[Atomic]

8 minutes ago, wbbfan said:

Don’t expect mci to come out. I doubt ogbevoen will be though he should. 

I do expect it, especially seeing them both on the injury report today. They'll want to get Garbutt on and probably Hallett too. That means players have to come out.

[Booch]

2 minutes ago, Atomic said:

I do expect it, especially seeing them both on the injury report today. They'll want to get Garbutt on and probably Hallett too. That means players have to come out.

If one player we should have walked away from due to injury concerns it's Hallet...

[rebusrankin]

Are we really building towards 2025 when we're starting Jake, Bighill, Alexander etc?