2024/2025 Blue Bombers Off-Season Thread

[Goalie]

Didn’t Schoen sign for like 175 plus incentives. Why would anyone think bombers would be willing to give lawler 100k more in guaranteed money. It’s obvious they weren’t willing to overpay and 275k for lawler is an overpay, extra 400k or not. Was reported Calgary offered him 250k. Bombers probably didn’t even go that high because it was around that time that we were told Kenny’s agent told Walter’s he wouldn’t be back. Bombers weren’t gonna go 250 never mind 275 or more. 

Edited February 7 by Goalie

[GCn20]

46 minutes ago, Booch said:

maybe the 50lk higher they didnt wanna match without that extra 400k was gonna prevent them doing something else they targeted?...now....it may be irrelevant...and really...we are a better team with him than not

 

yup....he really enjoys it here....and we know ZC loves having him...You would think a GM and coach would try to appease him if it's doable now

 

yup...

well...we do have our 48 hour window now...so if we had said 225k before...and now we say say 260...275....he can sign here and the Ticat offer sheet becomes null and void...thats how that supposed to work...and from what I understand the Cat's...or whatever team filed the offer sheet cant counter.....Now with this "extra" amount available...would they be allowed?....who knows....but they also may have been banking on a couple Hundie K raise in cap...as all teams knew it was coming...just not the amount and already cooked it into their offer...or maybe not...guess we will see how many guys end up back with their original team in that window

They cannot counter in the 48 hour window. They've had 2 days now to go back to Kenny and raise the offer if they so wished. Once the Bombers get the league info on what the exact offer is that Kenny accepted then the Bombers have an exclusive 48 hours to seal the deal. If Kenny wants to see if a Hammy counter will come he needs to go to FA. If I'm the Bombers I am insisting Kenny signs now or the offer is off the table come FA. However, after signing Sterns I think we may have moved on. Hope not tho.

8 minutes ago, Goalie said:

Didn’t Schoen sign for like 175 plus incentives. Why would anyone think bombers would be willing to give lawler 100k more in guaranteed money. It’s obvious they weren’t willing to overpay and 275k for lawler is an overpay, extra 400k or not. Was reported Calgary offered him 250k. Bombers probably didn’t even go that high because it was around that time that we were told Kenny’s agent told Walter’s he wouldn’t be back. Bombers weren’t gonna go 250 never mind 275 or more. 

We offered 225 apparently. If we go to 260 I would think Kenny would sign with us. You keep throwing around 275 as the number we have to match. We don't. Kenny took a lesser offer two years ago to be with us, no reason to believe he wouldn't again.

Edited February 7 by GCn20

[Mike]

1 minute ago, GCn20 said:

They cannot counter in the 48 hour window. They've had 2 days now to go back to Kenny and raise the offer if they so wished. Once the Bombers get the league info on what the exact offer is that Kenny accepted then the Bombers have an exclusive 48 hours to seal the deal. If Kenny wants to see if a Hammy counter will come he needs to go to FA. If I'm the Bombers I am insisting Kenny signs now or the offer is off the table come FA. However, after signing Sterns I think we may have moved on. Hope not tho.

We moved on before signing Sterns. We moved on the minute he agreed to terms with Hamilton. 

[sweep the leg]

9 minutes ago, Super Duper Negatron said:

Just raise the minimum salary. The top guys get enough already.

Ok comrade.

[GCn20]

4 minutes ago, Mike said:

We moved on before signing Sterns. We moved on the minute he agreed to terms with Hamilton. 

You don't know that. This week was set up entirely so that teams would have 48 hours to talk to their pending FA's. No team in the CFL or player has signed anything and agreed to terms is worth nothing until each team has that 48 hours. If the Bombers make a final pitch to Kenny and he accepts it there was absolutely ZERO obligation for him to sign in Hammy, nor would there be any hard feelings at all by anyone. This is how this week was designed to work. All Kenny agreed to was that IF the Bombers don't step up I will go to Hamilton...nothing more. People keep suggesting that this agreed to terms is some kind of obligation by the players. It isn't and it was never designed to be one. Kenny could go to FA as well, and there would still be no hard feelings. It is his right to do so. It is the Bombers right to have an exclusive time to try persuade him to stay as well.

Edited February 7 by GCn20

[Super Duper Negatron]

Just now, GCn20 said:

You don't know that. This week was set up entirely so that teams would have 48 hours to talk to their pending FA's. No team in the CFL or player has signed anything and agreed to terms is worth nothing until each team has that 48 hours. If the Bombers make a final pitch to Kenny and he accepts it there was absolutely ZERO obligation for him to sign in Hammy, nor would there be any hard feelings at all by anyone. This is how this week was designed to work.

I feel like it has only ever worked out that way against us. What was that dingus' name again?

[GCn20]

6 minutes ago, Super Duper Negatron said:

I feel like it has only ever worked out that way against us. What was that dingus' name again?

So far, but no player is obligated to any of the terms they have accepted. NONE. The only people that are obligated are the teams that made the offer and they are only obligated so that teams don't make offers and walk away simply to drive up a player's price. Mike does not seem to grasp what this tampering period is for. It is meant only to establish market value for players and give teams time to prepare for what the market bears for their pending FAs and who they may no longer be able to afford. No one is obligated to anyone and each team and GM is fully aware of that when they file the offer. There isn't a single team that isn't 100% cognizant that the player they have offer sheeted may still sign with their former team.

Normally, in these scenarios the player leaving will leave but this year a little half million monkey wrench may lead to some teams still retaining FA's they thought they were losing for SMS reasons and not a single team will cry about it when it happens.

Edited February 7 by GCn20

[Mike]

Just now, GCn20 said:

So far, but no player is obligated to any of the terms they have accepted. NONE. The only people that are obligated are the teams that made the offer and they are only obligated so that teams don't make offers and walk away simply to drive up a player's price. Mike does not seem to grasp what this tampering period is for. It is meant only to establish market value for players and give teams time to prepare for what the market bears for their pending FAs. No one is obligated to anyone.

I fully grasp what the stated intention is. I’m telling you it doesn’t work like that. Go back and look at last year. Free agency week was the tampering week.

You can pretend that this illusion of a negotiating window does something to the publicly agreed upon deals. It doesn’t. None of these players that have “agreed to terms” with new teams are taking these offers to their old teams. That includes Kenny.

[JuranBoldenRules]

1 hour ago, Mike said:

I don’t think this new money is affecting anything in the way we think it is

You would’ve seen a report that SOMEONE was considering not signing the deal they agreed to, but you haven’t

The agents don’t want to touch this one, the general managers aren’t going to either … and quite honestly, it makes sense. The CFL is a small league and if you use this money to screw over another team, it won’t be long before it comes back around

Each team probably will keep another 1-2 vets.  Most are budgeted to be over the limit and get closer to it with long-term injuries already.  I don't believe the salary limit going up that much will change their internal budgets.

[wbbfan]

22 minutes ago, Super Duper Negatron said:

Just raise the minimum salary. The top guys get enough already.

100k min salary in the cfl would improve competition for the bottom 1/3 of the roster out of camp a lot I bet. 

[GCn20]

2 minutes ago, Mike said:

I fully grasp what the stated intention is. I’m telling you it doesn’t work like that. Go back and look at last year. Free agency week was the tampering week.

You can pretend that this illusion of a negotiating window does something to the publicly agreed upon deals. It doesn’t. None of these players that have “agreed to terms” with new teams are taking these offers to their old teams. That includes Kenny.

Sorry man you are dead wrong on this. Last year the SMS didn't move halfway through tampering week. If you don't think that entirely changes things then I guess math isn't your skill set.

Edited February 7 by GCn20

[wbbfan]

14 minutes ago, Mike said:

We moved on before signing Sterns. We moved on the minute he agreed to terms with Hamilton. 

I bet we moved on when kenny decided to go to FA. We knew we weren't gonna out bid crazy, and he wasn't gonna take a discount. 

 

 

[Mike]

Just now, GCn20 said:

Sorry man you are dead wrong on this.

You can cling to this hope all you want that we are maybe going to bring back Kenny. I’m not wrong.

You think teams are just waiting for this magical “exclusive window” to begin? “hold on, let’s hold our cap space hostage until the magic window opens”

If Kenny or any other free agent (Metchie actually did this, it was reported) gave their old team an extended amount of time to try and make a contract work that matched what they were getting from a new team, that’s already happened. Walters isn’t waking up tomorrow to find a  sack of cash under his pillow that he can suddenly use.

[GCn20]

4 minutes ago, Mike said:

You can cling to this hope all you want that we are maybe going to bring back Kenny. I’m not wrong.

You think teams are just waiting for this magical “exclusive window” to begin? “hold on, let’s hold our cap space hostage until the magic window opens”

If Kenny or any other free agent (Metchie actually did this, it was reported) gave their old team an extended amount of time to try and make a contract work that matched what they were getting from a new team, that’s already happened. Walters isn’t waking up tomorrow to find a  sack of cash under his pillow that he can suddenly use.

He just woke up yesterday with a sack of money under his pillow. You seem to be discounting that. You keep thinking that agreeing to terms on a dollar amount with another team is an obligation by the player during this window. It is not. For all intents and purposes it is only an obligation by the team making the offer that if you don't re-sign with your team we will honor the dollar amount we discussed.

Edited February 7 by GCn20

[JuranBoldenRules]

5 minutes ago, wbbfan said:

100k min salary in the cfl would improve competition for the bottom 1/3 of the roster out of camp a lot I bet. 

If you did this you'd have to exempt QB's or something.

[Mike]

1 minute ago, GCn20 said:

He just woke up yesterday with a sack of money under his pillow. You seem to be discounting that.

I’m not discounting it, you’re putting way too much weight into it. Pretty much every talking point about it outside of Paul Friesen has been that it’s a non-starter to give any of these free agents more money. 

[GCn20]

2 minutes ago, Mike said:

I’m not discounting it, you’re putting way too much weight into it. Pretty much every talking point about it outside of Paul Friesen has been that it’s a non-starter to give any of these free agents more money. 

Who is doing that talking. Certainly not the players, or the GMs. One would have to be pretty naive to think that some teams won't circle back on players they really want to keep as is their right to do so. The cap just went up unexpectedly by 10%, that changes everything.

Edited February 7 by GCn20

[17to85]

These deals wouldn't be announced if the players were still negotiating.  It never happens. Guys know what they're going to be offered and teams don't sit around hoping they can keep guys. They take what happens ans move on.

[Mike]

1 minute ago, GCn20 said:

Who is doing that talking. Certainly not the players, or the GMs. One would have to be pretty naive to think that some teams won't circle back on players they really want to keep as is their right to do so.

Listen to Dunk talk about it on his podcast. That’s where the agents and GMs have their head at regarding this. 
 

You wanna hope Kenny Lawler is under the Christmas tree when you wake up tomorrow, go ahead. 

[GCn20]

3 minutes ago, 17to85 said:

These deals wouldn't be announced if the players were still negotiating.  It never happens. Guys know what they're going to be offered and teams don't sit around hoping they can keep guys. They take what happens ans move on.

In the past, sure. Made their best offer another team offered more. Nothing more to be done. This year teams got an unexpected windfall of SMS halfway through the week.

2 minutes ago, Mike said:

Listen to Dunk talk about it on his podcast. That’s where the agents and GMs have their head at regarding this. 
 

You wanna hope Kenny Lawler is under the Christmas tree when you wake up tomorrow, go ahead. 

I'm not suggesting Kenny necessarily comes back, but I guarantee Walters is upping his pitch. He would be an idiot not to do so. I don't give a fig what Dunk is saying, no GM is going to talk to him about waiting until the exclusive window and re-entering talks with their pending FAs. Some guys will have been moved on from, other guys were losses that teams were forced to make because of the old SMS number. Kenny is one of those guys.

Edited February 7 by GCn20

[wbbfan]

To be honest, I don't know how you even pay kenny 50k+  year more than dalton.

2 out of 3 years in the league dalton has been the best wr in the league. He was injured most of last year. Arguably, Kenny was the best wr in the league once in the shortened season. That's out of 5 years. 

Kenny is 31 a month into the season. Dalton is 28. 

Dalton has missed time with 1 major injury. Lawler has missed time because he didn't get his passport done in time, DUI, and various injuries. 

Dalton averages almost double the YAC each year and more than double the tds. They have the same number of 100 yard games in their career as well. 

Dalton eclipsed 100 catches in both his healthy seasons. Lawler hasn't done it once. 

[Mike]

1 minute ago, GCn20 said:

In the past, sure. Made their best offer another team offered more. Nothing more to be done. This year teams got an unexpected windfall of SMS halfway through the week.

I'm not suggesting Kenny necessarily comes back, but I guarantee Walters is upping his pitch. He would be an idiot not to do so. I don't give a fig what Dunk is saying, no GM is going to talk to him about waiting until the exclusive window and re-entering talks with their pending FAs.

I don’t even know where to begin with this. It’s so flawed. Good luck with your beliefs on this. I hope you’re right.

[GCn20]

3 minutes ago, Mike said:

I don’t even know where to begin with this. It’s so flawed. Good luck with your beliefs on this. I hope you’re right.

There is nothing flawed about this at all. It's business 101.  You pivot as the budget allows. I was in business for many years and available cash flow has a massive effect on everything. If you have budget room to spend so as not to take an even bigger loss you do so.

Edited February 7 by GCn20

[wbbfan]

10 minutes ago, JuranBoldenRules said:

If you did this you'd have to exempt QB's or something.

I wonder if having the qbs on a separate cap in general would be advantageous. 

Edited February 7 by wbbfan

[GCn20]

Just now, wbbfan said:

I wonder if having the qbs on a separate cap in general would be advantageous. 

I can't see how. Just drive up QB costs is all.