2024/2025 Blue Bombers Off-Season Thread

[SpeedFlex27]

1 hour ago, Goalie said:

Why? Cuz didn’t overpay for a receiver db and oline who most ppl **** on last year. 

This overpay business. Like the posters here supporting Walters are their own expert GMs which is laughable. It's not an overpay if the market says that's what the player is worth. Two years ago, when Gino Lewis & lawler signed their big contracts, fans were screaming overpay & that the market would correct itself. Receiver pay came down a bit but now it's right back up past what it was before. You want an elite CFL receiver, better be prepared to lay out some dough. So much for overpay. In our case, the salary cap went up 7% & we decided to ignore it. The Bombers have millions in the bank, Yet they refuse to pay for every high impact free agent they lost. They never had any intention of signing Lawler, Ford or Dobson. We get what we pay for. 

[SpeedFlex27]

1 hour ago, Noeller said:

This is recency bias. We have had WAY worse FA periods and some of the pre-FA signings would have been raved about in past years. 

Deleted.

Edited yesterday at 02:09 AM by SpeedFlex27

[rebusrankin]

Our Oline just keeps getting older, we have less Canadian depth there, we let a young Canadian walk out the door and we didn't upgrade the worst C in the CFL. Our front 4 added a nice vet in Vaughters but nothing at DT which was a weakness. 2019, 2021 we had excellent talent and depth along the lines. Not so much anymore. It hurt us in our last 3 Cup losses. We don't seem to be addressing it. We're hosting the Cup. This is why I'm frustrated and why I think Walters performance has slipped.

 

[Bigblue204]

1 hour ago, Brandon said:

How so?  They signed Maier and outside of that did they have a better option at QB?    Harris at this point is better then Zach and possibly less injury prone,  I believe our QB situation is much more risky then what they are doing.  

Less injury prone?? Lol wtf...have you just not watched any cfl for the past 2 years?

1 hour ago, SpeedFlex27 said:

This overpay business. Like the posters here supporting Walters are their own expert GMs which is laughable. It's not an overpay if the market says that's what the player is worth. Two years ago, when Gino Lewis & lawler signed their big contracts, fans were screaming overpay & that the market would correct itself. Receiver pay came down a bit but now it's right back up past what it was before. You want an elite CFL receiver, better be prepared to lay out some dough. So much for overpay. In our case, the salary cap went up 7% & we decided to ignore it. The Bombers have millions in the bank, Yet they refuse to pay for every high impact free agent they lost. They never had any intention of signing Lawler, Ford or Dobson. We get what we pay for. 

The lack of self awareness is outstanding lol!!

[BigBlue]

On 2025-02-15 at 5:44 PM, SpeedFlex27 said:

You're the guy who says we should keep our mouth shut yet here you are. Why aren't you leading by example? Clearly, it's do as I say but not not as I do.

i do not comment much and you know it ... you just carry around battery acid looking for a place to do your thing Mr 27

[Pete]

2 hours ago, SpeedFlex27 said:

This overpay business. Like the posters here supporting Walters are their own expert GMs which is laughable. It's not an overpay if the market says that's what the player is worth. Two years ago, when Gino Lewis & lawler signed their big contracts, fans were screaming overpay & that the market would correct itself. Receiver pay came down a bit but now it's right back up past what it was before. You want an elite CFL receiver, better be prepared to lay out some dough. So much for overpay. In our case, the salary cap went up 7% & we decided to ignore it. The Bombers have millions in the bank, Yet they refuse to pay for every high impact free agent they lost. They never had any intention of signing Lawler, Ford or Dobson. We get what we pay for. 

of course certain gms overpay, especially those that are on losing teams..  "its not an overpay if the markets say.s" is a gross simplification. Its no coincidence that the gms doling out the biggest salaries are Hamilton and Edm. One gm does not determine the whole market> the playoff teams from ly are noticably absent in these signings.

Or do you think Robbie Smith with 6 sacks deserves to be the highest paid defensive player in the cfl? (its not on the player its on the gm) I do agree that the Bombers need to be more aggressive esp when players like McEwen become available or Ceresna, Dobson not so much

Edited yesterday at 04:06 AM by Pete

[Mike]

2 hours ago, SpeedFlex27 said:

This overpay business. Like the posters here supporting Walters are their own expert GMs which is laughable. It's not an overpay if the market says that's what the player is worth. Two years ago, when Gino Lewis & lawler signed their big contracts, fans were screaming overpay & that the market would correct itself. Receiver pay came down a bit but now it's right back up past what it was before. You want an elite CFL receiver, better be prepared to lay out some dough. So much for overpay. In our case, the salary cap went up 7% & we decided to ignore it. The Bombers have millions in the bank, Yet they refuse to pay for every high impact free agent they lost. They never had any intention of signing Lawler, Ford or Dobson. We get what we pay for. 

You are unhinged. I love it. Never change.

[SpeedFlex27]

8 hours ago, Mike said:

You are unhinged. I love it. Never change.

You're welcome. 

[SpeedFlex27]

9 hours ago, Pete said:

of course certain gms overpay, especially those that are on losing teams..  "its not an overpay if the markets say.s" is a gross simplification. Its no coincidence that the gms doling out the biggest salaries are Hamilton and Edm. One gm does not determine the whole market> the playoff teams from ly are noticably absent in these signings.

Or do you think Robbie Smith with 6 sacks deserves to be the highest paid defensive player in the cfl? (its not on the player its on the gm) I do agree that the Bombers need to be more aggressive esp when players like McEwen become available or Ceresna, Dobson not so much

Do some GMs like Ed Hervey overpay? I guess we'll find out if the $$$ he paid to Robbie Smith is the new normal or a 1 time thing. Was I advocating the Bombers sign all their free agents? No, but we lost a bunch & should have made signing Dobson a priority. If posters like Mike & Noeller are happy we draft & develop for other teams then good for them as it's becoming the new normal for us. 

Edited yesterday at 01:53 PM by SpeedFlex27

[GCn20]

12 hours ago, Brandon said:

How so?  They signed Maier and outside of that did they have a better option at QB?    Harris at this point is better then Zach and possibly less injury prone,  I believe our QB situation is much more risky then what they are doing.  

Harris not better than Zac, nor is he less injury prone. He is 40 something though and putting all your eggs in a 40 year old QB basket is as risky as it gets in the game of football. No better options? Vernon Adams was there for the taking.

Edited yesterday at 02:03 PM by GCn20

[SpeedFlex27]

10 hours ago, BigBlue said:

i do not comment much and you know it ... you just carry around battery acid looking for a place to do your thing Mr 27

No, I don't. There's a few otthers here that do a great job carrying that themselves. Better than I do, I give as good as I get. I've been smacked around a lot here over the years. I just spit the blood out & keep getting off the mat. 

7 minutes ago, GCn20 said:

Harris not better than Zac, not is he less injury prone. He is 40 something though and putting all your eggs in a 40 year old QB basket is as risky as it gets in the game of football. No better options? Vernon Adams was there for the taking.

Collaros is 36 years old going on 37 on August 28th. 

Edited yesterday at 02:02 PM by SpeedFlex27

[GCn20]

13 minutes ago, SpeedFlex27 said:

No, I don't. There's a few otthers here that do a great job carrying that themselves. Better than I do, I give as good as I get. I've been smacked around a lot here over the years. I just spit the blood out & keep getting off the mat. 

Collaros is 36 years old going on 37 on August 28th. 

Yes Collaros is no spring chicken either. We have discussed this a lot over the months. What aboutism doesn't make the Riders decision to stick with a 40 year old QB any smarter though. Many here are of the opinion that we should stick a fork in Collaros due to his age or at the very least move on after our home Grey Cup this year. He will be as old as Harris 3 seasons from now.  I'm a huge Zac fan, but if we are rolling him out 3 years from now I'm call that stupid as well.

12 hours ago, SpeedFlex27 said:

So, the best way to upgrade the OL quickly is to let Kevin Dobsonr sign with Hamilton.

 The reality is that all our young and talented NAT OL keep getting snapped up by the NFL. The NFL seems to have dropped it's Canadian bias when it come to OL. A lot of teams have to rethink their ratio on the OL, us probably included.

Edited yesterday at 02:12 PM by GCn20

[SpeedFlex27]

Just now, GCn20 said:

Yes Collaros is no spring chicken either. We have discussed this a lot over the months. What aboutism doesn't make the Riders decision to stick with a 40 year old QB any smarter though. Many here are of the opinion that we should stick a fork in Collaros due to his age or at the very least move on after our home Grey Cup this year. He will be as old as Harris 3 seasons from now. 

I think still playing at their age speaks to the lack of quality starters in the CFL. How many backup qbs on CFL teams are ready to step up to become bona fide starters or 'stars" at the qb position? I thought we might have some movement with a couple of young promising qbs like the kid in Montreal. I think he made a big mistake signing for less money than what he would have got as a free agent.

[GCn20]

4 minutes ago, SpeedFlex27 said:

I think still playing at their age speaks to the lack of quality starters in the CFL. How many backup qbs on CFL teams are ready to step up to become bona fide starters or 'stars" at the qb position? I thought we might have some movement with a couple of young promising qbs like the kid in Montreal. I think he made a big mistake signing for less money than what he would have got as a free agent.

The CFL has always rode it's starters until they fall off a cliff. Nothing new. Very seldom in my 45 years of following the CFL can I recall a year where every team had a quality starter. I have watched a semi-load of once great QBs just sadly stink up the joint and get shuffled off to retirement though. I expect this to be Harris's year to do that.

Edited yesterday at 02:16 PM by GCn20

[wbbfan]

12 hours ago, rebusrankin said:

Our Oline just keeps getting older, we have less Canadian depth there, we let a young Canadian walk out the door and we didn't upgrade the worst C in the CFL. Our front 4 added a nice vet in Vaughters but nothing at DT which was a weakness. 2019, 2021 we had excellent talent and depth along the lines. Not so much anymore. It hurt us in our last 3 Cup losses. We don't seem to be addressing it. We're hosting the Cup. This is why I'm frustrated and why I think Walters performance has slipped.

 

I do agree, this is supposed to be a deep cfl draft, though I don't think it's super deep at OL. But if we can get another back up and maybe another lotto ticket that'd be pretty good. We should be looking to add one way or another still though.

Dt, lawson is the answer if he stays healthy and we bench jake for him. Lawson and woods as starting DTs is tremendous. We need Pass rushing depth though. Another 3 tech, and maybe 2 guys who can rush off the edge. 

[Brandon]

1 hour ago, GCn20 said:

Harris not better than Zac, nor is he less injury prone. He is 40 something though and putting all your eggs in a 40 year old QB basket is as risky as it gets in the game of football. No better options? Vernon Adams was there for the taking.

 

Last year Harris had 3 more TD's in about 130 less pass attempts then Zach.   

Vernon Adams was traded to Calgary,  not signed as a free agent.   So once again I ask who would of been a better guy to sign this off season?   They sign the "best" and I use that with loose quotes veteran QB who was on the market as a back up as insurance.  So unless they went rookie or completely unknown commodity at backup I don't understand what they could of done to improve the QB situation?   

 

[JuranBoldenRules]

Hervey hasn't adjusted to this era of the CFL where you have a full roster that plays roles and not just 7 Canadians you roll out every down and pay a fortune to.  He's paying for "ratio breakers" and if they play Smith every down they'll probably be pretty disappointed.

[Booch]

15 hours ago, Mark H. said:

Well, the proof will be in the pudding.  6 months from now we'll know the answer to that, one way or the other.

be a bitter slap in face if we scuffle all yr...get a cross over spot and get bounced by Hamilton with all those guys playing a key part...if that was to happen wonder how the knee benders will spin taht here

[Booch]

13 hours ago, SpeedFlex27 said:

This overpay business. Like the posters here supporting Walters are their own expert GMs which is laughable. It's not an overpay if the market says that's what the player is worth. Two years ago, when Gino Lewis & lawler signed their big contracts, fans were screaming overpay & that the market would correct itself. Receiver pay came down a bit but now it's right back up past what it was before. You want an elite CFL receiver, better be prepared to lay out some dough. So much for overpay. In our case, the salary cap went up 7% & we decided to ignore it. The Bombers have millions in the bank, Yet they refuse to pay for every high impact free agent they lost. They never had any intention of signing Lawler, Ford or Dobson. We get what we pay for. 

it's never an over pay for a Canadian Oline man...especially a young one who layed well...and still has upside...DB's..recievers....Lb's...there so many churned out in the NCAA you never have to over pay if your scouting and talent assesment once you get them here is legit...other than the every now and then guy who comes along and is a true difference maker,,,then you get them in your room and adjust elsewhere to make it work...You should be able to do that paying 5..6 guys on your roster premium money if you have built a roster wisely..thats active and PR..and other than a real stupid contract...what is an over pay?...especially when we for most part have no idea of the SM structure a team has...That being said Walter's mindset of X amount of dollars to this group...X amount to that and not wavering is a bad practice....you need to be able to recognize where u may get good bang for bigger bucks and be able to adjust accordingly too

 

1 hour ago, GCn20 said:

Harris not better than Zac, nor is he less injury prone. He is 40 something though and putting all your eggs in a 40 year old QB basket is as risky as it gets in the game of football. No better options? Vernon Adams was there for the taking.

Harris is probably the most brittle QB in the league...and is a perenial non-difference maker...and aint gonna change that moniker pushing 40 yrs old

[TBURGESS]

Overpay - When other teams offer more than we do.

Market Value - When we pay players the most for their position in the league. 

[HardCoreBlue]

1 minute ago, TBURGESS said:

Overpay - When other teams offer more than we do.

Market Value - When we pay players the most for their position in the league. 

Every time I read your posts Dwight Kurt Schrute III is talking to me.

[GCn20]

5 minutes ago, HardCoreBlue said:

Every time I read your posts Dwight Kurt Schrute III is talking to me.

Tburg is a beet farmer too....weird...

[rebusrankin]

1 minute ago, GCn20 said:

Tburg is a beet farmer too....weird...

Does he also sell paper?

[GCn20]

37 minutes ago, Brandon said:

 

Last year Harris had 3 more TD's in about 130 less pass attempts then Zach.   

Vernon Adams was traded to Calgary,  not signed as a free agent.   So once again I ask who would of been a better guy to sign this off season?   They sign the "best" and I use that with loose quotes veteran QB who was on the market as a back up as insurance.  So unless they went rookie or completely unknown commodity at backup I don't understand what they could of done to improve the QB situation?   

 

What was Harris's win/loss record last year? Past 5 years? I don't give a fig about stats. I judge a QB by their ability to win.

Just now, rebusrankin said:

Does he also sell paper?

Selling paper is just to pay the beet bills. Farming is tough nowadays.

[wbbfan]

35 minutes ago, Brandon said:

 

Last year Harris had 3 more TD's in about 130 less pass attempts then Zach.   

Vernon Adams was traded to Calgary,  not signed as a free agent.   So once again I ask who would of been a better guy to sign this off season?   They sign the "best" and I use that with loose quotes veteran QB who was on the market as a back up as insurance.  So unless they went rookie or completely unknown commodity at backup I don't understand what they could of done to improve the QB situation?   

 

To be fair, MBT was among the league leaders in passing till he was yoinked as well. In 22 he creamed zach in yards, and dane evans was 4th a head of rourke. 

 I think the argument would be that last year isn't a reflection of what zach is or can do. I fully expect zach to outperform his play from last year. But I'm not sure he will physically hold up. I think he will either be a strong MOP candidate, or will be injured and replaced mid season ish.