2024/2025 Blue Bombers Off-Season Thread

[GCn20]

48 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?   

 

You don't think O'Day is capable of completing a trade? You may be right, Idk, but the option was most certainly there for them too.

8 minutes ago, wbbfan said:

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. 

Harris has been a league leader in dink and dunk for his entire career. The past 5 years has seen him, WHEN HEALTHY, put up great stats with a losing record to go with it. He has not been healthy much though, and there is no QB I would rather have on the bench or on the IR when the rubber hits the road then Harris. The guy is NOT and never will be a gamer. He is Kevin Glenn 2.0

Edited 22 hours ago by GCn20

[GCn20]

49 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?   

 

Once again, the right move would have been to pick up the phone and make a better offer for Adams than Calgary did. Hell, half of me thinks we should have done that as well. However, Zac gives us a far better chance to win than Harris gives the Riders. At the end of the day you can put the stat sheet up for Harris but he is aged out. Bottom line is that every time you start a 40 year old QB you are taking significant risk in losing your season.

Edited 22 hours ago by GCn20

[wbbfan]

6 minutes ago, GCn20 said:

You don't think O'Day is capable of completing a trade? You may be right, Idk, but the option was most certainly there for them too.

Harris has been a league leader in dink and dunk for his entire career. The past 5 years has seen him, WHEN HEALTHY, put up great stats with a losing record to go with it. He has not been healthy much though, and there is no QB I would rather have on the bench when the rubber hits the road then Harris. The guy is NOT and never will be a gamer. He is Kevin Glenn 2.0

Yep. He is the MOP when it comes to padding. Up top with mbt, and last years BLM. 

[GCn20]

4 minutes ago, wbbfan said:

Yep. He is the MOP when it comes to padding. Up top with mbt, and last years BLM. 

I think Harris was a good QB, not great, but certainly passable. What he is now is 40. I don't care if he's Peyton Manning, running it back with a 40+ QB is not a good idea. Could it work out? Sure. However, there was a ton of QB movement this year and the Riders decided to run it back with an ancient QB. If there were no options whatsover, sure bring him back. However, there were options....many of them.

Edited 22 hours ago by GCn20

[wbbfan]

Just now, GCn20 said:

I think Harris was a good QB, not great, but certainly passable. What he is now is 40. I don't care if he's Peyton Manning, running it back with a 40+ QB is not a good idea. Could it work out? Sure. However, there was a ton of QB movement this year and the Riders decided to run it back with an ancient QB.

I agree, he certainly was good not great. I think he's still in the matt nichols tier that way. He's a better version who won, but not significantly.  I think he was broken before age by beatings he took in places like edmonton as well. 

Yeah, old age QBs are seldom a good idea. Wrong side of 35 with a QB is a bad gamble. It might work out, it might not. It might be the only or best option a team has. But I think it is always a bad gamble to take. 

[HardCoreBlue]

1 minute ago, wbbfan said:

Yep. He is the MOP when it comes to padding. Up top with mbt, and last years BLM. 

TH is not THE man. He's always been more of that supporting cast.

Unfortunately for Sask, they don't have that man. Welcome to the role of the GM and the Scouting Department.

Mr. O'Day has a nicely fitted Teflon jacket to distract, shift where the problem lands.

 

[wbbfan]

4 minutes ago, HardCoreBlue said:

TH is not THE man. He's always been more of that supporting cast.

Unfortunately for Sask, they don't have that man. Welcome to the role of the GM and the Scouting Department.

Mr. O'Day has a nicely fitted Teflon jacket to distract, shift where the problem lands.

 

Yep. 

It does seem like they are starting to get a better-surrounding cast, but they are in dire need of fresh blood at QB. To be fair, we are and so is 3/4 of the league. The team that wins the QB arms race with youth is going to be the next force in this league for years to come. 

Edited 21 hours ago by wbbfan

[HardCoreBlue]

1 minute ago, wbbfan said:

Yep. 

I does seem like they are starting to get a better-surrounding cast, but they are in dire need of fresh blood at QB. To be fair, we are and so is 3/4 of the league. The team that wins the QB arms race with youth is going to be the next force in this league for years to come. 

Yep I was thinking the same thing. We (and everyone else) aren't immune to this but some GM's are very good at magic tricks when it comes to answering the question, what's the problem here?

[Brandon]

42 minutes ago, GCn20 said:

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.

So are the Riders and Bombers complete morons for not signing Arbuckle?    Once again... so Mike Bishop and his 12 - 1 Argos season means he was a great QB? 

Why are we counting the last 5 years?  I'm talking about as of today,  Zach looked bad last season and couldn't throw the ball.   Harris was better at throwing the ball and being a QB then Zach,  the numbers do not lie.   Zach also had the best running back behind him which can only help the passing game.   

34 minutes ago, GCn20 said:

Once again, the right move would have been to pick up the phone and make a better offer for Adams than Calgary did. Hell, half of me thinks we should have done that as well. However, Zac gives us a far better chance to win than Harris gives the Riders. At the end of the day you can put the stat sheet up for Harris but he is aged out. Bottom line is that every time you start a 40 year old QB you are taking significant risk in losing your season.

Once again.... how does Zach gives us a better chance of winning then Harris has to do with  what the Riders did in the off season?   I don't think they had an offer of Zach for Harris straight up from us.     Nobody knows what was offered for Adams?  Maybe the Riders did make an attempt and Calgary gave a better offer?   Bottom line as I said before... who could the Riders have signed in the off season to improve their QB situation that would replace Harris?  It's not like they signed Harris to a 5 year deal and are committing to him for the long term?   

Edited 21 hours ago by Brandon

[wbbfan]

15 minutes ago, HardCoreBlue said:

Yep I was thinking the same thing. We (and everyone else) aren't immune to this but some GM's are very good at magic tricks when it comes to answering the question, what's the problem here?

Very much so. And at this point we have a near un paralleled amount of parity in QBs both starting and back ups league wide. Basically every team has a starting QB they've chosen and a very solid qb2 with a good resume who can reasonably play if/when forced into action.

 

 The problem as I see it, is only bad teams move on to young qbs. League-wide teams wait till the wheels fall off their franchise to make QB changes to give developing guys a chance. But then those guys get run over constantly playing on bad teams. A few years ago I never would've thought we'd still see soo many old starters leading teams still, or with primary back up roles. I bet the average age league wide of starting QBs out of camp will be 33+. 

 Bc, moved on to rourke not to develop but because they thought he would instantly be better than Vaj. And he wasn't. Montreal moved on to davis this off season, and I commend them for that. Though they have done little else this off season and it makes that move look like a cost cutting move. 

[Tracker]

14 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.

 

The off-season and draft are not done, but yeah.

[GCn20]

23 minutes ago, Brandon said:

So are the Riders and Bombers complete morons for not signing Arbuckle?    Once again... so Mike Bishop and his 12 - 1 Argos season means he was a great QB? 

Why are we counting the last 5 years?  I'm talking about as of today,  Zach looked bad last season and couldn't throw the ball.   Harris was better at throwing the ball and being a QB then Zach,  the numbers do not lie.   Zach also had the best running back behind him which can only help the passing game.   

Once again.... how does Zach gives us a better chance of winning then Harris has to do with  what the Riders did in the off season?   I don't think they had an offer of Zach for Harris straight up from us.     Nobody knows what was offered for Adams?  Maybe the Riders did make an attempt and Calgary gave a better offer?   Bottom line as I said before... who could the Riders have signed in the off season to improve their QB situation that would replace Harris?  It's not like they signed Harris to a 5 year deal and are committing to him for the long term?   

Nick Arbuckle? Now you are just arguing in bad faith. One win, or one season, does not a QB make and that is why you look at the past several years when looking at a QB's winning pedigree. Harris is not a winner, Collaros is that is why the Bombers can give ZC a little extra rope and why the Riders should have moved on. Simple as that really. How does Zac give us a better chance to win? Really? He's a demonstrated winner. Harris is a demonstrated loser. As to whether the Riders could have made a better offer for Adams? Look at what Calgary gave up and then ask that question again.

[Tracker]

I believe there is ample evidence that Collaros is past his "best before date" and succession planning should be well underway if it is not. Given O'Shea's predilection for hanging onto fading players, I have doubts that this has happened. There is good reason to believe that a) Collaros is no longer good enough to take the team to the Grey Cup game, and may not even finish the season. and b) If (and that is a big if) Streveler is given  the coaching and playbook to let him shine plus Terry Wilson, that ought to give us a competitive team but might not be enough to take us all the way again, but at least the team will be moving in the right direction, not hoping to squeeze another year out of aging players. 

 

[ShyGuy]

2 hours 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?   

 

Collaros had an absolute disaster class of a beginning of the season because the Bombers big-brained themselves into giving pretty much all the veterans training camp and preseason off. Collaros goes into the season with no time to gel with anyone and an injured Brady. Then he immediately loses Lawler to a broken arm and 2 games later Schoen blows out his knee and then in week 4 he actually gets hurt. If you measure the stats for Collaros and Harris from when Harris came back from his injury (and Zach was working into somewhat of a groove and finally learned his new receivers names) they are almost statistically the same.

The issue is that Collaros is dealing with regressing from being a perennial MOP candidate and Harris is pretty much what he always has been. Harris has always been known for moving the ball between the 30s. The Riders managed to take a super impressive turnover ratio and turn it into a really impressive number of punts and field goal attempts.

[Fatty Liver]

57 minutes ago, GCn20 said:

I think Harris was a good QB, not great, but certainly passable. What he is now is 40. I don't care if he's Peyton Manning, running it back with a 40+ QB is not a good idea. Could it work out? Sure. However, there was a ton of QB movement this year and the Riders decided to run it back with an ancient QB. If there were no options whatsover, sure bring him back. However, there were options....many of them.

You're ignoring the move they made to acquire Jake Maier for an 8th round draft pick, which was a great deal I wish Walters would have jumped on.  He easily qualifies as the 2nd or 3rd best seasoned backup in the league behind Fajardo and MBT but at only 27 it remains a mystery whether he will emerge as a QB that can lead a team or not.  It's fair to say he's a superior backup option than anything the Bombers can roll out this season, and if Harris goes down in game 2, they won't be in a state of panic or despair. 

[17to85]

I for one have faith in Streveler unshackled.

[HardCoreBlue]

3 minutes ago, 17to85 said:

I for one have faith in Streveler unshackled.

Absolutely why not until proven otherwise.

Once the shackles come off, lets see what we got.

[17to85]

1 minute ago, HardCoreBlue said:

Absolutely why not until proven otherwise.

Once the shackles come off, lets see what we got.

[Booch]

16 minutes ago, 17to85 said:

I for one have faith in Streveler unshackled.

as do I....I know what he can do...seen it....and if allowed to....will impress

our success this yr is gonna be in how we are coached and managed...and if a few question marks come thru....thats how I see it....We aren't a team with the best players across the board anymore in their prime....who are hungry and motivated  like 19/21

We have a FEW top o the line guys still....but rest is a mish mash now of guys who showed potential before an injury....are entering 2nd and 3rd yrs and need/deserve a legit opportunity...and a handfull of plugs who are just in the way and in no way shape or form the future....and are in all honesty hurting us more than anything...It's how Osh manages this and how he approaches in game decisions thats gonna dictate our success....I personally have my doubts he will be great in this regard....totaly based on the past 4...5 yrs now

Edited 20 hours ago by Booch

[Goalie]

19 minutes ago, Fatty Liver said:

You're ignoring the move they made to acquire Jake Maier for an 8th round draft pick, which was a great deal I wish Walters would have jumped on.  He easily qualifies as the 2nd or 3rd best seasoned backup in the league behind Fajardo and MBT but at only 27 it remains a mystery whether he will emerge as a QB that can lead a team or not.  It's fair to say he's a superior backup option than anything the Bombers can roll out this season, and if Harris goes down in game 2, they won't be in a state of panic or despair. 

So you haven’t watched any Calgary games the last couple of years. 

[Booch]

1 minute ago, Goalie said:

So you haven’t watched any Calgary games the last couple of years. 

Maier needs elite talent around him...and superior coaching...I see neither there for him is Sask

[bigg jay]

16 minutes ago, 17to85 said:

I for one have faith in Streveler unshackled.

Do you have faith that he'll be unshackled though?  Hogan as OC is a huge question mark - he's been working under Buck so do we similar use of Strevy or does he actually use him as a QB?

[HardCoreBlue]

4 minutes ago, bigg jay said:

Do you have faith that he'll be unshackled though?  Hogan as OC is a huge question mark - he's been working under Buck so do we similar use of Strevy or does he actually use him as a QB?

That’s a great question. Let’s hope the answer is yes and my thinking is, based on CS’s presser after signing, there was a conversation had prior to him picking up the pen.

[Fatty Liver]

6 minutes ago, Goalie said:

So you haven’t watched any Calgary games the last couple of years. 

Change of scenery, less pressure to be the guy, no Dave D to criticize, might have lost his confidence, I wouldn't write Maier  off yet.

[Goalie]

12 minutes ago, Fatty Liver said:

Change of scenery, less pressure to be the guy, no Dave D to criticize, might have lost his confidence, I wouldn't write Maier  off yet.

He throws up ducks. Honestly ppl **** on Streveler for his weird throwing motion but atleast there’s some power there. Maier ? Nope. Seen a million maiers in the cfl. None ever amount to anything.