Messam

[Floyd]

Shologan, Philips, Gott, Fraser and Eppele are not mystery men.  Deane and Lavoie's health are question marks... but so are Watson's, Neufeld, Alexander...

[mbrg]

If Gore ever gets a handle on his butterfingers issue I think there would be a strong case to make for him being the best NI receiver in the league.  It's not as bad now as it was 2 seasons ago.

 

Ianuzzi has speed, and that's why he does some returns.  Kohlert has way better hands and runs better routes.  Apples and oranges for skill sets.  I'm calling it a draw.

[Blueandgold]

Shologan, Philips, Gott, Fraser and Eppele are not mystery men.  Deane and Lavoie's health are question marks... but so are Watson's, Neufeld, Alexander...

Gott is someone who's always injured or hurt at least. Similar to Watson in that aspect actually.

[Goalie]

Edmonton has non import depth at receiver, not much elsewhere though. we have non import depth at receiver too, heck we could start 3 Canadians at receiver if we really wanted too and have Carter or Renaud dress as a backup. Pretty even really there, we have better non import db depth and i'd argue with the esks losing laurent that is equivalent to us losing Henoc so all in all, without the blue bashing goggles on, i'd actually say our non import depth might be a bit better than Edmonton and Ottawa for that matter. 

 

http://www.esks.com/roster/index/team/3/sort/last

 

I don't see how that non import talent is better than ours. I just don't see it. 

[Brandon]

I think people want Messam not cuz he is great... Its because by starting him we can swap out in another position with an import who could be much better then the ni filling that role.

[bearpants]

 

 

Hmmm... wonder why Messam hasn't been signed by anyone yet if he's such a steal...

Hmmm....  Wonder if anyone has called Messam a steal other than you?  (I'd guess no one, but I'm not about to go through 7 pages of comments to find out)

 

I wonder if any team has worse NI depth than the Bombers?  

 

 

Haaaaaaaaave you met Edmonton?

Ottawa is questionable. Hell, even BC is questionable. Luckily for them, they have Harris but their Canadian depth is bad bad bad.

 

 

Such is the reality of trying to find 189 NI football players and 63 NIs good enough to start... if the league ever wants to go to 10 teams (which I hope it does soon) without severely watering down the talent, and adjustment to the ratio is absolutely necessary...

[TBURGESS]

 

 

Hmmm... wonder why Messam hasn't been signed by anyone yet if he's such a steal...

Hmmm....  Wonder if anyone has called Messam a steal other than you?  (I'd guess no one, but I'm not about to go through 7 pages of comments to find out)

 

I wonder if any team has worse NI depth than the Bombers?  

 

Sorry, don't have time (or desire) to go through 8 pages (140+ posts...) of what must be repetitive bickering.

 

One would consider a talented NI available on the open market a steal, no?

 

Nope.  I'd consider him an upgrade over what we have, not a steal.

[Mike]

Shologan, Philips, Gott, Fraser and Eppele are not mystery men.  Deane and Lavoie's health are question marks... but so are Watson's, Neufeld, Alexander...

 

Aside from Shologan, mbrg is right, those are all "grass is greener" type guys. Phillips, Gott, Fraser and Eppele are all bandaids and if we don't value guys like Watson because of health issues, those guys should be judged similarly.

[mbrg]

I think people want Messam not cuz he is great... Its because by starting him we can swap out in another position with an import who could be much better then the ni filling that role.

 

Why would you want to start a player if he is not that great?

 

Unless you start him it doesn't put another import on the field.  And if he's a backup, then every time you put whatever DI you kept on the field you still have to take a starting import off the field.

[robynjt]

Nope.  I'd consider him an upgrade over what we have, not a steal.

 

I'm not going to argue semantics with you, nor will I argue your interpretation of what a steal is.  

 

Repetitive bickering is the best band name I've heard today.  Can I use it?  Can you also teach me to play an instrument?

 

Yes, and yes.  Recorder.  I'm going to want some compensation.  K thx.

[Floyd]

 

Shologan, Philips, Gott, Fraser and Eppele are not mystery men.  Deane and Lavoie's health are question marks... but so are Watson's, Neufeld, Alexander...

 

Aside from Shologan, mbrg is right, those are all "grass is greener" type guys. Phillips, Gott, Fraser and Eppele are all bandaids and if we don't value guys like Watson because of health issues, those guys should be judged similarly.

 

 

You're entitled to your opinion.  Eppele, Fraser and Philips would absolutely upgrade our team - I think they overpaid for Gott but he is a proven OL and has exp at Centre, better than anyone we have if he's healthy... which he has been for three years now...  not grass is greener at all.

 

In the off-season, if someone said, do you want to start Steve Morely at Centre or Jon Gott...  I wonder what the answer would have been...

[mbrg]

I don't.  The guy people have bitched about for 3 seasons?  Trade him for anyone is what most people would have said.

 

Cherry picking the best players from other teams (while ignoring the best players from our team) isn't a comparison of depth.  If you're comparing depth you are comparing the entire package of 20-30 NIs against that of another team.  Ottawa, Edmonton and BC all have some NI's that would help us.  Guess what, we have some NI's that would help them.

 

And a helpful reminder that Morley is doing fairly well for himself so far at center.

[Floyd]

I don't.  The guy people have bitched about for 3 seasons?  Trade him for anyone is what most people would have said.

 

Cherry picking the best players from other teams (while ignoring the best players from our team) isn't a comparison of depth.  If you're comparing depth you are comparing the entire package of 20-30 NIs against that of another team.  Ottawa, Edmonton and BC all have some NI's that would help us.  Guess what, we have some NI's that would help them.

 

And a helpful reminder that Morley is doing fairly well for himself so far at center.

 

We can go through depth if you want... suffice to say, everyone has better depth than we have behind Jake Thomas and Graig Newman...   In fact, (and I like both of those guys) they would be depth players on pretty much every other team in the league.  You can bring up Ryan Lucas if you want but he wouldn't even make it on most rosters in the CFL...

 

I think KW is doing a decent job, but its a long haul to fix Mack's mess - we shouldn't be overlooking anyone, even if they are stop-gap measures...

[James]

Shrug. It has less spelling errors than yours, so there's that at least.

Ah, the old spelling errors comment... Never gets old.

Why do all your examples feature the lowest person on the depth chart? Do you have that little faith in the argument you're trying to present?

Simple, Alexander is injured, Bucknor will be our starting field corner

At all positions on defence. Not at all positions. Having a DI for every position on the field would be ideal. Ideal is not possible. Our team has little NI depth everywhere. Where is the most? I'll argue it's in our secondary. Where do you think it is?

I say at all positions because we have enough Canadians that are capable of playing every other spot on offence other than QB and RB. I wouldn't say our most NI depth is at DB... We have good Canadian depth at field corner, they're not really capable of much else in the secondary

Ford is on our roster, that is the only reason I've used his name. Maybe I'll use Bolton instead, since he doesn't carry any emotional baggage for Bomber fans.

Messam is the best at that dimension only if you continue to list people you already know aren't as good as him. That's the third time you've done that in your pro-Messam arguments. I have complete confidence that if we wanted to have a smashmouth RB on our roster McManus could provide us with a list of 100 better choices than Messam by days end. And they would all be imports.

Them being imports is the problem. Messam doesn't hurt the roster at all, he brings value that our current NI RB doesn't. I'm not sure how you fail to see this.

Also, your example of them being able to find a bunch of import bruiser backs that are better then Messam is weak, because they are American. You don't DI an American tailback just to have him pound the ball in short yardage and goal line stands. Di's are to valuable to waste on such a role. Messam being Canadian, does not burn a DI spot, thus doesn't hurt the roster, and he can still fulfill that role!

Oh ya, anyways, no, a NI who won most outstanding Canadian 3 seasons ago isn't repeatedly getting cut because he is "one-dimensional".

Says who? Even if he's not the same player(which we all know he isn't), he's still a great pounder... If he isn't demanding six figures, I see absolutely no harm in upgrading at that spot.

So you must not like the current plan. You must prefer our offence isn't the strongest possible offence we can field. You prefer we shift some of that strength to the defence at the expense of the offence. That is an entirely acceptable strategy. I'm sure the Bombers considered it for quite a while, even before Messam came loose.

I have no idea where your getting this from, Messam only improves the offence and certainly doesn't stop us from DI'ing Ford

Seeing how competitive we've been in games so far, and seeing how effective Willy has looked because we've surrounded him with strength rather than weakness, I like the current plan. It's far from bulletproof, but I see what they're doing and agree that giving our young QB the best possible chance to succeed is a smart idea.

Competitive so far? #preseason

Why would signing Messam surround Willy with weakness? #Makesnosense