Official Game Day Thread - Winnipeg at Edmonton, May 27, 2023

[Blue In BC]

Could easily do an import and a global.

Just because we can doesn't mean we do. Not that easy.

[pjrocksmb]

Just because we can doesn't mean we do. Not that easy.

Agree

[Blue In BC]

Agree

Our global players on defence are quite good. If Hansen was healthy even better. I don't see using a spot for a kicker.

Not sure what Pigrome has looked like in TC compared to Jones. However, he made something out of nothing.

Should have run that play to keep clock moving.

[Throw Long Bannatyne]

Karamoko picked on quite a bit, like his body size though, he may be a project.

[pjrocksmb]

Fantastic game shows how deep the CFL is and how competitive these players are

[Blue In BC]

Ironic that we blocked the FG to win. lol

Entertaining game.

Ward played quite a bit, so I think he probably ends up as a DI. Pigrome has the initial edge as the # 3 QB. Canadian receiver Murphy should make the PR.

Beyond that, hard to tell. Import RB's didn't get much chance to show anything. Augustine didn't have success.

One question I have is how close is Stanton to winning the Kicking role over Castillo? More likely he ends up on PR as depth. Too bad none of the imports can do all 3 jobs.

[NewBlue]

Ironic that we blocked the FG to win. lol

Entertaining game.

Ward played quite a bit, so I think he probably ends up as a DI. Pigrome has the initial edge as the # 3 QB. Canadian receiver Murphy should make the PR.

Beyond that, hard to tell. Import RB's didn't get much chance to show anything. Augustine didn't have success.

One question I have is how close is Stanton to winning the Kicking role over Castillo? More likely he ends up on PR as depth. Too bad none of the imports can do all 3 jobs.

Ward?  You mean Wade?  He may make the starting lineup at Will

[Blue In BC]

Ward?  You mean Wade?  He may make the starting lineup at Will

Sorry. Yes Wade. In theory our back up WIL and even SAM will be Canadians ( Gauthier / Briggs and Kramdi ). I think Clements has the lock with his experience at WIL. Therefore Wade becomes the DI, at least to start the season.

Who is going to be the returner is not clear. Probably a DB. That's going to depend on who starts and who is the extra guy.

That's 3 of the DI spots taken IMO.

If we want to have either a DE or a DT as a DI, then we can't have a 2nd import kicker.

That leaves the only other option as a global kicker and I don't see that as a realistic option. The expectation of a rookie global kicker to start on the AR would be tough IMO. That and we've used both global players as defensive depth.

[Sir Blue and Gold]

Sorry. Yes Wade. In theory our back up WIL and even SAM will be Canadians ( Gauthier / Briggs and Kramdi ). I think Clements has the lock with his experience at WIL. Therefore Wade becomes the DI, at least to start the season.

Who is going to be the returner is not clear. Probably a DB. That's going to depend on who starts and who is the extra guy.

That's 3 of the DI spots taken IMO.

If we want to have either a DE or a DT as a DI, then we can't have a 2nd import kicker.

That leaves the only other option as a global kicker and I don't see that as a realistic option. The expectation of a rookie global kicker to start on the AR would be tough IMO. That and we've used both global players as defensive depth.

Why do you think it's tough? It's not.

We have 21 Canadians on the roster for 7 spots. If we use a global spot on a kicker then the "global depth" guy becomes one of the many Canadians that basically play special teams. It's not as if the Globals are so good that a Canadian can't fill in as an emergency replacement about the same.

Put it to you another way: a good global punter plays a much more important role than a half decent Global backup linebacker. Every CFL team has like 5 of those across the Canadians and Globals. 

[NewBlue]

Sorry. Yes Wade. In theory our back up WIL and even SAM will be Canadians ( Gauthier / Briggs and Kramdi ). I think Clements has the lock with his experience at WIL. Therefore Wade becomes the DI, at least to start the season.

Who is going to be the returner is not clear. Probably a DB. That's going to depend on who starts and who is the extra guy.

That's 3 of the DI spots taken IMO.

If we want to have either a DE or a DT as a DI, then we can't have a 2nd import kicker.

That leaves the only other option as a global kicker and I don't see that as a realistic option. The expectation of a rookie global kicker to start on the AR would be tough IMO. That and we've used both global players as defensive depth.

As I mentioned, Swaray has return experience, did OK today, and looked good at DB.

[Blue In BC]

Why do you think it's tough? It's not.

We have 21 Canadians on the roster for 7 spots. If we use a global spot on a kicker then the "global depth" guy becomes one of the many Canadians that basically play special teams. It's not as if the Globals are so good that a Canadian can't fill in as an emergency replacement about the same.

Put it to you another way: a good global punter plays a much more important role than a half decent Canadian or Global backup linebacker. Every CFL team has like 5 of those.

Because you can only roster 2 global players. We used 2 for defensive back ups all of 2022. They can only sub in for imports and as such are like DI's. Our defensive depth on the AR is going to be suspect.I disagree that the global players on defence are not better than the Canadian choices.

Lost Sayles in free agency. Wilson and Hansen injured. Jeffcoat hobbled.

We didn't use either a DI or global spot for either kicking position in 2022.

If you don't see the issue, look again. Yes, we could do it but it would be tough IMO.

[Blue In BC]

As I mentioned, Swaray has return experience, did OK today, and looked good at DB.

However, barring injury we already have 7 returning DB's from 2022: Holms, Houston, Parker, Nichols, Rose, Lawrence, Alexander. Holms has return experience too and has a better chance at AR.

Then there is McCrae in the mix as a returner.

It would help knowing when Grant might be ready. They haven't placed him on 6 game IR so he may be ready soon? That means we may not have room for a DB as a DI.

Unless Canadian Bennett wins a rotation role on the DL, we probably end up with an import DE as a DI. We have Canadian bodies to rotate at DT, but Caleb Thomas didn't look too bad.

If Jeffcoat misses the 1st couple of game ( injury ) then a rookie starts in his spot and the next best rotation option MIGHT be Canadian.

I expect a LB, DE and DT as DI's along with Castillo.

Yes I could be wrong but that's what I expect. Lots of moving parts.

[Sir Blue and Gold]

Because you can only roster 2 global players. We used 2 for defensive back ups all of 2022. They can only sub in for imports and as such are like DI's. Our defensive depth on the AR is going to be suspect.

Lost Sayles in free agency. Wilson and Hansen injured. Jeffcoat hobbled.

We didn't use either a DI or global spot for either kicking position in 2022.

If you don't see the issue, look again. Yes, we could do it but it would be tough IMO.

Technically you can roster as many Globals as you want. They just replace Americans and not Canadians but I get your point, realistically teams won't do that. I will try this another way. Look at the Grey Cup roster (rules are slightly different this year but the example still makes total sense): https://d3ham790trbkqy.cloudfront.net/wp-content/uploads/sites/6/2022/06/109th-Grey-Cup-Rosters-_Winnipeg-Blue-Bombers.pdf

Hypothetically
Let's remove Legghio because he's cut. That gives us room to add another Canadian
Let's remove Mauro as a global and replace him with Global Punter A
Let's add any Canadian linebacker of a roughly equal skillset to Mauro (in Legghio's roster spot)

At the cost difference of a backup global linebacker for a backup Canadian linebacker (which is pretty slight or non existant even if you really like the global) you have added a global punter.

It's not rocket science and it's totally 100% easily doable if the Global is better than Legghio.

[Blue In BC]

Technically you can roster as many Globals as you want. They just replace Americans and not Canadians but I get your point, realistically teams won't do that. I will try this another way. Look at the Grey Cup roster (rules are slightly different this year but the example still makes total sense): https://d3ham790trbkqy.cloudfront.net/wp-content/uploads/sites/6/2022/06/109th-Grey-Cup-Rosters-_Winnipeg-Blue-Bombers.pdf

Hypothetically
Let's remove Legghio because he's cut. That gives us room to add another Canadian
Let's remove Mauro as a global and replace him with Global Punter A
Let's add any Canadian linebacker of a roughly equal skillset to Mauro

At the cost difference of a backup global linebacker for a backup Canadian linebacker (which is pretty slight even if you really like the global) you have added a global punter.

It's not rocket science and it's totally 100% easily doable if the Global is better than Legghio.

I'm not aware that a team can roster more than 2 global players in 2023 even at the expense of an import. However, lets assume that is correct and that teams are unlikely to do that anyway.

Also not sure about your reference to Grey Cup roster. It appears we only used one global roster spot.  By definition that would mean add 1 more Canadian

We only have one additional Canadian LB in TC ( Charbonneau ) and I doubt he beats out Maruo. Maruo was very good in 2022. He played well on ST's and had many snaps on defence.

It's doable to not have either an import DE or DT as DI's. Doable and best options overall are not the same.

If Liegghio is the punter he may only need to punt 6 times or so during a game.  A DE or DT will see the field more often. OTOH Karamoko may have to show value as the 2nd global greater than a possible punter.

Obviously we agree to disagree.

[DM83]

Pretty good performance by Bombers.

That backup Canadian receiver with three names looked very good.  Should. Be an excellent substitute for Woolley and Demski.
DT thomas/turner.
DE and OLB  should be shot.  They couldn?t contain anything.  That had Better stop.
Did our number one senior citizen at DE play?  He was kind of invisible. Can you say Ekatitite.

Anyone see our Offensive line? Awful on run game blocking. Excellent on pass blocking.  Go figure.
Who was the guy who made the block down field on Piggys TD. Run?  He made the crucial block
That RPO was run perfectly.

Everyone looked decent on their assignments and did OK.
Although our DBs trying to tackle, was worse than Pee wee football. The No hitting rule at practice was a panicky move by the league.  The product in the end suffers

Kickers looked like professionals.

Oh, sorry for another con of the pros/cons.  The play by play guy on CJOB , should do some research, and try not to be funny.  I mean Caleb Turner is really Caleb Thomas.