Off-Season Other Teams News

[dd]

So how did every GM in the league miss the boat on Lemon for 2/3rds of the 2023 season?  If he's the best thing since sliced bread instead of being a washed up couch-sitter, why did everyone take a pass?  Was he really holding out for too much $$?  How much did MTL pay him for that 1/3rd of a season?

Why did everyone think he was washed up and done and then he comes in and plays some of the best ball of his life?

I'm not sure I recall a scenario like this occurring to such an extent.  Usually it's just one GM like Buono screwing up (i.e. AH33), not the entire league's worth of GMs... including our own KW!

He's played for what 6 of the 9 teams, so 6 GM's know him or have dealt with him and my guess is they figured it wasn't worth the hassle. If he was a good team mate and team player, he would have stuck with one team longer than a season. He seemed to wear out his welcome quickly and often throughout his career.

[TecnoGenius]

He's played for what 6 of the 9 teams, so 6 GM's know him or have dealt with him and my guess is they figured it wasn't worth the hassle. If he was a good team mate and team player, he would have stuck with one team longer than a season. He seemed to wear out his welcome quickly and often throughout his career.

Weird, as he seems like a really nice, chill, smart guy in interviews.  So it'll be interesting to see how long Lemon lasts in MTL... maybe they are being too quick to sign the big GC stars for big $$... though one would have to think Maciocia would have this all down pat by now?  He's been doing this type of stuff for what, 40 years?

[dd]

And maybe Lemon is just happy to get a final last shot and he'll make the most of it in Montreal. At 35, he's only got 1 maybe 2 seasons left in him, mind you , he played decent in the games I saw this year.

[theaardvark]

I don't think the Lemon situation had anything to do with GM's not wanting him as much as it was Lemon looking for the right fit.  I'm sure we offered him a competitive deal here, but he'd be behind the Jeffs.

MTL offered a chance to start and drive the D.  And it showed in his play.

Sure, he missed a lot of paychecks, but it paid off with a GC cheque and a new contract.

[TecnoGenius]

he played decent in the games I saw this year.

Hmm, maybe that's the dirty little secret... maybe his body isn't capable of doing a whole 18 game season @35...  Maybe he had to make sure he was only signed for a third of a season?  I wonder how he'll hold up when expected to play 18 in 2024...

[Jesse]

Hmm, maybe that's the dirty little secret... maybe his body isn't capable of doing a whole 18 game season @35...  Maybe he had to make sure he was only signed for a third of a season?  I wonder how he'll hold up when expected to play 18 in 2024...

I don't know if that's much of a secret.

In earlier years, he would lead the league in sacks and then completely fall off and not do anything in the second half.

[Horseman]

Did anyone see the Dallas Cowboy kicker from last nights game against the Eagles, he hasn't missed in 30 kicks and last night kicked FG's from 60, 59 and 45 yards. He played in the USFL and never went to college, he was a soccer player before.

[dd]

Champions are the teams that get hot at that time of year.  Bombers are well constructed, but ancient .  I have doubts all are guys can win another Cup.  We could play well, and get there and win for sure.  However we need some fresh blood playmaker types.

The Grey Cup saw are previous stars wilt, and were not playmakers, I.e. big plays.  Don?t get me wrong, I wanted them to. But that is the world of sport.  I think our team of the last five years has been wonderful.

Plus we were hurt, and our two boys should not have even dressed.

But in reflecting, Zach had another awful game.  The coordinators sucked.  How could anyone lose to Fajardo and his five yard passes?  Zac?s numbers were based on a survival play after play. The offensive line does give him 1.5/seconds to throw, but that?s pretty tough.  He?s good, though. Hardwick was awful, but I have not liked him, as he usually gets beat on speed rushs.
Yet he was the Outstanding O linemen for the team.  So the players and coaches know more than I do.

The group was probably the best team in the league, but once again, lost the one that counted.  Mr. Walters, last year you brought back Castillo.  This year , the team needs ??.. make it happen.  Great season, though

I agree with you on Hardrick, the guys out of shape and gets beat routinely by speed, it?s embarassing actually. I don?t know how he got the nomination over Stanley, as there no comparison who?s the better lineman. I?d consider upgrading our RT position?see if we can trade him now that his stock is high from this award.

[TecnoGenius]

The group was probably the best team in the league, but once again, lost the one that counted.  Mr. Walters, last year you brought back Castillo.  This year , the team needs ??.. make it happen.  Great season, though

All you said was true, except I'm not sold on Yoshi being a problem point.  He does get beat more than he used to, though.

You mention Castillo as the puzzle piece, and I think it paid off (no misses in GC), but let's not forget the other massive puzzle piece KW brought in in 2023: Kenny.  From memory Kenny got one nice zone-hole mid-long pass, his longest of the GC, but it was a catch any of our guys could have made.  I think he had 1 or 2 clutch 2nd down conversions, too?  But other than that (from my memory without a rewatch), he did nothing of note...

As someone mentioned on some thread: we brought him to push us over the edge (vs the '22 GC) on the 50/50 ball and the only 50/50 that went his way -- the shoulda-been-TD -- was an INT.  Argue about whose fault that was (Zach?) all we want, the fact remains that he was paid the 2nd most (WR) in the CFL to do one job -- get us that extra something in the GC -- and he failed.  Worse still: he wasn't able to stop the INT and allow us to at least get 3.  It's a great point (thanks whoever's name I forgot!), and even if it's 90% Zach's fault, Kenny failed in his "puzzle piece" role, and that failure was a big part of why we didn't win the GC.  Disappointing.  And that arguably makes the Kenny signing a bust in terms of the puzzle.

And this as a massive Kenny fan who thinks we should retain him!

Maybe everyone is right: D wins championships.  MTL sure focused all their resources (and late season moves) on their D, and really had only 1 player on O that scared anyone, and here they are 2023 GC Champs, while we suck GC wind with our probably-league-best WR corps with triple or more SMS tied up therein...

[TecnoGenius]

I agree with you on Hardrick, the guys out of shape and gets beat routinely by speed, it?s embarassing actually. I don?t know how he got the nomination over Stanley, as there no comparison who?s the better lineman. I?d consider upgrading our RT position?see if we can trade him now that his stock is high from this award.

Yoshi had busts at times, but I think overall he had an up year.  There may have been more to the MO-OL award though: the fire and leadership and heart and soul.  Did that come into play?  Yoshi is a captain taking coin tosses with Biggie, the life of the locker room, and the fiery-eyed morale-booster a team needs.  If MO-OL is more than just on-field between-whistle play, then maybe he deserved it?

And we could say maybe the WPG-media/staff were biased to picking such a heart & soul guy, but that doesn't explain how/why the league-wide voters picked him.  Surely in aggregate they must know something?

I'm happy he finally got recognition.  Everyone was getting bored with Big Stan winning it every single year anyhow, and Stan allowed quite a few blindsiders on Zach this year too... The honest answer is both our big, all-star tackles are in the twilight of their careers: but still better than most OTs in the league!!

[blue_gold_84]

So the players and coaches know more than I do.

Impressive self-awareness.

I agree with you on Hardrick, the guys out of shape and gets beat routinely by speed, it?s embarassing actually. I don?t know how he got the nomination over Stanley, as there no comparison who?s the better lineman. I?d consider upgrading our RT position?see if we can trade him now that his stock is high from this award.

What a classless comment.

[blue_gold_84]

Alouettes re-sign WR Philpot through 2025: https://www.cfl.ca/2023/12/13/als-extend-receiver-tyson-philpot-through-2025/

Ti-Cats re-sign OL Revenberg through 2025: https://www.cfl.ca/2023/12/13/ticats-extend-ol-brandon-revenberg-through-2025/

[TecnoGenius]

Alouettes re-sign WR Philpot through 2025: https://www.cfl.ca/2023/12/13/als-extend-receiver-tyson-philpot-through-2025/

Ti-Cats re-sign OL Revenberg through 2025: https://www.cfl.ca/2023/12/13/ticats-extend-ol-brandon-revenberg-through-2025/

Both smart re-signs.  Boy has MTL Philpot turned into a legit threat.  Great DP by them.  I wonder how much they had to pony up... is this his first FA contract?  It could be a further hint as to what Schoen will get, as Schoen should get $40-$50k more than Philpot, although Philpot does have the passport bonus going on.  I wonder what the "other" Philpot is doing; always hurt it seems.

Revenberg is also a good move.  Weird, he's younger than I thought.  6 seasons, all with HAM.  Solid NAT OL.

[TecnoGenius]

On Zac?s pass to Lawler that was intercepted in the d zone, if you replay it we had a receiver wide open on a ten yard hook on the sideline.  It would have been a Fajardo special.  Zac  apparently didn?t see it and. Put it up  For Lawler. Zac had faith in his receiver to go get it.  Unfortunately Lawler, couldn?t get his balance on the poorly thrown pass and he couldn?t go get it. The result was an easy int by the DB.

I broke down that play on another thread somewhere.  The open guy was Demski.  A timing out at the sidelines would have almost certainly worked.  He was less open than he seems because MTL ran this crazy handoff D scheme.  It appeared to be man: 3 on 3.  But it was a weird zone look where as the R's progressed in their routes the D guys all swapped assignments.

Kenny had his guy plainly beat as the defender was stuck inside trailing by a mile.  That's why Zach threw it.  But as Kenny moved towards the corner, Ento dropped his guy as he was crossing into someone else's zone.  The routes were designed to confuse, but instead Thorpe caused the confusion by doing this weird change-up.  Like much that night from MTL, the design was high risk (Ento did just barely make that INT) and high reward.  It's to goad the QB into throwing into zone when he's sure it's man an he sees the open WR.

From Buck's standpoint the play was a failure, I think, because Demski and Kenny were too close together: the key aspect that allowed Ento to change assignments.  Demski ended up basically at the GL, and Kenny maybe 15Y in the EZ.  That's not enough separation on a 30-40Y (plus 5-10 for the outside angle) pass.  It was a bad play design against a team that likes the high stakes INT.  If Demski had curled back at the rail instead of fading to the GL then Ento has to stay with him and be too far to adjust when the ball is released, or leave Demski wide open for either big yardage or at least close to 1st down.  Zach could have waited until he saw which way Ento was going.

Even worse was Kenny was waiting for the ball and likely is the only guy who can get it if Zach throws farther back to the corner.  Kenny is circus gumby who can make the wicked catch, so why are we throwing him wait-for-it helmet-height balls?  Throw it over Ento and Kenny climbs the ladder.  Zach's overthinking it and trying too hard to feather it in as a perfect, easy to catch ball.  That's not what is required at that moment with that receiver.  Yes, Zach thought Kenny was wide open with no coverage, but the entire O should have planned around the freaky Thorpe scheme and their penchant for takeaways.  There should never be the words "he's wide open" going through Zach's head.  It should be "how can someone else get there?".

That last thing is that we ran a similar play earlier, at a similar point on the field, with the Woli TD attempt where it was just batted away (Ento??).  It didn't work then, why did we think it'd work in the 4th?  It was the same mid-EZ underthrown nonsense.  Even worse, around that play they show our O on the sidelines and Zach has his live mic on and they are directly discussing this play and how they are going to do it again.  And that's heard by everyone including the MTL D who I'm sure had one guy tasked with watching the broadcast.

We didn't need to go for Kenny TD shot at that moment, and I'm not really sure why we did.  The dink & dunk was still working ok.  You're in FG range so you need to keep dinking or you need to put a ladder ball up in the back corner for Kenny where it absolutely cannot be INT'd.

[Throw Long Bannatyne]

Legendary CFL pass rusher Charleston Hughes officially announces retirement from pro football

The 40-year-old made the announcement via a statement to his Twitter account on Friday, tagging all three of his former CFL clubs. He last saw action with the Saskatchewan Roughriders in 2022 but did not sign with a team last season after becoming a free agent in February 2023.


https://3downnation.com/2023/12/29/legendary-cfl-pass-rusher-charleston-hughes-officially-announces-retirement-from-pro-football/