Our Free Agent's Signings Are in Limbo Until Brady & Dalton Make Their Moves

[ichabod_crane]

Reading this, it reminded me of another Blue Bomber that exceeded expectations and carved out a record setting career... is Fatboi our new Wade Miller?  He certainly works his special teams responsibilities.  I constantly marvel at the way he gets downfield, even on made FG's... there is no doubting his heart and commitment. 

I think the Bombers are sold on Fox to replace Walker. If not, Christmas from the Riders is still out there.

I wonder if any relation to Ernie Christmas who was with the Bombers back in the late 80's and/or early 90's?

[TecnoGenius]

Yes, about $1.5M more on O. And, we all know defense wins championships.

It didn't in '22 / '23 GCs.  In both cases it was 3-down-territory O's doing impossible things to win the game.  Ya, in both cases the opponent D's did shut down our last drives... but in both cases those Ds were helped by our soggy O playing ultra-conservative.  MTL's D was mixed at best against us for 3Qs.

Our D certainly won the '19 GC, that's for sure.  '21 was another mixed game that could have gone either way.  It was Nichols' fingertip that did keep us from losing, and then the miracle INT in OT.  So I guess you can call that D (though the OT O was unstoppable.)

Maybe the old adage applies a) more to the NFL, and/or b) when the weather really sucks (i.e. lots of snow)??

[dd]

Our D didn't win us a championship last year and strangely we didn't upgrade it at all, in fact it got weaker with the retirement of Jeffcoat. Think the same thing will happen this Year?? I do.

[TecnoGenius]

Our D didn't win us a championship last year and strangely we didn't upgrade it at all, in fact it got weaker with the retirement of Jeffcoat. Think the same thing will happen this Year?? I do.

If 66% of your SMS is in your O, then you put the game on your O.  You play your O to win, not conservative "prevent O" nonsense.  Our D has been getting steadily weaker every year since '21.  Looks to continue.  We're shifting our signing focus.  The Mafia used to be so D focused and our O was all relative nobodies (5-6 years ago) except for AH.

We lost 2 GCs due to prevent O, putting the game on our D, which clearly can't get it done.  That said, The Mafia isn't stupid: I doubt they make that mistake 3 times in a row.  Surely not...

(That said, our D did get us to the GC with a thorough disintegration of the BC O.  I put that clobbering 100% on Hall's genius.  But Calvillo was too smart and judo'd Hall for the cup.  And Thorpe stopping us just enough to give them the chance.)

[TecnoGenius]

I compiled a list for the Bombers based on this. It is not going to be exact, but gives a rough sense of what Walters is working against:

1. Zach 600,000
2. Streveler 120,000+ (he has performance bonuses, but if he gets them, it likely means Zach is injured/on 6 game)
3. Rookie 3rd QB 70,000
...

Thanks for this!  This is awesome work, great stuff to see on this forum.  I still haven't had time to pore through it, but having this list handy allows us fans to speak more intelligently regarding budgets and limits and options.

I'm keeping this list around in a file, to update as needed.  Would be worth a repost from time to time.

[Lincoln Locomotive]

Can't replace a Jeffcoat easily and Adam Bighills ship has already sailed and left port.....losing Houston was also a blow and Rose is declining as well as Nicols.....Alexander never was what he was before his serious injury.   We also lost Walker who was decent....so unless we do some incredible scouting for replacements.....not an easy task.   Our O will have to be lights out and really we didn't dominate that much on O last season other than snowing the Riders at the Banjos Bowl,ll

[Lincoln Locomotive]

Losing O'leary-Orange hurts our Canadian depth.....we will lose more...,so this is the flip side of signing both BO and DS to 230K contracts.....the cupboard is bare.....who's next

[Waffler]

O'leary-Orange is not that big a loss to me. We already have Murphy here and 10 draft picks to fill out our pipeline of Canadians. WAY more worried about the D. BC seems to be stronger on Offense to me and that's the team we have to shut down if we want first. We BARELY did it last year in the regular season.

[Pigskin]

O'leary-Orange is not that big a loss to me. We already have Murphy here and 10 draft picks to fill out our pipeline of Canadians. WAY more worried about the D. BC seems to be stronger on Offense to me and that's the team we have to shut down if we want first. We BARELY did it last year in the regular season.

I don't think we are finishing first this season. Our OL? Our D needs some key pieces. A guy like Bennett is going have to play a lot better then last season. I am hoping Ford, can come in and win a starting spot out of TC, and be lights out good. Bombers scouting will have to find some gems.

[Jesse]

I don't we are finishing first this season. Our OL? Our D needs some key pieces. A guy like Bennett is going have to play a lot better then last season. I am hoping Ford, can come in and win a starting spot out of TC, and be lights out good. Bombers scouting will have to find some gems.

lol. Who is suddenly going to finish ahead of us?

Our team is 95% set. We didn't even lose as much as BC/TO/MTL.

Ya'll are taking some crazy pills.

[Throw Long Bannatyne]

I don't think we are finishing first this season. Our OL? Our D needs some key pieces. A guy like Bennett is going have to play a lot better then last season. I am hoping Ford, can come in and win a starting spot out of TC, and be lights out good. Bombers scouting will have to find some gems.

Like his brother Ford doesn't have a lot of playing experience, so I can't see how he is going to be that much better than DB's already on the team with a whole lot more playing experience. Being athletically gifted doesn't make up for lack of game knowledge and experience.

[GOLDMEMBER]

I am with Jesse some of you are super short sighted fans! Has our scouting department suddenly gone dormant? Is the bulk of our roster already set? lol

Take a step away from the cliff yall.

Danny Mac and Teddy will find great replace cheaper talent. They have proven that year in year out for many years now.

Also as Jesse as stated our clubs have been more scalped than us.

D will be perhaps better than last year.

We have really great coaching as well.

[TecnoGenius]

Ya, I'm not worried.  "First" is also a mindset.  If we expect to be there, we'll probably be there.

In the West I'd be more worried about the "bad" teams making improvements than BC being the same or better.  SSK is a wildcard: could suddenly be good.  EDM, who knows.  CGY could get their mojo back.

I won't worry about the E until we win the W division.  Then we'll worry about whether MTL is still killer with all their superstar ELCs.

I, for one, fully expect to be #1 in the W again.

[Pete]

My concern is the imbalance of our defense to the offence, we are spending well over a million $ more on offence than defense, by far the biggest discrepancy in the league.
We are going to have to win games by controlling the play.
 May be even tougher in the playoffs

[Throw Long Bannatyne]

I am with Jesse some of you are super short sighted fans! Has our scouting department suddenly gone dormant? Is the bulk of our roster already set? lol

Take a step away from the cliff yall.

Danny Mac and Teddy will find great replace cheaper talent. They have proven that year in year out for many years now.

Also as Jesse as stated our clubs have been more scalped than us.

D will be perhaps better than last year.

We have really great coaching as well.

I'm pretty worried, last season I believe they had 2-1/2 new starters, Kramdi, Holm and part-time Jackson, the first two were in their second year and Jackson was an anomaly, so I'm counting him as a 1/2.  We've already seen 6-7 starters leave with the potential for 2 more if Grant and Castillo can't be re-signed, that's a huge gap to fill and CFL newcomers are going to inevitably fall short of matching their contributions.  With no money left to spend, they could be stuck with major downgrades in a few positions all season long. 

Hardrick
Gray
Jeffcoat
Walker
Bailey
Houston/Rose

In addition they've lost 9 backup/role players of which 2 retired, not all were essential but there are at least 3 on this list that could have been retained at a very modest price, Clements, Exume and Hansen.

Clements
Briggs
McCrae
Miller
BOLO
Prukop
Brown
Exume
Hansen