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

[Waffler]

SSK is a wildcard: could suddenly be good.  EDM, who knows.  CGY could get their mojo back.

SSK I fully expect to come out hot as often happens with a new regime and then fall back to middle of the pack as the season goes. EDM... it's a clown show and will continue to be fifth.  CGY could be third, depends if they get good enough quarterbacking but they are not finding the new talent like they used to in the dominant years.

BC I expect to not miss a beat on Offense and is the only team that can match us there, possibly exceed. They are coached well and can almost match us in stability. They were one dumb play, one almost miracle play from being in first last year. Rhymes not going down in time for Sean Whyte to seal it.
https://youtu.be/JHNw1ZxzNnU?t=636

Rhymes is gone but they have signed former Eagle Travis Fulgham (38 catches, 538 yards, 4 TDs in 2020). He might be better than Rhymes. The big reason I fear them is they have the motivation, Winnipeg has stood between them and the Grey Cup two years straight and I am thinking Campbell has one goal in mind, with every move he makes... build a team that can beat Winnipeg.

[Jesse]

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

I look at position groups. Our secondary is set. Houston/Rose are leaving, but Parker, Holm, Alexander, Nichols are still here. We have Ford and McGhee to battle for the last starting spot and there will be a crop of rookies to compete for depth spots. This is something we've done successfully in every single year lately.

LBers are exactly the same. Clements left because we prioritized Cole, who will be first off the bench. Kramdi will be the presumed starter so actually gets a full TC.

DL we again followed our same philosophy of letting out DT go to FA. Replacing Jeffcoat is a new challenge, but I'm also excited to see some legitimate competition in camp as opposed to knowing who the starters are from the outset. We have Haba in the building and should bring more bodies in this year (Last year, I don't even remember a new DE in camp).

I am super excited to see Dobson and Eli have their shot to start. Replacing Hardick will be the challenge, but at a certain point in Hardricks career, replacing him is going to yield better results. New guy will have Neufeld beside him and OL is another position group that we've had to reload almost every year as players get big pay  days elsewhere, we've always been able to keep it going.

WRs, RB, and QB are all the best groups in the CFL. And we've added Streveler.

I just do not see where some people think other team's leap frogged us.

[blue_gold_84]

SSK I fully expect to come out hot as often happens with a new regime...

It's not a new regime; it's a new coaching staff. It's still Reynolds and O'Day heading football operations, the same old guard who hasn't accomplished anything noteworthy outside of the 2019 season.

Another factor to consider: Trevor Harris will be 38 before the season starts.

I look at position groups. Our secondary is set. Houston/Rose are leaving, but Parker, Holm, Alexander, Nichols are still here. We have Ford and McGhee to battle for the last starting spot and there will be a crop of rookies to compete for depth spots. This is something we've done successfully in every single year lately.

LBers are exactly the same. Clements left because we prioritized Cole, who will be first off the bench. Kramdi will be the presumed starter so actually gets a full TC.

DL we again followed our same philosophy of letting out DT go to FA. Replacing Jeffcoat is a new challenge, but I'm also excited to see some legitimate competition in camp as opposed to knowing who the starters are from the outset. We have Haba in the building and should bring more bodies in this year (Last year, I don't even remember a new DE in camp).

I am super excited to see Dobson and Eli have their shot to start. Replacing Hardick will be the challenge, but at a certain point in Hardricks career, replacing him is going to yield better results. New guy will have Neufeld beside him and OL is another position group that we've had to reload almost every year as players get big pay  days elsewhere, we've always been able to keep it going.

WRs, RB, and QB are all the best groups in the CFL. And we've added Streveler.

I just do not see where some people think other team's leap frogged us.

Well said. The sky isn't falling in mid-February.

[theaardvark]

We lost Houston and Hardrick to teams making unreasonable offers.

We potentially lost Holm to the NFL, although I think he will be back sooner than later.

We lost Walker and Jeffcoat to retirement.

We lost a number of support players that deserved raises to teams that could afford that $SMS money.

Last year we lost Couture and Sayles to other teams and went to the cup.

2022 we lost Lawler, Harris (well, not really), Stove, Castillo, Mike Jones, Darvin Adams, Darby and went to the cup.

I'm not at all worried...

[J5V]

Winning a cup, it seems to me, isn't so much about personnel as it is about timing -- who gets hot at the right time. When we won in 2019 it was us. Then it was the Argos followed by the Larks. Teams that got hot at the right time and weathered injuries. Timing is everything. That's why I don't sweat the wind of change in the CFL. I look for who gets hot at the right time. I'll be much more invested in November than February.

[TecnoGenius]

Houston/Rose

McCrae

Assuming they haven't signed somewhere yet, I could see Rose back for an ELCish swansong.  We'll still need some scouting find to show up to fill out our corps, and we'll be weak on backups.

McCrae: I'm surprised no one snapped him up for depth yet?  He's a great fit here, can be PRed a lot, and adds a neat dimension if a starter goes down for a couple of weeks.  I like what he brings, and can do RB backup duty if BO/JA get injured.

I guess you can always wait to see what you have in TC, and then re-sign these types of guys if they are still on the couch.

[Pete]

i for one hope we don't sign veteran players like rose and Mccrae, we really need to find younger talent that has an up side, that we can sign for 2 years plus. What gave us a big advantage in previous years were players like Nichols, Schoen, Holm, Walker, Eli etc. that we had at a low level contract, unfortunately most of those terms have ended. We need to find the next group in order to afford the Lawlers, Demskis etc to remain strong.

[DM83]

rose didn't appear to wntbto play tackle football anymore and who was the other guy?