coaching

[Pete]

Stats don't tell the entire story.  A few us have pointed that out.  You post as your narrative is the only valid one.  I believe we made reasonable decisions with our roster with a few holes to fill or shore up in order.
OL (always key)
DE (I want more pressure)
Corner (Bridges might work out)
Receiver (new guy might be ok?)

I see us figuring it our with the faces we have and if we do poorly we can pick some new guys up from NFL cuts, have a face or two return and call back cuts from camp if needed.  I believe we did a good job balancing our SMS. 

Mitchell was a mistake, I would cut him.

J Jones was worth it considering we didn't know Wilson would come back so strong or get injuried.  Amazing depth if we get injuries and we will.  He will earn his cake imo.  Some were playing the Wilson is too slow, old and injury prone tune.  Weird how they tuned out lol.  Our depth at LB will set us up for a very long time.  Pillar of our D imo.

Season is young you post like it's 3/4 done.  Let it simmer, patience has paid off for over half a decade and it will again.  We are a middle of the road team who will peak late if healthy.  Works for me. 

Thomas and Lawson are a good combo platter.

the problem is we knew all those holes before the season started and we didnt address them aequately through coaching or gm moves. I'm hoping we turn it around against the argos as well

[Blueforlife]

the problem is we knew all those holes before the season started and we didnt address them aequately through coaching or gm moves. I'm hoping we turn it around against the argos as well

OL and receivers hurt, will sort itself
DL who knows
Corner patience will pay off and if it doesn't we buy our way out of it
Be a great tilt no doubt!

[Blue In BC]

Stats don't tell the entire story.  A few us have pointed that out.  You post as your narrative is the only valid one.  I believe we made reasonable decisions with our roster with a few holes to fill or shore up in order.
OL (always key)
DE (I want more pressure)
Corner (Bridges might work out)
Receiver (new guy might be ok?)

I see us figuring it our with the faces we have and if we do poorly we can pick some new guys up from NFL cuts, have a face or two return and call back cuts from camp if needed.  I believe we did a good job balancing our SMS. 

Mitchell was a mistake, I would cut him.

J Jones was worth it considering we didn't know Wilson would come back so strong or get injuried.  Amazing depth if we get injuries and we will.  He will earn his cake imo.  Some were playing the Wilson is too slow, old and injury prone tune.  Weird how they tuned out lol.  Our depth at LB will set us up for a very long time.  Pillar of our D imo.

Season is young you post like it's 3/4 done.  Let it simmer, patience has paid off for over half a decade and it will again.  We are a middle of the road team who will peak late if healthy.  Works for me. 

Thomas and Lawson are a good combo platter.

Of course stats don't tell the entire story. Performance leads to stats. Not being able to shed a block and getting washed out is pretty conclusive and why there are no stats.

I haven't said the season is done. I've said that management didn't address a known problem and we're paying the price. Look back to posts at the beginning of the year. The weaknesses were well know. We re-signed Thomas in mid January before free agency.

Even in 2024 when we were starting 10 Canadians we choose to NOT use two import DT's. As you pointed out, this topic string is about coaching / management and it's been pointed out what they could have / should have been doing.

There are other issues on the OL and receiver but the expectation was that Schoen would regain form. There were some players that looked promising in pre season and none survived the final cuts.

If we had spend Mitchell's $165K on a starting Canadian we could have planned to start 2 import DT's that I mentioned.

However it was clear very early that we were maintaining a status quo for the most part. Consider the DL that the Stamps brought in during free agency, also the Riders and the Elks.

[Blue In BC]

the problem is we knew all those holes before the season started and we didnt address them aequately through coaching or gm moves. I'm hoping we turn it around against the argos as well

Noting that we could have gone after D. Webb who signed in Calgary day 1 of free agency. There were other top players both Canadian and Imports available. That's the disappointment.

I think Bridges probably comes around. I have less faith in Sterns and Case though.

When have we ever picked up NFL cuts and played them that season unless we had injuries forcing it. That's only an excuse for not doing better before TC.

[dd]

We either start mitchel or cut him, having him sit out and pay him big $$ is ridiculous.

[TecnoGenius]

We either start mitchel or cut him, having him sit out and pay him big $$ is ridiculous.

I'm starting to wonder, if he's such a bad headcase that by making him sit and then having him "earn" the start, that might help him snap out of his funk.  This could be nothing but psychology.

If we just put him on the field having earned nothing and looking like crap then he'll be a guaranteed C.Matthews 2.0.

That's my last straw to grasp at, and I'm sticking to it!

[TecnoGenius]

Our DL is not even middle of the road. We're probably 7th at the moment. Middle of the road would be a steep improvement. We'll see how they fare against the bottom feeding Argos. If the Argos control the LOS, then heads should roll.

Our DL may be very opponent-specific.  They did exceptionally well against the "running" QBs, like Rourke & Ford.  They kept Ford to basically 0 yards running.  That is incredible.

Our DL seems to stink against good pocket passers with strong arms, and against good OLs.  I'd say they are probably 8th or 9th worst in that regard.  SSK is gonna cream us in a few weeks if we don't find some solutions.

[TecnoGenius]

Delusional even when you're seeing it with your own eyes. The scouting, drafting or free agency could have resolved this. Limited pressure is another way of saying we aren't playing well. If he's filling gaps he'd be making tackles on the RB.

It's not "is Fatboi good", it's "is Fatboi good within the confines of the ratio and the SMS".  Clearly he 100% is the latter, or he wouldn't be here still.

If you want to blame someone for overall DL funk, blame KW (and MOS).  KW has never prioritized DL unit in terms of total pay.  I bet we have the cheapest DL unit in the league by miles.

This is a conscious choice by KW & Mafia.  If you want to scream, scream at them.

[TecnoGenius]

I'd gladly defend Jake Thomas on his play every game, I think he completes his assignments 90% of plays, he drives O-linemen back into the pocket as consistently as any other DT on the team. If this was no longer the case I believe the coaching staff would not hesitate to replace him in the lineup as they have a number of available options.

I think this is a great post.  So many people don't watch the games carefully (especially more than once).  So many miss what's actually happening on the lines.  So of course they'd undervalue Fatboi, because Fatboi has zero splash and doesn't stand out.

The DL is just like the OL: they have to play as a complete unit.  Only when they gel and all are on the same page do good things happen.  And they know this, as that's why when interviewed they always talk about the pressure and never the individual stat.

Out DL as a unit is pretty bad right now when facing good OLs.  Maybe the coaching is letting them down.  Maybe the talent just isn't there.  But until we can get consistent pressure we'll continue to get eaten alive by good teams.

[TecnoGenius]

What facts can you actually bring to the discussion, other then random observations made from the 27th row?

Hey, don't bash the high-numbered rows!     

[TecnoGenius]

Need more beef in the middle, IMO. The current group isn't cutting it.

Holy Moses, look at the beef on the sidelines in the MTL and CGY game for their DLs.  Wow.  Their upper arms are thicker than Fatboi's waist.  Some of these guys are over 300 lbs, and it's all muscle.

We haven't had that since Nevis & Stove.

[TecnoGenius]

Jake Thomas - 5 games played. 2 DTs.

He's easy to pick on (and people shouldn't) -- I think we owed it to him to keep with him until he can't. But it's also fair to say we might have reached 'can't.' 2024 was a major regression from 2023 and it appears it's continued. I don't blame the Bombers for wanting to keep as many pieces of that core. But at some point...

As someone else said, '24 was Fatboi's first "every snap" year.  And that was basically because of Lawson season-ender.  I think he carried his own weight considering everyone had written him off as "could never play every snap".

And Fatboi and Lawson are basically clones of each other, in size, appearance (with helmet) and play style.  If I edited out the numbers, and the FM-holding thing Fatboi does pre-snap, and then told you to say "Fatboi" or "Lawson", I guarantee everyone here would guess not much better than random chance.

If you want to criticize Fatboi, do Lawson too.  He's just a much a part of the stinky unit as Fatboi.

[TecnoGenius]

Tell you what, find me actual examples of Thomas having an impact and get back to me or tell me which CFL picks him up if we cut him.

Oh, someone will hire him.  Biggie is proof of that.  Fatboi may have even more of the "book" than Biggie!!

Now, will someone dress him or start him?  Probably dress.  He'd make a good NAT backup/speller anywhere.

[TecnoGenius]

IMO you're grossly underestimating how badly we got beat by Calgary, twice.

I'm not!  And now we have a great "comp" in the MTL@CGY game last night.  MTL "stayed with" CGY much better.  CGY got heaps more pressure on VAJ and had him throwing off his mark half the night (something that didn't happen at all in our game).

The result doesn't mean anything as that CGY backup QB is worse than Brian Brohm.

VAJ was still gonna win if he hadn't gotten pasted, even without megastar Alford.  But MTL kept it closer!

Therefore it's pretty easy to say we are worse than CGY and MTL right now.  That's right, worse than MTL with MBT in at QB!  This is a sad state of affairs.

[TecnoGenius]

Where were they filling gaps vs Calgary. Mills and their backup RB ran up the gut and gashed us for huge yards.

Be honest.  Most of CGY's big runs were outside.  In fact, most teams have figured this out.  Get their big RBs pounding outside and our tiny little DBs can't do anything about it.

We still did good against the gut run.  We always do.  We tend to stop them all for 3-6Y.  Yes, it's not great, but that's what we seem to aim for in our "bend don't break".