Official Game Day Thread - Winnipeg at Calgary, August 9, 2025

[Blueforlife]

Obviously when we hired MOS, we were a developing team and the plan was to be patient. Very much not the case right now.

Disagree that we can't be patient now.  It's what makes organizations great over the long term.  Stay the course, don't over react.  Develop players and coaches for the medium and long term.  Draft well, slowly develop talent, don't mortgage your future for the present.  It's how I would run a club.  I don't want one more good year, I want another good decade. 

[Blue In BC]

Disagree that we can't be patient now.  It's what makes organizations great over the long term.  Stay the course, don't over react.  Develop players and coaches for the medium and long term.  Draft well, slowly develop talent, don't mortgage your future for the present.  It's how I would run a club.  I don't want one more good year, I want another good decade. 

If that was true a team couldn't reload over the course of a season like Hamilton and Calgary. Staying the course doesn't always work.

It's not an over reaction to see we have stayed the course and digressed with our recruitment of imports and both nationalities in free agency. Cutting veterans is difficult but every year it happens.

Nobody wants to mortgage the future for the present ( well maybe there are some ). A few want to spend and extra $1M this year although they haven't come up with where we'd spend it on new players.

Suggesting you want another decade is unrealistic. Players leave, coaches leave, injuries happen. There is no guaranteed way to even know what 2026 will look like on any roster. 1 year contracts don't help.

[Blueforlife]

If that was true a team couldn't reload over the course of a season like Hamilton and Calgary. Staying the course doesn't always work.

It's not an over reaction to see we have stayed the course and digressed with our recruitment of imports and both nationalities in free agency. Cutting veterans is difficult but every year it happens.

Nobody wants to mortgage the future for the present ( well maybe there are some ). A few want to spend and extra $1M this year although they haven't come up with where we'd spend it on new players.

Suggesting you want another decade is unrealistic. Players leave, coaches leave, injuries happen. There is no guaranteed way to even know what 2026 will look like on any roster. 1 year contracts don't help.

I believe the Bomber organization has an opportunity to continue our great run.  Hard to continue at the pace we are at but I see a club that has built something special.  Kind of like what Calgary did when  they didn't miss the playoffs for so long.  This is what I want.

I was mostly talking about staying the course on Hogan.  Yes spend a little cash to shore up our backend D.  Maybe find a receiver if Schoen is out.

Some wanted us to make a splash in FA, over spend on SMS and run for the cup.  I am less cup focused (this year) and wanting to ensure we do things that ensure a legacy for years to come.  It's what got us here.  Yes there are those that wanted to mortgage our future to win a GC at home.

Another decade of good to great clubs is hard, but not impossible with the right leadership and long term vision.

My biggest goal would he rebuild the OL and secure a future QB or two.  Keep building our Cdn talent. 

Before our mini dynasty things sucked in Bomberville for a long time.  I really want to avoid that.

Of course we will require a lot of changes, never claimed we wouldn't.

[Blue In BC]

I believe the Bomber organization has an opportunity to continue our great run.  Hard to continue at the pace we are at but I see a club that has built something special.  Kind of like what Calgary did when  they didn't miss the playoffs for so long.  This is what I want.

I was mostly talking about staying the course on Hogan.  Yes spend a little cash to shore up our backend D.  Maybe find a receiver if Schoen is out.

Some wanted us to make a splash in FA, over spend on SMS and run for the cup.  I am less cup focused (this year) and wanting to ensure we do things that ensure a legacy for years to come.  It's what got us here.

Another decade of good to great clubs is hard, but not impossible with the right leadership and long term vision.

My biggest goal would he rebuild the OL and secure a future QB or two.  Keep building our Cdn talent. 

Before our mini dynasty things sucked in Bomberville for a long time.  I really want to avoid that.

Bomber management is still top tier compared to the rest or most of the CFL. Even Calgary tanked in the past couple of years so nobody is perfect.

I don't disagree with wanting that to happen but OTOH a lot of mistakes have been made, mostly on roster choices in the past couple of seasons. Hindsight is always 100% but keeping D. Brown and trading Collaros might have been a better idea.

That said Collaros took the team to the Grey Cup both of those season. He might yet do that in 2025. D. Brown has not done that yet, but it's a team sport.

Bombers made some splash in free agency but then the questions were why J.Jones and D.Mitchell weren't playing earlier.

The jury is still out. I would have been trying to sign a starting quality Canadian in free agency since we knew we were losing 2.

[dd]

Our FA signings this past off season were a bust. D Mitchell signing was a wasted, under-fill signing. Should have aimed higher in the reciever market and went after a big name to put up big yards. Schoen getting hurt didn't help matters, but it really underscored how shallow our recieving corps is. Demski produces game in and game out. Same with Oliveria. Sterns chips in with the odd play, but everyone else is disposable, move and get some impact players. I don't want a Clercius, I want a Philipot!! I don't want a Wheatfall, I want a Lewis!!!

You need 3 top recievers to compete. We have 1. Hamilton on the other hand had White, then went out and found Smith and took Lawler off our hands. They have a top knotch recieving corps. Saskatchewan has a decent recieving corps and isn't breaking the bank by any means.

At the end of the day, your impact players have to impact the game, and ours aren't. (with the exception of ND and BO)

[Blueforlife]

Mitchell might still pan out and J. Jones will be an excellent insurance policy if we get hurt.

Keeping Brown wasn't an option at the time realistically.  Hard to see him go but timing wasn't ideal with the other names we signed.  It brought us great success.  Easy to question it when Zach and the team are off to an average start.

Asking for a Lewis and Philpot are lofty goals. I would settle on a consistent performer.  That said those are some awesome players and one can dream.  Yes we need someone to step up receiver.  Might still happen. It has before.

[dd]

You missed my point. I m not dreaming. EVERY team has at LEAST one if not 2 and sometimes 3 guys who are go to deep play maker threats, its a pre-requisite to creating an offense. No deep threat, means teams flood the box/short zone as they know you can't throw deep and hurt them.

We have adapted and have Brady now running 40 yard go routes out of the backfield. How smart is that long term?? Let's tire out your go to  work horse for the running game because nobody can get open on deep routes. Every team has someone who can hurt you. Demski can make a big play, but other than that we have Brady and Sterns who will chip in the odd 30-40 yard play, no game breaker 78 yard pass and run plays in our playbook. Wheatie ain't gonna hurt anyone., and everyone and their brother knows that. Sterns is strictly support role. Corcoran shouldn't see the field, he's too green. Clercius, is a check down Woly type reciever. You're not going to scare any defense with 7 yard quick slants with no YAC's. We need a play maker. D Mitchell is more a Bailey type reciever than a Lawler, we need a Hatcher, Hollins (who WAS available), Meyers, Emilus, Coxie type reciever. And until then, we'll be on the short end of the stick offensively as defenses don't have nothing to fear deep.

[TecnoGenius]

Nobody wants to mortgage the future for the present ( well maybe there are some ). A few want to spend and extra $1M this year although they haven't come up with where we'd spend it on new players.

You talk as though the time to spend the "extra $1M" is now.  The time to spend bigly was in FA.  We should have spent to the cap, plus the extra $400k (like HAM did), plus up to the "lose 2RDP" penalty zone ($200k?) of SMS overage.

Imagine what we could have had on our roster spending an extra $600k?!  Kenny, for one.  Snipe some top OL.  Some top DT.  And 1 or 2 top DBs.  The world was our oyster if you look at the FA25 page.

All it would have cost us is a 2RDP (which we get back by not playing DNA/DNS) and some non-SMS fine money (we're so loaded who cares).

[TecnoGenius]

Front Office $SMS hamstrings you from "hiring the best".  It's more "hiring the best that fits into your cap".

Yes, that is entirely why we have "n00b" OC and DC.

MOS + KW are taking the bulk of the kitty, and need bumps every year.  There's nothing left for "real" OC/DC, so we pay them nominal amounts while they prove their mettle.  Then when they prove good (like Buck) we are forced to move on because after MOS+KW there is no chunk leftover and proven guys need to be paid.

The Hall/Jarious stuff... I won't even go there.  Let's just say it's probably smart & coy kind of like CGY used to be famous for.  And I'm fine with it.  We'd be doubly bad without Hall/Jarious in house right now.

The only other option is we must ditch one of MOS or KW and then get a n00b or washed up HC or GM we can underpay.  Don't see that happening.

What needs to happen is CFL needs to massively up the coaches cap.  It's clearly waaaay too limited so that all these shenanigans need to be played.

[TecnoGenius]

I get there is a lot of self reflection going on, and rightfully so, but it's so CFL that we've played 8 games against 4 teams. Calgary X3, Toronto X2, BC X2 and Edmonton X1

Yes, our schedule has been pretty bad so far.  Many teams are hitting wounded teams without their star QB at just the right time.  We seem to be hitting teams when everyone is healthy (sans TOR).

For example, anyone getting MTL without Alexander/Ento/Dequoy is getting a gift.  OTT without Dru.  SSK without Harris.  BC with Masoli (lucky we got one of those).

SSK has had a much easier run with weaker and wounded teams.  When they played CGY they got creamed.

That said, right now we kind of need to face weaker/wounded teams because we're not beating anyone legit at the moment.  We need to vastly improve before our 3 games vs SSK come up!

[TecnoGenius]

You cherry pick '24 to criticize Brandon Alexander. He was washed up and only around because MOS never gets rid of his vets.  In his prime Alexander was a feared big hitter patrolling the middle and he lived on the edge - exactly the kind of safety we need now.

Ya, BA was boss '22 and earlier.  But for a few seasons now we're pretty much used to our FS not being in any deep picture.  Sure, they come up for run stop, but not much else.

[J5V]

This is the year the WFC is hosting the Grey Cup, and they chose to promote from within instead of finding the best candidate.

I'm not interested in hearing excuses; all teams deal with injuries. I'm also not interested in watching what appears to be an incompetent rookie OC try to figure out if he can hack it or not.

Hogan ain't it.

If I recall correctly Hogan said at the start of the year that the job would be done by committee -- meaning players and coaches alike. I assume what we're seeing is the result. I suspect in the second half of the season we may see Hogan take the reigns and actually do the job and leave the players to play. He should know by now what everyone's thoughts are and needs to decide on the correct course of action.

[TecnoGenius]

Is there any way to see the entire field view of CFL games?

Ya, work for the CFL or steal one of the sideline tablets     

It's a good point, though.  It would sure be nice to be able to stream or download just the all-24 camera for each game.  That would answer so many questions like "is Zach/Hogan dumb or is everyone blanketed?".

[TecnoGenius]

Can castillo play reciever?

Yes, but he can only catch 63-yarders.

[TecnoGenius]

I'd like to see that.

It's even worse if I show the frames before when the DB is 1' away from Brady, then arm goes out, total push off, total extension.  The extension is even worse the next 3 frames.

OPI all day every day.  But rarely called.  I don't think anyone thought Brady was a 30Y target and/or capable of catching it.