Griffin injury?

[Blue In BC]

Moving Nichols is an absolute no brainer at this point. Not sure he's capable of playing safety but I'd stick Jake Kelly at half and if he gets beat every three plays we're no worse than with Nichols but we've got a Canadian there which may take some heat away from our offense. And I say that thinking Kelly would probably be better at this point anyway. It would be hard to be worse.

We must have had 12 rookie DB's in TC. Maybe more through mini camps and pre season. We have 2 import DB's on the PR.

None of these players were good enough to win either a PR spot, or win a starting role?

Maybe Kelly switching with Nichols is an option but that doesn't say much about our PR depth. I'm not expecting that as a possible change but who knows.

Smith to SAM might be closer to what we might see but I doubt that as well. Either way, it does nothing to resolve a change at safety or DHB.

Texada was at CB during pre-season but he'd be the current most likely to be inserted at DHB IMO. Jackson seems more suited to CB or SAM but has been around less time.

[Sir Blue and Gold]

We must have had 12 rookie DB's in TC. Maybe more through mini camps and pre season. We have 2 import DB's on the PR.

None of these players were good enough to win either a PR spot, or win a starting role?

Maybe Kelly switching with Nichols is an option but that doesn't say much about our PR depth. I'm not expecting that as a possible change but who knows.

Smith to SAM might be closer to what we might see but I doubt that as well. Either way, it does nothing to resolve a change at safety or DHB.

Texada was at CB during pre-season but he'd be the current most likely to be inserted at DHB IMO. Jackson seems more suited to CB or SAM but has been around less time.

I think we, once again, did a poor job evaluating new talent and comparing it to the starters we currently have.

Absolutely we could have went younger and cheaper and likely better at Nichols half spot than what he's delivered.

This is where O'Shea needs to put on his big boy face, cut a guy he really likes and bring back someone who is younger, cheaper and has upside.

I'm okay that the mistake was made, I'm less sympathetic to continuing to make the same mistake over and over.

[Blue In BC]

Unfortunately we've seen a pattern of decisions made before TC to stick with veterans and a lack of any real competition. This has been true for several seasons.

It's a combination of that philosophy, recruitment and drafting.

IMO it started with not being able to upgrade our Canadian starters. Aside from import veterans added in free agency we didn't do a great job upgrading our imports overall. Elsbury was here in 2025. Williams is the best newbie. Fletcher and Reese might have a future. Roster decisions and ratio decisions have been arguments all of last year questioning choices.

I have no problem that they brought back Jaworski but weren't any of the rookies from 2026 worth a 2nd look? We don't know which if any of that group declined a PR spot. OTOH, I wouldn't say either Fletcher or Reese have a lock on a roster spot. Clearly Jenkins has been bumped off the PR.

Hmmm. During pre-season Stuart was getting a lot of reps in the secondary and they were high on him when drafted. It's catch 22 since we don't see how well or how badly players look in practice. Is he just another ST player in the future or does he work into a more significant role as injuries take their toll?

I'm not recommending this change per se but exploring every option of who we have on our PR.

[Jesse]

I told you why and won't accept what the team decided before TC. Kramdi to safety and Griffin to SAM. No effort to find a new import safety regardless of how they shuffle rest of the deck. Even in TC and pre-season, Kramdi was getting most reps starting DAY ONE.

It does seem you  want to keep bringing it up so it's more than me just disagreeing.

Again. Kramdi DAY ONE in TC at safety. Pre-season game one, Kramdi at safety. In both games Griffin and then Woodbey at SAM. That direction seems pretty clear.

Yeah, but you're doing that thing where you think the depth chart means anything. They would probably list Kramdi at safety, and Allen as back-up DB, but they both play the same positions that they did last year. But Allen got hurt.

Kramdi never played safety. He stayed back with another player and inevitably moved up closer to the line the vast majority of the time while other players stayed deep as the "safety".

[Tecno]

Kramdi never played safety. He stayed back with another player and inevitably moved up closer to the line the vast majority of the time while other players stayed deep as the "safety".

I'm not convinced of that. On passing downs I thought kramdi and Kelly were acting as 2 safeties, mostly in zone, as the deep zone back stops.

Yes, if he sniffed run or short pass kramdi would cheat up closer. But the primary task is to make younger's infamous blanket zone.

After all, that set was only ever in for passing downs.

[Blue In BC]

Yeah, but you're doing that thing where you think the depth chart means anything. They would probably list Kramdi at safety, and Allen as back-up DB, but they both play the same positions that they did last year. But Allen got hurt.

Kramdi never played safety. He stayed back with another player and inevitably moved up closer to the line the vast majority of the time while other players stayed deep as the "safety".

Not at all. I mentioned that 1st day training camp reports had Kramdi taking 1st team reps at safety. It was mentioned by O'Shea that they were considering that before TC.

It was obvious that was partially needed to get Griffin a more substantial role instead of being just a rotational player.

Allen only played 10 games IIRC. He got on the roster after a series of other injuries allowed that to happen. Going into 2026, the ratio didn't support an import at safety and still get Woodbey and Griffin on the roster at the same time. Quite often we also didn't have a DL as a DI while trying to keep both of those LB's on the roster.  A 5 import secondary was not on the radar.


All of that has squat to do with depth charts. It's a choice of which imports the team wanted on the roster based on limit of imports caused by the ratio.

[Throw Long Bannatyne]

I'm not convinced of that. On passing downs I thought kramdi and Kelly were acting as 2 safeties, mostly in zone, as the deep zone back stops.

Yes, if he sniffed run or short pass kramdi would cheat up closer. But the primary task is to make younger's infamous blanket zone.

After all, that set was only ever in for passing downs.

You rarely see Kramdi covering deep patterns, mainly because he's not fast enough to keep up with the majority of receivers.  When they use 2 Safeties they are not lined up in parallel, Kramdi is down low guarding against draws, dumps and underside routes while Kelly covers the deeper routes along with Nichols or Holm. That ends up looking like a 3-4-5 arrangement, which gives them the option of blitzing a LB if they want to introduce deception.

[Blueforlife]

Oh no. Not an injury one of our four hundred American hybrid linebackers.

...Just when our run defense and pass defense and situational defense were, err, almost, sort of  maybe if you squint, coming together.

Griffin being out will cost us nothing. Don't worry, our Blitzes will still be ineffective and look like the most amateur thing you can think of. The run defense will be just as bad and the defensive backs will be a yard behind the receiver and a yard and half if it's under three minutes in either half.

What a blow for JY. He's going to have to erase 25 plays he concocted just for Griffin that look the same as every other play call but sound different to prove how great he is at calling plays.

No we will miss him.  He was playing well.  Yes we are deep here.

He missed 5 games in 2025 and 3 games in 2024.

Nice to have the facts,thanks.