If all our remaining FAs hit the market and we sign them all to 5-10k each under what they would get on the open market we will be far over the SMS. We can't let our big fish get to FA, if we do they will command dollars that we cannot keep up with because of the depth of our talent. Ottawa can sign a Biggie to a stupid number, we can't. Ottawa can sign Lawler to a redonkulous contract without losing anything they already have. We can't. The fact of the matter is that CFL rosters predicate on some guys being on the high end and some guys being on the low end of the salary scale. When half your team is all stars it becomes a very tough situation to navigate unless some guys are willing to take big discounts and those guys are few and far between. We will lose some good players. It is inevitable. I am sure that KW already has a pretty good idea who those guys will be.
My point being, if the culture lets you shave a bit here and there, you scrape that all together and you can sign Biggie, Lawler or Collaros to a larger contract than you'd like, and stop an Ottawa from poaching them.
Its all going to come down to timing, and the one week pre FA negotiation window is going to set up a lot of scenarios that will play out quickly... I'm betting there will be a number of "We have enough to sign you at this rate, or 3 other players at rates we have offered, and have 6 offers out there. The first 3 that accept will get the deal, after that, our offer will be reduced.
The negotiation window should do away with the 5 minutes into FA and we resign a guy who just wanted to see if he'd get an offer...
I guess we will either have most of the team locked up and it be quiet like last year, or we see a frenzy with the new GM's trying to make their mark raiding our roster