Off Season News - Blue Bombers

[Blue In BC]

I say we have to have Demski.  I often watched other teams' "3 keys to the game" videos on the other team websites in-season before we played them.  Almost every time the big key was "stop Demski".  It was literally the #1 concern on opposing D's minds.  They didn't care about Schoen, or Ellingson.  It was Demski.

After losing Lawler, I don't see how you start a WPG 2023 O without Demski in the slot.

I see no reason not to pay Demski $200k if he'll commit to a 2 or 3 year.  I could see other teams easily going $225 to poach him.  Over $250 will be hard to justify.  I don't think any WR/SB will get $300 this year.

I agree. $200K would be ok and $225K would be doable. Beyond that it may cost us somewhere else on the roster.  Demski might be worth more to any team but you have to draw a line somewhere across the roster and SMS.

[Pete]

If your gonna pay 200k would you rather have Demski, Lewis,Lawler, or even Gittens. I don't see us going higher than 180k based on his yardage. Also this year Schoen had a bigger impact.

[Blue In BC]

If your gonna pay 200k would you rather have Demski, Lewis,Lawler, or even Gittens. I don't see us going higher than 180k based on his yardage. Also this year Schoen had a bigger impact.

As long as you're asking I'd rather have Demski. Several reasons. He's Canadian and that's worth more over Lewis or Lawler.  Gittens is very good and he's a little younger and taller. That said he doesn't have the chemistry or home town benefit that Demski currently has with Collaros. Demski is also used in the run game while Gittens is not. Gittens played 5 more games than Demski and only had 17 more receptions, so I don't think the yardage point is entirely valid, especially if take into account the running yardage.

Gittens had 5 TD's in 5 more  games than Demski while Demski had 10 TD's.

SMS value is a supply / demand issue. I think it would be hard to argue that Demski is not our most valuable Canadian. Bombers have imports pulling down $225K and some Canadian OL that could be near or over $200K.

Some teams may go hard to sign Demski if he reaches free agency. I choose to draw the line a little higher but that is based on that expectation.

Every player that gets more takes away what we have for other players as many have suggested each free agency.

I would have preferred that Collaros was closer to $500K than $600K as an example. I'd prefer that Demski was closer to your number so we could also bump up Schoen and retain Bailey.

If we lose Demski I'd certainly go after Gittens but more probably as a replacement for Ellingson.

It's true Schoen had a bigger impact but if he doesn't get an NFL offer he's still under contract in Winnipeg for 2023. So that's a bit moot at the moment.

I don't know what opportunities we will have to add players in free agency ( besides our own ). It's fluid as we spend, the surplus goes down. Makes free agency interesting each year.

Every action has an opposite reaction so to speak.

[theaardvark]

There is no question that Demski is a must sign, at whatever price we need to spend.  There are places on the roster where you can economize, and we do have a lot of value players on the roster, and I have no doubt we will find more in training camp.

Demski knows, Walters knows, every GM in the league knows.  Its not going to be an easy signing, that's for sure. 

Signing before FA makes no sense, really.  He needs to get offers, and let Walters match.

This is where a continuity clause would make a big difference.  Being able to resign him before FA by offering some additional non SMS dollars, or some additional guaranteed $ could make a difference from waiting for FA and staying with his current team. 

[TecnoGenius]

If your gonna pay 200k would you rather have Demski, Lewis,Lawler, or even Gittens. I don't see us going higher than 180k based on his yardage. Also this year Schoen had a bigger impact.

Demski.  League-best NAT SB, and also swiss army knife to boot.  As our friend PJ would say: End Of

We are built around stacking the NATs on O.  We can't do 4 IMP WR.  And no one else will match Demski.

Gittens is still too green: give him another year or two.  He won't earn $200k this year.  Besides, he's a completely different style player: an inside bruiser (kinda like KSB), not an explosion TD-getter.  We have Bailey/Woli to be the bruisers, and even Schoen a bit.  We need the fast explosive guy in Demski.

Lawler/Lewis as #1/#2 receiver talent in the league (now that Burnham is gone) will command at least $250k.  But if we could have either for $200k, sure we take him as a replacement for Ellingson.  But that's after you've signed Demski.    And at that point you've busted your budget.

[TecnoGenius]

Signing before FA makes no sense, really.  He needs to get offers, and let Walters match.

But we all know KW "doesn't chase".  He'll put down the offer, almost certainly before FA, and it'll be "take it or leave it" for Demski.

The only way I can see it working out as you say is if KW withholds his offer, perhaps on the request of Demski, so Demski can field other offers, and then we can make ours competitive.

Keep in mind we used to pay buckets for AH33, and we're saving quite a bit "downgrading" to Brady.  That difference could easily go into Demski and be wholly justified.  At this stage Demski probably does deserve his payday.

I'll forever be curious as to why I get the feeling Demski has a bee in his bonnet.  He just didn't seem terribly happy the last 1.25 seasons.  Maybe losing the GC when he expected to win (and getting few touches) is causing consternation.  Who knows.  I hope I'm wrong and he'll be happy to sign for the decent offer I'm sure KW will make.

[Blue In BC]

But we all know KW "doesn't chase".  He'll put down the offer, almost certainly before FA, and it'll be "take it or leave it" for Demski.

The only way I can see it working out as you say is if KW withholds his offer, perhaps on the request of Demski, so Demski can field other offers, and then we can make ours competitive.

Keep in mind we used to pay buckets for AH33, and we're saving quite a bit "downgrading" to Brady.  That difference could easily go into Demski and be wholly justified.  At this stage Demski probably does deserve his payday.

I'll forever be curious as to why I get the feeling Demski has a bee in his bonnet.  He just didn't seem terribly happy the last 1.25 seasons.  Maybe losing the GC when he expected to win (and getting few touches) is causing consternation.  Who knows.  I hope I'm wrong and he'll be happy to sign for the decent offer I'm sure KW will make.

We saved SMS room switching to Olveria / Augustine from AH's deal. However several players got raises in 2022 that used up SMS. Collaros among others got raises. In theory we used all our 2022 SMS well and didn't have a big pot of cash at the end of the rainbow.

[DM83]

Demski is probably signed.
Ellingson, was a major disappointment, if he wants to play for a hundred. Grand , maybe Ok.
Bailey still came across as a third option, but what a great blocker.  He is maybe is a ?glue guy.?
The Bombers need a burner.

They need to protect Zac, and Hardrick didn?t look very good, nor did that turnstile at left guard.
Procup should. Sign elsewhere. He is pretty good, and excellent as a third down guy.

DBs, we seem to find many that are decent.  Alexander hopefully healed will help.  That guy at corner sucked last yr.  I think u know who I mean. Lol!

[dd]

Demski is absolute MUST sign. He's a very productive reciever, one that teams scheme around to stop, PLUS he's a NAT, and between him and BO/JA, we have highly productive NAT talent in impact positions. Absolute must sign. I'd also be moving on from Elingson....too old, too hurt last year, new FA season, let's try and get younger and healthier this time around.

[TecnoGenius]

They need to protect Zac, and Hardrick didn?t look very good, nor did that turnstile at left guard.
Procup should. Sign elsewhere. He is pretty good, and excellent as a third down guy.

Hardrick seems to drop off a tiny little bit each year, but he's still a top-5 OL.  If you watch most of his "whiffs" carefully you'll see he often picks an inside blitzer and leaves the outside guy for the RB, exactly as he should.  BO was good, but not as good as AH at guessing which unblocked guy to take.  My point is, many times the "Yoshi breakdowns" were actually a protection-unit breakdown.

LG is Gray.  He got better over the season.  He was horrifically bad at covering the A-gap for the first third of the season, but I think he and the C worked on that.  By the post-season I wasn't even noticing that A-gap problem anymore.  But Gray isn't Desjar (or even Speller), that's for sure.  My hope is he still has big upside (i.e. development), otherwise we can put Eli there.

I would look more at what guys and units cost us the GC.  That's where I want to focus, so when we're in the '23 GC we win it definitively.

[theaardvark]

I really don't think we dropped a lot of SMS moving from AH33 to BO20/JA27... they are not getting ELC numbers...  there might have been a little savings, but not huge.

Demski is not just important for his numbers, but also his blocking, and his other contributions.  When he is on the roster, we are a better team, and he makes other players better with his presence.

[M.O.A.B.]

Im beginning to worry. Tampering window is not far away. Is KW having a hard time resigning our FAs? There's a lackof new coming out of the Bombers office.

[Sir Blue and Gold]

Im beginning to worry. Tampering window is not far away. Is KW having a hard time resigning our FAs? There's a lackof new coming out of the Bombers office.

Worry about whom? The core is back together. Demski maybe? The reality is if someone wants to overpay him he'll have to make a decision. Without any doubt we can assume that we've already fielded reasonable offers.

[Blue In BC]

I really don't think we dropped a lot of SMS moving from AH33 to BO20/JA27... they are not getting ELC numbers...  there might have been a little savings, but not huge.

Demski is not just important for his numbers, but also his blocking, and his other contributions.  When he is on the roster, we are a better team, and he makes other players better with his presence.

Reportedly they both got about $92K - $94K. So that would have been about $30K each after their ELC deal. AH was getting about $180K ( maybe more ) in 2021 and all 3 were on the AR.

So yes, we saved a significant amount of SMS in that decision. Of course we added another Canadian somewhere else on the roster on an ELC. Most likely we could say that was to add Ford or Dobson onto the roster instead of having 3 Canadian RB's.

Even with that it still would have saved about $60K in that series of changes.

[Pigskin]

I am hoping the Bomber announce 2 or 3 signings tomorrow.