Will we go shopping for special teams

[Throw Long Bannatyne]

Ya part of the problem though is the basement teams refuse to just die.  Just die basement teams!!

EDM, OTT, CGY, HAM (and even SSK) have all been winning games they shouldn't and staying in the fight.  That reduces the potential pool of trade partners before the deadline... Hopefully all 3 and 4 win teams don't win another game until the deadline.  That should eliminate most of them and open up some options.

In the past decade most GC-bound teams load up at the last minute.  Maybe that's become less of a thing the last 4 years (why?).  We should have tons of SMS because of all our 6G injuries.  Let's spend it (and more!!).  Go crazy.  I'm not so convinced anymore that 2024 will be a great year, so let's do it now.

Don't forget they need to create cap space to re-sign Schoen and Olie who are both FA's.  One way to do that is not spend all the cash in the kitty this season, Schoen alone will cost them $200k plus.

[Blue In BC]

Don't forget they need to create cap space to re-sign Schoen and Olie who are both FA's.  One way to do that is not spend all the cash in the kitty this season, Schoen alone will cost them $200k plus.

There is some merit in that comment but we do have a lot of potential free agents. At some point we'll have to make some decisions similar to not re-signing Couture going into 2023. He may have decided to not return but he would have been expensive if we tried as an example.

Trading for a player for 4 games or less in the regular season is not going to create a big hit against the SMS.

[theaardvark]

Trading to cover injuries is great when you can find a partner and have the spare parts that make the deal.  We don't have a lot of spare parts, not sure what assets we have on the neg list, or how much $SMS is available even for 4 games.

Best thing about CFL FA's is that Everyone has a lot of them every year, and teams like WPG have an Ace up the sleeve in that we have the Mafia.

All things being equal, we win many of the FA battles.  Baily, Lawler are prime examples.  Yes, we lose a Couture or Sayles or Sayles or Chungh, but we manage to keep a Jefferson or Bighill or Hardrick or Bryant. 

Walters gets to make up his lineup and choose who he will target to keep each year.  And for every big ticket FA we lose, that's $SMS used up.  We're going to have that little advantage of our culture allowing us to retain players at a deal price, and attract the ones we want with competitive  offers.

And recruiting is easier when you have ourplayers, our facilities, our reputation and our record. 

As long as we keep this management  group together, I have full faith this team will post winning seasons and win our share of Cups.

[Ridermania]

Don't forget they need to create cap space to re-sign Schoen and Olie who are both FA's.  One way to do that is not spend all the cash in the kitty this season, Schoen alone will cost them $200k plus.

There will cap space in the off season, with Bryant and Hardrick retiring.

[Pete]

Premature speculation on retirements, but i can see us as trying to save cap space this year  and using it in form of a bonus to sign shoen. Might be a reason we haven:t brought in replacements as many of us have requested

[Blue In BC]

Premature speculation on retirements, but i can see us as trying to save cap space this year  and using it in form of a bonus to sign shoen. Might be a reason we haven:t brought in replacements as many of us have requested

We've been relatively lucky with not many players sitting on the 1 game IR this season. OTOH we've had some veteran on the 6 game IR for long periods. Those players were replaced by mostly ELC players. So there should be some SMS savings available at the end of the season.

Retirements are a possibility so we'll see how that works out. If we get to and or win the Grey Cup that might be a single to a few to leave on that not. Hard to tell.

I do believe we  would have SMS available to bring in a new player in trade but I'm not as sure a trade is available.

[blue_gold_84]

There will cap space in the off season, with Bryant and Hardrick retiring.

Where did you come up with this?

[theaardvark]

Premature speculation on retirements, but i can see us as trying to save cap space this year  and using it in form of a bonus to sign shoen. Might be a reason we haven:t brought in replacements as many of us have requested

No way Walters is jeopardizing this season to save a few $SMS to try and resign future years,

No way.

[Pete]

How do you see us keeping schoen next year, he: ll likely need a 100k raise. Also Nichols is due. Especially if we maintain our oline

[Throw Long Bannatyne]

How do you see us keeping schoen next year, he: ll likely need a 100k raise. Also Nichols is due. Especially if we maintain our oline

DB's never earn much so not a big issue, a $20k bump probably locks Nichols in for another year bringing him up to around $125k.

[Blue In BC]

How do you see us keeping schoen next year, he: ll likely need a 100k raise. Also Nichols is due. Especially if we maintain our oline

Lawrence, Darby, Miller, Benson, Briggs, Clement, Thomas, Gauthier among the list of players we might not see back and replaced by rookie ELC contracts.  Someone mentioned the SMS is going up $100K in 2024? In any case teams will decide who they they want against what they can afford.

Might even ask Collaros to take a cut in order to get a bigger advance payment.

[TecnoGenius]

Don't forget they need to create cap space to re-sign Schoen and Olie who are both FA's.  One way to do that is not spend all the cash in the kitty this season, Schoen alone will cost them $200k plus.

A decision needs to be made.  Do we go all-in to make the best run for the cup while we are still great?  Or do we do business as usual and worry about next year?

Look at SSK 2013, my favorite example.  They made future-dumb but smart-now trades in FA and in-season to beef up to clearly be the best team on paper.  It paid off.  Then their wad was blown and they stunk until basically 2019.  But they got the cup.

How warm and fuzzy are y'all about playing a WSF in SSK right now and then a WDF in BC??  Look at our away-game record.  This could happen.  Not likely, but could.  Certainly a WDF in BC has about 50/50 chance of happening.

Do we want a weak run for the cup this year, or does KW make the moves a GC-probable team usually makes to make a great run for it.  We all sense we'll be a vastly different, and probably weaker, team in '24 or at the very least '25 because of age problems.  How bad do we want a legit shot before vet superstars start retiring or being tub-bound?

Losing to OTT, SSK, HAM has changed my outlook.  I don't think we're good enough to win 3 playoffs.  Personally I just want to get to the cup and have a shot at revenge on TOR.  I don't even care if we win, I just want to make sure we get there.  I will be one unhappy camper if we're out in the WSF with some garbage team beating us with wide-outs, QB runs, ST returns, and vastly better gameplans and playcalling.  Because that'll be what will happen.

[Blue In BC]

A decision needs to be made.  Do we go all-in to make the best run for the cup while we are still great?  Or do we do business as usual and worry about next year?

Look at SSK 2013, my favorite example.  They made future-dumb but smart-now trades in FA and in-season to beef up to clearly be the best team on paper.  It paid off.  Then their wad was blown and they stunk until basically 2019.  But they got the cup.

How warm and fuzzy are y'all about playing a WSF in SSK right now and then a WDF in BC??  Look at our away-game record.  This could happen.  Not likely, but could.  Certainly a WDF in BC has about 50/50 chance of happening.

Do we want a weak run for the cup this year, or does KW make the moves a GC-probable team usually makes to make a great run for it.  We all sense we'll be a vastly different, and probably weaker, team in '24 or at the very least '25 because of age problems.  How bad do we want a legit shot before vet superstars start retiring or being tub-bound?

Losing to OTT, SSK, HAM has changed my outlook.  I don't think we're good enough to win 3 playoffs.  Personally I just want to get to the cup and have a shot at revenge on TOR.  I don't even care if we win, I just want to make sure we get there.  I will be one unhappy camper if we're out in the WSF with some garbage team beating us with wide-outs, QB runs, ST returns, and vastly better gameplans and playcalling.  Because that'll be what will happen.

Who are all these difference maker players you think we can get and not lose equivalent players in trade? There isn't anybody on our PR that another team is going to give up top talent.

Time to step away from the keyboard.

[Throw Long Bannatyne]

A decision needs to be made.  Do we go all-in to make the best run for the cup while we are still great?  Or do we do business as usual and worry about next year?

Look at SSK 2013, my favorite example.  They made future-dumb but smart-now trades in FA and in-season to beef up to clearly be the best team on paper.  It paid off.  Then their wad was blown and they stunk until basically 2019.  But they got the cup.

How warm and fuzzy are y'all about playing a WSF in SSK right now and then a WDF in BC??  Look at our away-game record.  This could happen.  Not likely, but could.  Certainly a WDF in BC has about 50/50 chance of happening.

Do we want a weak run for the cup this year, or does KW make the moves a GC-probable team usually makes to make a great run for it.  We all sense we'll be a vastly different, and probably weaker, team in '24 or at the very least '25 because of age problems.  How bad do we want a legit shot before vet superstars start retiring or being tub-bound?

Losing to OTT, SSK, HAM has changed my outlook.  I don't think we're good enough to win 3 playoffs.  Personally I just want to get to the cup and have a shot at revenge on TOR.  I don't even care if we win, I just want to make sure we get there.  I will be one unhappy camper if we're out in the WSF with some garbage team beating us with wide-outs, QB runs, ST returns, and vastly better gameplans and playcalling.  Because that'll be what will happen.

I disagree with almost everything you've mentioned, I never "expect" the Bombers to win a GC but I always hope they will, even when the odds are against it.  Expecting a result that doesn't happen usually leads to frustration and anger, if the Bombers get to the GC game this season, nobody should be angry with their achievement even if they lose, they can't win em all.

I don't agree that going all in and burning down the house like the Riders did to win a single GC is the best team management approach either.  It just leads to a complete rebuild shortly after, their rebuild in particular has stretched on now for almost a decade and they're still not even close.

With the age of the Bombers roster getting up there I do expect a bit of a shake up next season, but I'm confident  Walters will handle it well and won't have to deal with replacing a large number of players in a single season.  A few retirements spread out over 2-3 years with adequate replacements brought in on an ongoing basis should allow them to remain competitive through the next few seasons.  After that, we'll see.

[Pete]

I agree we dont have very many chips to play. If jones returns he might fetch a good price,,i bet edmonton would love to have a ford duo to attract their fans. (maybe for purifoy and a draft pick?)