2024 Blue Bombers Free Agency

[Pete]

 Not sur
e if Brady's skill set transfers to the Nfl, in that here he is able to physically impose his will on defenses. which hes unlikely to do there

[dd]

I think he?s wasting his time, but it?s his dream so go get it, he will get rude awakening though, he is nowhere near quick enough to be an nfl back, he never really outruns his would be tacklers up here, and down there everybody is bigger, faster and stronger, so there won?t be any bully ball down there

[Throw Long Bannatyne]

According to the following John Hodge article, only 5 CFL RB's have signed NFL contracts in recent history and most of them never progressed beyond PR status.  Kory Sheets, William Stanback, Jerome Messam, Lache Seastrunk, and James Butler all took their shot.

https://3downnation.com/2023/12/12/how-realistic-are-canadian-rb-brady-oliveiras-nfl-aspirations/

Not liking Brady's chances and hoping for a quick return.

[Blue In BC]

We're due to announce a few more signings before Christmas IMO. Some deals may have been worked out and not officially announced. Bombers are a bit notorious about spacing out off season news.

[Throw Long Bannatyne]

We're due to announce a few more signings before Christmas IMO. Some deals may have been worked out and not officially announced. Bombers are a bit notorious about spacing out off season news.

Yep, pretty sparse with their announcements so far, I believe they have to use any unspent 2023 money before Dec. 31, so hope for one or two more signings before year end.

[Pete]

if you had three free agents you would look at realistically being able to sign. who would they be? And who would they replace to make room?
my choices would be:
Mason Bennett  replacing Thomas
Dedrick Mills if Olivera isn't here for training camp
Lanier to replace Jeffcoat

[Blue In BC]

if you had three free agents you would look at, who would they be? And who would they replace to make room?
my choices would be:
Mason Bennett  replacing Thomas
Dedrick Mills if Olivera isn't here for training camp
Lanier to replace Jefferson

There are nearly 280 free agents ( 245 non Bombers at the moment ) and that's the best you can come with?

Ouellette, Pickett, Adeleke, Beverette, Betts, McManis and Bede just to name a few. I'd always be looking at top Canadians first but you could build an entire roster with the potential players on the list.  Some very good import talent might be available as well.

So it's a domino effect situation based on who we lose and need to replace. If we lose Oliveria I'd certainly look at Ouellette but he may also be looking at the NFL or a boatload ( see what I did there ) of cash. The reality is that 80% of the free agents will re-sign with their current team. Beyond that we don't know current SMS for each player or their expectations on a new contract.



Did you mean replace Jeffcoat with Lanier? Jefferson has already re-signed.

[theaardvark]

Like every year, most of the players heading to FA will re-sign with their present teams. 

There will be a few notable departures, players seeking greener pastures or greener contracts.  When Lawler was let go in EDM, they were free to sign Lewis.  So Ellingson and Harty sign in MTL.  There will be shuffling, for sure.

Last year during the free agency period (according the the CFL tracker), about 120 players re-signed with current teams, and about 60 moved. 

Bombers re-signed 16, and 3 moved   (Couture, Ellingson and Sayles)


We had a far above average rate of retaining players.  And with our head office staying intact, no reason the beliive that will change this year.

[Pete]

There are nearly 280 free agents ( 245 non Bombers at the moment ) and that's the best you can come with?

Ouellette, Pickett, Adeleke, Beverette, Betts, McManis and Bede just to name a few. I'd always be looking at top Canadians first but you could build an entire roster with the potential players on the list.  Some very good import talent might be available as well.

So it's a domino effect situation based on who we lose and need to replace. If we lose Oliveria I'd certainly look at Ouellette but he may also be looking at the NFL or a boatload ( see what I did there ) of cash. The reality is that 80% of the free agents will re-sign with their current team. Beyond that we don't know current SMS for each player or their expectations on a new contract.



Did you mean replace Jeffcoat with Lanier? Jefferson has already re-signed.

your right i meant Jeffcoat(corrected it, thanks), and i was looking at free agents that we had a shot of signing which narrows down the list greatly. also by indicating the moves required to free the cap space. Mcmanis.Beverette, Oulette, Pickett. Betts are all pipe dreams.

[Blue In BC]

your right i meant Jeffcoat(corrected it, thanks), and i was looking at free agents that we had a shot of signing which narrows down the list greatly. also by indicating the moves required to free the cap space. Mcmanis.Beverette, Oulette, Pickett. Betts are all pipe dreams.

You can never tell. McManis from Calgary to Toronto in 2022. Pickett moved from the Als in 2023. Betts moved to the Lions in 2022 from the Eks. Awe moved from the Lions to the Stamps last year.  Lawler moved from the Elks back to the Bombers in 2023.

You could say the same about the Bombers losing Couture to the Lions and Sayles to the TiCats last year.

It all comes down to who do we lose that we then end up with some SMS and a specific need.

In the case of the Argos IMO they are going to lose some top players as a result of Kelly moving from an ELC to the highest paid player in the CFL. Something has to give.

Once we hit free agency we'll see who are actually free agents and who we might be interested in acquiring. 

[theaardvark]

You can never tell. McManis from Calgary to Toronto in 2022. Pickett moved from the Als in 2023. Betts moved to the Lions in 2022 from the Eks. Awe moved from the Lions to the Stamps last year.  Lawler moved from the Elks back to the Bombers in 2023.

You could say the same about the Bombers losing Couture to the Lions and Sayles to the TiCats last year.

It all comes down to who do we lose that we then end up with some SMS and a specific need.

In the case of the Argos IMO they are going to lose some top players as a result of Kelly moving from an ELC to the highest paid player in the CFL. Something has to give.

Once we hit free agency we'll see who are actually free agents and who we might be interested in acquiring. 

I don't think we will lose anyone that actually improves our SMS position.  Most of our potentially lost players were great value last year (Schoen, Brown, Oliveria, Houston, Nichols, Kramdi, Walker, etc), and replacing them with an equivalent in freeagency is going to be as tough as re-signing them.

Some will come back with a big raise.  But some we will lose.  We may see some SMS relief if we see some retirements.  And some players on thier last contracts might settle for less to stay.

We are not the only ones needing to sign players that were good value last year, but our recruiting was so successful, we are in a worse situation than most that way.  Lets just hope "next man up" continues.

Walters is going to earn every cent of his new deal.

[Pete]

You can never tell. McManis from Calgary to Toronto in 2022. Pickett moved from the Als in 2023. Betts moved to the Lions in 2022 from the Eks. Awe moved from the Lions to the Stamps last year.  Lawler moved from the Elks back to the Bombers in 2023.

You could say the same about the Bombers losing Couture to the Lions and Sayles to the TiCats last year.

It all comes down to who do we lose that we then end up with some SMS and a specific need.

In the case of the Argos IMO they are going to lose some top players as a result of Kelly moving from an ELC to the highest paid player in the CFL. Something has to give.

Once we hit free agency we'll see who are actually free agents and who we might be interested in acquiring. 

the thing is those teams for the most part had excess cap space, the biggest downfall with having a team laden with vets it gives you very little room to go after those names.  Another factor is what we are paying Zac, its why we couldn't afford to keep Sayles, its also why those teams with qb friendly contracts could sign them. BC/Argos/Edm/Mtrl
all had that last year. (between 200-300k difference) As you say this year Toronto will be interesting but Mcmanis, Oakman, Pickett will be highly sought after (especially by Sask with Corey Mace now in place. which may mean Roberson and Lanier become available)
the only way we can compete for them is some major cutting of our vets which you have to know will not happen with OShea

Now ...if we were to go completely off the grid and replace Collaros with Brown you could sign 2-3 of them but that would take tremendous cojones to do

[Blue In BC]

I don't think we will lose anyone that actually improves our SMS position.  Most of our potentially lost players were great value last year (Schoen, Brown, Oliveria, Houston, Nichols, Kramdi, Walker, etc), and replacing them with an equivalent in freeagency is going to be as tough as re-signing them.

Some will come back with a big raise.  But some we will lose.  We may see some SMS relief if we see some retirements.  And some players on thier last contracts might settle for less to stay.

We are not the only ones needing to sign players that were good value last year, but our recruiting was so successful, we are in a worse situation than most that way.  Lets just hope "next man up" continues.

Walters is going to earn every cent of his new deal.

We may lose or need to lose an OL or two to make SMS room for others we choose to sign. Oliveria, Augustine and Briggs all were near $100K so we're going to gain some ground. Gauthier and Thomas aren't at an ELC level either. So there will be some SMS gain.

Some players may be lost whether we want to keep them or not, including some of those you mentioned.

[Blue In BC]

the thing is those teams for the most part had excess cap space, the biggest downfall with having a team laden with vets it gives you very little room to go after those names.  Another factor is what we are paying Zac, its why we couldn't afford to keep Sayles, its also why those teams with qb friendly contracts could sign them. BC/Argos/Edm/Mtrl
all had that last year. (between 200-300k difference) As you say this year Toronto will be interesting but Mcmanis, Oakman, Pickett will be highly sought after (especially by Sask with Corey Mace now in place. which may mean Roberson and Lanier become available)
the only way we can compete for them is some major cutting of our vets which you have to know will not happen with OShea

Now ...if we were to go completely off the grid and replace Collaros with Brown you could sign 2-3 of them but that would take tremendous cojones to do

I don't think for a minute that we replace Collaros but getting him to take $100K less is not out of the question. Him accepting is the problem.

[ModAdmin]

I don't think for a minute that we replace Collaros but getting him to take $100K less is not out of the question. Him accepting is the problem.

It would be a hard sell.  He still is a top ranked QB in the league.  In 2023 #2 to Adams Jr. in passing yards and #1 in QB efficiency. 
consistently good for the last several ears.