Jake Thomas re-signed

[blue_gold_84]

Fan favourite and dependable in a spelling role on the Dline.

Most impressive how he's been able to carve out such a long CFL career.

Agreed. He's got a workman attitude about him, which fits well in the organization.

Glad to have him back for another go.

[dd]

He's been a blue chip O-lineman for us a long stint.....glad to have him back in the fold

Good one. Ya, he plays interior D line Chet and he's far from blue chip. If it wasn't for his passport, he wouldn't see the field. I get he's a fan favourite because of his fat rudy-esque physique, but we have to find someone to bring the heat up the middle, its been sorely missed these past couple of years

[Pete]

Good one. Ya, he plays interior D line Chet and he's far from blue chip. If it wasn't for his passport, he wouldn't see the field. I get he's a fan favourite because of his fat rudy-esque physique, but we have to find someone to bring the heat up the middle, its been sorely missed these past couple of years

with our defensive scheme whereby the defensive ends have a lot of flexibility in their pass rush, our dt responsibility has been to hold the line. For example Sayles had 36 tackles in 2022 with us but with Hamllton it jumped to 50. LY Thomas had 5 sacks in shared duty (with Lawson who also had 5 sacks), Sayles had only 7 and was considered an allstar and is making 200k year..

[TecnoGenius]

Love me some Fatboi.

He actually seems to be getting a bit more effective every season.  And it hasn't trailed off yet.  I think he's doing things in there very few notice, like holding up 2 OL on run plays to win the numbers game.  He also causes trouble to try to get holes for Willy.  I think he's very smart and coy and knows what needs to be done, and executes the plan to a high level.  There's a reason we retain him 4 years past when many have called for his release.

The DL, like the OL, lives or dies as a unit.  A single guy isn't as important.  Fatboi's game improves when the other DT is stout.  Walker improving all the time only helps Fatboi, and vice versa.  If we solve the Jeffcoat's-spot problem with someone good, then I think we'll continue to have a havoc-wreaking DL.

P.S. You can always tell Fatboi on the field as he always holds his helmet up from his 3-point stance pre-snap.  I almost never see other DTs doing this.  But he does it all the time.  I wonder why?  He must like it.

P.P.S. Can he actually make it through to our home-GC 2025??

[TBURGESS]

I wouldn't have signed Thomas. He only plays 5 or 6 snaps a game. I'd have replaced him with a rookie at a lower salary. Not a lot of savings, but we need all we can get. 

[Throw Long Bannatyne]

I wouldn't have signed Thomas. He only plays 5 or 6 snaps a game. I'd have replaced him with a rookie at a lower salary. Not a lot of savings, but we need all we can get.

Care to point out a specific game this was true?

[KINGCHARLES]

I wouldn't have signed Thomas. He only plays 5 or 6 snaps a game. I'd have replaced him with a rookie at a lower salary. Not a lot of savings, but we need all we can get.

He's been a starting DT for us for the majority of his career and consistent year in and year out. They know that even though he's aging he will get 17-22 tackles and 4-5 sacks. I believe he rotated with Lawson and Walker who both also had 5 sacks each.
It has to be almost inevitable that the club will decide soon to move on from Tho,as and make Lawson take on his duties.

[dd]

Care to point out a specific game this was true?

He's hardly an impact player. Fan favourite sure but effective out there ??, hardly. He's a space eater, comes off every snap slow as a snail. We need to upgrade our interior and quit relying on moving Jefferson or Jeff coat inside to get pressure as that's the only time we get pressure from the interior.

[Throw Long Bannatyne]

He's been a starting DT for us for the majority of his career and consistent year in and year out. They know that even though he's aging he will get 17-22 tackles and 4-5 sacks. I believe he rotated with Lawson and Walker who both also had 5 sacks each.
It has to be almost inevitable that the club will decide soon to move on from Tho,as and make Lawson take on his duties.

Couple of possibilities, depending what happens with Rickie Walker.

1. Open competition for 2 Natl. DT's in rotation between Lawson, Jake, and Schmekel, loser gets moved to the PR or cut.

2.  They bring in a Natl. DE option like Kongbo, adjust the ratio and decide to go 2 Import rotation plus Lawson as the starters.

[Pete]

I wouldn't have signed Thomas. He only plays 5 or 6 snaps a game. I'd have replaced him with a rookie at a lower salary. Not a lot of savings, but we need all we can get.

quote]
if this was true and he got the same number of sacks as Lawson or Walker he was terribly underutilized and Hall is a terrible coach (which he is not)

[TecnoGenius]

I wouldn't have signed Thomas. He only plays 5 or 6 snaps a game. I'd have replaced him with a rookie at a lower salary. Not a lot of savings, but we need all we can get.

This is just not true.  I've been keeping my eye on Fatboi and he's taking >50% of snaps, often way more.  In fact, over the last 3 seasons he takes an increasingly higher number of snaps.  He used to not be an every-down guy many seasons ago, but that's not true anymore.

Think of it this way: Surely there's a reason MOS wants him around.  We can assume he's not too expensive, but also not cheap.  If he was a detriment to the team, why would they continue to sign him?

[VictorRomano]

This is just not true.  I've been keeping my eye on Fatboi and he's taking >50% of snaps, often way more.  In fact, over
Think of it this way: Surely there's a reason MOS wants him around.  We can assume he's not too expensive, but also not cheap.  If he was a detriment to the team, why would they continue to sign him?

Bingo.  Other guys have been trying to take his spot for 13 seasons, and failed.  There's a reason he's still here.

[TBURGESS]

This is just not true.  I've been keeping my eye on Fatboi and he's taking >50% of snaps, often way more.  In fact, over the last 3 seasons he takes an increasingly higher number of snaps.  He used to not be an every-down guy many seasons ago, but that's not true anymore.

Think of it this way: Surely there's a reason MOS wants him around.  We can assume he's not too expensive, but also not cheap.  If he was a detriment to the team, why would they continue to sign him?

If you've been keeping track, then I retract my number. It was a guess based on the number of times he actually makes plays. 

I stand by my opinion that I wouldn't bother re-signing him. We need to get younger and we need to get rid of the salaries of older non-difference makers. 

[Throw Long Bannatyne]

Bingo.  Other guys have been trying to take his spot for 13 seasons, and failed.  There's a reason he's still here.

I was thinking about this a bit, if they didn't want Jake any longer they could have easily let him go to FA to find his own way, which would spare them the ugly task of ever cutting the longest serving one-team vet in the CFL.  The fact they re-signed him, says they know what he can contribute and want more of it.  To sign him then cut him at the end of TC would be rather cruel.

[TecnoGenius]

If you've been keeping track, then I retract my number. It was a guess based on the number of times he actually makes plays.

That I totally agree with.  He is there but you don't notice it often.  He gets only a handful of sacks a season.  But I think that's because he's tasked with certain needs-to-be-done jobs that aren't readily noticeable.  You need to really look on the film to see what he's accomplishing.

I don't think opponent OLs take him lightly.  And they aren't pushing him around: he holds his own out there.  And he often gets surprising push to help collapse the pocket.

If we want the extra ratio spot of a NAT at DT then your only choice right now is cut Fatboi and Lawson plays all his snaps... and do we really think Lawson is there yet?  I don't.  Lawson is basically where Fatboi was 5 years ago when everyone was moaning Fatboi wasn't an "every down" DT.

What might happen is slowly Lawson takes more snaps than Fatboi as we ease Fatboi out of his role.  That could mean Fatboi still dresses going into our big 2025 home GC year.  Winning the GC at home would be the perfect time to retire.