Should the overpaid stars restructure?

[Blue In BC]

Doubling down on your strawman arguments, eh? Yup, it's everyone but Collaros who is playing badly, coaching badly and getting injured. Collaros shouldn't take any of the blame cuz he's been great for 3 years and a playoffs. The rest shouldn't take any blame cuz we're a dynasty. This is what I said. This is what I meant.

Show me where I said Collaros was playing well. I've specifically said he is not playing well. If you can't see that others are not and also to blame in this mess, then you are mistaken.

There. I've said it again. Collaros is not playing well.

[TBURGESS]

Show me where I said Collaros was playing well. I've specifically said he is not playing well. If you can't see that others are not and also to blame in this mess, then you are mistaken.

There. I've said it again. Collaros is not playing well.

We agree that Collaros isn't playing well. That's all I said in the first place. Why did you need to bring anything else into the convo? 

[Blue In BC]

We agree that Collaros isn't playing well. That's all I said in the first place. Why did you need to bring anything else into the convo?

Because it's relevant to the conversation. Performance is a scale. I don't expect him to throw 5 TD's in a game. I do expect him to throw some and make less mistakes then the 2 this year. OTOH, there have been games where he hasn't been great but good enough to win.

In the last game he might have been 60% of his normal play. That's not usually enough and at the moment particularly not enough.  Offence was pressing without a run game and leaves a lot of room for mistakes.

This week is a 3 practice plus walk through at home against a tough Lions team. I have no idea what the roster will look like yet but Collaros's performance will be evaluated win or lose.

[TecnoGenius]

No law against it.

Just no real benefit either.

How do you get more SMS to sign some vets to fix problems then?  I'm still waiting for an alternative.

Is your solution "do nothing"?  Where "nothing" means keep signing next-next-next-man up?  If we do that then week after week we will get worse, and worse, and worse from injuries.  Things will not improve until mid/late season and top/vets (Kenny, Lawson, Parker) start returning.

Do we sit and wait in suckage and/or get worse?  Or try to do something?  I'd love to hear more ideas.  Does WFC have more ideas?  Or do we sit pat and pray?

[TecnoGenius]

Trust me, there were people who wanted to go the Brown route and had very good reasons why.  Unfortunately it may just playing out in front of our eyes. We have an ace in hole in Streveler, maybe we should use him.  Couldn't hurt to try for a series/two or even a quarter at this point.

Make teams prepare for both styles of QB's every week and keep them guessing all game.  Why not?  Can't keep burning games early on, the L's are piling up.  Time to stop being stubborn and think inside the box.

100% this.  We've let teams focus 100% on Zach and they've studied him to death because he was the #1 impediment for every team in the league to win the GC.  Everyone learned to cut off Zach's roll-right.  Everyone learned to bring the DEs in deep for edge contain and then double-back to sack Zach when he steps up or turtles.  Everyone does it and so Zach is toast.  Even in 2023 we saw hints of this.

I think everyone is shocked at how little we've used Strevie so far!?  Not a single end-around or pass on 2nd & 1??  No stay-in-1st-down after SY?  Holy Moses, we can't even do what we already know from 2019 is a winning scheme?

You are right we are making it way too easy on opponents, making them sigh relief and only plan against Zach plus "Prukop in a fur coat".  Make them waste half of planning / practice schemeing against Zach plus 2019+NFLexperience Strev!!

Just needs a chance, 10 RPO downs a game minimum. 

Heck, give him the first three series of the game at home.  The D will be off guard and scramble to adjust then throw Zach in to throw them off again.

I'm not sure I want him in for as many snaps as you, but it's close.  5-10% of snaps, whatever that works out to.  Yes, RPO or QB/RB option on every play.  And lots of handoffs so they don't key on "Strevie always runs himself".  Must also pass.

I wouldn't stick him in for a whole series "just 'cause", but I 100% agree with having him in more so that the D's are always on their heels.  We make it waaaay too easy on Ds so far.  I think we've fooled them on maybe 1 of every 7 plays.  Compare to MTL who has every D guessing every other snap.  No one has any idea what they'll do next and the opponents are always on their heels.  We have to get back to that kind of ball.

[TecnoGenius]

Friday could be a rough outing, it's a young crowd and they all love Streveler and want to see him play. A slow start would not be good.  Need to come out firing on all cylinders.

This is true.  His first snap in week 1 the crowd went nuts.  Every 3rd down gamble the crowd went nuts.  That big 2Y sneak, the crowd went nuts.

We don't let the crowd dictate who to play, but it certainly puts the gravy on the idea of playing Strevie more.

[TecnoGenius]

Sept 9 2023, Collaros defeats the Riders 51 - 6 and throws for 5 TDs and 300+ yards.

In 2023 he threw for the 2nd most yards, the most TD's and had the highest QB rating for the season.

Bombers were 14 - 4. Only the Argos had a better season record, noting they didn't make the Grey Cup.

I know the past is the past but lets settle down here.

I firmly believe all our skill O has the capability of being that 14-4 Bombers again.  Even with the whatever noob 5th you bring in.  The skill guys didn't suddenly completely lose it because they are a year older!!  These aren't DBs.  These are R's who can have exceptionally long careers.  And I fully believe Zach will fade gracefully like Ricky Ray, not off a cliff like Matt Nichols (post injury).

Even if they slow down a step, they should be good for 13-5 or 12-6.  There really is no excuse.

If they aren't doing that after their week 1 & week 2 "pre-season rust games" then it's not them: it's the OL.  Identify the problem and fix it!

[TecnoGenius]

Picks are uncharacteristic for him, what is causing them?

Zach throws ints always has always will.  His TD to Int ratio has always been good here.  Let's see if he can continue that.

B4L knows the deal.  Zach has always been a gunslinger.  He doesn't care about the INTs.  He takes the shots.  He follows Gretzky's famous quote.

No, the problem isn't the INTs so far: the problem is the lack of TDs!  If he had thrown the expected 5-8 TDs so far, we wouldn't even be talking about the INTs!

And the INTs aren't coming so much as from bad throws as bad reads and D obfuscation.  Teams are using the Hall "smoke & mirrors" tricks against us and they are out-WPGing WPG.  Even the Dequoy underthrow-INT was a bad read: he needs to stare off and account for the fast FS.

Get the TDs back up and the INTs will work themselves out.  The day he stops taking shots is the day he'll become truly awful, because he'll never be a good "game manager".  He needs to be Zach.

[TecnoGenius]

In last night sask hamilton game they talked about Blm  having to make changes to his playing style in order to extend his career, I would suggest its the same for Zac, he doesnt have the same mobility or offensive line,
His release needs to be quicker, be willing to take the shorter pass, and check down more often. Otherwise he might see a downturn in his effectiveness like bo experienced.

That could be an important avenue to explore.  But is anyone in WFC able to guide him in that manner?  Sounds good on paper, but how do we know Milanovitch has any clue?  I guess by HAM's season end we'll know.

If you look at the most successful and promising QBs of the last 3 seasons -- Kelly, VAJ, Rourke -- they all have extremely quick wind-up and release.  And they often put a lot of zip on it.  Zach looks like a sloth compared to them.  Then again, Zach has never been a speedloader.  Is this something they can work on to reduce the time for Ds to react by a few tenths?  Or are we stuck with it?

Zach also has become master at the "touch pass" with great feathering at the point of completion.  I proffer he is miles away the league-best at this.  However, this only works with enough time and enough air so that Ds cannot catch up with the R.  So many times this season we've seen him throw a perfect, eminently catchable ball, just to be swatted away right in front of our R.  All of those balls are completions if he just puts 3-6 more Y of air on it.  Is he not dialed in or has his arm strength dwindled a bit?  Or is he throwing a tad too late (my opinion)?  Figure it out Zach/staff!  This problem, at least, is fixable!

[Jesse]

How do you get more SMS to sign some vets to fix problems then?  I'm still waiting for an alternative.

Is your solution "do nothing"?  Where "nothing" means keep signing next-next-next-man up?  If we do that then week after week we will get worse, and worse, and worse from injuries.  Things will not improve until mid/late season and top/vets (Kenny, Lawson, Parker) start returning.

Do we sit and wait in suckage and/or get worse?  Or try to do something?  I'd love to hear more ideas.  Does WFC have more ideas?  Or do we sit pat and pray?

The question remains who do you want to sign? Who is sitting at home that is A) better than what we have and B) so expensive that we need more SMS?

I honestly think we can sign whoever we want if we felt it was necessary. The worst case scenario is we have to pay a fine at the end of the year. I don't think restructuring any contracts is necessary to do what you're asking.

I think everyone is shocked at how little we've used Strevie so far!?  Not a single end-around or pass on 2nd & 1??  No stay-in-1st-down after SY?  Holy Moses, we can't even do what we already know from 2019 is a winning scheme?

The problem has been 2-fold with Strev. First, we haven't been getting into 2nd and short scenarios. We've been 2 and out fairly often and we're not getting into situations to put Strev on the field. Second, when we do get into the short yardage package, we haven't been getting a push. I think they've had to pull out the chains every time we've run Strev and we have been unable to run hurry up immediately after, which is where you'd see Strev stay on the field and run his package.

The alternative is just letting him take a drive or play, which I don't think would be an effective use of his abilities.

[Pigskin]

From what I understood KL89 took a $30K pay cut to start the season.

[Road Griller]

This is true.  His first snap in week 1 the crowd went nuts.  Every 3rd down gamble the crowd went nuts.  That big 2Y sneak, the crowd went nuts.

We don't let the crowd dictate who to play, but it certainly puts the gravy on the idea of playing Strevie more.

Exactly, you had to be there to experience it.

If we are going to lose at least entertain us.  That's advantage one, advantage two is we are developing the future.  Heck we may even compete and show some fire.

We know Zach isn't getting better, and he isn't winning.

  I would start Streveler and script the first 3 series but MOS doesn't think that way.  It's full steam ahead, steady as she goes and the  icebergs should move out of the way.

We have seen this movie before.

BC would be caught off guard and scrambling because they are expecting the same old, same old.  And they will most likely get it.  Duck and chuck, two and out after two and out.

It's not like our D is exciting anymore.  They are going to bore people right out of their seats and into the car.

[blue_gold_84]

From what I understood KL89 took a $30K pay cut to start the season.

Won't do much good unless there are other players willing to take a cut to round on the roster.

[Blueforlife]

I  regards to Zach adjusting his game, yes all pros need to do that.  With BLM he had a serious injury which changed his throwing motion  and he needed to work that out.  Getting healthy, figuring that our, adjusting his game and aligning his approach with the Hammy O was key.  I see a good ball club there if BLM keeps slinging.

[TecnoGenius]

The question remains who do you want to sign? Who is sitting at home that is A) better than what we have and B) so expensive that we need more SMS?

I honestly think we can sign whoever we want if we felt it was necessary. The worst case scenario is we have to pay a fine at the end of the year. I don't think restructuring any contracts is necessary to do what you're asking.

A) Tons of guys couch sitting.  Basically every player who played 3+ years in the CFL is better than the 4th stringers we're fielding.  Who's the WR we brought in right at the end of '23?  Ambles?  Ya, he'd be 10X better than the 2 rookie IMP WRs we're forced to field right now.

B) KW outright said it: we have no money and only ELCs would be hired after the Brady/Schoen re-signing announcements.  There is no wiggle room.  6GIR's mean we can bring in more ELCs.  Even Kenny being out doesn't free up enough to sign a vet WR.  It's not that need SMS to sign a superstar, we need SMS just to sign a middling vet like Ambles!

You think we're fielding Wheatfall on purpose (or Fox or Schmekel)?  The dude was meant as a backup to a backup and to not even dress all season if things went according to plan.  (Or substitute Wilson if you liked what Wheatfall did in week 2.)  Literally every middling vet couch sitter is better than both of these guys.  Even oldster Greg Ellingson would get more respect from Ds.

If we could sign whoever we wanted to we'd already have Kongbo or Bennett to help our completely destroyed DL, and maybe a WR until Kenny is better 10+ weeks later.