What's your opinion of the club

[Road Griller]

Only on D.  On O our depth chart is miles above every other one in the league, especially if you go by TSN top-50-player rankings (or any other method, IMHO).

However, Kenny being out may turn us into a more mid-level O.

Yes, I'm not forgetting the woes on the OL... I think they'll find solutions there soon.

Agree the D is bad, reversing roster decisions could clean some of it but Calgary, BC, Montreal heck even Sask and Elks have explosive players on offence.  Hamilton O is the only weak spot but let's see what happens today.  We may be #9.

I don't see the separation anymore.  Going into game 5 without tossing a TD pass.

Hopefully they find a solution.  Can't go 5 games without throwing a TD in the CFL and expect to Have success.

[Blueforlife]

Your statement was "A combo or a few fresh faces and next man up will fix our wagon imo."  That statement is unrealistic no matter how you attempt to explain it after the fact.  New faces and players on the PR are not going to bring us where we need to be.  It's people like Lawler, Oliviera, Haba, Fox, Lawson, Parker etc. that will bring us to where we need to be once they are ready to return.

To be clear, I didn't forget about our vets on our IR and how their return is key.  To suggest that my idea of next man up didnt include or rely upon our vets returning is a weird assumption.  That was my original point. Our vets are hurt but unless they are gone for season obviously they are a big part of the equation.  That was stating the obvious the 1st time and now you are doubling down on that not sure why.  There are many ways to deal with injuries and lineup issues, next man up has shown its a good way in the past and I hope that will again be the case.

My statement of "A combo of a few fresh faces and next man up will fix our wagon imo." Was referring to techno's idea of bringing in castoff gems and vets combined with next man up. This idea is also obviously rooted in our players returning from IR, again I thought that would be obvious.  To suggest that my "combo" statement is unrealistic is false.  We have 3 ways to deal with team depth, injuries and performance issues.  Next man up (PR and past cuts), bring castoff gems and vets and by waiting to get healthy.  Please explain how any of that is unrealistic.  You are appearing to ne more interested in proving me wrong by than contributing to the thread.  All I wanted to do was provide another idea to techno on how we might proceed.  I think that management will bring in the necessary talent to fill the holes our player on the IR have brought.  I do agree those names you mention are critical to our success.

Right.  The next man up would work.  But we're now on the next-next-man up, and in some cases the next-next-next-man up.  The 4th stringer TC fodder are not how you build a win-now team.

It is an issue, next man up was deeper in talent in the past.  However, I think management will make some informed decisions to us or PR and training camp cuts to shore us up.  Might not be ideal but that players will help rebuild our depth if they are decent or we have patience with them. Yes winning now is ideal but we have some time to figure this our.  If these injuries happened later in the season and our record was poor I would be less interested in next man up.  Like I said a combo of next man up, cast off gems and vets is likely in the cards.  My expectation is management will try next man up 1st as that what they have done in the past.  Will he an interesting few weeks to be sure to see what happens.  In the meantime or debate will continue on what we think might happen or should occur.

I really appreciate your ideas and debate here.  Thanks.  I don't have all the answers on how we can deal with the rosters issues but collectively we all have good ideas to debate and brainstorm.

[TBURGESS]

Lawler being out isn't the problem. He was out last year and we still had a dominant offence. 

Our offensive problems start with replacing two starting O lineman who are no where near as good as the guys they replaced. Add in Neuf who looks like he aged out in the off season and we have the worst O line we've had in years.

Brady O's injury means we can't get ahead of the sticks on a regular basis, which means throwing 10+ yard passes, which means Collaros needs more time than the OL can give him. That makes Collaros look like he's aged out in the off season. 

[3rdand1.5]

Games are won and lost in the trenches, it has been that way for a long time. Its a big reason why a few adds put Mtrl near the top last year, It was the reason we won our first couple Grey Cups and IMO the same reason we lost our last couple.

We have had a very good O-line for many years and arguably one of the best D-lines, however for whatever reason we decided that our D-line especially could purely run off of next man up philosophy and got weaker, as it got weaker so did our dominance....coincidence??? Just look last week at the pressure and compete on our defence until Habba and Fox went down. then Ott's offence changed....did they get better??  No we played with a way to thin d-line made up of rotation pieces and rookies.

Some guys especially along the o-line we couldn't afford to keep and that is the nature of the beast, but what I don't like is the lack of d-lineman we roster, the illusion of an attitude that it's next man up regardless....look I don't like the guy, but if we brought in Lemon instead of Mtrl. I bet we are defending champs..

Yes we have detrimental injuries this year, but it's the lines where we are losing IMO....true Zach needs to play better, but without a run game this is Zach. Give him a solid run game and watch the o-line look better and he will also, I strongly believe that.

Last week was too easy for the opposition, we had only 4 d-lineman that were outta position, tired and inexperienced...that bought Ott just that bit of an edge. Our offence had zero threat of a run game, again giving Ott defence that bit of an edge.

Osh and team have taken us to four straight, so they have grace, but "next man up" is not do-able right now....we added a D-lineman, great start we should IMO keep adding. If Brady is out any longer we need to do something to address our lack of run game, JA is a great rotation piece, MCI is too raw. It's not fair to fully evaluate this o-line without establishing a run game and having a back that can block like AH did and Brady is developing into.

Is all lost....no but we need players especially along the d-line, we need to roster at least 7-8, and we need to establish a run game.

[TBURGESS]

We play BC then Calgary in the next two weeks. 0-4 isn't out of the question if we play like we did in the first two games & they play like they did in the first 2 games. 

[Blueforlife]

Agree the D is bad, reversing roster decisions could clean some of it but Calgary, BC, Montreal heck even Sask and Elks have explosive players on offence.  Hamilton O is the only weak spot but let's see what happens today.  We may be #9.

I don't see the separation anymore.  Going into game 5 without tossing a TD pass.

Hopefully they find a solution.  Can't go 5 games without throwing a TD in the CFL and expect to Have success.

Disagree that our D is bad, way too early to state that imo, we have some injuries, new faces at DB and depth concerns on the DL.  So far the D has played reasonably well considering all factors and the O has played poorly.

You reference to 5 games carries no weight.  It's 2.  But yes need some majors asap.

[Road Griller]

Disagree that our D is bad, way too early to state that imo, we have some injuries, new faces at DB and depth concerns on the DL.  So far the D has played reasonably well considering all factors and the O has played poorly.

You reference to 5 games carries no weight.  It's 2.  But yes need some majors asap.

We do have the horses to make the D better, just have to use the roster effectively and nationalize and American.  No need to play so many nationals.

WF, GC, week 1, week 2 without throwing a TD pass for Zach.  It carries weight for sure, probably like a 800 pound gorilla on his back. 

Hopefully things shake loose and we see 3+ tds through the air.  Another 0 td with a pick or two won't get it done.

[Blueforlife]

We do have the horses to make the D better, just have to use the roster effectively and nationalize and American.  No need to play so many nationals.

WF, GC, week 1, week 2 without throwing a TD pass for Zach.  It carries weight for sure, probably like a 800 pound gorilla on his back. 

Hopefully things shake loose and we see 3+ tds through the air.  Another 0 td with a pick or two won't get it done.

I trust the team to manage the roster. None of us have the solution for this group.  I trust the pros.

Our club focuses game to game.  Zach is a true professional and will be less focused on the past than next game, imo.  I don't see it weighing on him like you suggest. Your idea to go back to last season as a trend holds no weight imo.  You previously were counting preseason as part of our trends, which I even more strongly disagreed on.  It's a new season, 2 games is not a trend for a player of Zach's level.

[Road Griller]

I trust the team to manage the roster. None of us have the solution for this group.  I trust the pros.

Our club focuses game to game.  Zach is a true professional and will be less focused on the past than next game, imo.  I don't see it weighing on him like you suggest. Your idea to go back to last season as a trend holds no weight imo.  You previously were counting preseason as part of our trends, which I even more strongly disagreed on.  It's a new season, 2 games is not a trend for a player of Zach's level.

We have to trust the team to manage the roster, we don't have a choice.  Doesn't mean they are doing it right 100% of the time.  Especially when the L's start piling up.  Things come into question.

Zach has been off the last four games he has started.  Doesn't matter if you count them or not. Not a single TD pass.  The trend has to come to an end if the team has any chance of saving this season.

An offensive break out Friday would be awesome to see.  Along with a stout D shutting down Big Play VA.  Need to keep him off the field.

[Blueforlife]

We have to trust the team to manage the roster, we don't have a choice.  Doesn't mean they are doing it right 100% of the time.  Especially when the L's start piling up.  Things come into question.

Zach has been off the last four games he has started.  Doesn't matter if you count them or not. Not a single TD pass.  The trend has to come to an end if the team has any chance of saving this season.

An offensive break out Friday would be awesome to see.  Along with a stout D shutting down Big Play VA.  Need to keep him off the field.

Trust is a choice but yes our rants on here won't change the roster lol.

I am not concerned about the trend but yes we need success and TDs passes.

Yup you nailed what we need Fri.  Offense to find some MOJO and shut big play VA down.

It will be a tough game.  I will be happy if we are competitive, the game is close and we see big improvements on O and D firms up.

I would also like to see better kick coverage.

I want to let you know that while we don't seem to agree on a few things, I do enjoy some of your contributions to the forum. 

[BBRT]

Too Early to panic just yet - I do have some concerns that need to be addressed. Let's see what happens over the balance of the month etc.

[TecnoGenius]

We play BC then Calgary in the next two weeks. 0-4 isn't out of the question if we play like we did in the first two games & they play like they did in the first 2 games.

We need to pray for parity and that all the W teams will be around .500-.600.  That is really what we need until we figure things out.

Luckily... West favorite BC is looking just like a .500 team!  In many ways they look far weaker than last season in so many units.  Just like us, yay!  So if/when it comes down to BC/WPG in WDF we'll have a fighting chance.

The key will be hoping upstarts SSK & CGY face tough opponents or stink up a few.  SSK looks good with their league-best record, but I think it's a mirage as both games they kind of lucked into by having less oopsies.  But... look at their horrific misconduct penalties!  That bodes well for us when we face them!  And besides, odds are great that T.Harris won't last a season.

The best we can do right now is put the noses to the grindstone and eke out a win against the W where we can, hopefully starting with BC.  If our O with its massively-paid stars can't get things ticking, we're doomed.

[blue_gold_84]

Too Early to panic just yet - I do have some concerns that need to be addressed. Let's see what happens over the balance of the month etc.

Agreed. If they're 0-4 to close out the month, it'll be time to start worrying.

[Sir Blue and Gold]

Some things:

The team isn't as good as the teams from 2019 to 2023. Not on paper. Not in reality.

There's not a lot we could have done to avoid this situation. We could have retained Hardrick instead of Schoen or something, but regardless we'd still probably be 0-2. Teams rise and teams fall. We've enjoyed a ton of success but when a team falls, they usually fall fast and hard. That's us.

Walters didn't stop being a good GM. O'Shea is still a good head coach. We still have a culture and destination players like to play in.

This is probably going to be a .500 ish year. The good news is you can re-build a CFL franchise very quickly. Montreal was pegged to be one of the worst teams last year. They won the Grey Cup and are now a favourite to do it again.

Am I concerned about this year? Depends what you mean. We're not going 15-3. Will probably be battling for anywhere between second and fourth in the west depending on injuries. Could we still win the Grey Cup? Yep. Do I think that because of this year we'll have a stronger team next year? Yes also.

[Road Griller]

Agreed. If they're 0-4 to close out the month, it'll be time to start worrying.

Looking at the schedule I see us most likely heading into Banjo Bowl with 1 win. 2 at most unless they pivot and pivot quickly.