Noah Hallett

[theaardvark]

Murphy?

Jeremy... sorry, he's on the PR... forgot...

[LXTSN]

If you think ANY of these guys does not want to be a starter, you're nuts.  They are happy to be "next man up", ready to come in when needed.  They all know their starting positions, and can come in when needed.  Raw rookies might be eager to improve, and want to be next up, but they do not have the seasoning, maturity and familiarity that a vet does.  Plus, these vets are coaches, helping their position coaches and co-ordinators coach up the new guys. 

There are roles for up and coming players and vet journeymen.  If your whole team is one or the other, you are in trouble.  Balance is the key, and we have that nicely

Maybe the Halletts are a worse example so I'll take them out of my argument.
We know exactly what Gautier and Augustine are capable of. Neither of them are capable of being effective while spot starting. I'd rather the bombers give their limited reps to someone that MIGHT be an important part of the future.

Of course we know all these guys want to play and start. But would you rather have the guy who can be just okay and that's it, or would you rather take the chance and play the younger player with a better potential? Just a matter of opinion.

[Blueforlife]

That's just not true. You can't hang on to everybody forever.

We can agree to disagree

Right now we have some decent talent that I would retain.  With injuries we don't have the luxury to make much for cuts.  Yes you can hold too long but I don't think that's the case.  I would make changes mid season if we tank.

It's not about the truth, it's about an opinion and mine has always been most of the time you don't get better by deletion (especially in our mini dynasty and lead up to it).

This season we actually brought back cuts to improve the club.

If have a bad group of players, bad management or bad coaches or a combo of them yes you get better by deletion, that's the the case for the good ship Blue IMO.

Anyone questioning why Kramdi became and remains a starter needs to read the following Ed Tait article, he embodies everything O'Shea endlessly promotes.

https://www.bluebombers.com/2024/07/10/48-hour-primer-cal-at-wpg/

Agree key cog in the Bomber wheel

Maybe the Halletts are a worse example so I'll take them out of my argument.
We know exactly what Gautier and Augustine are capable of. Neither of them are capable of being effective while spot starting. I'd rather the bombers give their limited reps to someone that MIGHT be an important part of the future.

Of course we know all these guys want to play and start. But would you rather have the guy who can be just okay and that's it, or would you rather take the chance and play the younger player with a better potential? Just a matter of opinion.

Gauthier and Augustine both critical depth pieces that are going nowhere

[TecnoGenius]

Agreed. And the Bombers are in a bad habit of keeping guys around that will never be starters.
Guys like Augustine, Gauthier and the Halletts are lifetime backups, and decent special teams players. We gotta start developing new talent in those positions like Cadwalader, and Kelly.

Augustine is the perfect example of a guy you do want to keep around.  And the fact that we do, and pay him a fair chunk more than ELC, shows how much we value him.

You really think it would be a good idea to throw away JA27 and draft or FA some rookie/sophomore NAT RB every couple of years?  Do you know how rare a guy even of JA's talent is to find in the world of NATs?  I'd take JA over every other NAT RB in the CFL today except Brady.

JA27 is more than capable of getting decent YPC when Brady is spelling or injured.  If you see a big YPG drop off, that's simply because we never run JA as much as Brady.

Johnny is in fact the perfect backup to a NAT RB because he's right on the line of being good enough to start somewhere, but not over it.  And he's a huge value at his price range.

Sure, JA isn't Brady-level good, but he's as good as we'll get as a drop-in Brady replacement who can still run with the O and handle all the blocking, etc.  If Buck wants to, he can keep the scheme mostly unchanged.  Try that with a rookie (unless you strike next-Brady gold).

[Blue In BC]

We can agree to disagree

Right now we have some decent talent that I would retain.  With injuries we don't have the luxury to make much for cuts.  Yes you can hold too long but I don't think that's the case.  I would make changes mid season if we tank.

It's not about the truth, it's about an opinion and mine has always been most of the time you don't get better by deletion (especially in our mini dynasty and lead up to it).

This season we actually brought back cuts to improve the club.

If have a bad group of players, bad management or bad coaches or a combo of them yes you get better by deletion, that's the the case for the good ship Blue IMO.
Agree key cog in the Bomber wheel
Gauthier and Augustine both critical depth pieces that are going nowhere

You're just overly loyal and never want to see vets go. You probably supported Hurl back in the day. Last year I'm pretty sure you supported Briggs in the same way you're supporting Gauthier. Every time Briggs was on the field on defence he was a liability. Ditto for Gauthier. Both had value on ST's but at what SMS cost?
I would have released Gauthier during the off season with the intent of giving Charbonneau more time on the AR.

Again, it depends somewhat on his contract value and how it relates to the possible retention of another player we did lose in the off season. I might add that Guathier missed 12 games last year. That would have been another part of the decision making process.

I didn't suggest cutting anybody at the moment. However using Augustine as an example. I've always liked him and he provides a useful role.

OTOH, he's earning about $110K. We could have had a younger import RB for a lot less that could be a more viable starter if the need arose and he'd be an ELC.

If we had made that decision during the off season, we might have had enough to retain Grant. Just an example. Choices are dynamic and fluid.

So it's more than just opinion, it's business assessment on when to move on. Some decisions made will be viewed as good ones and others will be questioned.

I don't know what bringing back rookies on ELC's after they recovered from TC injuries has to do with anything.

[theaardvark]

You're just overly loyal and never want to see vets go. You probably supported Hurl back in the day.

I didn't suggest cutting anybody at the moment. However using Augustine as an example. I've always liked him and he provides a useful role.

OTOH, he's earning about $110K. We could have a younger import RB for a lot less that could be a more viable starter if the need arose and he'd be an ELC.

If we had made that decision during the off season, we might have had enough to retain Grant. Choices are dynamic and fluid.

So it's more than just opinion, it's business assessment on when to move on. Some decisions made will be viewed as good ones and others will be questioned.

The Mafia has made many amazing decisions on when to move on from players, and our record shows that even with the $SMS designed to level playing fields, we have had a good run.

This year, we made a few decisions that haven't worked out, and made worse though injury issues.

Bailey, Grant, even Dru would all look good on the team right now.  Had we not managed to get Shoen under contract, Baile and Grant would probably be back.  To lose Schoen to injury leaves us with neither.  This is not something you could have planned for.

We've been fortunate in the past, and had these decisions prove out as prudent.  Stove, Walker, Harris, even Lucky the first time around...

Too much talent we wanted to keep and then injuries to some of those players has made this year a challenge the Mafia hasn't had before.

[Blue In BC]

The Mafia has made many amazing decisions on when to move on from players, and our record shows that even with the $SMS designed to level playing fields, we have had a good run.

This year, we made a few decisions that haven't worked out, and made worse though injury issues.

Bailey, Grant, even Dru would all look good on the team right now.  Had we not managed to get Shoen under contract, Baile and Grant would probably be back.  To lose Schoen to injury leaves us with neither.  This is not something you could have planned for.

We've been fortunate in the past, and had these decisions prove out as prudent.  Stove, Walker, Harris, even Lucky the first time around...

Too much talent we wanted to keep and then injuries to some of those players has made this year a challenge the Mafia hasn't had before.

Last year we made a decision to roster an import FB. That cost us rotational options on the DL. We all complained that was a bad move and would cost us.

Winning hides all bad decisions.

[LXTSN]

Last year we made a decision to roster an import FB. That cost us rotational options on the DL. We all complained that was a bad move and would cost us.

Winning hides all bad decisions.

To follow that up Feltmate has been one our our best special teams players. Replacing Jackson was really easy it seems.
I haven't been watching to see how he or MCI has been doing on offence, but we normally bring in an extra OL instead anyway.

[Throw Long Bannatyne]

To follow that up Feltmate has been one our our best special teams players. Replacing Jackson was really easy it seems.
I haven't been watching to see how he or MCI has been doing on offence, but we normally bring in an extra OL instead anyway.

I don't think MCI has been transitioning as quickly as Clercius or is as effective as Feltmate on ST's, so he may spent the majority of this season on the PR, which is not unusual for first year players.

[Blueforlife]

You're just overly loyal and never want to see vets go. You probably supported Hurl back in the day. Last year I'm pretty sure you supported Briggs in the same way you're supporting Gauthier. Every time Briggs was on the field on defence he was a liability. Ditto for Gauthier. Both had value on ST's but at what SMS cost?
I would have released Gauthier during the off season with the intent of giving Charbonneau more time on the AR.

Again, it depends somewhat on his contract value and how it relates to the possible retention of another player we did lose in the off season. I might add that Guathier missed 12 games last year. That would have been another part of the decision making process.

I didn't suggest cutting anybody at the moment. However using Augustine as an example. I've always liked him and he provides a useful role.

OTOH, he's earning about $110K. We could have had a younger import RB for a lot less that could be a more viable starter if the need arose and he'd be an ELC.

If we had made that decision during the off season, we might have had enough to retain Grant. Just an example. Choices are dynamic and fluid.

So it's more than just opinion, it's business assessment on when to move on. Some decisions made will be viewed as good ones and others will be questioned.

I don't know what bringing back rookies on ELC's after they recovered from TC injuries has to do with anything.

Sometimes you pass what's cooked up in your head about me as facts that have no merit or validity, you have history of making things up about me that are not true,  no need to continue that, Hurl was supported by very few, nice try there bud, wow. Please focus your posts on football not me.

Briggs I liked, I like Gauthier.  These players helped earn a couple cups for us because they were good depth pieces.  Gauthier remains as he is at the twilight of his run and has experience and a good veteran presence, I trust management on this one, we can agree to disagree.  It was clear Briggs was done last year but he was getting old.  I liked rotating Briggs and Gauthier on pass vs. run, yes neither great but reliable enough.

I am entitled to my opinion and I do like my vets but you are reaching a bit here man, I am vocal about which players I like.  Love me a role player (Denny anyone?)

These types of players come at a reasonable price and provide a reasonable return, not everyone is a star, these are glue guys, grinders, good room guys,etc.