Willie Jefferson

[Austin85]

Do you think Willie will re-sign?

[Blue In BC]

Do you think Willie will re-sign?

Yes.

[Jesse]

That's as guaranteed as Bryant was.

[blue_gold_84]

Only a matter of time.

[theaardvark]

No, I think he'd rather re-sign, he's here, he's not going anywhere.  Unless he can't pass a physical, Walters will re-up him. 

Now, should he fail teh physical, bet on Pinball floating him an offer... (chuckle)

[Throw Long Bannatyne]

I don't know, Willy usually re-signs pretty early, he may leave it to F.A. so he can force the Bombers to pay him in the ballpark of his perceived value.  No joking the Bombers can't afford to lose Willie, he's become a face of the franchise.

[TecnoGenius]

For some reason I thought he was on a 2-year and still under contract... Oh well, I agree he'll re-sign pretty much guaranteed.  Any doubts about his abilities were put to rest in the GC.  He was one of the few actually getting stuff done and trying to win it even when it was going south.

He's old enough now and goes pretty "easy" in many reg season games that I don't think there's a huge market for him at astronomical prices.  I'd try to get him at the last price with no inflation bump.  From previous years and stories I think he knows about leaving some money for KW to hire the rest of the team.

I agree he's kind of our franchise D guy now.  It would be bad for optics and morale to let him walk over $10k (cough cough Grant).

[Pete]

I don't know, Willy usually re-signs pretty early, he may leave it to F.A. so he can force the Bombers to pay him in the ballpark of his perceived value.  No joking the Bombers can't afford to lose Willie, he's become a face of the franchise.

,I guess there is a possibility that he wasn't enthralled on how hes been utilized in Youngers defense. Has to be tough with all the emphasis on rushing just 3 ,getting double and triple teamed consistantly.Also hurts his stats

[Blueforlife]

Come down to Winnipeg one last time

Pay the man

[Horseman]

It would be bad for optics and morale to let him walk over $10k (cough cough Grant).

It was over $80,000 not 10.

[TecnoGenius]

It was over $80,000 not 10.

My point was we lost Grant to another team over negligible money (of course the problem wasn't money, it was communications).  (Also, in the end Grant took less money in TOR than we were going to pay him!)

Also my point: you don't want to lose Willie because some other team offered him $10k more.

[TecnoGenius]

,I guess there is a possibility that he wasn't enthralled on how hes been utilized in Youngers defense. Has to be tough with all the emphasis on rushing just 3 ,getting double and triple teamed consistantly.Also hurts his stats

Haha, if I was cynical (who, me?) I could start thinking it all was a grand ploy by KW+MOS+Younger to keep Willie and keep his price down!  Haha.

In reality, if you want to talk GC puzzle pieces, besides our completely crap O performance, the main problem was minimal pressure on a 3rd tier QB.  So if anything KW/Younger put the big spend in FA on another superstar DE or a Stove-level DT.

If we do that, it should mean big stats for Willie in '25.  Dude deserves to have a shot at being MVP in our home GC.  I think he can do it.  (And before I get some weird cosmic joke played on me, I will specify: playing as a Bomber!)

[Throw Long Bannatyne]

My point was we lost Grant to another team over negligible money (of course the problem wasn't money, it was communications).  (Also, in the end Grant took less money in TOR than we were going to pay him!)

Also my point: you don't want to lose Willie because some other team offered him $10k more.

Good point, in almost every case were they've lost a veteran in the last few years the player has commented later that they felt a sense of disrespect for their contribution after providing the Bombers with many years of solid service in the prime of their careers. 

A lack of communication through the off-season leading up to F.A. is the worst possible strategy, even if they don't know how much money they have to spend the team needs to  keep the channels of communication flowing so that valuable players like Willy, don't feel they're being ghosted. 

A player personnel job comes down to having the right personality in place to handle the good and the bad news, it's easy to see Ted Goveia had those qualities in their natural state, even if it wasn't his main role with the team, the man can talk. Just as easy to see from his podcasts Darren Cameron lacks the same communication skills, he can hand out the good news which is the easy part of the job, but not the bad.  As the goose once said to the gander, "you've done okay, but I think we can do much better".

[Sir Blue and Gold]

I'm sure he'll sign. That said I'm not sure what he's worth in our defense as we currently deploy it.

He had some good games but he was also pretty non existent at times. He definitely takes plays off and goes into preservation mode more and more.

However, it's slim pickings at DE in the CFL these days. NFL defenses are taking smaller and smaller rushers which were bread and butter CFL rush ends.

I'm not really sure where we go from here at DE, to be honest.

[Bomber Diehard]

I agree he has been non existent in several games.
He sure is not the player he used to be.