State of the roster

[Blue In BC]

I m nervous about Wilson. Dolegala was cut from Sask in favour of Patterson, and then BC when they got Rourke, but he hasn't shown well when he's played, certainly not like Davis Alexander but he's probably on par with Schiltz or Crum. Maybe Jarious really makes a difference with these 2, I certainly hope so...

That's the problem in a nutshell. Patterson is still a potential free agent though? Maybe we find success in this year's recruitment of rookies. All in all it's a risk going into the season with questionable depth. Hopes are high for Wilson but that's the same feeling every time a new rookie is added.

[Throw Long Bannatyne]

I honestly don't know what is going to happen with the QB's past #1 but I'd argue that Dolegala has the strongest arm here . He throws deep balls seemingly without effort, no wind up, just zing. I'd love to see a deep ball contest though. Wilson has to fix his accuracy, he can look great and terrible on consecutive plays. With Zach being 37 this year I'd have hoped we had tried harder to get someone more proven on the roster as Sask did.

Not sure what you're basing your assessment of Wilson's passing ability on, his stats were 1 for 1 = 4 yds. last season.  It's dumb how little playing time they gave him if they were expecting him to pickup the game, even Zach should realize playing every snap he can, isn't in the team's best interest.

[dd]

That's the problem in a nutshell. Patterson is still a potential free agent though? Maybe we find success in this year's recruitment of rookies. All in all it's a risk going into the season with questionable depth. Hopes are high for Wilson but that's the same feeling every time a new rookie is added.

Ya, we need a little more than hope this year, we need to be certain our #2 is capable of running the O in the event of injury to ZC, we don't have that right now

[TecnoGenius]

Ly whenever we threw a flareout it seemed it went for less than 3 yards, we couldn't make that first tackler miss.

Our short pass game was just awful in 2024.  We were working hard on the short game in 2023 but then kind of just devolved into chuck&pray, and so many teams just jumped it to bat it down or INT like they did in the GC on Demski.

This could be something to work on in 2025.  Most other teams have a great short game (and some not much else!).  I don't know why it has to be so hard for us.  Zach might be too slow with the wind up?

[TecnoGenius]

Everyone gets the same amount of money, we can't suddenly outbid teams who have the same budget as we do.

Teams that hadn't re-signed many FA yet are the real losers here.  All of a sudden their whole roster is $ + 10%.  The guys locked down pre-announcement are all bonus-less and thus great boons for their teams.

We had about half our FA locked up so we're probably doing ok here.  At least as good as average.

But most of our strongly-desired top talent is part of the locked-up group, so we now have a ton of SMS to chase the top talent that "got away" (i.e. Kenny).  Other teams may be in different situations, and surely even with the $400k no team is going to offer Kenny $350k!

[TecnoGenius]

Clearly Masoli is the most experienced but is he really any better short or long term than Dolegala?

Masoli is 100% a better short-term help than Dolegala.  Long term... well, Masoli will either be retired or permanently injured.

[TecnoGenius]

Also keep in mind that every time we bring in an extra OL or back, a receiver comes off.

We don't often have our full complement of receivers on the field.

That was a Buck thing, stealing the "max pro / jumbo" idea from HAM in '19 and '21.  Hogan may or may not continue that.  We could go back to being a more normal team in that the max pro sets are for gadgets and specials, not most-down things.

(We were running jumbo on around 50% of 1st downs in 2024!)

[TecnoGenius]

He totally is. But Sterns is a slot receiver and Clercius is that fifth receiver on the field side that does a lot of blocking. The roles are very different. Sterns can't win a spot out there unless the offense looks incredibly different and even then I'd be skeptical.

Good point.  Sterns 5'9" blocking might end up looking like that time Speedy B stayed in the pocket to passpro block and was basically thrown aside with 1 arm by a DE/LB.

[Waffler]

Not sure what you're basing your assessment of Wilson's passing ability on, his stats were 1 for 1 = 4 yds. last season.  It's dumb how little playing time they gave him if they were expecting him to pickup the game, even Zach should realize playing every snap he can, isn't in the team's best interest.

I judge Wilson based on watching him in practice.  I go to one per week when the weather is good.

Unfortunately this team doesn't give equal reps to all the QB's. All our chips are on Zach and development seems secondary to us. Though I recall MOS saying lots of times that the vets don't need the practice. It's just the way they have decided to do things I guess.

[Pete]

Good point.  Sterns 5'9" blocking might end up looking like that time Speedy B stayed in the pocket to passpro block and was basically thrown aside with 1 arm by a DE/LB.

Reminds me of Greg Mcrae, only quicker, At times McCrae was effective.Again it depends on utilization, As far as blocking Wilson, Wheatfall, Johnson were all pretty ineffective. Its more about setting picks.

[BBRT]

Just wanted to take a look at the position groups so far and see if we think we can see some improvements in some position groups, even though we've seen some big names leave.

Quarterback: Same

Zach's #1. We can all hope for a bounce back season, but hopefully last year is as bad as it gets. Streveler may or may not be back, but we didn't use him to great effect last year anyway, so this position hopefully only has upside from last year.

Runningback: Same

Brady will hopefully not miss TC and start the year off strong. There was also some bad TD luck that hopefully corrects itself. Logan would be a nice complement if we actually choose to make that a part of the gameplan (certainly wasn't a part of Buck's plan).

Receivers: Same?

I know Lawler seems like a loss, but his actual production wont be hard to replace (even if he puts it together and finally manages to play a full season for Hammy - we're comparing the roster to last year). Schoen hopefully gives us everything we wanted and we have Mitchell and White Jr to compete for the #2 while Demski is the vet in the room with Clercius bring a physical presence.

OL: Same/Downgrade?

We lose Dobson, but still have more consistency than we did going into last year with Lofton returning. Instead of depending on multiple rookies, we have guys entering their 2nd year who both have starts under their belt.

DL: Improved?

Willie is Willie. Vaughters should/might give us some extra push from the other side, or at least be more consistent. Lawson coming back hopefully gives us more than we had from the interior. And I'm really excited about year 2 of Adams and Woods.

LB: Same/Improved?

Full year of Tony Jones in the middle. Ayers coming into year 2. Jon Jones one of those guys ready to take a starter role. I think we have an intriguing array of pieces.

Secondary: Downgrade?

On paper, we lost Ford, so it feels like a downgrade. But we've also been here before, DB leaves for NFL or pay day with another team, we replace them with another DB and still lead the league in defensive categories.

I'm pretty comfortable trusting the brain trust on this one.

I have stayed away for analyizing the comings and goings todate however based on what I see from other teams signings and while I realize it is way way too early to fully understand what the roster will look like come game day, it would appear to the lay person that other than Calgary the other teams in the west appear to have strengthen their roster while at least IMHO we really have not made much improvement at least at this early stage. Way to early to make any firm analysis but just a gut feeling that we have slid back somewhat compared to the rest of the West.

[Blue In BC]

I have stayed away for analyizing the comings and goings todate however based on what I see from other teams signings and while I realize it is way way too early to fully understand what the roster will look like come game day, it would appear to the lay person that other than Calgary the other teams in the west appear to have strengthen their roster while at least IMHO we really have not made much improvement at least at this early stage. Way to early to make any firm analysis but just a gut feeling that we have slid back somewhat compared to the rest of the West.

It's all subjective. Other teams have done more because they had more to do. The Elks have agreed to deals with something like 17 potential free agents. They also lost a bunch of players or will as a result.

Will they be a better team in 2025? It's just a guess and we'll see early season rankings in a few weeks after free agency.

Like most teams it depends on how successful the starting QB does. Ford may do well or he may get injured as a running style QB. Defences will adjust to keep in the pocket and that limits him to a degree.

[Throw Long Bannatyne]

It's all subjective. Other teams have done more because they had more to do. The Elks have agreed to deals with something like 17 potential free agents. They also lost a bunch of players or will as a result.

Will they be a better team in 2025? It's just a guess and we'll see early season rankings in a few weeks after free agency.

Like most teams it depends on how successful the starting QB does. Ford may do well or he may get injured as a running style QB. Defences will adjust to keep in the pocket and that limits him to a degree.

The Elks could be future West or GC Champions with the roster they're building, but it's not likely to happen this season if they stick with Tre Ford as their starter.  I take comfort hoping he may end up being their weakest point.

[markf]

Edit

[Pete]

The Elks could be future West or GC Champions with the roster they're building, but it's not likely to happen this season if they stick with Tre Ford as their starter.  I take comfort hoping he may end up being their weakest point.

we've seen this before with Edmonton and Hamilton where they change over their rosters dramatically. It takes time especially with only two preseason games. By the time they figure it  out its a real uphill battle
  I will say that under the Hervey regime they are doing it a lot smarter than jones. Rather than investing in high end receivers' put the money in the trenches, and invest in quality canadian starters.