Blue Bombers Transactions - September 29, 2025

[Blue In BC]

Meh.  Pretty same as always.  And no one cost a lot of money.  So does it really matter?

As for Woodbey: ya he's always around the ball, fast, and seems to have a good quick strike.  He's making others expendable.

J. Jones was $120K. Whether he got any of that in advance IDK. He spent some time on the 1 game IR so it was an expensive issue.

D. Mitchell also got a lot of money upfront and then spent time on the 1 game IR and has only played 8 games so far. That wasn't an efficient use of SMS. It might still pay off but it's a bit of TBD.

[Tecno]

Meh, anything under $200k is budget.  Under $150k is mega-budget.  So many teams making splash FA for $300k, $250k, $200k.  We can sign 2-3 of our budget guys for one of those superstars.

I'm convinced we're swimming in SMS.  Not only have we not spent the $400k, but I doubt we've spent the original cap.

[Throw Long Bannatyne]

Meh, anything under $200k is budget.  Under $150k is mega-budget.  So many teams making splash FA for $300k, $250k, $200k.  We can sign 2-3 of our budget guys for one of those superstars.

I'm convinced we're swimming in SMS.  Not only have we not spent the $400k, but I doubt we've spent the original cap.

You have to account for the increased spending on the 1 game IR, were they've stashed healthy players for much of the season.  Vanterpool, Mitchell and Jon Jones being examples.

[theaardvark]

J. Jones was $120K. Whether he got any of that in advance IDK. He spent some time on the 1 game IR so it was an expensive issue.

D. Mitchell also got a lot of money upfront and then spent time on the 1 game IR and has only played 8 games so far. That wasn't an efficient use of SMS. It might still pay off but it's a bit of TBD.

If that's a concern on $SMS spending, we got off pretty easy.

For example, Edm paid the Fords a lot...

Every team is going to have some hits and misses on the $SMS front. 

For every J Jones, we have an Ayers...

[RebusRankin]

Meh, anything under $200k is budget.  Under $150k is mega-budget.  So many teams making splash FA for $300k, $250k, $200k.  We can sign 2-3 of our budget guys for one of those superstars.

I'm convinced we're swimming in SMS.  Not only have we not spent the $400k, but I doubt we've spent the original cap.

So 163,000 for Mitchell, 120,000 for Jones is fine? That's 283,000 that could have been spent elsewhere. Logan was what, at least another 120,000 so we're looking at over 400,000 in wasted $? That's likely 2 pretty impactful players we could have added.

[Tecno]

So 163,000 for Mitchell, 120,000 for Jones is fine? That's 283,000 that could have been spent elsewhere. Logan was what, at least another 120,000 so we're looking at over 400,000 in wasted $? That's likely 2 pretty impactful players we could have added.

In terms of what?  If we're just talking wasted SMS on IR, then Mitchell, who's actually been playing lately, is only partially sunk SMS.  J.Jones, ya, he's been a bit of a waste, but for whatever reason we wanted depth options.  I think Logan spent a sting on the 6G and he played a couple so that's really no SMS off our nose.

If you're talking "out FA was crap", then ya, it wasn't great.  But Vaughters was a great pick up.  Sterns is working out.  Mitchell is finally achieving.  As for Logan: no one could have known Vaval would be the next Grant.  If you go off only the knowledge we had in Feb, we made decent moves.  The only thing you can really complain about is we didn't do anything HUGE.  No $225k+ signings, etc.

[Throw Long Bannatyne]

So 163,000 for Mitchell, 120,000 for Jones is fine? That's 283,000 that could have been spent elsewhere. Logan was what, at least another 120,000 so we're looking at over 400,000 in wasted $? That's likely 2 pretty impactful players we could have added.

You can't use hindsight to justify this opinion, did you predict any of these FA signings wouldn't work out when they were originally signed?.

[RebusRankin]

In terms of what?  If we're just talking wasted SMS on IR, then Mitchell, who's actually been playing lately, is only partially sunk SMS.  J.Jones, ya, he's been a bit of a waste, but for whatever reason we wanted depth options.  I think Logan spent a sting on the 6G and he played a couple so that's really no SMS off our nose.

If you're talking "out FA was crap", then ya, it wasn't great.  But Vaughters was a great pick up.  Sterns is working out.  Mitchell is finally achieving.  As for Logan: no one could have known Vaval would be the next Grant.  If you go off only the knowledge we had in Feb, we made decent moves.  The only thing you can really complain about is we didn't do anything HUGE.  No $225k+ signings, etc.

Free agency was poor and yeah in hindsight we did a lousy job.

Vaughters has been ok, Sterns better than expected and Mitchell has had one good game. Logan = bust, Jones = bust, White = bust, Haggerty = bust.

[Pete]

to me the issue was all the players we signed were midlevel at best, and could have been and in some cases were easily replaced thru scouting instead at a reduced payroll.
What we needed to do is sign one or two impact players and rely on scouting to round the rest of our needs.
Hopefully weve learned from this.

[Blueforlife]

The criticism of our FA signings is overstated imo but many have stated that all year and that's ok.  Some wanted us to go all in this year, happy we didn't.  We did average on a budget and that's a win.  We had some insurance options that might have really came in handy.  Couple faces could still make a small impact late or in the playoffs.  I like the don't overpay mentality.  Sure couple guys didn't work out, that's ok.

[bunker]

You can't use hindsight to justify this opinion, did you predict any of these FA signings wouldn't work out when they were originally signed?.

Rebusrankin isn't getting paid hundreds of thousands of dollars to scout players and make the right decisions. He doesn't have an army of scouts who watch film on players. Walter does.

Logan had an injury history with Calgary. Mitchell played a position we already had Wheatfall slotted in for, and couldn't play slot, something that should have been apparent on film. Jones was signed at a salary commensurate with a starter, and couldn't even get on the roster. They were bad evaluations of players, and bad signings that wasted money. That's not a good thing for GMs to do. No ones perfect. But Walter's off season was his worst yet in a year we are hosting the cup. Not good enough.

[Tecno]

Vaughters has been ok, Sterns better than expected and Mitchell has had one good game. Logan = bust, Jones = bust, White = bust, Haggerty = bust.

Ya, wasn't great.  But Mitchell is getting better every game, and maybe starting to be what we wanted all along.  That TD grab was a really good route & catch.

White maybe would have stuck if Pokey hadn't returned.  Or maybe he was a bust due to age/injury -- again, hard to know unless you get him here and try him out for a while.

[Tecno]

Hopefully weve learned from this.

LOL.  An old KW doesn't change his spots.  Besides bringing Kenny home, the biggest FA splash in the last 5 years was ageing / IR-prone Ellingson(?).

We just don't pay out for big names like we used to with Willie, Biggie, AH33...

Well, maybe that will change when we're faced with needing a bucket of top OL in 0-2 seasons.  And... QB (eventually).

[Blue72]

Walters hasnt spent big in FA or any other time. Once someone wants more money he usually lets them go for another cheap player, Oline players gone and no one to replace them same goes for the Dline. Take a look at how many of our players went to Hammy. Our Oline and Dline are weak this year, but especially our backup QBs.

[Tecno]

Walters hasnt spent big in FA or any other time.

In the early years he did.  Basically up to 2019 he'd spend.  People remind me Big Stan & Yoshi didn't come cheap.  Plus the names I listed above.  He has spent "big" before.  Just not lately.

And we DO spend bigly(ish) on the Big Names in this club, like Brady, Zach, Willie, Demski, Schoen, etc.  The "loyalty pay" may account for the lack of funds to get even more huge FA grabs.  However, other teams do both, so why can't we?