Retiring QB's?

[peg_city]

Paying Brady 200-240K isn't the issue. It's paying Collaros 600K. He's worth maybe 450K. There is the saving right there. You can probably give the difference to Dru Brown and retain both...

[bunker]

Drew Brown was making 355-400,000 this year depending on incentives. He's under contract for next year, and is constantly injured. So we can't afford to pay our 2 QBs 850,000 (assuming Zach would take a 150,000 pay cut, which I doubt), Brown isn't available (yet), and I'm not sure I want to tie our future to an injury prone QB who cannot stay healthy, and was fairly mediocre this year. I think our best best, since there is no QB available currently who is hands down better than Zach, is to go with him next year, but with a much better O-line. He looked much better when he got time to make plays. If Ottawa cuts Brown, then it might be worth having a look at him at a reduced salary. Taylor Powell is another option. Who's the better QB out of the 3 right now? I'm not even sure.

[Pete]

Paying Brady 200-240K isn't the issue. It's paying Collaros 600K. He's worth maybe 450K. There is the saving right there. You can probably give the difference to Dru Brown and retain both...

Brady isn't taking a pay cut, he made 240k last year and likely looking at 250-270k this year
Collaros contract was just negotiated this year so can't see him taking 450k. Only way we take on Brown is by moving Zac (note Zac's contract for 2025 had 100k bonus on Jan 15, plus 250k guaranteed, if the 2026 one is similar then we are really stuck)
As for not paying brown  400k as hes injury prone, we paid Zac 600k with his medical record

[Throw Long Bannatyne]

Brady isn't taking a pay cut, he made 240k last year and likely looking at 250-270k this year
Collaros contract was just negotiated this year so can't see him taking 450k. Only way we take on Brown is by moving Zac (note Zac's contract for 2025 had 100k bonus on Jan 15, plus 250k guaranteed, if the 2026 one is similar then we are really stuck)
As for not paying brown  400k as hes injury prone, we paid Zac 600k with his medical record

Zach tricked Walters by re-negotiating before TC opened, than proceeded to under perform in the majority of his appearances this season with the added bonus that one solid hit often knocked him right out of the game.  I'd make him a take or leave offer for $400k and see if he doesn't blink.

[Tecno]

Of course you can't build a contender only in free agency, we need to improve our scouting big time. But its still a piece of the puzzle.

For sure.  But scouting is always a gamble/crapshoot.  And we're not bad at it (even now).  We'll average 1 star-level find a season.  That's pretty good.

If a team is finding 2-3 star ELCs then they probably just had a really lucky year (MTL in 2023 for instance).

What really sucks is we seem completely incapable of scouting star OL talent.  Our IMP ELC track record is crap.  All of our good ones were stolen from other teams, and our scouted/dev IMPs yielded nothing useful.

[Pete]

Zach tricked Walters by re-negotiating before TC opened, than proceeded to under perform in the majority of his appearances this season with the added bonus that one solid hit often knocked him right out of the game.  I'd make him a take or leave offer for $400k and see if he doesn't blink.

yeah but if he has the 250k guarantee do you walk away from that? It all depends on what Zac negotiated.

[Tecno]

If Brady wants 300,000, let him walk. I think the O-line is more important to the rushing game (not to mention the passing game) than the RB, and he's expendable. 

This would appear to be true, most years.  Look at the 2 GC teams this year: both have league-top OLs and mediocre RBs.  MTL's RBs are nobodies who won't even be in the league in 4 seasons.  Oullette isn't great, he only does well because he has always had a league-top OL making the holes.

HAM & BC had beter RBs but worse OLs, and as such could barely run the ball in the DF's.

All of our success came when we had a great RB plus a great OL.  I think if you have to downgrade one, it would probably be RB.  Ideally you have both and no one gets super greedy.

[tlf]

Drew Brown was making 355-400,000 this year depending on incentives. He's under contract for next year, and is constantly injured. So we can't afford to pay our 2 QBs 850,000 (assuming Zach would take a 150,000 pay cut, which I doubt), Brown isn't available (yet), and I'm not sure I want to tie our future to an injury prone QB who cannot stay healthy, and was fairly mediocre this year. I think our best best, since there is no QB available currently who is hands down better than Zach, is to go with him next year, but with a much better O-line. He looked much better when he got time to make plays. If Ottawa cuts Brown, then it might be worth having a look at him at a reduced salary. Taylor Powell is another option. Who's the better QB out of the 3 right now? I'm not even sure.

Dru Brown is not good.  I'll pass. You all think ZC, who got us to multiple Grey Cups and won two, is bad ..imagine how you all would think of Dru Brown behind our Oline lol.

ZC is also a natural leader.  I don't see that in Brown.

[dd]

Dru Brown is not good.  I'll pass. You all think ZC, who got us to multiple Grey Cups and won two, is bad ..imagine how you all would think of Dru Brown behind our Oline lol.

ZC is also a natural leader.  I don't see that in Brown.

Agree. Pass on Brown, but I'd take Crum here as our #2 and see how things go in a year. He was better than Brown this year in my books, rarely turns the ball over, moved the ball for them, can run if flushed and would offer that aspect of the game we haven't seen here in decades.

[Tecno]

Keep in mind Brady talked a lot in the last presser about him wanting the core group of guys around, and the only names he named are: Zach, Stan, Neuf.

If you want to keep Brady, you need to assure him those 3 are staying.  Not saying we should bow to his "blackmail", but it's something to keep in mind.

My money is on all 3 staying anyhow.  And I bet when one of them goes, they all go -- so when Stan retires, so will Neuf and vice versa.  Probably Zach too.

[Jesse]

Keep in mind Brady talked a lot in the last presser about him wanting the core group of guys around, and the only names he named are: Zach, Stan, Neuf.

If you want to keep Brady, you need to assure him those 3 are staying.  Not saying we should bow to his "blackmail", but it's something to keep in mind.

My money is on all 3 staying anyhow.  And I bet when one of them goes, they all go -- so when Stan retires, so will Neuf and vice versa.  Probably Zach too.

Zach and Stan are leaving together. They've said as much a few times.

[Blue In BC]

we may not have a choice, as you indicated quality cdn linemen aren't plentiful. If you want to upgrade your oline (which we very much need to do) your gonna have to shell out. Im not sure its an overpay if thats what the market is for those players. For example did Hamilton overpay for Dobson, the bombers obviously thought so as they werent in the same ballpark

Yes we have issues with our OL. I don't know whether Lofton was expected to start at RT before he got injured. He may not be back and already lost ground to Randolph.  Wallace was a 1st year starter and there were going to be bumps in the road.

I don't think the issues we had at receiver helped. Injuries, not having Wilson in the early going. Receivers ability to block as a group is in question.

It's not all on the OL.

We let Dobson walk. The Redblack OL was not very good either and they had Desjarlias. Brown was hit more often than Collaros. Collaros is in decline, missed some games and didn't finish some others. Oliveria missed some games.

I'm all for improving our OL but it's not at any cost kind of issue IMO.

Every team out of the play offs has listed 25-35 potential free agents. We'll see who is available by the time free agency starts.  We have 5 OL listed as potential free agents. Not everyone will choose to stay. Not every one will be automatically wanted back.

[Blue In BC]

Back to QB's. Does anyone know more of the details of the extension Collaros signed? Did he get a raise or did he get more early money to reduce his tax load? What is the guaranteed money and what is it based on?

The Bombers are in a tough position. They don't have an alternative, he's not an asset in trade due to the contract. It may be a large SMS hit if they even wanted to cut him for no return.

I'm not suggesting they trade or cut him but do think they need to work out a better deal for the team. That may not be better for Collaros but it's the nature of the sport.

[dd]

Back to QB's. Does anyone know more of the details of the extension Collaros signed? Did he get a raise or did he get more early money to reduce his tax load? What is the guaranteed money and what is it based on?

The Bombers are in a tough position. They don't have an alternative, he's not an asset in trade due to the contract. It may be a large SMS hit if they even wanted to cut him for no return.

I'm not suggesting they trade or cut him but do think they need to work out a better deal for the team. That may not be better for Collaros but it's the nature of the sport.

I agree in principle but this is Collaros s last season, I doubt he takes a pay cut as the deal has already been done, and what are our options if we don't bring him back, terry wilson ??

[RebusRankin]

Walters messed up by extending Zach early. Zach wasn't really good in 24 either. Reality is he's 16-14 with 34 td passes and 31 ints over the past two seasons. That's not worth 600k.