Younger's defense

[Blueforlife]

Nichols had lost a step last year and has lost another one this year. He'd be okay playing in Saskatchewan but it's really hard playing in our secondary in our system. It's easily the hardest defensive back assignment in the league and it's not particularly close. Younger needs four Evan Holm clones. I really have no idea why everyone loves Kramdi. He has always been an average player who gets outsized respect because he's a Canadian who can play a bit in a spot where usually they don't, but I have to say he's also a very average SAM and, so far, a pretty below average safety. And if you don't believe me, just follow the move: he's such a good SAM they moved him to safety this year and they only did that because of his passport.

Not a fair assessment in imo.  A very good LB that we developed and was on a steady progression.  Unfortunately due to injuries and lack of depth at safety he was required to change positions.  Agree not a good safety.  A proven veteran who communicates exceptionally well.  Overstating the negative on him and under valuing his prior and future worth to the club (as a LB).  The defense went through a big change, let it simmer before we dump on one of our core.

Not everyone loves Kramdi, that's your opinion, not backed by facts.  I love him lol (at LB).  If you made a poll on that, it would be fairly divisive result.

Canadians always have and always will be a critical part of this great league.  Your anti Canadian talent bias doesn't help sell your arguments imo.  An over used narrative imo.  I don't agree his move to safety is only due to his passport as suggested.

Not a fair characterization of Younger's D.  It's strength is its ability to allow a heavy rotation and plenty of reps for most of the AR.  It has found success with a lot of different players.  Does he ask a lot of his players, absolutely.  Is it as hard to play here as you suggest, likely not.  Players (past and present Bombers) would be the ones that would answer that with any validity.

I believe we need a safety and need to put Kramdi back at home at LB.

Might be right about Nichols.  My buddy seen that last year, I was hoping he was wrong.

A good take of your opinion here but lacking factual backing in some areas imo.  Makes for a good debate, curious on the herds take.

I would love to know from the Bomber brass if Kramdi was penciled in early for safety or was a backup plan.  Gut tells me they thought he might be the answer there as they develop the next gen and seeing how deep we are at LB.

[Sir Blue and Gold]

...Think whatever you want but teams don't move Canadians playing at very high levels at their positions. Kramdi got moved because he got beat out and you have to get beat pretty conclusively for them to move you because "good enough" still works for a lot of nationals.

Either that or you have to admit that Younger, who you think is the bees knees, took a look at an all star Canadian SAM and moved him to safety just to see how he'd do. As much as I don't love Younger he isn't that bad. It's the former.

And your buddy apparently knows football, you should listen to him.

[Blueforlife]

...Think whatever you want but teams don't move Canadians playing at very high levels at their positions. Kramdi got moved because he got beat out and you have to get beat pretty conclusively for them to move you because "good enough" still works for a lot of nationals.

Either that or you have to admit that Younger, who you think is the bees knees, took a look at an all star Canadian SAM and moved him to safety just to see how he'd do. As much as I don't love Younger he isn't that bad. It's the former.

And your buddy apparently knows football, you should listen to him.

Please inform us who is or was a better option at safety on our roster?

Your 1st narrative was he got moved because he was Canadian, now you are changing the channel that he got beat out..... You failed to counter any of my points or arguments.  Very telling.

Kramdi, was, is and will continue to be a good to great Canadian LB in the league and I believe will be retained as a Bomber for years to come as SMS allows. I don't think he is the answer at safety but you never know he has proven some on here wrong for years after some early heavy criticism.  I seen promise from the very early days.

Your anti Canadian bias is showing clearly in your assessment of Kramdi.  You are simply are overstating the negative about his role as leader and core member of this ball club over a very long period of incredibly good defense.  He has shown the ability to get better each year.  He doesn't get hurt, has some stats on teams.  I believe is well respected by his coaches, teammates and management.  He isn't a star but steady, reliable and a reasonable value. He has had some very good games for us.

Facts are presented below.
Redha Kramdi - CFL.ca https://share.google/eWfGxa9o1Xx1hpodi

Yes my buddy knows CFL ball and so do I, please keep the personal shots out of this.  And yes I will listen to him and so will he to I.  That's how one learns by considering other people's points of view.  I have been going to games with him for decades.

Younger nor Kramdi is our problem on D.  We need a safety with experience and time for our new faces to adjust to their new team and schemes.  We need to allow young players to grow through learning from their mistakes.  We need patience when there seams to be very little by some on here.  We need to make some adjustments on our schemes.  We need vet players to step up and be consistent with their assignments.  We need our young studs to start to flash.  We need to get healthy.  We can discount or forget what brought us great success for a long time, while adjusting both in season and in game. 

Lots of opinions here imo, without factual evidence at time yet again. Agree to disagree.  Yes we all think what we want. 

 

[Sir Blue and Gold]

You get offended by the silliest things. If he was our best SAM linebacker, he'd be playing SAM, ya? OR has Younger moved out best SAM to safety? It can't be both. And before you say we have the best players everywhere: please review what the defense has given up in two games.

[Blueforlife]

You get offended by the silliest things. If he was our best SAM linebacker, he'd be playing SAM, ya? OR has Younger moved out best SAM to safety? It can't be both. And before you say we have the best players everywhere: please review what the defense has given up in two games.

I get offended when the same people resort to same personal remarks time and time again, when we all come here to talk ball.

We are deep at LB.  Kramdi had played some FS last year.  We didn't have a good option at FS due to lack of depth, experience and injury.

I see our starting LBs and Kramdi pretty close in terms of abilities. I like them all, all four have different pros and cons, strengths etc.  I seen Knox at that level as well.  Wilson been a fav. of mine, who I defended when his stock was down (injuries).

Like some other posters, hyper focused on two games.  Means almost nothing imo. 

Who is a better option at FS?

Which was it now? He was moved to FS because he was Cdn or because he got beat out.  Your story changed quickly there.

Not buying what you are selling but that's ok, we will not see eye to eye on this one and likely best to move on.

I never said we had the best players everywhere.  Such a stretch there and shows weakness in your position.

We will not know much about this ball club to 1/4 or 1/2 way.  2 games in wow.  Check the sky,  too early to say its falling.

[gobombersgo]

[Tecno]

The other thing that gets lost in the discussion of the defense is that football is ultimately entertainment. Obviously its more fun when we win, but for me, how we win affects my enjoyment of the game. If we play a soft, prevent defense all game, with no pressure on the QB and no physicality, but eak out win, it lacks the same satisfaction

We could win with our D all wearing pink tutus and doing a ballet at the 55 all game and I'd still be overjoyed we won.  Same reason I'm overjoyed if we win 59 to 0. Don't care -- Just win.

(But I do get what you are saying!)

[Tecno]

I agree. We've seen more four man pressures this year but we're playing soft zones behind that are being shredded.  There seems to be an unwillingness to play man coverage; maybe that's due to a lack in confidence regarding personnel, or philosophy or both.

But think back to prior seasons.  Don't we often start the year with way more zone because we feel it takes the DBs a long time to acclimatize to the system and/or get better at man?  Usually that means the new guys/rookies.

MOS/Hall have referenced this in the past.  At one time, many years ago, they would talk how they didn't have the talent to do man at all.  Like '14-'17.

It could be MOS/Younger/Hall are not ready to let the dogs "off leash" yet.  We could see a completely different D when the braintrust finally decides to do so.  In general, with a MOS team, you do see the D get better as the season goes on.  And often they come out as a fairly highly-rated D.

My beef with this is HAM, MTL, SSK have already taken that leash off and are play mid-Oct ball.  We don't have the time to wait.

[Tecno]

If so this a big fail on Walters. We are paying huge money in our secondary. Holm,Nichols and Kramdi all making 180,000 per year, and I would bet Moxey is making at least 120-130,000 as a free agent signing, maybe more. We likely have the highest paid secondary in the league.

Not sure about that.  SSK has to pay Sayles and Milligan, who are arguably better than all but Holm.  MTL paid big for Ento and some of the others.  That said, we may be the highest total, but it's not by a ton.  Yes, the fact that we are that expensive means they should produce more.

[Tecno]

I am hard on Younger and some of you like him but that last point is, for my money, undeniably true and the biggest problem on that side of the ball over the last year and half. It been three years and he's done one thing well and that one thing is being increasingly countered by OCs/QBs who have put in the time.

This is one of my biggest beefs with Mafia & crew the last 2-ish seasons.  It really seems like they simply aren't putting in the time it takes to be a top team and beat the top teams.  You can tell SSK/HAM/MTL have been doing it.  I bet those guys (Mace, Milanovitch, et al) spent 14-hours a day in the off-season figuring out how to beat their main rivals and overcome any 2025 issues.

When Mafia spouts about the "one week at a time" mantra, I think they are telling us the truth: they only put thought & effort into each game for 1 week before that game.  No high-brain is sitting there in Feb thinking up ways to beat the SSK dink & dunk.  And that's exactly what it will take to beat it.  And so we will lose.

[Tecno]

Sir B&G's comments hint at another aspect of what we seem to do.  Our D fairly often gets success on 1st down: either an incomplete or a sack or TFL.  We seem aggressive on 1st.  But right after that we go into some weird "prevent D" on 2nd.  Everything mega-soft and our weird/stupid zone getting easily fooled & cleared by smart routes.  Then O's take the 10-14Y we give them -- and there's always one.

Have we ever followed up a successful 1st down with the same aggressiveness?  I didn't see it.  Teams know they'll have all day on that 2nd and long.  In fact, I think we may be much better at protecting a 2nd & short pass compared to this because we know we have to play tighter!

It's super frustrating.  It means all of those great sacks & pressures & batdowns are.for.nothing.

[Blueforlife]

makes some good points here tecno, thanks for the take, I don't agree with all of it but a good read

Younger nailed it, we got nailed by Bo.  Hopefully we can learn from it.  Younger still looks in good shape.

[Sir Blue and Gold]

This is one of my biggest beefs with Mafia & crew the last 2-ish seasons.  It really seems like they simply aren't putting in the time it takes to be a top team and beat the top teams.  You can tell SSK/HAM/MTL have been doing it.  I bet those guys (Mace, Milanovitch, et al) spent 14-hours a day in the off-season figuring out how to beat their main rivals and overcome any 2025 issues.

When Mafia spouts about the "one week at a time" mantra, I think they are telling us the truth: they only put thought & effort into each game for 1 week before that game.  No high-brain is sitting there in Feb thinking up ways to beat the SSK dink & dunk.  And that's exactly what it will take to beat it.  And so we will lose.

I don't think that's true at all. In season, for the purposes of in-game execution/focus, I think it's a moment-to-moment mentality especially for the players and coordinators. I think in the off-season and even during the season for the head coach and above, there's quite a bit more self-scouting/competition scouting and scenario planning.

[Blue In BC]

Sir B&G's comments hint at another aspect of what we seem to do.  Our D fairly often gets success on 1st down: either an incomplete or a sack or TFL.  We seem aggressive on 1st.  But right after that we go into some weird "prevent D" on 2nd.  Everything mega-soft and our weird/stupid zone getting easily fooled & cleared by smart routes.  Then O's take the 10-14Y we give them -- and there's always one.

Have we ever followed up a successful 1st down with the same aggressiveness?  I didn't see it.  Teams know they'll have all day on that 2nd and long.  In fact, I think we may be much better at protecting a 2nd & short pass compared to this because we know we have to play tighter!

It's super frustrating.  It means all of those great sacks & pressures & batdowns are.for.nothing.

We had an issue with having the opponent in 2nd and long or very long for a couple of years. I don't know what's going on but it almost seems a given that a team with 2nd and 20 will succeed.

[Pete]

The flats are continuosly open on 2nd down, they toss for 7 yds , reciever makes  more and its 3rd and inches.
I've been harping on this but we need a proper safety back in coverage to back up secondary to all our dbs to be more aggressive