Mike needs to look beyond Loyalty

[Blueforlife]

They signed everyone to 3 yr contracts. Bad move..  no need to produce. Look at the players they cut in training camp. Some were better never get called up...especially one was a good linebacker played good in exhibition but axed because he has to be twice as good as the guy at his position to overtake him.

I don't agree with any of this.  Least of our worries imo.

[Tecno]

especially one was a good linebacker played good in exhibition but axed because he has to be twice as good as the guy at his position to overtake him.

Ya, but the mafia way is to get looks at these guys, and only find spots for the stellar. The d.alfords and schoens.

But, if the guy is still around, I bet he gets picked up in roster expansion time, and is here at next camp. Then he might have hit the right timing window.

That's happened many times before. Mafia loves their guys that don't show quit.

[Throw Long Bannatyne]

Ya, but the mafia way is to get looks at these guys, and only find spots for the stellar. The d.alfords and schoens.

But, if the guy is still around, I bet he gets picked up in roster expansion time, and is here at next camp. Then he might have hit the right timing window.

That's happened many times before. Mafia loves their guys that don't show quit.

An increasing phenomenon could be players refusing to accept PR spots which messes with the Bombers tradition of indoctrination and succession. Some players like Griffin are elated by the PR offer, while others take it as an insult.  If the first 3 players turn down PR offers and the 4th accepts, are they really stockpiling their best recruited players or just fulfilling planned quotas with 3rd rate players?

[Tecno]

If the first 3 players turn down PR offers and the 4th accepts, are they really stockpiling their best recruited players or just fulfilling planned quotas with 3rd rate players?

One way to tell is if the guy we ditched goes to get on another CFL team.  Yes?  Then they are too good for PRs.  No?  Then we were right.  And then we've successfully weeded out the "FIFO undesirables".

[Throw Long Bannatyne]

One way to tell is if the guy we ditched goes to get on another CFL team.  Yes?  Then they are too good for PRs.  No?  Then we were right.  And then we've successfully weeded out the "FIFO undesirables".

Can't see how it's a good thing when they end up with players on the PR they fully intended to cut.  O'Shea confirmed 3 names that refused PR spots and moved on, good chance there was more.  As well as the obvious ones like Randolph and M-Bailey who emerged on other teams immediately, they were still in the Bombers plans.  There was the one linebacker that played exceptionally well in the pre-season who was not about to steal Tony Jones job this season but had a bright future, I can't even recall his name now. but everyone loved him.

[Tecno]

Can't see how it's a good thing when they end up with players on the PR they fully intended to cut.  O'Shea confirmed 3 names that refused PR spots and moved on, good chance there was more.  As well as the obvious ones like Randolph and M-Bailey who emerged on other teams immediately, they were still in the Bombers plans.  There was the one linebacker that played exceptionally well in the pre-season who was not about to steal Tony Jones job this season but had a bright future, I can't even recall his name now.

Sure.  But maybe there's more of an entitlement attitude among the latest gen that rubs Mafia the wrong way.  Back in the day you'd rarely hear about a newish guy refusing PR.

I wouldn't fret about Rand & Munier.  Rand was on his way out, and isn't even starting right now AFAIK.  Munier is just a GLOB and we like our NATs better because NATs can replace anyone, GLOBs can only replace IMPs.

We could have also used the RR (which we have empty most weeks) and didn't.

It could all be a function of overpaying in general, which Mafia is prone to doing -- no money leftover for RR ELCs or fake 1GIRs or whatever.  So all that's left is to let them walk.

At least the guys that remain (or come back next expansion) are more FI.

[Tecno]

I've added up my Tecno's Takes scores for week's 6, 8 & 9.  I excluded the OTT game only because I never scored it (yet?) because it was pretty vanilla.

My main goal is to see if there's something to the current consensus punching bugs: Stan, Kyrie, Nichols, Kelly, and my ones Nield & Dru.

BAD PLAYS (3 games):

stan 7
dru 7
kyrie 5
wallace 4.5
nichols 4
elgs 4
jones 3.5
holm 3.5
neuf 3.5
pokey 3
eli 2.5
brady 2.5
smith 2.5
griffin 2
vant 2
kelly 2
jackson 2
nield 2


GOOD PLAYS:

dru 21
brady 16.5
pokey 15
major 12.5
demski 11
white 11
willie 11
jones 9
perkins 9
kyrie 8.5
fletcher 6.5
kelly 6
smith 6
nield 5
holm 5
els 4
griffin 4
vant 4
stan 3.5
gatkouth 3.5
ceresna 3.5
vaval 3
cadwall 3
ike 2.5
neuf 2.5
daniels 2
kramdi 2
moxey 2
nichols 1.5

You have to think about the numbers a bit to interpret them, or you can jump to possibly incorrect conclusions.  For instance, if a DB has pretty low numbers in BOTH good/bad then that generally means he's darn good -- he's being ignored.  But if  REC has pretty low numbers in both then that could mean he's bad, because he's not open, not giving the QBs confidence, etc.  And if someone has lots of good and/or bad, make sure to subtract the opposite count to see if there's balance.

Analyzing the punching bags (bad / good play counts):

Stan 7/3.5 (Wall 4.5/1.5, Els 1/4, Neuf 3.5/2.5, Vant 2/4)
Yes, Stan has the worst bad count, and an average good count, so there's clearly something to the theory Stan is a liability now.  Els is the best(!), and Vant has not enough looks to know yet.

Nield 2/5 (Pokey 3/15, White 1/11, Demski 1/11, rest invisible)
Nield has more good than bad, but he's a half to a third as as useful as the "big 3".  (Remember, I include blocks in the grades too.)

Kyrie 5/8.5 (Jones 3.5/9, Griffin 2/4, Smith 2.5/6)
Kyrie is a mixed bag.  He's the biggest LB liability, but he also makes about as many good plays as Jones.  So it's tough to know if you'd do better without him.

Nichols 4/1.5 (Moxey 1.5/2, Holm 3.5/5, Major 1.5/12.5)
Yes, Nichols is a major liability.  Moxey is at least somewhat even and often ignored.  Major is insane good and gets a lot of work.

Kelly 2/6
Kelly's not sucking as bad as we may think, especially seeing as how he's a "backup" and probably shouldn't be starting in a sane world.

Dru 7/21 (Elgs 4/0)
Dru is overall ok.  But his 7 bad play sum has an outsized impact as each bad is generally a non-conversion or an INT/fumble.  It would be interesting to see how Zach scores out after his next 3 games.  If you were to run the same math for a guy like Alexander, it would be like 3/100 -- good QBs make more outstanding plays and limit the garbage.  (Aside: Elgs does nothing good.)

Bottom line: bench Nichols & Stan, the peanut gallery is right.  Probably bench Kyrie & Nield (and the "2 C's").  Kelly put back to 2nd safety (when you have Kramdi or Allen).

Not discussed: Fletcher & Willie are doing great.  Ceresna is very quiet with his double-teams, but needs to learn to shed.  The other DL very quiet, which probably isn't good for DL.

[Blueforlife]

Now we need # reps each LB for the season 

[Jesse]

Can't see how it's a good thing when they end up with players on the PR they fully intended to cut.  O'Shea confirmed 3 names that refused PR spots and moved on, good chance there was more.  As well as the obvious ones like Randolph and M-Bailey who emerged on other teams immediately, they were still in the Bombers plans.  There was the one linebacker that played exceptionally well in the pre-season who was not about to steal Tony Jones job this season but had a bright future, I can't even recall his name now. but everyone loved him.

I mean, this is just the way it is.

[Throw Long Bannatyne]

Sure.  But maybe there's more of an entitlement attitude among the latest gen that rubs Mafia the wrong way.  Back in the day you'd rarely hear about a newish guy refusing PR.

I wouldn't fret about Rand & Munier.  Rand was on his way out, and isn't even starting right now AFAIK.  Munier is just a GLOB and we like our NATs better because NATs can replace anyone, GLOBs can only replace IMPs.

We could have also used the RR (which we have empty most weeks) and didn't.

It could all be a function of overpaying in general, which Mafia is prone to doing -- no money leftover for RR ELCs or fake 1GIRs or whatever.  So all that's left is to let them walk.

At least the guys that remain (or come back next expansion) are more FI.

Could be players that are refusing PR spots are acting on their agents advice, either that or they have commitments or relations in the US they want to get back to, taking care of families and such.