Who is untouchable with the rebuild?

[Cool Spot]

Kelly has been clean two years. I used to hate him also but I really like winning and really Rourke, Alexander and Kelly are going to be the ones winning cups for the next few years. With Kelly being available you have to find a way.

Unless the Bombers fix their Offensive Line woes, it won't matter which QB they poach - they won't be able to provide the required 3 seconds of protection, and any of these QB's performance would dropoff unless they had a super-quick release (on every play?) or were extremely scrambly (which increases their chances of injury).

[bunker]

Agreed.  Especially since we may not have any choice but to stick with Dru (or Zach -- but same problem).  Unless we get a mobile QB, we need to get back to the days of having the best OL.  Then take a page out of SSK's 2025 playbook and understand we can skimp at REC -- both $ and ratio.  I think SSK's woes this season are partly caused by a worsening of their OL.  That short-only no-mobility scheme only works with the best OL.

I thought Sask's O-line has been fine. They lost Meyers to the NFL, all their other best receivers have been out with injuries, Thor has been injured, and Harris is a year older.

[bunker]

Unless the Bombers fix their Offensive Line woes, it won't matter which QB they poach - they won't be able to provide the required 3 seconds of protection, and any of these QB's performance would dropoff unless they had a super-quick release (on every play?) or were extremely scrambly (which increases their chances of injury).

I think Alexander or Rourke would instantly make our O-line look better. But they will not be available. So I agree that beefing up the O-line as much as possible is the way to go. Having more high draft picks would have helped start the process, unfortunately.

[markf]

Unless the Bombers fix their Offensive Line woes, it won't matter which QB they poach - they won't be able to provide the required 3 seconds of protection, and any of these QB's performance would dropoff unless they had a super-quick release (on every play?) or were extremely scrambly (which increases their chances of injury).

Remember Michael Reilly with the Lions?

[Jesse]

You're dreaming.

You probably would have said the same thing about paying Brady 300k before it happened.

[Waffler]

Unless the Bombers fix their Offensive Line woes, it won't matter which QB they poach - they won't be able to provide the required 3 seconds of protection, and any of these QB's performance would dropoff unless they had a super-quick release (on every play?) or were extremely scrambly (which increases their chances of injury).

Does Walters say "we can't sign a QB, the oline isn't ready for that"? I picture Kelly throwing balls all over PAS. In that picture I see two more Grey Cups and I feel happy inside. 

[Blueforlife]

Over paying for Kelly would be a mistake imo, he is good but he will get top $ and better of letting Ottawa do that.

I think Techno has made some good points in the other discussions here.

[Waffler]

Over paying for Kelly would be a mistake imo, he is good but he will get top $ and better of letting Ottawa do that.

QB is the one place you have to overpay unless you have developed a guy in your own system.

I see the next 6 Grey Cups: 2 for Rourke, 2 for Alexander and 2 for Kelly (provided he doesn't waste his career in Ottawa). I see zero for anyone else. That's why I would over pay and be happy.

I recall Cal Murphy over paying for Dunigan. No cups but we were in the mix every year and arguably should have won one.

[dd]

One thing I've noticed for a while now, is that we always seem undersized compared to the top teams.  You see their D operate and it's these hulking beasts that have no problem pushing OL to close run holes or collapse the pocket, or LBs that can stuff our run dead on first hit.  Then our D can't push anyone around, can't close run holes, and LBers aren't beefy enough to stop runners dead.

Similar thing on O, including the OL.

It's like the other teams took our players at like-for-like positions and added 25 lbs to every last one.  And it seems to be causing us a huge disadvantage.

Watch the MTL game and note MTL's run game.  Everyone is that much beefier and so Scott, who isn't very good, gets 10 on each carry.  Then watch Brady who has to move heaven and earth to get 7 and most often gets 1-3.  It's because everyone involved on our side is a bit weaker, and everyone on the MTL side is a bit stronger.

Extremely aggravating.

In theory you don't need to be the beefiest, as speed & brains can kill too, but on average it seems to be important -- especially when we aren't super fast or smart either!!

Maybe Chris Jones was right on all the teams he built here: just hire the biggest, tallest, beefiest, thuggiest guys you can and beat the tar out of the other team -- to heck with any other attribute.

My point?  I think, as we replace the aging-out players, we need to purposely seek out bigger guys, even at the expense of MOS-desired attributes.  I guess we made a small start with this with Daniels.  But we need to go further, especially on D, and especially as you get closer to the LoS.

You can't get much bigger than Gabe Wallace, the guys huge, but slow. Patty Neufeld isn't the biggest guy on the planet but man he plays a mean and nasty game. Bryant is sloooooooow, so when you pair him with Wallace, you have a really slow left side of the line, any wonder teams are attacking us there??

Simple solution is to move Broxton to LT and Stan to RT, but apparently that isn't as simple as one would think, we should have done this 3 games into the season not with the playoffs on the line.

[Throw Long Bannatyne]

One thing I've noticed for a while now, is that we always seem undersized compared to the top teams.  You see their D operate and it's these hulking beasts that have no problem pushing OL to close run holes or collapse the pocket, or LBs that can stuff our run dead on first hit.  Then our D can't push anyone around, can't close run holes, and LBers aren't beefy enough to stop runners dead.

Similar thing on O, including the OL.

It's like the other teams took our players at like-for-like positions and added 25 lbs to every last one.  And it seems to be causing us a huge disadvantage.

Watch the MTL game and note MTL's run game.  Everyone is that much beefier and so Scott, who isn't very good, gets 10 on each carry.  Then watch Brady who has to move heaven and earth to get 7 and most often gets 1-3.  It's because everyone involved on our side is a bit weaker, and everyone on the MTL side is a bit stronger.

Extremely aggravating.

In theory you don't need to be the beefiest, as speed & brains can kill too, but on average it seems to be important -- especially when we aren't super fast or smart either!!

Maybe Chris Jones was right on all the teams he built here: just hire the biggest, tallest, beefiest, thuggiest guys you can and beat the tar out of the other team -- to heck with any other attribute.

My point?  I think, as we replace the aging-out players, we need to purposely seek out bigger guys, even at the expense of MOS-desired attributes.  I guess we made a small start with this with Daniels.  But we need to go further, especially on D, and especially as you get closer to the LoS.

They talked about the Als size on the CJOB pre or post game show, in addition to running 5 and 6 man O-lines in max protect, they have 2 huge TE's that they sometimes play together in addition to keeping the RB into block. 

In that scenario they might be down to 3 receivers on a passing play but Alexander is still able to complete passes with pinpoint accuracy. Now you knock out Alexander and put in Crumm and this scheme likely doesn't work so well.