Jaylen Smith

[Blue In BC]

|I dont see Smith as a mlb able to take on running backs head on..I do think he could be a top notch sam or even weak side lb. He made some good strides ty and I expect even more for '27
Id like us to bring in a guy like Nyles Morgan at ML or even Josh Woods.
Id also look at Webb out of calgary for the safety position, I think he could impact our d much like Alexander did

What we do in free agency will be important on deciding the rest. Potentially there are several top LB's that might become available. I wanted to take a shot at getting Woods in free agency last year.

[BLUEBOMBER]

When will the Bombers send Younger packing. He is best suited as a secondary coach... he has no interest in LBs..

[Tecno]

When will the Bombers send Younger packing. He is best suited as a secondary coach... he has no interest in LBs..

While I'm not calling for Younger's head (yet), I agree that to Younger the DL and LB are distant concerns -- not integral parts of pass stop.  That's why on "passing downs" he brings in his max-coverage "all-dbs" sets.

It seems like he leaves all DL scheme to Fatboi.  I bet his only instruction to him is "try to get pressure".  And we basically never see the "drop back the LBers" Hall tricks on first down anymore.  So unless it's the max-coverage set I bet he just leaves the 2 LBers on 1st downs to their unit coach with his only instruction being "stop the run".

[Throw Long Bannatyne]

While I'm not calling for Younger's head (yet), I agree that to Younger the DL and LB are distant concerns -- not integral parts of pass stop.  That's why on "passing downs" he brings in his max-coverage "all-dbs" sets.

It seems like he leaves all DL scheme to Fatboi.  I bet his only instruction to him is "try to get pressure".  And we basically never see the "drop back the LBers" Hall tricks on first down anymore.  So unless it's the max-coverage set I bet he just leaves the 2 LBers on 1st downs to their unit coach with his only instruction being "stop the run".

2025's top defensive complaint was the pathetic 3-man rush, I believe they handled that criticism rather well.  The D held down the fort in 2026, time for the offense to step up and put more footballs in the endzone.

[Tecno]

2025's top defensive complaint was the pathetic 3-man rush, I believe they handled that criticism rather well.  The D held down the fort in 2026, time for the offense to step up and put more footballs in the endzone.

Ya, and the funny part about '26 is I don't think we changed the O/D $ allocation in favor of the D at all.  If anything, we may have gone cheaper on D (%-wise) than in '25.  Ceresna was really the only expensive piece added.

I would guess increasing the O SMS % would help solve some O problems... but it would be nice to keep the same % (or more) on D.  It's all a balancing act.

Maybe Younger's D really does take an entire season to look good... MOS kinda sorta tacitly admits this in his recent pressers: "took longer than we would like"