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Tevin Jones is kind of the exact player we need. Just kind of a reliable, do everything kind of receiver. Like Bailey who we never replaced. IMO Rhymes is no better than Wheatfall at this stage, kind of just good at one thing, struggles in short-intermediate to be productive.

I've known you for 25 years and that's the first I'm hearing of this......

I’d take Rhymes. Sterns and Brooks are basically the same player. Same age, same size, same numbers. Only difference is Brooks is in a better offense. Jones is the kind of guy this site would be complaining about us not trying to upgrade from. Old and just ok.

I feel like we are getting to make or break time with Strevy as well. It's not exactly a fair situation for him, but it never really is at QB. Zach is banged up again this year, and his stats are heavily padded based off 1 game vs Edm. Take that game away, and in 5 starts Zach has: 69% completion, 687 passing yards for 137 per game, 7.3 yards per attempt, with 4 passing tds, and 8 picks. 8 picks on 96 attempts is wild. He did get pulled twice for injury, but that only makes it worse. Game 1, Strevy was really solid. 246, 3 tds 1 int, 10.3 per attempt, last week in junk time throwing under the D he was solid as well. We would've been in the last game with a full start from Strev imo. Even though his production was padded by the situation. The 2nd Calgary game, where Strevy came in, was ugly though. Strev isn't going to get a clear shot at replacing Zach. It'll have to be a game like this where he steps up and overperforms in a tough spot.

Yeah, we can't say that. What we can say is that our commitment to Fodder has prevented us from getting all-star-level players. Of course, we could not have filled all our gaps with All-Stars the last 2 years. But we could've filled a couple. The way we run the roster has taken us out of the free agent market. On top of that, it takes us out of the ability to develop younger guys. Right now, I think Tony Jones is going to be in the conversation for All-Star at Lber. (flawed system as it is) He's on track for 111 tackles and 9 sacks. He only got a shot here because Biggie got hurt. Biggie stayed healthy but ineffective last year. Tony Jones doesn't happen. Now he's not a great player or a top 5 lber imo, but he is worlds better than late stages biggie was. That camp was loaded with extremely talented young Lbers worth developing. But we cut 'em to ride with Biggie. We are still sitting on Ayers, unwilling to give him a role/chance. We've all seen that with long-in-the-tooth vets. But also with random non-bomber vets. Josh Johnsons, Tyquan Glass', Rock Cartwrights, Kelvin McKnights, the marine etc. So many guys get all the rope in the world only for us to eventually admit defeat when we could've made moves monthes earlier and improved instantly. 100%, guys need to play in-game to see what they can do. We hit diminishing returns so hard on guys riding the bench. I think it's most of those points. We aren't doing a great job of developing guys, and guys aren't chomping at the bit for spots because it doesn't happen unless an injury forces it. We need to be cycling imp WRs especially. This is Sterns 3rd season in the cfl. We can't protect him from competition and he isn't winning his spot.

Yeah I'm not gonna pretend to know everything, but I do know that we've dressed guys who haven't taken a single snap in a game, I know situations like hecht at safety... Hurl at MLB... these guys don't always dress the best. Guys like kolankowski I'd be trying damned hard to replace rather than them being bullet proof as one example.

I'd take any two out of Rhymes, Jones or Brooks over Sterns and Wheatfall.

I'd take Philpot as well but he is on the 1 game with Alford WRs for the Stamps are Rhymes, Tevin Jones, Brooks, Erik Baldwin, Kaylen Horton and Vyshonne Janusas... 3 rookies, a 2nd year guy and then 2 vets.

Think we have the worst WR core in the league. Schoen, going Robert Gordon alone is enough to drop us into the bottom bracket. The rest is just salt in the wound. If Wilson came back, that would make us much better than we are, but I think we'd be mid-tier at best then. The job Schoen and Lawler used to do was the most important for Zach in the passing game. We need to find a guy who can make hay over the middle and excel in 50/50 situations. A few guys can do that a little, but not full-time at a high level.

It is a big difference actually. between lining up as a pass catcher or running a downfield route, or catching a quick pass behind the line. Exactly, because the offense hasn't changed much since then. The ball distribution is identical. We heavily depend on the same IZR play very heavily, and check down to the back in extended hand-offs frequently. "...but the O no longer runs primarily through the RB, both passing and running, the way it did when Andrew Harris was starting." Not only did that not happen, but we are almost identical in the volume and way we use our back. The biggest change in our offence from 17/18 to now is that Zach will frequently take deep shots. Nichols tried to take some of the same shots, but didn't have the ability to throw deep like Zach does. The change from Nichols (and Strev) to Zach is a ridiculous amount of change we've seen. Not the change of 3 Cos in that time. The system changes are pretty few and limited compared to the QB change. Which was the point I was making? Lapo liked to be more modular than Buck or Hogan. We would run any play out of any formation with him as OC. That dipped with buck. Lapo would also throw out 1 or 2 random plays that would be more exotic in a week or two. Buck didn't do that; Hogan does it again. Lapo liked check downs, Buck wanted screens more. That is most of the variance. If you looked at the top 5-6 passing concepts, you'd see the same plays save for 1 or so per co. Even at that, we saw the most variance from Buck and his broken playbook last year compared to his previous year. Taking vanilla ice cream and trading it for plain ice cream with reduced amounts of vanilla extract. Right now, Hogan is running watered-down lapo stuff. Even by the standard buck set last year. It's like the downside of what we had with Lapo, without the upside. I don't know that it was publicly stated, but it does seem like the way they are using the increased salary cap this year is on carrying more full non-AR guys at full dollar. It's true, it's been the same for QBs across the league too. Just the worst-case scenario for the CFL in terms of entertainment.

I wouldnt say all-stars are being sat over the scrubs...but there definitely is better talent albeit inexperienced sitting in lieu of lesser talent...and some guys getting reps over others on roster whom shouldn't...and that is I think direct relation to the HC preference Experienced is gained with live play...not practice so we have to make the concerted effort to see what we have That being said...some the guys who knows....could possibly play at an all-star level but we can't know until given the shot....especially when we have a pretty big swath of guys who are under performing, or just not good enough Now the questions are...is it poor and inadequate coaching not getting any player properly prepared? Is it laziness and the belief that "the room will sort it out"...I also look at that as neglection by coaches and not knowing your room.....is it the current staff have a poor eye for talent, and what intangibles/skills are more important than others?.....or is it we just have a real load of crap players now, and the coach has no practical options so just going with what used to work? First step is moving guys around, bringing some on...moving some out, and it seems we in the process of that now to a certain extent, so that's a good thing.....Of the talent is noticeably better...we in games consistantly but still making poor in game adjustments/decisions....well then time to focus on coaching or way we going about stuff....and if it's just still the same ol same ol....likely combo of everything and maybe a lil purge is required I do like the steps taken this week, but also wanna see Kyle bringing guys in with some urgency....and with some legit skill

This is an endless loop though. How would YOU ever know if the best guys are playing? For all we know some guy who was on the practice roster here in 95 would have beat Milt Stegall's record if he got the chance. But he didn't, got cut and has been sitting on a couch for 30 years. Maybe he'd be a better TSN analyst too. But Cal Murphy never gave him a shot.

Sure, but the roster is a pretty big part of just ******* winning.

But do we know the talent isn't there if the coaches don't use it? This still comes back to your assumption that the coaches are playing the best guys they have... which is hugely flawed as evidenced by numerous situations in the past 11 years of Mike O'Shea's tenure as head coach.

I don't give a **** what the roster is... Whose fault is whose....blah blah blah. Just ******* win. **** everything else.

The coaches can use our roster better for sure. Never said otherwise. What I don't agree with is this notion that we are sitting all stars in favor of scrubs. That's fantasy-land. Our depth chart is not good and that is on the GM. Our usage of the roster is on MOS for sure, would we be a first place team if he did better? Nope....the talent is not there. Therefore, it's not blame shifting at all, it's correctly identifying what our true problem is....lack of talent. There isn't a bunch of roster moves that gets us back to the beast of the West. That's the sad reality of the situation. Walters needs to get to work. If we had allstars waiting on the bench you would have a point but we don't, they all left because Walters shat the bed in the offseason.

Riders have had Bane, KSB and Emilus all miss time and they still have had Meyers, Johnson and Robustelli look good. Calgary has lost Alford, Begelton, Philpott and still have Rhymes and Brooks tonight. Us however not so good

I'd take Rhymes..Brooks and Philpot over 2 of our guys that are starting

The West has been a blood bath for receivers so far it seems. I think BC has been relatively healthy though. Riders have lost of bunch. What Calgary trots out tonight will probably look worse than the Bombers do tomorrow. Elks are... the Elks.

So you're just shifting all the blame onto the gm... where will you shift it if the changes improve things? Because all these guys being moved about are already in house. What will it take for you to admit that the coaches are part of the problem in talent identification and use? It's ok, Mike oshea is rightly going to be remembered as an absolute ******* legend as a bomber coach and first ballot bomber hall of gamer and probably a statue at some point... but we can still point out his problems in the meantime.

@Rich I would like to switch to Ottawa as well.

There is a minimum PR salary...but teams can pay guys whatever they want above and beyond that....and we have before, so unsure what he is getting...possibly?....If I was him tho I'd decline and refuse to agree to be "injured" so they either roster him....or have to release him, as I sure he wants to play...he's be scooped up in short order and probably in a lineup just as fast....

Yep not a great look at all. Our GM needs to get to work. That's fair. I just don't see the talent we are leaving off the field, or at least not enough of it to make a difference and change us into a Grey Cup team. We are nowhere near that right now no matter who we dress and where. That's on the GM and I agree is being made worse by the coaches. My argument that dissing coaches when we are winning is not right and I stand by that. When it starts creating losses you damn skippy I want better coaching and GMing. The only metric I judge a Coach or GM on is wins and losses because everyone has their formula that we may not understand to get the wins. However, when losses pile up because of your methods, you need to answer that bell. Right now I think Walters is our biggest problem, but if Miller came down from on high and decided to clean house tomorrow I'm OK with that as long as it rebounds our season.

Check down RB or receiver - 6 of one, half a dozen of the other Anyway, here are their numbers for passing and running attempts. (Wikipedia) Harris (2016-2021): 1194 / 5 = 239 / season Oliviera (2021 - 2024): 922 / 4 = 231 / season Their busiest seasons are actually quite similar. Harris: 2017: 294 2019: 295 Oliviera: 2023: 298 2024: 296