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Or ya know... just play Eli there...

We could have a core 6 of nationals: Demski, Wolitarsky, Neufeld, Kolankowski, Dobson, Stanley Bryant (nationalized) Then you use Kramdi as a starter on defence but name him a designated national, meaning he can be replaced by a nationalized American for 25 plays. Name Kyrie Wilson a Designated Nationalized American and he is able to come in for those 25 plays. When Kramdi is in, B.Cole plays WLB, but when Kramdi comes out, Cole shifts over to SLB and Wilson plays WLB. That makes seven national starters with one being able to be replaced for 25 plays a game. So you need one more national starter. This could either be Ford at CB which allows you to start an American at RB, or you could use Augustine at RB, allowing you to start an American at corner. In either case you have four Americans starting on the DL. The roster really could be quite a bit better without even changing who is dressed, or by adding one stud American RB (if we bothered to bring one in). We could even decide to pull out Kolankowski and start an American C if we really wanted to, without much issue.

Truth to that for sure. But even last year we had guys that have succeeded here on teams. Another is that tackling is a direct result of discipline and coaching. Walter’s, goveia, McManus, and ringmaiden.

And talking about special teams........Mitchell being the returner in Ottawa doesn't thrill me....I hope he at least secures the ball and doesn't give RB'S a freebee in our end and does more than usual ' go for five and flop'...It irks the hell out of me knowing there's competent returner(s) out there and we're not making an attempt to bring anyone else in ....

The old adage is that special teams are a sign of your depth... well I'd agree. Our depth has taken a massive hit the last few years for a variety of reasons and teams have been poor. Not a coincidence in my opinion.

“It’s the process” Except it’s not. The (16-21) successes resulted from Walters bringing in high level FA’s, not building ground-up with the same guys. The Jesse Briggs of the world alone get you the same results as the 14/15 teams had. Medlock, Dressler, Harris, Willie ect were all-stars before they got here. Walters doesn’t get enough credit for the cups and MOS gets too much. There, I said it.

Look again the word is MAY not MUST. https://www.cfl.ca/game-rule-ratio/#:~:text=One Nationalized American player may,of the eight National starters.&text=A Club must start at,may be a Nationalized American.

Wilson has caught every pass thrown his way in every game he's played so far, throw him more passes and you may see why they chose him over Wheatfall.

Ayer’s wasn’t a heart of our sts by any means though. Woods, was a key performer in our front though. I know mos and maybe the whole mafia view teams as important as O and D, despite yielding piss poor teams for two years that only got worse with grant being the only bright spot, but it isn’t. Teams play, is not as important as line play. We acknowledge this by carrying two back up ol who only play heavy set and do nothing else. Not even the defensive side of heavy. They don’t rotate they don’t play unless some one is hurt. But we’ll roll 6 dl, despite rotating those guys and asking them to play on every short yardage pack other than offensive goal line. Oline isn’t more important that DL. It’s harder to find and develop those especially since it’s the ratio strong hold, but defense wins ships. Acceptable mediocrity and self importance. We do it smarter it’s ok that we are worse at it.

Then why have special teams sucked last year and game 1 this year?

And lost us 2 grey cups. Is the goal to win 14 games or grey cups? No ones pushing the panic button here, people are saying wade and or Walter’s should intervene before it gets any worse. If you think this is panic mode, we better not lose this week, or the next home game. You’ll see panic mode from the average fans, and an attendance dip, and our team getting booed off the field. Also cost us any hope of improving through the tc pre season process this year and last year.

If you look at all those LB's you already know they form the heart of O'Shea's ST and always have, a team which he is trying to rebuild and also provide rookie STC Mike Miller all the tools he needs to do so. Some of these LB's have no other purpose at this point but to serve Mike Miller.

How is it not true? That's exactly what happened. No one is arguing that it was the only choice, just that it is what happened.

that being said...also cost us 2 cups....and it's continuing...even if only 1 game.....it's still an issue

There have been literal comparisons to the Argos

Nah, at least 75% of this board believes, at least to some degree, that the roster use has not been good and that it's literally costing us games, and arguably the past two GCs. You don't have to fully ***** and moan about it, but almost everyone understands this to a degree...

It hasn’t been since they puked all over the place in the 22 GC

I'm not saying that the team has been perfect. I've got gripes about who was dressed that shouldn't have been in the Grey Cup as well. However, there's no gaurentee that we would have won had we dressed Rose and whomever on offence its our anger for O'Shea making the wrong decision that leads us to think a win would have been gaurenteed with Rose on the roster. He could have got lit up just as much as anyone else. Maybe more. Who knows. I was reponding to several different messages. One of which suggested our veterans were going to be costing us more games than our young players this season and I was responding in disagreement to that. TBH on this subject I think its you guys who are ranting not me. Day in day out its the same sky is falling stuff we used to have on these boards back when the team was legitmately bad for decades. I thought that some of that stuff would heal with 2 Grey Cup wins and 4 Grey Cup appearances in 4 years. My main issue is that people are not comparing this organization to something realistic. Like another franchise or somethjing. You're comparison is to perfection. I think they've done a pretty good job over the coarse of time of replacing players and having succession plans. They've had to replace more outgoing players then anyone else for the last 5 seasons. At least half the roster has changed since the 107th Grey Cup. Did they have replacements for Andrew Harris, Couture, Chung, Goosen, Gray, D Adams, Sayles, Salyes, Alford, Nevis, Medlock (Yes Leggio failed but he was a reasonable succession plan), Maston, Richardson, N Taylor... How often does any CFL team in the salary cap era come back to the Grey Cup 4 strait years? I'm not suggesting that team management is above critcism. Not all their moves have been correct. I'm just laying out the reasons why I'm not "yet" worried. I think we can remain competive while doing a mini-rebuild this year and next.

Perhaps we should wait another game before we start the griping of the roster management. The "poor" roster management won us 14 games last year, including major blowouts against BC and Sask in the Banjo Bowl. Yes there is regression. Losing Olivera and Lawler sucks, but injuries happen. It's a little early to be pushing the panic button. Just my .02

First out in lock of the week this year has to fight him

Definitely need someone to step up and he'll be a very interesting watch tomorrow..........

He's an MMA fighter now

Same. He looks and plays a lot like Kenny Lawler. We need someone to step up in a big way and I think it could be him.

Waiting for Garbutt to come back, no one else left in the hopper.

I will say - I’m excited to see Wheatfall play. I think he’s going to do well and I think we’re going to wonder why he didn’t start the year instead of Wilson.