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https://www.bluebombers.com/2025/05/24/game-day-hq-preseason-1/ players and positions to watch; qb, ofc. Is strevy rusty? Is zach healthy? How does hogans play call and management look? ol, two open spots and an open battle at G for imp or ni. Randolph at rt and Wallace at G are the guys to watch. wr battle, the 3 free agents are all guys to watch. At dl, has adams progressed? Bailey and person are big ones to watch. I expect a lot from the starters with vaughters. lber is the deepest battle in camp. The Canadians, will Ayers step up and which jones wins out? Secondary, will griffin take a starting job, Parker at S, Gowan vs bridges on the corner and rookie vaval has had a good camp. punter and the wide open kr job will be great to see too.

All depends on his contract. We might’ve front loaded a ton of bonus money, you can give a big chunk of guarantee cash too. realistically, giving him a blind extension for next year after not seeing him play live action this year following his horrid season last year means we aren’t going to just cut him for underperforming either. We’d probably sit him on the ir and eat the cash. Which is also an option. Or he could retire. But again, wouldn’t make a lot of sense for him to retire after just signing an extension.

Or trade him to a team desperate for a QB, if any

He was pretty competent when he was first here.

If he plays well this season and wins a Grey Cup then he's earned the extension. If the year goes in the toilet we can just release him. I don't think contract extensions really mean a whole lot in the CFL when very little, if any, money is guaranteed.

So was biggie and jj and ba and others who are now gone. Sure qb is a bigger piece normally, but D was what lead us our two gc wins. Sure, I could be the adult having the difficult discussion. That’s not just pro sports, that’s business. At high levels, like in pro sports, has been and did in the past, does not entitle you in the future. That type of we owe it to them because they were apart of success previously, is how you end up at the bottom of the standings for multiple years. Any sports teams first obligation is to themself/market, and it’s to put the best team in play possible. Not to pay people who are past it for a victory lap.

Yeah...4 yrs ago in football for a guy over 30 is a loooong time ago...past accomplished stuff holds no more weight with an aging vet...they never gonna reclaim that sadly..and hitching multiple wagons to multiple ones...well u see the results when all the xhips are on the table...I coukd care less about 1st place...just get to.the dance with young hungry players...and get er done...hello 2019 and 2021

This would be a welcome surprise but falls into the realm of fantasy. Streveler has never been a competent passer and last year’s narrative that he would be better due to NFL coaching also proved untrue. more concerning, he was nowhere near the beast he was in 2019 running the ball. Not sure what Streveler brings in 2025. I’m much more intrigued about seeing what Wilson brings.

Jake brings little or nothing to the table as a player anymore. He gets washed out constantly. He puts very little pressure on opposings qbs. Halfbacks on other teams shoot through the hole right by him & he runs on his tippy toes. You're not wrong. It's an ego thing for Osh as in, "Look what I can do as a coach.". We also get extra draft picks.

Finishing first in the division puts a team within one win of appearing in the Grey Cup, which becomes a significant advantage especially if the game is played in Wpg. Got to give credit were credit is due, every year since 2019 Zach has put the Bombers in the driver's seat going into the playoffs, The club just made 6 million dollars, the most ever, stands are packed, merch sales are great, you want to be the one that tells Zach he ain't worth the price he's asking??? Of course he didn't do it all on his own, but he's the one that's driven the train and filled up the stands with happiness.

That’s a fair point. I feel like he lead us to the big games after 21. Though our d did a lot to carry last year. But he wasn’t the guy who lead us in any of the gcs. If we exchanged Zach for any other top 3 league qb in the last 5 years I think we play in atleast 4 gcs maybe all 5 and likely win one more atleast. The awards are a sham imo. But he was the best qb in that time range, out side of grey cup games. Idk if he was the best qb in many of the gc games. Maybe 1? 100%. Proof is gonna be in pre season pudding. I actually think camp competition hasn’t been as close as I expected it to be. I think we have a pretty clear divide between starter calibre and depth. We could cut half the WRs and dbs. But I also think we have less spots to fill fill than previous years. We are stocked up with experienced guys to compete for spots and they are just as good as the new guys. Gowan might be the only cfl “rookie” that sees significant reps early. He and to a lesser extent Shay and smith. I think Gowan and Parker are taking the started jobs in the secondary. Lber should be Ayers and j jones. But probably both jones and kyrie while Ayers goes to pr till kyrie gets hurt again. Vaughters opposite wj, back up depends on health. Lawson needs to get to 100%. So we probably know what happens at dt. I think Wallace is gonna take 1 guard spot and Randolph at T. Sterns and white at wr with kev schoen and Demski.

You have a point, the higher the level the better chance a team messes it up. Especially with the ladder nature of drafts. You’re 100% right that QBs get a development path few other positions do in football. virtually ever qb gets a high volume of chances, while few get quality. MacLeod bethel Thompson is a good example. Barely any hs or college snaps as qb1. But like 10 nfl teams, cfl pr cut and picked up with no snaps up here. Usually when highly talented guys flop out fast, they have serious deficiencies. Baseball is still figuring out how best to use and develop guys, with an insane amount of pro infrastructure. Out side of speeding guys up to the pro level of game play and playbook sizes it’s about not messing guys up when done right. This is why I think nfl tc for Elgersma is great. His primary need is just that to jump the gap from cis to pro level. You’re right on the money. Especially in the modern cfl. The level of talent and refinement we see in qb prospects is as far behind down south as I’ve ever seen. So teams get stuck on guys who they think have a tangible or intangible that can over come the deficiencies. Weve passed the tipping point where QBs coming up know more about qbing than their coaches. And they know it. Coaching is softer and QBs are harder. Up here it’s a lot of former position players rising up the coaching ranks too. The long maligned Canadian qb role has left us out the generation of qb coaches and former qb oc/hc. Teams at all levels fall in love with raw arm talent and athleticism. At the sub pro levels you see so many kids just take over games with that, and you get swept up in it. If you can’t manufacture it, you fake it and hope. Yeah the top tier oc minds in college and hs I see down south aren’t excelling with the best qb talent. They are finding kids with strong intangibles, who are able to fit rpo and their specific brand of niches. Having a system that can run rpos fast and efficiently is way better than having a world beating arm. Some guys like Maas have done a good job of covering up some qb deficiencies and making their worst throws the easiest in his system. But mostly teams really struggle to offset their QBs skill set. Every one is looking for the same perfect arm that can do every thing instead of setting up for the easiest repeatable success. Rpos that set up catch and run plays are much easier. You still need to threaten and be able to hit home runs, but no one sustains offensive out put based around the deep ball. You can stretch the field a lot by going side line to side line, and back field to mid range.

2 out of the 4 you mentioned are gone. I don't agree at all that Kola has hit his best before..he just isn't a top notch OL and we don't have anyone to steal his job atm. We aren't starting Kola because Osh has a man crush on him. We are starting him because Eli was never able to take the job from him. I don't get the Jake love either, so I can only assume that he must hold tremendous value to the room. Only thing that stands to reason really. Not a good reason for the amount of reps he got, then again what was behind him? Should have gone IMP I suppose. Not sure why we felt the need to go 9 NATS all season.

Some guys thrive under the Friday night lights. Wanna see him in game action before writing him off. All depends what he is getting up front imo.

He won MOP in two of those years while being the number one QB in the league. So yea, I would say he played a large role. But that was then and this is now, so I get where you are coming from.

I was at the game in Montreal when they first became an issue. From where we were sitting, they were far less of an issue than what it sounded like on tv. Still pretty surprised that the users didn’t cause fights in the stands.

Did ZC lead us tho to 5 cups...or was he the QB of the team that went to 5? Not trying to be a nit picker here but sure he solidified the QB spot but several of the cup appearances were more due to other factors and the ones we won he was average at best...and when we had roster issues and a much weaker defensive front and decided to play injured guys...he didnt drag us to victory either...so I kinda on the fence as him being anything over 450k at this point

No kidding. I don't think teams ruin a lot of guys. The high level NCAA guys are already running their own show. Most of the decent U Sports guys these days are too. Anyone going to even that level is taking charge of their own development when they are 14-15. They know how to train themselves and their technical abilities are pretty baked in. Nobody at a club level is practicing in a way that's going change that in this era. You're mostly getting set to play games, not playing around with mechanics. People can complain about opportunity but no one with undeniable ability was ever denied at that position. Everyone is dying for consistently average QB play. There's no other position where you get a chance to develop like that in football, other than maybe Canadian OL in this league. We're splitting hairs on guys who really aren't at the level of the guys who are franchise QB's because we maybe saw a flash that made us hope the guy was something he wasn't. I think a lot of teams see some redeeming quality that allows them to overlook severe flaws in potential quarterbacks. Like Alex Brink not being able to pass the ball yet spending like 4 years here as QB in waiting. People would be shocked at how even at pretty high levels coaches are still in awe of guys who are throwers with no passing ability. Like people in our city making a living training QB's and sometimes other football players who get themselves involved in provincial teams and cannot evaluate them at all...even in the scenario of "we play games next month, who of the 4 QB's that we've just repped and worked with for 6 weeks is the best at moving the offense we've installed." Or totally blinded by an athlete who can't pass with any accuracy. Draw up a lot of plays for what you could do off RPO looks but no matter what you draw the guy can't pass well enough to execute anything accurately and consistently. Reads are a huge thing, arguably THE huge thing, get on same page with receivers, do things at speed. Even if you can put it on a spot 70 yards away, doesn't matter if you can't make a decision on time. That was a big Lapo flaw back to the CFL. If a QB can't attack at all 3 levels as a passer they really can't run a good CFL offense. Everything else will simply be adjusted to over a season by other good teams. Sure you can catch someone lacking and have your QB run for 170 yards sometime, but it's not happening every week.

Yup. That's why the CFL explicitly banned them when we played MTL in the 2023 GC. Didn't want their fans bringing them and ruining the game for the biggest tv audience of the season.

Correct. Last conference final win: June 1, 2006. 😬

Brown took big steps forward from his first game action (where he was brutal) to the next camp. I mean he took leaps and bounds at every step too. I’m also not sure he’s a product of our development at all. We get credit for giving him time and having patience for sure. But I think he developed through his own work. I think he would’ve developed most places if he got to stick around. I think it’s very arguable that many successful QBs across all levels develop due to their own work ethic and intangibles. I think far more teams ruin QBs than ever actually develop guys.

That’s one of the biggest hurdles to developing QBs. You can only do so much with out sacrificing games. Some guys hit that point of diminishing returns faster or slower. But they all hit it and you never know how far they will go after. Teams gotta be smart with trash time and use it like the high value time it is, for back ups. Yeah, move just doesn’t make much sense. I believe we could wave him before the season say next year and save that money still, what ever isn’t guaranteed. But this move shows we won’t move off him as long as he’s willing to play, even if he can’t get it done any more.

How did Dru Brown develop? 4th string for a year, time share backup with Prukop in 22, then established #2 in 23. Starts 3 games in 3 seasons.

100%. I hated it soo much. Two idjits using mechanical/pneumatic horns as close to the mic’s as possible. Making it about them self and making the tv experience terrible. If a big chunk of the crowd was doing it with the horns you blow in then I’d say credit to them and live with it.

Thank god, it really ruined the experience watching on tv. I couldn't imagine how annoying it would be in person.