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I’m not defending that, nor do I like having 30 dbs/lbs and only six receivers in the lineup. That’s roster mgmt, which imo is different than direct player to play comps at the same position.

And jeffcoat missed a lot of time to injury so moving on wasn't necessarily wrong... but they definitely didn't put in a lot of effort trying to replace the DEs. Nor DTs. Trotting out Jake as if he's Doug brown ain't cutting anything. Jake was a depth guy at his peak and he's well past that now.

The justification is the scheme. With Younger they have no commitment to rush from the edge. They are disrupting QB eyes by challenging their reads in who from their D will be managing which routes and potentially who/where pressure might come from. They'd rather have a guy like Griffin out there as a hybrid at 3 levels than have 4 DL driving into the pocket/off the edge on a potential passing down. We're basically running a 3-4 defense in this era where DB's are LB's. Our only true LB out there is Jones or Gauthier if he's out there....It's basically a 3-1-8 if you're thinking about who might do what, for the most part those 8 are coverage players but they also will rush aside from the corners.

Biggest mistake they've been making from 2022 on is Willie Jefferson. Great luxury piece to add to one of the greatest CFL D's of all-time if you have the cap space. It worked for 3 years amazingly when he played about 2/3 of snaps. But he's not a building block. And especially as he reaches his mid-30's. Jeffcoat was the building block and they've never replaced him. They misread who was dominant, but I mean the whole world does with Jefferson because he's out there and obvious. Not that Jeffcoat could still play, but the role they needed to replace in the scheme to be dominant. Instead, Willie has got paid at each time his ticket has come up as his play is less and less effective without that dominant core in the front 7 around him. I am not a fan of Younger's scheme in comparison to Richie Hall's. We hardly turn the ball over, and we rely on coverage which is foolish. Even when you watch our DL play there's no attempt to get pressure from out side. Vaughters will rush B gap, Jefferson will twist sometimes and end up B or A gap, but from the edge they are just reading the QB to disrupt passing lanes. Any DE we've dressed for the past 2 seasons. It's basically a coin flip every week if it's going to work, but you see how even 1 or 2 guys having a bad game in the secondary sinks this scheme. Pressure is how you build championship defense, and if you're going to have one without the other, consistent pressure is way more impactful. If you have good players in the back end you'll probably never be worse than .500 with this scheme. But it's not a scheme that's going to beat another team that is in rhythm and playing at a championship level. We make no attempt to be aggressive at the line of scrimmage and are mostly trying to disrupt QB downfield reads while that QB basically knows they won't be pressured. Our team stats look decent right now, but we played the worst quarterbacked team by a longshot (BC) twice and Tre Ford.

I knew this would be the first argument brought up... and there's some validity tonight, but the 1s have looked very similar in the regular season compared to preseason and we can pretty much nail the roster that'll start as soon as camp opens so that shows me that osh has it written in ink from day 1 and it won't change. Honestly I want to see one person provide a good solid justification to having Ayers, a linebacker, as the only DE depth on the roster when our starters are 34 and 32 years old.

Quality of competition matters in preseason. Looking good for a quarter or half of a preseason game isn’t the only factor in who plays. None of us saw any camp to know how they looked over a few weeks of reps. They might be better, but the definitive takes we’re getting on this site are a little much. @DTonOB, do you have any pressures stats for last year and/or this year?

Brandon Alexander & Collaros was hurt as well. However, I get starting Collaros even with a bum ankle. Posters here going after the members they think complain too much & then they throw up shade making excuse after excuse actually keeping the merry go round going. The coaching decisions cost us those Grey Cups. The 2023 Grey Cup with all the injured players, especially with Biggie playing on one leg, Schoen barely able to run & was a non factor...etc, etc. Last year playing Collaros with a severed finger on his throwing hand. That's all coaching decisions.

Yep. Our wins have been heavily skewed by the fact that we had a ridiculous talent edge over the rest of the league. Look at how our DL dominated; we ran every alignment imaginable, with every single combination of players. Everything we did after we started, Zach worked. With every sub and roster change. That team is among the most overpowered in league history. The fact that much of the core is still competitive speaks volumes to that. Mos has done a lot of great things here; we could've won with almost any HC. Not any coach could've turned us into that squad, not any coach could've come back from last year's start. But a bunch of coaches would have more GC rings in his place here. Your claim is that absurd. We see outstanding rookies at every single position in the CFL now. Even QBs here n there. For real though, who did Kornelson out play and how? The backup QB is the most popular guy amongst the fans. The thing is, we have several below-replacement-level guys like Kola and Jake. Would you like to go do a head-to-head comparison of forced into action PR back-ups vs those guys in film? Can show real clearly that some guys we play are average PR or below guys. Funny thing is the same thing happened last year in PS too. On top of that, our brutal useage of biggie, feeding him to OL to prevent double teams, caused his precipitous downfall and injuries. We battered the poor guy into a career grave. We were not first in pressures last year, which aren't openly tracked or released on a reliable in-season basis. Classic distraction technique. Teams often track it themselves and quantify it. He tried to say at one point last year that Jake had the most pressure in the league. The gap is actually widening in terms of pressures as well, between us and the rest of the league. Teams like Sask, To, and a couple of others are running much more aggressive fronts, doing basically the opposite of what we did last year. The riders have had an absurd amount of pressure on opposing qbs this year. More real pressures than we had all last year. Very few.

It's very telling that Mike Oshea never actually retired from playing. He would not ever quit and he's not going to tell one of his guys to quit.

I don't think receivers are really the problem on this team. Qb and OL are where I see problems.

Osh didn't move on from those guys because he felt there were better players available. The injuries forced him to. If Biggie could play at 45 years of age & run a 6.5 forty & have a vertical jump of 9 inches then he'd start.

Ok how many pressures are the DL generating this year? Cause it is usually a linebacker getting pressure. First in those categories last year is one thing but what about this year?

O'shea highlights on the CJOB sports hit this morning when asked about the D line... Don't look at sacks, look at the pressure. Last year we were 1st in a lot of those categories, that's what we are aiming for. Sacks don't tell the full story. Pretty much exactly what I would expect he would say. 7th in sacks, D line after 4 games looks like it's week 17 but hey let's go!!

Biggie playing even though he was injured. Schoen and Bailey playing even though injured cost us a Grey Cup in 23.

Schoen (bad knee still favouring), Wheatfall (great potential still learning. Can't be depended upon yet to make the great contested downfield catches), Demski (great old pro who get by with guile & experience. Isn't the same guy he was even 2 yrs ago) & Clercius (may be a diamond). I rate them 9th. Didn't have to be that way, either.

But look at what happened in preseason game 2... the starters on D got outperformed badly by the 2s... not a coincidence in my mind. The defensive line is a problem and has been for a couple years. Would really like to know how people feel they really are putting the best people out there...

None of you went to camp or if you did it was for an hour on 1 day so to be making statements like this guy was better in camp Is just pure bullshit. Nobody went to camp.

Lawler

Jake and T.Jones didnt out perform anyone....Kolo either...Punter guys didnt..... J.Jones...Allen....Woodbey...Ayers did tho.....Adams as well but still takes a back seat.\ I doidnt see Korn outplay anyone.....Bridges either...Sterns wasn't the 5th best receiver in camp.....and you certainly can go with a rookie in a tie or if debatable...especially if younger and shows upside and the older player is what he is How do you think T.Jones got here...by all accounts...his included he had a great camp in Edm...and was shocked...as were others he was outright cut....for a young rookie.....that's coaching 101 also....that rookie ended up as R.O.Y too....I wish Edm would have cut him instead with the Osh theory and we had Anderson here....Anderson...Ayers...J.Jones...Wilson....gimme some of that no....yeah but.....lol

So you've never seen oshea make a mistake in roster construction?

Go sign Surtain and see if he is not a starter day one. C'mon man....you are reaching on that one. TC a player has to beat the player ahead of him. It doesn't go to the rookie in a tie or if there is even some debate. That's coaching 101 stuff. I like that J. Jones has the potential to replace T. Jones. When he demonstrates that to Osh and Younger I will be happy to see him succeed here. You say he is better now, but our coaches disagree. We don't have guys riding the pine because they are the better option NOW unless ratio comes into play. No coach in the world leaves a guy on the bench that is clearly better than the guy ahead of him with all things being equal. What we call roster mismanagement is valid in some respects, but not all. Some of it is based on the age old fan belief that the 2nd stringer is better than the 1st stringer WAAAAAAAY more often than is the actual case.

We had a really strong roster and won a lot of games as a result, and can still win... but they're getting older and games like last week will be more and more common.

that's the sad part...we kept the aged...declining...in a few instances washed up players...guys who have been part of 3 flops in a row....and let the young, upside guys walk away.....now make that make sense? resting on laurels

100%. Back to guys like Hurl and Kuale. We hoped then that it was just because we had a bad team, which we did. But his roster management hasn't gotten better since then. In fact, as a coach, he's not improved an only gotten worse. Gone are his brilliant trick plays, especially on teams, challenges that were good or served to back up a player/expose a bad decision, gone is even min-maxing the ratio. I've never seen a more complacent coach in all of sports. There is a good chance we don't even make an AR change going into the next game after the bye week.

2025-07-07 CGY WILCOTS II, Cedric DL A New Mexico State DEL Active Roster https://3downnation.com/2025/07/07/calgary-stampeders-release-veteran-dl-cedric-wilcots-ii/ Here's a guy we can pick up. 1 sack in 17 career CFL games.