Agree for the most part.
Collaros should be a lock (best team by a mile, no one had ridiculous stats to stand out, so most important position on the best team, and was the best at his position, and McGuire’s struggles with the same offensive weapons might highlight Zach’s value even more with the voters). Expect him to beat out Stanback from the East.
Bighill takes this easily. I suspect the writers were so wowed by the overall domination of the Bomber defence as a whole that they give Bighill the nod as a way to honour the whole team (frankly his biggest competition was his own teammmates In Jefferson, Jeffcoat, and Alexander). Lokombo might ordinarily pose a challenge, but again the overall Bomber dominance will aid Bighill’s case.
I see Lokombo beating out Demski for MOC. Demski has been hugely important to the team offence and has good all-around numbers, but I think the writers will spread out the wealth and want to reward Lokombo for a strong defensive performance that would otherwise be overlooked by the Bomber D dominance.
MOOL Bryant is really the best, but who knows what writers think? Ed Tait admitted that the writers don’t really know what they are looking for and ask the coaches. So Stan’s reputation is the best AND worst thing he has going for him. When in doubt, go for the familiar name (the good side), but if he has already won maybe they think “time for another hog to be recognized this time around” (the bad side). Wild card is that he lost to Van Zyel in 2019 for precisely that reason (had won twice so the voters wanted to give it to another candidate that time around) and then head-to-head in the Grey Cup the Bomber line dominance on both sides showed what a bad decision that selection was, so maybe voters will offer him a make-up award this time around. It’s all voodoo, so good luck if you can figure it out.
MOR Alford has gotten some talk, which is usually how rookies get picked (kind of a “hey I’ve heard that name a few times, they must be good”) but Williams in BC and Shafer-Baker in Greenland also got some press, so likely a 3 way race. So do the Bombers all get swept up in the “this team was so much better we will award them all” kind of wave, like in 2001, or will the writers spread the wealth as they usually do?
MOST - I would love to see Mike Miller get the West nom, and because he broke the all-time record for tackles I could almost see the writers finally giving him his due as a sort of lifetime achievement award, and again he could get caught up in the Blue wave of awards, but voters often prefer the simple sexy stats when analyzing these things, so if no dominant returner stands out (like Dedmon in the East, who should win it all in a walk) then kickers get in by default it feels like.
By now it should be clear that I don’t have faith in the voters do too much analysis and just go off of easy stats viewing to make their picks in the most simplistic way possible.