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How much do you think the salary cap goes up by every year? 2015 - $5.05 M 2016 - $5.1 M 2017 - $5.15 M 2018 - $5.2 M 2019 - $5.25 M 2020 - $5.3 M (cancelled season) 2021 - $5.35 M (shortened season) 2022 - $5.35 M 2023 - $5.45 M 2024 - $5.525 M With the cap only going up by $50K to $75K, asking them to use $250,000 would be asking some players to take a pay cut to make it work, and the PA would never advocate for that.

Not merchandise per se but I just bought 2 tickets for my wife & I to this year's Banjo Bowl this morning. Rarin' to go!!

I'm tired of reading ChatGPT level of insight. I'm done.

Yeah, SSk is where it seems like it should happen. The cfl draft is the most ridiculous to predict though. Imo, all the none play off teams need to be drafting around OL. As backwards as it seems, I don't think those teams can afford to go BPA. But stupid stuff happens every single year. For us, we need an OL with our first 3 picks imo. And ideally a DL, unless we stock up on global DL. And mainly we need guys with the potential to start, not high floor low ceiling picks. Though 1 heavy utility guy some where in this draft would be great. I think Big boards are far more useful than mock drafts in the CFL. Heres a few guys I'd be happy if we targeted on draft day. (not in order, and just linemen.) DL, Samuel Obiang. I don't think he has star potential by any means. He's a canadian, Jerome Haywood with drew desjarlais level nastiness. We've suffered not having a true nose since stove left. Having a canadian who can rotate with Cam lawson and immediate gap cancel as a nose tackle would be huge. If he stays on the right side of edgy nasty play he can have a long career as a very useful role player on D. He could also contribute on teams in goal line packages and such. Guys a got that dog mentality. Kail Dava, More of a jake thomas guy, played FCS football and has that fifo attitude with a high motor. Justin Sambu, a swing for the fences type pick. Guy was a beast with Maine then struggled with bigger programs to find a place. If he had stayed at Maine and played similarly he would be a first round pick. His combine was also not great. But in the mid draft the value he would offer is rare to find. I'm not sure about his head space and motor. Hes a sharp contrast from the first two, but the talent is undeniable. Daniel okpoko reminds me a bit of Kongbo. He's a reliable guy who will play with in the system, not as athletic as kongbo, could play some inside out like we do with our DTs, giving him great potential as an early rotational DL. With the length of time he played in a d1 school, I don't see him having star potential. But I could see him starting some and rotating heavily making key contributions on the DL. Brubacher and Hergott are the gems of the draft. All the athleticism and size you could want with good hands on brubacher and hergott is soo polished and such a mos type guy, but one the fans wouldn't hate for once. I'd be surprised if we end up with either, but not disappointed. Hergel is like Eli. Insanely good and should be NFL bound to stay. Worth a risk, especially if hes signed instead of drafted. Any team getting him is damn lucky. Duguay, Una, and wallace are the guys likely to be in the league this year. Duguay I think has the potential to break the mold and play more RT. Length is a great tool, but one of those things teams can get too wrapped up in. His athleticism, build, speed and footwork are excellent. Oh, and he has army experience! swoon mos swoon! Una does a lot well but needs polish. Wallace isn't a mountain mover, he is the mountain. Played a lot of RT, and could be polished into one long term here imo. I don't think he's too big, but if he is dropping 20 lbs with his frame shouldn't be too hard. I do worry more about really tall guards though. I like length and height out on the edge and stocky guys inside when it comes to the line. I think Manu has too much size and athleticism not to stick in the nfl for a long while. And benedet teams will work with to try and pack on a bunch of weight, which is worrisome for a possible cfl career a couple years down the road. I wouldn't fixate on his weight at all, he had the same amount of reps at manu who is 60 lbs heavier with ease. For hidden value, Daniel Shin has similar knocks to Kola, if any thing kola is worse in those areas like athleticism and length. Shin is a rare football mind with a big time motor. he's a bit undersized, but could be a super sub versatility guy and 6th ol. Might fall out of the draft all together. Patrick Lavoie is one of those guys who is good at most every thing on the field but smallish tweener size and lack of strength or great athletic ability holds back. But thats the type of guy I'd want to gamble on. The huge athletic OL in the draft have all kicked around for a long time, I cant imagine them just figuring it out and turning it on at the highest level. Jaxon morkin is the type of guy thats great to have in camp and practice just to keep things from being too friendly. If we can coach his technique up he could be a player too. Ryan berta as a guard project offers nice value too. Again a guy that can be situationally useful in heavy sets, a ground mover who needs a lot of coaching in pass pro. The brain drain on the OL should be very strong this year for sure.

Looking forward to Leafs Elimination Day!

Here's a cut at a 2 round mock draft. Taking realistic projection on guys who are going to be in NFL. 1. Edmonton- Curtis Dublanko LB 2. Ottawa- Dumoulin-Duguay OL 3. Sask- Kevin Mital Receiver 4. Calgary- Tyson Hergott DE 5. Toronto- Kevens Clercius Receiver 6. BC- Luke Brubacher DE 7. Hamilton- Michael Chris-Ike RB 8. Winnipeg- George Una OL 9. Montreal- Benjamin Labrosse DB 10. Edmonton- Gabe Wallace OL 11. Ottawa- Geoffrey Cantin-Arku LB 12. Sask- Daniel Okpoko DL 13. Calgary- Nick Mardner Receiver 14. Calgary- Kyle Hergel OL 15. BC- Christy Nkanu OL 16. Hamilton- Owen Mueller OL 17. Winnipeg- Melique Straker LB 18. Edmonton- D'Sean Mimbs Receiver 19. BC- Theo Benedet OL 20. Winnipeg- Jared Chisari RB

Fans have been saying that since 2022 but the braintrust says nope.

We can't take our best player off the ice. Helle needs to step up.

A lot of those DL have no explosion which is going to severely limit their ability to compete in the CFL. Sambu and Obiang showed very poorly at the combine...and the competition level was not strong with OL there. One guy I can see getting a bit of a bump in Onyeka from Carleton. I think most teams will see him as an interior guy. He played end in U Sports but is kind of that Wiggan type body. He'll add 20-25 lbs. Omanuwa from Laurier had a good combine. See him being one of the first interior guys off the board. Hubert from Mac too. He's another guy who played more edge in U Sports but will be an interior guy in CFL. Of course Sambu being a NCAA guy will have some bias behind where he lands. I don't see him being a CFLer at all. The guys that come into the combine in such poor condition is a huge red flag.

Problem is there's like one guy who is ready to play who will likely be in CFL camp in May, Dumoulin-Duguay. Una is a maybe. Nkanu I think will not be much of a pro, decent feet, very weak hands. Wallace too is another medium floor, very low ceiling type. Doesn't really have CFL OL skills in terms of movement. Most teams will want guys who can play pretty quick. And there's not really a Dayton Black type in this draft who is raw but with huge upside. Maybe like a Bosse or Mueller. But lower upside.

Agreed. With Bandy retiring I think ssk goes OL with their 1st.

You keep saying the same thing over-and-over and have not provided anything new. I'm sure the CFL will just find more money. This is just another of your nonsense threads.

I think the run on online will Happen earlier, but this is easily the best of the mock drafts I’ve seen.

My take for the Bombers: 8. Okpoke 17. Mueller 20. Duncan-Busby 28. Hladiuk 37 Berta 40. Muembi 46. D-Line (Tackle) 55. D.B. (Teams) 64. D-Line (Edge/Teams) 73. L.B. (Teams)

Bighill would do better and last longer if the d-line kept the 340lb behemoths off him. Which is another way of saying we need a dominant nose tackle.

Really would have liked to been up 2-0. Jets need to find their game and quick. Schmidt draws in, Stanley is out. 9 PM Start. Sportsnet. Go Jets Go!!!

When Big Blue started talking about giving players expansion money, I just shook my head. There is NO expansion money!! Maybe putting a team in Halifax might give the CFL a slightly bigger tv deal but I wouldn't be surprised if a 10th team made no difference. There's a chance that the next deal with TSN may not be worth as much.

Let’s be real too, they don’t have owners a stadium or a market for expansion. If any thing if the league tries to shoe horn a team on the coast it’ll cost the league and every team. What was it, 3 teams over the cap this last year? Average of 100k with a dollar for dollar penalty? 200k right there. Teams just stopped handing the top fa wr 300k but started giving bananas money to ni ol. They could spend it ni doubt. Some teams didn’t spend the cap and some lost money either way. 250k isn’t making a big change. They could just use that money to bump up pr money and or spots. No team would be against that

Sorry, couldn't resist.

Ahhh one change and it's Schmidt in...what a shocker. The Avs will be shaking now...

Not to mention that if there is a 10th team, there are only so many talented Canadians to go around. The talent pool will already be diluted by that, and then to try and add more positions for rookie Canadians, they'd really be scraping the bottom of the barrel to try and fill those spots.

Surprised Bandy retired. He only got the stating center gig when the greatest football player in the world retired after the 2022 season.

Sometimes you just overthink. Like here with this. For example, why would teams dress extra Canadians just for home games? They'd never play so why even pay them??? We dress 45 players now so dressing more makes no sense. Expansion money? For what new team, exactly? Where would you expand? Halifax? C'mon, if that city wanted a team there'd have beeen a team there with a proper stadium yeras ago. Quebec City or London, Ontario? Remains to be seen. poersonally, I doubt it. And how much will an expansion team fetch? Five to ten million? What's that divided over 9 teams? That's $555,000 to $1.1 million per team. Hey, nice little one time windfall but it'll just be swallowed up in losses by 8 of the 9 teams now. If we're expanding to create extra money then that's laughable as it'll make little difference financially in the long run. You seem to have this penchant for trying to start these super serious discussions. Like we'll suddenly solve the league's problems at once. The CFL is what it is. Just enjoy it.

A satellite operated by Japanese company Astroscale has chased down a 15 year-old piece of space junk and taken an up-close image of it.

So he'll never get into the CFHOF. Lemon will be 65 & crying to get in & it won't help as no one will care. His choice to be stupid & ruin his chances.

I still don't see where the teams are going to get and extra $250,000 to put towards the salary cap. The fact that its gone up by $50,000 for many years and then $75,000 last year doesn't show any indication that all of a sudden there will be more than $250,000 available per year. Add in the fact that the minimum salaries have been going up chews into what you say "goes to the top end of the player pool". I just don't think the numbers that you think are available exist, nor will they in the foreseeable future. For reference, minimum salaries: 2016 - $52K 2017 - $53K 2018 - $54K 2019 - $65K 2020 - $65K (cancelled season) 2021 - $65K (shortened season) 2022 - $65K 2023 - $70K I don't think the narrative that all of the additional cap space goes to top end players is valid (and no, you're not the only person who's said it does). A big chunk of it goes to minimum salary players and what's left is distributed through the team, but at the end of the day it's still only $75K, which is the equivalent of 1 entry level player.

Here, compliments of probably the best offensive defenseman in the league right now, a blueprint for a Jet win tonight: "It's just going to have to be getting better at everything we're doing. Making sure that we play to our strengths," Cale Makar said.

Brossoit is like Essensa watching Tabaracci against VAN

The first 10 minutes, heck the first 5 minutes of this game, will tell us if the Jets commit to dictating how this game will be played for their success. If we see the same pattern as we saw from the first two games and Helle is average, ruh roh.

I would like to see the Jets play a solid defensive game for 60 minutes. Not 40, not 55. 60.

" I do NOT see the CFL adding more salaried positions" I agree if the salary cap is not going up but if history is any guide it will go up at least some. What I am advocating here is to take $250,000 of that increase and expand the Canadian roster size. It will ultimately lower the cost of Canadians over all. It will lower it because there will be more Canadian talent because of the larger veteran experienced talent pool (30 to 60 more veterans at least). The teams can then apply the rest of the salary cap increase as they see fit. Until we see game day rosters the same size as the NFL, we will always have game day injury problems. A little common sense can prevail here. We just have to regulate it slightly for a very good purpose.

We could have had a Nathan Rourke in the mid 2000s.

Leafs fans grab pitchforks. Leafs grab golf clubs. A tradition like no other.

With teams struggling financially coming out of Covid, new owners, teams for sale, and some depleted facilities, I do NOT see the CFL adding more salaried positions. You can't just keep adding more roster spots without spreading the money around. So, CFLPA is not going to take less for more spots. CFLPA should to focus on player safety and getting as much money for the existing roster spots as possible.

AUSTON STRONG tshirts are now available.

They should allow players to bet on CFL games. #TooSoon

That would be hilarious if they gave this award out at end of year. As Garrett Marino was unable to be here, I'd like to call on Simoni Lawrence to present our next award, King Douchebag . . .

When the players vote, they ratify. Negotiations occur before the fact; there are trade-offs for both sides in the negotiations. If the governors want an expanded roster, $240,000 is not a lot of money. And some of the players will see player expansion is a good thing. So in our discussion the key thing is getting the concepts across, not minor money matters

RIP Bob. I still remember the 2002 Olympic Gold Medal Game Call: It is JOE SAKIC …. SCORES! JE-O! SAKIC! SCORES! AND THAT MAKES IT 5! 2! CANADA! SURELY. THAT’S GOTTA BE IT!