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I would find it hard to believe teams found out about this today like we are. I'm guessing this has been in the works for at least a few weeks.

I'll put this out to the universe, McEwen or Couture as a target to upgrade our center spot.

https://cflpa.com/cflpa-shares-historic-salary-cap-increase-for-2025-season Can't be seen as anything but great news, imo.

This is just silly box score scouting. 275k doesn’t mean you should put up 1000 yards, 275k means you should be an impact player when you’re on the field and he is. You don’t win games in the stat sheet, you win them on the field and Lawler is a player that helps you win on the field.

I doubt this changes anything … if it did, I’m sure Dunk/Naylor/Farhan would’ve had some kind of comment from “sources” (front offices, agents) by now I’m still skeptical teams didn’t know until today. Seems incredibly difficult to believe, how could guys like Schoen or McManis not get super frustrated about that if it were the case?

Yeah, that Friesen tweet is ridiculous on so many levels. The optics of announcing it now for the CFL are truly bad though

Cap went up 400k, I would like to know when teams were made aware of this

True. Means you shouldn’t get duis, and sure as heck should have your passport sorted in a timely fashion. And shouldn’t disappear for weeks at a time on the field. Lawler helps you win games, some times. Excellent talent. Feel like when he retires you’ll lack back at what he accomplished and say, that’s it? Lawlers huge moments are as big as Milts in terms of impressiveness. But not in terms of those plays winning us games.

That increase doesn't make it a good idea to drastically over pay lawler lol. \ Typical friesen

I think too many assumptions here about what goes on between The Trinity. We know that Osh and Walters have been close friends for many many years and we know that Wade is often in on personnel conversations, but the extent of each piece of that puzzle... We really don't know.

Yeah the dl should be better with Lawson back (at worst he is better than schmeckle) and vaughters should be better than the des who weren't good enough last year. Another year of experience for woods and adams shouldn't hurt. That group plus linebackers should be improved this year.

I can’t imagine the teams are only finding out about this today.

Anyone suggesting that MOS is a poor coach overall is crazy. He is a fantastic coach with a few flaws.

Bighill on Winnipeg and the Bombers: The fans are great, the community is great. It supports you here. Great locker-room and great support – a lot of great stuff. It’s a good team, a good organization in a lot of ways. Something like that you don’t want to leave unless you have to. Woli on Oshea Lastly, Osh. You pushed me to be a better leader and a better man. You taught me to have respect whilst demanding the most from myself and others. I will never forget you or the lessons I’ve learned from you. It’s been a honour playing under you. Lawler on Oshea To Coach O’Shea, you have been the most influential coach in my life! You helped me understand how we play the game and who we play it for! I play the game for my brothers I go to war with and the toughest man on the field doesn’t have to be the loudest. Once I figured that out, success followed! Thank you Osh! Oshea has his faults, but his strengths shine through whenever his name is brought up. It would be easy for Lawler to praise his former coach as he leaves to collect another big payday, after all words are cheap, it's money that really talks. But for Woli to sing his praises even after everything? If it weren't the honest truth he could just stay quiet and say nothing at all, instead he writes an entire article about how great our team, city, and coaches have been. It just reinforces the commonly held belief that guys really do want to play here, if only there was money for everyone.

One of my favourite Grisham books... Read that once a year.

Always liked him. Cool with this, seems like a high upside guy

Dunk said on the 3DN podcast that the general consensus around the league is that the fairest way to do this is just to give every single player across the league a raise and truthfully, I agree.

Except the Bombers offense wasn't exactly showering itself with glory before the finger happened. It was shaping up as a repeat of the previous 2 years. Defense keeps it within reach but the offense fails to establish anything all game.

Cutting Woli. is exactly what many people want them to do every year, once they had Clercius up to speed, they moved on to the younger and cheaper player. There was no justification to ask Woli to stick around as a backup, so they set him free so he could find a new team to extend his career. Win/win it worked out for both sides.

Makes me wonder if they regret cutting Woli now? No getting him back since he wasn't a pending FA but that extra room could have made the difference in keeping him or letting him go (assuming salary was the reason for that move).

My bad...2 hours...but we have the last 48 hours as an exclusive negotiating time with any of our pending FAs prior to that. It is my understanding that accepted terms with another team means that they may leave if they can't get their former team to sign them at the terms they want. Undoubtedly some players have no interest in returning to their former clubs, but I think a few will definitely pick up the phone for their former teams and see if there has been movement. I would almost guarantee that if Walters picks up the phone in that window and says "Kenny we found some extra SMS and will match Hammy's offer" that Kenny will say send me over the contract. Conversely, I could definitely see a few guys phoning the league at 10 am on FA day and saying never mind I'm going to try out FA now.

Yea....Ceresna told Edmonton radio that he just needed a decent offer from Edmonton, and that his family really wanted to return there.

If he is healthy is prob one of the top Canadian DT's in the league...and still is young and just coming into his prime yrs why we were not in on Ceresna at that...or even 230k is baffling to me...Unless for some reason he didnt wanna playhere....or did we figure we good at DT with the usual suspects??....I may lean that way actually sadly he did...he said they all starters...and only here cause theygive us a chance to win...Obvioulsy he himself knows thats a load of B.S he shovells at the fan base when players are questioned with it going up was even more reason to cut bait with him and make a offer you couldnt refuse to the best interior dline gy on the FA market....but we didnt I dont see that logic either...we lost starters in Lawler..Woli...Wilson...Dobson...Fox....Haba...Garbutt...Ford Does Haggerty...White Jr....Mitchell....Re-upping Thomas...hanging onto Schmeck...Vaughters....and unknown at moment at guard make us as good or better than last yr?...Vaughters does as the starting end...after that I'd say ....no....maybe comparable....and that wasnt good enough last yr. The Jones signing is a big one...and Logan is too as it satisfy's a couple needs all by itself We now have no depth at DT or DE really other than a couple holdovers fro last yr and whatever we bring in...and same with oline....Say you put Wallace in at Guard...or Eli...we now have no depth behind for that 6th...and god I hope not 7th guy on roster....I also highly doubt we will go 3 imports on the oline.....and we still have Kolo at center...averagely pedestrian at best, but there are a couple upgrades still out there in FA...do we make that move or does Osh let his loyalty dictate our best roster?? Was that a reason we never even had a competitive offer for any of the dline guys who got scooped up?...if we even made an offer? Looking at the scraps left we dont have a lot of real options in FA to make us better....If it was me I'd target Couture to get Kolo off the roster....I'd also sign Oakman to work the middle with Woods and Adams and I sure Younger could do some funky stuff with him....WJ....Vaughters I'd bring in Adeleke and let him and Kelly battle for the safety spot...the best gets it the other is solid depth and great on teams....Id make a play for Albright who was in Sask and let him battle with Person for the rotating end...and the bestgets it..the other stays on as depth if doable....or on the PR to be groomed I'd also bring BOLO back as the 1-2 punch with Clercius ....and then trust in scouting to round things out in TC....A true TC where jobs are to be won

With the extra money the league is now making, maybe we can buy him a new set of scarves?

A backup qb wouldn't have changed anything for the Bombers in the grey cup. It was always about whether or not the Bombers did anything against the argos D. They were poor vs. Them all year and same was true in the grey cup. Likely only difference would have been another close loss vs. The lopsided score after collaros threw the ball away all 2nd half.

My assumption on the delayed OC announcement is that it has something to do with Jarious Jackson and what his role/compensation would be... It wouldn't surprise me if him and Hogan are being paid at a similar level... I'm a little surprised Jackson wasn't given an additional title like pass game coordinator, or even Asst HC... the only really confusing part is Ed Tait saying prior that the move would not be surprising...

hack

Maybe I watched different games last year but I thought the O was pretty lacklustre and disappointing for the amount of money they allocated to the O. Lots of games couldn’t put up 20 points so to see change on the O side of things (woli lawler Dobson) isn’t that surprising. I actually expected it. You can’t bring the same guys back who stunk it up most games last year. I mean believe Calgary was the only team who put up less points on O than we did. Change was inevitable. D was good. It’s just not your regular cfl D ppl are used to but our D was strong last year. We allowed the least amount of points. So all of these changes. They make sense. Lawler been chasing the $$$ his whole career. 275k is a significant overpay. I liked the guy but man he’s like OBJ right now. Reputation built on a couple ridiculous catches but take those away and he’s just average or even less than average honestly.

I think Kyle and Osh work extremely closely together on the roster, and that Miller is very much in the loop.

Not as emotional but here's Kenny's goodbye: 'Winnipeg is truly a special place': Kenny Lawler bids farewell to Blue Bombers - 3DownNation

He was rock solid.

Crazy how that comes up now, but you didn’t mention it at all in all of the discussions we’ve all been having (that you’ve been very active in) about OC options

Instead of acting this offseason, it feels the club is just reacting to what is happening around them. Not what you would expect when hosting the cup...

I'm not crying, YOU'RE crying......

And yet the thing that let the team down the past 3 grey cups has been the offense.

Reggie White Jr to the Bombers

Never heard of him

You're assuming it was MOS who made that call.

Playing for Pizza

Kupari gets screwed over. That's 100% a legit goal Call is overturned. We have a goal!

Hogan's name is very well regarded as well. Was interviewed last year for a vacant OC job. I'm surprised you weren't aware of his up and coming rep in coaching circles. When I was talking to Buck at an offseason coaching clinic it was Hogan he identified as the unsung hero and his number 2, not Bourgoin.

They told me I can play WR. They can't pay me and I have to buy my jersey too.

I'm at the game and was just thinking about that. It's a Tuesday night so it prolly wouldn't be as bad as a liquored up Saturday crowd would be.

That sucks. Hopefully he’s back to his former self for camp. Really like this deal though. Has our prototypical size, but way more athletic than the WRs we usually bring in. Extremely quick, very good top end speed, great jumper. Has the hands too. The high reward low risk team friendly guy id hoped for. Don’t need to be married to him if we get a great rookie. And he will push the rookies in camp really hard for the last spot.

Pretty good player. Now you got Schoen, Demski, Mitchell, White Jr, Clercuis, and maybe Wilson at some point and hope that someone from camp impresses and it’s a pretty solid receiving core. There’s going to be lots of opportunity for someone to step up and be that second target for Zach.

Who is this man? Never heard of him. Why is he wearing Bomber stuff?

Football all over has opened up to smaller faster pass rushers both in hybrids and ends. No peyton Logan?

Quick wrap up so far: Winnipeg Blue Bombers Acquired: LB Jonathan Jones (A), REC Dillon Mitchell (A), DL James Vaughters (A) Agreed to terms: REC Gavin Cobb (N), DB Josh Hagerty (N) Released or agreed to terms elsewhere: OL Liam Dobson (N), DB Tyrell Ford (N), DL TyJuan Garbutt (A), Celestin Haba (A), REC Kenny Lawler (A), REC Drew Wolitarsky (N) The Blue Bombers got a headstart on free agency by scooping up three players who had been released elsewhere — Jones, Mitchell, and Vaughters, all of whom could be starters come Week 1. Cobb and Hagerty are nice Canadian depth pieces, though it’s hard to overlook how much talent has left Bomberland. Lawler is arguably the league’s best receiver, while Ford and Dobson are high-level Canadian starters.

You gotta be really sour to have your mind made up on this being a bad hire. Keep in mind Buck Pierce hadn't called a play for a PeeWee team before he was given the OC job here. You've got three experienced CFL coaches leading the offense. Judgement on Hogan's scheme/play calling can come later.

If we go with jones/jones and ayers as our wil/mac and continue the dime sub pack for the wil on some plays I think that hole is already filled. At nose, I think they will also maintain the status quo. Lawson will hopefully take more reps than jake, he and woods will trade off those inside duties. On a side note, I think the rules committee should allow jake to use the waggle. He's soo damn slow it's the only way he can line up off the ball and consistently get to the OL before the ball is thrown. 😂 I really hope he doesn't take as many or more snaps than woods/lawson this year.