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Im pretty sure kolo is a top 25 centre in the league. Might not be top 20 though.

His point is that free agency, in most cases, isn’t an open market. Most of these “free agents” already had pre-determined destinations and in the case of Canadian OL, most teams won’t let theirs go unless they are being told they’re hitting the market for a purpose.

Wilson is a boat anchor too. I meant on a game day roster but for camp yeah Wilson first. yeah they were bad. But he wasn’t the reason why or a big problem piece. Tjones was bad on pass cover in all of his starts.

For what the Riders paid McEwen we could have easily replaced Kolankowski but Osh wouldn't do that. Would have been an instant upgrade but nope.

Cause he not a guard...a top 3 ncaa ranked center...doesn't forget how to play...and he hardly got owned...some mishaps when he got emergency dropped in...but figured it out...and playing beside Kolo when you are not a true guard...didn't help either Eli moves bodies...gets to second level seeking to destroy...and is not undersized...kolo does none of that...and is undersized...and an undersized center who isn't athletic...is a severe handcuff Yes...this

Keeping kola and letting couture walk was a big mistake. Should’ve rolled with couture and Eli. We also had the young depth to go with Eli and pivot if things don’t work. We love to settle for ni mediocrity.

Time will tell. We let Kolankowski start at the expense of developing other players like Eli so go figure.

I don’t think the effort was as lousy as portrayed here. Jets dominated good stretches and it showed in the shots (the double minor late made the shot gap closer than the zone time would suggest). They should have buried another two or three in the third period alone, Hofer and puck luck kept the.Blues in it, then a fluky broken stick leads to the double minor. Jets deserved the win, overcame some bad puck luck IMO. Having said that, I won’t disagree on Pionk’s struggles and Stanley’s usual deficiencies.

Don't like our shootout chances

Nope. Vilardi ties it

2 2 but yes. Jets need to upgrade the D cuz Stanley in top 4 cuz one guy out is ridiculous

Dickenson is making a lot of strange choices especially regarding his vets, it feels like he really wants to change up the core of a dressingroom thats had its issues. Rose, Vaughters, Awe, and now McEwen. Add that to how hard it is for them to attract agents given their nonplayoff chances, and the reputation the team now has for poor facilities, treatment, and poor attendance and its not pretty.

It's about bloody time the guy gets some credit.

Amazing how much slower the game appears to be after watching the 4 nations. Crazy

I’m all for it if it gets him off the tv. But really, if cfl were smart, I’m not sure they are, but if they were they wouldn’t be looking at a guy who looks like he could drop dead any minute. By that I mean they need to be younger. CFL needs a younger commissioner. Suitor probably day 1 would be like we are renaming the league the Canadian Football League Featuring the Saskatchewan Roughriders. We’d all have to type CFLFSR. Would just be awful. Cuz suitor the type who would rename irrelevant things and think he’s done good. That’s crazy talk tho. Nobody renames pointless things for stupid reasons.

Just for the lulz....

150k for McKewan probably means Sask was his only offer. 160 for Campbell to me seems like a serious overpay. last game the riders played they got smoked by the bombers in the western final. Perhaps a little less praising the riders. To me praising the riders makes you a rider prider and that’s the worst insult on the planet. that’s great that 3dwn and others are jacking off the off season champs, that means they gonna suck cuz whoever 3dwn verbally jerks off never wins. Call it the tsn maple leaf effect. The riders are the leafs of the CFL, media loves them but they don’t win. Riders have 3 cups on their history and 10000 ppl per game dressing as green seats. I don’t get the love affair there. They aren’t good. They don’t win and in their history don’t win. Like the leafs last winning a cup in the original 6 era, don’t get the hype but please hype away cuz hype always means they gonna suck and the riders will suck again.

I'd drop Wilson instead. Eley at MLB, J.Jones at WIL. with T.Jones and/or .Ayers backing up. That's how I roll it.

I’d take him over t jones. Such a strange move. Imagine giving up on your mor candidate lber on a rookie deal for awe.

Yeah benefits should be a given. I think the front office cap is hurting the league more than it’s helping. Both in terms of coaching and league scouting.

Just finished the last season on the Cowboys PR so not retired.

U Sport Head Coaches like Faulds, Dobie (recently retired), Wayne Harris Jr in Calgary (now also retired) & Blake Nill at UBC all have./had lecturing positions & are probably tenured. They're being paid to teach & coach. And they have benefits to go with it. As a CFL assistant, they never used to have any benefits health or retirement so to give all that up to be a lowly position coach in the CFL isn't much of an incentive. To make it more attractive, assistant coaches in the CFL need to make a lot more money as well as receive health & retirement benefits. Coaches in U Sports are under a lot less pressure than they would be as members of a CFL coaching staff. Nik Lewis is a great example. He broke into coaching with the Riders & then was let go when the coaching cap came in. On social media, he was practically begging for a job in the CFL somewhere. He finally got hired by the Stamps, his old team. Coached one or two seasons, I believe. Then left saying he had a business opportunity in Texas so he quit. Juwan Simpson was coaching linebackers with the Stamps & he suddenly quit to be a position coach with an obscure Junior College team in the eastern US somewhere. Until we actually pay these guys decent money, we won't attract or reatain quality coaches. It's just a life of low pay, long hours & obscurity until a coach become a coordinators. Then comes better money but more pressure. Even longer hours... My son had a chance for that life to coach college in the US & really wanted to do it when he was single. Then he met his wife. They bought a house in Seattle & he decided that family came first so he abandoned his plans to coach. He didn't want his future hinging upon a winning season or if his HC was fired or not.

Yeah I read it and i get why he wants to stay where he is. What I don't get is why an article about the lack of new blood is only talking to one single coach who has no interest in being part of that new blood. If they want to create a discussion about the lack of new coaches coming in, why not talk to someone who would love the chance to get into the CFL (even at a positional coach level) and they can talk about difficulties they've faced. Or talk to a guy like Hogan who can provide some insight as recent injection of new blood and what worked for him.

the main thing that's changed is that with success players want to be rewarded (rightly so), and in order to retain core pieces that means that there is less available to attract free agents. While if it's a difference of 20k, culture , fans etc may be a deciding factor we haven't been able to come close to offering the "name" free agents what other teams do. With the relatively short careers players have to chase the $. Whether that's on Walters , or a lack of opportunity or on having so much tied into Collaros and Olivera I don't know. Ly we had to move a lot of depth to keep Schoen , Lawler and and Olivera. This year again in order to sign players that we think will help us along with retaining Holm we've again let go more depth such as Woli. Alexander etc.

Costello has seen a massive revolving door of Canadians to work with. I don’t think he gets much say. it’s an interesting point to consider. Imo, clearly Walters has stepped in at times. Jackson not coming back, and biggie as well. If it was up to mos I think both would still be here and penciled on the ar. I think the default is mos having final say over who plays and walters on who comes/goes. I’m sure every one has some manner of input, but I think that’s how it boils down.

Other than MOS, every current head coach in the league started out as a position coach before moving up to a coordinator position. If this guy isn't willing to work his way up, that's his decision but it's not because there's a lack of opportunity. The league could use more new blood but if those guys aren't willing to leave USports what can the league do? Nothing wrong with staying where you are if you've got a good thing going. Some guys like Dobie are USports lifers and some guys are willing to leave a successful program (Chapdelaine comes to mind) in order to chase a pro career.

All they have to do is watch. I have & it's shocking.

Yeah it’s sad we haven’t actively sought to improve c or the ol yet. I hope we do, honestly we could dig up an imp C that would be a big upgrade very easily. We could still get an ni upgrade possibly or give Eli a chance. Heck we could have Wallace work snaps in camp and pre season like Dobson did last year. Im hoping for the best preparing for the worst. watching kola is really staggering. I don’t know who is worse between Jake or kola, I’d rather eat the loss of a bad dt than C though. Thomas can barely get to the line from off the line, kola turns over faster than a tackle vs a wide wide 5 speed rush. I think if people saw a clip compiling the highlights week after week it would open a lot of eyes.

Stanley is definitely not a Thomas at this point in their respective careers. Stanley at times makes really smart plays but you just can’t trust him he will be consistent with what they need from him. Hopefully he can improve on this but the leash you would think is shortening. Thomas at this stage is just consistently a non factor on the field (game tape does not lie) who reached his full potential a few years back and has rapidly declined. Great guy, great leader just doesn’t have it athletically anymore.

Some can't make up their mind who's to blame and when (except MOS to blame for everything bad). But Costello gets credit for being the best OL coach in the league. From everything that's revealed publicly, we can determine that most decisions are made as a group. MOS, Walters and Miller oversee things as a group. The offense is worked on as a group with the QB Room all having input (based on what we've seen/heard publicly). So I'm inclined to believe that the OL decisions are decided as a group as well. And if Costello is really believed to be the best OL coach in the league, I have a hard time believing MOS, the former LB and STer, is making unilateral overarching decisions regarding the OL.

For starting Kolo, how much of it is O'Shea and how much of it is Costelo (he's the OL cioach after all) ?

He's been offered chances to join the CFL coaching ranks, says no and then complains that there's no opportunities? Not sure what the point of the articles is when you can definitely work your way up just like Jason Hogan has in a fairly short time.

Most appear to “go home “ if they make it to market. And in that case, I guess Winnipeg and Manitoba needs to produce more OL. Not lots of homegrown Manitoba hogs in the league. There’s a couple but not many really. Zach Williams in Calgary is one but he signed an extension there. He’d have replaced Dobson nicely but didn’t make it to free agency.

Couture was walking no matter what, he had the opportunity to head home and get a bag while playing for his fave coach Kelly Bates who became the OL coach in BC after coaching Couture in college. It was a perfect fit and a slamdunk no-brainer move on his part except for that whole never even getting a sniff of the cup since thing

It’s true. We need to do a better job of retaining young Canadian talent and ol talent. But we also can’t chase the wrong guys because we let the right guys go. I think Dobson hit a hard plateau last year. He might bust it this year, if he doesn’t I don’t know that he will. I don’t think Wallace needs to progress much from last year to be better than Dobson, with significantly more upside. I think Wallace has potential to be a rt in the cfl actually with a bit more weight loss.

Face-offs need improving stat, especially in tight games.

3 Stars: 🥇 13 🥈 Thomas 🥉 81 Pionk was today years old when he learned you can get penalized twice on the same play. Buchnevich? Parayko? How bout getting Thomas!

Seriously the D needs to be the priority at the deadline. Josh out and we suck. Comrie making some saves here.

Pionk not a great last couple of series for him.

Pionk has been awful today. Stanley needs to get a one-way ticket out of Winnipeg

Pionk ices it tho. This could cost us here. Almost but OT coming up.

And that's game over. St Louis has another pp.

Pionk stick explodes .. and then promptly takes a dbl.minor. this is the game here.

I was the biggest Dobson booster around. I have a great deal of belief still in his talent and upside. No way in hell would I pay him elite money. He isn’t that guy. He struggled as every one did early, and solidified him self really well. He wasn’t consistent enough in pass protection, occasionally getting put on skates. He didn’t step up to compensate for the deficiencies around him or make the guys beside him better. And he didn’t do a good job of getting off/switching and getting to the second level. To pay a guard elite money they have to atleast flash one or more of those 3. Other wise, it’s honestly too easy to replace a Canadian guard who just gets in the way of the D. Wallace flashed the ability to get to the second level really well, as well as being able to help guys by chipping their man and hand checking guys to funnel them to the rt. He didn’t even play that much and as a rookie flashed more than Dobson has in all his time here. if Dobson didn’t want elite money, ideally you put Neuf on the bench as the 6th guy and run Dobson eli Wallace. Id rather us flip a G to imp than pay top dollar to Dobson. Desjarlais was worth the giant pay day, but that’s still a hard guy to work around cap wise.

Still better...which makes us better

Great goal by Ehlers. And Stanley IQ leads to tying goal.

He’s not exactly playing at an elite level anymore

Low bar

There were several tho who were better than kolo...

BC had an all-time bad D last year. I don't think much of Awe but it's not surprising they are making changes at LB and secondary, as well as where they play Canadians.