Colin Unger

I imagine there are things to announce in Winnipeg like players re-signing, Walters, and retirements but i think they want to give us a little more time to mourn before turning on the next year marketing machine. If Brown is moving on please let there be significant interest so we can trade his early rights. Personally if Kurtis Rourke is coming to the CFL and Brown is moving on Id love to see us trade up to get him. Not only is it a backup and future starter but there's a significant cost savings vs what an american backup qb makes because Canadians are severely capped for 3 years. Plus it gives us another DI.

https://www.cfl.ca/2023/08/24/kurtis-rourke-tops-fall-edition-of-cfl-scouting-bureau/

That last play before the 3 minute warning it was a first down play. Everyone in the building knew we were going to run the ball. I thought that would have been a great time to catch Montreal off guard with a passing play and seal the victory. There was very little downside because the three minute warning was going to stop the clock regardless.

I agree. We were way to focused on win now above all else. We should have kept Pigrome around although its hard to fault the performance that Prukop had in the Grey Cup. He was amazing in his role. I think we need to put just as much energy into winning in 2025 this offseason as we put into winning in 2024. Now is the time to go a bit younger. Even if we moved on from Bighill, Jeffcoat and the two tackles we could easily be very competitive next season.

The reason why i put more of the blame on the defence is simply based on the numbers. The Als gave up less than more than 23 points in 25% of the games they played this year. I believe all but one of those games were against Toronto, Winnipeg, and BC. 24 points is probably acceptable but not great for playing the Als. But Cody Fjarado previous best game all year was 292 yards 2 touchdowns and 0 interceptions or 281 3 touchdowns and 2 interceptions. Against us 290 3 touchdowns and 1 interception. Given is was the Grey Cup and he executed a touchdown drive to win the game on the final drive I think you could say the bombers allowed him to have his best performance of the season.

The X factor that effects a potential influx of youth is the availability of young talent now with the XFL/USFL. The leagues are struggling and losing money but i think they will still be around by the time the next CFL season starts. If last season is an indication its difficult to imagine we are going to find a lot of cheaper better options. We need to look at what we currently have on our roster to potentially replace some aging players and free agents. Drew Richmond/Gray can compete to replace one retired tackle and we should spend on a top notch free agent for the other tackle. I think also Tui should be starting somehwere and maybe Dobsen too if Gray plays tackle. Adam Bighill i don't think he needs to go, not if he comes back on a cheaper deal. He needs to come in at a price where he's more of a role player. He shouldn't have been playing but that's on the coach not him and potentially that decision cost us the game both in him giving up a TD and Rose not being available. Jefferson still gets it done he should come back. Alexander id love to see what he could do at Will linebacker if he added about 10 pounds of muscle and make safety a Canadian position again. It would be nice to have a will with a little more cover ability. Probably going to get dumped on for suggesting something so unorthodox. His size isn't much different than Cole/Clements. Jeffcoat can come back if he takes a paycut but we shouldn't be in a situation where a guy like Lemon is available and we can't afford to sign him. We need a guy like that in additional to Jeffcoat and Jefferson. Its time for Jake Thomas to retire again. Can we give Holm more money just because? I love that guy. At the position he plays he's probably the best player on the team in terms of wins above replacement if there were such a thing in football.I think Zach should come back as the starter but i think we need to go to him and have a hard conversation. Does he want to make the maximum salary he can make with us or does he want to make a little bit less and start winning championships again. Its become harder to win with such a high paid quarterback. Or maybe he wants to finish his career playing for Ottawa. I think there's players on the team taking a larger paycut to stay in Winnipeg than he is. And these are guys making a fraction of what Zach gets. We need to go back to being a team that has great depth. Id prefer to bring back Zach and Streveler or Brown. But if he doesn't take a paycut i think we could really get a good package for Zach and go with Streveler and Brown and surround them with more talent. I'm one who think Streveler can be a every down QB in the CFL. I think he improved his passing considerably in the time he play in the NFL. Scheon, Oliveira, and Lawler are all due major pay rises. Especially Scheon. Remember Lawler took less money this year for a lot more next season.

Cant believe it but i pretty much agree with all of this.

https://www.bluebombers.com/2023/11/19/coach-oshea-post-game-grey-cup-110/

If Zack isn't the best qb in the league who's better? Is someone going to argue that Kelly or Adams performed better in the playoffs?

Exactly. I started cheering because i was sure the ball was going to go to Demski.

I don't think we make any coaching or quarterback changes. As much as i like the sound of Streveler and Dru Brown its too much of a risk for me. I would sooner try and retain Brown on the promise of starting in a year or two. Id be looking at some aging players in other areas as a means to get younger and repurpose some salary. If we lose Dru Brown id be trading up in the draft to get Rourke's brother whos unlikely to be headed to the NFL after an injury-plagued season.

If Zack only has a year or two left i can't really see Dru Brown going anywhere. MBT and Steveler to Ottawa and Hamilton. Who is would make Dru Brown a starter next season?

Please. The defence was horrible. They were playing against an inept offence and we should have held them under 20 points for sure. The offence wasn’t great but did do some good things on the ground against a good defence. The passing game was largely non existent. I mean we played against someone significantly worse than Matt Nichols right guys?

Let’s keep in mind the amount of Zach’s contract that is guaranteed in year 3.

I felt the offence as a whole did enough to win this game vs Montreal but the defence let the team down. No way should we give up 3 touchdowns to that team.

Good thing he's considerably younger than Mike O'Shea. Because i want Osh to coach for at least another 10 years before giving way to Buck.

https://www.tsn.ca/cfl/toronto-argonauts-say-medical-staff-saw-no-indication-of-chad-kelly-injury-during-after-east-final-1.2036788 The first time the Argos were made aware of the so called injury was basically when Kelly told the media. What a joke. This guy is a narcissist.

We don't know yet but he's going to be in Hamilton this week talking to teams. I would think Hamilton and Ottawa would be in on him. Honestly Montreal should be too.

Valardi is nearing the 4 week mark on an injury with a 4 to 6 week timeable. Would be nice to get him back within a couple of weeks especially with the injury not to Kupari. Boy the guys we got for Dubios are dropping like flies. Thankfully Alex Iafallo is matching Dubios production alone.

I don't see how Brady's NFL opportunities are terrific. He's too small to be taken seriously as a blocker. Unlike the CFL where they tend to have longer career in the NFL the average runningback's career ends at age 28.5, Brady will be 27 next NFL season. They would look at him as a guy to develop into a specific role and deem that he's too old for that to make sense. However, non of this means he won't be able to take a shot if he is absolutely motivated to do so. He'd have to go with zero guaranteed money, poor prospects of being given a chance, and the possibility of getting injured and missing the first CFL season where he's likely to be well paid. But you can't blame him for having the desire to take a shot down there if he chooses that for himself. We would likely go with a competition of american rookies at league minimum if that were the case. I think we could find someone who would be effective behind our offensive line.

Its going Im good with Zach until he's no longer getting it done.

With MBT back and all the talk being that some team will sign Steveler to start I am starting to think that Dru Brown may very well opt to stay in Winnipeg. Why leave a good situation when no other team is offering you an opportunity to compete for a starting job?

I would imagine that Hamilton would be all in on MBT. Ottawa and potentially Calgary/Sask.

In fairness. It does look like there's some hope for the market in Toronto after the decent crowd for the East Final.

I've been saying it all season: the Argos are a good team, but they haven't really been tested. They didn't face the Bombers in any significant way after the latter bowed out of the contest, which sucked the energy out of Winnipeg. When they played BC, it was in Toronto, and no matter how good the Argos' defense is, Vernon Adams had the worst game of his career. The rest of their schedule was filled with sub-elite teams. The Argos were very consistent but not as dominant as Winnipeg often was. Despite their 16-2 record, they gave up more points than Winnipeg and scored fewer points than Winnipeg I too think its a bit of a pipe dream that he's going to land back in the NFL. Winning MOP probably helps him a bit which is funny because the media is trying to help the argos by giving Kelly the award. Would love to see that backfire!