Colin Unger

https://3downnation.com/2020/01/08/cflpa-sends-memo-to-players-detailing-changes-to-cba/ Can somebody make sense of the new nationalized American rules. It seems like America vets will be able to qualify as Canadians in the starting ratio. But further down it talks about 10 National starters in total.

This guy is just throwing up a bunch of hail mary's. Last year he got a couple of things spot on but in most cases he was completely off. He projected Wolitarsky to be a cfl all-star for example. Predicting Fajardo to pass for 6000 yards is crazy. He's a game manager type and is sheltered by a good running game. He's not going to all of a sudden be an elite passer beyond anyone else in the league. Also.. Predicting right now that Winnipeg is going to fall and be a cross over team is purely conjecture. Nothing has happened in the real world to make Edmonton and BC a lot better. BC hired a Campbell who is a decent head coach but he struggles when he does not have top notch assistant coaches. BC failed to hire Dinwiddie as the OC and are likely going to be left with mediocre offensive coaching again. Edmonton replaced an offensive co-ordinator (Jason Maas) who should be a head coach with another carbon copy in Scott Milanovich. Nothing has occured to make anyone think these teams won't be just as soft as last season. As of right now there is every realistic expectation Winnipeg will remain competitive and in the top 3 in the West just like the last 3 seasons.

Yeah.. The offseason doesn't begin until the Grey Cup Champs say it begins!

Last year was a disaster. They didn't have a good offensive co-ordinator and Dom Davis was already somebody who had shown that he wasn't good enough. With a good offensive co-ordinator Jennings would have been somewhat ok. Arbuckle has come out of a good system and performed quite well in Bo's absence. You might even say he was better than Bo. Its a smaller sample size no doubt but with Lapo and potentially a good running game there I think Arbuckle will be fine.

Don't know why people are down on MBT. He put up great numbers and is clearly a more gifted passer than Matt Nichols is as this stage of his career. Nichols can't stay healthy.

Potentially both if Streveler signs in the NFL. Im not convinced if I'm Toronto that i would prefer Matt Nichols as my starter over MBT.

Yeah. Maybe Toronto would be willing to trade the farm for him. The 90k they saved on Mitchell's salary isn't really going to reshape the team they have around the quarterback. But if they could save 250k over what they paid to their starter last season they could really pickup a number of pieces to make a difference.

Id be incredibly surprised if Arbuckle has any interest in re-signing to be Bo's backup qb. I imagine that the idea of re-signing Arbuckle for cheaper and moving Bo was what got Bo to take a lower salary. I think Arbuckle is going to follow Dinwiddie to Toronto.

I think Winnipeg made him somewhat of a priority. They are not in a position to start an american back if Harris gets injured like they once were and Oliveria is coming off of a pretty serious injury.

I prefer the option of him coming back to Winnipeg

He will be missed and so will Rose. I don't think Sayles height will keep him from getting a contract but it will make it difficult for him to win a job. I just don't know what he's going to do on a smaller field with super accurate passes to tall receivers. Gonna be a challenge for him. The bombers recently signed Malik Boynkin who was a safety in camp last season. I see Alexender moving back to corner or halfback. We can find another american safety without too much trouble. So what it looks like is we have Matson, Alexander, Jones, and Taylor going into next season right now. Not a bad starting point.

Note sure where he would go even if he was a FA. As good as he still is Andrew Harris ain't getting any younger and Winnipeg right now is the only team dedicating runningback as a Canadian position and runs the ball heavily. And he's from Winnipeg.

Apparently Sergio Castillo play for the Houston Roughnecks. I imagine his plan is to bank some extra money and then take a shot at the NFL.

@66 Chevelle I agree with you that you can’t ignore the fact that the time commitment is less in the xfl as well as the injury potential and wear and tare on the body. However, many of these guys will be looking at maximizing their earning on an annual basis and the dollar amounts will he higher in the cfl. There’s also a bit of a timing issue for the xfl. Players coming right out of college will want to focus on making the nfl and then if that opportunity isn’t there they will be offered earnings more quickly from the cfl. A good number of the best cfl prospects are guys who only sign right before cfl training camp. Chris Streveler and Marcus Sayles come to mind as players who waiting to sign in the cfl until close to training camp. There is also going to be a significant bump to the cfl salary cup for next season as the players had a clause in the latest negotiation to receive a percentage of any new tv deal. But like you said there is plenty of talent out there. Players will get cut from an xfl team and make an impact in the cfl and vice versa. There’s also the element that the xfl will pay money for some nfl name who would likely not have any impact in the cfl. I don’t see a cfl starting qb going to the xfl because there wouldn’t be name recognition in the states and a qb who had put in the hard works to learn to excel as a cfl qb it’s going to give that up for anything less than nfl bucks.

"We like to say waterperson"!

There's also MBT who i think is an under rated options heading into free agency. What remains to be seen is whether or not Masoli re-signs with hamilton. He may not even be ready for the season and so he might just sign a one year deal with Hamilton. If Arbuckle and Streveler hit the NFL and Winnipeg opts to sign Zachary there could be the potential to get something for Nichols going to Ottawa. But not much. I guess in a dream world Toronto really wanted Nichols and we could bargain down the 1st we give up for Zach.

Have they not looked at his height?

Its about putting the best possible defense on the field. The defense got significantly better after Hecht was benched and we started Alexander at safety. I'm not convinced a top end Canadian safety is going to fall onto our laps.

I'm not worried about the offensive line especially center where we have Speller and Eli already. Where we are low on Canadian talent its defense. We need to have a National on the field at all times. Without Kongbo we would need to play Jake Thomas and a rotationary Canadian DT to keep him fresh at all times. Perhaps we would look at moving on from Kyrie Wilson and starting Jesse Briggs at linebacker. We seemed to be fine when we were starting a Canadian at WILL when Biggie was out.

Bombers offensive line is going to be dominant again. Bryant will be back IMO. Our young core of Canadians Speller, Gray, Eli, Desjarlais are only going to be better.

I just hope they get Glenn Young locked down. Toronto would be awfully appealing for him.

It nice that Dinwiddie goes outside of division rather than strengthening BC. Who's next on Campbell's list Paopao?

Pretty sure his wife won't be getting CTE working in one market or another. I'm not convinced we want Collaras back given all the options. I just think if Winnipeg wants him back and goes after him aggressively that he would do it.

I can't for the life of me see why Toronto wouldn't be going all in on the guy. He put up great numbers on a bad team and he can take a hit. He's a pure pocket passer so i think he could do quite well in a tandem with Streveler and not break the bank so we can continue to have an elite team around the qb's.

That's three teams and you've got Collaras, Nichols, MBT, Masoli (potentially), and Arbuckle. The wild card is Streveler. And Winnipeg is really well positioned because they are by far the best situation to put a qb into. After what Zach with minimal time to get up to speed is a testament to him and the group around him. Any QB to hit the free agent market would love the opportunity to play in Winnipeg. For a guy like Arbuckle you could go to a weaker organization and end up blowing your career.