Colin Unger

Question for my elders in here. What the heck was up with Dieter Brock? Based on my research he went to the NFL at age 34 right after his worst season in the CFL. He performed pretty well in the NFL and was on the all-rookie team and then never played football again....

I guess we now know where the CFL buries its' bones!

People still bitter he chose to sign in Montreal over Winnipeg.

I can’t stand Henry Burris just as much as the next guy. But I don’t think you can argue with what he did in the field. Turned 3 franchises around. Had many more 30 td plus seasons than Ricky Ray and even a 43 td season. And additionally he added yards on the ground that Ricky never did. Ricky has inflated yardage stats because he was limited to the passing game.

No mop’s and fewer 30 td seasons than Trevor Harris... Ricky Ray consistently accumulated yardage. I’ll give him that.

This I agree with. I think there needs to be a Grey Cup wins against replacement stat. As it is right now you should win one out of 9 to be league average. Damon Allen is another QB who was over rated IMO due to the longevity factor. And what I mean by over rated is if you’re going based on career stats alone to make judgements on how great they were. I base it more on how good was a player in their peak. More of a Bobby Orr was the greatest player ever type of view. Jeff Garcia IMO was a greater CFL qb than Damon Allen but he moved onto the NFL so didn’t put up the career stats.

He doesn’t need to be. AC was miles better than Ricky Ray.

And how much of the it is a carry over from Huffnagel?

Im just saying that I wouldn’t automatically do it. I would need to do some more research. I’d put Henry Burris above him though off the top of my head. I think we are too quick to add players near the top of an all time list and those lists have a tendency of favoring more recent players who may have played in an era where passing is a bigger part of the game. How many MOP’s did he have over all the years he was in the league?

Not the first time ... thanks for pointing that out.

This could turn out well. Bombers get a complete training camp and Calgary and Edmonton end up missing a few days. That would be pretty sweet!

I agreed with the decision to stick with Nichols even though I’m I big believer in Streveler. If there’s one thing I put more faith into than anything else it’s math. And the math on raw rookies leading a team to the Grey Cup in the CFL is pretty bleak. This year I’d be much more comfortable switching starting qbs if Nichols is still limited like last season.

I think a more aggressive gameplan and we would have lost the game worse. We had a couple opportunities which were simply missed passes by Nichols and Streveler which could have won the game. Im hoping that Nichols will be back to 2017 form this season or we switch to Streveler and let him work through some growing pains for long term benefit. I also don’t expect us to face defenses this year in Calgary and Sask that were as dominant as last season so that’s going to be a factor as well.

I’m surprised by this. He had an easy path to the playoffs and cup in Hamilton. Sask must have been offering a lot more money. If the riders are aware the Clark is out long term that may have freed up a lot of extra cap space.

I was never as impressed by Ricky Ray as Rod Black was. I’m a sucker for qbs who are more flashy then the slow and steady approach Ray played with. Wouldn’t automatically put him in the top 10 of all time.

The backup always looks good coming on in relief. Nichols was playing on a bum knee all year and lost his confidence at times as a result of his physical limitations. When he kept throwing those pick 6 plays to defensive ends Lapo did the logical thing and further limited the playbook to avoid those game killers. They need Nichols back at 100% or at some point to give Streveler a chance. Despite the poor qb play Lapo still devised gameplans that led to the team leading the league in points and offensive points scored.

That's a bit of a straw man. "If you're not Dickenson you're average"... I'd like to believe there is something in between Dickenson and average. And let's keep in mind that Lapo hasn't exactly been blessed with the best qb's while he's been an OC. I don't think anyone would argue though that the QB's he's had haven't had their best seasons with him. Nichols, Glenn, Durant, Jones. I'd love to see Dickenson prove himself without an elite QB at some point so we can find out how good he actually is. June Jones is more impressive to me at this point. I'm looking at our recent playoff losses. The offense was elite in 2 of them and not nearly good enough in the most recent one against the best defense in the league. The offense didn't perform any differently against Calgary in that playoff loss then it had all season versus Calgary. I fail to see any connection to the offense and there being some sort of different result in the playoffs under Lapo. 2016 Playoff loss 32-31 against BC. 459 offensive yards and zero turnovers. The defense gave up 522 yards. 2017 Playoff loss 39-32 against Edmonton. 502 offensive yards 3 turnovers but two were on downs. The defense was a complete sieve. 2018 Playoff loss 22-14 against Calgary. 262 offensive yards and 0 turnovers. The defense was great but not great enough. This was an improvement over the offense against Calgary in regular season where the offense threw the games away with turnovers.

He dressed for 40 games as a rider including 17 in 2016... We got more out of him. Lapo utilized him in a role that was more suited to a running back turned receiver. Basically, the role that Flanders was in in late 2017. I don't see him a someone who would do well in Dressler's role.

Not wrong. But when judging lapo here would we not say that he got a lot more out of Demski than he was putting on display on his previous team? Lapo to me takes an approach where he’s looking at players as filling very specific roles. Not much unlike the New England Patriots. The number of players who weren’t spectacular elsewhere who have found success in specific roles for the patriots is staggering. I see the same thing happening in Winnipeg. Harris become better here, Nichols, demski, Adams... The offensive line was still a huge question mark before Lapo came to town as well. You give him an elite qb and I think you’d see a very different look on offense but he doesn’t have that yet so i he’s making it work with what he has. Ritchie Hall on the other hand requires elite talent on d and couldn’t make it work with what he had until Bighill came to town. That’s all I’m trying to say here.

Not actually... Many of the Canadians are good players but they keep adding and adding the Canadian on offense because they know that Lapo can make it work. When you have 6 Canadian starters on offense and 1 on D its certainly worth mentioning in the context of this discussion.

If Clarke is unable to suit up for the season where does this leave the Riders offensive line? They might be regretting not drafting an offensive lineman in the 2nd round.

The numbers speak for themselves. Our offense despite being heavily Canadian and being led by a castoff QB has been very productive. It took a nearly all american defense and Adam Bighill for Hall to look like a CFL defensive co-ordinator.

Taman did a good job considering what he had to work with. I just feel like things should have evolved after a while and we should have started accumulating draft picks. Not having a serviceable backup middle linebacker and having to trade a 1st round pick for Zeke Moreno when Canada refused to be traded was a low point.

No https://sna No matter how many times a comb through the CFL pre-season broadcast schedule I never seem to find Winnipeg listed!!! g.gy/PODuhT.jpg

Taman was much better than Mack overall. But the one good thing about Mack is that he had the patience to suffer while we waited to have an upcoming stock of draft picks. Probably it had more to do with thinking his Americans were better than cfl vets however he did turn the tide in this area and was able to hand over a team to the next gm which actually had draft picks on day one.