Colin Unger

I still would like to have a proven veteran National defensive lineman on the roster. I imagine we will sign somebody who is less expensive and younger than Westerman. Zach Evans would be high on my list.

This is why its better for players to have bonuses before free-agency starts.

I wonder how much the signing of Bowman impacted pending free-agent receivers. Perhaps Winnipeg was seen as an reason to hit free-agency but they may have informed certain agents that they are no longer going to be going after top receivers in free-agency.

I think role may have played into this and having to be on the same team as Duron Carter may have been a deterrent as well

It will be interesting to see if we can have 2 guys join the 10,000 receiving yards club in the same season. Bowman is at 9024 and Dressler is at 9491. If they both end their careers in Winnipeg it will be interested to see which guy ends up on top.

This is exactly what we've been missing in our offense. They would have liked to see Thorpe or Givens take over that role but now we have a guy we know can do it. Hopefully this reduces the hits that Dressler needs to take.

Stamps really starting to get thin on the offensive line! http://calgarysun.com/sports/football/cfl/calgary-stampeders/stampeders-offensive-lineman-federkeil-retires

This guy also has upside...

I'm not as worried about the track record with QB's. Winnipeg hasn't really dedicated to developing a QB. Bennett looked like he has some upside but we went with 3 veterans this past season. The problem with developing QB's is that you don't find out what they are worth until you risk some wins by starting them. I'm more concerned about finding import receivers at this point. I still think that Thorpe was a good find and Washington and Givens have potential. Not to mention Flanders.

We can cross Spencer off the Bombers wish list. https://www.cfl.ca/2018/02/07/redblacks-sign-extensions-spencer-macmillan/

Hopefully there's more to say about this guy at some point in the future

From what I've heard after last training camp from a reliable source connected to the team Spooner was very far behind Couture. If there's a an offensive lineman available when our first pick comes up who could come in a immediately be an upgrade over Spooner i think we should go with another offensive lineman. Going from 2 to 3 Canadian starters in theory creates more of a need for backup depth on the offensive line. I feel like we have to ignore Gray at this point and if he ever comes here deal with the embarrassment of riches at that time. We also have to assume that at some point Neufeld is going to be injured because that has been the track record. So when Neufeld is injured are we comfortable with our Canadian offensive line depth consisting of Spooner alone? I'd take an offensive lineman if there is a quality guy available. Personally I would push for Couture to start over Neufeld and use Neufeld more as a roster backup who can fill in at tackle or guard as it gives us a better chance of surviving the season with a healthy offensive line.

Won't have enough wins to be considered IMO.

After Conner McDavid put on a show against Andrei Vasilevskiy it would appear that Conner Hellebuyck is not within striking distance of him in the Vezina race. What do you guys think it would take for Hellebuyck to win the award? He is currently 4 behind in terms of wins but also has 4 fewer regulation losses. If he can end up within 2 or 3 wins and have fewer loses I would say this category will be a draw. All it would take right now is a Hellebuyck shutout and one poor performance by Vasilevskiy and they would pretty much be in a dead heat. Thoughts?

Trouba shouldn't eat away from that 20 million too much. He makes 2.5 now and I don't see him making much more than 5.5 on his next one.

I would take a wait and see approach with Wheeler. He's excellent right now but the NHL is a young man's game. If he's still getting it done hopefully his contract at age 33 wouldn't go beyond 2 years.

Yeah. Before Walters and Miller took over we were coming from decades of not doing anything the right way. We are still catching up IMO from years of neglect at the draft. Had we drafted for the last 10 years like we have in the past 4 years we'd probably have at least 2 additional experienced Canadian offensive lineman on the team. We'd have an embarrassment of riches. All of our good Canadian offensive lineman are Chung's age or younger. Kind of like the Jets in that way. They've got way more talent Scheifele's age and under then they do players that are older.

Because they pay their players in bags of weed!

The problems with the defense had more to do with just one guy. We need to upgrade Hurl no doubt I just don't believe he was the primary reason for our porous pass defense. We need to make multiple upgrades to the defense. When it comes to defense you're only as strong as your weakest link. I'd like to have Heath back as I'm not one who noticed him freelancing out there. I saw a very good defensive halfback. I just don't think any CFL team can freak out over losing two import position players. That's the bare minimum of what any team will lose in any off season and typically you'll lose more. We need to do a better job of replacing than our competitors.

The thing is that even with Heath back there our secondary wasn't good enough last year. We had all these so called all-stars but somebody wasn't doing their job.

We can't still be stuck back in the days when everything this team did blew up in their face. Let's face it. Back in those days we never would have been able to take a castoff qb and turn him into what Matt Nichols is today. Its time to move forwards with confidence that Walters and Co. can replace a couple of positions when certain athletes got too expensive. If we aren't at that point then it wouldn't matter if we brought everyone back or not. The second a guy would get injured we'd be screwed anyways. If we do get Leggett back we are doing pretty good. We have re-signed a lot of players and haven't lots key athletes to the NFL like other teams in this league and in our division.

At the time that Bond began starting on the offensive line he really helped the offensive line get over the hump. However, Chung was just finding his footing at the time. He's come a long way since then. Goosen has come a long way since then. Hardrick has come a long way since then. It's a bit of a red herring to point out that the offensive line sucked before Bond came on the scene especially considering the offensive line didn't suck when he was injured last season. I'm not suggesting that its a guarantee that Couture is ready to be a solid starter. I'm suggesting that he came in with starter upside and has now has now gone through the regular trials that an up and coming offensive lineman should go through, he's gotten bigger and stronger, and there's no reason not to think that he's ready face the challenge of becoming a starter. There's always a chance that he doesn't follow the path of Chung and Goosen. But you can't as an organization be afraid of giving your young developing talent an opportunity to start when it is appropriate if you want to make progress. Every team in the league is going to have guys like this who are going to be given the opportunity to take the next step. Success or failure depends on it. Dave Ritchie's mindset of playing whatever veterans we could get our hands on had a limited ceiling and a short shelf life. I'm not trying to take anything away from Bond here. He's a terrific CFL guard. But I honestly don't think the offensive line would have look fantastic so long as Drew Willy was the starter. A big part of the credit goes to Matt Nichols and an offensive system which attacks defenses quickly.

I'm thinking speed and moves. Demiski and Wolitarsky are larger guys who can catch a ball and then grind for more.

I'm still relatively high on Givens. But yeah landing a top notch free-agent Spencer it would make starting 2 Canadian receivers that much more realistic as there would be plenty of American talent in our 3 starters.