Colin Unger

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.

Getting Westerman back would change the outlook on things... I'm just not sure how we can get back both Westerman and Leggett on top of everyone else we've already re-signed and expect to be active in free agency. If we do that then I think we may be looking at Santos Knox as the starting middle linebacker.

I don't know why people bring of Couture's size. He was 6'4 276 at the combine but weighed in at 294 last year. I would imagine after another year of offseason training and eating i can't imagine he's gonna be considered under sized. It often takes a couple years to get to where they need to be. My confidence from him comes from past history with the bombers developing offensive lineman. Goosen they knew needed some times when they draft him and that worked out. Chung worked out. They've been brining Couture along just like Goosen before him and at this point he needs to play and battle through the challenges of being a starter. But i'd take him over some veteran who proved unworthy of starting in the CFL.

I like him too. If we had him, Coates, and Demski I'd be confident starting two Canadians at receiver. But I wouldn't want to go into camp with Wolitarski and Coates expecting to start two Canadians for 18 games.

What we are looking at on the defensive line as it stands right now is that there will be on Canadian on the field at all times. In terms of Ekakitie.... having a full season of pro football under his belt and going home and training all offseason and then coming back to camp knowing what he needs to do to make a larger impact can make a pretty big difference over him coming in as a raw rookie. But between him, Corney, and Thomas or somebody else we might sign in free agency we can have a Canadian on the field at all times. In terms of Neufeld I'm not concerned with his level of play at guard. He's on an offensive line which features pretty good teammates. I would calculate for Chung and Goosen to continue to grow and improve. My concern with him is his inability to play 18 games. However, since I believe that Couture is ready to begin facing the challenge of being a starter I'm not worried about the situation. I'd like to see us pick up some sort of veteran Canadian backup to compete in training camp until we know we we've got. However, its going to be difficult to find the room once we draft another offensive lineman this year to add to the backup core of Couture, Speller, and Spooner. The thing we need to keep in mind is that the draft hasn't happened yet and free-agency hasn't happened yet. I'm expecting the bombers to sign at least two additional Canadian options. Another defensive lineman and hopefully a receiver like Demski who could allow us to start two Canadians in the receiving core should injuries dictate that. We should re-engage this conversation once we know who is all coming to training camp.

Its likely that this was just a placeholder offer since the ticats hat a limited amount of time to make an offer or release him from thier neg list. The dollar amounts in the article don't seem realistic . It said in the article that his agent felt he was worth the same as Masoli but it also said they were asking for 500k which is way above what Masoli is schedule to make. I imagine they are still apart but not by nearly as much as this article is making it out to be.

He was a running back originally. He was only switched to receiver because it would increase his odds of having a CFL career due to the number of Canadian receiver jobs in the CFL.

Yeah.. I've been holding out for getting one of these Winnipeg products in our lineup. LeFrance ended up being way overpaid which is good for him. Perhaps he will end up here one day but I think he's more of a backup/change of pace guy. I'm not really sure why Demski was't utilized more last season in Saskatchewan. He got off to a good start and then it seemed like they just never featured him again. I think in Winnipeg he would have a breakout season.

Wilder should have thought about this before he signed the contract he signed. Let's face it. He is doing this because he had a breakout year and feel he deserves to be paid more not because he's not capable of supporting his family on this amount of money. The problem that he's going to run into is that sitting out the season doesn't benefit him financially unless he's able to make more money during the season not playing football. And if he sits out the season nobody is going to give him as much money for the 2019 season as they would have had he been playing and producing at a high level.

Not a bad strategy. The only issue I see is we have Ian Wild coming back to play the Will position. We need to give ourselves option at several positions to star more canadians. I’d love to see his sign Nick Demski and give him reps at his natural runningback position as well as slot. Make him an option to spell Harris at times.

I agree. We need to start developing a guy who can become the backup after Durant. And it makes sense to go cheap at #3 with Durant making a decent amount as a backup.

Right but at this point. The worries have been proven to be unfounded. However, regardless of who your starting qb is you need to have a good backup in the CFL. You might get lucky one season and have no injuries from your starter but you just never know.