wbbfan

Thomas was really good as a depth piece for most of his career, and for a while very good as a starter who rotated. I don’t think any one denies this. The problem has been in the time since stove left we’ve gone from using him wisely to using him like he’s an elite American nose tackle in his prime. And he’s not any of those things. If you look at our dl play in the era from stove back to even poop and early jj/wj, we had tons of great play and guys who all rotated a lot. Since stove we rotate far more sparingly and the line has been a fraction of its former self. Rotation (lack there of) is a much bigger problem than Jake. We had soo many highly effective guys in the rotation era. Craig roh, Kongbo, hansen, Nevis, stove, Thomas, sayles, Bryant, okpalaugo, even guys like corney and walker had their uses. That’s not including the Jeff’s. That’s a ton of guys bringing strong value from 18-21. 22-24 we got wj, maybe one total season from Jeff coat, sayles for a year, and Lawson. Part of that is we went from air lifting in nose tackles and 3 techs all camp till we found gems (when we didn’t start with them) to settling for what we had. This last years camp was the first time we got back to that. Continuing, has to mean moving away from every down Jake. Or half downs Jake.

The ****? How do you give a guy who hasn’t been a proven starter and made your offence worse when he went in that kind of money? I don’t get it. I could see giving him a deal with incentives to go up to that if he hits like 4k+ passing, 1k rushing, 25-30 passing tds min etc. but his base should be 150-200 max. and front loading that deal in 24 but with it going against the 25 cap? I wonder if mbt/masoli/fajardo retires, goes to ufl or takes a back up jobs. Over all level of talent at starting qb in the league probably won’t go up this coming year, but it looks like the depth will spread around more evenly.

Ba is one to consider as well. He was solid in Pass cover this year. Awful with tackling, can’t be in a run fit or blitz any more. We really need to keep grooming the next guy. Which comes down to Cole and Kelly. I’d even be happy to use them in packages and together some. Ba would be an excellent guy to be a player coach as well if he’s interested.

Two of about a zillion reasons why the ncaa is a garbage organization.

Kyrie idk. I don’t like how slow he is to get back up to speed after he recovers from the constant injuries. But if he’s cheap and behind ayers etc I’m ok with it. Biggie and Thomas are the big ones for me. Thomas will certainly happen, and I just threw up in my mouth thinking about that. But I do believe a healthy Lawson takes more snaps than him at one dt spot. If jakes playing 15 snaps a game range, I won’t whinge… too loudly. I’d really love to see woods, Lawson, adams, and Garbutt/wj on the field together. With Garbutt in that group good luck running.

That’s true, unless your an old vet then you get till you can’t walk any more. Though I’ll say Jy n crew did a great job early in the season with the secondary. It took a few weeks for the guys to mesh (and getting karamoko out of heavy rotation) but they really found their groove in the system. Especially the ford kramdi side. The lbers got decent run too, but just because of injury. I expect Cole to take a big step next year, but I could see Ayers taking that step first too.

If I’m not wrong they let you play in the cis till about 29 I joke I joke.

Is mos junior still with them too? Junior mafia bisons would be pretty cool.

Priester is an interesting guy for sure. As I recall they were high on him and the Argos first grabbed him quick, but since then has been on and off rosters more than he’s played games. For some reason hasn’t really solidified a spot, but he has the make up to succeed. His experience and understanding should be real good by this point. Plus the Argos have been up there with us for ability to find and develop dbs. Going back even further than us. So says a lot that they like him soo much.

Some positions also really benefit from a 2nd go round and year. It’s more optimal to have guys on the pr, but with that limited it’s just good business to bring some guys back. You also some times just have more talent than you do spots. We could bring back a couple of the lbers cut in camp this tc. Thomas got picked up by the ALs, but petrishen and gemmel would be nice. Moses depends on health. Be hard to do better than last year at lber. Maybe Coleman too, iirc he was a legit T who kinda suffered for reps. Grainger I think will Be back and I like that too. We often seem to recycle camp dbs into the next year, idk if that’s ever worked out for us. Db is especially in our system is kind of a quick make it or miss position. But it’s also hard like you said to get 20-30 db bodies in camp. If a guy brings some thing you like and has the upside makes some sense to fill out with them.

Adds a few names to the 3dn article list, drew tate(pass), Jason hogan(not even our best internal option pass) and beau Baldwin (would love it, needs a vet to work with though)

Yep. And oc, next to hc, has it harder than any other coach. need to have a short memory for bad stuff in a line of work like that, and stay out of the papers.

Not agreeing with the overall point being discussed, our scouting has been very good imo. But on Wilson idk what to make of him honestly. He’s shown some flashes and stepped up when needed. Idk if he’s an effective guy as the 4th passing option which is what he is when our wr core is healthy. What he shows in the sophomore year will dictate how good he really is. If he takes a step forward and can perform in the lesser used role he will be a real good find. Idk about his fit with our full unit but we will see. Not many kids step in the way he did and perform instantly. we traded for his rights, was he on the pr or some thing idr the details.

https://3downnation.com/2024/12/05/eight-candidates-to-be-the-next-offensive-coordinator-of-the-winnipeg-blue-bombers/ Hodge with a decent article on our oc options. I hadn’t thought about getting costanza back but do like that idea. Lionello is a big jump but he’d be an excellent get too, really like the refresh he could offer us. Mike miller of the Argos is a real interesting pick. Hes done the job a bunch in the nfl. I think he’s the perfect guy to pair with a young guy like lionello but idk if he’d want to be the mentor. All in all a good list.

With maksymic to Edmonton, landing spots are getting thin for Jackson. Be a damn shame if he didn’t get a job for this year.

Yep. I really like the balance he strikes in terms of size and strength between Cole and jones. Very kyrie esq

Best case scenario (that’s realistic) is we rotate guys up the middle like we used to on the dl. Heavy mix of ayers, Cole, and jones in different packages and situations.

The entire purpose of the regular season is to set up the post season. The only reason the season isn’t shorter is monetary. Drastically less regular season would make the season much better in terms of quality. Shorter post season wouldn’t benefit any thing. You’ve got 3 tiers for quality of season. Missed the play offs, made the play offs but lost in them, and the champion. we can soothe our self with the considerable financial success of the year or the extra games, but in the end we are no different in terms of success than the rest of the teams that lost in the play offs. Nothing wrong with enjoying the team despite them missing the final goal. If the goal posts get moved shorter though, that’s how you end up in situations on the field like Edmonton and Calgary. That’s how you end up with fan bases like the riders and leafs. Oh hey we won ldc and made a good push late in the year, go us! We’re no1!

Also a nuance and ability to be multiple with positions and players that I really like. Like he did with Leake. He sends over a list of candidates, half are just run plays and the other half former RBs like Harris lol. while he’s had some pricy WRs, he’s done a lot with not the best pieces and under some tough circumstances. Big believer in what he can become.

Might be a case that we wanted him, wasn’t gonna be a lot of market for him, rewarded him with the front loaded bonus laden deal that won’t hit us next year. Guys like wj might want to haggle more.

And I think if it’s bourgoin getting the oc, that we will see that. Before bucks overhaul this year we saw a lot of that stuff especially with Lawler and schoen. Zach always had a guy down field in a position he was comfortable with who could break off and gouge the D for a 15-25 gain. But we lost those guys, plus the balance in our schemes to open those seams. Then with us not stretching the field side to side with motion and freezing the second level with pa it just was gone.

It didn’t happen with strev and lapo, and zach has been forced to run check downs and screen based offences. Zach will take his shots, but I don’t think that will be a corner stone for us for certain. New oc can change a lot. At zachs best, he wasn’t chucking over the shoulder ropes to guys streaking down field. He was dissecting Ds with seam busters and deep outs 20 yards down field. That, is what should be a corner stone of our offence with zach at the helm. we didn’t adjust with personnel changes prior though, and we had the WRs to run it out earlier. Zach played a part in it, but the shift we saw to buck the especially in the final year was drastic. Hardly any thing remained from the lapo era. we have been known to hand out surprising over pays to guys taking starters jobs or who we hope would. As recently as last year we gave what 300k+ combined to Kramdi and Lawson. We paid rose bank well after his down turn. We been handing starters money to Augustine. Meanwhile we low balled grant twice. We are a bit unpredictable with paying our own guys. I hope this means biggie/kyrie are done here. I also hope it was a reasonable deal. Further more, I hope jones takes a long hard look at film and does a better job getting back to his spots in pass plays. Or has his snaps limited in those situations.

Got that feeling too.

I mean Jackson had that elk offence topping the league under jones when he could focus on just the O. He’s been at it long enough he should be expected to to succeed right away. Don’t agree. The offence changed soo much from lapo to under buck. It’ll depend on how much input zach gets, and how much the new oc works to counter zachs weaknesses. 100%. I’m happier for Ted to get this shot, soo long over due, than I am sore for our loss. It is a great loss but he deserves this soo much. The league is better off with guys like Ted running foot ball ops than some of the rabble we’ve seen. We need shaking up, no way we replace him and improve though. Very much the end of an era. Hopefully we are looking at the mafia going into godfather 2 territory not 3, but it feels like godfather 3. Not a lot of volume in firsts lately. But we’ve killed it in rounds 2-4.

Never rains but it pours. Thrilled for Ted though. Great guy well deserving. Dobson. Bc loves our fa ol lol.