wbbfan

Teams with better DL than ours are using our former players, while our "superior" guys get whupped. If we made a DL of former bombers on CFL ARs, it would be handily better than our own.

It is the coach's fault if you are suffering at a position, like say DE, after cutting a bunch of guys who are now elsewhere in the league. Kinda like the situation we see right now. Cedric Willcotts is even back on the AR in Calgary.

So we sign Patrick Surtain, reigning NFL MODP. He isn't an upgrade over Bridges until he proves it, even if Bridges is proven to be below replacement level? If that were remotely true, free agency wouldn't be what it is, and defenders wouldn't get paid to go to other teams. That might be the earliest point you are able to recognize an on-field value differential, but that isn't a blanket that covers everyone's eyes. To that point, TC and PS would be completely worthless. That doesn't prove that he is willing to make the changes, it proves he is only willing to do it at the last possible minute after it's cost us repeatedly.

It isn't the same as the Argos or our D last year. Last year and the Argos used a 30 front, this year we are using a 40 base again. It isn't by scheme, that's why JY is blitzing at the highest rate we've seen in the entire mafia era. He's trying to get extra pressure a lot more often than we are playing drop 8, little on drop 9. Consistent player underachieving and especially in execution, is coaching. That is the level we are willing to accept at a leadership level. We didn't deploy a combination of a roster and a game plan that could win, despite being a heavy favorite especially in the last GC. That is coaching. We could've won with just a better roster. We likely would've won with better coaching as well. But if we managed the roster better, the game plan would've needed less improvements.

As a rotational Lber, his 2023 performance rushing the passer in Toronto would be 3rd best for us, in the past 4 seasons among all players. 1 behind JJ, and 4 behind WJs best year since 19. He's the most disruptive player we have on D, and the best range of any lber on our roster. Top 2 for tackling ability too. Tony jones is a lunch box guy, jonathon jones is one of the best lbers in the league. We can also pretend that we haven't started the last several years with brutally bad DBs who get replaced by younger guys who are instantly better. The Tyquann Glass, rock Cartrights etc. Or that Josh Johnson was better than anyone little on Wheatfall, who did Colin Kornelson beat out lmao. No one in this league would argue Kornelson has any business taking reps over Adams and Lawson. And yet he does. Anyone can watch Kola in iso and see he can't pass block or find guys to block when he gets downfield in the run game. All he can do is snap the ball well. He is the most limited player in the entire league. Look at the riders OL, they've surpassed us. Look at Randolph handily outplaying Lofton's level from last year. Look at Venterpool being maybe our best OL in his games at G. Would you like to argue that Corcoran is better than Cobb? Have you seen Ayers' snaps at DE? I love the guy, and think/thought he could have use as a situational pass rusher from a Jack position, but he's been brutal. Why don't you pick one of the often lauded bad players, Kola, Thomas, etc or one of the above-mentioned guys. Come up with some "evidence" other than an appeal to authority fallacy, and I'll do a breakdown and show you the guys who are below replacement level or that we have better on the roster.

Last game kyrie made 3 tackles, 2 on short yardage plays after first down yardage, 1 in the run game for a short gain. Jones made stops of 2 yards 3 times in the run game, leading to two punts and a 3rd and short. He made tackles after gains of 4 yards (first down), 9, 5(first) 3 (first) and 5 yards. That’s jones making the biggest contribution to run stops, but also frequently after a successful run. This is very comparable to what we’ve seen in each game this year.

Wilson makes the best decisions, is assignment sound, good in pass cover and a reliable tackler. Problem is he can’t get off the block of any one any more, and doesn’t have that explosiveness to close gap, lay a hit, or shoot a gap. He isn’t cooked like biggie, getting steam rolled by every rb in the hole. And he tends to get better and better. Which we really need him to do since we are married to him. The time it takes him to get back up to speed, he basically can’t afford an injury this year. Jones is hands down better in the box, he’s explosive and strong enough to make plays. His run instincts are good decision making mediocre and lost continually in coverage. Id rather play all small guys who can cover , rally to the ball, wrap and tackle than a guy who can’t cover.

I’ll take mills

I agree it’s not that he’s stingy or some thing. We have a tendency to over pay our role guys and that hamstrings the budget. I suspect we have the reputation of a none factor for elite free agents though. In the end, it doesn’t matter if you can’t or won’t compete with top free agents. If you don’t do it long enough it hurts your ability to pull in guys when you do want them. I agree that our new recruits have been an issue. Primarily being that we just don’t play the best guys. But I think this years crop was much better with new blood in the front office. Combine that with the fact we took our foot off the drafts gas pedal and hunted for mainly kick cover guys, and suddenly we are thin with ni depth. We’ve gotten back to where we need to be in the draft the last two years. But the previous couple will still take time to out run.

Yep. For instance, the Raptors have been approximately a top 10 salary team the last 2 years, and a bottom 10 team both of those years. Which despite rebuilding for only part of that, led to their president Masai being fired. Who brought them a championship in 19. The blue jays have been in a similar situation and had all the pressure in the world to fire atkins and shapiro. They've hit a hot streak in the last 10 or so days and taken the pressure off, but pre all star break hot streaks mean little in the MLB. It's not enough to say we spent the most money we could when you spend poorly. The job of balancing the SMS is min-maxing.

I mean when we originally gave him the money it was a fair investment. But the length of time he’s gotten it and will get it is extremely problematic. It’s a long list tbh. Wj hasn’t been an elite dl for a while. The bonus money we wasted in the off season etc.

Atleast he’s entertaining. The reffing is Mickey Mouse at best any way in the cfl.

I think the first sentence is the key here. We have over paid a bunch of guys. Kramdi is making elite money, we paid Lawson big money which is ok but we don’t play him nearly enough snaps for that money, Demski is banking massive cash, etc. we have given guys pay days they wouldn’t have gotten any place else.

You’d think Maas would be able to work a 2 qb system too.

No player in the history of pro sports has been found to be betting in his own games, punished, and allowed to return. Pete rose just got reinstated for eligibility to get in the hof since he died. Jontay porter is facing 4-5 years in jail for better on his games and faking injuries to rig his line. No commish or bog has allowed a guy back. They have every reason to instantly decline his application.

Yeah I’m pretty sure they would and that they are still pushing to get him back. I hope the league is better than that. Big early test for the new commish.

Nah. We aren’t even desperate enough to dress the ends we do have. I bet he goes back to mtl if he is reinstated.

https://3downnation.com/2025/07/05/suspended-dl-shawn-lemon-can-officially-apply-for-cfl-reinstatement/ boy they better not let this loser back in the league

100%. He’s solid in run stopping. Not much in the pass rush. He would be better if he mostly went with adams and Lawson. But he isn’t the fit we need opposite of wj, and wj him self is pretty toast. He can still make plays but he’s soo cheat happy for pass knock downs and beaten down by years of double teams I don’t think he can come back. Sure does. We need air lifts.

The cfl free agent process and tampering is pretty open these days. And walters post free agent pressers are too. A lot of guys went after in the past are well known to the extent some of the offers were known That is a play making position, but you can also do a lot of that at defensive hb and S. He was basically a one year starter with seasoning. I have no doubt he could play at that level and higher if he was still here. for 230k as a db, man idk how you make that work or justify it. You gotta be a monster shut down man cover guy, be a monster coming up and playing the run, and have that dynamic play making. You have to change how offences play. Nichols is in the very top tier of dbs and does a chunk of that. But he isn’t close to that pay day. As long as guys like Nichols, beverette, Pickett, Webb etc aren’t getting close to 200k, no one is worth what ford got. I’d take dequoy over ford straight up and he’s significantly cheaper. I’m all for taking flyers on guys with upside. Having that be the exclusive attempt to improve the team through free agency is extremely risky and it failed spectacularly.

bringing lawler back in free agency. Winston rose before that. We also didn’t have much money after the 21gc. We were continually in a position where we struggled just to being back our own guys, who were the top free agents available. Before that you can go through guys like Bryant, and harris. We also tried to get several of the top free agents at wr, went hard after moncrief twice etc. We had consistently perused top free agents and successfully got our fair share.

Ford and Dobson got way more than they should’ve. Ford was better than solid, and still has tons of potential. But at the end of the day a db especially a field corner just isn’t worth top dollar. We sure didn’t make any attempt to add top end talent to our roster or replace both end guys. We got as many cheap lotto ticket type free agents as possible, and they all went bust.

Some not so fun stats to this point of the year. The bombers have 3 tfl on the year. Bridges, jones, and kyrie each with 1. Our entire dl, has 1 sack. Our team total is 5. Moncrief alone has 4 tfl. Deontai Williams has 3. Chatfield has 5 sacks on his own. 10 players across the league have as many combined sacks and tfl as our team has tfl. 11 players would instantly lead us in tfl or sacks if acquired. I think every one involved gets 100% of the blame. No splitting it. For what we pay wj and vaughters they should be winning a couple battles a game and atleast generating a couple pressure on their own. Mos for dressing so few dl leaving us with few options, Jy for not doing better with what we have (especially Adams and Lawson). Walters for allowing this foolishness to continue. Handicapping our self with our roster doesn’t make us better, or more morale or more Canadian. It just makes us worse and arrogant about being bad. Garbutt, Habba, and fox have out performed our vets with their new teams.

One of the ones sadly

More like injury.