wbbfan

Wonder if he's swung a helmet at Biggie again yet.

On D, our backups break down like this Don't play Defensive reps: Vaval, Smith, Shay, Gauthier, Novak, Cadwallader, Hallett, and Ayers. Kornelson and Lawson rotate for Adams when Griffin comes in. That's 2 defensive DI's who don't play D, our highest upside young guys (4 of them) don't get reps, and our ends just live on the field. On O, we bring in Eli for a handful of snaps, as well as MCI, Peterson, and Corcoran is a depth/teams guy. Wallace will come in for short-yardage pack at most. Carrying MCI, 2 backup OL, and 2 backup NI DTs when half can sub for the other in short-yardage is crazy. I'd keep MCI, which is growing and big enough to bully small guys and talented enough to back up skill positions. But we could easily go down the big inside Canadians and dress someone who plays and has a chance to make a positive impact. When 90% of your snaps are goal-line plays and fg kicks, you don't have much of a chance to contribute. We need guys to fill those roles, but we don't need a half unit of backups for those roles. We do need guys who can rotate at positions like DE. You can see the sharp decline in WJs production when we stopped rotating ends with Hansen/Kongbo, and when we stopped employing an imp Nose. If younger, healthier WJ couldn't succeed in that situation, how is older WJ, who has been beaten up by every OL in the league, going to? This isn't some controversial, highly theoretical proposition here. We are talking about thinning out the crop of guys who hardly play teams, for guys who are professionals at what we lack. If Bailey and Person don't work out, air lift in more. All they've done, though, is show strong promise when given the chance. So it's pretty reasonable to believe that they would enable us to get more pressure than the virtually none our base fronts have been providing for a long while.

Really, is that easy for Person, also vanterpool, for Bailey, you could have Sergio punt, go with 6ol, take off Kornelson, Have gauthier snap instead of Laroux, etc. Kornelson hasn't outperformed anyone for his spot. Ayers isn't an end and has been brutal on the edge in short yardage. We don't need 3 Canadian DTs for 1 starting spot. We have 1 backup NI WR for 2 starters. 1 backup RB for 1 starter. Etc. You have two guys who actually play the position that we have zero depth on the AR at. And a bunch of guys who play teams are taking spots from those guys. We won the GCs by winning the battle in both trenches. Not just OL. What happens if WJ or Vaughters go down? They have a combined age of 66 and play virtually every snap on D. We roll with Ayers, who has only played edge in the short-yardage plays, and has been bad at that, play every snap? We split him 50/50 with our only imp DT, while playing an end of the roster Canadian who wouldn't make any other team every single snap? As is, without them getting hurt, WJ and Vaughters have NOT been effective. That isn't going to change on its own. And we are blitzing a lot this year to create pressure, which is why we've struggled giving up big plays this year. We've given up as many as we've had, and are among the league leaders in big plays given up per game.

3 keys for me. Come out ready to play, this is the made-up bowl game for Calgary, but they are really the 2nd-best team in the west right now, and I think they will be in 2nd at the end of the year. Can't sleep on them. Beat FGs with TDs. Our offense leads the league in pts per game, and our D has given up the fewest pts per game. But Calgary has given up the fewest TDs. Calgary is tied for scoring the 2nd most FGs and giving up the 2nd most FGs. But they are dead last in TDs scored. Don't allow their D to hold us to FGs, keep them kicking FGs. Bully ball. Calgary is giving up the highest Yard Per Carry in the league, and the 3rd most rush yards. Calgary also has the 2nd most rushing yards, so we have to be the bully and not get bullied. The Vaj factor. Don't give him easy, quick decisions, change looks, and give him the opportunity to give the ball back to us. Early season Vaj likes to run for yards more than in the 2/3 and final third. We gotta be ready to contain and punish him if he tries to run. Players to watch; Brady is coming back early after his injury. We will see if his reps are split and how ready he is. Vanterpool, drawing back in, should be motivated to try to cement his position as a starter, which should provide a boost to run pro too. Sergio, it's gonna be a big kicking game unless it's a blowout. He's been money on FGs, but shaky on XPTs so far. Vaval, he's bound to break one. Calgary has one of the biggest advantages in the league in net punting, kick-offs, and field goals. Vaval is the X factor in the teams today. Parker, Jones, WJ, and Vaughters. These guys have to contain and be gap sound in the run game. WJ has been beaten up the last couple of years on read options, Vaughters has not shown what we'd hoped when we got him, but is playing for his former team. This should be his best game of the year so far. Devin Adams and Lawson have suffered from the massive amount of reps Thomas and Kornelson have been getting. Adams, in particular, has been quiet after a dominant camp and preseason. He's getting pressure when he's on the field and creating disruption. If he takes the next step, it should help him lock down a larger share of the reps.

Man, if he takes a step forward as a year 2 guy and with some grooming in the NFL, he could be really good. I'd love to see that. It feels like, in general, the CFL has gone away from smaller YAC/cut-back runners and more to big, slower possession guys. Which I don't love.

That's a fair point. If we piss away this season though, I think things will get ugly. The casual fans aren't going to be happy with us not going the extra mile to win the GC in a host year. Instead of a few of us being upset with roster management, it'll get much bigger. I've got love for all the mafia guys, past and current. They've got to do more than maintain, though.

No doubt. I had a lot of hope going into this season that the league would see the passing of the torch. With Brown, Alexander, and Rourke stepping into the top tier of QBs. But injuries across the board have badly derailed the QBing in the league. Not only that, though, we need the next Charles Roberts and similar players. Grant is electric with the ball in his hands. But the league in general doesn't have many guys who are must-watch when they have the ball.

Pretty interesting breakdown. I did a breakdown of Zach's playoff and GC stats after the last couple of losses. It'd be interesting to compare the 3s regular season, playoffs, and GC stats per game. I think it is important to note that the era Flutie played in was very different from Zach and BLM. Aside from the steady rise in talent level/athleticism/size of players, the ratio changes and volume of Cahoon esq fake NIs have changed the game a lot. Flutie is the greatest to ever play in the CFL imo. With the biggest gap between him and his competitors. Winning on different teams at the level he did is pretty impressive, too. Part of me thinks that eventually records fall and Goats are replaced. But Idk about Flutie. The nature of the NFL poaching CFL talent now, and the NFL's increased willingness to take all types and sizes of QBs, it is hard to imagine his standard being beaten.

It’s no different than the other gc loses in the 2000s. Winning the division final is not the goal or some great achievement that wipes out losing 3 gcs in a row. It’s gonna be a thing for a long time. Pissing away gc games isn’t all good. If you are happy with participation ribbons that’s great for you. Most fans especially the type to be forum goers are not that type. We had the ability to be the greatest dynasty in cfl history, and threw it away because our team didn’t want it enough to do what it took to win it.

Feel free to roast this hot take, but if we had couture playing at his average level in those 3 years and gcs, I think we win 2. I also think if we had mop level qbing in the 3 gcs, we win all of em. Zach and kola aren’t the only guys who struggled in those games. But that struggle connection is the most critical on field failure. I also think dinwiddies coaching staff on our squad would’ve won 2 if not 3.

Really? That’s insane.

Slightly better version of Houston imo. Doesn't cheat as much, but isn't great. He played half a year last year, I don't think we will see much upward movement from him, hes 28 to. Dodged a major bullet. Yuupp. I get hes an electric athlete. But he isn't that guy and db isn't that position. The scheme was a big part of it. And the fact that teams kept throwing that way 1 because we had softer coverage guys, but also Nichols and Bond to the other side. I think he'd be doing similar to last year if he were here. But Edmonton D isn't like ours.

It's a long list, but off the top of my mind, Deven Thompson, WR/KR, would be an exceptional get. That guy is insanely explosive and a much better WR than you usually see from that kind of outlier athlete. Zay Paige, another diminutive kr/wr type. Denzel Mims is an incredible athlete with great size who was very productive in the NCAA. He went in the 2nd round to the Jets. He could be a real killer in the CFL as a SB. Garmon Randolph is a huge end who projects similarly to WJ, and was even a TE in high school. Shaka Toney is another great athlete with pretty good pass-rush skills. Bunch of guys in or through the XFL, and NFL TCs. Not as many early college career kids, it's a pretty mature list.

Woah. Making the whole list available is something I never expected.

Pretty much. Week 6 is a bye week for us to. So hopefully Kelly and Makonzo can both be healthy for when they are set to come off, then use the bye week to get sharp. It's gonna make for some real tough decisions with the AR when both come off though. I'd take Hallett and Kornelson off. Or even stop dressing the 7th ol for one. But I don't think mos would ever consider 2 of those moves.

There is a point, especially if you don't think he will play in the first 6 games short of an injury. You can always remove him from the 6. I think we probably need 1 global on the pr, but I'd go digging through the cuts. Weitz doesn't bring anything. I think we need an air lift of WRs. We should be cycling them through to find guys who can step up. Because we have a bunch of guys who are nicked/playing sub 100% already, histories of injuries, and a lot of low-production guys. After that, we need more pass rushers. We have a few, but we are well beyond the best-before date on both WJ and Vaughters.

I believe woods is a fake injury, but I can’t be sure. If he’s for real hurt, pointer shouldn’t have been out right released. Maybe he didn’t want to sit on the pr, but I don’t by default expect that. honestly, for as much as we’ve blitzed, carrying two ends in Bailey and person would be fine to have one rush with a hand up from different spots. A team with guys like Lawson and adams who can play 0, 3i and 4i with a good pass rush, we shouldn’t struggled to have pressure with our front in either alignment.

For me, I'd put on Woods for Vanterpool, sit Jake, put on Bailey for the rotation on the edge with Sergio punting, I'd flip Sterns for Mitchell, Jones for Kyrie. Cut Chase and Scmekel and go find another imp wr for the pr.

Hagerty was an option at S, too. Honestly, if you can play Sam in the CFL, you can play a bunch of DB. Novak, Shay and Smith do eat up a lot of roster spots, but they offer decent versatility at least. As much as I like what hallett has done here as a teams guy, I'd a taken Hagerty over Hallett.

Evil voice: "I said every one of them's a starter!"

Thomas, not even being a GTD is strange. Missed 2/3 practices. We seem married to the idea that the only rotation our DL needs is bringing in all the Canadians at once for a package. The sad thing is, Vaughters and WJ have been the least effective pair of ends in the league thus far. Our limited pressures mostly come from Adams and Lawson being on the field at the same time, or one of them individually making a play.

Mary had a little lamb?

only 17 db/lbers. Idk how we will manage.... Yeah, it is. They should be top dog going after NFL cuts, but realistically, we probably won't. Brady and Vanterpool's back is good. It could've been better, but game day rosters are like that MadTV skit, lowered expectations. Mos is like Stewart, too. Come on, now, Mos, put on enough DL to rotate. "I don't wanna!"

Schmek has great motor, and a willingness. I can get why you’d think after the first camp you can mold him into some thing useful. unfortunately, he hasn’t taken any steps forward and hasn’t been able to translate hustle into ability to get pressure or stuff the run. Really, doesn’t take much to replace shmeck. They have been playing two Canadians at dt so much, they need a 3rd to maintain that. Which is just sad. Because we don’t need it ratio wise.

That would make sense especially if he gets a spot else where soon. Which I could see, he’s a solid back end Canadian teams guy.