wbbfan

They've been spending it because it was built in when the current powers that be took over; they've also been gutting those programs left, right, and centre. There are very few instances where radio is still desired across Canada. Most are finite niches like the bombers on Cjob, and most are for people far older than the target demo. The money that goes into radio from those channels today would be better spent on a podcast series hosted on a streaming service and YouTube. I think the big hope with this new commish is that he has the media chops to push our product. Randy talked big about the US TV deal and growing outside the Canadian market, but didn't accomplish much. The big thing with the CFL is we need to get the younger demos to games. Places like here and Ott have succeeded by growing our game day experience and branding in the younger generation with an inclusive, amazing experience. The best way I know to do that is to engage that demo in mediums they care about. I think fun events with players like the QB challenge is a great way to personalize and humanize the players. Whereas the leagues 1 one-year contracts can kind of dehumanize guys and relegate them to a number on a jersey, doing a job. The WWE is doing some stuff these days to bring fans closer to their product. Shows like Next Gen, LFG, and the forthcoming Unreal. Formula 1 did this very successfully, and the UFC originally grew a lot out of the TUF show. We've seen some shows that go behind the scenes with 1 team for a season, which have been very well regarded. But that has a limited, regional impact. I'd like to see a show/webseries, etc that follows, say, 4 teams. 1 team at the bottom that has a decent chance to grow, maybe the off-season champion, Edmonton type, 2 contenders, and 1 other playoff team. If teams fall off, they get relegated, and you swap in another. A show that follows all the teams at some of the US tryouts and into the pre-season would be great too. The new generation's target demographic wants more than bodies wearing a number. They don't as much watch for the patch on the front of the jersey vs the name on the back; they want to be immersed in a deep story. They want more reasons to care than regional rivalry and pride.

They aren’t. Even pre championship the raptors were huge out to the west coast. It was Canada’s team before and only much more so since. I think you’re just out of the target demographic. The cfl couldn’t dream of the national reach the raptors have. I mean it’s radio. Tsn isn’t even on the radio any more. A great marketing type would be fantastic. The type of growth the cfl needs requires many things. That’s one and honestly idk what all else. But it’s not doing great getting those people due to its small niche market. If any thing, the cfl is a small regional niche market. How much of league attendance comes from Winnipeg, ssk and then bc buying butts in seats with gimmicks and cheap tickets? 60% or more? If the bombers and riders market slouched back to what it was in our dark ages pre 01, the league might collapse.

That would be a good idea, but you have to sell a company on that. And the raptors are huge across the country. Brandon Ingram, RJ Barrett, and Scotty Barnes are each drastically more recognizable nationwide than the top guys in each respective market are locally.

Sports stars are weird now. I feel like most leagues don’t build stars any more. Success gives guys a chance at a platform and it’s up to them to capitalize. Social media has really changed and quantified stars at various levels. Would I like the league to do better with marketing stars? Yes. How should they go about it? Idk. I think the skills challenge / qb challenge would be a good start. Maybe a Netflix show, better game day production would be big.

Yeah I don’t disagree with that part. Though it sounds like the cfl is big because he’s a star here. The selection of stars in other sports that he’s calling the super star of the league and comparing him self to is kind of crazy. Ja morant is a huge screw up and not a top talent. Reece isn’t on top of the wnba or in the age range. Jefferson is atleast the best wr though in the nfl. Whole thing is a mess that smacks of self promotion. I also don’t agree that teams and franchises build or make superstars. If that was the case it’d be happening a lot more in every sport on more teams. Superstars happen. It’s a rare combination of talent, growth mindset, luck and hard work from all kinds of people.

https://3downnation.com/2025/04/20/tim-white-compares-plays-he-makes-in-cfl-to-nfl-superstars-jerry-rice-randy-moss/ I get that he is saying we have stars up here, and that he is in the top tier of wrs here. We do, and he's an excellent wr. He went 40 or more yards twice all of last year. If he played on a better team he would probably be considered more frequently to be among the top tier of wrs in the cfl. But if he did, he would not get 125-150 targets a year. 75 out of 125 - 95-150 aren't great catch rates up here.

Buck was a rookie oc in 21. We also have Jackson to support as well. Not concerned with experience. vanilla ice, hold the vanilla, served lukewarm.

Hubert had value on teams and d. Canadians who can only play teams are always available in free agency. cole saw action as the wil sub early on D. He did not play Sam or Mac in the regular season. Again, nothing to do with the post or point. For the last few years we’ve been more of a 2 global roster than not. Karamoko is not an indicator of the global positional talent that has been available for the past two years. Just like schmekel is not the measuring stick for ni dl talent coming into the cfl the last few years.

We did, though. We always have more than 1 Canadian on the PR. That would be virtually unheard of in the cfl. Teams tackles don't have any thing to do with it though. Cole = nickle, karamoko = Dime. Pretty straightforward? Depth roster positon doesn't mean much, Griffin ended up taking a ton of reps, karamoko did early as well. Go back and watch some of the lapo early season break downs. You can see him break down the ford, holm, kramdi side with karamoko in a bunch of snaps. Tackles are not a success indicator, no mater what milligan fans say. Tanner cadwallader was the most consistently oustanding cover guy in the league last year. Ayers made more impressive solo plays on teams that didn't result in a tackle than half the league. He could've had 30+ tackles if he played less reliably in his lane. Karamoko was a reach in his role on D. On teams, he was honestly fine. He did his job and didn't sell out to try and make plays out side of the scheme. Which is 90% of a teams success on kick cover. It so happens though, we had some stellar cover team talent last year. week one PR had 2 canadians on the PR ready to go week 1, and 3 on week 2.

Yeah ok. 2nd hallett had nothing to do with karamoko playing the dime role. He’s never played that. Lawson and feltmate had no thing to do with it either, how do you figure it did lol 5 games for karamoko, 1 for lucky, 7 for weitz. That’s not a coincidence, that’s more than we started over 8 nis. we were not thin at dl, lber, or db for ni players at any of those points. We actively picked 2nd globals over Canadians on the same side of the ball most of the 2 global games.

You’re moving the goal posts. You said “we only used 2 globals when injuries mounted up with our Canadians.” Fact is, we broke camp with 2 globals including karamoko in the dime role and went with that almost the whole season including grey cup with 2. That was always the plan. I didn’t say we brought in quality globals, I’ve clearly stated many times we have been random with global draft since 22/23. ample teams and rotational/package global talent is available.

Not true, we started out with karamoko playing and saw heavy rotation for the first 1/3rd of the year. Lucky rostered once, weitz 8 times including the gc. I think our lack of depth contributed to this down the road though. And I think we will be better poised not to have to go two globals if we don’t want to.

Some bombers visited rankin inlet, gabe Wallace included. Boy, he is looking lean and mean. He was 6’6 350+ in college. Came to camp 330-340 with a decent belly still. Now he looks like a stunt double for the mountain. Doesn’t look like he just lost weight either, looks like he put on some lean mass. Can’t wait to see what he brings this year.

We are, they just aren't getting premium time yet. check the top few guys on teams tackles, I think 3 ended up top 10 ish (its a long list.) and more teams rotated G DL last year. I would bet we do roster a 2nd global this year. We have basically every year since globals came in. I wouldn't be stunned to see karamoko brought back again either. We will probably continue to draft the exact same kinds of guys in the global draft we always do. Athletic enough tweeners with out any polish. yeah pretty much. Good on him for making him self a useful piece though. Guy must've made a good bit of money from pro football with out major injuries. Or talent. That isnt easy.

We've seen more globals coming in that are actual players in the last maybe 2 years. And that trend will only continue. We seeing more of the big athletes from rugby and of Samoan descent move into the global draft. And that well of talent is very deep. For us, we haven't had much global talent since we let Hansen go. A global guy who does all 3 jobs, or a combination that doesn't involve a DI, is a big win. A Canadian 3-job guy is certainly rare these days. I don't think a global 3 role kicker is a stretch, though. Honestly, Sergio is a very solid punter as well. He should be doing all 3 roles again. The difference between having a DI American position player and a global rotational/teams guy with an NI 3 job kicker and having a DI K and global P is big. We don't get a ton of roster flexibility in terms of depth; that type of addition would be huge for us. I'm not saying we will hit on a 3 role global or DI overnight, but I am saying we should actively be using a PR spot to work on one.

https://3downnation.com/2025/04/16/veteran-qb-dominique-davis-retires-from-cfl/ The davis era is finally over.

The talent gap between a top 1/3 cfl p/k and even the bottom tier in the nfl is gigantic now. Legs has been hitting about 90% the last two years with out a sniff. We can and do sign guys to longer. If any thing, the problem is a lack of talent at the position these days. I’d also settle for a global who can do both jobs, but the leg talent up side is much higher there.

yeah its really hard to burn a DI on a k, plus a global on a P. We should work on developing a K again that is G or Ni and who can do all the jobs. In the mean time we should also give the P job to sergio too. I like that he has a high floor, but I hope we don't give up on his high ceiling as well. I hope he was working his butt off in the off season on running and catching drills. I hope we see a heavy dose of him carrying the rock in camp and PS this year.

useage will be important, as much for opening up other opportunities in the scheme. Brady isn't the threat out side logan is, so the classic fb dive hb toss type thing we have seen maybe 2-3 times in the past is a good basis. As well as subbing logan for the jet sweep that demski stopped running last year. I think Logan likely subs in for the last imp wr in sets where we have both backs in play. Logan can still run some routes and is a big catch+run threat any way. I don't think MCI will get as many reps or the ball. I think his offensive reps will laregely be blocking in heavy set unless we lose a string of ni pass catchers. Or unless MCI takes some massive leap forward as a ball carrier. How he looks in camp running the ball is one of the biggest things I'm waiting to see. Won't see too much of the scheme on open days. So it's mostly how MCI runs, if kev/gabe took a stepforward, if zach can throw with out a finger falling off, if strevy is being decisive and throwing with authority or allowed to do those things, who moves around in the secondary, and who steps up in the front 6.

Yep, you got it. If he was cut tomorrow, half the league would show up at his door ready to pitch him as a reformed man and them as a forgiving enterprise willing to give a guy a chance.

I think the reality of our situation is that we are going to be really tight with DIs. with Ayers, kyrie, and both jones' we are married to carrying atleast 1 di Lber. Not to mention a chunk of those guys are very good teams players as well. Castillo is locked into another spot which pretty much leaves Logan. None of our Wrs are eligible to be a nat american either. Logan needs to be a super sub and back up for us. I think we also would be really smart to draft a WR that can play this year too.

Yep, guys who are toxic manipulative abusers don't change unless forced and he hasn't come close to being forced. And for me, I wouldn't sign or play a guy like him under any circumstance. Idc if it is a flag football game with my house on the line and no one else can throw.

All the wrs aside from lawler got significantly less than they have been getting for the past several years. DL is actually trending down aside from the top couple guys by a decent margin, LBs are down and DBs are down that aren't on the bombers or named ford. None of the positions have benefited from the salary cap going up as the majority of pending FAs and AR free agents have signed deals before the cap went up. They will benefit from it next year, and NFL cuts may well benefit from it this year. OL and QB are the big ones that are continually trending up across the board. Zach could play at a level where he is worth 350-500k this year, and kelly could be a guy whose salary counts the whole year and isn't worth a buck. Zachs bad out come for the year is being on the IR, Kellys includes a possible pr nightmare where he cant play and you still have to pay him. In generally with the 500k cap increase, every team would rather be in a situation where they have an expensive qb, than be sitting on 600-700k that they can't get value for.

I'd take any one over that guy. Idc who they are or how talented they are. 600k is maybe more silly money than it used to be. With most of the other top positions having their salaries go down rather than up the gap is bigger than its been in a long while. 600k is more than the 2 highest paid none qbs in the league. Last year and prior it was less than 2 of the top few. Now with the cap going up, 600k next year likely won't be as much an outlier. We could see a few of the 200-250k guys going up to 300k range.

Yeah, I mean their are reasons/excuses that can be made for him, but we saw basically all of those run out of rope at some point last year. Not doing more to help zach be protected was really playing with fire. Imagine how our year last year would've gone if he got hurt after strevy and couldn't play? I think a guy like logan is ripe for a multifaceted role. He isn't a grant level KR where you need to protect him and maintain that production on return teams alone. And as a career RB, he is far more conditioned for the physical demand of multiple jobs. When teams get 180lbs wrs doing multiple jobs thats where problems happen imo. Logan is a stocky back who has been putting up in the range of 500 yards of offence on top of his KR duties. He had over 500 touches in college between catches and runs, as well as around 50 returns. He was the same guy in hs too, 300+ touches 100+ a game, catching, running, returning. He's a 26-year-old back with fairly limited wear in the prime of his career. I think you use him fearlessly and have him take wear off Brady. If Payton doesn't play much past 30, but adds a year or more to bradys career that is a huge win. It would be smart though to have a 2nd guy who can return kicks decently on the roster. You don't want Logan to end up in one of those spots where he runs one back, then the D forces a 2nd ou,t and he has to go back out, especially when he's our insurance for Brady. Drafting one of the really athletic offensive guys or dbs and moulding them into the 2nd kr might be good. Or if sterns makes the cut maybe he fills that role.