wbbfan

I mean I totally believe they went over by 300k+ that’d be a huge blow for the lions to lose both picks. does the league have some one who is the acting commissioner? Haven’t heard any updates on the role being filled in a while.

Yeah that’s pretty insane to put a forfeited draft pick into the waiver wire for priority

https://3downnation.com/2025/03/08/b-c-lions-salary-cap-violation-could-lead-to-extra-first-round-cfl-draft-pick-for-calgary-stampeders/

None that I’ve seen, which made it extra spicy for me. Last I heard it was up in the air with Randy stepping down. Yeah honestly for us that’s a great position. we killed it with upper middle picks last year and in the past. With bc and edm losing their picks I wonder if they look to move back up and trade with us. I’d be in favour of flipping 6 for an established ni like we did with Lawson. That said, if we could get horth or Pyle at any pick I’d be very happy. https://www.nfl.com/prospects/rashaan-gaulden/32004741-5530-2029-3b23-6366532d8402 if he’s old af I’m scared to find out what I am. Or half the posters on here lol. Sat on the stamps pr for a bit, like 3 years ago. it’s a strange one that’s for sure.

I can’t imagine we give him 200k or any thing. But he’d be sick to get back.

Love adding bolduc. Tons of varied experience in the cfl, strong connection to Logan as well. I also love the diversifying of our offensive coaching staff from guys who orbited around lapo to all kinds of experience outside our norm. (Including Jackson in that as well) Billy Jean is an interesting one. Very well regarded football mind. Feel like he’s a strong Xs and Os guy who is a bit more raw in coaching pro players and positions in general. I’m sure he’s gonna be like James Stanley for the O. He’s gonna be an assistant to the offensive coaches, where as Jackson will be a more experience guy who can support hogan in his transition to full time play caller. We’ve done a great job of bringing in quality, experienced guys front office to coaching staff. Especially when giving younger guys a chance to move up, by surrounding them with highly experienced guys who can help them develop. If those guys can gel with the mafia we should see a lot of fresh looks and adjustments. Half our front office is new, with the 3 pp directors/ scouts, while Costello is the only guy on offence who is holding over at his position. A real interesting take out of that “B.C. is currently slated to pick third overall in this year’s draft but is expected to forfeit that selection due to salary cap violations.” if thats the case im alll for it. They flaunted the cap as bad as any one ever has.

https://3downnation.com/2025/03/05/b-c-lions-promote-longtime-scout-rob-ralph-to-assistant-general-manager/ kind of an odd move for this time of year.

I hate the off season

You’re right I just looked it up, 22 reps at 177 lbs. such a beast. Wish we kept him. Augustine did a ton of hard work to make him self fit the pro style of rb better. Not many guys make them self quicker/faster as a pro. That guy has future coach written all over him. SnC, RBs, or out side of football. we’ve had guys like blink excel and guys chiseled out of granite fail. But that’s the same at every position in every league. Leg power is key, but I think you see a lot of that projecting well from 10 yard splits and agility drills For RBs it’s more about having the right mind set for the physical tools they have then refining the running style to work with both. I see soo many big backs run away from contact where as smaller backs understand how to offset impact by not letting guys square up rather than trying to avoid contact all together. What was once considered the balanced back, is now the go to. Not too big they struggled to get through holes or get small, big enough to bounce off blocks and push the pile. Quickness has always been the biggest value for a rb imo. Change of direction, explosive acceleration, pile pushing soo much comes from quickness. Flexibility, balance, and toughness are what unleash the potential of a quick player. Grant showed that in spades. As much as we saw him stiff arm guys, we saw him just keep his base under him and fight off tackles while running at cover teams. I still think he could’ve been soo much more on offense too. He’s better all around skill wise than Chad Owens was.

Gotta have the low ceiling sts based imp for camp lol. Guy like that will either translate speed to the cfl field or be tcf

Great stuff thanks. 225 reps is soo silly. Grant did like 12 or some thing at 180lbs. That’s impressive. Should be some thing like body weight bench press reps done in 30 seconds or some measure of time. That’d be much better to measure explosive strength. Or maybe instead of body weight, average body weight at the position. Some guys are built different. Big Kev is like that. Even next to mci, who is marginally bigger, Kevens looks like he has the frame where he could’ve played any position if he had bulked at a younger age. It’s interesting the poopkup is gonna be the stamps qb coach. Glad we won’t go back to him again in the future. Sucks that Baldwin has had to step down due to health issues. Hopefully he can get healthy and come back to the league.

Turning it into a nice walkable out door area with lots of food and drink would be great. Like a green out door forks. This is just an article clipped from the bombers off season show on OB. https://3downnation.com/2025/03/03/winnipeg-blue-bombers-offensive-coordinator-jason-hogan-on-scheme-i-love-exotic-stuff/ “It’s hard for me to define the offence. I want to keep it simple. I want to let the guys play fast and not think as much. I do like to throw some exotic stuff in there, but at the end of the day, it’s how do we get our guys to play fast, not overthink it. We call it paralysis by analysis. I don’t want them to just freeze at the line of scrimmage because they’ve got too much going on — you’ve got the game clock, you’ve got the exciting fans. There’s a lot going on, so how do we keep it simple for them, all the while keeping it exciting.”

The buses were a thing in the first season. I was working night shifts coming into Winnipeg from the south of the city. They were not nearly as good as they are now and not as many of them. I don't think they had the school buses at first, then brought some in late in the season. They tried to run it through the transit buses. Everyone complained about the location of the old stadium, too. It was just more familiar. The complaints were worse at first in the new location, but it was also hands down better by year 2. Old stadium parking was horrible and never got better. Virtually all of the small businesses around the old stadium rented out their parking spots and had to be full just to get the regular crowds in. The location back in the day was handy for sure. I mean, in an ideal world, we would've gotten the stadium somehow by the Forks amid a light rail hub, with walking bridges/cycling paths aplenty. In reality, I think what they've done has been excellent and the best we could hope for without an insane amount of money. I would love to see more development stretch to the U of M. A ton of great food and stuff exists in the south pembina area, but it's a serious walk from the stadium.

I will say I am not a gym rat or a lunk. I never liked the weight room, and I am not the most knowledgeable in this area. Any of the far more experienced and knowledgable trainers and gym guys can feel free to judge my comments accordingly. I think weight lifting has great value in developing bodies and people who are reconstituting their physique. Otherwise, I am heavily in favor of sport-specific training and sport-related cross-training. I'd much prefer to do or coach augmented drills to increase the load of movements in applicable techniques. It's also for sure required to lift reasonably heavy to maintain a pro football level of SnC at some positions. I just looked that up, and that is one of the worst "bro/ego lifts" I've seen in a long, long time. He sits down flat on a bench (it should be a touch and go or a slight pause, as it's a form reminder, not a single max rep exercise), then adjusts and struggles so hard to get his hips back under his frame. It hurts my back and my head to watch. He legitimately spends 3 to 4 seconds struggling to get his hips back under his frame. He goes from tensed to wincing. I respect his mental toughness to push him self that hard, and the tremendous character to set that standard and try to uphold it with his whole team. Both are top-tier qualities. Lifting like that, it's no wonder he's frequently hurt. And yeah, being a gym rat makes his massive reconstitution of his build in half an off-season, takes it from more than questionable to a no doubter.

100%. Even if he struggles early suitor will be drooling over him lol

I bet he explodes into the league lead early on (with Suitor claiming him the early MOP favorite while exposing his exceptional hard work, which was in no way chemically enhanced), then blows out one of several ligaments missing at least 2/3s of the season, then goes home to do more gear while recovering. Comes into the following TC looking like a mini Trent Corney.

I think that is one of the biggest points of discussion in terms of Walter's efficacy. He can scout Canadian talent, we know that. Can he manage the football ops side in terms of being the leader of the front office and coaching staff? No doubt it is a give-and-take relationship as with any good leadership system. But does he have the ability to be the boss when required? If something unforeseen (and near impossible happened, and some one like Mos had to be fired, would he be capable? I kind of have my doubts about his ability to lead the leaders. I question his ability to accurately gauge the value of players on the free market as well. We often seem to overpay guys or lose them. I also think we have been heavily reliant on guys like Danny, Ted, and Ringmaiden to bring in fresh import talent. It seemed like our ability to scout DL, Lbers, and Imp OL left with ringmaiden. I wonder if our ability to find WRs has left with Ted?

For anyone who hasn't seen. https://3downnation.com/2025/03/01/riders-rb-a-j-ouellette-reveals-25-pound-weight-loss-newly-shredded-physique/ I looked long and hard at it twice in my life and decided it wasn't for me. The risks were just not cutting it. I've trained and worked with a considerable number of guys who juiced. Everything from Micro doses /trt to mega doses, etc. With that preface, is it possible for AJO to make that cut without gear? Sure. If he's never done an extensive body reconstitution, has done minimal weights in his past, and has been a lazy eater, it could happen. Realistically, he's a 29-year-old running back. I can't imagine he hasn't been dragged through the weight room at least a few times a year for extended periods each year for the past 15 at least. Now he doesn't have the typical RB build. He's got chicken legs, especially for a 200+ lbs short RB. I don't believe they test in the offseason; that would be way too hard and expensive. At that age, it wouldn't make sense to add a bunch of dense muscle mass as he's probably done the day he loses a step. But if he was going to reconstitute his physique, he should've focused on leg power, then leaning out. He looks like he's been trying to body build more than build for performance. If I were the riders/fan base, I'd be worried. This 29-year-old RB looks like he's hit a heavy cycle and cut for an amateur bodybuilding contest. When he's played 43 games over 5 seasons, 15 once under 10 3 times including more than 2/3s of last year. He's often been in a platoon and still had considerable durability issues. Guys who hit a hard cycle for the first time late in their career, reconstitute, then go into a football season are glass cannons. Riders better be ready with back up RBs.

So, I'm gonna dive into 2022 to start. I think 21 is a strong draft, and honestly, we could've used talent we took in that draft better. People often look at 22 as a start of drafting drop off, but keep in mind we traded for Lawson, a high-level starter with all-star potential and a realistic chance to fulfill that talent, plus with the 2nd round pick we got Ford. Which, for most teams, is a generational draft to get 2 guys at that level. We wasted Burtenshaw for the marine, but that was still an excellent value pick. A grade. 23, Bennett was an ugly pick. We followed up with Kelly, who I think has a good chance to start for us this year. We got Murphy, who is seldom off the bench/pr. Schmekel, who has played a ton of games, isn't a starter or star but a solid role guy with versatility. Korny, who didn't get much of a shot despite them liking him, Rosery honestly got hosed and should've made the roster last year, and a couple of TCF guys. Overall, we swung for the fences and missed, but we came out with a strong depth draft. B- grade Last year, we got Big Kev, MCI, Wallace, Samson, Laroux, Manu, Hubert, and Gassama. Laroux is the snapper who will likely be dead money in camp but is supposed to be a money snapper. Gassama is back for a 2nd camp, Hubert is with the Cats, Samson is back, Manu is on the Lions PR down south, and Wallace/Mci/big Kev are penciled in as 2 starters and a backup. That's a stud draft. A grade. Even the 20 draft, Legs is doing great in Hamilton, Hallett can't stay healthy but is a solid teams guy, Bolo who we lost in FA, and Cadwallader who is a beast on teams. B- grade. Draft-wise, I think we've done well. I think we've aimed for teams guys a bit too much at times, but mostly, we've wasted and lost guys to free agency. This is the list of players we've drafted and who signed with other teams going back to 19: Desjarlais, Kongbo, Exume, Bolo, Legs, Dobson, Rene, Ford, Bennett, and Hubert. The list of guys we wasted: Bolo, Legs, Rene, Borsa, Burtenshaw, Rosery, Hubert. We've lost a bunch of guys as premium free agents in that first group. Bennett was a poor choice and a pick for need. We hoped he would have a high floor, he did not. I question our aim in drafting some of the guys we took, but more so I question our use of talent once we get them. QFT, stadium is very nice but far from new. And as Goalie said, it's location is sub optimal to most fans. Plus some of the issues with finish quality, time, and traffic early on hurt us far more than it helped. Half the teams in the league would need to have an NHL heritage outdoor game at half time to get those kinds of attendances. Brand new stadium or no.

Winning championships is certainly the biggest success indicator and goal but far from the only one. I think a lot of people would say consistent winning is next. I think that’s in the next tier, but I’d put the ability to find ways to win when the underdog (like toronto) and limiting upset losses are the next biggest ones. With that, we are clearly one of the most successful teams in the league over the past decade. Currently, I think Toronto and Montreal handily out perform our coaching staff where and when it counts. But we 3 are the top tier for sure.

I think how we recruit free agents and at what positions vs how Hamilton does will give us a strong indication of how much was the guys under Walters and how much he had a strong hand in. It’s a big proof is in the pudding year for us.

https://www.reuters.com/sports/report-ufl-quarterbacks-holding-out-over-pay-dispute-2025-02-27/#:~:text=February 27 - The 24 quarterbacks,between the USFL and XFL. every ufl qb is holding out for more money and year round health care. (55k salary last year)

With a developmental step yes. He’s really half way to being a nose, 3tech or an end. He could be one of those things this year but not likely to be two. And imo, the best move is to develop him as a 3tech/4i. Woods and Lawson should have nose locked up. https://3downnation.com/2025/02/28/top-results-from-the-2025-cfl-invitational-combine/ some pretty good performances.

I’ve always admired the Steelers way of working with coaches and not canning guys. I think it is repeatable, if you have a growth mindset top to bottom. easy to do but hard to do well. Filling bottom end roster spots with above average starters at a contenders level is a strong option imo. Wr is pretty much as it always has been when we’ve needed talent. The upside is we have the tools to develop WRs quickly. Dobson is replaced either by ratio swap or Wallace. Either way I think we will be better and I like Dobson. dt I think comes down to our usage and health. Woods and Lawson is tremendous. We. Could use a sayles style 3t pressure guy who can play 30 edge maybe 40 edge too. Walters and co needs to step up here. the pressure is gonna be on Walters. He needs to have one of his best recruiting crops this year.

That’s true on both counts imo. I think Walters has potentially been adjusting to this. I wonder how much but I think we will really see this year. Qft. Do you think GMs are more replaceable in the cfl today than coaches? Nice guy leadership in sports is the hardest archetype to maintain successfully. I wonder if COs who are harder in a reverse good cop / bad cop situation would work well. Or even if JY is stricter than we see. Guys love him and would run through a wall for him (especially dbs) but he might be more demanding that one would expect. I feel like extensions will always be last minute now with the tightness of the operating cap.