wbbfan

Time to go full on amar doman.

I do agree the ol early on gave no help. First half of last year was the worst ol play he’s seen in blue n gold. He was also just not game ready after skipping pre season and parts of camp. The play call was also not conducive to getting the offence in a rhythm the entire year. If zach wasn’t getting time and the WRs weren’t clicking with him buck had nothing to help slow things down and make easy gains. Or adjust to take what the D gave. It was the worst stretch of offense we’ve seen in ages. And many players have blame, none save for maybe Brady are blameless. If healthy the ol are certainly settled together now. I’d really like to see an upgrade at any ol position in the off season. But I think the only chance will be internal development. However just having the unit play like they did down the stretch last year will help a lot. Oc will be a big factor in our success on offence this year. We need some one who can reign in zachs impulse to chuck. I worry that guy doesn’t exist in our staff already. Last year was an embarrassment for zach too. He hasn’t played that bad since the stretch to end it in Hamilton. I’m hoping we see angry motivated zach early and often in 2025.

Those things didn’t help, but he was much worse in the early games before guys got hurt. Worse than every game but the gc any way.

Actually his play off stats here over all are bad. Not just gc games. But he has had some good play off games like the west final this year. Which, if you look at his stats in the play offs here gets even more depressing. But that requires accepting that winning is more than some kind of personal player magic. Im consigned to the fact we will have zach back this coming season. I am however also optimistic that he can’t have a worse year than this last one. If our pass pro is at the level we saw down the stretch, all year next year and we have better game plans and play call from the oc any thing is possible. I think it’s possible with a good off season that we end up with a D that can carry us to gc wins. Id love to have a young franchise qb. But one isnt available. Wish we kept brown maybe next year.

As much as I want to see re ups, right now I want to see us score a good oc

I feel like the longer the oc search goes on, the more likely it is we are hiring from out side.

I’d suggest listening to the guys talk about him. I’ve seen guys like that who are just kinda loud and carry on. They tend to be laughed off. If that was the case he would’ve been FO’d for sure. Kongbo was a similar type. Guys like zach go specifically into detail about how he is in the locker room. I’m talking about the fifo culture. Sure they aren’t gonna keep around toxic head cases. Few contenders do. The culture of fifo doesn’t seem remotely the same any more. And you don’t hear or see any thing from the young guys out side of bo stepping up in that area. And even then bo has been around a good while. Kongbo came in and was an immediate tone setter and maintained a high level of accountability. It’s why B.C. didn’t like him. They were allergic to that accountable style of culture. We had a culture that perpetuated winning. Now we have a culture we win with. Same as Hamilton had in 19/21. Agreed. Usually that kind of partial release program is for people with jobs they can keep with the conviction. Idk how it works with Normand. He can’t go back to work in education.

Likely week off to work and weekends inside. He was released almost right away according to the article.

It is known though. I mean we’ve seen half a dozen articles on the silent stoic type that is Bryant since 19. Have you seen him publicly even at the fan day stuff? https://3downnation.com/2024/12/09/bell-media-denies-report-about-tsn-being-for-sale/ boy I wonder what a tsn sale could mean for the cfl? Would we see a long over due change in production/direction? Would they slash the budget? I feel like the cfl has to be really good margin wise for tsn. The draw is pretty strong, think average viewership was like 500k a game last year. Considering they don’t have much else that time of year that’s real good. I might not mind if they cut the pregame show and panel. Just had the sideline and color/pbp do a mini panel and mini post/pre game.

That type of role isn’t chosen though. That’s exactly how it doesn’t work.

Because he doesn’t say things often. And you need guys who keep the tone set daily. football is a grind not a once n a while thing. Have you seen sheed talk to a room? He isn’t wanting to be any one. He and yoshi were the two biggest vocal leaders and tone setters. Sheed talked to the whole room all the time. Yoshi talked to every player before every game. You gotta have leaders like Bryant. And you also need the vocal guys. Yeah that’s been the word out of bomber camp for a long time.

Bryant isn’t that guy. That was sheed and hardrick. Haven’t seen or heard of any one filling those spots.

Not all vets are leaders or culture setters. We’ve lost a ton of the biggest culture setters in the locker room. you don’t just remove the top of the list on your teams leadership and retain the same locker room culture. When’s the last time a guy was interviewed post win and said some thing to the extent of, “we aim to go 1-0 each week, we will enjoy it tonight and get back to work tomorrow?” The 1-0 mantra is gone. The concept of the D having to win the games is gone, so is the we don’t give up majors in the 4th, and a bunch of other culture trends. Locker room is very different, the experience and culture from the 21 and prior squads is barely hanging on roster wise. Haven’t seen any young guys step into those roles save maybe Brady who has been around a while. I get that, I think it’s more about how he fits with the locker room. I don’t think he does, even if the 21 and prior fifo culture is gone and replaced with what ever else.

That is a really interesting concept. I wonder how much fifo is left in the locker room. Wj is the only major culture setter left on D. On O, idk with hardrick and sheed gone might be none of the old fifo left. It’s certainly come to that point in the front office and with coaching imo. How we react to the lose of Ted and buck, combined with cfl free agency will really tell us how it’s going to be this year.

I don’t think he’s particularly fragile. He played the whole back half of last year plus play offs. I’d say he’s in the same boat as any other seasoned vet qb including zach. I do agree, not a great likelihood that this happens.

That would be a great fit. And the mafia were hard after Masoli a couple times prior to zach.

Faj and mbt are in the same boat for me. Really talented guys who are ideal as the back up on a contender. Until you look at the mental side. Both are such negatives I don’t really want either.

If B.C. kept going at that clip he would’ve won it imo.

I don’t think it was as much questionable, though it was surprising. Injuries played a good role in it, but also giving other guys chances. We did the same. We had karamoko then Cole playing the wil/dime reps that griffin ended up excelling in. A few people here wanted one or both when we struggled early. COVID year eligibility. The u sports are generally much more willing to grant injury exceptions etc as well than the ncaa. Plus it just doesn’t make sense for us college teams to play most kids that old with the availability of young talent every year.

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.