wbbfan

If you're gonna gamble on positions to overpay in the CFL, its QB, OL, and WR. I mean that was really hamiltons off season last year and while they didnt win it all it worked out very well for them.

It really is a strange usage. But usually when you have an outlier on the edge like WJ, it's generally some young guy trying to cut his teeth. No matter the level or league. So that guy would be in their prime athletically, and you'd use them in a lot of ways. For a guy like WJ to play this late into his athletic prime is extremely rare. I think his step has diminished, but he can still turn in on. I really think the majority of his dip has come because he has been getting physically battered for a long time. After all, teams can double him and have figured out that if you out-physical him, he will coast. Some guys don't relish the physical punishing side of the game. Even at DL. Even at his best, WJ has been a terrible tackler in the back field. From an offensive standpoint, I'd be happy to see any DE roaming on the edge looking for PKDs. I love DL getting organic PKDs, but their value isn't remotely comparable to a sack imo. Tips still gets caught sometimes, but he is very seldom batting balls up to get picked. A PKD on 2nd down means you're punting unless it's a very short distance to the first. But even sacks on first down that get converted bring tremendous value. When you stack up physical hits on a QB, you drastically change the game. Ages ago, Football Outsiders I believe it was, had an article on QBR after hits/sacks and hurries. As you would expect, QBs that took 5-10 QB hits/sacks/hurries in a game saw drastic dips in production. Hurries don't have as much impact, especially without the hits, but you change the game when you disrupt the QB. PKDs slow the drive but don't have that compounding.

Have to clarify, WJ didn't play a Lber hybrid or jack role. He hasn't had a straight drop back to even shallow LBer depth in many years here. (Remember when he used to do that and really disrupt passing lanes?) He's basically been spying the QB on inside pass lanes. Idk if that has ever in football been a thing out side of the last few years with WJ. He doesn't spy qb for contain, and he doesn't play both passing lanes. Like a man-to-man shot blocker in basketball. Not the weak side guy rotating over to get a block, he gets tall keeps his feet and tries to get in the way of the ball going right at him. If he could do a lot more with any kind of regularity, we would see him jumping pass lanes from the back side of pursuit on roll outs, getting to the outside shoulder of his ol and batting down backfield pass attempts from the pocket, and frankly getting off the initial block significantly more. Even when he turns it on in the games he excels in now, he is beating his blocker with moves and cuts. He isn't blowing by guys around the edge or any thing.

I would strongly consider Khari as a QB coach and a guy to help a new CO, like what Hall has done for JY. But I wouldn't go to him directly for an OC. Same role Jackson would play if we keep him imo. Best case, you get both Costanza and Bourgoin as an OC/position coach, ast oc and position coach, and then still have a guy like Jackson as qb coach, keep Marty at that point, and you have the offensive staff wrapped up. Between the two, I really like costanza as a unique football mind, not another lapo foot soldier. I think Bourgoin is better as a position coach, though, and more turnkey as an OC. I do think Bourgoin was likely much more responsible for the offensive success in BC than people would think, despite him working for Buck. As far as retreads go, I would consider Lapo in a positional support coach role to a new OC. Despite being an original member of the fire plop train, I think he would do a great job helping a guy develop and coaching a position like WR. Pair Lapo, or jackson, or khari as assistant to OC Costanza, and you are in pretty good hands. It'd really come down to who the OC prefers and what they need.

crazy money. 4 seasons, only been healthy for 1, topped out at jsut over 800 yards and 5 tds. He was very good and a great guy to have but what do you pay him if he puts up 1200-1500 and 8-10 tds the next two years? https://3downnation.com/2025/12/01/montreal-alouettes-make-pier-olivier-lestage-one-of-cfls-highest-paid-non-quarterbacks-sources/ Lestage is getting the bag, too.

He's a good coach, boy is he a reach for that HC job though. I hope we take a long hard look at bourgoin and costanza

Since 21, we've only seen rare glimmers of who he used to be. And the D in 21 was stacked. He's also going to turn 35 next year. Even if you surround him with a stellar line up, prime wj isn't coming back. Wj who excels playing a starters volume of reps isn't coming back either.

I don’t think he is really, I think he’s viewed as a really niche player who used to be elite. It’s not just sacks, his pressure stops etc all way way down. and basically every team has been abusing him on option plays for 2 plus years. He doesn’t disrupt, but he does make plays. He’s also not an even solid contain guy. Hes a malinger by the original los and hope for a low pass to scream by him

argos mike miller out of the running for our oc job, he’s the new hc for toronto

Which is totally fine, if he's on a reasonable contract and in a more limited role. When he turns it on, he is still an absolute monster. He just doesn't have the ability to turn it on for a huge amount of snaps in a row. Especially if he sees any kind of double team. Pay him 100k base, with bonuses to go up 50k+ if he has a monster year. Make him a naturalized Canadian and rotate him as the 3rd end. He shouldn't play man run downs anyway. But in passing situations, let him go for 15-20 snaps a game at 100%. Hell, make use of him in in niche roles like when we tried to throw him the ball, or let him run off the edge and try to block kicks. Give him a guy to pair with who will take the brunt of the physical impact off on kick rushing etc.

No chance he will get paid 200k by any one else. even his 2023 campaign was heavily padded by the first month of the season where he had 6 of his 11 sacks. Then he had 8 games with 0 sacks and 4 tackles mid season. And that is his best season in the last 5.

100k tops. Maybe incentives if he returns to form in production

Mitchell is a good one. It wouldn't be hard to come up with a list of guys who you aren't going to bring back, guys like kody should be on that list, announce the release of guys who are expiring and wont be given an offer. Then re tool the staff a bit. Say Hogan isn't back, maybe promote JY to ast hc, figure out if you/hall want to go another year. If he does, maybe promote him to be a QC to the oc as well. For me, I'd drop a bunch of vet names on that list, but you don't even need to go real deep with that. Even have someone talk to a CFL reporter like Hodge and say we intend to be aggressive in free agency.

I think they could've gained a considerable amount of leeway if they came out and publically announced Hogan won't be back, and released awful players who didn't cut it X, Y, and Z. As it is, we have struggled in free agency when not overpaying, to attract top-tier FAs. Despite our sell-outs, we will not be a hot draw by any means with out making guys the highest paid at their position etc. If we start to drum up hype with changes though, that might change. I don't think we will wait till the last minute for the coaching staff again. I think we are 100% taking our OC from another team, and that will have to happen sooner rather than later.

to be fair, about 250 guys are pending free agents in the league rn.

the forum is right into prime off season mode. no rust around here. we going 1-0 each day derailing all the threads and having the same discussion in 4 different threads when any thing happens. No soft start for us, we going for the ship this off season.

He was a very good rotational piece in his time. But yes, every one playing beside guys like stove, drake, prime wj/jj was gonna shine. Sad that iirc stove still hasn't turned 30. And his career is basically a season and a half of utter dominance. Hasn't seen the field since 21 here. He was such a monster when he came back from injury in that stretch run. Really crazy to think that JJ, Stove, and Kongbo all peaked here in 21 at a pretty young age. Then WJ and Jake drag them selves on and on playing as a shell of their former self.

he probably doesn’t need to bulk up, that’s leroux. Though he did weigh like 290 in college. Iwinosa is kind of between modern ol body and a big rugby player. Hes not what you’d expect when you look at his measurements, but he’s athletic. Honestly I don’t expect him to be more than tcf.

he’s got an odd physique/ frame. I don’t expect much

I think it was always the plan for him to go back for a year, good raw tools. But wake me up when once of these sent back to school kids pans out. The only one I think worked out is leroux as a snapper.

that’s like combining matlock and 6-7 “jokes” lol

I posted a few guys on the other thread, woodmansey at C would be a huge help to the ol too. It’s a great fa crop, but we will see how many actually hit the market. For under the radar guys, we went after moncrief hard a couple times in the past. Giving sanders a chance to start and make bigger bucks could be a sleeper move for us too. Could play in 30/40 alignments and has been very good rotationally. We don’t need him, but darkangelo is the most mos guy in free agency. Not based on any thing, but I think we go after tim white at wr. A reclamation project at dl like barlow or wakefield would be a solid value move too.

https://3downnation.com/2025/11/26/3downnations-top-50-pending-2026-cfl-free-agents Bunch of guys won’t see free agency here but here is a short list of guys i’d target. wr philpot, and hardy would be preferable. But id take any of the no1 wrs here. ol broxton woodmansey allen are the top tier for me. I’d rather not go pay elite money on a G. Woodmansey for kola would be the biggest upgrade ever. Allen or broxton would allow big stan to kick inside. dl hutchins is nfl bound but id break the bank on him. Tavai, hicks, and ceresna are all big gets. Couple other guys off the edge with good production, but I’d bank on those 4 producing with any team. lb allen, mcmanis every team should call both guys. as impactful as a lber gets in the cfl. Allen offers a tremendous flip of the ratio and mcmanis is biggie 2.0 who could win modp any year. db pickett. The same version of mcmanis. Best db at the hardest position. Couple canadians I’d kick the tires on. Hard to do much with out losing guys here though. Id also love one of powell or crum to round out our qbs. If we got 2 of those guys an a qb, we’d be in great shape. Could really use 3, but that’d be extremely hard to pull off.

Right? We used basically none of what hogan was running in camp. If jackson was here, maybe we make changes much earlier and have a better play book. It was pretty clear he took over play calling late, not that things got to where they needed to be. But it is really hard to entirely remake the offence mid season. Which makes sense, as we seemingly kept trying to do full installs. My hope is we either keep jackson and bring in a really good oc candidate, or bring in one a good oc, and a great under coach. Like bourgoin and Costanza. Both guys familiar working with the mafia zach etc. If we could keep Jackson as qb coach and some how get bourgoin and costanza that’d be great.

Here comes my nice comment about the mafia for the year. I’d rather see us be bad, with jake/kola and the rest of mos old boys club and roster management, than see the likes of kelly or chris jones running a team with a bunch of guys who are dirty on the field and bad off it.