wbbfan

Yeah its not surprising though. We left a lot on the field through the season on offense, and late in the year/play offs on D. If your a vet FA this team is on the up swing in a major way and one or two pieces could take us from one of a hand full of contenders to favorite. Its great news, expected them to be back but its great to have it done for sure before FA starts.

This is fantastic news. Really excited to see butcher and intzandt develop. Both these guys have the raw skills and upside to be worth keeping around for a year + to groom into linemen. On either side of the ball. Butchers rare level of quickness for a man his size means he could play tackle very easily. Id be happy to see him be a depth lineman playing both lines on special teams / goal line etc. Wouldnt mind seeing thomas get a chance to start. Him and sholo up the middle could really free up our ends and clog up the middle against the run. Either intzandt or butcher would need to be ready to back up. Or Corney start on the edge. Its not conventional but a 3 even 4 man NI dl could work with these guys.

hes great with imp talent. not at all with imp. Guys not working out from down south isnt the measuring stick for GMs. If it was, no one would have a job.

The shoulder isnt a start or stop point for mechanics. Throwing with a bad shoulder hurts. It doesnt change how you throw. The motion is too quick for you to be effected directly by the pain. the shoulder has 0 impact on throwing strength. Thats why tons and ton and tons of young kids tear their elbows apart while still throwing hard and well in little league + levels of baseball. The pain and shoulder have minimal effect on the mechanics. Unless you have a piece of debris stopping you from using your normal slot/release point forcing you to throw the ball entirely different. Which khari did not.

Not nearly the same situation. Willy was a high upside young qb in a severe buyers market. and the last guy left. Nichols is in in a sellers market with more qbs then spots, isnt a high up side guy, isnt as young, etc. Chances he improves on the big step forward he took last year with his skill set is slim. You dont suddenly become able to ace deep shots. Just buono being buono. Hes a puppy mill when it comes to QBs.

Thats mostly true. Some one like wally would make that move. ritchie back in the day. Milano in toronto wouldnt though. You can debate his quality as a coach last year but over all hes been a good coach. Its some thing we have to hope he grows into. Making better personnel decisions going into the game and during the game.

Yes and no. NIs dont seem to get paid crazy money very often. Save some one like what henoc got from MTL. It would protect top end NIs, but not the low to mid guys. I dont think the PA would ever sign off on a deal that means no1 picks trade hands frequently for signing a FA.

Not just that, but getting any young prospect QB in during late game blow out scenarios. Davis isnt exactly young either. He turns 28 next year, hes had 2 seasons here + a training camp with calgary. He is wet behind the ears for his age though. Not the amount of college games that you would expect. Mos had plenty of chances to get him or glenn in off the bench. The 2 ottawa games, edmonton, toronto etc. Situations it would have been good to give nichols rest, and protection from getting hurt. But we got to see some hellacious late season hits on him at the end of games that were done. We even saw andrew harris ran back out to carry the ball when he could barely hobble around.

Yeah he plays his best ball in the 4th and certainly came to play against BC. The only bad thing you can say about the bc game from him was the 2 heavily floated deep balls. And that just isnt in his repertoire. Cant fault him for not being able to hit those passes cleanly any more then you can fault him for not being able to run like michael vick. Every aspect of the game had the chance to win the game and failed to do so. The defense more then any other part of the team. But the D carried the team to the play offs. Nichols horribly sailed 2 deep passes to wide open targets. Easy TDs that were negated. The offense scored a TD on one of those drives and didnt on the other. He and the offense had the ball to win the game at the end too and needed again to go to medlock to bail us out. Every member of the team gets a share of the lose. Nichols isnt nearly as big as the front 7. Though people in bomberville want to crown nichols with 100% of the credit for the turn around. Some how that doesnt apply in the lose. The truth is his part in the turn around was smaller then the D and the OL and medlock. Bigger then the rest. His performance against bc was better then that group mostly. Maybe his best game of the year. But still not enough. The 61 yard call is probably going to be brought up till next year is well in swing. But medlock hit from 59 in game iirc not in a stadium. In warm ups he hit from longer then that including at bc. I think we could have gotten the first down passing with in the side lines and tried to spike it. But when it comes down to it last year medlock is easily the guy i want to be in the position to make a play to win the game. More then any other player on the team.

if his shoulder was buggered to the point he couldnt cut it any more he wouldnt have been on 3 teams. Shoulder injuries dont cause floaters. It doesnt cause the lose of your touch. Its not like an elbow injury where its some thing career threatening. A shoulder injury is not going to change velocity, accuracy etc unless your arm is barely holding on at a level no one is going to be able to clear a medical on little on be put in a game with any thought of success.

this ^. in the presser for the end of the year walters sounds like its a lock for him to be in camp next year. Advanced age, severely limited reps post high school, with high end all round passer skill set. The difference is you had more starting spots then QBs. This year you have more guys who are starters then spots open. If they end up back ups it wont be rush deals by any means. Young qbs people will sell the farm for and take huge gambles. Old qbs that may be going down to back up isnt some thing people are going to rush to get or sell the farm for. Especially not with guys like ellingson, jackson, williams, and hughes available.

Im not. My comment was about imps as well. Ones that come from the ncaa particularly. That level of compensation is still too high for a guy who has probably been through 2-3 contract terms. Not to mention it doesnt take into consideration over pays, guys who get injured and try to re find a former high level of play etc. You could end up with guys stuck with compensation too high for what they can bring. Plus you dont want to limit the ability for NI talent to flow between teams too much. Thats how you rebuild. Other wise you end up with one team that has far too much talent who can over pay them and protect them and their dominance at NI depth.

Yep. Its worth more for young guys with a lack of time as qb1 in ncaa/hs and no pro experience. Like bennett. And you do need it more in the cfl then in the nfl to get adapted to the game up here. But its still not a tool to highly refine qbs. Look at the amount of bench time a guy like MBT has had. It hasnt turned him into a great deal more then he was when he came out. Most qbs started 3 years + in HS, which is crazy competitive. + 3 years in college. That alone, 6 years of on the job experience is massive. You arent going to whole sale change a guy after that. His arm slot, release point mind set etc. Thats a big reason why im not a fan of bringing in qbs with broken / limited passing tool sets. Being able to run and scramble is great. but if you cant pass accurately, or if you cant make certain throws, or throws to part of the field when you become a pro chances are microscopic you ever will. And that means the up side is capped low.

You may not be able to see the difference in talent level between any thing but superstars and the rest but there is one. If you cant see that difference you may as well throw darts at a board covered with names.

If its not davis (personally i dont think it is) then its time to cut our losses. Bring in another young guy to groom. Going into camp against a guy like MBT with the amount of nfl TC/ps experience combined with being under a strong veteran 1 2 combo is a great way to push and pull the best out of a young qb.

The amount you can learn when you arent playing game speed, and arent being blitzed is highly over rated. Top qb picks in the nfl used to automatically sit for 1 year for bench learning. But that is more and more out the window. And even that, you didnt often see guys sit for more then 1 year and you see it less now.

That would be a good factor to include. Im not sure the compensation should be that high though. I dont think it should be prohibitive in signing FAs just value back. Though if its an extreme player signing like a BLM perhaps it should be as high as a first. But say your a team like us the couple years before this year. Even this last off season. Andrew harris, should his signing have cost us a first round pick? We have to allow down teams to be able to rebuild NI depth through the FA market with out hurting their NI depth further. Thats why i figure cash, neg listers, and mid tier picks. Like 3rd round down.

Mack in a limited role could be deadily good. Im a little surprised at steinauer. I thought he was a blue chipper at DC up here, and with another year or two would be a prime candidate for a HC job. I get when guys take HC jobs in the NCAA. you can make fantastic money, and have incredible job security for a coach. Combined with full control over your team and system. Not to mention coaching college guys is often considered easier then the pros. The lateral move going down is a bit of a shocker.

Id put him above guys like collaros and harris. Both have shown greater flashes then nichols is capable of, but both have shown not to be reliable. MR and BLM are clearly the class of cfl QBs. I think jennings has devalued him self some with his late season performance. And is pretty much alone at the top of the 2nd tier of starting QBs. Id also put ricky ray behind nichols. Hes a better player no question, but old and an even bigger reliability question. That kind of leaves nichols in a the middle of the pack with durant, Id take durant for the short term. But the balance between the amount of time nichols has left and the improvement durant would bring in the short term is awful close. Glenn I think is highly under rated for what he did in a horrible mess in MTL. Imop hes the best back up in the league. Above lulay, tate, franklin, masoli etc but of course with out an up side. What nichols can do and what lapo likes to do does indeed mesh very well. I dont think our WR talent syncs up as well with that system though. Harris fits in very well. And just how far that can take you with out the crazy amount of turn overs / top tier D is questionable.

Pretty much what has been happening with virtually every team for the past 10 years or so too. Just in contract form. I dont know any thing about the cases with contracts and who has what or if they can even have such an exit clause. But its been happening under the table so if its on paper or not doesnt really have much of an impact imop. And I think its good. If guys go down south and shine it helps the league out a great deal. Tons and tons and tons of players have said they were in an NFL camp with some one who played up here talked highly of it and it opened up their considerations to up here. Stuff like this and the games on ESPN help the talent level of the league a great deal.

This pretty much sums up the point better then any words could. Some times, producing a guy and watching him leave quickly with nothing to show hurts. Its not just NIs though. Guys like bruce and brian clark hurt a bunch. Id like to see MLB level compensation. Its not fair to force rookies, ni or other wise to play longer for teams that draft them. Id Like to see sliding scale cost for teams that sign league FAs. Maybe from cash to neg listers to depth picks. More of a tax to compensate the teams a little bit rather then to punish players for leaving. They are people after all. Forcing them to work for X company via draft, rights claim etc has allways sat poorly with me. The franchise rule in the nfl is appalling even more so.

The next guy would be durant almost certainly. Then perhaps Hank (shudder) maybe even ray. No matter what happens with nichols I dont think we will go into camp with glenn as the projected no1. Certainly not the guy MTL wants IMOP. Could be the guy TO would want. But they allready have a huge mess to deal with nichols isnt the guy for that situation. Ottawa or hamilton on the other hand with young guys who have shown flashes but have health knocks could be a good sleeper fit. Established teams with a strong support. A possession systems guy like him could be very desirable. I feel like for once there are more quality starting QBs on the free agent market then teams for them to start. We have a beastly OL, a ton of talent at WR and a massive D that carried much of the season. We made the play offs in the hard division etc etc. If im any of the starter quality QBs, this is the team i want to play for. The amount of money it would take to over come the difference between us, To/mtl and even ott/ham is massive. I really dont think so. More starting qbs then starting spots available. With a nichols -glenn esq combo not having a stud prospect isnt as big an issue. You can keep looking and get one that falls out with the nfl etc. Skill set wise id take MBT over bennett or davis any day. Davis and MBT are not young. And all three have a strong lack of experience. Limited college reps and even less pro. But guys like jennings, reilly and BLM didnt come up as incomplete passers. They had the ability to hit passes to any part of the field. Im all for getting a young guy like that to groom. But going "full court press" and over paying nichols only limits our ability to pay a higher end prospect qb to come in and sit on the bench. We dont have a reason or need to over nichols and I really dont think we, or any one else will. Some thing in the 300k range base with incentives. If he were to produce at an elite level next year i don think any one would have a problem if the incentives bumped him up to elite level pay.

3 guys im really happy to get to see in camp again. Guys who could easily be STers and maybe even rotational guys next year. I really hope butcher and intzandt re sign soon too.

think about that in reverse with walters offer from his alma mater what was that a year and a half ago? Man that sounds like a recipe for cellar dwelling als. that name makes me cringe soo hard. Hate the gliebermens soo much

the only make believe is you fooling your self into thinking those coaches were fired for no good reason. hey what franchise doesnt love searching for a new coach every year and paying 3+ coaches not to work for you.... Khari was on 3 teams after that. He played behind better ols and given the years he was in the league after leaving the blue he was healthy for a long while. He was done. Was it because or heavily aided by a crazy beating he took behind our OL? yeah. Im sure that had a big impact on it. But dont forget he played what 2 years maybe 2.5 with a poor ol? Plenty of qbs have seen that or longer with bad OLs. He lost his zip and touch. Which doesnt come from the shoulder.