Rather than the usual Rider bashing or Bomber circle jerking here, let me throw out some questions for the masses along with my two cents. The winner in free agency will not be the team that necessarily landed the big fish, or spent the most, or retained the most, but rather filled their needs. So what did the Bombers need?
Well, according to everybody here, the biggest need was middle linebacker. Given the stats, the secondary could arguably use an upgrade. And despite the gaudy stats, once the injuries hit and Thorpe walked out, our receiving and quarterbacking got a little thin. Kicking game, o-line, starting QB and running game were all top notch, d-line was good (decent, serviceable - pick your adjective depending on your mood).
So what did we gain? Well, we took care of our back-up QB and added some nice pieces at receiver. Nothing I don't like about the Durant signing, except maybe the price and how it would hinder us elsewhere. Nothing I don't like about the Bowman signing ( I say this unaware of his price tag), provided he is healthy and we can squeeze a couple of years before his age starts to show. Are we there yet? I'm going to say no, but he isn't the receiver who left us and then learned how to catch every(any)thing a few years back. As for the Demski signing, if the talent matches the hype, we may have hit the jackpot. That is a MASSIVE "if". His history shows us a guy who (if he stays healthy, another big "if" after last year) will get us about 300 yards receiving and maybe one TD. If he wasn't a local boy, would anyone be that excited by this signing? And again, at what financial cost? And hands up anyone who can tell me Mitchell Baines' stats.
We also added Keinan LaFrance. Cool signing of yet another local boy, and I think he could be a good one if he got starting reps, but why exactly did we covet him? If this was a 3 year contract and we were going to shift from an aging Harris to him by the end of next year, sure, but LaFrance signs a one year deal when we have a better Canadian running back and Tim Flanders already in the fold. I think he's a good player, but that doesn't make this a good signing, especially if the cost of it prevents us from bidding elsewhere on other areas of need. We did not need help at running back.
As for Fenner, I cannot pass judgment as I don't know enough about him. Hearing good things about his versatility, and it sounds like he is our back-up plan if Mo Leggett has not recovered from his Achilles injury. Maybe we knew Heath was gone, so we grabbed him when we could. If so, good foresight, Walters.
Who did we retain? Officially no one yet as none of our players who made it to free agency have been re-signed. Obviously, we must also consider those we re-upped before Feb. 13. Leggett is the biggest signing so far, but oh boy if he is not healed up - any history of 31 year old undersized linebackers (converted DB's) recovering from an Achilles tear at that age? We shall see. Stanley Bryant was also a must-sign. Chris Randle would have been a big loss too, if not quite as devastating. Happy to have Fogg, Dressler, and Medlock back (and I guess Nevis and Wild as well), but none of them were irreplaceable (even Medlock - Hajrullahu was available and had the right passport if we absolutely needed a new kicker). But consistency is important. Good job here.
Who did we lose? Well, on a club whose biggest problem last year was not either its offence or its special teams, we sure haven't done much to shore up the third leg, have we? Maybe Fenner for Heath is a trade-off, maybe Westerman's departure ensures that the loss of sack totals is offset by a lack of roughing penalties, and no one liked Sam Hurl here, but the fact is on a club that "isn't going anywhere in the playoffs until we improve our defence" (quoted from, oh, I don't know, pick any one of a hundred or so posts last year on this site) we have dropped two Canadian starters and two recent all-stars. And we have no middle linebacker at all now, which was the biggest area of need according to everybody. Why have we loaded up more on offence then in the past 2 days? Why for all our spending on big name Winnipeggers have we not aggressively pursued a known name like Bear Woods or Larry Dean. And the single biggest question - has our spending on offence now taken out of the bidding for that big defensive piece at linebacker, be it Woods or now Muamba? And am I the only one who cares that we lost the one piece that transformed our o-line from mediocre Drew Willy killer to dominant with a slice of nasty in the form of human eclipse Travis Bond? That one is going to sting.
So right now, grading only free agency performance our DB's are weaker/even, our linebacking is weaker (yes it is, we now have no player at all, and lost a Canadian starter to boot, ineffective as he was), our d-line is weaker, our receivers are even/better, back-up QB better but more pricey, o-line weaker, and our running backs better (thank God, cuz THAT was a real problem area last year).
Sorry to throw a little reality into the mix. Now flame away.
