ShyGuy

Elgersma watch continues. Depth chart for Week two has him at QB2 and Hiers at QB3. No news of his visa status or what happened to the QB the Stallions signed for Week 1. Is he actually allowed to play or is UFL being bush League and not checking things against real life? I guess we'll find out Sunday

Why are we assuming the QB2 spot is being held for Elgersma? Sure he could compete for it but how often do USports QBs show up and immediately got slotted into backup QB? Bombers will have Bryce Perkins who won the UFL MVP last year and Payton Throne who had a reasonable NCAA career and was an NFL camp cut last year and then obviously Terry Wilson as the guy with actual CFL experience.. who by the way has played about as much as Powell has the last two seasons. Realistically if Elgersma were to show up it would be Perkins or Wilson as QB2 and Elgersma as 3... If he did end up QB2 that would mean he was more or less worth the wait

Are you seeing snap counts differently than what I can find? NFL lists him as only having 3 games played in 2023. Pro football reference has him with 32 ST snaps in those 3 games but then practice roster / reserve list for 2024 and 2025. Sounds like he was just someone they liked having on scout team and was a nice guy to be around

Elgersma barely being ahead of a QB who spent the better part of 2 years on the Riders practice squad doesn't inspire a tonne of confidence tbh

Are we talking spring football or just the UFL, which is in it's third year? Liam Dobson couldn't get work permit in 2021 and came north. Sage Doxtater played 5 games in the XFL in 2023. He was signed in 2024 when his team moved over to the UFL but didn't end up playing due to an injury so that one is... inconclusive. Are Canadians not playing in the UFL because they can't get a work permit, or because it's a dead end?

The Stallions just signed another QB so that means that one of Hiers and Elgersma will be the odd man out. Hiers just spent the better part of two years on the Riders practice squad but he has 4-down experience

This is from last year but I imagine its more of the same for this year https://3downnation.com/2025/04/04/winnipeg-blue-bombers-contributed-930000-to-amateur-football-in-2024/ I generally see those types of articles "Bombers donated $X worth of helmets". They also run the try football camps all the time... usually 4-5 sessions that are free of cost and draw around 100 kids. I sign my kids up for so many Bomber activities I don't even have to spend any money at Save-On-Foods anymore, they just keep giving them gift cards that I use.

What about Powell screams 7-8 year starter? He had a fairly unremarkable rookie season. Did well in the one game in 2024 before leaving the field in an ambulance due to a concussion and has thrown 12 passes since.

Football highlights are usually needlessly cruel https://imgur.com/a/jefferson-long-td-vs-atl-EEKhxb8 Alford is not the guy you want on JJ 1:1, he obviously thought he was releasing him to a safety, realized there was no one behind him so he hauled back and instincts took over and he want to the corner instead of the middle of the field

Is there a team in the CFL that is known for developing quarterbacks? It seems like more often than not the recipe for success is to pluck a backup off another team and then ride them until the wheels come off. What are the home grown QB success stories this century? Ricky Ray, Bo, Lulay, Rourke, Darian Durant? Seems more like lucking into a guy than any protracted strategy.

Seeing "Haters hate to hear this" all I could think about was this Hulk Hogan tweet

Mauldin played for Hamilton in 2021 and had 5 sacks in 6 games in the COVID shortened season. He signed with Ottawa and wasn't among the top 10 highest paid defensive ends. He won MODP in 2022, and his contract was 200K in 2023 after he re-signed and he was the second highest paid defensive end. He was also 30 at this point. He did sign before the window opened (Jan 18th)... maybe Calgary would have signed him to replace Orimolade, maybe the Argos could have signed him instead of Orimolade. But you can't get much higher paid than the second most salary at your position. He had a down year in 2023 and his salary in 2024 reflected that, but he was still top 10 paid. He bounced backed in 2024 and was almost 200K again in 2025 and that didn't go super great for all involved. If he wanted a better shot at winning a championship, it would been in the East, the Bombers didn't have room on those teams (as constructed) for another 30+ year old d-lineman making 200k, I don't think he would have pushed any of the West teams over the Bombers. Maybe he could have taken a deep discount to get onto another team but that is not a thing that happens very much tbh. The problem really was that he broke out at the time where he was on the wrong end of the aging curve... and really his production showed that and teams aren't dumb so good call. You can point to Willie Jefferson as an argument against the DE aging curve... but he has a very specific skill that makes him a bit of a unicorn and the Bombers deploy him as such

Would he have been paid more elsewhere? Dude got his bag playing in the NFL, then two grey cup appearances with Hamilton, moved to Ottawa, Won MODP in 2022 and got paid, down season in 2023, bounced back in 2024 and then whatever happened last year. There was really no one for him to sign and be guaranteed a grey cup... He was never going to fit in here and Argos and Montreal were the only other reasonable teams in the East and who knows had he fit there. He was one of the highest paid defensive ends year over year after his MODP campaign.

Have their been any other NAT drafted players who have flirted with the UFL/XFL? AFAIK with Elgersma the only link is that they drafted him, I haven't seen any indication that that is where he is going to end up either.

I get it's exciting because there hasn't been a lot of Canadian QBs in this era of the CFL, and then this decade we have Nathan Rourke, and then Tre Ford was looking good for a bit... and then we get Kurtis Rourke who had some Heisman heat, and the Elgersma who did well in CIS and had some scouts thinking he was something but people definitely need to settle down. I think Kurtis Rourke almost has less of a chance to make in the NFL, being 25 years old and having torn each of his ACLs, but you don't hear Rider Fans wondering wtf he is doing up there.

Rourke played 2 seasons on his ELC in the CFL and then had a full season worth of PR and Active Roster cheques so per section 9.03 of the CBA his contract was fulfilled.

I wonder if they might try to review section 9.03 of the CBA in the next round of negotiations. Kurtis Rourke is in a similar situation, probably CFL bound eventually but because he was on the injured list all year that burns a year off his ELC. Because Elgersma was chasing a PR spot it doesn't look like he is in the same boat, so if Rourke ended up on the CFL next year, he probably has only 1 year on his ELC, if Elgersma waits until next year he still has 3. Apparently the Birmingham coach is saying that the plan is still to have Elgersma play for the Stallions, which is interesting because it sounded like the UFL wasn't on his radar

It's funny to be the NFL got so upset at the NFLPA for their member body grading the teams, but the NFL doesn't have any issue trotting out independent people grading players performance on a play by play basis (PFF) and having their broadcast partners blast it all over their coverage. I don't think its reasonable to expect anyone to be able to parlay a career in the CFL to 7 or 8 million dollars... once he is off his ELC he'd be 27... so it would take 10 years @ 700K AAV to get him to 7 million... and that is if one of a million different things that could go wrong to derail a career doesn't go wrong. To project someone who spent 4 years in CIS ball and had one half decent NFL preseason game to end up the highest paid CFL player ever post US-Expansion seems... pie in the sky at best.

NIL definitely isn't helping things here. The baseline for a power 4 QB has to be around 500K/yr for NIL at this point? Tough sell getting those guys to come up here for 2 years making peanuts just for a chance to be able to make almost as much as they made in college.

200k+ for a DB who's gonna be 33 at the start of the season seems crazy, even if he has the right passport

Is there a specific metric you are taking into account here? Brady had more 20+ yard rushes on 49 less carries, so he's by far a bigger threat to to bust a big one than Mills. Mills was busting a 10+ yard run every 5.5 carries or so, whereas Brady was about every 6.5 carries but even that isn't a huge difference. Brady also had a bigger YPC than Mills. Would have been neat to see what kind of stats Brady would have put up had he not missed effectively 4 games. Would have probably have had 2000 yards from scrimmage for sure.

PFF scores are fun when you want to support your own narrative but IMO you have to take them with a grain of salt. According to them, Willie Jefferson played the best football game of probably anyone ever at any level in week 9... he graded a 99.3 overall

Elks spent like drunken sailors on defense last season and it didn't work out great for them. Lions taking a similar approach on offense

https://www.sportsnet.ca/cfl/article/wr-keon-hatcher-signs-contract-extension-with-lions/ The B.C. Lions have signed star wide receiver Keon Hatcher Sr. to a contract extension through the 2027 season, the CFL club announced Wednesday. Financial terms were not disclosed, but a person with knowledge of the contract said it exceeded $645,000, with $630,000 guaranteed. Hatcher was slated to become a free agent in February.

WR Market is off to a Bonkers start. 25 year old Philpot who has played one full season (his rookie year) and had only one 100 yard game in the regular season (tho what a game) is the highest paid Canadian receiver. 31 year old Hatcher with an Achilles tear on his Injury record is the highest paid non-QB and his deal is almost entirely guaranteed