bluedawg

I believe Dino Boyd also was a Bomber first

I think after two years with Malik Clements and Brian Cole both on the team as backup LBs, they chose to re-sign Cole and try to find new young LBs to fight for an active roster spot. Must have thought Clements was not good enough in some way to be the heir apparent to Bighill. Fast but was in the wrong place a lot from what I saw. The Michael Ayers kid is the only one I think we've signed so far but I expect to see very healthy competition in camp there

Thiadric Hansen is probably cooked after the Achilles. Plus he's 31. Assuming Koromoko will compete with the 21st Canadian for a special teams type of role. Then maybe a battle for the punting job this year between the guy we had last year and another global? I will say, I see doom and gloom around here on the lack of signings but I think there's going to be A LOT of competition this year from young Canadians and Americans fighting for legitimate roles on the team. That should get people excited. Might be some growing pains but I'd think the plan would be coach the young guys up and let them get experience throughout the season and hope to gel by the time playoffs role around.

Plan seems to be keeping the core together while also getting younger. And rely on internal improvement from some of the younger players plus the U.S. scouting department to fill some holes. Success is going to hinge on whether the team can find solutions at right tackle, defensive end and defensive tackle. Also hopefully find a future middle LB to take over for Adam Bighill after this season

If the Bombers do go with a rookie DE in Jeffcoat's place, which of our rostered players do you guys think has the best change to take over that spot? 6 contenders right now: Celestin Haba, TyJuan Garbutt, Nate Givhan, Ali Fayad, Jordan Lewis, John Waggoner I think Celestin Haba would be the favorite right now but also think Ali Fayad is a sleeper. Former MAC DPOY w/ NFL experience who started some games in USFL last season.

After his first season that would've been a rookie deal as well. Because he was on practice roster deal before that and typically teams will re-do the practice rosters contracts to add another year at the end of the season. Likely the reason why Evan Holm and Jamal Parker both have another year left on rookie contracts. So even if it wasn't Ricky's first deal technically, I'm almost positive he was making very close to the minimum

Ricky Walker was on a rookie deal last year though, no? Don't think there's any savings letting him go. Think they role with rookie level salary at DT every year

You don't need to release a player to let them tryout for the NFL. Holm tried out for Denver and Minnesota this year IIRC and did not get let out of his contract because apparently neither team intended to sign him. Now that the window is over, he's back with the team. Same thing happened with Schoen last year when he did some NFL tryouts. He didn't get released because nobody was signing him.

I'm not sure where Marcus Hillman plays in the CFL exactly but his highlights are f****** awesome

My 2 cents on the Yoshi leaving for 120K signing and 460k over 2 seasons is that he is a good player and SSK felt that it was in their best interest to overpay for a shot at 2 years of all-star production. It could help sure up their biggest weakness and also hurt us to win-win for them and the extra cash is worth it to them and necessary to get anyone to move to Regina. Also I bet SSK isn't done making big-time signings I bet they will go all-in this year and will maybe try to poach another one of our players. Hopefully Demerio or Winston.

Ronnie Brown and Chris Smith are both exciting additions to the RB room whether or not Brady is back

https://draftscout.com/dsprofile.php?PlayerId=1091983&DraftYear=2023 Ronnie Brown was actually really fast at his Pro Day (4.46) with an insanely good 4.00 short shuttle time (which is a good measure of start and stop quickness and ability to change direction fluidly)

What's y'alls top 3 list of Bomber pending free agents you'd be most surprised if the team brought back? Mine: 1. Demerio Houston 2. Dakota Prukop 3. Ricky Walker Also my sota hot take is that the team is going to move on from MULTIPLE all star, core players because of $$$

Feeling like there's going to be quite a bit of turnover. Wouldn't be shocked if only 6-8 of these guys are back when camp starts

What made Stove a "true DT" and Sayles and Walker not? Stove was the best DT in the league at the time... Sayles was playing at a near All-star level for us and then was an All-star as soon as he left and got more shine on a team without Willie and Jackson overshadowing him... Ricky is not quite as good as either Sayles or Stove. I'm not disagreeing with anyone there. But he's a solid starter in this league, not a guy that was hurting the defense. I'm not saying Ricky couldn't be improved upon, just that I think it's ridiculous to say we need a "true DT" just because we were so spoiled with Stove and nobody has been able to replicate his production in the last few years. We need what everyone needs, a stud pass rushing american defensive tackle who generates pressure because he is too athletic for slower Canadian interior linemen to handle. Ricky does that, just not as well as the aforementioned players

A glaring hole? Casey Sayles was one of the best DTs in the league in '22 and was again in '23 after the Bombers let him walk. Even last year it's overblown to say DT was a glaring hole. Should they have just handed Ricky the starting DT position with minimal competition? Definitely not, but even then Ricky performed well in '23. Teams look for gap shooting 3-techs out of their Americans and have their Canadian DTs work the 1-tech spot and plug against the run. Not an active poster on here but read a lot on the team and closely watch/record every game and frankly disagree with you here, though I do respect your opinion

This is giving Prukop too much credit. Even though Cornelius has struggled with his mental processing in the CFL, he's much more talented as a passer. He has a very strong arm and has flashed capable starter ability at times. Prukop, on the other hand, scares me when doing anything but running a QB sneak. If we could upgrade from Prukop to Corn as the short yardage backup, that would be a win. Especially if Buck can get something out of him that Chris Jones couldn't.

People in this thread seem to think Canadian rookies and Globals make less than American rookies? The league minimum across every player is 70k. In the event that Damian Jackson was replaced by a rookie Canadian fullback, there would likely be no money saved for example. Obviously recent signings like Deatrick Nichols, Cam Lawson and Redha received big pay raises. Lawson and Redha especially coming off rookie deals and I bet Nichols is one of league's highest paid DBs now. And guys like Lawler and Demski are going to getting more money after taking less last year to make the cap work. I think as fans we've got to temper expectations about how many guys can be brought back. The cap is not fluid it is very real and it is going to force the team to make some very tough decisions this offseason. I'm excited to see what direction we go in, who gets brought back, and which new young guys step up!

Saving 20-25K here and there from a few players not being brought back is not going to make up for Schoen and/or Olivera getting an extra 150K next season... I would like everyone back too including Dru but let's be realistic here

There is 0 chance Dru is back in Winnipeg if they plan to pay either of Schoen or Brady. With raises kicking in this year for Lawler and Demski plus re-signing young pieces to bigger deals, there's 0% chance they have the money to pay Dru to backup Zach for 2 more years. Dru will likely look for the biggest possible deal and I doubt a team gives him more than 1 year if they pay him well since he's unproven as a start/outside of the Bombers' nest

My theory for how QB carousel shakes out: Dru Brown signs in Ottawa for a 1-year at 250-300K and has a camp competition with Dustin Crum for the QB1 spot. Edmonton signs McBeth and they cut Taylor Cornelius even though he has 100K+ guaranteed — McBeth ultimately beats out Tre Ford for QB1 and he requests a trade but Jones won't trade him. Hamilton brings back BLM and also signs Masoli on the cheap and flip-flops those two back and forth for the year. Calgary signs Dane Evans to backup/push Maier. Winnipeg picks up Cornelius off the scrap heap as a short yardage QB/backup to Collaros.

Nate Givhan got hurt early in camp. Tyrique McGhee also got hurt and got re-signed as soon as he was healthy to develop for the year -- got playing time in the final game and looked quite good to me. Kelvin McKnight didn't work out but clearly was talented — went to the XFL and performed quite well as an immediate starter.

So we had the money in the ops cap to bring back Walters, Goveia and Danny Mac. Then we were able to keep Buck god knows how. And we were also able to promote the U.S. scout Penn? Just saw now has new role. Where's that money coming from LOL https://www.bluebombers.com/football-operations/

Guess I nailed this...

From his bio looks like he was hired initially as an intern and then boosted to U.S. national scout two years ago. Essentially the same role that Drew Morris had for 3 seasons before he left for the NFL.