Mike

You’re not really arguing against a point anyone is making. The majority of people here aren’t concerned about the individual decline of players. They’re concerned that we’re not doing anywhere near enough to prepare for that decline / put the best lineup we can on the field.

I think we’re going to see a lot of Feltmate and Clercius tomorrow.

Nobody was losing it about Clercius. If you want to continue to suck off Canadian talent, go for it. Your first paragraph tells anyone with half a clue about football all they need to know about how well thought out this opinion of yours is. Canadian good, Canadian never bad. We get it.

Because none of that matters this week, next week or the week after. I love Collaros, he’s one of my favourite Bombers of all time and I’m glad I never have to be the one who may need to make a tough decision about whether it’s time to go in a different direction for the betterment of our football team. What’s the difference between Mike O’Shea and I? I’m not paid incredibly, incredibly well to be responsible for making that decision if and when I need to.

If anyone watched that O’Shea interview up there, I’m curious … was anyone else extremely bothered when his assessment of Zach was “he’s the best and I’ll always feel that way and nothing will ever change my mind”

For any team to pretend that Johnny Augustine or Jake Thomas are the best options you can put on the field regardless of passport is insulting to its fans, quite frankly. This is exactly why I take pause now when people say O’Shea is still the best coach in the league. I’m not really sure how much evidence there is to point to of him coaching much of anything.

He won’t ever change. Same moronic decision making with the roster that cooked us last year. Ayers barely played all game last week and now we add Biggie and he suddenly becomes more essential than keeping the one unit that DID succeed last week fresh? I’m over it, man. Just such flawed decision making.

What a ******* joke

Truthfully, and people aren’t going to want to hear this, the only way this turns around is when we move on from MOS. He is who he is at this point and while I think he’s owed the opportunity to prove this theory false, I don’t think he’s got it in him to make the adjustments required. Too far away from his philosophy and too many tough “human” decisions. He’s not going to cut bait from a Brandon Alexander or an Adam Bighill or a Jake Thomas. That’s such a big part of what made him so great for the time when it worked. But now that it won’t work, it’s going to be an equally big part of his undoing. Realistically, I think the only way we move on without him stepping away is a failure that can’t be ignored during the host season. And if nothing changes immediately, that’s exactly what we’re going to see. The arrogance, the belief that this is still 2020 … that’s what is going to sink us. It’s not even up for debate anymore that we don’t do everything we can each week to win football games and the belief that our good is good enough needs to stop, but it won’t. It might not be a sudden fall off the cliff but the fall is coming whether we like it or not.

I should clarify what my opinion is … I don’t think we’re about to fall off a cliff immediately. I just truly believe that we’re going to do absolutely nothing to stop it when it does happen.

Not here you don’t

I’d love to see us bring in Shawn Oakman but there’s zero chance we do

I think you’re getting lost talking about the Week 1 performance while most people here are talking about the past two years plus one game. It’s not the specific on-field performance that is worrying to me. It’s the approach we have taken to everything.

That’s just it, I really don’t understand our blatant blind spot to the reality of pro sports. It happens to EVERYBODY. Why are the Bombers pretending it hasn’t happened to them?

Feels like at this rate it’s going to be January 2026, Collaros, O’Shea, Bighill, Willie and BA will all be gone and we’ll be wondering how we got beat in the divisional semi final in a GC host year

Honestly, I’m not sure you can ever quantify something like this but I would have to suspect word gets around by now about Winnipeg has to be one of the worst places for a young player to come to in the CFL if they want a legitimate opportunity. And don’t give me all that “what, they don’t wanna win and be a part of an amazing locker room?” nonsense. No, they want an opportunity to compete and maximize their earning potential and playing potential. That’s not here anymore. Veterans don’t even have to participate in training camp but they’re handed spots. We have mismanaged our use of training camp two years in a row. The practice roster is wasted. I’m not saying every spot needs to be an open competition. But look at Brandon Alexander, he has been clearly falling off in performance for a few years but hasn’t been asked to take a single snap in camp since 2022 and is just handed a job. We had a ton of options to get younger in lieu of trotting out Kyrie Wilson, who was already having his workload managed in camp, but we just hand him the spot despite new players showing incredibly well. How does McManus sell that to a young American player, especially when we’re now competing with other leagues.

This is never spoken about enough. He was a huge loss.

This is such a ridiculous statement I don’t even know where to begin

The way we see the team being run right now, we would’ve kept Harris over Brady.

I can appreciate that, but until it comes in the form of competition, I don’t think it’s equal.

You are correct.

The practice roster is what makes me more frustrated than anything, to be honest. The use of it is just horrendous. Historically, here have been the past couple years looking at our American PR August 2022: OL Witt, OL Lofton, K Mourtada, DL Wilcots, WR Harrison, DL Mack, DB Holm October 2022 (post expanded PR): OL Witt, OL Lofton, OL Fornadel, OL Muljo, K Mourtada, WR Harrison, WR Heiligh, DL Adams, DL Massie, DB Texada July 2023: OL Ivy, OL Richmond, DB Muhammad, DB McGhee, DL Fox, LB Cole, WR Jones, FB Jackson October 2023: OL Richmond, DL Haba, DL Garbutt, DL Fox, WR Alston, DB Lawrence, DB McGhee We’ve been carrying a ton of OL on the practice roster since 2022 and it’s netted us absolutely nothing. Meanwhile, we’ve carried literally one linebacker, zero running backs, no receivers who have amounted to anything (mostly due to not ever getting an opportunity), a kicker that was absolute trash, a fullback and usually a DB or two. Obviously these are just snapshots, but the formula isn’t working. Look at the turnover and look what it’s amounted to. This is not how we should be using this part of our roster at all.

I really just wished they didn’t treat the 45 man roster and the practice roster as if they are two separate entities. The gameday depth chart should not be our week to week depth chart. We should not be using JA as anything beyond a gameday backup to Brady, if Brady can’t go one week then there should be a player on the practice roster ready to fill that role as a starter. Same with Gauthier, Ford, etc. I swear if Jake Thomas got hurt, we’d be starting Kyle Samson the next week. This is not the way the team should be operating. Our practice roster use continues to be so frustrating, we should be employing players who can develop their skills so that when they are called to play, there’s a shot you may have an immediate impact player not just some ham and egger who can do enough to get by.

Brown/Dukes/Powell in that order

Toronto Montreal Saskatchewan Calgary BC Hamilton Edmonton Winnipeg not ranked: Ottawa