TBURGESS

Excellent signing. Glad to Randle back.

I'd look into trading for Adams. Riders have spent a bunch of $$$ on QB's. They should be happy to get rid of their #3 (Adams) for very little. As we can't seem to find a QB on our own, it would be worth it.

LIONS ACQUIRE RUNNING BACK BRANDON RUTLEY FROM ALOUETTES https://www.bclions.com/2018/01/15/lions-acquire-running-back-brandon-rutley-alouettes/

I don't think it's a bluff. Montreal isn't going to pay Durant his bonus and there's no where else in the league where he'll get starters money. Heck... There's no other team who is even looking for a starter.

My take: No additional time outs. The game is slow enough as it is and we don't need any more stoppages. The challenge system as it was changed mid-season is working exactly as it should. It speeds up the games and it gets rid of the egregiously bad calls. It was never meant for fishing expeditions or to change every perceived mistake made by the refs. There's nothing the matter with the current safety rules. It's a coaches decision if he wants to give up 2 to try and save the 3 or 7. There are enough players on the sidelines already. No need to make any changes there. No need to add Canadians either as their aren't enough good ones to go around right now. In fact, I'd reduce the number of NI's on each team by 1 (The worst guy on each team that no one but his family would miss) and add an extra DI. Rule changes I'd like: No single point on balls kicked through the end zone. That just rewards failure. I'd keep the 1 point if the ball stays in the end zone to get the run backs that are so exciting. Designate all NI's as NI's, including QB's. Yup it means some teams, not named the Bombers, get an advantage of an additional DI. If we want that too, we can always sign an NI QB.

@TSN_Sports - Tiger-Cats confirm offer to Manziel. MORE: https://www.tsn.ca/tiger-cats-confirm-offer-to-manziel-1.961287 … @TSNDaveNaylor - The @Ticats have made an offer of a 2-year contract to @JManziel2. Offer made on Saturday. Believed to be a competitive offer, not just the minimum to extend their rights beyond 10-day window that closes today. #CFL #Ticats By making an offer to @JManziel2, the @Ticats extend their rights to him for one year. Sides can continue to negotiate, no real urgency for either side to get a deal done right away. Matthew Scianitti @TSNScianitti - Never a feeling in Hamilton that #Ticats would rush to sign Manziel. This is a long process, carefully discussed by Caretaker Bob Young, President Scott Mitchell, VP of personnel Kent Austin, GM Eric Tillman, director of football ops Shawn Burke and head coach June Jones #CFL

Early in this thread. Hall's got to go. Most everyone agrees. The Bombers keep Hall and get rid of some coaches. Now we get 'Everyone should have faith in the guys who make the decisions so it's OK that we kept Hall' and 'It was the other coaches and players who've been at fault since Hall came here, but firing them isn't throwing them under the bus' and my personal favorite 'O'Shea taking more interest in the D will turn it around'. Folks who don't agree are just Hall haters, don't know what they are talking about and are making claims without saying IMHO first. Typical off season so far.

Hate's a strong word, but I hate this move. More of the same for 2018. Better find ourselves a couple of good receivers, cuz we'll need to score 30+ to win.

What experienced MLB would want to sign in Winnipeg to become simply a 'hole filler in Halls D'?

If Collaros tries to hold out for his $200K bonus, he'll be cut a day before it's due. He'll have to renegotiate if he wants a chance to start this year. I suspect the numbers have already been decided on and we will see a new contract story sometime soon. I'd offer him his $200K bonus and another $150-200K in salary/bonuses for the season. Big risk on this trade, but that's what Jones is all about. IF Collaros gets back to his former self, then it will be a steal and the RIders will have their QB of the future RFN. If Collaros continues to 'Willy', which is what I think will happen, then Bridge will have to step up and take the starting QB job or else the Riders are back to square one in the QB department.

All players are one hit away from their careers being finished. The buzz around Franklin is similar to the buzz around Reilly when the Eskimos signed him. No guarantee's, but it's a pretty good indicator that teams think that Franklin has what it takes.

Nope. FB and T are good for advertising the league. Signing a guy like Manziel would give the CFL something interesting to post tho.

Good news for the CFL if Manziel signs, cuz it will showcase the league to the US market as folks see what Johnny is up to these days.

Ratio on US teams is a non-starter. Couldn't be enforced due to US labor laws. Didn't have a ratio last time the CFL expanded to the US. Wouldn't have one if they did it again.

I'd take him over JFG. Then again, I'd have taken him over whats his name in the draft.

Best signing of the off season so far and yes that includes Medlock.

Does the Franklin deal mean Ray is retiring? Can't see Franklin wanting to be behind Ray and I can't see the Argos making the trade if they aren't expecting to sign Franklin.

The 'No Guarantee' argument is only valid if their is a guarantee on the other side of the argument. In this case, there is no guarantee that the weather will be better in October than November, but there's a much higher probability that it will be. There's no guarantee that the weather will be as good in November as it is in October either, so the argument fails.

Update: Collaros threw for 5500 yards, not 54K. Thanks to J5V for proof reading for me. 25 years old is way different than 30. Jennings is the youngest starting QB in the league and has had more success than any of the current young guns in their first 3 years. He threw for more yards than even BLM did in his first 3 years, although BLM threw a lot less INT's. The big difference is that Jennings hasn't been brought along slowly like most QB's. He's been given the reins and been allowed to make mistakes, which he has done too often. The fact that he threw for less yards and more ints this year than last is worrisome, but that doesn't mean he's done as a QB. Jennings could become the next Burris or the next Printers or somewhere in between. I'll be very interested to see what he does with a different OC who doesn't want to throw deep all the time and what he can do behind a better O line.

Go back and read my first post again. I said I'd take Jennings over any of the other QB's I mentioned. I wouldn't take Willy back at any price. Collaros hasn't won a game in over a year. Masoli won a bunch of games with the same team. I wouldn't touch Collaros for anything over than 200K. I think he's been Willy'd as in broke beyond repair. So what's Jennings accomplished? Became a CFL starting QB at 23 or24. Got his team into the playoffs in his first year as a starter. Has thrown for almost 11K yards in less than 3 years (Collaros threw for about 54K yards in his first 3 years). Suffered the sophomore jinx in 2017 behind a bad O line and with an OC that wanted to go deep all the time.

You're comparing Willy to Jennings? That's laughable. Willy on his best day isn't anywhere near as athletic as Jennings on his worst day and he never learned to read a defense. I never thought Willy had 'it', but I think Jennings still might. Jennings isn't there yet, but he also had to deal with a horrible O line that didn't give him any time to make his decisions and an OC who loves the deep ball, just like he did when he was a player. You simply can't compare a 25 year old to a 29 or 30 year old. After some time, the game slows down for a lot of QB's. Collaros is 29. Willy is 31. Franklin is 26. None of them has done as much as Jennings has and he's only 25. I think Jennings is much like Burris. It will take him some time to get there, but if he does, he'll be one of the best QB's in the league.

Assuming that Jennings stays in the CFL (Pretty good assumption IMO), it will be interesting to see how he does with a different OC. I'll bet he looks a lot better. He has all the physical skills. All he needs to do is make some better choices. Either people are forgetting that he's only 25 with 3 CFL seasons under his belt or they're expecting that a inexperienced QB will make as good and as quick decisions as a 34 year old QB with 9 seasons of experience, which is unrealistic. I'd take Jennings over Collaros who hasn't won a game in over a year or Willy who lost it years ago or Durant whose been injured then didn't play well or even Franklin who is older, has less experience and who has only started a few CFL games.

Khari's not much of an OC IMO. Folks love to complain about Jennings going deep all the time, but give a pass to Khari who designed the deep ball plays and called them. It's Jennings taking the heat for Khari, not Khari taking the fall for Jennings.

There was a long thread on the other site about this. General consensus was that the draft is the biggest downside, but that GM's already know how much NFL interest that most players have. The biggest upsides would be the new money from the NFL network, an increased US audience and less cold weather games. Personally, I'd be happy to move the season forward a month if it does nothing but get more money for the CFL. Less months without football would be great for me. I don't watch hockey much, so I'd choose CFL over NHL playoffs (That season is too long IMO), but I understand that TSN may not like it. I think it's better to compete with the NHL for eyes early in the season than it is to compete with the NFL late in the season.