TBURGESS

I'm a big Trestman fan. Popp is a good GM. As long as he doesn't try to be a coach again, they should be great additions to the Argos. Should have happened back in December if they wanted to have the maximum chance at a winning season this year, but I still think they will make a pretty big difference this year.

My bad... I didn't realize you were including playoffs in the number of wins. I'm the one claiming that a playoff win is better than a playoff loss. You're the one calling the cross over a heroic achievement.

If the Riders had traded for Tate, Ripper would be singing a different tune. If we had traded for Tate, I'd be just another cheerleader.

Not everyone. The Riders, Argos, and the Als were definitely worse.

If you actually read my posts, you wouldn't make the same mistakes twice. Go back and look at the number of wins for both teams. Hint: Blue Bombers 11 7 Eskimos 10 8 I'll take a playoff win over a playoff loss every single time.

We weren't interested? What's your source for this 'fact'?

They won 10, we won 11 (Our 11th win being against backups). They went 5-1 down the stretch. We went 3-3. They won a playoff game. We didn't.

BLM has won all the meaningful games, so Tate's not had any chances. Not sure how that's a knock against Tate.

5-1 down the stretch and a playoff win isn't the participation trophy and it's way better than we did, both down the stretch and in the playoffs.

Drew Tate is one of the best backup QB's in the league. He's thrown for 4670 yards and has 32 TD's to 15 Int's. I'd take him over either of our backup QB's and it's not even close.

The last 3rd of the season plus the playoffs is a better indication of where Edmonton really was last year.

Biggest off season acquisition this off season IMO: http://www.cfl.ca/2017/02/21/report-redblacks-acquire-drew-tate-trade-stamps/ I'd have paid a 5th rounder in the draft for Tate in a second.

And you cherry picked the Edmonton stats, cuz they went 5-1 in the last 6 games. And Edm won a playoff game. And we went 3-4 in our last 7 games if you include the playoffs.

The Bombers and the Eskimos were very closely matched last year, so I'm not sure that Hervey would want to help us out either. In fact, it may make more sense for the Esks to help the Riders than to help us. OTOH, I'd love to see Franklin in B&G. Better than us. They won a playoff game, we were one and done.

We went 3 and 3 in our last 6 games. Lost to Cgy, Edm, and Ott. Got some breaks to win 2 very close games with BC. Won the last game of the year against Ott when they didn't play their top 2 QB's or a bunch of other starters to 'win when we needed to'.

I don't see them trading Franklin either, unless they can't extend him and they get some very good value in return.

FTR: Edmonton went 10-8, which was a better record than any of the eastern teams in 2016. They weren't lucky to cross over, the were unlucky that the Redblack's chose to play their 3rd and 4th string QB's to allow us to win the last game.

Sholo was one of our big acquisitions last year. A starting Canuck coming off of a great season. Our D line was supposed to be fixed with him and Cummings who was also coming off a great year. 20-20 hindsight says that it didn't work out very well. IMO it's our defensive scheme. In others opinions it's the players that we got rid of's fault. Thomas is now our 7th starting NI. IMO he's a downgrade on Sholo/Thomas. Some NI has to take Sholo's % of snaps. Simply taking those snaps doesn't equal an improved DL, unless they can do as well as Sholo did last year, even factoring in Okp.

Oka replacing Sholo is an import replacing a starting non-import, which in turn weakens our starting NI's.

I'm not ignoring the upgrade at DE. I'm simply saying it comes as the cost of losing a starting Canadian DT. We've basically moved the low salary spot on the D line from the DE spot to the DT spot. IF we draft a DT #1 overall and they don't get an NFL shot so they aren't lost for the year and they end up being the rare rookie who can start right away and they are somehow better than Sholo, they will still be more expensive than Cole was last year adding to our SMS issues.

Sholo's replacement is Thomas, not Okp..., which isn't an upgrade, in fact it's a downgrade in the level of our NI starters. Glenn having a solid shot at #1 elsewhere doesn't change the fact that LeFevour is a downgrade.

Look at the top guys in the missed tackle category and you'll find some very good players that get to ball carriers that lesser players can't. Look at Shologan/Cummings stats when they came to the Bombers. You'll find that they were way better than the stats they put up last year. I guess you can blame the players, but it's more likely the system IMO. LeFevour is certainly more mobile and athletic, but Glenn's been the best insurance policy in the league for years. The only place that I give LeFevour the edge is on short yardage. Glenn is a starting QB again and LeFevour is fighting for the #2 or #3 spot. The best players in FA have already been taken. You can't give points for things that haven't happened yet.

Any way to change your vote after you think about it for a while? I'd like to move down one to somewhat satisfied. We signed highly ranked, highly paid DT and DE and lost 2 highly ranked, highly paid DT's. So that's even. LeFevour < Glenn Coates < Kohlert Now that we've signed all of last years receivers, does Stafford even make the game day roster? If so, who does he replace? Extending Chungh was a great move, but that doesn't make us better than last year. Medlock and Bryant were extended to move some of their salaries from the 2016 to the 2017 SMS. I can't call that great GM'ing. Extending the rest of the players we did doesn't make us any better. Losing Bass, Burnett and McDuffie makes us worse. Overall, slightly worse personal wise. A stay the course off season on a team that was just happy to make the playoffs last year then went one and done. It looks like we are counting on doing the same things and getting better results or other teams taking a step backwards this year.

I don't hate the LeFevour signing. Not my favourite backup QB but better than no competition at TC.