TBURGESS

I liked Stewart, but he was always inconsistent. I'd hope that the Bombers would have told him they weren't going to keep him if that's in fact true. Always better to let folks know what's going on as soon as possible. I never like Jade. He was a huge stretch where he was picked and he only had 2 good games in his 3 year career. A lot of folks around here were pulling for him and would try to shout down everyone who said otherwise. If he makes the Riders, it won't be as a starter.

I guess they are waiting to see if they get a better offer.

It's not about the stats for me. It's about watching the QB's play. Only 4 young guns have made me think 'Starting CFL QB' in the last few years, Smith, Reilly, BLM and Collaros in that order. Willy is better than Hall and Goltz and the best available QB so he is a good pickup, even if he is our 3rd choice. Thats not the same thing as being excited that we just signed our QB of the future. Willy looked pretty good going through his progressions behind the Riders O line, but he was taking 4+ seconds to get the deep balls off which he won't have behind our O line. It's going to be very interesting to see if he can make the right decisions quicker behind our O line. I'm cautiously optimistic that Willy will play OK for a first year starter, but that's hardly anything to get excited about.

Good trade. Jade, I've only played 2 good games in my 3 year career, for Willy who will take the next big step in his career to starting QB. Even if Willy isn't any better than Hall or Goltz, and I believe he is better, it's still a good deal for us.

I wish I'd kept my Brock Busters T shirt. Used to love chanting Berrrrrnie, Berrrrrnie every time Ruoff came onto the field and chanting BC Sucks too. There's nothing like the feeling of being in the stadium and watching your home team beat the begeezes out of some other team or the feeling that you get when you know the other teams hate to come to your park because the chances of getting out with a win are slim to none and they are going to get beat up either way. Those were some fun days in Bomberland. I hope to see them again.

Well this should shut people up. I give Walters credit for not overpaying Burris. Who would've thought Gary Lawless would actually write a good article(his one about not overpaying Burris yesterday). Maybe the Bombers and the Lawman had an inkling about Burris signing with Ottawa. His agent stopped returning our calls on the weekend so yah, they knew he was negotiating with another team over us.

Three? Burris, Collaros and ?? Reilly Reilly was traded to Edmonton before free agency last year then was extended. He never hit the market. We could have made a trade before Edmonton did.

I don't know why anyone's upset that Burris hasn't signed. There is little or nothing in it for him to sign right away. Our offer isn't going to go away because we need a starting QB and he is the best one available. On the flip side, there is only one starting QB spot left in the CFL so if he wants to start then he will have to sign with us. Burris wants the most money he can get and he wants as much as possible as base salary + before the season starts bonuses. The Bombers want to get him for the least money possible and they want most of it to be reaching high plateau playing bonuses. I think they will come to an agreement because it's in the best interests of both sides.

Flipping through a rolodex while applicants are in the room? LOL. Talk about overreaching. Hiring the wrong folks is the crux of the problem. Trust is earned not given. If you make a bad hire, you need to fix your mistake as soon as possible, not wait for a few years while hoping it gets better. Giving people a couple or a few years without rating their performance is absurd. Of course it's not a fan poll to fire anyone. It's the GM's job to decide if his HC is worthy of another season at the end of each and every year. It's the HC's job to decide on the coaches at the end of each and every year and on the players each and every week. Everyone has a boss who decides if they are worthy of another year or week or day on the job. Berry came in turned us around and got us into the playoffs the first year he was HC. That's what the expectation should be for every HC we hire. If they don't make it, then we need to make the decision if they are on the right track and if they deserve another year. If the GM thinks they are then they get another year. If not, we thank them for their time and effort and wish them well in their future endeavours. The same thing continues down the line to every coach and player. GM's may not be able to prove they are on the right track in a year, but they can certainly prove they are on the wrong track that quickly. Mack had a good first year and bad years from then on. Keeping him after the 2012 season just threw away a year we didn't have to. A bad decision in a long line of them IMHO. Hiring good people starts with hiring folks who have proven they can do the job or at the very least folks moving up 1 rung on the ladder. Sure it costs more, but consistently hiring people who've never done the job will generally result in the same thing... rehiring new people sooner rather than later. That is liable to cost even more in the long run. Hiring a guy like Buchko who was basically a CJOB sales guy was an idiotic decision. I've got no idea why anyone thought it was a good idea. It's this kind of decision that has defined the Bombers in the last decade or more.

It will attract more solid applicants than retaining folks who suck at their job, thereby creating an atmosphere of failure. No one wants to come into that.

It's not lack of patience it's consistently bad hires. In fact, I'd argue we don't fire folks who aren't doing their jobs like Mack soon enough. it is lack of patience. They have fired good people who may not have been great but good people at the first slip up and blown it all up time and time again. How can you build anything doing that? Have to give people more than 2 or 3 seasons to establish a long term foundation and THEN judge where the team is at. Who are these 'good people' you're talking about? The only one they fired that I didn't think deserve it was Berry and that wasn't about the fans or the media, it was about Bauer installing 'He who must not be named' as our HC and kinda GM. There is no need to give people 2 or 3 seasons to see if they can turn a chicken **** into chicken salad. If they aren't moving in the right direction, pull the plug and move on. Again... it's about making terrible hiring decisions, which has nothing to do with patience.

It's not lack of patience it's consistently bad hires. In fact, I'd argue we don't fire folks who aren't doing their jobs like Mack soon enough.

I like this trade. KIto was a spare part who looked like a football player, but didn't play like one. Tons of potential that never became anything. Banks is a proven commodity who will become the leader of our defence. Wally had renegotiated Banks' salary every off season, but didn't this year, which pissed Banks off and he wasn't quiet about it. Basically asked to be traded and Wally did. The first rumour I heard was a low round draft pick from the Bombers for Banks. Kito may be an upgrade on that as a special teams player.

It's not the fans or the media's fault that the Bombers are a crappy team. Place the blame where it belongs... on the management and BOD. Patience has nothing to do with it. Every year we need to build a competitive team that makes it to the playoffs. The draft is the time to do the 2 or 3 years down the road planning. Other than that it's about doing the right things to win right now. Want to develop a QB? Don't give him playing time, make him earn it. Make him beat the incumbent to get the job. The coaches should be the first to know when it's time for the vet QB to lose his starting spot and the fans or media opinions means squat. It doesn't matter if we develop our own QB or if we get them from other teams. What matters is that we have a good QB who lead the team. The same holds true for every player and every coach. Our management needs to become way more aggressive. This year we have totally new management yet we have the same old problem. We target players we don't sign, then we make the same lame excuse... "They wanted to be closer to family: We are asked to ignore the facts that we have the worst team in the league, thats rebuilding from scratch yet again, with a rookie management team and a head coach who hasn't even been a DC or OC at any level, yet alone an HC. In short, we have the worst available jobs in the league right now so of course players with options want to be somewhere else, but that doesn't mean we don't have a shot at them. We can sign free agents if we pay them enough to overcome the fact that we have a horrible team. We can't sign them if we send out 'competitive' offers then wait by the phone to see if they want to negotiate with us. It's going to take 'overpaying' until we become a competitive team for a few years in a row and I couldn't care less if we go over the SMS limit as long as we don't go so far over that we lose our 1st round draft pick. It's simple... We need to stop losing out on players and coaches in the off season or else we will continue losing in the season.

Drew Edwards ‏@scratchingpost 12m #Ticats making push for Collaros while Burris waits for word. #CFL http://bit.ly/1grO59f

http://www.winnipegfreepress.com/sports/football/bombers/Bombers-hire-Etcheverry-as-defensive-co-ordinator-242655581.html Semi official

Hard to disagree, but every team needs those guys. Agreed. That's what makes it an OK signing. A good signing is a better than average player and a great signing is a difference maker.

OK signing. More of a foot soldier than a difference maker IMO. Then again, we only have one or two difference makers to sign.

Reilly had absolutely nothing to gain by waiting for free agency. Everyone in the CFL knew that Mack wasn't going to outbid any team for an unproven player or release Buck to accommodate a new starter. No other team was even going to pay Reilly starters money. Reilly got everything he wanted from Edmonton so it was a good business decision for him.

AC was great, but everyone eventually has to retire. I know that I'll miss watching him.

Totally disagree that every team would make Henroc an offer. Teams would have to rejig their ratio and find a decent backup NI MLB or waste a DI spot on an American backup which would also create a second change if Henroc gets injured.. Muamba wants top $ so most teams would have to rejig their SMS and some teams simply don't have the room. Teams who are happy with their MLB situation are paying their MLB significantly less money than Muamba will get so they wouldn't have any big reason to pay him top $. Teams with 7 good starting NI's have no reason to pay big for a 'ratio busting' MLB. IMO Ottawa and Winnipeg are the only two CFL teams who would really want and can afford H Muamba.

Another poor coaching choice IMHO.

I can't remember a single time Walters said that. Can you point me to any link where Walters has said that the Bombers will match any offer Muamba gets? Thanks.

Won't every team play each other twice? (8 other teams X 2 = 16). That's only 2 extra games against the West instead of against the East. Hardly a huge difference IMHO. That hasn't been the way they've done it in the past. Ottawa, for example, played the West in a home and home series, 2x5 for 10 games. Then they would play 2 Eastern teams 3 times for a total of 16, with the final 2 games with the remaining team. They would then rotate this pattern every year. The Western teams would play a similar rotation. (2x4 East, 2x2 W, and 2x3W) I haven't heard whether there will be a change in this format. They have always tried to maintain the rivalries in the East and in the West. Thats the same as playing every team twice + 2 Eastern teams 3 times.

the problem is we have to play tough teams like BC and Saskatchewan and Calgary more, no more soft soft eastern teams to play where the toughest team is the painfully average at best toronto argos Won't every team play each other twice? (8 other teams X 2 = 16). That's only 2 extra games against the West instead of against the East. Hardly a huge difference IMHO.