TBURGESS

Specific examples of something that hasn't happened and likely never will? Where's the face palm emoticon? Make up a fictional depth chart that has Ford as the DI, then you base your argument on it? If we were to hire Messam, we wouldn't need to DI Ford, but we still could if it made sense. A returner/receiver or a returner/DB would make more sense as a DI if we could adequately back up our starting RB with Messam. You are obviously not reading what I'm typing. My scenario is Messam replacing Volny on the roster. Rostering 2 NI backup RB's makes no sense. Short of a break out year from Volny, we will be actively trying to replace him in the off season anyway.

Grigsby and Ford are red herrings in the situation. Rotating O lineman, RB's and Receivers is so far past a red herring, that it's in the fiction category. It's just not going to happen. Messam is better than Volny. That's who he'd be competing for a job with and who he would replace. Upgrading any NI helps our NI situation. Bringing in a starting NI (None are available) would help our starting NI situation. Volny had 5 special teams tackles, 6 catches for 40 yards and 37 rushes for 160 yards in 3 years. (CFL.CA) Messam had 2 special teams tackles, 1 kick return, 31 catches for 317 yards and 121 rushes for 565 yards last year alone. (CFL.CA) No one on this site would be anywhere near as good as Volny, let alone Messam. Messam doesn't make us worse in any way. Just wanted to add that no one wants to sign every guy who gets cut from other teams. That one is just another red herring.

I'll be happy if Willy starts every game and there isn't any QB controversy this year, because that would mean Willy was doing as well as we all hope he does. I honestly don't think Hall or Brohm are even close to pushing Willy, so for either of them to start would mean Willy is hurt or playing very badly. Either would suck for the Bombers.

We've got 4 DI's who can play on special teams. We don't need every Canuck to play special teams any more. Volny's not a great special team player, so we wouldn't lose much replacing him with Messam. In fact Volny will probably be replaced by one of the defensive DI's anyway. Messam wouldn't be a starter, but that doesn't mean he wouldn't play. Having competent rotation/change of pace/backup NI's is almost as useful as having additional starters. Volny's not a starter, so we wouldn't lose anything anyway. Laurent was the other NI I was talking about. Jade was a waste of a 1st round pick. He didn't provide value on special teams and he didn't provide value at receiver (OK for 2 games in 3 years he did). Messam provides value at RB which makes him more valuable than JE even though he doesn't play special teams. The fact is we need better NI's and we haven't been interested in the 2 best available ones. Waiting for next years draft/FA season means no upgraded NI's this year. I call that a problem. The team disagrees, but then again they don't call anything a problem or a worry. I'm tired of folks thinking that everything the Bombers staff does is right. The last few years have proven that's not the case. I'll give them the benefit of any doubt when they've earned it. This is a forum to discuss the Bombers, both good and bad. Disagreeing with some decisions is just part of that discussion. Without it, this forum would just turn into fan boy central where everyone agrees with everything.

We have a huge NI problem, yet we don't even look at the 2 best NI's to come available in the last couple of weeks? That's a problem IMHO.

I prefer Canucks and Non-Canucks.

That problem sometimes exists, but not in this case. I think you're just overvaluing Volny (Hint: He isn't a special teams ace, he can't stay healthy and he fumbles when he does get chances) and undervaluing Messam (Hint: His last years stats are better than Volny's career stats)

Messam can be the change of pace, big body, short yardage guy that can move the yardsticks. He'd also mean we wouldn't need to DI a change of pace RB so we could use that for another player.

We're a team that has a huge NI problem, why aren't we interested in Messam?

I'd like to have seen more of Marve, but I understand that the Bombers needed to see the most reps out of our starter and the backups. Brohm out played Hall this week. Hall outplayed Brohm last week. I'll bet both are kept on the roster and Marve will be offered PR or 2 man reserve.

Firing Etch now would be idiotic. Hiring him in the first place was too, but nothing we can do about that now.

Every team plays vanilla defence in the pre season. Ours looks way worse than most.

I think the QB chart was decided in the off season and it won't change from the 2 pre-season games unless one of our QB's get hurt. Willy, Hall, Brohm, Marve.

I think Willy and Hall are written in stone at this point, no matter what O'Shea said. It's between Brohm and Marve for the 3rd spot and the PR. If Marve only gets 1 set of downs again, then it's obvious how it will turn out.

Pencer cut = One less thing to argue about going forward.

Being on a team isn't what we should be looking at. It's the NI starters who are the difference makers. Between 2010 and 2013 we had 5 top 4 overall picks including 2 first overall (Muamba/Poblah). Only 1 became a starter. I haven't checked, but I doubt any other team had more top end picks during that time frame.

I liked Cotton over Grisby in the game. Willy and Moore got all the press but, Randle may turn out to be the best off season pick up.

I absolutely love House Of Cards. Can't wait for it to come back on.

I think Willy and Hall are #1 and #2 at least until mid-season. I can't see the club cutting Hall.

Based solely on last nights performance, the QB's would be: 1. Marve - Small sample against the worst Toronto had. Still the the best accuracy and zip on the ball. Used his feet well to move the pocket and to run when needed, Brought life to a dead offence. Dove for a first down and had the best stats. Moved to #3 on the charts last night IMHO. I want to see him against better competition. 2. Willy - 50% passing. 2 of the 6 completions were great catches, not great throws. Almost got Moore killed with an errant pass. Got his INT called back or else his stats would have been worse. Still looked like a QB with some plus side. Outplayed Hall by a wide margin. Ran well when he had to. He needs to step it up IMHO as 108 yards in a half won't get us many wins. 3. Hall - Gets #3 by default. Not a good outing. No accuracy. Not enough zip on the ball. Seemed slow. Our #1 QB last year looks to be our 3rd best QB this year, which is progress IMHO. 4. Brohm - Poor performance. Poor accuracy. Other than one good ball, he looked like the game was way to fast for him. #4 reps this week I hope. I'd like to see Marve get 3rd string reps starting tomorrow. Give Willy the first half plus one set of downs next week. Give Hall the rest of the 3rd and give Marve the 4th.

I'm an Orange is the new black fan and I've watched the first 2 of season 2. Good stuff so far.

The score matters every time the team steps on the field, especially at home. Winning matters because the Bombers don't have enough practice at winning and it feels good for everyone involved to win, even if it doesn't matter in the standings. Evaluation of player matters, so I expect to see them all get some reps. The depth chart matters because it tells us who will be playing against the other teams top players, or at least the one's they brought to Winnipeg. In short everything matters.

Not impossible, but to me it seems more likely we use a DI spot for that if we're starting 3 import Olinemen. Traditionally there isn't a lot of rotating of Olinemen to keep them fresh; it's usually an injury situation. Burning one DI spot backing up 2 players and likely not getting any special teams play out of that guy is questionable use. DI'ing an O lineman means that our NI OL's aren't even good enough to be a backup. If we start 3 NI OL, and I really doubt we will, we will back them up with an NI.

To be fair, MOS speaks glowingly of everyone. Yup. He's talking everyone up and hasn't said a bad word about anyone on the team, until they are cut that is.

Lucas and Thomas were inked in as one of the 7 starting NI's. It's not likely at all that Lucas was getting cut. Our NI starters took a hit when Lucas tore his ACL and we need to find another NI DT to rotate with Thomas if we still plan to use an NI at DT. It's much more likely IMHO that we will be forced to use 4 NI O lineman which is a shame because January and Jones were our two best O lineman last year and we won't be able to start both of them this year. No they weren't. I didn't hear anybody say that. You are speculating all the way out there in BC again. You are assuming that was the case but... you have no facts to back what you are saying up. That's your opinion. That's all it is, stop pretending like your opinion is always what the bombers are going to do. Speculation at best. What was actually rumoured was a non import field corner and safety. Never did hear anything about lucas or thomas. Not once, maybe from a couple of you on this board here but walters in the past mentioned field corner and safety as 2 likely spots. You must not have had your 'listening' ear on then. You're the only one who's even suggested that Lucas may have been cut, yet you call me out for speculation? The only difference between being in Winnipeg and out here in BC is that I can't go to practices, which doesn't matter in this conversation. According to reports, Safety has been an import spot pretty much the entire TC.