johnzo

Too many shots of the 2007 Grey Cup in there for my tastes. Dinwiddie getting smoked, Joseph running down the middle, Dinwiddie getting crushed again...

FOOTBALL TIME!

Toronto 10-8 Montreal 9-9 Hamilton 8-10 Winnipeg 5-13 Calgary 11-7 B.C 11-7 Edmonton 9-9 Saskatchewan 9-9 Semis- Edmonton over BC Saskatchewan over Montreal Finals- Calgary over BC Toronto over Saskatchewan Grey Cup- Calgary over Toronto Most Outstanding Player Ricky Ray Most Outstanding Canadian Andre Durie Most Outstanding Defensive Player Adam Bighill Most Outstanding Special Teams Player Tim Brown Most Outstanding Rookie Greg Ellingson Most Outstanding Offensive Lineman Josh Bourque

I'll take Chad Kackert. Starting running back vs. the weakest defence. I wonder how far you could go in this thing just picking Chads.

I think it's pretty damn close. Just looking at last year, I'd give Hank the edge over Lulay. He put up huge numbers, cut down on his picks, and started every game. Definitely the three Eastern pivots + Lulay are the top four in the league.

Montreal, Toronto, and Hamilton have the three best QBs in the league and all have huge question marks on defence. I think there's gonna be some offensive fireworks in the early going, before the defences settle in. Montreal is the most intriguing team to me right now. With a rookie head coach, a completely rebuilt defence, a new offensive scheme, and a greying AC, seems like they could be 12-6 or 6-12.

I think the talent at running back is so evenly distributed in the league that any starting RB on any team in the league could win the rushing title. I wouldn't trade Simpson for any of them, but he does do one thing that absolutely drives me crazy -- he has that tendency to try to beat guys laterally and go for the big play instead of running north-south to secure the first down. It happened four or five times last year, killing an important drive each time.

I wonder if they want to move on from Labbe.

Nice jpan!

Yeah, I remember how hooped we were when we lost Fred Reid for the year. And we're still smarting from losing Greg Carr and TJH. Actually I think the OP's point was the opposite of "nothing's happening." Always? Five of our 2013 starters (Pierce, Sorensen, Boatman, C. Muamba, Palardy) were signed by Mack as veteran CFL free agents. You just wanted four, I'll show you five. That said, it would be interesting to look at CFL rosters as a whole and see how many veteran CFL free agents you find on each so we have a basis for comparison when judging Mack's FA participation. I don't think that's right. I think the crowd around here is plenty prepared to criticize Mack. I know a lot of people here aren't happy about keeping Buck over Elliott. And there's was a lot of heat about getting nothing in return for Hefney. I just think that the gang here is sensitive to criticisms that don't make sense, or are untrue.

We didn't need much in 2011? You're saying that Mack isn't active enough in free agency but that he didn't need to be active in the year after we went 4-14 because we didn't need much? I am not following you here. Rod Davis? Does "solidify" mean "play for three teams in three years and not even make it to the end of training camp?" What receiver would we have cut in 2012 to make room for Cary Koch? At best, he would have battled Denmark for third import WR. Our two biggest OL issues at the start of 2012 were our lack of a centre and our lack of a backup RT to replace Andre Douglas. We already had our solution at C (Sorensen) in camp. And we solved our Taormina problem by signing a veteran CFL free agent named Shannon Boatman who has won the RT spot again this year. I guess you might say that position is solidified.

Is Pencer really injured or are they just stashing him on the nine-game?

Jamel Richardson at #18? He doesn't belong on this list, let alone the top half of it. Richardson is at best the third-best receiver on the Als. Nik Lewis is underrated at #15. Only receiver I'd take in the CFL over Nik Lewis is the imaginary non-holdout version of Chris Williams. Maybe Dressler.

Holy crap, that flooding looks super bad. Hope all the MBB Alberta people are safe and dry!

If Porter were going to be the answer, he would've been the answer already. Pass.

What did Kent Austin learn from that game? I wonder if our complete failure to compete is hampering his decision-making process?

thanks Rids! Alas, ESPN3 is pretty crap. It's only available online and only on certain ISPs, not including my ISP. So I'll mostly be depending on restreaming services and the TSN archives again this year. (Not complaining about this because with all due respect to Knuckles, that's way better than just listening to the CJOB stream)

We've got great football infrastructure here in the states. There are high school stadiums where you could profitably host CFL games in places like Texas and Pennsylvania. Mind you, the US has got some Third World health care going on, and occasionally an interstate bridge will just collapse, but goddamn do we have some great football stadiums in this country.

This is so goddamn awesome. It'll be nice to have to rely less on iffy grey-market streams.

Every Buck injury that I can remember happened behind the line of scrimmage. The 2010 knee, the 2010 elbow, the 2012 foot, the 2012 Bradon Isaac hit, the 2012 shoulder. I don't think that his downfield running is to blame for his injury problems.

If Cameron pushed Renaud to be better, then Cameron's left a positive impact on this team and thanks to him for that. But no one should be on this team just because they have the right last name. The Blue Bombers have enough problems without adding a Kevin Feterik dynamic.

I don't know if it really benefits the CFL for people to play close attention to the pre-season games. I think they're for the diehard fan only.

HELL YES

Hef needs to make his offseason home out here in Seattle, where we've kinda put this whole prohibition bullshit behind us.

(never mind) ... double post