johnzo

my completely unqualified opinion is that football commentary is a team sport. You want complementary energy -- a high-energy goofball (Neilson, Dunigan, Walby) with a more chill straight man (Forde, Smith, Ferguson, Lapo). Without Dunigan in the mix, the energy is imbalanced, and the only Team Goofball member is Neilson. Smith in particular needs someone who brings energy into the booth. I think the guy is the best PBP guy on TSN even though at times he's got the vibe of a funeral director. But you put him in the booth with Dunigan and that's basically the best that CFL TV can do. Gonna miss Matty. I hope his retirement is awesome and completely on his terms.

Dustin Crum

Holm was constantly cleaning up after the rest of the D last year -- he made tons of tackles where his man/zone were not targeted.

Tyrell Ford at 9? He's good, but one of the top ten players in the CFL? Willie J as the top ranked DL at 12 ... does not seem to be based on his 2024 season. Glad to see Justin Hardy on this list at 18. A receiver good enough to solo a passing attack. Ka'Deem Carey at 19. Team: Free Agent. ouch Begelton at 25 is brutal, To me, he's a top ten guy. A receiver that elevates his quarterback and another guy who can solo a passing attack.

3DN articles are fill-in-the-team madlibs. Their postgame stories are always "<pithy quote> and <number> other takeaways from <game>". Cut reports are "<team> cuts <number of cuts> including <highest profile cuts>" followed up by "why did <highest profile cut> get cut from <team>?" stories. And Myron Mitchell was our <highest profile cut> answer.

This isn't nonsense. He is definitely one of the best of all time. He and Sean Whyte are tenths of a percent apart in lifetime accuracy.

Sacks were down all over the league last year. Every team seemed to de-emphasize pressure in favor of coverage. No one player hit double digits in sacks.

yeah, I think that VA still has a bunch to prove ... he's never been clutch when the chips are down ... but no complaints about his play during the regular season. Rourke put up a lot of numbers against shitty teams in his golden run. Maybe the dude isn't just a flash in the pan, but he has to prove that yet. Harris will get hurt and that's the end of the Roughriders. The Elks will go as far as Fajardo will take them. That might be a surprising distance. His teams win games they shouldn't. Winnipeg 11-7 Edmonton 9-9 Calgary 9-9 BC 9-9 Riders 7-11 Toronto 12-6 Montreal 10-8 Ottawa 8-10 Hamilton 6-12

Fajardo and MBT are both starting by week 5. VAJ goes on an MOP-level heater to start the year but cools off with the weather. Harris gets hurt sometime in the first third of the season. McCheese gets a new topping -- manure.

They're still running Demski between the tackles, so that's held over from Lapo and Buck. But I don't think we've seen the full mojo of the playbook yet.

HH to Zach. 2/2 for 80 yards and a TD. Spent less than a minute of clock time on the field, leaving lots of reps for T Wilson. Veteran preseason gunslinger flex.

62 yard punt from Sheehan! love seeing a whipping boy pop.

Mullinder murmuring "oh no" at the goal line pick is (chef's kiss)

yeah they're bad and they should feel bad but Mullinder's sad little "oh you gotta be kidding" did bring a little glow to my heart, so credit there.

JFC I do not want to hear Luc Mullinder talking about backdooring anyone.

that's a nice veteran flex of a preseason series .... 2/2 for 60ish yards and a TD. like a minute of game time.

yup, would def rather see the RBs get the rugged reps right now. high-risk low-reward call it seems.

here's a direct link to the cfl+ game page. might save someone a couple very slow clicks coming in from cfl.ca. https://www.cfl.ca/2025/05/16/preseason-week-3-winnipeg-blue-bombers-at-saskatchewan-roughriders/ if you're joining us late, the game's streaming on youtube

you can see how CFL+ would fall down .... the CFL's two most popular teams playing with no coverage on TSN, all the fans being forced to use CFL+ -- that's more traffic in a night than CFL+ will get in a year serving international demand for CFL games. CFL+ is usually pretty good. I've been watching it for two years now. Lord Keric! He does not sow!

Lord Keric had a decent PS1. tho it's his second year, he should probably be Baron Keric now.

think the CFL could benefit from a third preseason game? Doesn't seem like two games is enough to vet the newcomers and re-vet the veterans while allowing the undisputed starters to grind the rust off. (though I bet the question isn't "can they benefit from it" I think the question is more "can they afford it?" I can't see pre-season games being big money generators.)

Who's your QB1? Rourke or Ford? Brady starts at RB, naturally. Five Canuck receivers: T Philpot, Demski, Emelius, Gittens Jr, K. Smith from Hamilton. I think Philpot is the best of these. Sad that he got banged up last year, he was on a 1600-yard pace the first half of the year -- with Cody Fajardo throwing him the ball, no less -- and it seemed like he could not be covered. Does anyone even play national offensive tackles anymore?

We really need a "Leafs Suck" reaction emoji round here.

I was watching Aaron Gordon play with a Grade 2 hamstring strain in Game 7 this weekend. And I got curious about what that was, and it turns out that a Grade 2 is actually a partial tear. I know it's Game 7, but the dude could barely move and didn't really help his team. Do football players play with Grade 2 tears? it seems like playing with a bad hamstring is just begging for a full tear.

Amen. thinking back to those brutal games last year when were rolling with Wheatfall, Johnson, Mitchell, and pre-lightbulb O. Wilson. Zero chemistry with Zach. Need that veteran out there.