johnzo

I wouldn't call West a discard. he was a CFL ALL Star in Calgary before coming here in 1984 & played a lot of great seasons for the Bombers. 

Rowdy Roddy Redblack.
 
Done.

can he play center?

Hey guys,
 
Had a brainstorm with a friend of mine who is also a football geek this weekend, and we decided to start a new blog on the Bombers and CFL.  We were actually talking with a couple other friends about all the NHL and Jets blogs that we look at, and that there's not much on the Bombers or CFL.  It will be long-form analysis, and will be really good during the season if we stay motivated.  We were talking about it and we think there is a real demand for some in-depth looks at the teams, players and games, and that's what we're going to try to do.  We'll really get going with the grading of players and advanced stuff during the season, but for the off-season we are going to do a critical overview of every teams roster, and we'll do some stuff around the draft.  
 
Our first post is up, part of our "Mid-February roster analysis," it is on the Bombers QB situation.  We're going to look at the Bombers in 6 parts (QB, RB/REC, OL, DL, LB/DB and special teams) plus an overall assessment/discussion.  Then we'll look at the other 8 teams, likely in much less detail.
 
Check it out.
 
http://2ndand10.blogspot.ca/

He is the original number 5!!! Won our first Grey Cup because of him. I had  a neighbour on our street growing up in Winnipeg in the late 60's & early 70's when I was a teen who was a real old time Bomber fan. Right from the beginning of the team back in 1930. He used to regale me with his stories of players in Bomber uniforms like Fritz Hanson, Russ Rebholz, Bob Fritz, Tom Casey, Jack Jacobs along with Woody Strode of the Stamps, Normie Kwong, Jackie Parker & Johnny Bright all of the Eskimos & other real old time Blue Bomber & CFL players. As well as going to games at old Osborne Stadium a place he just adored as a fan. I give him full credit for me becoming a Bomber fan because of those stories. I mean literally he'd get going & sometimes I'd listen to him for a couple of hours just telling stories of the CFL back in the 30's & 40's.... RIP John McGibney & thank you for sharing your knowledge of history & love of the Blue Bombers as well as the old CFL with me. Getting a little choked up posting this....

Wow it's like looking in a mirror.  Size wise I mean.  Yup...pumped up...*makes muscle pose*
 
SHUT UP VOODOO I DO SO LOOK LIKE HIM!!

Very different.  First off, the QB-centre exchange is the most important skill in football.  You can't do anything without it.  You can't just plug anyone in at centre and expect them to be able to get the ball to the QB at a CFL level, which is the problem with guys like Kowalczuk and Parenteau etc.  That is a huge skill in and of itself.  The centre makes some calls to protections, but this is way overrated in Canadian football, most plays have the protections built in and basically what both the centre and QB both do is count how many guys are inside the tackles and which gap the defence is centered on, basically what they are playing as the strong side, which 99% of the time mirrors the offence or the width of the field anyways.  This is different than American football, mostly the strong side of the field down south depends on the strong hand of the QB since the field is not nearly as wide.   This is most of what the calls are, and the protection adjusts based on it, but every guy can see that when they look up, and if you're playing somewhere noisy, there's not a lot you can change at the line.   Everyone is watching for potential blitzers, that mostly falls on the QB to make a call to react to that. adjust a route.  OL have to block from their inside gaps out and do their best to take whoever comes...that's why you'll often see guys coming off the edge free when a defence sends more than 5.  When you see guys come free through the 4 middle gaps, that means someone really screwed up, either took the wrong block or got completely dominated physically.
 
Zone run blocking, it doesn't matter where the defence lines up or how many, they are blocking gaps and chipping upfield.  Zone plays head to a side of the field, not a specific gap, you're basically creating a 3 on 2 situation for your blockers all along the LOS on the play side, allowing at least one of those guys to chip and get to the next level to take a LB or HB.  The RB reacts and finds the opening.  So really a centre doesn't call anything there, every OL needs to read their initial block and come out of their stance properly to get that done.  The first 3 steps are key, can't waste any if you need to get upfield, or get a bit wider.
 
I guess it depends what you think a sub-par lineman is.  IMO, most of the centres in the league lately have all been subpar, meaning they'd really suck if you moved them to another spot where they actually ended up blocking someone 1 on 1 on the majority of snaps.  But that's where the snapping part comes in, a guy who can snap very well and consistently can make a career, even if he struggles to make a block.  Just look at a guy like Dominic Picard.  If I had a dime for everytime he's literally been carried through the pocket by a DT, I could pay for my season tickets this year.  Mostly you're just hoping they can be a good speed bump.  Guards need to be more mobile, presumably you want them to be able to get to the 2nd level (LB's, HB's) in run blocking, although there are enough guys around the league lately that don't really have that ability (Kabongo for one).  They both need to be smart enough to know where their block is and guards need to be patient enough in pass protection to not give up their inside gaps.  Patience in OL is a sign of intelligence and football smarts IMO.  This is really what the blitz is all about, challenging the OL to give up their inside gaps and a more direct route to the QB, the QB can read the outside rush, when it's coming right at him there's not much he can do.

What debate?
 
Everyone has equal rights.  Anyone can believe what they believe, but they can't use their beliefs to exclude or intimidate people from situations that have nothing to do with those beliefs, like playing professional football.
 
That's pretty fundamental human rights, nothing overly PC about that.

I'd love it if we traded for him then flipped him over to Montreal to extend another middle finger to Desjardins.

So all those people who screamed bloody murder about the bombers leaving Dough Alert unprotected want to step forward now and admit that they over reacted?

Someone notify Pilsbury because we got a DOUGH ALERT!

This guy is kind of a joke. Guaranteed he took that straight from Wiecek's tweet and passed it along like he had something insider on it.

Jovon Johnson's days are over with the Bombers but he was a soldier with us. I just want to say thank you & wish him well. 

You know its bad when you side with Rob Murphy.... Well hopefully he doesn't sign with us...

I don't really want to deal with everyone calling for Glenn to take Willy's job after a few bad games.

I disagree with these kind of statements.... Mack brought in lots of good young guys on the D....   what about Washington, Sears, Wild, Turner, Gilmore and a few others?   
His greatest fault of course was the QB and O-line and O-Coordinators which killed us.... but to say he didn't bring in talent on D is a stretch.  

O-Line
℅ Winnipeg Blue Bombers Football Club
315 Chancellor Matheson Rd,
Winnipeg, MB R3T 1Z2
 
Problem solved.

And that's totally fair on his part. I never fault any pro athlete for taking as much money as they can get, while they can get it. Careers are short, you gotta max it out. He owes it to his family, at the very least, to get what he can.

Gonna be some anxious moments out east come July.  At least we had the old stadium to use in 2012.

Who cares if Willy is option C! At least this group had three options.
The last two seasons of this team only having the option A of Pray Buck doesn't get hurt was brutal!
Already Walters and O Shea have surpassed The last regime by having a clear direction of who they want to go with and the guy they choose is somebody without injury issues and who wasn't on the decline.

I think Willy looks like TBURGESS.

Not true at all and it wasn't Lefors fault that Kelly ran a crap system.

Clearly we should have tried to get Luck for Muamba (Wiecek moment)

There is no way Hamilton will dangle Glenn to anyone given he's under contract to Ottawa.