JuranBoldenRules

If I were a CFLPA member, I would run fast from a percentage of revenues again for guaranteed increases in the cap and no money held in escrow. Let the owners overspend and don't tie spending to any economic realities, the pie won't be getting much bigger in the life of this CBA. I don't see the guaranteed percentage being a good deal for the players, especially if they get a cut similar to the NFLPA and NHLPA.

http://2ndand10.blogspot.ca/2014/03/off-season-roster-analysis-special.html New blog post is up. Some people might see a lot of holes in our depth chart...I see an interesting training camp ahead.

Good stuff. The only two I can comment on specifically right now are Coombs and Gill. I'm bullish on Gill. If I'm Ottawa, I'm taking him first overall. He's going to be a great CFL player for a long time. The concern is his potential to do the same in the NFL. He's up there with a guy like Gaydosh in terms of best DL to come through CanadaWest in my generation IMO, but a much better athlete who's body will withstand the grind of pro football and he'll be able to play all over the place. For Coombs to go in the first round, someone would really have to fall in love with him. I don't believe his running style (he's sort of like the RB equivalent of a scrambling QB, and he doesn't run with a lot of power) will stand up to the CFL and he'll have a big transition to make to learn how to use blocks to get 4-5 yards every play rather than trying to bust every carry into a 20+ gain. I don't expect Coombs to impress physically at the combine either, some teams care about that, some don't. This draft is really shallow though, so it is much more possible for him to go high than any other year. Also worth noting that everyone pegged him as a CIS DB because they didn't think he could pull off what he did at Sturgeon in CIS, so maybe he's just that good.

Unburger is very hit and miss, and for a place that only makes burgers (expensive ones) I expected a little better. It's also hipster central atmosphere-wise, which can be hit or miss depending on your perspective.

No doubt starter for Ottawa....so Aaron Kelly works?

Hard to judge him as a receiver from that highlight tape. The average 40 time among skill players at that level is likely in the 4.8's-low 5's, and that's what you basically see in the video, he's just running by everyone, he doesn't have to work hard to get open. In the CFL he'll be facing equals in terms of athleticism, so he'll need to have some ability to both run solid routes and play in traffic because he won't be running all by himself.

Ottawa already paid it. His base salary is $105,000 plus bonuses for starts and performance.

It's exciting that they are rebuilding the organization, but one fear I have is that they won't stick to investing in football operations if the wins don't come quickly, within the next couple seasons, and the stands aren't full. It's good to try to do this now because they have some time before they need to start paying the stadium debt, but that pressure is coming. The way to justify the spending is to have a winning team and full stadium, I just hope the board is patient enough to see it through.

Hard to say without seeing him try it. We haven't really seen him play tight to the line and with a smaller guy there's that stereotypical worry that he'd get stuck in traffic. He is really good at playing the run coming down from his halfback spot, but he also tends to rely on hitting guys low to get them down to the turf more than form tackling (wrapping), which tends to be a less effective technique inside when guys are coming downhill at you more often than going east-west. I don't think he'd have anymore trouble in coverage than he does at halfback. My hunch is that he'd be better than Stewart was at SAM, but I don't think I'd want to find out unless we have a lot of injuries. IMO, Sears is the best SAM we have on the roster, but the damn injuries...and as we've seen the last couple years, you don't want a different guy playing that spot every week, even more than other spots.

It's more likely that Desjardins ends up having to cut Glenn and get nothing for him than get a return like that. Probably looking at getting a conditional pick in 2015 realistically, just a matter of how high it can go and what they'll be guaranteed if conditions aren't met (likely a 3rd or 4th rounder). Ottawa is going to be one hell of a bad team, and they took themselves out of the market for any free agent with options the minute they signed Burris and screwed Glenn over. Makes me wonder how the ownership feels about Desjardins already, and they haven't even opened a training camp yet.

The more coaches the better. Hopefully Bellefeuille takes Buck's feedback into account along with that of the other offensive coaches when they gameplan, and hopefully Buck is willing to give his opinions as a guy who faced live fire in the league.

Very possible. I think Sears will have more of an impact elsewhere in fewer snaps if he stays healthy. Hopefully Sears is 100% (or as close as he can conceivably be given the injuries).

Candidate for the boundary WR spot. Interesting the types of signings the new regime is making. More of a lean towards highly touted guys from big NCAA schools more than under the radar guys from smaller schools, and guys who spent time in the NFL. Watching those Arena football highlights also make me wonder why people pay to watch that but won't support minor league outdoor football in the US. Arena football gives me a migraine.

Reminds me a lot of another guy Danny McManus brought into Hamilton for a quick look, Mitch Mustain. Great athlete, big recruit, checkered NCAA career. The fact that he hasn't played a whole lot means he's likely behind the curve in his development, and each time he did get the opportunity to play he wrecked a knee. If anything he's a stash on the 9 game type of project.

New post is up. http://2ndand10.blogspot.ca/

Desjardins basically has a gun to his head now. They won't be getting much.

Old Dutch in the US is drastically different too. I always catch flak for my fascination with the difference in junk food between Canada and the US. For instance, stopped at an A & W in Wisconsin last summer, and it's a completely different restaurant from what it is in Canada, mostly hot dogs and no burger family. Apparently I was supposed to be more fascinated with the tall buildings in Chicago or the Mall of America, but this is what I still talk about.

We should start training camp early to prepare for Ottawa's 3 QB/2 FB formation.

Simply put a "three technique" defensive lineman is one who typically lines up on the outside shoulder of the guard .. Yes .. there are others .. think of it like this: Starting at the C - a zero (0) technique would be head up on the center with a 1 being on either outside shoulder. At G you have 2i, 2, 3 (2i being inside shoulder, 2 head up and 3 outside shoulder) At T you have 4i, 4, 5 (4i being inside shoulder, 4 head up and 5 outside shoulder) In formations where a TE may be present you have a 6, 7, 8 and 9 technique .. and this breaks from the convention established but 6 is with a lineman lined up head up with the TE, 7 inside shoulder, 9 outside shoulder. An 8 technique is used to describe a wide defensive end alignment (wider than the 9). Yep, the gaps for the DL are all odd numbers for the most part. You'll rarely see anyone line up head to head with a OL, and if they do 99% of the time it's on top of the centre. When a DL lines up, you split the OL into inside and outside halves as you line up to understand where the gaps are. After you've played DL for a couple years, you don't really think of it like that, but that's how you teach a grade 9 or 10 kid playing on the line for the first time. There's also a lettering system that is used more generally for the entire defence. A gaps are between centre and guard, B gaps between guard and tackle, C gap is off tackle. In a gap control defense, a DL or LB will be accountable for each of those 6 gaps. So a one-technique is on the inside half/shoulder of the guard, essentially the gap between the guard and centre. Three-technique is outside half/shoulder of the guard, gap between guard and tackle. Five-technique is outside half/shoulder of the tackle, gap outside tackle/between tackle and tight end (if one is in the formation). Outside of that, every team has different terminology, some teams call their rush end a "seven" or a "wide-seven" meaning that they line him up basically one gap wider than the five-technique would line up in against a 5 man line. It gets somewhat complicated because a lot of fronts widen out depending on the gaps created by the number of blockers the offence puts in the box, a five-technique might become a seven if the offence uses a tight end. This is done mostly to combat the off tackle run, force everything inside, contain runs from getting outside. The defensive gaps always change based on the offensive formation. Those three are the basic categories that DL are divided into. You'll hear it a lot during the NFL Draft stuff, "he'd be a first-round pick but teams don't think he's strong enough to play a one-technique in the NFL, and he's too slow to play three-technique in the NFL like he did in college." Stuff like that.

I posted it on Twitter yesterday through our site account and I plan to do the same thing every time he posts a new entry. CFL_News is a good account to spread the word too, they have over 10k followers. Thanks for that.

It's just a little less detailed than the offensive line post. http://2ndand10.blogspot.ca/

Especially if Goltz wins the starting job in TC from Willy. Start planning the parade, it's a done deal. Did we hire a QB coach, or a QB coach/Miracle worker?

What you just described are a group of people who are paid to cover pro football in Winnipeg, but who really aren't fans of the game. You can tell when a reporter is actually a fan. He/she doesn't have to be a homer, but to be any good, they do have to understand and love the game. Growing up, outside of playing for the Bombers, a dream job for me was writing about them - and getting paid to do it! What an incredible job! Being paid to write about something I love so much. It wouldn't even be a job to me. I don't see anyone in the media in Winnipeg that truly loves the game of football, which is why they are going to spend as little time as possible in the stands, studying the players, and instead finding distractions on tablets and personal devices to get through their boredom. Give me a reporter who is also a fan, and try to be as unbiased as possible, and I'm happy as a Rider cheerleader at a family gathering. I'm not sure why that's a lot to ask of our current professional writers in Winnipeg, because it wasn't that way in the past. Vince Leah and Jack Matheson are proof of that in spades. Those guys just plain loved the game, and it showed. Agree 100%. And I don't understand the endlessly crummy attitudes from some too, that goes for a few reporters at the FP who get paid to watch Jets and Bombers games. If it truly brings you misery to do the job you have, find something else. There's a way to be critical and ask questions without being completely adversarial. One guy I really like who covers a CFL beat is Drew Edwards from the Hamilton Spectator. You can tell he enjoys the job, he's not a huge homer, and he doesn't act like a jerk either. He'll ask Austin a tough question after a bad game, but he doesn't do it in a way where he sounds like he's verbally rolling his eyes like some of the guys working the beat here when you watch a press conference. To me, he's an ideal beat guy.

Banks, Randle, Washington, Sears, Suber, Markett, Dunn. Starting 2 NI DB's means 3 of these guys aren't playing defense. Can't see it happening.

I wouldn't expect to find any accurate or relevant scouting reports, this guy is 27 years old and hasn't played meaningful football in almost 7 years. I'm not even 100% convinced that he's signed a contract. Sounds more like he was invited to another free agent camp or to the mini-camp down south. I'm surprised the media isn't complaining yet about the mini-camp being held in the States...Edmonton sure got raked over the coals for doing that last year. Wasn't the biggest issue with what Edmonton did that they didn't even tell the media about it until it was already over? Could be. Still doubt they would have paid for reporters to travel and stay in Florida either way.