JuranBoldenRules

Well…Woodbey is all over the field. D Mitchell vs Vaval for returner. Might come down to overall roster issues for who wins out. Wheatfall looking great from the outside. White hasn’t got in until the 3rd and 4th QBs. Think Sterns made the decision on himself with drops in each game.

Crazy head shot lmao

Is this Rider PBP guy blind and just trying to guess who is who? They do have numbers.

Like $700 per week. The decision on receivers has to be who fits the offense best mostly meaning who works best with the QB's. Kind of in a bind if our returner isn't an offensive player so it would be nice if a guy like Stearns saw that as a path to make the team and refused to take no for an answer on getting reps on punts.

No. For the most part teams know who they are starting the season with. Maybe a couple openings. Guys are getting evaluated to make PR and get called back when injuries hit to make their mark in regular season and keep their careers going, or the next guy gets called in to try to take the spot.

What about Vaughters?

Cooley will get a lot of film anyways. Wouldn't mind if they gave Chris-Ike some reps at tailback as he might be backing up there.

Subjective. Ayers has a strong hype train right now. Good special teamer last year. Started a couple games. Yeah looked good, not a ton of snaps. Certainly not a mainstay by any means. There's always 3-4 of these guys hanging on a team or in a camp. Lots of them never become impact guys. Both Jones guys are "scrap heap." J Jones had one really good year out of 3 in the CFL. Toronto didn't want to pay him more than rookie deal money. That's a tale old as time in the CFL. One team doesn't think a guy can perform to the money he's likely owed on a next contract, another team signs the guy and he's MODP of the whole league, or MOP if it's a QB. Guy could be an all-star, or junk. Wilson has been among the worst players on the field since he got injured in 2022. He's done. Griffin is getting on the roster IMO and he's not going to start in the secondary or at LB. He's going to be a Swiss army knife type guy and anchor on special teams. So that's who is more likely to squeeze Ayers off the roster with the current unsettled returner issue flipping the roster around a bit. Another issue is how many American receivers they decide to dress.

I'm talking for the nationalized starter, not the nationalized DI.

I don't see why Willie Jefferson wouldn't be the 8th as a naturalized. Him or Bryant.

Some interesting numbers... Medlock 2016 raw average 42.7 long 65 2 singles 1 punt return TD against 35.8 net 2017 raw average 43.7 long 85 2 singles 1 punt return TD against 35.9 net 2018 raw average 44.5 long 62 1 single 1 punt return TD against 37 net 2019 raw average 44.5 long 71 1 single 1 punt return TD against 37.5 net Sheehan 2023 raw average 46.2 long 73 0 singles 0 punt return TD against 36.2 net 2024 raw average 44.4 long 70 0 singles 0 punt return TD against 36.2 net

I'll disagree on that. For sure any player has room for growth, but he's shown those two things any chance he's got to. Starting with the road game in Calgary when he caught a huge first down from Streveler on a 2nd and long when the receiving corps was pure chaos down our top two Americans. He played that role well when Wolitarsky was out last year. But our American receivers were mostly garbage last season. Wilson had some big games and otherwise was a disappearing act. No one else was even average in their role. He actually only had 2 games without a catch last year, which he didn't start. And he caught at least one pass for a first down in the majority of games he played. A lot of those being the 7 yard pass, get the 2-3 yards after that to convert. Clercius had the best percentage of targets caught of our regular receivers last season. I expect him to get 4-5 targets a game, and be in the range of 3-4 catches a game for 40-45 yards.

Lots of PR spots. There were times last season when we had 4 American receivers on ours. 13 if they max out with the Global and 2025 draft guys. Plus all the guys on 1 game IR, 6 game etc. Probably end up with 65 on the team.

Whole offense is RPO which means he's either getting the ball or faking that he is and running into defense. Pretty crazy that you could have 25 touches a game and average less than 1 reception a game though even at that.

Really comes down to punts. Receiving them at all first, then receiving them in any position to advance the ball. Not a skill you just pick up and start doing at game speed.

Here's a likely game 1 napkin roster scenario as of today. I left the kickers and Benson off. Assumed Lawson and Kelly are injured. Having a returner in the secondary leaves the O pretty thin. I think they keep Griffin on because he can play like 8 spots on D and is great on special teams. Could see them swapping Schmekel for Jaylen Smith too, especially if they play on going with 30 fronts. Could also see Lofton losing his job. If they go with something like this...3 Canadian OL starting, they need 6 ALL CAPS on the field at all times on O, and only 1 ALL CAPS on the field on D on every snap. QB- Streveler, Wilson, Artopeous RB- OLIVIERA, PETERSON, CHRIS-IKE WR-CLERCIUS, CORCORAN SB- Schoen SB- DEMSKI, COBB SB- White WR- D Mitchell OT- Bryant OG- WALLACE C- KOLANKOWSKI, ELI OG- NEUFELD OT- Lofton DE- Jefferson DT- THOMAS, SCHMEKEL DT- Woods, Adams* DE- Vaughters, MUNIER-BAILEY LB- KRAMDI LB- T Jones, GAUTHIER, CADWALLADER LB- J Jones, Griffin*, SHAY CB- Bonds HB- Holm S- Allen, HALLETT, HAGERTY HB- Nichols CB- Gowan, Vaval*

Hamilton cut Chris Smith.

Yeah yeah. The feelings are hard. Whole league is within 3 yards net on punts last season, 36-39 yards. Everyone right around 10-11 yards per return, difference is a team like Toronto with Grant having a big play return every other game on average. Edmonton 6 yards ahead of anyone else on net punting last year, but also highest net against. Net exchange, barely positive. Sask punted 25 times more than us last season, us and BC punting significantly less. Yeah you want to be best in the league, but it's not like we have some giant deficiency. We need a returner.

Go with whoever Collaros likes better. There's not a ton to choose from between those guys. Mitchell and White have the most experience. They are complimentary with one being more of the heavy inside style and the other being more of the guy you're trying to get loose vertical or one-on-one off a screen with a corner. But if for some reason Collaros really feels comfortable working with Wheatfall or Myron Mitchell, put them on the roster. Didn't sound like Collaros is travelling to Regina as of last night. Think it'll be Streveler first 3-4 series then first couple in 2nd half, Wilson around that and Artopoeus for most of the 4th.

And wearing shorts because he knows he's better than us.

Comes down to a bunch of things. This offense is probably the most complicated set of personnel decisions they've had to make in awhile. 1. What's the OL? If you're going 3 imports there, no chance you can fit on an American tailback who is not your returner. This spot is the priority because nothing will work if they can't get it done. 2. Receiver? Pretty clear to me it will be 3 Americans and 2 Canadians, on the top line. Are you comfortable with Corcoran being the backup? Or do you need another American on? Is Demski going to be good to go? Really thin here for Canadians so any injury is going to be a scramble. 3. Returner? Who is returning and can that player fit in at another spot too. We only saw two guys return. Mitchell looked rough returning and already had a go at the job last year. Vaval looked a little more comfortable. Is Vaval good enough to slot in as extra DB? Any chance to get D Mitchell, Case (know he's injured), Wallis/Harris (assuming one of them survives cuts) some live reps on Friday? So far, I'd assume Vaval is the guy Week 1, so that complicates the path to being active for Cooley. DI's will be Castillo, a LB, a DB and ....? Maybe Vaval slots into the DB spot and returns too. Our Canadian depth on D has taken some hits, seems like Makonzo and Kelly will likely be out Game 1 for us, Hagerty and Ball haven't practiced in awhile. You'd assume that 4th DI would be used on O, but never know with injuries.

At the same age Dru Brown was the starter for Ottawa. He’s only 9 months older than Wilson. I don’t think there’s a lot of runway for Wilson to develop into a starter. A guy in his first pro camp looks more comfortable in the pocket. Would like to see some confidence from Wilson. Still a real hesitation to move the ball, then check downs to nothing because he held it so long. I get keeping him for the first little bit because of the suspension and Streveler coming off major knee injury, but we should be looking for another prospect.

Funny thing about the complaining about kick returns as some kind of franchise curse is we have the most total return TD's and fewest return TD's scored on us among CFL teams in the past 10 CFL seasons.

Vaval is an American.

That's because we have Thomas and Schmekel plus the Brit off the edge.