17to85

Cortez reportedly made $300k in Hamilton. Burke made $225 last season. Not a huge difference. You more times than not get what you pay for. If the Bombers are relunctant to understand this concept when it comes to key positions at the player or management level, they can't be surprised by negative results that ensue and will have to accept we will continue to be mediocre if we continue to fool ourselves. Giving Khari Jones the keys to this football club because he would come with a cheaper price tag and coupled with errenous rationalizations (such as being a former Bomber) and over-rating of what he brings to the table to justify this decision will more than likely not turn out well. Especially in sport where careers tend to be short, compensation can not be compromised when it comes to attracting quality talent whether one likes it or not. I agree, but Cortez as a head coach is probably not the best example of this. He was awful. I dunno.. His team would have been excellent if the defence wasn't so horrible.. The team excelled at scoring points.. which is something we fail doing most seasons as of late. yeah well a good head coach would have hired a good defensive coordinator right? Cortez can no more wash his hands of how bad the defense was in Hamilton than Burke could wash his hands of the offense in winnipeg.

I'm not sure I agree with this... over the last 3-4 years we've had our backup NI's playing on offence and defence more than I ever remember any other regime doing. Guys like Swiston, Labbe, Thomas, West, Sherman, Ryan Lucas, and any of our 4 or 5 NI receivers have all seen playing time on offence/defence. Compare that to when we had guys like Daryl Stephenson, Neil McKinlay, Shawn Mayne... now those are guys who never saw the field outside of special teams. What I do agree with though, is that the problem is that none of these guys ever really successfully climbed the depth chart, even though they've had the opportunity. I'm not trying to say its an issue that has cropped up in the past 3-4 years, its been an ongoing thing. Yes the fill'ins are getting better, but I would never want to have to rely on someone like Labbe long term (just picking one out of the group), if Henoc leaves. The fills ins are better means you have better depth, the problem is that right now we don't have a Doug Brown or Brendan Labatte being tops at their positions regardless of NI status. Muamba might be there, but then again he might decide to leave too. Brown and Labatte masked a lot of issues for past regimes.

When you compare what he did to other teams Macks drafting doesn't look that poor at all, stacks up pretty comparably. Trouble is people always focus on the guys taken later who worked out and said "SEE! HE COULD HAVE HAD THIS GUY!!111!!" You can do that for every team though, but no one here does it. Mack had his issues but I don't think drafting was really one of them.

Obviously Miller is forcing Walters to hire Khari Jones and this meeting is really just about working out a contract.

Well, you can hang on to that belief, I guess. So it looks to me that if you were running the Bombers you'd be selling the fanbase on giving Mack a chance & keeping him on as GM. To continue to let him work his well laid out plan whatever the hell that is. Or that continual change is bad so therefore he deserves to stay & this team is on the cusp of greatness. That all that's needed at the GM position is patience. And you'd have a huge revolt on your hands with the same fanbase. The old expression says you can put makeup on a pig but in the end it's still a pig. I'm glad Miller, Walters & just about everybody else see it like I do.I think what needs to be done is for all parties on both sides of this argument need to put the Mack era behind us & move on. Time to throw our support with the new regime & give them a chance. People on both sides of the Mack argument like you & I will never agree. We'll continue to go round & round so like I said it's time to move on. This post really confirms to me that you either do not understand what Dave has been saying for the past 6 months or you're choosing to ignore it. If you're so insistent on debating with him, why don't you debate what he actually said instead of debating against an argument you're making for him? if you can't argue the point make up a new one that you can and hope to sucker your opponent into that new debate.

I don't pump tires, I try and provide balance to the blanket "he was terrible" statements people like you like to make.

Kelly mixed passion with insanity and ego, I don't get the same crazy vibes from walters at least.

Tsoumpas. Getting a guy like that would do a hell of a lot of good for the o-line.

This is really true, he said a lot of good things when he was introduced and you can tell that this guy wants to build a good team here and cares about doing what he thinks will get that good team. Any one of us could get up there and rattle off what needs to be done to do it so the things he actually pointed out don't mean a lot but I like the level of passion he seems to show. I don't think this guy is going to slack off when it comes to trying to get things on the right track.

After watching the bits of the press conference on the bomber website I really do think that the reason Miller went with Walters is because he liked what he did this year when he got the job on a temporary basis. There is obviously a reason that Walters went from ST coach to draft guy to AGM as quick as he did. There has to be something there that people see in him that lead them to believe that he can do the job. Yeah he's a rookie and got no experience, but that doesn't mean he's bad at the job, it remains to be seen how good he is.

This is complete and total speculation that it's Walters/O'Shea vs. Miller/Khari....ridiculous that we're treating it as fact. Well I'm glad you said it. Bugs me to no end that people are willing to treat this crap as fact. Isn't it funny how when it became apparent that Walters was the GM the rumours switched from Khari for HC to O'Shea for HC? Sounds to me like a lot of speculation prior to a GM being in place and once a GM was in place his choice is the front runner, is that not how it's supposed to be? But nooooooooo you all gotta be typical Bomber fans and run around like ******* talking about a conspiracy. So are you going to also say the search for GM was thorough and transparent process or that maybe, just maybe it was a one-horse race since Miller got the chair? and that has what to do with this silly idea that miller and walters are butting heads on a head coach? Miller is the CEO he can hire whoever he wants as a GM

Says the guy who thinks there was a league-wide conspiracy to hand the Grey Cup to the Argos last season. That's different, that's just a fact.

Some interesting names

This is complete and total speculation that it's Walters/O'Shea vs. Miller/Khari....ridiculous that we're treating it as fact. Well I'm glad you said it. Bugs me to no end that people are willing to treat this crap as fact. Isn't it funny how when it became apparent that Walters was the GM the rumours switched from Khari for HC to O'Shea for HC? Sounds to me like a lot of speculation prior to a GM being in place and once a GM was in place his choice is the front runner, is that not how it's supposed to be? But nooooooooo you all gotta be typical Bomber fans and run around like ******* talking about a conspiracy.

Doesn't that contradict itself?

Stop chugging the haterade for Mack for a second and look at the situation. The only thing that saved Kellys ass in terms of Canadians was having 2 top level NIs in Doug Brown and Brendan Labatte. Without those two there was sweet **** all on the team for NIs AND Kelly and Taman were trading all kinds of draft picks. Mack did draft several starters for this team and did build some depth in some places that wasn't there before, he just had Brown getting old and retiring and Labatte being a little ***** who can't be away from home.

If you were GM of the Bombers you'd take up drinking too.

Seems to me that sets the dominos in motion with repercussions on nearly every team as assistants will be moving around. It's going to be a hell of a ride seeing who lands where, lot of coaching staffs will look a lot different next year.

The problem with Wiecek is that he doesn't really give a **** about the CFL. He'd rather be doing his horse racing or curling than covering the Bombers and because of that despite being a pretty good writer his pieces on the Bombers are very lacking in substance. Are you saying that Winnipeg -- capital of Manitoba -- Free Press reporter -- the guy who writes articles -- Paul Wiecek is a good -- as in capable -- writer? In a technical sense yes, it's the content that is the problem with him when it comes to the Bombers.

Did you happen to notice how much better the linebackers looked this year compared to last? I don't think that is a coincidence at all. As a positional coach Creehan is good, as a defensive coordinator not so much but let's not use that to say he's not good at coaching a position. Who had the secondary this year? I've mentally blocked this year after about August to be honest; just recall our back end was highly underwhelming. Was that Creehan's mastery? Carl Franks was DB coach. I dunno if he was any good or not but I am thinking that when it comes to being a coordinator Creehan is a bit lost when it comes to the back end just based on the iffy coverage here and the terrible coverage in hamilton with him there. Probably why he and burke work well together. Burke knows the secondary and Creehan can handle the front 7.

The problem with Wiecek is that he doesn't really give a **** about the CFL. He'd rather be doing his horse racing or curling than covering the Bombers and because of that despite being a pretty good writer his pieces on the Bombers are very lacking in substance.

I am mostly interested in seeing how Jones and Hervey work. Seems to me that Jones has some management ambitions as well so if Hervey continues to be a clown do we see a power struggle?

I'd love Dressler. SB's that can have great hands, repeatedly get open, and separate from coverage at an elite level are not common. Stegall and Geroy come to mind. Dressler's got the potential to be in that class. I get that freakishly athletic WR's come out of college all the time now... but 17to85 among others is famous around here for debating the merits of arm strength vs. technical proficiency and smarts for a QB. When do we start the conversation about technical proficiency vs. freakish raw attributes for a WR? If a guy like Dressler wants to talk to your club because it's closer to home for him and he's leaving his current club... I try my best to take that shot. It's not about not wanting a guy like that, it's about not breaking the bank on a guy like that. If you are going to spend whatever it takes to get a free agent then make it in a more impactful position. quarterback, a top NI something like that. Finding a receiver who can get you over 1000 yards isn't that hard.

Did you happen to notice how much better the linebackers looked this year compared to last? I don't think that is a coincidence at all. As a positional coach Creehan is good, as a defensive coordinator not so much but let's not use that to say he's not good at coaching a position.

You know that's not true. Guys like Friesen are just trolls and will always spin things as negative as possible. Mark my words, when the Bombers next win the Grey Cup Friesens article is going to be titled "All Down Hill From Here"