BBlink

The Announcers seem pretty convinced Strev can’t throw and also every rider has had an exceptional camp so far. 

Riders bringing their A team and apparently some blitz packages. Cool

DT for the leader!

I’d take gauthier at Mac, if it means we aren’t starting 9+ nis, and are starting Lawson+fox inside. 

It's a shame @Booch doesn't make some of his thoughts public. I'd much rather have real opinions on here than parrotted thoughts from the media folk.
I will never shy away from giving my opinion, and usually mine are horrible. You at least have some real football knowledge. I just see a guy run fast and I'm like WOAH 

I'm fully expecting us to lose, and lose badly. We're talking the Riders starters vs our tryout team. If we make it close it will be very embarassing for them.
I'm mainly interested in:
D-Line play - need a couple guys here to stand ouy
O-line play (if some of our projected starters are playing) - have to be able to protect the QB and we are down two starters from last year. 
Linebackers - Not much to say from Camp. Biggie isn't going to last forever. We need to start thinking transition plan.
Kick returners - will feel a lot better if we can find someone who can consistently catch the ball and get up the field
Quarterbacks - Who is going to step up if Collaros goes down? There's been some reports that Strev has not looked good in practice. We need him to be #2 not a short yardage/package QB in case there's an injury to Collaros.

Chris Smith and Aron Cruickshank are my guesses based on their resumes as the top guys for the return job. Hoping one of them pops today.
Also very excited to see the young defensive line guys and which linebackers make plays.
Last few years the linebacker crop hasn't stood out in my opinion but the guys this year are more exciting to me. Tre Thomas is my sleeper pick to stick around.

as for todays game...Guys I focusing on wanna see get legit reps/opportunities are Garbutt..D'Abreau....Fox (obviously as he should never been on bench all yr) and Smith (whom is one the guys who I was most excited/surprised) we actually got up here
He needs to be rostered as he offers us the most as a sub/returner/rotation guy....He will impress you all if he is allowed to showcase a lead back role today and get some return opps

I just pick my favourites based on their names
that’s why I’m out on Chris Smith no matter what Booch says 
 

I'm fully expecting us to lose, and lose badly. We're talking the Riders starters vs our tryout team. If we make it close it will be very embarassing for them.
I'm mainly interested in:
D-Line play - need a couple guys here to stand ouy
O-line play (if some of our projected starters are playing) - have to be able to protect the QB and we are down two starters from last year. 
Linebackers - Not much to say from Camp. Biggie isn't going to last forever. We need to start thinking transition plan.
Kick returners - will feel a lot better if we can find someone who can consistently catch the ball and get up the field
Quarterbacks - Who is going to step up if Collaros goes down? There's been some reports that Strev has not looked good in practice. We need him to be #2 not a short yardage/package QB in case there's an injury to Collaros.

Can just speak to what I've heard on Twitter. Some folks that have been at camp the last few days say he was looking pretty rough. Take it for what it's worth. I should also be clear that the sample size was a few recent days of camp, not necessarily the entire thing.

Who is doing this reporting? Boomer Esiason?

And dat would finally be a good game.

@BBlink sums up the things to look for well.

I'm fully expecting us to lose, and lose badly. We're talking the Riders starters vs our tryout team. If we make it close it will be very embarassing for them.
I'm mainly interested in:
D-Line play - need a couple guys here to stand ouy
O-line play (if some of our projected starters are playing) - have to be able to protect the QB and we are down two starters from last year. 
Linebackers - Not much to say from Camp. Biggie isn't going to last forever. We need to start thinking transition plan.
Kick returners - will feel a lot better if we can find someone who can consistently catch the ball and get up the field
Quarterbacks - Who is going to step up if Collaros goes down? There's been some reports that Strev has not looked good in practice. We need him to be #2 not a short yardage/package QB in case there's an injury to Collaros.

Bombers that aren't playing in the first pre-season game:
Zach Collaros 8 QB A 
              
Brady Oliveira 20 RB N   Injured Veteran 
Dalton Schoen 83 WR A  
Nic Demski 10 WR N   Injured Veteran 
Ronnie Blackmon 15 WR A  
Tyler Adams 74 WR A
Keric Wheatfall 79 WR A
Josh Johnson 84 WR A
Isaiah Coulter 73 WR A 
Josh Vann 81 WR A
Patrick Neufeld 53 OL N   "retired"
Tui Eli 65 OL N
                                                                                   
Jake Thomas 95 DT N                                          
Adam Bighill 4 LB A   6 game injury
Kyrie Wilson 19 LB A
Max Charbonneau 39 LB N
                            
Deatrick Nichols 1 DB A  
Brandon Alexander 37 DB A 
Jamal Parker 7 DB A   6 game injury
Evan Holm 31 DB A
Noah Hallett 23 DB N   6 game injury 
Patrick Rogers 3 DB A
Michael Griffin 38 DB A 

I just feel like he's a gamer and when the lights are on we see his best

Any day in Regina is a good day to win, even with all our rookies out in full force. It’s all a matter of pride.
Today I want to watch (through my radio) three things:
Eric Barrierre at quarterback. I want to see if his credentials have anything to do with the Bomber’s future. I fully expect we will have four QB’s kicking around at season open. He might become the new “lady in waiting”!
Chidi Okeke at right tackle. I want to see if he’s the new apprentice that we are hoping for, that might be a key cog in our Hog Heaven. I expect In a better we will be starting Lofton at RT as the season starts.
Our linebacker schemes. I’m assuming Kyrie Wilson will be one of the two middle linebackers in a basic 4=4=4 defensive structure. Outside of Gauther, I want to see who/what else we can put in those middle two spots. Are they going to take a peek at Brandon Alexander there,  or is he just too small? This is the one place that we look just too skinny. This is THE one big challenge for our new defensive coordinator, methinks...
I don’t care how much the coaches say it doesn’t matter who wins. To me it matters, kind of a lot. Beating the Roughie’s will set the tone not only for our rookies, but for our vets at home too. Preseason does matter for a lot more than just player evaluation.
 

Sure. There's a good 30-45 minutes a day on the 680 CJOB Sports Show with Christian. Plus training camp hits in sports at 625, 725, 825, 925am and 325, 425 and 525 pm. And we'll have two hours pre-game Monday starting at 1:00pm. We've hit all those topics over the first 10 days.
Since I've got some time sitting in Regina:
1) We've seen Shayne Gauthier + Kyrie Wilson / Kyrie + Brian Cole as the LB combos post-Bighill. John Petrishen + Tre Thomas has been another duo from the start. Anyone else isn't getting a ton of work.
2) Liam Dobson at left guard and Eric Lofton at right tackle every day so far. I think Ted Wyman was the first to touch on it on May 12. The only time it wasn't Dobson a LG was the last day because of injuries to Eli and injury/day off for Kolankowski. Dobson shifted to center for that one.
3) Michael Chris-Ike is slowly getting more action in a FB/TE roll after his late arrival. Gabe Wallace was getting first-team reps with the injuries to Neufeld and Eli. They are by far the closest to making an impact early in the season. Clercius is down around the 3rd group of receivers. Kalra is much closer than Vlahogiannis. And Leroux is 100% going back to school, so apart from 1 day where we talked about him, we'll catch up with him next year. Gassama and Hubert appear far down the pecking order.
4) 1st team has been Haba and Fox since day 1.
5) KJ Hill never seemed to get above the third group. And when he got hurt and wasn't going to recover in time, they released him. Had he appeared with the first team like a Ravi Alston, Ontaria Wilson or Myron Mitchell there would have been more talk about Hill.
There were roughly 8 guys vying for return spots. They *might* be down to 4, but there are virtually no returns in camp. Without full-speed contact, they aren't worth much. Pre-season games are where we'll see who's who.
 
 

I wish I could give a camp report. Tough to find the time these days. Maybe I try to get out on Wednesday, if they are practicing.

VAST majority of people don't care about the minutiae that most of us here care about. The fluff pieces draw the most clicks, otherwise they wouldn't be doing it that way. But obviously the best case scenario is a bit of both. Do some feature piece columns for people who just want that, and then have a bit of minutiae.... but it's also really hard when the team doesn't want you to have that information. Especially injury information. They won't give that out so there's not much to work with. 
Now, I don't really watch those Bonfire Sports things, but my UNDERSTANDING of it is that if you want more in depth information, Bauming is at least trying to give you that. 
A part of the problem is you have less reporters doing way more work now than they used to. Everyone is wearing 7 hats and covering several different beats from news to sports and everything in between. The days of a writer and then a camera man and then whoever else all going down to the stadium and their sole job is to cover the Bombers... are definitely over. The one guy who might be strictly responsible for Bombers coverage (and quite frankly he's done an okay job of coming on here and updating us) is Derek. And he's also updating his twitter with information from practice every day. Most other guys have to cover multiple things and the Bombers beat is just one small part of their job. Newsrooms getting gutted all over. I definitely feel for them. 

He didn't win this battle. I'm not sure who could have really covered this better. Ford looks ready for a big season.

I'm also an elite athlete, my body just hasn't ever responded the way I want it to 

He hasn’t played in the CFL in 5 years now. I’m sure he’d like to get a few live reps before the season starts.