Valderan_CA

Everyone just assumes Tate will suffer a season ending injury by halftime so Mitchell is the default starter. Not everyone :-). Based on a lot of comments I've read here over the last year or so on Drew Tate cuts against the grain of how Huff and his coaching staff must see Tate. Listen, I'm not a fan of his, he plays for the Stumps, but seriously he has talent and can't yet be placed in the 'no more chances' category. And for people who disagree with this, I would direct you over to Mr. Hufnagel to get his perspective. Tate has looked ridiculously good when he plays and isn't injured. I actually don't expect BLM to outplay him for the job simply because I don't think BLM is as good - Now good at playing the role and good at staying healthy are two entirely different beasts. IMO Tate has one more shot to show he can play a season without injury - he gets hurt for an extended duration this year and the best he can hope for will be a backup role next year.

LOL

IIRC Poblah also got hurt in the first game of the season and we didn't get him back again until the LDC, where he did ok but then he was never utilized properly. 2012 was supposed to be his big breakout year but he got hurt again. Last year he was just invisible, other than some notable drops - I still remember that Hamilton game where he was wide open by 20 yards, Hall put it right in his breadbasket and he Kamau'd it. I do wish him well though, and hope he can carve out a career in BC. I also remember that he had a tendency to create interceptions with his drops - cause the ball to pop up into the air after he failed at catching it. It happened like 2-3 times on passes sent his way which is fairly frequently considering how often he was thrown the ball.

Good list. Of all bolded guys I'd only have Greaves as solid and he's no all-star. Jake Thomas will probably start this year but only due to lack of depth and having to start 7 canadians. Jake is a gamer but his like of size will be his undoing as monsters will dominate him. Watson is the only bolded guy who has all-star potential but since coming down with TPD (Tyson Pencer's Disease) he can't stay healthy. Volny is a decent reserve RB but hasn't impressed me as a breakout baller. Don't even think he's an above average blocker which is where your bread 'n butter is if you can't lug the piggy for 500+.... I dunno... Greaves consistency and lack of any injury time off... He is a relatively good pass blocker and a pretty good run blocker Pretty sure I'd call him an all-star... he has only been getting better year after year as well.

Richardson? Louie. Volny also injured. Bad case of fumbleitis (although that hit was pretty brutal)

It says Goossen plays center and Pencer doesn't. Just by sheer expectations of the position, Pencer would take longer to develop than Goossen. That being said, I'm still leaning towards the bust label on Pencer if he can't make strides this year. Yeh I'd say if Pencer doesn't show that he could be a starting tackle/starting Guard this year it is probably time to move on from him. That being said... we have kept Krowasculsdrskf around for longer with even less demonstration of potential.

Holy **** does he ever look like a special teams demon

How bad was Smith's ham injury that they straight up cut him?

Except that when Suber tackles a guy it's in the open field, how good a tackler would he be if he had to shed blocks from very large angry men to make those tackles? You could easily argue that open field tackling is harder... but I'm not going to.... I'll take more stock in the depth chart once the roster is announced... You can't really compare the two Shedding blocks to make a gap tackle vs. Open field tackle Sure open field tackling probably takes more technical skill... shedding blocks requires size and strength (when you are trying to shed a 300lb Olineman) Suber is a great open field tackler... I wouldn't ask him to bull rush an OL I'm not trying to start an argument here, just food for thought.... if you compare apples-to-apples when it comes to tackling would it be easier for Suber bullrush a 5'10 190lb O-linemen or Anderson to tackle a 6'2 260lb runner in the open field? Probably the former... I personally think sure open field tacklers are far more rare in the CFL I'd say both would do a poor job and probably miss more often than not (Suber wouldn't close the gap / Anderson would miss the open field tackle) Thats why Anderson is the guy we get to close the gap and Suber is the guy we have making open field tackles... But yeh sure... sometimes suber could get enough of his body in the way to be able to trip up an RB in the gap... he probably wouldn't last many games in that role though

Except that when Suber tackles a guy it's in the open field, how good a tackler would he be if he had to shed blocks from very large angry men to make those tackles? You could easily argue that open field tackling is harder... but I'm not going to.... I'll take more stock in the depth chart once the roster is announced... You can't really compare the two Shedding blocks to make a gap tackle vs. Open field tackle Sure open field tackling probably takes more technical skill... shedding blocks requires size and strength (when you are trying to shed a 300lb Olineman) Suber is a great open field tackler... I wouldn't ask him to bull rush an OL

goddamn.... Ed Tait good sports journalist

There are guys in this camp who are likely to be just as good as Matthews Maybe but if Matthews becomes available I still want the Bombers to do their best to resign him. The Bombers should learn from the past... I don't want Matthews to be the next Geroy Simon. Bombers found him goes to the NFL then back to the CFL and made a HOF career for different team. In fairness we did make a healthy offer to Geroy when he came back to the CFL but BC offered more... so it was simple economics for him not lack of effort by us... Wasn't just BC offered more - At the time he was coming back we had a dream team receiving corps. ABIII, Stegall, and someone else

LOL - please tell me that you didn't just equate Dieter Brock with Michael Bishop. There's having an arm and a brain, and just an arm. I hope Marve has both like Dieter did (unless he was at the zoo), but we will see. To be fair to Michael Bishop, in his later years I really don't think it was a lack of brain - he seemed to understand what / where he needed to put the ball. He just didn't have a hint of accuracy

No deal means current CBA remains in effect does it not. Unless the CFLPA calls for a strike vote prior to camps opening (which means shits gone REALLY BAD) camps will open with vets coming in

I totally agree on this

Essentially their plan is to replace Brandon Stewart and Jovon Johnson's positions with NIP's then right?

Correct. Rookie camp should proceed as scheduled, regardless of CBA negotiations. Typically the QBs still show up for rookie camp though, don't they? (this thread will quickly devolve into a CBA talks thread) My expectation is that they still will, at least for the first day until Flory finds out and figures he can use this as leverage. I'm not getting the impression that his mind works far ahead enough to have thought of this already. I guess we only get our rookie QB's in camp then... we have a couple don't we

I was excited to see him play last season... very disappointed by the pre-season injury

Montreal has to beat out Ottawa and at least tie with the 4th place team in the west to get the last playoff spot. They get 2 extra games against eastern teams instead of western teams. They have a very good defense. All of that gives them a pretty big advantage over Edmonton and Winnipeg IMHO. I don't know if I'd agree with that. I certainly don't know if I'd agree that it would be a big enough difference that a roster player to-be would look at it and say "hey, this team is markedly better than this one" They were the 3rd worst D in the league last year, they need to change their ratio and they lost their middle linebacker. It could definitely go either way. Their D is relying on a lot of relatively old players in key spots too. Wasn't their D just blitz on every single down last year?

That's like saying he's been more dog crap then cat crap. Both brands are pretty terrible when it comes to quality. Every person I know who's owned a Volkswagen has hated it. Problem isn't quality on the VW's... it's the ******** things you need to do to actually do maintenance on them. First time I've ever needed a 12 volt battery charger to change my brakes (I didn't have the program to interact with the computer)

Steroids affect his ability to train - He won't need to come off his off-season steroid use to be able to avoid mandatory testing in the CFL... just pay more ******* attention to his cycle so that he doesn't test positive when the season starts. Steroid use is particularily effective at helping you train in the off-season... Yes the use had an effect on his combine numbers, largely in that he was able to train more effectively (less downtime = more reps) up to the combine. The thing about steroids is that they aren't some magic pill that suddenly makes you a monster athlete... all that they do is let you train harder by making your recovery time faster/more effective.

So... Quinn Smith on Steroids... basically fucks everyones mock draft right

I don't know... sloppy routes get punished by good DB's... the CFL has a lot of DB's who can cover well

I don't think I ever got into anything but a school bus on the way to the game from the Taylor Park and Ride

More parking lots is the opposite of good development practice