Doublezero

NFL cuts coming.
How long can we keep 4 QBs? Will Portis just stay on the IR? Will we release Brohm or Marve? Portis looks like a stud and played really well against us in pre-season.
Does Nick Moore's return to the active roster mean Romby Bryant is soon released? With other International receivers on the PR - do we need Bryant?
Will we keep Mike Renaud when he gets healthy? And what about some of the PR players - Daivon Dumas, Sam McGuffie, Jarvis Jones? Will they be kept as insurance or bumped by NFL cuts? And in the case of Jarvis Jones, can we keep both him and Chad Anderson?
Will Aaron Woods replace Troy Stoudemire on the active roster when Woods heals up? Is Woods really injured?
What about Sears, Markett and Suber - will we see them active again?
When are the clubs allowed to expand their roster size - after Labour Day?
 
Lot of questions. Hoping folks here have some ideas.

Should be a good game. Toronto has had time to prepare against Etcheverry's D and Ricky Ray will find a way to exploit us. Will we react appropriately, or panic? Will Watson ignite our O after several games where it seemed Bellefuielle's play calling was spotty, the run game was clearly non-existent and our ability to finish in the red zone compromised. Without better pass protection Argo's D line will pound our QB, hopefully Drew Willy doesn't get hurt. If the offence doesn't step up tonight, it may be that our offence isn't very good and that we've regressed at RB and improved at QB but everything else a status quo hangover from 2013. So far this season we've had to rely on D and ST for scoring too often. Looking forward to Cotton and Stoudemire on returns although I am a huge fan of Aaron Woods. Would be nice to see Cotton get some touches on O. I predict we win by 6 on the strength of a big play by our D or Special Teams.

Got to agree, I've never witnessed a RB get so many touches and come up with so few rushing yards as Grigsby in recent games.  In the last 3 games he has carried the ball 39 times and gained a total of 82 yds. and in two of those games his avg. carry has been just over or just under 1 yard per carry.  I repeat 1 yard per carry.  If you remove his longest runs of each of those 3 games it reduces his yards gained to 43 yds. gained on 36 carries!!! 
 
I believe it was established in past discussions that the BB don't really have the worst O-line in the league and they actually fall in at about the middle of the pack based on statistics.  I believe Hamilton, Edmonton, Ottawa, Toronto and perhaps BC at times have all been considered to have weaker O-lines than the Bombers.  Not one of those teams has a RB that continues to play with running stats. any where near as pathetic as Grigsby's recent numbers.  Good blocking or bad it's not all on the O-line and, a RB at some point has to be able to create some yards on their own and in this respect Grigsby has been a dismal failure.
 
The most amazing thing is that Marcel and/or O'Shea keep calling his number as the starting tail back.  

It seems to me like a lot of Grigsbys problems are that he loses so much speed when he changes direction and he doesn't have that real explosive first step. We were watching an old game from 2003 before this game last night and looking at Charles Roberts it's just amazing how many yards he could gain when there was nothing there and it's all because he could switch directions without losing too much speed and then get back to his top speed in no time. There may be some problems with the OL opening holes but Grigsby I don't think is the guy to use in that situation. He's a good receiver so I think there can definitely be a spot on the offense for him, but I want to see Cotton get the bulk of the carries just to see if he can do more. Hell I don't know that outside of Moore any of our american receivers are doing so much we have to leave them on the field, why not put both backs out there and use them more? Try new things because when you can't run the ball you're making it too easy for defenses to sit back and wait for passes to pick off. 

A) I've already admitted I was wrong on Kelly.. Right ideas, wrong implementation and a horrible failure.
no connection between the 2.. Bryant quit. He stopped caring. He stopped supporting his team mates.. No player last year gave up nearly as badly as bryant did with the exception of Simpson and he was roundly called out for it..
C) did Kelly trash Bryant in the media? Didn't recall that. Regardless, another nonpoint because you continually fail to rationalize how it's acceptable to you for a player to QUIT on his brothers, his fan base and the team and community he was wearing on his back... And you can't. Because quitting is unacceptable. It's just as much a **** move as Kellys actions were and you know you don't fight fire with fire..

My confidence in the current Blue Bombers brain trust just went down several notches. 

Kid hasn't even arrived here and already he has a Boulevard named after him in Westwood. Took Milt Stegall and Ken Ploen a lot longer to have that happen. Note there is no Hall Street, Brohm Blvd or Willy Way. 

Willy is a gamer.
The line-backing is not good enough and Kuale has a long way to go to be useful.
The O-line looks like it will be good enough if we can get rid of whoever is throwing lookout blocks (Howard? January? Jones?)
The receivers as a group show promise but have to learn their routes and hang onto the damned ball
The D-line is still concerning-no pressure
Hard to tell the defensive team from the Keystone Kops
We have to find a way to keep Maher and Lirim.
Our punt/kick return team coverage sucks
Etcheverry is starting to scare me. Greg Marshall is starting to look good.
Brohm is gaining ground. Hall is not, and he ought to be way better. Marve did not wow us this time, but he gets a Mulligan.
Cotton has the edge but we wouldn't suffer too much with Grigsby.
Walters is going to earn his money in the next week or so.

A few random thoughts after last nights game:
1. Trading for Patrick Neufeld was a great move by Walters. I've paid close attention to Neufeld the first 2 games, and in practice and he is a legit CFL NI o-lineman. He can play tackle and guard, and even center in a pinch.
2. Goossen is going to be a very good center for the Bombers. I suspect he will be starting by game 6-9, which may then allow us to start 4 NI's on the OL.
3. I suspect Kyle Walters will be keeping a close eye on other teams cuts, looking at Canadian d-linemen. I think they are comfortable with Jake Thomas starting, but if that's going to be a designated NI roster spot, we need more depth there. Evan Gill would sure look good in a Bomber uniform right now.
4. What's the injury status of Jesse Briggs? With Newman going down, likely for the season, I wonder if he could start on a rotational/part-time basis at one of the linebacker spots? When he's in we have 4 import DL's and when Jake Thomas is in, we have all import LBs.
5. I really want to find a way to get Maher on the roster. Having a weapon like him who can hit 47 yard FGs with ease, and his extra 15 yards on kickoffs is huge. I also like his intangibles; his obvious commitment to the team with his wife giving birth yesterday, and his willingness to tackle on special teams. My gut feeling is that we end up going with Hajrullahu and Renaud.
6. Drew Willy is a legit CFL starting QB. I'm also thinking we will be happy with Bellefeuille as OC this season.
7. I think Brian Brohm wins the backup QB job and Hall is sent packing.
8. Terrible losing Newman last night. I hope he can make a full recovery. Best case scenario is its a clean broken leg and he can return mid-season.
9. Really curious how the RB situation plays out. I suspect Cotton starts the season, with Ford on the injured list.
10. I suspect we will only keep 2 of Jarvis Jones, Dan Knapp and Cordaro Howard. I think Knapp is a lock so it'll come down to Jones and Howard.
11. Today's cuts will include Jesse Peterson, Max Hall, Donavon Kemp, Michael Ray Garvin, CJ Tarver.

We should get some important questioned today, whether we win or lose: Is Goossen game-ready and if so, will he be a center or guard? Was Morley's performance last game a fluke or will he be the center we've lacked ever since Obby got sick? Is Hall good enough to be Willy's backup? Who will get the short straw- Brohm or Marve? Will one of the running backs step up and seize the job? Who will be cut- January, Jones or Knapp? Can we start four Canucks on the O-line? Is our linebacking good enough?

My prediction for the 1st Round.
OTT - OL Lavertu
WPG - OL Goosen
EDM - OL Foucault
MTL - DL Gill
BC  - DL Ainsworth
TOR - DL/OL Smith  
CGY - WR Bailey
HAM - OL Duvernay-Tardif
SSK - RB Coombs
 

Do we actually need more 'leadership' - we have Banks, Alexander, Randle, Vega pretty much locked in...  Suber, Sears are still in the mix
 
Here's a crazy idea, how about Terrell Parker for MLB...

If chiu does land here, we really could have something very cool.and groundbreaking in the mix here with all these "natural" cfl groomed coaches.. If it turns out we are successful it would really show that canadian trained and raised products are just as important to out league..

If you watch really carefully you can see he favours his left knee ever so slightly on the rollout sprint. If you didn't know he'd injured it, his guarding of that joint would be unnoticeable. It shouldn't be a problem since he plants with his right leg. I actually like this kid's mechanics. Good foot speed. Good accurate arm. Looking forward to seeing him on the clock and under fire. 

If you watch really carefully you can see he favours his left knee ever so slightly on the rollout sprint. If you didn't know he'd injured it, his guarding of that joint would be unnoticeable. It shouldn't be a problem since he plants with his right leg. I actually like this kid's mechanics. Good foot speed. Good accurate arm. Looking forward to seeing him on the clock and under fire. 

Max Hall was starting to grasp 3-down football in the latter part of last season and his play improved as Bombers O-line got its act slightly together. I think he's a smart QB who was put in a very tough situation in Winnipeg. He was Bombers starter for about half the games last season and has played more CFL downs than all our other QBs put together. Hall also showed he is willing to stand in there and take some pretty hellacious hits. I disagree with those who say he has a noodle arm - if he gets into a rhythm he can be effective. I'm looking forward to seeing him improve with MB's offensive makeover and a year of experience under his belt. Here's a recent radio clip where he talks about about a bunch of things, including the differences between CFL and NFL, and says he's looking forward to the coming season: http://www.1320kfan.com/common/page.php?pt=Former+BYU+QB+Max+Hall+On+Monty+In+The+Morning&id=4563&is_corp=0

I find it sad that the Bombers are even talking to Ottawa about Glenn. I foresee nothing but bad stuff coming out of this for the Bombers with this development. I don't think Glenn would really want to come back to Winnipeg, a lot of fans don't want him back under any circumstances, and worse yet, it sure as spit looks like Walters and co. lied to Willy. Not a good argument for establishing trust with the hired help- we don't need to act like Desjardins.

I really wanna see what Kenny Tate can do and I'm hoping we find a spot for Parker, but I certainly won't say no to McCune for a year.

Very different.  First off, the QB-centre exchange is the most important skill in football.  You can't do anything without it.  You can't just plug anyone in at centre and expect them to be able to get the ball to the QB at a CFL level, which is the problem with guys like Kowalczuk and Parenteau etc.  That is a huge skill in and of itself.  The centre makes some calls to protections, but this is way overrated in Canadian football, most plays have the protections built in and basically what both the centre and QB both do is count how many guys are inside the tackles and which gap the defence is centered on, basically what they are playing as the strong side, which 99% of the time mirrors the offence or the width of the field anyways.  This is different than American football, mostly the strong side of the field down south depends on the strong hand of the QB since the field is not nearly as wide.   This is most of what the calls are, and the protection adjusts based on it, but every guy can see that when they look up, and if you're playing somewhere noisy, there's not a lot you can change at the line.   Everyone is watching for potential blitzers, that mostly falls on the QB to make a call to react to that. adjust a route.  OL have to block from their inside gaps out and do their best to take whoever comes...that's why you'll often see guys coming off the edge free when a defence sends more than 5.  When you see guys come free through the 4 middle gaps, that means someone really screwed up, either took the wrong block or got completely dominated physically.
 
Zone run blocking, it doesn't matter where the defence lines up or how many, they are blocking gaps and chipping upfield.  Zone plays head to a side of the field, not a specific gap, you're basically creating a 3 on 2 situation for your blockers all along the LOS on the play side, allowing at least one of those guys to chip and get to the next level to take a LB or HB.  The RB reacts and finds the opening.  So really a centre doesn't call anything there, every OL needs to read their initial block and come out of their stance properly to get that done.  The first 3 steps are key, can't waste any if you need to get upfield, or get a bit wider.
 
I guess it depends what you think a sub-par lineman is.  IMO, most of the centres in the league lately have all been subpar, meaning they'd really suck if you moved them to another spot where they actually ended up blocking someone 1 on 1 on the majority of snaps.  But that's where the snapping part comes in, a guy who can snap very well and consistently can make a career, even if he struggles to make a block.  Just look at a guy like Dominic Picard.  If I had a dime for everytime he's literally been carried through the pocket by a DT, I could pay for my season tickets this year.  Mostly you're just hoping they can be a good speed bump.  Guards need to be more mobile, presumably you want them to be able to get to the 2nd level (LB's, HB's) in run blocking, although there are enough guys around the league lately that don't really have that ability (Kabongo for one).  They both need to be smart enough to know where their block is and guards need to be patient enough in pass protection to not give up their inside gaps.  Patience in OL is a sign of intelligence and football smarts IMO.  This is really what the blitz is all about, challenging the OL to give up their inside gaps and a more direct route to the QB, the QB can read the outside rush, when it's coming right at him there's not much he can do.

I think they might feel like Terrell Parker is their solution in the middle.

Your knee slapper for the morning.
 
Q: How much does it cost to take the bus to the Bomber games?
A: 2 quarters.