Armchair GM

WEST: Calgary 13-5 Sask 11-7 BC 9-9 Winnipeg 8-10 Edmonton 5-13 EAST: Hamilton 13-5 Toronto 11-7 Montreal 7-11 Ottawa 4-14 The West will be way more of a dogfight than the East. BC's ratio could be troublesome, and they could be forced into trading Westerman or an NI receiver before long to grab a game-ready CDN OL. Also, I'm not sure I'm sold on Benevides being a top 6 HC in the CFL. Might be another good co-ordinator who needs extraordinary players. Winnipeg under O'Shea will be a hard team to play against. It won't translate into a winning season due to lack of talent. But we'll be scrappy, play a bunch of close games, and steal one or two that we shouldn't have. Crossover playoff team. Edmonton's in last mainly because I'm a Winnipeg fan, and I want to see us do well. Another poster made a good point that they started their rebuild with a capable QB last year. I think their OL is still a huge question mark, and Reilly will be limited by it if it remains ineffective. Edmonton's a squad of non-game breakers... I don't see a big year out of the green & gold.

Bryant Turner throws pancake blocks with his mind. He only uses his body when he's too busy thinking about 3 point conversions

That's a common theme for a QB, this being hit, and being under pressure and stuff. If what you're trying to do is defend Hall because his INT's are when he's under pressure, I don't buy it. QB's are always under some degree of pressure... it's the decision making under pressure that needs evaluating. Hall's quick release and decision making made him stand out amongst last year's QB's. This year, that's not enough. It's clear our crop of QB's has improved, and he's going to need to show more to win a job. As much as many on this board are clamoring for Hall as a backup QB because he showed capable last year... I think he's in tough. Because of poor pre-season performance (and possibly because of ties to the old regime), Hall's on the bubble. Brohm is a McManus guy, and Marve is a new regime find, and both have outplayed him to date.

If Neufeld can hold his own at RT then this could be a good thing. Dan Knapp seems to have won the RG position purely because of his physical awesomeness? And because he's such an upgrade over Morley? Not sure why else we'd start an import at that position in the future, unless we have that kind of roster flexibility. I get what you're saying, as traditionally we've manned the easier position (G) with the NI, and manned the tackle spot with an American... but Neufeld seems to be the rarer sort that is better outside than he is inside. If that allows us to start an import guard and plug more holes, I love it.

Don't see Hall losing the #2 gig. He's pretty much entrenched. Last night was a stinker, but he's shown himself on a worse team to be steady over a number of games. Marve's TC ceiling is the #3 gig I think. Brohm should definitely be playing for his job going forward. He's in tough against a very good looking prospect in Marve, who has the upper hand. Doubt we'd drop him entirely, but PR or 9-gamer is a definite possibility if he doesn't pick it up. Honestly, this kind of competition from our QB "prospects" is the best development of TC. Neither guy is going to start as the #1 guy in Winnipeg, but it shows the team that no matter your pedigree, competition will be brought in, and you will be required to stay ahead of the curve to win your job.

Arash Madani would sure add some drama to the panel! BOOM! Madani would add drama to a daytime soap. New panel wishlist: Lalji, Dunigan, Geroy, and Climie. Stegall just didn't seem a great fit for the panel. Schultz likes the sound of his own voice too much. Climie does too, but there's substance... he's not afraid to take the contrarian viewpoint and back it up. Essential to have a heel on the show. Geroy would be a very interesting option. Respected vet with a lot of charisma.

Think our NI's will be likely be 3 on the OL, 2 at WR, one front 7 on D, and one in the secondary. If Neufeld plays like the Neufeld Walters was hot to deal for, we could start 4 on the OL and one on D.

I'd rather have a more intuitive, and more physical safety like Sears. An instinctive safety with a presence like Sears has can improve every position in the secondary. No offense to Alexander at all, but Sears wasn't an outstanding corner. He could well be above-average at safety, so if Alexander is even close to Sears ability at corner, that's the better use of the 2 players. Sears was a pretty damn good corner. He has the skill set to be a great corner. Great speed and physicality, but he was never looking at the ball, allowing receivers to make grabs they shouldn't have been in position to make. That skill set translates very well to be forward facing like he will be often at safety.

I'd rather have a more intuitive, and more physical safety like Sears. An instinctive safety with a presence like Sears has can improve every position in the secondary. No offense to Alexander at all, but Sears wasn't an outstanding corner. He could well be above-average at safety, so if Alexander is even close to Sears ability at corner, that's the better use of the 2 players.

Awesome job guys. Very happy to be part of the most active, knowledgeable Bomber community!

Quite the statement from Gill. Guess he wasn't happy being picked by Hamilton. Either way, it's a statement I would think every GM would make note of; which would decrease his trade value.

Seems like there's much more to it than just the federal $10MM for MLSE. It sounds like they never really wanted to buy the Argos, but have been lobbied to do so, likely by numerous bodies including the CFL, feds, and possibly even the NFL (as a potential future owner of the Bills). If I had to guess, once it got closer to the Bills being sold, MLSE would rather take on the Argos (and the annual losses) then, and was only entertaining the thought at the behest of the feds to help them later when they'd require them later to buy the Bills. Conspiracy theory sure, but MLSE's behavior over a $10MM grant that amounts to 8.3% of the project cost is curious.

If what the players are trying to sell us is that they want a partnership, then it's perfectly reasonable for them to do everything they can to help the CFL's teams make more money. It's fully aligned with a revenue-linked cap, and revenue sharing too... Want an interesting cap linkage discussion? Link it to cash flow after debt service. In other words, pay the players AFTER the teams pay their mortgage payments. We'll see if the players really believe the league is so profitable that it can pay them $7MM and force revenue sharing on the teams.

Why do the players deserve a significant pay raise? A CBA with an overriding premise of increasing minimum salaries mainly impacts the bottom-end players. I think the constant inbound and outbound trains out of Winnipeg this offseason indicate that there is great demand to get a foot in the door in the CFL, in hopes of earning a career playing football, or maybe even a shot at the big show. Basic supply and demand indicates that the minimum salary is sufficient to put potential career plans on hold for one last shot at playing football for a living. Besides, if players are able to stick it out for a couple of years, they'll earn more than the minimum. No one deserves anything they don't earn. Take the minimum salary to earn your shot, and reap the rewards of your effort later. Provided that minimums are increased annually to factor out inflation (which they are and will be), it's not a raw deal by any stretch.

Oh brother... seriously?!?!

Look guys, my jersey's #12!

This is incredibly terrible. Basically, we can't sell our brand, so here's some superheroes to help sell it. I'm kind of embarrassed that these exist.

Both sides are going to continue to posture until the CFL sets a deadline for the CBA to be resolved so that the season can start on time. At that time, and only at that time, will we really start to see what both sides' bottom lines actually are. Players - if the league isn't making money hand over fist, it's hard to justify linking revenues to salaries. Isn't it worth it to let the league reinvest the funds to improve itself, so that you can build towards a better CBA that can be justified, next time? Owners - you just landed your biggest TV deal ever. Share a portion of it. Come together around a 15% cap increase, and $75-100k per year, and everyone's happy and in training camp. Just don't think that anyone will until there's a drop dead date. Deadlines spur action.

I agree. Don't want to see a strike but what are the players supposed to do? $750 a week to be on the practice roster?? guys come out of college & can work & start a career for way more than that. Why would any kid, especially a Canadian want to do that? The CFL is such a Mom & Pop organization. The league is a joke. What some posters on here don't get, is that there are a lot of players that aim to make the practice roster despite only earning that $750/wk... why? Because it's their chance to get their big break and spend a few of their prime years playing the game they love. They consciously decide to pursue their dream, waiting until later to start their post football career. In a gate-driven league, what entertainment do PR guys contribute? None, really. It's a stipend to stick around with the team, in the very likely event they'll get a chance at some point to play due to an injury or what-not. If the CFL is a "joke" to you, why do you have 3,970 posts on a CFL fan board?

2014 draft... best words I can think of are like, but don't love. - Like Goossen... felt we needed to either take Goose or deal the pick for a starting OL. Not disappointed, but not thrilled as I would have been with Lavertu. - Like Briggs... he's not a plug & play, but as I think Mike said, if he can become Labbe-ish for 5-7 yrs, that works for a 2nd rounder in a thin draft. - Like Derek Jones probably more for value than any other pick we had. Good potential for the price. - Quinn Everett is a project. Sometimes they work out, sometimes they don't. - Eisho probably tops out as an ST demon, which would be great. Floor isn't much though, but can be expected in the 7th round. All things considered, the biggest thing I see is we drafted a high effort group. They should be O'Shea type players, which will be good for the culture.

Hard to escape the shadow of past performance. Bellefeuille's gotta be looking at this Winnipeg OC gig as a chance to show the CFL that he's more than a mediocre OC, with more than mediocre offenses. The game has changed since his rise through the ranks though. Back then you ran to set up the pass. Nowadays, most effective offenses pass to open up underneath for the run and screens. I'm one to zig while the rest of the world zags, but today when d-lines set the edge to keep runners inside... you're often limited to short gains running on first down. If Bellefeuille can't adapt his playcalling to the reality of today's game, he'll be done before he's started. A motivated, open-to-change Bellefeuille could be a good thing for us, and O'Shea seems like the type that gets the most out of his people. I'm scraping the barrel for positives...

Gawd, I so agree with this post. What I don't get are all the people posting on here with God complexes that think they and everyone with half a brain saw this coming. Check the numbers... the severances are somewhat of an extraordinary expense. Certainly not expected to the tune of $1M every year. The Bombers STILL made $3M. And the new TV deal should funnel in an additional $2M a year. Get your calculators... 3+2+1... Even if we average 22,000 season tix (low end projection), and put a half decent product on the field that competes for even a playoff spot annually... we'll have no problem averaging 28,000 fans/game, and that's with the pre-Banjo Bowl sellouts balancing off the cold November games. And that's about where we were this year, and we would have been able to meet the debt payment with the new TV deal figured in. To me, that sounds like a pretty realistic projection. Remember that the premise of the new stadium was to open up new revenue streams to make the operation itself more profitable. The results on paper, in a year that many people decided to stay home late in the year, show it doing just that.

Damned ignorant of Steinauer to cut a player before training camp. He must be at odds with Austin. Fire him. I believe the word you are looking for is... CLASSLESS.

$450,000 is not a ton of damage for a facility the size of IG Field. It's clear that construction wasn't carried out properly in some places... I'm just hoping that in spending the $450,000, the insurance company had the problem areas addressed, and didn't just replace damaged finishings.

Not sure how I feel about what appears to be direct honesty in the media from Walters. It seems like we're providing perfect information to Ottawa and the teams behind us about our plans. If Ottawa chooses Lavertu, and if we did intend on trying to trade down to grab Goossen and another pick; if would seem Walters' comments are painting us into a corner. To me... it's potentially a loss of negotiating power at the draft. Walters could have me fooled here into thinking this way when it's really a smokescreen, but I just don't think that it is.