1 hour ago, Tracker said:

With the O-line he had, he was fortunate to get back to the line of scrimmage.

Not true. Our OL graded out very well in run blocking, it was pass pro they sucked. Look at the PFF numbers for run blocking for our OL. It sucks but BO just wasn't up to form for a lot of last year. I think part of that was the injury he sustained early in the season but he was definitely not the usual BO last year.

56 minutes ago, HardCoreBlue said:

And/or at times OC not being disciplined, patient enough to stick with the run and be a bit more creative with it?

Scheme was too predictable for sure.

2 hours ago, Booch said:

anytime your center gets spun around and more times than not is facing yhour QB....With guys in front of him...or going bu him...not a good sign....same with a dt getting spun to the side and again...more times than not his back to the QB and guys just sashaying by....not a good sign....both those are indicators of minimal talent if any...and weak players....and basically describes our two positions perfectly

And makes sense as Kolo is an undersized unathletic center with short stubby arms, and JT is a uber unathletic guy, no technical skills/hand skills and weight he carries...grossly overweight has no benefit to him and his play...it's more a detriment to him

With Lawson..Adams...Woods...Even Schmeck you saw no evidence of that...Same with Eli...and I disagree...he was hardly a matador, but that being said...he is a center and has nary had a chance to play....but hen he did he was just fine...and with more reps would settle right in...Is very athletic...not undersized...and actually has technique

I am NOT advocating for a return of Kola. Just not sure Eli is the answer either. Vibert? maybe.

18 hours ago, Booch said:

I'd be fine with him....I almost think if not for his not being able to be here at TC...it woulda been him....cause choosing Dimbass over him made and maked zero sense...Unless Osh is just as much a dumbass...and at times from what he does...jury is still out on that notion

Jackson knows how to best utilize skill-sets of players too

I think he'd play close to what he was with 15 to 20 snaps....all out in true DE attack mode...we dont need him as a knockdown guy...pressures...sacks....strip sacks...hurries would be a lot more of a net benefit to the overall defensive performance than knockdowns....who's to say those passes weren't gonna be completed...or even intercepted....but a sack...forced fumble...pressure into a forced throw for a pick.....is a quantitative positive and many a time...drive killer if not game changer

I don't mind him thinking pass knock down because he's so good at it, what I don't like is that it seems to have become his default.

18 hours ago, Booch said:

not on this team with this HC...nope....have to disagree with that...and not just with Eli situation

Not sure what you have seen in Eli to have such faith in him. He has been a matador whenever inserted into the starting group.

11 hours ago, SpeedFlex27 said:

We got hosed or did Hogan hose Oliveira? How many games was Brady Oliveira underused & even forgotten? He's still the best running back in the CFL. If we lose him then it just tells me that nothing has changed with the club.  

When playing from behind BO loses touches. However, in the games where we got behind early part of it was because he didn't run well. Is he the best back in the CFL? Could be, but not by much and he's paid as if he is almost twice as good as everyone else. He isn't and that's the problem. This isn't about BO's ability, it's about whether he is worth his astronomical salary. 

15 minutes ago, Booch said:

yeah we kinda did...and the last 2 yrs...he's been dealing with injury issues...trend?..anomaly?...hard to say but his big price, and the fact if he goes down there will be a huge drop off in production if we refuse to go import there...I just dunno

Sure we can 6 game him and not absorb the cost, but his huge salary, along with ZC's 600k...still on books and affects who else we sign before even the first snap of TC...We gotta go young and trust in the scouting and eject salaries of Gauthier..Kolo..Thomas..Kramdi (as he is the lesser of Nichols and Holm in our bloated secondary salary mess)......Hallett...Wilson...Even T.Jones.

We have inhouse guys already on entry level deals for most part to cover all those guys, plus a possible draft gem or 2...and I would think some of the new scouting staff guys brought on last yr will have more beefit this

We can go minimal salary in several areas and be able to be very proactive with both lines, and a legit WR....

I think a lot of our 2nd year guys should be ready to step up into more active roles for sure. 

 

8 minutes ago, Booch said:

Thing is...we only need 7 true starter caliber Candadians....so if you do 3 on the oline...2 receivers...and 2 at anytime on defence you can easily navigate the sms..this trying to make 9...10 guys a thing with sub par talent in a good 3 of them for most part is just dumb...not to mention costly

There are a lot of quality Canadians that are gonna be free...and some that wont necessarily break the bank either, but we need to have open mind and be willing to change who we play and where as our Canadians

 

Agreed. Spend the wad on a tier one NAT OL, preferable a centre (not sure if there any available) and add QUALITY NAT depth. Draft well, develop better. These are going to be some key areas for us this offseason and season in general. Not a great idea to get rid of Kramdi right now. His contract isn't prohibitive and even if we platoon him we can get our money's worth. We gotta get away from our current DL NAT usage and keeping Kramdi is going to be a necessity in that. We can platoon our young NATs at WIL, and platoon Kramdi at SAM and this will allow us the flex we need to not pay BO the outrageous numbers we are hearing. We need to keep as much NAT roster flex as we can because if Neuf is back it's a roll of the dice, and Lawson/Thomas/Schmek hurt us if we gotta go there again. If another young NAT steps up into a viable starter/platoon guy then we revisit it next season. This, of course, predicates on us getting Kramdi back at a reasonable contract again.

19 hours ago, Noeller said:

Now that's interesting....

I can see where the Argos would love to have him. He is the only guy who was able to keep Murphy in check and that will be huge for the Argos. 

5 minutes ago, wbbfan said:

We should have our OC in place before Ott or Tor announces theirs. If we fail that, we are in big trouble. Early January should be the goal. 

Talk to guys, conduct interviews, take the holidays to think about it, and make the offer right after. Then announce it by the week of the 9th. 

That's my thinking as well. Things are going to slow down a bit because holidays do that. But we need our guy by 2nd week of January and that is a likely timeline unless we do something within the next 10 days.

2 minutes ago, sweep the leg said:

Depends what we do with the rest of our roster and who our Canadians are. We need to play them somewhere. If we want better Canadians on the ol or at rec we’ll have to pay through the nose for them. 

We’re in some trouble right now with our Canadians. Only two of them were good last year and they’re both fas looking for raises. We really need to hope our young lbers can step up and we hit a home run in the draft.

An extremely valid point. We can't let high calibre NATs walk out the door without spending those savings on other high quality NATs. Walters did an abysmal job of this over the past 3 years and needs to wake up in that regard. We have seen a mass exodus in overall talent without replacement at NAT, and really all positions. I don't want BO back on a boat anchor of a contract, but I don't want his savings not used properly either.

If you give a CFL calibre 20+ touches a game they are going to rack up big yardage. I love Brady ball, but I don't think Brady is our only option to do it with.  This last contract my heart was happy but my head said it's a terrible contract. This time both my heart and my head say it's a bad idea. Sorry Brady, but your attitude over the last year was not to my liking.

24 minutes ago, wbbfan said:

Imo, 20% chance we announce the OC before january. 

I agree. Highly doubtful, January is prime time for most coaching hires outside of HC.

2 hours ago, rebusrankin said:

If we don't have an OC by Christmas, I will be concerned.

I will be semi concerned if we don't have anyone in place by Jan. 9.

13 hours ago, Booch said:

Yup...agree...id add interior dline to that too...

I agree also that BO is beneficiary of system to a good extent...especially with lotsa touches...he isnt a guy who is a home run hitter from anywhere on field and could score from anywhere..anytime...but is one of best in a while to slug it out tenderize defences all game...love the guy but if he is looking for more than what he got last deal...I just think it may hinder us

 

A 250k+ contract to a running back, ANY running back, is going to hinder any team unless they put up MOP calibre numbers and clutch performance. We got hosed on his contract last year.

12 hours ago, SpeedFlex27 said:

That won't happen if Younger stays at DC. This is his defense with the personnel he wanted doing what he wants them to do. It's strange the way he used WJ. Our DL could be so much better. It's his decision not to do it the way it normally would be done.

I don't pretend to try to explain how Younger uses his personnel & why. All I know is we don't presure qbs anymore. Out interior DL is a joke which affects our Ends. We don't get the pressure we used to when Richie Hall was DC. With Hall, it all started with a vicious Front 4. With Younger, he seems to build from the back end out. The best athletes play in the secondary & it flows up to LBers & finally to the DL which is a no pressure Front 4. I don't like it & I'm not convinced Younger is really all that good as a Coordinator. 

Yup, let's just repeat the same mistakes again.... If we don't have an OC in place in 5 or 6 weeks then we can declare that the talk of change & introspection was just that... talk... while nothing has changed. 

What mistakes are being repeated? We are fans, getting angry on a forum isn't going to do anything. If we don't have an OC in place by your timeline then for sure we can be worried. I agree. However, we cannot know what will happen until it happens.

3 hours ago, Pete said:

Riders gonna not be happy, price for Emilus just went up

Emilus will be 250k+

3 hours ago, sweep the leg said:

Haven’t you been advocating to let Oliveira walk over money?

BO is the beneficiary of an offensive system that is far too run heavy. There I said it.

3 hours ago, Booch said:

within reason I guess I should have said...we let guys walk where we could have absorbed what they left for

If you look back I wasn't really a fan of BO's first deal either...That position is one where you shouldnt be sinking 230+ k into 

250k+ for BO. Price over replacement is the formula I like to use and BOs salary makes no sense at that equation whereas Philpott's is closer to an accurate amount but still a slight overpay. 

48 minutes ago, wbbfan said:

Have to clarify, WJ didn't play a Lber hybrid or jack role. He hasn't had a straight drop back to even shallow LBer depth in many years here. (Remember when he used to do that and really disrupt passing lanes?) 

 He's basically been spying the QB on inside pass lanes. Idk if that has ever in football been a thing out side of the last few years with WJ. He doesn't spy qb for contain, and he doesn't play both passing lanes. Like a man-to-man shot blocker in basketball. Not the weak side guy rotating over to get a block, he gets tall keeps his feet and tries to get in the way of the ball going right at him. 

If he could do a lot more with any kind of regularity, we would see him jumping pass lanes from the back side of pursuit on roll outs, getting to the outside shoulder of his ol and batting down backfield pass attempts from the pocket, and frankly getting off the initial block significantly more. Even when he turns it on in the games he excels in now, he is beating his blocker with moves and cuts. He isn't blowing by guys around the edge or any thing. 

You are correct on his usage, I just likened it to a LBer type role because it is probably closer to that than DE and it doesn't really have a term associated with it because it is unusual. Definitely not true LBer for sure, but definitely not DE either. Just weird usage. Not sure why. Could be declining skills but he rarely gets to straight rush anymore at all. Perhaps, they should get back to giving him those opps.

15 hours ago, SpeedFlex27 said:

Funny how the same thing happned last year. It was February 4th  before Osh named Hogan as OC. 

Great...let's wait until then to declare he is doing the same thing.

12 hours ago, Mark H. said:

I agree. And they'll also look at who he was playing with this year.

More importantly what we were asking him to do. We are all blaming WJ for playing the defensive role his DC asked of him. We were using WJ as a DE/LBer hybrid in pretty much every 4 man front we ran and then asking him to take on every double team in a 3 man front. There was little chance he was going to do the things a DE gets recognition for. It's fine to drop him out on occasion to keep the offence off balance but we were doing it almost every play and then he just becomes an oversized and slow (by LBer standards) glorified LBer.

19 minutes ago, 17to85 said:

Funny how we had a bunch of pressure the game we dressed the all rookie defensive line eh?

Funny how we ran a primarily 4 man front that game too. Coincidence I think not.

1 minute ago, wbbfan said:

Mitchell is a good one. It wouldn't be hard to come up with a list of guys who you aren't going to bring back, guys like kody should be on that list, announce the release of guys who are expiring and wont be given an offer. Then re tool the staff a bit. Say Hogan isn't back, maybe promote JY to ast hc, figure out if you/hall want to go another year. If he does, maybe promote him to be a QC to the oc as well. For me, I'd drop a bunch of vet names on that list, but you don't even need to go real deep with that. 

Even have someone talk to a CFL reporter like Hodge and say we intend to be aggressive in free agency. 

I am not impressed at all with Younger after this year either, Didn't like his zero pressure approach at all. The first year QBs couldn't adjust to everyone dropping out into coverage but now they just carve us up. These 3 man fronts just don't work if they are done excessively. Better to disguise it like Richie used to do.

17 minutes ago, Booch said:

time to tamper and in the back channels and let a number or 2 accidently slip out....lol

I would hope tampering has been started already. I know teams are tampering with guys we want to stay and guys we are targeting already, Pretty small community of agents so not tough to do.

It is completely pointless to even look at pending FA's right now. The vast majority will be re-signed long before FA. Many before Jan.2 so that their signing bonuses go against this year's left over cap space.

57 minutes ago, Booch said:

is early....but still...teams who wanna make an impact will make moves and not ***** foot around....Ottawa being a good example...they were in lala land and realized they need to change...and got er done as fast as you could...Thats how you get the best of the best

No rule or law saying you need to wait X amount of time....and not unprofessional either to cut guys loose as early as u can.....and creep other teams coaching talent...snooze...u lose...we been snoozing on many fronts and losing as well....we didnt do that 2018-2021....Got fat and sassy...almost arrogant and just figured people would glom over to us....give us discounts....didnt need to be urgent in negotiations...and look where it got us

Part of this new "change" and having to be "better" also is really relevant to how we operate....That needs to change more than anything...loyalty only gets you so far...for so long and clinging to it....always leads to your demise....its pro sports...cut throat and unforgiving business....it's what you signed up for and if you have a fragile ego or get butt hurt for being called out...or sent packing....u in the wrong business

Hey, I'd love for all of this to be settled right now too. However, it is crazy to suggest change isn't coming because it hasn't been announced Dec. 1. I completely get what you are saying, and if media reports are any indication, we are working diligently to make change in our coaching staff. For now that is a good sign. On December 1st, we should be optimistic about these reports. If nothing has happened a month from now then yea...let's assume the worst.

On 2025-11-26 at 4:39 PM, wbbfan said:

Here comes my nice comment about the mafia for the year. 

 I’d rather see us be bad, with jake/kola and the rest of mos old boys club and roster management, than see the likes of kelly or chris jones running a team with a bunch of guys who are dirty on the field and bad off it. 

Yes, forgotten is how we are 1000x more classy as an organization both on the field and off since the mafia came to town.

On 2025-11-28 at 3:47 PM, SpeedFlex27 said:

Well, he is. Thomas on the roster starting is THE BIGGEST fail of this this organization. You may not like the criticism of O'Shea but if Osh wants to get everyone's attention to prove he's changed then releasing Thomas needs to be done. Thomas is the face of this team's country club memberships. Ain't happening. 

 

 

Thomas should not be given another contract unless it is a coaching position. That's not making him a whipping boy that is reality. However, as Noeller has noted it is really shitty that we on here have singled him out like we have. He has never done anything but bleed blue and gold, and yeah, he's going to play if the coach taps him on the shoulder. He is not what is wrong with the Bombers. What is wrong with the Bombers is that we never found better and didn't really try to do so.

8 hours ago, SpeedFlex27 said:

Professionalim??? JFC, now I've heard everything. With the track record of the Canadian Mafia since 2023, silence means nothing is getting done. Those 2 live in their own little bubble where time runs on a different reality. The new season starts 1- 2 weeks earlier in May. They have to tighten things up significantly to get things done. Otherwise, nothing has changed. . 

How'd taking his time work out for us? You happy with the decision he finally made? 

It's December 1st, the offseason is like a week old, step away from the ledge. If this drags out another month beyotch then, right now it's just way too early. You have created a timeline in your head that is wholly unrealistic.

19 hours ago, SpeedFlex27 said:

On X, Bob Irving practically begged Herb Zurkowsky to get to the Grey Cup. He said he needed to "find a way", I believe. Also, Ed Tait posted that Herb could stay with him for free. Just get to the Grey Cup. Zurkowski declined. The Montreal Gazette refused to send him to the Grey Cup even though he's the beat writer for the Alouettes. 

That seems crazy to me. The Gazette should just give up the ghost and quit pretending they care about anything but the Habs.

1 hour ago, Tracker said:

Jackson should not be blamed for the flaccid offence this year. Collaros did not have the time he needed and looked tobe  a lot worse than last year, our receivers were a shambles and our OC would not do well in a high school league. And our head coach shrugged all concern off and did nothing, or rather he did the same old same old which did not work in the past two years.

One can say Collaros looked off, but it is hard to say by how much. Did he look panicked and irresponsible with a lot of throws, definitely, was that him declining in skill or trying to do too much? Probably a little of both. If we can at least surround him with adequate talent and play calling he can be a whole lot better than he was this year imo. We do need to have our eyes on the prize after this season me thinks. Our offence couldn't possibly field less talent and poorer coordination than last year tho so the only way is up.

2 hours ago, 3rdand1.5 said:

A few thoughts....

 

Something seems "off" with Jackson to me, The Edm situation, then missing all of TC and even with him here our QB and offence was the worst it has been in a long time, not real discussions about him.....I don't know just something seems off to me

Philpot would not be a player I would target...while he has flashes he is in the tub just too much and it will take Demski money or greater to get him....

Mitchel...oh boy, hopefully he get's his life figured out, his future is more than just football...He really did not work out for us....

That FA list is so premature...but it does have some great O-line and D-line on it I would love to see us be in on a top prospect if one does make it to actual FA...Hutchins would be a dream...and I would pay almost whatever for the guy, but I don't see him in the CFL for a few years at best...but one can dream,,,

A couple tough decisions IMO on a couple of our own CDN's in BO and Kramdhi, while they are both "ratio" busters, they are also really expensive....

Better CDN receiver talent is a spot we need, Demski is great, but older and somewhat injury prone, Clercius seems to have taken a step back in his development, Corcoran is a fine depth piece.....I hope one of the higher end Cdn's make it to FA, just not Philopt as described above why..... 

I agree. Jackson's body language all season was concerning. I am not sure he wanted to be here, or was unhappy with his role.