1 minute ago, SpeedFlex27 said:

Tell me what players Mace threw under the bus? 

Can't remember exactly, I'll see if I can find specifics. It was a DB I know that.

15 hours ago, SpeedFlex27 said:

Do you remember just how bad & undisciplined the Riders were under Craig Dickenson? He stood up for Garrett Marino who was a thug on the field & run out of the league. Duke Williams spit on an Argo & while injured off the Rider roster that same season took a swing at a Blue Bomber who ran out of bounds at the Rider bench right beside Dickenson. I don't recall much of a controversy at Mace's media conference when he was hired as Rider HC. Or if he even said that.

Players should have to make the team on merit. Not entitlement. We've seen that going on here for 12 years. We lost our fair share of players over the past 3 off seasons leading up to this one. The flip side is if you keep playing OTH veterans like Thomas & Kolankowski it creates a log jam & younger players who deserve it can't get on the field. They end up leaving at the end of their contract anyway. The older players keep signing because they want to keep playing & know that anywhere else they'd be cut. So, they re-sign these loyalty "cap friendly" deals.

I don't get your criticism of Mace. He's just doing his job. 

As I stated earlier, MOS took it too far the other way, but a coach showing loyalty to his players is exactly the right move for player retention in the long run. Throwing players under the bus leads to exodus in the offseason. That is what is happening in Saskatchewan right now. If you are seriously suggesting that the core of our talent stayed here on cap friendly deals in the peak of their careers to avoid being cut elsewhere you have truly gone off the deep end. We received many favorable contracts from players who turned down bigger offers elsewhere. I am not seeing that kind of loyalty to the Riders with the exception of Trevor Harris, to whom your point may apply. Just as you don't get my criticism of Mace, I really don't understand your praise of him? 

 

12 hours ago, Tracker said:

I suspect the real reason that some guys liked that they could under-perform and still have jobs. There will always be those who prefer that security over winning, or at least being in the hunt every game.

Weird take given our record over the past several years. Do you really believe that we have a bunch of players in our locker room that didn't like winning? I don't. That's a massive reach you guys and S27 are trying to make now. We weren't some last place team hanging onto aging vets who didn't care about winning. That is complete rubbish created by fans taking it over the top, 

5 minutes ago, Goalie said:

Would it have? Hamilton didn’t win. Our O was crap. Still Would have been crap but wow what a catch every few games from Kenny. 

Yes, it would definitely have helped. No way of knowing what kind of contributions he may have made. He actually stayed healthy last year and was by far, the best receiver in the league. Hard to come with a reason that wouldn't have helped. You say "wow what a catch by Kenny Lawler" like it's a bad thing. Those kind of grabs change games.

4 minutes ago, Brandon said:

Lemon / Mauldin could probably be picked up on the cheap.  Might be serviceable in a rotation on a one year prove me deal.    

Lemon will never go to the RIders imo. Bad blood between those two. However, Mauldin (if he was cheap) might be worth a camp invite. Even tho he looked really bad last year, maybe he just needs a fresh start,

16 minutes ago, JGD said:

I highly doubt the Riders are done signing Dlineman.   Hervey gave Carney a ridiculous amount of money, can't blame him for moving on.  I just find it odd that you say Vaughters is in decline when he had more than twice the amount of sacks than any other Bomber last year.   Will be interesting to see how he does in the Riders system as many wrote off Carney after the 2024 season.

Better not be done signing, you guys have what amounts to a pile of rubbish signed at DL right now. 

10 minutes ago, JGD said:

I highly doubt the Riders are done signing Dlineman.   Hervey gave Carney a ridiculous amount of money, can't blame him for moving on.  I just find it odd that you say Vaughters is in decline when he had more than twice the amount of sacks than any other Bomber last year.   Will be interesting to see how he does in the Riders system as many wrote off Carney after the 2024 season.

Let me type slowly so you will understand. Sacks, especially when you are talking 6 of them, mean nothing. His PFF was the 2nd lowest at QB pressures in the entire league last year. He, also, struggled badly at holding the edge because he was too slow. We had probably the worst DL in the entire CFL last year, and chose not to offer him a new contract. That ought to tell you way more about his on field impact than the fact the QB got pushed to him a few times last year. We had zero pressure off the edge last year...like none....and we got scorched because of it. Willie J was asked to drop out a lot of the time, so he can be forgiven, but Vaughters did zero and he was supposed to be our pressure guy off the edge. You guys got the worst De from the worst DL....and you think it was a good signing. You are proof that Da Nile isn't just a river in Egypt.

After about 2 games of running backs going around the edge on Vaughters and QBs breaking contain on him and QBs surveying the horizon because they have all day in the pocket, and you will realize fully what you had in Carney and what you got in Vaughters. It will cost you games. The losses you guys took will result in lost games. I predict no better than 3rd in the West for you guys next year, and MIGs, you know as well as I do that I am really good at accurately predicting the Riders.

Just now, JGD said:

1 sack in 11 games?   ok then

God I wish you were the GM of the RIders, we could have traded Vaughters for Carney last year. You guys lost probably the best DE in the league last year and replaced him with one of the worst who is in decline.

Just now, JGD said:

Don't forget Ajou and DuncanBusby

Mr. and Mrs. Inconsistency? Yea...good luck with that.

6 minutes ago, Bigblue204 said:

Ceresna isn't the prized signing imo. Broxton is. Ceresna is still effective though. Vaughters wasn't in CGY and certainly wasn't here.

I will say the loss of Nield might be helped with Wiebe as he could be a solid piece...jury is still out though. Certainly doesn't have the size. And like Mike said, the loss of depth may not seem like a big thing but come October you'll understand why it is.

Ceresna is 10x the DE that Vaughters is. I can't believe Migs is even trying to compare Vaughters to Carney or Ceresna, they are on a completely different level compared to Vaughters. Vaughters might be the worst starting DE in the CFL.

9 minutes ago, JGD said:

Vaughters is a year older than the Bombers prized signing yesterday, Ceresna.

LMAO...you are seriously trying to compare the two? Ceresna on his worst day was/is better than Vaughters on his best. Take a look at their physiques and get back to me. 

 

1 minute ago, JGD said:

We lost some good depth players for sure, but we have solid depth behind that as well.  Nield is a good player but we already have Ajou, DuncanBusby, and Weibe as backup Canadian receivers.  When we signed Emilus and KSB, it was impossible to bring back Nield, not surprised the Bombers picked up another ex-Riders receiver.     Meyers will be back by LDC if not sooner. 

 

My only concern is losing Carney, but it looks like Vaughters could be a good rotational player and he has a history with Mace.   Allen is good but we also have 3 good prospects to replace him in Hundeby, Wiebe, and Straker.  Nobody knew who Allen was at this time last year. 

LMAO. Migs don't ever change. Vaughters isn't good enough to belong in the same conversation as Carney, and you will soon find out that all stars leaving to be replaced by recruits isn't the slam dunk you think it is. Meyers might be back by Banjo Bowl, but at this point and time he is a Bengal and your receiving corps and depth is just a shell of what it was. Your DL even moreso. Trust me, if you think Vaughters is the answer you are smoking the real good stuff.

2 minutes ago, Bigblue204 said:

Honestly that's not that stupid. He's a defender you need to be aware of on every snap

It is stupid for the position he plays. He was a playmaker for sure and deserves a good payday, but no team is going to make any S one of their highest paid players.

1 minute ago, Jpan85 said:

Marc-Antoine Dequoy has retired, I guess it was either Als or retirement.

He was apparently asking for stupid money, and he is probably butt hurt he didn't get it. He wanted to be the highest paid NAT D player in the league. 

3 minutes ago, Booch said:

didnt happen here tho....Neild was a starter no....if not sure played a lot...was Reavis not a starter too

Vaughters....good, but not what he was...I think tho he was also a victim of a stupid scheme here, but guess we will see

Vaughters was old and slow imo. I never liked him last year at all, and would have rather we tried rookies out.

38 minutes ago, JGD said:

Happens to every team after a championship.  Other than Carney and AJ Allen I don't really see these as "losses" as the majority of players that signed elsewhere are backups (Robistelli, Nield, Boldonado, Meier) and wouldn't have cracked our starting lineup

Whats the scoop on Vaughters?

Vaughters was meh. If you don't view depth as losses, then JOD has a job for you. One of the big reasons we dominated the West for as long as we did was the quality of our depth. One of the reasons you guys stepped forward was that it seemed JOD was finally willing to value depth....and then kaboom....old JOD shows up and says hold my beer.

20 minutes ago, Mike said:

lol I’m going to explain it to you even though I know it’s going to fall on deaf, inbred ears

As a fan of a team that had it happen, your depth getting pilfered is going to be your undoing. You also fail to mention that you lost a Canadian starter, lost a very big piece to the NFL (Meyers), suddenly need a Global to replace a strong contributing one, Nield was a borderline starter and a strong depth add at worst, your starting DT retired and you paid a LOT more money to the same guys moving from 2025 to 2026.

Those things all matter. I seen it happen to us.

Anyways, good seeing you again Migs

Riders had their bacon saved by Nield last year, but having that kind of insurance policy for NAT receiver isn't a loss I guess. As a team that marched out Joey Corcoran last year, I am sure glad we have him. Corcs would look good in Green, then maybe light will don on marble head. When Trevor Harris inevitably gets nicked up, and it will happen to every 40 year old QB, they will be searching the internet for the whereabouts of Tino Sunseri. By any metric the Riders got completely haymakered yesterday.,

 

33 minutes ago, Mike said:

I mean, realistically there was a lot of confusion surrounding the cap amount and there are definitely a few teams who got caught waiting too long to use it but at the same time, I’m glad he didn’t just spend it to spend it last year.

Must’ve been tempting in a Grey Cup hosting year but who was out there that would’ve made a difference? I suppose you could argue maybe a Eugene Lewis type player but with Hogan calling plays, we were ****** anyways. Our roster and its usage was not anywhere near good enough last year. We were in tough the moment we decided to sign that horrendous foursome of Mitchell, Vaughters, Logan and Jones.

I agree but throwing some cash at Kenny Lawler would have helped a lot.

5 minutes ago, Stickem said:

IF we're talking head honchos who have thrown players 'under the bus ' you have to look no further than TO.....Dimwoodie dumped on argo players all through 25'....calling them out numerous times...blaming them for 'inferior play' that cost them the season....Note the mass exodus from the big smoke....I hope he doesn't try that stuff in Ottawa

Do we have enough coin for McManis....I'd like to give Ham a scare by getting in on him...That would put us over the top in 26' if we could swing it....

McManis would be awesome, but I doubt we have that kind of cash left.

1 hour ago, rebusrankin said:

Hamilton is getting hit hard too. Murray, Bodner and Woodmansy on the online, Moxey and Amos in the secondary,  Bell at rb.

Yea...I think that their spending spree last year limited this year, Just as I say that they go big game hunting for McManis.

12 hours ago, SpeedFlex27 said:

Just curious, but Mace has only been a HC for 2 seasons. When did he throw players under the bus or develop a reputation for doing that? I don't recall any examples of players sbeing called out. 

I'm no Rider or Corey Mace fan but I can say that he developed the Riders into what the Bombers were 2019-22 with FIFO. Players love playing for him. The problem with being GC Champions is everybody wants to get paid. NOW. And they can't pay everyone. Plus for most players, money is the only true loyalty they'll ever understand. hence the endless one year contracts. They want to get paid. It has very little to do with loyalty. 

First year in Saskatchewan he was playing musical chairs with some of his starters and telling the media that they would have to earn their way back onto the field. Don't get me wrong, a coach should do that sometimes but don't talk to the media about it. Players have long memories, not just the ones that you benched. It's an overall thing in a dressing room.  There was never any open dissension against him from players, but I guarantee that when you see a Grey Cup winning team take an absolute demolishment in the following FA, it's because there was never any loyalty developed by the GM/coach and therefore the dressing room felt little loyalty as well. 

I only remember this because it struck me as weird that Mace would do that so openly.

5 hours ago, wbbfan said:

in that case it would be tremendous value for ott. 

he hasn’t, but he should be in the 200k range in this market. 150k a year for 2 years is peanuts for that guy. 

He has one good season under his belt of less than a 1000 yards. I'm not saying this contract will age well for him, but it's fair I think.  

12 hours ago, SpeedFlex27 said:

Just curious, but Mace has only been a HC for 2 seasons. When did he throw players under the bus or develop a reputation for doing that? I don't recall any examples of players sbeing called out. 

I'm no Rider or Corey Mace fan but I can say that he developed the Riders into what the Bombers were 2019-22 with FIFO. Players love playing for him. The problem with being GC Champions is everybody wants to get paid. NOW. And they can't pay everyone. Plus for most players, money is the only true loyalty they'll ever understand. hence the endless one year contracts. They want to get paid. It has very little to do with loyalty. 

Yet we've seen many players return to us for less than the market offered. One could call that loyalty.

2 hours ago, Mike said:

There’s also the reality that I see a lot of people on social media (not here) missing, which is that a lot of our veterans aren’t getting raises.

I guarantee you Willie, Kyrie, Bryant, Neufeld, Eli, Castillo as a whole make less than they did last year. 

We also let go of some big ticket low impact players … Ceresna over Vaughters was less than $100k increase. Tim White over Dillon Mitchell was maybe a $50k cap increase. Jonathan Jones and Peyton Logan are gone and their cap hits were decent. Even Jake Thomas had a decent cap hit that is now off the books. 

We paid big money to Pokey, Holm, Lawson, Kramdi, Brady and some others but a lot of that went on the 2025 cap and a lot of it came from offsets elsewhere and that’s probably exactly why we were able to come out swinging on a guy like Broxton. It may not result in a return to the glory days (also, it may) but I can’t help but be impressed with what Walters has done with the cap so far.

Me too, however a lot of his "cap magic" this year is because he did absolutely diddly squat last year. However, no use living in the past and I am glad he had the bucks to come out swinging.

3 minutes ago, Mike said:

The DT we have added to our negotiation list are very interesting and it’s pretty obvious by the amount of them we have added this year that we’re recruiting hard there

Anterio Thompson added on the 19th … 6’4 310

James Thompson Jr added on the 23rd … 6’6 305

Kevionta Spears added on the 28th … 6’4 315

Casey Rogers added on the 23rd … 6’5 305

Dominic Bailey added on the 16th … 6’3 300

Looks like they’re recruiting a specific build type of here and not looking at the fire hydrant guys we have in the past. Getting longer. Like to see that a lot. 

 

 

Let's hope there's at least one keeper there.

Powell is the guy I wanted at QB if we were going to go veteran backup. Nothing else really out there that's worth bringing in unless we have an emergency during the season.

12 hours ago, CodyT said:

I think no QB signing because that kid they drafted is coming here. Time will tell.

 

Walters had attitude in the pressor and had intent for change. I'm not surprised. I am happy we managed to land clear targets for us

 

What a great start to feb

I am pretty sure that Wadzilla told him to show up for work this year or it would be his last.

What's with the eye roll Noeller? You think he did a good job last year? Tell me why?

4 minutes ago, Booch said:

I think we may be done on the defensive side of the ball

We effectively have one spot open in the secondary...Corner and can see Allen there, or competing with one the interesting guys we have signed...plus we need to go entry level there to balance things out...alot of scratch invested in secondary already with Nichols..Holm..Kramdi and Moxy all in at over 140k at minimum, tho dont know Moxey's exact numbers

I do hope we put Kramdi at safety and be the best place for him were his limitations wont hurt us...Griffin or Woodbey should be our SAM and with Jones and Wilson basically locked in, ause thats just how we operate...The Canadians in Shay and Smith who need to play, and on entry level deals which we need, there really is no more room on defence

Lawson and Ceresna gonna eat a lot of inside reps...WJ obviously in th mix and I sure Jenkins and Jaworski gonna get every opp to be the 2 other ends, with Bailey as support. I dont see anyone really available now inside or out that would offer us a ton, so it's likely up to scouting to find that other import DT, which I okay with....Sadly that plug Korn gonna factor in the mix as well as ...well we have no other viable Canadian to spell off Lawson, Tho we could use Bailey, or one of the Canadian linebackers as we do rotate guys a ton...almost too much in my opinion...hard for guys to get in a real flow with constant shuffling around

Schmeck I'd prefer over Korn...but he wont be ready i would think to start the yr, and tho either are not ideal at least Schmeck has forged a lil niche on jumbo package/shortyardage on offence and goaline...short yardage on defence....and truth be told, he probably gets off the ball at the snap quicker than anyone we had last yr...

If we do any other signings...I think it's gonna be on offensive side

 

Other than DL, we were pretty good on D. Our O needed the shake up, and I hope we are not done. Although White, Broxton, and Nield are all quality guys. Would still like to see another 50/50 receiver. Was hoping we would go after Woodmansey but after Broxton I think we just didn't want to put more into the OL. I am pretty surprised we went after Broxton. Be interesting which of him or Stan kicks out to RT.

1 minute ago, Mike said:

That Eberhardt deal is total, not annually. 

Has to be. He has done nothing to deserve 300k annually unless Dinwiddie is just a terrible negotiator.

7 hours ago, Booch said:

Dinwiddie making hay there...Ott will be legit thbs yr

and their Bacjup QB....Not sure who they have behind old man river there....but i if he goes down now...Yikes

Interesting that they cannot retain all key players after a Grey Cup yr, and some at discount like we wer able to several post Grey Cup yrs in a row...tho we played that game a lil too long....but still...Guess the culture and wanna to run thru walls for Mace aint what its all made out to be...plus...It's always gonna be ....Regina

That had a lot to do with our HC. Yes he became loyal to a fault, but it did help us retain our guys that mattered. I am sure you will disagree but look at Mace, cutthroat and it costed him.

When players are treated like they are a commodity and nothing more, they return the favor.

There are a few times that MOS took his lumps for being overly loyal and he needs to dial that back for sure, but guys still stick with him. Mace shouldn't have thrown players under the bus like he did at times. We criticize our coach for not speaking to the media about players, but the players appreciate that.

2 hours ago, Booch said:

Riders taking a nice eviceration ...

Nothing in that organization breeds loyalty. Riders have taken a massive hit.