9 minutes ago, Booch said:

I was gonna say...grab him and convert him into an offensive do whatever tool....motion pre snap....split out back with BO....cause we all know with ball in hand...what he can do...and being a National....what a bonus....I'd have him taking kicks too to see if he has the chops for that

It would be nice to have a backup plan for Vaval for sure. Trey is going to excel this year...gut feeling....but we have seen very little depth at KR/PR in recent years and it would be nice to have.

7 minutes ago, Brandon said:

Step one... sign new guys for a proper OL.  

 

A new C will help a lot but I would like to see at least one really good addition in FA.

1 hour ago, wbbfan said:

Wilson is as well. White/Wilson/Demski is going to be a nightmare for teams to cover and tackle.100% on the 50/50 guy. If we get that, our wr core will be in great shape. 

I agree. When heads are swiveling around looking in the secondary their feet tend to slow down too and that's where guys get wide open. With slippery guys like we have that will be tough on opposing secondaries. Further to that, I think Demski and White are both exceptional at finding open space on broken plays, and Zach is very good at exploiting teams in that scenario as well.

5 minutes ago, Booch said:

For what our dline coach has to do really I guess he will be fine...With vets like Lawson..WJ and hopefully a Ceresna they dont need Thomas' tutelage..as there is nothing he could offer them...and any young guy can get things passed on by them too

The x and o part will come from Younger anyway...and some from Stanley...Thomas will add nothing there...it was essentially a mercy hire that won't make or break our season...was still dumb tho...and a slap in face of any up an coming coach in the CIS ranks or NCAA who has been putting in the work

All we are going to need from JT is an understanding of what defensive fronts Younger wants and for him to be able to get his DL to execute them. It's not rocket science. He will be fine. Technique is something that all the guys on the line help each other with anyway.  He's not going to be the guy who reinvents our DL. He is going to be the guy who observes them and gives Younger the scoop on what they do well, and where they need improvement so that Younger can maximize their strengths and minimize their weaknesses. By all accounts JT was a film hawk already as a player, so this should be right up his alley. He will study film hard to look for things that can be exploited on the oppositions OL and report his findings to Younger so he can put them in a position to exploit them.

9 hours ago, SpeedFlex27 said:

 

How can you consider Tim White a consolation prize? 

Especially when we don't even know if Winnipeg had any interest in Mack.  That being said I would have preferred Mack, but White is outstanding at keeping the opposing defensive backfield off balance. The cannot lose track of him and he is very good at slipping out of coverage. What he does opens other guys up as well. He and Demski are both very good at that. Now we just need a legit 50/50 guy.

9 hours ago, Nolby said:

What is Thomas going to teach Ceresna? How to be a liability with a big belly???

I guess we should just fire JT now. Obviously he has nothing to offer. Sad, that the hate is so strong for a guy that showed up to play for us game in and game out. We may not like his usage over the past few years but now we are blaming him for it. 

28 minutes ago, Booch said:

He was signed in 2026 so all his goes to 2026 sms..and yeah he gets 75k upfront

Pretty much just offsets what we paid Schoen last year

Ceresna is a beast. He won't need to learn technique from JT that's for sure. However, JT is an excellent X's and O's guy. That part of it all our guys should be listening too.

22 minutes ago, 17to85 said:

Could you imagine going from Thomas to ceresna at DT? 

Dare to dream. I hope Sleepy Kyle wakes up in time before someone else grabs him. That being said the White signing shows he has at least one eye open this year.

1 minute ago, bigg jay said:

I really hope he's taking advantage of marketing money and loading some guys (ex: Willie and Brady) up with it.  That would free up a bunch of cap space and it's not like the club can't afford it.

I have zero concerns about our SMS availability this year. We should have an extra 400k over most teams.

https://x.com/FarhanLaljiTSN/status/2016929100514885783?ref_src=twsrc^tfw|twcamp^tweetembed|twterm^2016929100514885783|twgr^e371f0bba726d497d05d5a273d470d92036c5bbd|twcon^s1_c10&ref_url=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.riderfans.com%2Fforum%2Fmain-forum%2F1221601-news-from-around-the-league

1 minute ago, HardCoreBlue said:

Apparently I hear a player like JC will faciltate better and more focussed play from WJ. If true, a huge bonus to signing a Jake that doesn't end with Thomas.

Go coach JT. 🙂

Ceresna would have to be considered the perfect fit for us. He can play inside and out and dominate. With our DC loving 3 man fronts that is exactly the guy we need.

9 minutes ago, Noeller said:

So much speculation and conjecture... Nobody knows anything. One of the only things we DO know is that Walters said we would be aggressive in FA this year, which tells me he knows he has some money to play with. 

There is no logical way to conclude that he doesn't have a fist full of cash. That's not conjecture, that is math. Last year on the eve of FA, 400k increase was announced to the SMS. KW said he wouldn't use it because he wasn't sure if it was going to be for salaries or not. Only one notable player was added after that in Wilson half way thru the season. There had to be a large portion of that money sitting at the end of the year. Also, to back up my reasoning is that we signed all our big signings just about before December 31, the deadline for 2025 SMS. Not even going to factor in the 100k we saved on Schoen, and a huge run of 6 games injures at the beginning of the season. Wouldn't surprise me if we weren't even at the SMS floor by the end of the season.

I think that not only did KW sign a bunch after the season but pre-December 31st, but he had to in order to be SMS compliant. 

17 hours ago, SpeedFlex27 said:

I don't think Walters will bring Woli back with what is out there already. There are some nice pieces for receivers we could use but now's not the time for our GM to suddenly sit ion his hands like he's done the past 3 years thinking that signing our aging veteran core all over again is work done enough this off season. 

If we wanted Woli we wouldn't have passed on him last year.

14 hours ago, HardCoreBlue said:

To me MOS comes across as a live by the sword die by the sword type person that is probably one of his greatest strengths but also can be one of his greatest weaknesses depending on the scenarios that present themselves. I think he might have a hard time recognizing when to use this strength and when not to use it but hey i’m just a rando guy on the interwebz.

This is exactly why KW needs to be his checks and balance. MOS can get his players to run thru brick walls for him, but he needs a GM that can be his counterbalance because MOS will also do the same for them when business should dictate otherwise. Having KW act at his whim is not good. The best teams we've had are when KW and MOS fought tooth and nail over some players. That has to return.

11 minutes ago, Nolby said:

Do we have much cash left after signing huge contracts to Demski, BO and White to sign Jake if we could?

We should. Kyle didn't spend to the SMS last year for sure based on him saying the 400k was not spendable, so a bunch of those contracts should have hefty portions paid on last year's SMS. We had no big contracts signed at any point last year after the 400k was announced.

15 minutes ago, bigg jay said:

Does he want to leave Edmonton?  He took less money than offered elsewhere to go back there a couple years ago.  I know his wife works in healthcare out there and family was one of the reasons he went back.

 

**nevermind - looks like he is willing to move.  He's still hoping to work something out in Edmonton but will go to whatever team wants him. **

Jake Ceresna healthy after injury-plagued season, ready for CFL free agency - 3DownNation

Would be a massive get for us. Sounds like Edmonton wants to allocate his money elsewhere, or may have already.

5 minutes ago, Noeller said:

Mack signs in Edmonton... Reunited with CoFaj. I wonder if we were in on him, lost the sweepstakes, and took Timmy as a consolation prize...

I think it`s more likely that Mack wanted to be back with CoFaj and we were never really in it if we were interested. Good news is that Ceresna is almost certainly going to FA now and he could help us way more than Mack.

Boy would Jake Ceresna ever solve a lot of problems for us. He would be my target if I were KW.

Would really like it a lot if we signed Mack or Robustelli because of the size and catch radius, but White is a big improvement at one receiver position for us. Gotta be honest. never been a huge fan of his and would like this a lot less if Condell weren`t here....but it is hard to deny that he and Condell seem to fit very well together.

15 hours ago, Booch said:

Saying a guy has obvious flaws...both of them...and signs to rectifying them still seem suspect at best...is humorous?

And coming from the person who wails the sky is falling the most around here...and most times with no basis to back any of it? Now that's humorous.

Me and @GCn20 differ in opinion on a lot...but also agree on a lot if not more..but also try and put some legitimacy and facts with it...you? Not so much 

but thanks for the recognition...😁

We both share the same sentiments on a lot of the problems the Bombers have and a similar ideology on what will be required to fix it. I am just not as opposed to MOS being our HC. I think you share similar sentiments to me on KW's job performance.

I have said all along that MOS has serious flaws that require the GM to step in. That's the difference of opinion you and I have, who has final say on what players are signed. I believe it is Walters, you believe it is Oshea. I think Osh has final say on what players are kept and how they are used, but i don't believe that Osh has final say on who is signed or resigned. Osh should have input but believe that Walters should wear the hat for who is under contract. If he has ceded that authority to MOS then that is a dereliction of duty imo.

Just now, HardCoreBlue said:

lol

4 minutes ago, 17to85 said:

There's nothing wrong with a gm bringing vets to camp... but it's up to the head coach to assess camp and decide the vet has lost his job.

I agree in general. However, once your coach shows that he is apt to making the wrong decision then you need to take that choice away from him sometimes.  Part of a GM's job sometimes is to know your coaches strengths and weaknesses and help offset them through the players you choose to sign.

13 minutes ago, wbbfan said:

Can you think of any successful cases of that being the case currently, or recently, in the cfl? For the life of me, I can't think of a time the GM and HC weren't in lock step. Even the two power-mad guys in Montreal are united. 

Still a pending free agent. I'd love him, but I don't think we kick the tires on him. 

He'd be a good get, but I think if he was a realistic target of ours we would have probably parted with T.Jones by now.

1 minute ago, 17to85 said:

See what I mean?

Dude, you've been wrong in your opinion as many times as you have been right....and that applies to most of us here. 

20 minutes ago, wbbfan said:

Can you think of any successful cases of that being the case currently, or recently, in the cfl? For the life of me, I can't think of a time the GM and HC weren't in lock step. Even the two power-mad guys in Montreal are united. 

United does not mean that every decision is made together in total agreement and that a GM never exercises the right to over rule his HC. I can't think of any instance where a GM just automatically bows to every wish of a GM. He may try to accommodate as much as possible but I cannot name a single instance of any GM doing whatever the HC asks of him. That's nonsense. So, in that regard I can think of many instances of success where the GM and HC are separate roles and have had great success. Any team who has both a GM, and a HC and has won recently has done so because the GM has built the roster, albeit with input from many sources including the HC, then negotiated the deals that make sense and then the HC coaches what he is supplied with.

I have zero doubt that almost every GM supplies the kind of team that the coach requests, and that he listens to the coach when it comes to specific players that mesh with what the coach is looking for. I, also, have zero doubt that most GMs don't sign every single player that a coach wants.

Jim Barker said in an interview with Peterson on his podcast that the reason he lost his GM job in Toronto was that he listened to his HC too much. (It was a joke because he was in a dual role,) But he went on to further explain that a good GM needs to seperate the roles, as coaches don't care about SMS, or long term viability of the team. They want to win now and that is not a good approach to sustainability. He said the GM has to sometimes tell the coach no to certain players and he said that is very tough to do when you wear both hats.

11 minutes ago, wbbfan said:

Yeah, that just isn't how football in this day and age works. 

KW stated in I believe the season-ending presser, or the one for the extensions, that the nature of the working relationship between him and Mos is not one is the boss. He said it used to be a lot of tug of war over every single move, and that it's closer to being on the same page now. But he also picked his battles.  

If you look back at the past 30+ years of this team, the number of times the GM was the HC's boss is few and far between. It's about as many seasons as the GM was the HCs errand boy. And most of those outliers went or ended very poorly for us. 

That is all fine and good. However, it is not a flaw for a GM to over rule a HC when it comes down to it. MOS is a player's coach and with that comes a very real vulnerability as a coach, and that is loyalty to a fault. Walters MUST be able to make that distinction when it happens and act accordingly....and yes that is how football works in this day and age, and every other day and age, MOS may not like it, but that is where they need to find the ability to work together despite each men having differences of opinion. The GM has ALWAYS been the boss of the HC except the times one man had both titles and that was when disaster struck.  This nonsense of KW must do what MOS wants for the kumbaya of the front office is just a cop out.