GCn20

He would still be under contract. We wouldn't have had him last year or this year..maybe we get him in 2024.

Liam Dobson was the first. However, there is talk that at least 2 of the projected top 10 picks in this draft may be leaning towards the spring leagues if they can't catch on in the NFL right away according to Farhan.

We got Dobson back because his contract was voided when he had work visa issues. Had nothing to do with the NFL. If he doesn't have visa issues he is in the USFL right now. Dobson did not choose the CFL.

Yea....it's unfortunate for sure. Hard to find too many DTs that stay healthy and have long careers. Those trenches just chew people up...particularly on the defensive side of the ball for some reason.

The quote out of BC seems to indicate that he re-tore the achilles again when he was almost ready to come back. If so, it's likely a career ender.

We need to get back to the OUR LEAGUE HAS BIGGER BALLS mentality of marketing. Sure wish we had that commissioner back. We saw a league renaissance of sorts, and then the bottom fell out when he left.

That is exactly my point. Don't give the USFL/XFL any leg up on whose film to watch. NFL is NFL we aren't going to stop them and each of our top recruits will have their agents sending tape and their measurables to every team. The spring leagues can go pound sand and I wouldn't be running live stream combines so that they can look at measurables. We have lost top guys to the spring leagues already. We were lucky to get Dobson back, for instance. I don't think that livestreaming the combine would do much to spark fan interest, and would hurt our retention rate amongst the top of our draft classes. It's my opinion and I freely admit it could be wrong, but right now that's how I see it. The CFL does need better marketing to be sure, and a better and more accessible TV deal etc etc.

Loser mentality? Who the hell do you think the CFL is? We are not in any position to be taking the high road on player recruitment particularly when in it comes to NAT talent. We have seen a significant drain on top end CFL talent over the past few years, and yes some of them are opting for the spring leagues as well.

Mid 90's has the highest attendance overall, but we also had a bunch of extra teams at that time in the US.....and Baltimore was killing it in attendance in an ex-NFL stadium. Really drove those numbers up. 5 decades ago most stadiums were papered with 5 dollar tickets you could buy at 7-11 or the gas station. It's how I saw most of my games when I was a teenager. It was fantastic for the young fan, but not a very good business plan as the league fell into a financial black hole soon afterwards.

There is absolutely no way I would live stream the combine if I was the CFL. No chance I would give XFL/USFL/NFL scouts free and easy access to see the players measurables that we are hoping to recruit. For the price of zero they get to take a look at our best prospects and see how they stack up? No thanks.

I've been lucky enough to spend enough time in the Sub-Arctic that I have seen some truly amazing northern lights displays. The early fall is the best time. Nightly shows that can be quite epic.

KSB is a top 3 NAT receiver in the CFL but is not top 15 overall. Him being the Riders best receiver is a testament to how weak they are at receiver. He is a fringe 2 or strong 3 receiver in this league. He's better than Woli and not nearly as good as Demski. Beating out a 5 receiver isn't exactly proving anything tho, especially at what he would cost. On a few other teams he might be a number 3 receiver.

There is no such thing as irrational knee-jerk Rider hate talking. It is all very well thought out and deserved hate talking. Good God man..

Crisis was an overstatement. Just a snafu really for the next couple years.

Not really a lie. If he is on the PR he likely gets less than CFL. If he dresses than he could potentially earn a lot more. More of an omission than a lie. Terry has been scarce around here lately. Must still be busy eating crow on that one.

The CFL is about to face a crisis on high end NAT talent. Almost 150 draft eligible players have deferred their draft year to next year including 8 out of the top 20 prospects. No one is really sure why? The NCAA guys I can understand, they can now make more playing college football than CFL but the rest makes no sense. GMs are at a loss to explain it. This year's draft is about to become complete bunk and next year, unless we see mass deferral again, is going to see way too many players and not enough rounds to draft them all making them FA's outright.

Exactly. Fajardo threw anyone, and everyone, under the bus for his poor play VERY publically, Evans put the blame squarely on himself, and discussed how he needed to get better mentally as he was struggling with that. Big difference. At no point and time did I ever hear Fajardo speak with humility, or come out and state the obvious that he was struggling with the emotions and mental health aspects of the game. Quite the opposite really....hence the ridicule. One guy knows what the problem is and is trying to fix it, the other guy thinks the problem is everyone else. Makes it pretty easy to determine the difference in attitude towards them.

Every draft sees a boat load of freshly drafted CFLers working out for NFL teams. The difference between Judge and Gray is that at the time of the draft Gray had already signed in the NFL. Judge had a workout with an NFL team. Big difference.

Yes, when measuring the trade one should look solely at the value of the pick and the advantage it gives. The long term value of it is not really in any team's control. Blue chippers can bust, and players can move on after their first contract. That is why keeping and compiling as many as these top draft picks as possible is how winning teams are created. With the benefit of hindsight, Cam Judge followed by Geoff Gray are probably the two best picks to make. Cam is who I probably would have chosen. Hard to say if he would have stuck around or left. We have a few players who moved around before coming to the Bombers and committing to us long term. Also, and not to be diminished, is the fact that at the time we chose Gray he was an NFL player. We were lucky he came back to the CFL. OL from Canada have a fairly good rate of hanging around the NFL.

It gave us an all star DB that was one of the best defensive players in the league that year. Petey gave us a few really good years as backup NAT receiver depth and was great on teams, Ekakitie gave us the luxury of taking a futures pick with Gray. These were all important to our climb up the hill. For sure. Not placing blame on Walters for that one. There was not a lot to choose from.

Wish we would have done more with the 1st overall, but who we drafted does not diminish the worth of that pick. I am in disbelief that anyone would not see the intrinsic value of having the 1st overall pick in any draft year. Draft picks can be busts, but I still place a ton of value on having a top 3 CFL draft pick. Who we got with that pick is irrelevant. It doesn't make the trade better for Toronto, it just means we squandered a golden opportunity. Just having the opportunity of dibs on all draft eligible players is very valuable. For all we know, if Toronto retains that pick maybe they take Cam Judge, or Geoff Gray....

Yep...Heath was an all star for us, Petermann made a lot of clutch plays and was great on the teams, Faith was a bust but his draft position directly led to us selecting Geoff Gray, even though he had signed in the NFL already. Having the freedom to take a futures pick was huge to our build. Gray is a solid starter, and was easily the league's best 6th OL before that. If we don't have one, we gotta pick more conservatively at 8 and that entire draft was a bust really. Only 3-4 really good players out of it.

1st overall draft pick, 3rd round pick, and TJ Heath is what we got for Willy. Doesn't matter how those draft picks turned out. The fact we had 1st overall allowed us to take a flyer at 8 and get Gray who is now part of our league best OL. Petey gave us excellent depth, and played some good football for us. Heath was an all star. Compared to what we gave up.....yea...a king's ransom in return for a broken QB.

What did you think of Willy when we traded him to you for the king's ransom that started paving the way towards our dynasty?

Maybe...but he panicked and completely lost composure at even the sight of a DL even when they were protecting him. I never saw that from Evans. He just made some awful decisions under pressure. Willy was a hot mess and never rebounded.