GCn20

Loyalty and class were never his strong suit. Glad that Rider fans got their come uppance with him after bragging relentlessly about how he chose them over the Bombers. Now they can see Labatte cares about Labatte and that is all he cares about.

That O'Shea loyalty has paid off in spades. The proof is in the pudding. We all questioned it....and we were all wrong.

Salary cap can't change until the CBA expires. Didn't even change this year. Teams were asked to commit to the SMS floor is all.

Labatte bailed on them for sure, and I'm not sure he would have been any better had he showed up. I think old Brendan saw the writing on the wall. Apparently he was in awful shape just prior to opting out. Some Rider fans were reporting that he looked to be about 400 lbs.

I agree. You can DEFINITELY lessen your odds dramatically of your picks ending up as busts. You'll still get some busts. that's the nature of any draft, but by scouting thoroughly, knowing what you are looking for, and doing a good assessment of character your draft record can be improved dramatically. Take the Riders for instance, under Jones they took futures consistently and drafted guys like Shepley who let it be known their priority was the NFL. While compiling rights to a bunch of skilled players it does nothing to put players on the field. Drafting guys who will never show up in a CFL camp, or will look to leave first chance they get ala Judge, Demski, Shepley is not a recipe for success even if they are the most skilled guys when your draft number comes up.

I'm not sure why Edmonton did that either, a little more understandable though as they are kind of in rebuild mode so getting your NATs a little playing time instead of airlifting people in is a little more excusable....still strange though. I know that the covid protocols make airlifting a lot more problematic but in Saskatchewan's case if they get an OL they are a contender, and without one they are dead, seems really weird that O'Day doesn't seem to want to address this? Not only that but they have been awful from day one...it's not a recent development.

Walters was our ass't GM and director of canadian scouting under Sleepy Joe so he was definitely involved in the decision to draft Mulumba. However, at the end of the day Mack has to wear that. All in all though I don't have a problem with the Mulumba pick as he was NFL calibre talent. Not a bust. Just a guy we could never get signed in the end. We had our shot at him a couple years ago and Walters wouldn't do the deal because he was asking for too much cash. If we had signed him who knows how that pick is viewed now. A swing and a miss to be sure and a wasted pick in hindsight but really not an outrageously bad one. A gamble that didn't pay off. I still say that I think Mack drafted him because his buddy in Green Bay was going to do him a solid and release him but Mack got fired and Dom gave the Bombers a screw you instead. It can't be overlooked that Mulumba did come available in his prime and we were unable to come to terms with him though.

A trade would be tough. However, the RIders are currently starting 9 NATs. 4 along the OL. Why they aren't airlifting a couple IMP OT and OG prospects is beyond me. They could go 3 IMP OL without breaking a sweat and get pylons like Ferland and Boyko immediately off their OL. Corney was a 2nd rounder so I wouldn't call him a bust. With Waggoner we bid our 1st rounder and paid dearly since it turned out to be the 1st overall but he was developing nicely until he decided making sports drinks was more profitable than football.

Corney and Waggoner weren't busts. Both played well in there time here. Waggoner was a good STer and valuable back up and Corney was about the equal to what we have in Kongbo now but his career was shortened due to injury.

You forgot 1st overall Faith Ekakitie in 2017. Wolitarsky cost us a 3rd rounder. Ekakitie was easily Walters worst solo pick in the 1st round but the Wolitarsky supplemental made up for that boner.

Not a cultural fit is code for he openly questioned the teams coaching or management.

What absolutely astonishes me is how a CFL GM can allow 5 OL to walk away, or retire in a single offseason and not do a damn thing about it. I get that O'Day was caught off guard by Vaughn's injury and Labatte's retirement but he absolutely failed miserably in signing Bladek, Blake, or Shepley to extensions or to properly guage that Cofield's knees were so wonky he had to retire. But even if all of that was excusable how on god's green earth does he justify continuing to roll out that abomination of an OL 10 games into a 14 game season. Lauderdale, Ferland, and Boyko are PR level OL at best...maybe not even that and there are no other options even. O'Day has had 3 months to bring in adequate OL...he has done nothing but supply his coaches with absolutely sub par OL. Why on god's green earth is this guy not bringing in or trading for OL? Poor old Craig Dicky is going to get terminated for some god awful GMing by O'Day and Fajardo will likely have his career ruined due to shellshock the same way Drew Willy did.

Fajardo would do well in a Lapo offence. Fajardo is a game manager like Nichols and needs that type of offence and personnel around him. Asking Fajardo to win the game with his arm is a recipe for a losing record, just like it would have been if we asked Nichols to do it. Saskatchewan loves their shiny baubles and spends on skill players instead of their trenches and it can be exciting football at times but is not how you build a champion. The Riders don't even try to fix their trenches right. Garbage DEs because an over rated Micah makes all the cheddar, and an OL that, despite being a problem for years, has never really been addressed (JSJ bust, Shepley never wanted to be there, Mattland Riley a reach at his pick that needs a ton of development). Look at their high draft picks they've used on OL, any of them playing? Even there non OL draft picks either mediocre or left first chance they got. The RIders badly need a new person in charge of NAT scouting and a GM who will commit to building from the lines out instead of overpaying head cases like Marshall, Gainey or throwing big bucks at pedigree like Duke Williams or Micah Johnson.

He was a decoy. There was literally no chance the ball was coming to him and therefore almost no risk for further injury. I'm not suggesting they should have played him, just that there was no real risk in doing so either. Exactly...that's what makes this strange. There was literally no chance he could do anything but go for a run out there. You can tape up a game cast in no time. Which is what they did. Broken bones heal, as does tissue damage. Concussions are forever.

Newsflash: Players play with broken bones all the time. If there is minimal risk to further injury it is not an issue. If taped and supported there was really not much risk for Whitehead to do further injury. It was stupid by the LIons to trot out a one handed receiver but he is far from the first guy that's ever played with a broken bone.

What success did Maier have? 16 points is not a successful offensive game. Calgary's defence played lights out against us. No love for Tom Europe? I kid... Mo Kelly at S was a physical guy as well.

Don't forget the red zone interception that's a missed FG at the very least as well.

You look at guys that were called out on their dedication at times like Willie J in Sask, or Andrew Harris in BC, and see what our culture has woken up in them. Amazing what a good locker room can do to motivate each other and now these guys are leaders on our team. Then you take a guy like Chris Streveler for instance, how can any team mate look himself in the mirror and not give up his body 100% after watching that guy.

Yep...QFT

A hammy is not something you can play through as it significantly effects your ability to run and is something that will effect him until he can completely rest it for a few months really. I have not seen many players have hamstring problems and have success in the same calendar year. They usually need an offseason of rest and conditioning to get back to normal.

Where was this advice 15 years ago. I needed it man.

Went to a Buffalo Bills forum and looked what the fans were saying about Duke in camp. Wasn't much about him but one comment stood out. Take it with a grain of salt because it was a fan report from camp but apparently Duke appeared to be very slow compared to last year and completely out of shape. The comment was that the OL were getting downfield faster than Duke. This was from a poster that suggested he was a big Duke booster in 2020 and was very dismayed by his TC performance. This falls in line with some other reports that were out there that he was not able to create any separation at all in camp and looked sluggish all camp. Wonder if the Riders did their due diligence on this.

The thing is the score really didn't tell the tale of the game. It was such a dominant performance this could easily have been a 35-40 point spread. Bombers left a ton of points out on the field by turning the ball over and then going on cruise control for most of the 4th Q. The eyeball test tells me that the Bombers completely dominated every minute of the game on offence and defence. What else was the panel going to say after a beat down like that. It was that dominant.

I believe his QB efficiency in his last 6 games of 2019 was hovering right around the 90 mark too after being well over 100 the first half of the season. Teams figured out that if you keep him in the pocket and don't let him beat you with his legs that he is toast. Contain and he is done. Every team knows it, and now he must succeed with a below average arm.

Duke will be a better receiver than what they've got for deep balls but the fundamental problem with their deep ball game wasn't the receivers. Fajardo has been wildly inaccurate. If Faj somehow manages to develop chemistry with Duke and his OL can keep him upright so he can place his throws that can change but for now the problem stems from the LOS and QB. Duke won't help that. That reverse pivot was working wonders for him for about 9 games in 2019 and then the league caught on and his QB rating dropped exponentially after that. Still good numbers but not elite. Faj is a mid tier starter in this league and has been since mid 2019. Early 2019 he was playing MOP ball but he was also facing pretty much every team for the first time and no one had the book on him yet. Now they do and it shows.