GCn20

He told the Sun that he will not be returning to the CFL this year. Wants to explore all NFL options first. Next year tho....hmmm.

Sure...you can ask for your release from the PR at any time. What you cannot do is talk to any other team while you are on another's PR. That team, in order to even talk to you, has to poach you. Ottawa could not have called Piggy's agent before he was released from the PR, that's called tampering. Not saying it doesn't happen....but if a player were to ask for his release based on an offer he received via tampering....I don't want him anyway. FIFO. You are trying to spin it that players on PRs are able to field offers from other teams and that simply isn't so at least not within the confines of the CFL rules. What team would block a player from leaving if he wanted to? None probably. However, at that point I would have serious questions about their character anyway because you are either a player with a me first attitude that is taking his ball and going home, or you are a me first player willing to operate in a pretty shady manner to advance yourself. In short, if Haba asks for his release from the PR...good riddance.

I am hoping that Hamilton is eliminated from playoff contention soon so we can swoop in and make a trade for Kongbo. I think he is another guy that would really like to come home like Lawler.

A team with 3 straight GC appearances and the talent we have is always going to have a hard time getting all their talent on the field. We will have and have had good players walk because we couldn't pay them or we couldn't play them. In that regard, we are victim's of our own success. I'd love to hoard talent but that's just not the reality we face. We also have seen numerous players stay in diminished roles here too because of our culture and our winning ways. Rasheed Bailey just immediately springs to mind. Drew Richmond as well, who has turned down a few attempts over the past couple years to be poached. In all honesty, I think that Walters is going to make a surprise move before the trade deadline to shore up out cup hopes. Likely targets will be from Edmonton, Ottawa, or Hamilton. I would think it will be on defence. Right when we get sleepy on our roster, KW quite often makes a big move. Last year it would have been Lawler, so a big fish this year would not surprise me.

It doesn't happen more because it is rarely successful. Teams block PR poaching attempts a lot, we just never hear about it. The player is under contract if the team exercises their right to activate him. Simple as that. Teams can't just go out and go shopping on other team's PRs and don't do it often because they then have to place someone from their AR onto the PR and expose them. 95% of PR poaching attempts are unsuccessful.

Not true....many, many players decline being plucked from the PR of the team they are on. Also, most times these moves are thwarted by that team simply activating that player if another team swoops in. Yes he can retire, or just quit and go home. He cannot just walk off our PR to another team. Can't do it. No. Cannot refuse. If they did they would be activated then suspended. No...no it's not. Teams block PR poaching a lot more than you know by activating the player. Many players refuse to be poached as well.

BC has about 15 DEs on their roster already...lol. Hey, if another team feels they want him and we choose to not activate him then we will cross that bridge. I will call a spade a spade at that time and be pretty pissed to lose a good young rookie. No. That's not correct. We have the option of activating him to the AR if someone tries to pluck him and Haba is under contract here and would have no choice. Pigrome and Montgomery were both FA's and not on the PR. WBB's statement is factually incorrect. As is the statement that players have a choice to decline being activated to the AR. They do not have a choice. They are under contract.

Booch, you and I agree far more than we disagree on here but it is misleading to say that many think it's hunky dory. From the comments I have seen all through this year on this forum about 98% of this forum recognize there are issues with roster management. What you are calling out isn't a refusal to recognize a deficiency, what you are calling out is a refusal to get all worked up about it. There is a MASSIVE difference between the two. If this coaching trait upsets you fire away, let her rip, but don't get upset and dismissive to posters who aren't quite ready to pick up pitch forks yet. People fully recognize this is a problem, and quite frankly has been since MOS took over, but this problem has been overcome in past years very successfully to the tune of 2 Grey Cup wins and 3 straight GC appearances. That is why many of us are chill about it. MOS has clearly demonstrated an ability to consistently win...not just games but championships....despite his shortcomings. If at some point MOS fails to be able to produce wins as a coach then I am fully willing to dissect every aspect of any short coming he is showing that led to it. That being said, I wish he would dress Haba and a better returner. I share your concern on that.

Possible. Although Haba would be on a rookie league min deal you would think.

Not sure? Forgot about him.

Nope 2021 DC lists and game day roster: Kongbo, Jeffcoat, Fatboi, Walker, Sayles, Richardson,Jefferson, Hansen

The official Bomber depth chart actually says we dressed 8.

All champions get a lucky bounce here or there..but we went out and won that game legit. Their were 7 DL dressed and rotating in and out that game. Are you suggesting we wore them out?

Now you're just being silly. I get your frustration but our roster has been very rookie friendly over the past few years and they have played some dynamite ball for us too. Young guys have been breaking through on our team and our scouting has been exemplary. Alford, Nichols, Schoen etc. All given the keys to the kingdom in their rookie years and excelled and helped us win Grey Cups.

I agree. I think we have become over reliant on the long ball in the passing game. I get why when you have Lawler, Schoen, and Demski but we need to pick our shots a little better.

Wake up to what precisely? Not a single person here is denying that roster management could be better. What the majority of us are saying is that it is not a problem that requires the panic that we are seeing from some posters around here. We actually have bigger problems to overcome than roster management if we hope to win the championship again. You can scream that the sky is falling if you wish....but that just simply doesn't make it so. Our biggest problem this year is consistency and showing up early in games. Fix that, and we will be just fine even if MOS continues to make head scratching roster moves. In a perfect world he would fix all 3 problems by the playoffs, but that might not even be fair to the league if he does. And yes....every coach has his day. Dave had his and it was reflected in his win/loss record and an obvious decline in his team's compete level game in and game out. Also, MOS and Dave constructed their rosters and locker rooms VASTLY different....and if you think that Dave was a players coach, you are dead wrong. Players respected him and feared him, but they didn't love him. If you are suggesting that MOS is approaching the point that he is losing his locker room you are out to lunch. You are trying to find massive defect in minor imperfections.

That is how I see it too. The stinkers we have put up this year have more to do with our star players laying eggs than our rotational and depth players. Ottawa game, Collaros throw a pick 6 late in the game, and Schoen drops a perfect TD strike and voila Ottawa claws back in and Bighill somehow loses his ability to tackle. Edmonton, Zac plays miserably throws a pick 6 and another interception early to gift wrap 22 early points for the Esks before we come back and cream them. Montreal....two pick 6s and we still cream them after a slow start. The RIders, Zac has 2 yards passing late in the first half after several dropped balls by his receivers. When out stars screw up we tend to see the worst stretches in games and it is most often early. Just need to clean that up a bit.

A returner, I agree, can be important and that is my big beef so far this year. However, you will have to get me up pretty early in the morning to ever convince me that rotational players are just as important as good starters. Haba is certainly a head scratcher, as he is a good player, but honestly McRae, Burtenshaw, etc just put em in the blender and dress whoever. It's not going to really impact much. That's debatable. lol...lose tomorrow...as if

I agree. While his roster usage has not been optimal, the angst about it on this board, by some, is over the top.

Players, to a man, love him as a coach. Stay with him and flock to him when given the chance. Says all I need to know about what the players think of him. Osh is by FAR the best coach in the league. The players know it, and the results speak for themselves. Does he have a couple quirks....yep....sure does....minor ones though. If our best criticism of him and his staff is who fills out the bottom couple spots of his game day roster than I think we are just fine in the coaching department. I mean really think about that. Who the 45th and 46th men are on our game day roster. That's the beef? Not insignificant, but not earth shattering either.

Not one person is making excuses for the roster management. Everyone is in full agreement it could be better. MOS will have a statue next to Grant's by the time he is done, and yes he does know more than any of us ever will. That doesn't mean he doesn't have weak spots. I will take his weak spots in trade for his strengths any day of the week. The "excuses" you are referring to are not excuses. While some of you are grousing about roster management but knowing we are still a very well coached club and legit GC contender...others have taken this issue and a couple of losses and are signalling that this is the armageddon of the Bomber ball club and that is flat out ridiculous. That is what many of us are defending against because it is so far over the top it is not even funny. We are easily the favorite in the West to be in the Grey Cup, and it's a toss up between us and Toronto as to who is the best in the CFL right now. Could we be better if our coach rostered better, possibly....but it wouldn't be by much.

Yes, our roster management was not an issue last week. Our first half egg we laid was. When Edmonton took it to us in the first half, that wasn't on roster management either. The only time I think our roster management truly cost us was late in the game against Ottawa and only because the Bombers collectively decided the game was over and started playing completely half arsed and only woke up when the game was on the line and they were dogged out. We do not need Bennet for ratio reasons but we do have to dress a minimum number of NATs every week. Not saying that's a good reason, but Bennet over Haba is still a benefit roster wise. Wow...we are lucky to have won a game this year.

Yea...wilting or being embarrassed is quite the hyperbole imo. Are there games we played poorly in stretches, lost focus etc.....yes...but really we only lost one game where we wilted and were embarrassed in. The other losses were simply not matching the other team's intensity at key moments of, or the beginning of the game. Saskatchewan didn't beat us last week because of anything they did, they beat us because we somehow didn't bring intensity to the LDC and by the time we found it we had pissed away the 1st half. You are right. We gotta put in 60 minutes. This is all highly and pretty easily fixable stuff tho. We are heading down the stretch with a highly veteran team, I can't imagine a circumstance in which this is something that lingers much longer. Some butts will be kicked that need kicking and this team will be ready. We wilted in one game, where we thought the game was in hand, we started poorly in 2 others losing one and making a massive comeback blowout victory. This isn't as bad as it seems. It's just not what we are used to seeing but like I said, the vets in the locker room will step up and by the end of the season we will be playing 60 minute football wire to wire. If we do that, I am not sure there is anyone that can beat us.

The only team that has embarrassed us is BC. If beating Edmonton by 30 points, or losing the LDC in OT to Saskatchewan is embarrassing us, then you have a very strange definition of embarrassment. Teams lose, even really good teams lose, even Grey Cup champs lose, through the course of a season. You are standing on the edge of the cliff prematurely imo. And yes, I consider 8 out of 9 wins by two scores or more, 1st place in the West with a .750 winning % to be dominant. Go back and watch the 2021 season, we had similar problems playing for 60 minutes for the first 2/3 of the season but would put it together and win in dominating fashion in the 4th Q. That's been our MO for a few years now. Wear teams down. Now all of a sudden we are not as dominant as we used to be? We have a few more warts maybe, but this season's team is the most explosive and dangerous team we have fielded over the past few years imo. Once we clean up the inconsistency that we've been showing, and yes that's very fixable, this team is as good a Bomber team as we've had over the past few years.

All I can assume at this point is that there is information that MOS has that we don't. MOS is not stupid, does not have his head up his ass, and has forgotten more about coaching football than any of us will ever know. We have the benefit of criticizing his moves in a bubble without access to the whole picture. I wish he would explain his reasoning once in a while because we would likely all have "aha" moments after and learn something but he keeps the locker room in the locker room. C'est la vie. From the outside looking in some of his roster choices are hard to logically explain. I have to assume that their are reasons for them that we are not, and never will be, privy too.