blueandgoldguy

I don't think that was the general feeling in Bomberland prior to his retirement. Most looked at him as an upgrade to Lefevour and Davis, including myself.

I hope so. Not sure who is out there with previous experience the Bombers could sign. Cato..no obviously given the disruption he appears to have caused in the past and not just in the CFL. Crompton? Not a very good quarterback...erratic, but might be a stopgap. Tate? Bit of a headcase and he always seemed to get injured whenever he is inserted into the lineup. I hope one of our inexperienced backups can actually step in this season and resemble something like a respectable backup QB.

What a loser Durant is for not telling the team directly. I was listening to 1290 and they were saying the Bombers will not be able to recoup the $70k. Durant partially recouped the bonus money he lost out on from the Montreal Alouettes when they cut him this past winter. Maybe that was his sole motivation for signing with the Bombers - recoup some of those losses? Bombers are now in a pickle. Other than Calgary, we have the worst quarterback depth in the league. If Nichols is injured for a lengthy amount of time the Bombers are screwed.

Hamilton signed another old geezer coach, Jerry Glanville. Buddies with June Jones. He hasn't coached since 2009. http://3downnation.com/2018/02/11/former-nfl-head-coach-jerry-glanville-joins-ticats-coaching-staff-2/

So Bowman's rejection of a higher salary with the Riders confirms what many of us have suspected - there is a premium that needs to be paid by any pro Saskatchewan teams to convince players to sign there. Guess it makes sense, lower standard of living and all that...

Back in 2006 Allen was voted the 14th greatest player in CFL history. The top-50 list was voted on by former players. Seems they thought he was a very good player.

Davis' performance reminded me of Alex Brink's first start 6 or so years ago. Deer in headlights...just a disaster. If need be, bring him back for training camp I guess. It would be nice if the bombers brought in some legit competition for a developmental Qb who can actually develop into a starter for a change.

If Neufeld starts they will be lucky to get two-thirds of the season out of him. Hopefully there are better options to start at guard if Bond is not re-signed.

Probably not unusual for any team in the CFL to have 20% of their cap assigned to three or four players. I think Bowman is renegotiated or failing that, released.

As I said he has had success in some playoff games. Not all, some. Many claim he never plays well when it matters. Last I checked ALL playoff games matter. Glenn played better than Durant last year, no ifs or buts about it. And that was behind a suspect O-line in Saskatchewan. I would be OK with Durant as a backup option, but Glenn at this point looks to be the superior of the two.

If Edmonton gets Glenn they will have picked up the best backup plain and simple. durant would be OK and an improvement over Lefevour but he was not as good as Glenn last year. As for the comments that Glenn doesn't win games when it matters, that is true but not all of the time. He won last year's Eastern Semi-Final did he not? I am pretty sure all playoff games matter. Give Glenn a decent running game thereby keeping his pass attempts in the 35 range and he can win games.

This is fine I guess. Based on their questionable recruiting of international talent, the team should probably hire another scout for that.

I think the drop in NFL ratings is attributable to millennials not wanting to spend 3.5 hours watching a sporting event. They prefer to get their sports information via live updates or quick recaps.

I don't see Dressler as an important signing in the off-season. Let him go. He's injured far too easily and not worth the money given his production. It would be better to invest that money in an Arceneaux or Jackson. I hope Walters et al can also uncover some decent cheap receiving talent from down south to improve our depth.

An obvious candidate to replace either/or Walters and O'Shea if things do not work out would be Tom Clements. Similar to Hufnagel, Clements has an extensive back ground in the NFL going back decades - Quarterback coach, Offensive Coordinator and Assistant Head Coach. As GM and/or coach Clements could leverage his extensive relationship with the NFL and college teams to recruit the best players just like Hufnagel. He is older so that might be an issue but he is no longer employed by Green Bay. If he is looking for work and things do not progress here on the field over the next 12 months, Winnipeg should present a serious offer.

Perhaps O'Shea and Walters will end up being the Bomber' Danny Barrett and Roy Shivers. Shivers, then Barrett were hired by the Saskatchewan Roughriders organization in 2000 after a particularly pathetic era of football under GM Al Ford with one fluky cup run in 1997 - sound familar? Saskatchewan struggled in the duo's first 2 seasons failing to qualify for the playoffs, but things started to turn around in season 3. They followed that up with back-to-back Western Final appearances but ultimately failed to make it to the Grey Cup game, let alone win it. Shivers was relieved of his duties part way through the 2006 season while Barrett was replaced in 2007. Both brought respectability and a winning attitude back to the Rider organization yet due to their inability to attract enough talent and coach the players to the best of their abilities they never quite achieved the status as a legit Grey Cup contender or favorite. In the end, the Riders hired more capable individuals in 2006 and 2007 and the team appeared in 3 Grey Cups over the next 4 seasons, winning once (probably should have won two including 2009). Could it be possible that the Bombers will have to move on from Kyle Walters and Mike O'Shea and replace them with 1) a GM who has better connections down south - improving weak spots on the Bomber roster (MLB, receiver, backup QB) and also improving depth with cheap International Talent and 2) a coach who makes better in-game decisions and is quick to recognize players' shortcomings in certain positions. We might find out as soon as the end of next season. If the Bombers are not in a division final next year, one or both of O'Shea and Walters will be gone. That you can be certain of.

Is Calgary some sort of utopia compared to Winnipeg? Their stadium and facilities sure ain't

I'm sure Dieter does not remember his last two games in the CFL and NFL very fondly. 1984 - a butt kicking by his former team, the Blue Bombers, in the Grey Cup under frigid conditions at Commonwealth Stadium. 1986 - a butt kicking by the soon-to-be Superbowl Champion Chicago Bears, in the NFC Championship game under frigid conditions at Soldier Field

Regarding the starting Qbs... Winnipeg - Nichols obviously Calgary - Mitchell - a great regular season qb anyways Edmonton - Reilly the warrior Toronto - Ray - I think he will be back. A free agent so I think they will give him $500,000 same as Reilly Ottawa - Talk of Harris leaving due to some underwhelming results in the playoffs and wanting too much, I think he will be back Hamilton - Masoli will be the starter although I am concerned by his lack of consistency with the short and medium passes. He has come a long way from 2 years ago though. manziel will backup BC - a little less certain of this... I think we will see Jennings being given another shot at starting. Despite his injury troubles I think Lulay will try to come back once again. I give them an outside shot at trying to sign Collaros Montreal - they will go after Collaros or Franklin, Durant will backup somewhere, perhaps Edmonton when they lose Franklin or Winnipeg Saskatchewan - I'm not sure if Jones thinks Bridge is the answer. Kid is pretty raw and might not be capable of being developed into a more polished product or Jones might not have the patience for it. I don't see all of Adams, Bridge and Glenn back with the team. My guess is Jones takes a run at Franklin and if he loses out to another team, he tries to sign Collaros who imo will be released by the cats.

Could Riley be re-hired by Oregon? He put up a respectable record there...went to some bowl games and won a few.

It will be interesting to see the fallout in the off-season. Who do you think won't be back next year? McDaniel for one I guess? I never signed up for the new stamps forum, but I would browse on occasion. Whatever happened to that awful poster Moon? When I went to the forum yesterday, I was expecting to read some insane rants from him. Banned?

They have had a nine-year run of dominance up to this point. Maybe in the next year or two they finally begin to decline to merely good, average, or bad...great players replaced by good or mediocre ones to bring the team down to earth. Of course I am basing this on nothing more than the previous Stamps run of great teams from 1990 - 2000. Shortly after that, they had a 7 year run of teams ranging from terrible to decent.

It happens to a lot of teams. The Stamps might be the most prominent, but the Als of the 50s had excellent teams (sometimes the best in the regular season) that choked in the big game. Also the Als of the late 90s and 2000s had the best teams on occasion only to fall short of the grey cup or in the actual final itself. Same with a few Bomber teams (1993, 1994 and 2001 come to mind). I'm sure it is very frustrating for Calgary fans in recent years given they have fielded some of the best regular season teams in league history but I find some of the excuses rather suspect - weather, officiating and one-game winner-take-all. All past Grey Cup champions have had to contend with these great equalizers of the past. I think a certain sense of entitlement has taken hold of the members of that forum and perhaps much of the fanbase. In fairness, if fan forums existed in the 80s, I'm sure those same feelings would exist here and in Edmonton.

I disagree with some of the posters here saying Mitchell and the OC should have played it safe and gone for the field goal with 25 seconds left. I doubt Calgary has a better chance than 50-50 to win in overtime. It's not like they marched it down the field at will on every drive during regulation. When you have an opportunity from inside the 30 to win it regulation you take it. Unfortunately, Bo should have recognized the receiver in the end zone was being double covered and thrown it out of bounds. Terrible mistake on his part. Calgary would have had another chance at a TD with all the time left too. Take two calculated shots and if that fails kick the field goal and go to overtime. I am pretty happy to see the Argos win considering all the uncertainty facing the franchise heading into last off season. I used to cheer for Calgary at one time , but I started to find it more difficult to do that around 2015 given how cocky Mitchell became. Too much success at too young an age perhaps? He won his first cup when he was 24 or 25? Now Mitchell has lost the last 2 Grey Cups. The 4 interceptions he threw in those games played a big role in those losses. A took a peek at the Calgary Stampeders forum and there is some poster over there crying to the other 5 guys on that site about how unfair the CFL is having a team play a one-game winner take all format for the championship...coin-flip basically. Playoffs should go back to best two-out-of-three or a two game cumulative score...even the Grey Cup lol. Sore loser in my opinion suffering from recency bias due to the Stamps recent regular season success the past 10 years and previous to that, the 90s. Most teams in the CFL could try to justify a similar system to right perceived wrongs of the past.

If the Bombers fail to win a playoff game next year one or both of O'Shea or Walters will be gone. I don't think there has ever been a coach or GM in CFL history who has survived their first five years with a team without at least one playoff win.