blueandgoldguy

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. 

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.  

Unfortunately, we are never going to be healthy in week 20.
Our depth is going to be tested every single year, and you have to be able to put wins together anyway.

the whole "hire the best guys!" argument is so  old and tired. It's been debunked forever. The unfortunate reality is that we're talking about Winnipeg. We have a great new stadium and a stable hierarchy at the top, but we're still Winnipeg who hasn't won in a billion years and are not the most desirable city to live in (especially compared to Toronto, Vancouver, Montreal, etc...) 
I remember Lawless going over all this before MOS was hired and saying "Listen, we're never going to get the Trestman's or Huff's of the world, so what we have to do is hire the very  best rookie we can get, and pray they develop"......

I'm glad you asked, I've been meaning to get a few things off my chest now that the season is officially over:
A. Hire proven winners, people who have had success in their current roles, not rookies as your GM and HC, would be a good start
B. They will in term hire quality co-ordinators, not people on their 3rd go around with the club or dog and pony shows like ******* Gary Etchevery and Rich Hall
C. They will also have connections in the football world, which is the USA and not Canada, a network to draw talent from. Do you even know who our Director of Player Personnel is? A ******* Canadian whose claim to fame is scouting junior football and CIS!!! Are you ******* kidding me, this must be a joke right, not.

I think and hope that Ray sticks around. He's a great QB and great for the league. A competitive Toronto team is good for the league. 

They just announced the hiring of a new HC at Oregon State  - Jonathan Smith.

I think they need to shake things up & move some expensive older core players. McDaniels & maybe Charleston Hughes. There was absolutely zero leadership from him after the game when he criticized Kamar Jordan when he fumbled. They can't stand pat with this underachieving group they have. 

I know some of the guys on the Stamps forum personally. They're great fans but at least one is being totally myopic playing the victim card which is totally ridiculous. They're in shock, they're angry & grasping at straws to try to explain to themselves why the Stamps continually choke year in & year out. I think most are in a state of denial & are embarrassed losing to the RedBlacks last year & the  Argos yesterday. I feel bad for them as it is agonizing knowing they lost another championship. BUT...they need to come to grips with the reality of the situation. Bottom line is the Stamps didn't make enough big plays to win but allowed too many big plays & lost. In the biggest game of the season they came up woefully short. Great teams don't do that. The Stamps have a lot of great athletes but they are far from a great team. The Bombers were a better team than the Stamps. The players believed in one another & had each other's backs. The Stamps on the other hand were throwing each other under the bus after the game.  That's not a team. That's a bunch of individuals playing together. Big difference. 

Publicly throwing your teammate under the 18 wheeler, in the wake of a brutal championship loss......
That don't impress me much...
 

I ******* love my team.
In the same hotel as them. Partied all night. Tip: never get to the buffet after the o line has been there first. 
The Argo Bounce. It's real.
Heading home. No voice left. 8/10 hangover. Still not warmed up. Feeling fine.

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.

Edmonton was not healthy going into this game though.
 
https://www.esks.com/roster/
 
It speaks to a lack of depth on the Bomber roster that they suffer a few injuries to their starters and play poorly the final third of the season.  This team had the fewest man-games lost to injury in the entire CFL.  Management needs to do a better job of recruiting talent from the US next season.

Edmonton was not healthy going into this game though.
 
https://www.esks.com/roster/
 
It speaks to a lack of depth on the Bomber roster that they suffer a few injuries to their starters and play poorly the final third of the season.  This team had the fewest man-games lost to injury in the entire CFL.  Management needs to do a better job of recruiting talent from the US next season.

I'm happy that the Bombers are staying on CJOB.  As already touched on by a few posters, if there is a conflict in the schedule between the Jets and the Bombers (and there will be) Bombers will get the boot, while the Jets will get top priority.  Not exactly an ideal situation for advertising your product to the masses.
I have listened to the Bomber pre and post-game show on 1290 and I have it to be quite good.  I enjoy Walby's take on the game and while Walby is not as eloquent as Doug (everyone remember overneath?!) he doesn't come across as arrogant but rather jovial.  Plus Walby the offensive lineman > then Brown the defensive lineman.
Westwood is OK on the morning show though I could do without the fake moral outrage he expresses from time to time.  I find he has made an effort to learn things during his tenure on 1290.  ie. analytics in hockey.  Toth is terrible - the worst thing about 1290 at this point.  
Toth - makes a point about something.
Westwood or Bauming or some other host - easily refutes the comment
Toth ignores his previous comment defending a particular stance and agrees with co-hosts - "But that's what I'm saying"
Ralphie pretty good and comes across as polished.  You have to like his dry sense of humour.
Hustler is enthusiastic and has a pretty good grasp on most of his subject matter.  
I think the ratings for the drive home are also quite good for 1290 though not as good when Lawless was one of the co-hosts.  He and Hustler had some good chemistry.
Overall average ratings for 1290 probably take a bigger hit in the evening and late night - moreso than CJOB - due to the airing of out-of-country radio personalities.  I doubt there are many in Manitoba who listen to Jim Rome and ESPN radio as obviously do not focus on anything in Canada let alone Manitoba.
Offhand, there is some truly hilarious filler content on the weekend.  I had the radio on as background noise while I was doing some work and there is a weekly Esports (Electronic Sports AKA Competitive Videogaming) show on with two hosts..I don't remember their names.  On one show they were talking about these "athletes" retiring and the consequences for life after video games as compared to their counterparts in traditional sports.  Such topics are handled with extreme gravitas  lol.  I guess one's fingers and thumbs are never the same after several years in the rough-and-tumble world of video games!

I believe the last time the Bombers hosted a playoff game the break-even was around 25,000.
Not 100% sure, but I believe the Bombers need to pay league fees, stadium costs, visiting team's costs etc., etc..
A sell-out would mean a tidy profit, but no where near 3 million.

A month ago, you could make a very good argument for Nichols over Reilly. I don't think you can now.
The higher completion percentage and the lower number of Int's is because of the number of short, uncontested passes that Nichols has thrown to RB's behind the LOS.  It's what PLAP's offence is based on. Voters will go with the big plays and will mostly ignore the Int's because they know that Reilly got a bunch of them when he was pushing for wins late and trying to will the team to win on his own when he only had Zylstra to throw to.

I remember when many people on the old site thought we had great QBing with Pierce, Elliott and Brink.  

Dressler and Adams would  not replace the top-2 on Edmonton or BC and the results would be the same.  Puhlease.
Lapo's system is perfect for a guy like Nichols and our receiving core.  Nichols does not have the arm strength or accuracy on long throws to go 20+ yards to the same degree the likes of Reilly can.  Put lapo in Edmonton and Reilly would still be chucking it down the field on a fairly consistent basis.

LaPo likes to stretch the field horizontally & it seems 90% of his throws on 2nd down are always short of the first down marker relying on the receiver to make the YAC yards for a first down. I admit I don't like the system overall but it's been a godsend for Nichols as it suits him to a tee. In Year 3 of this offense with Nichols in 2018, it should be time to take it to another level by throwing more deep balls downfield. Outside of Adams, there's really no INt'l receivers on our rosters I really like. Dressler can't stay healthy & at 33 is it wise to bring him back? Denmark has absolutely disappeared the last 4 games. None of our qbs throw to him anymore & he's become a wasted talent. So, is it time to move on with him? The other Intl's? Don't really care as they don't do much at all. We need to restock & replace. 

This isn't entirely true.  Edmonton started the year with several injuries and it grew to around 13 players injured around the middle of their win streak.  Only when injuries reached around 20 players did the Eskies inevitably start to falter and go on a losing streak.  They still have some players out with season-ending injuries while pulling off several wins recently.
 
In contrast, once the Bombers lost 3 or 4 players to injury they quickly went into the tank sporting a 1-2 record going into this weekend's game and looking pretty mediocre to awful in all of them.  The Esks were able to handle several injuries at the beginning of the season (many more than the current Bombers) and still win.  The Bombers play took a noticeable downturn with just a few players out of the lineup.  On that basis, it is pretty clear a team like the Esks has better depth than the Bombers at this point in  time.

Bowman shouldn’t even playing for Edmonton. Guys like Duke Williams have outplayed him this year. 
Corey Greenwood has never even played a down for Edmonton, Derrell Walker wasn’t on the team. Those Edmonton injuries aren’t that big.
They also made moves to acquire guys like Aaron Grymes and John Chick which has helped them.