BigBlueFanatic

Well put, Booch. Nailed it. 

We really going to put ANY blame on Brady for the current playoff run? Since he became starter there has been 3 instances of RBs running for more than 100 yards in the playoffs... Brady, Brady and Brady. In those 4 games Collaros threw for more than 200 yards once and has a TD/INT ratio of 1/3.
Running Backs are interchangeable for the most part, but for Brady at least you are buying his prime instead of the decline. It's likely this contract is his one pay day and then as all RBs do he hits the cliff at 29 and will likely be cast aside. The drop off from an MOP Running Back to whatever you can find will likely be reasonably steep, and if you can't trust the passing offense in the playoffs where will that get you?

The team is built so the window probably runs out after 2025. I think short term Brady probably is going to be more meaningful than Schoen, especially with Demski and Lawler on the roster. Of course I would like to have them both back.
 
 

I believe BO is gone....sucks...good dude...but not end of world....not needed for ratio, and easily replaced....Schoen I think we work it out...If not Coxie in T.O would be a nice piece to go with Lawler..Demski...Woli and whomever is the other guy..Be it Bailey, or one the new guys we signed...even Alston.
as far as culture...depth...we have the culture and depth in spades to keep it a factor....so the lack of bringing JT back wouldn't have affected it in the least...G=-Having Strev back even more than off-sets that for locker room leadership/culture continuation....and also too much is being put on finding the "perfect" fit culture wise, and that other good athletes are bad characters...Heck WJ was considered that from outside looking in, but he's one of the biggest policeman in the room to make culture work...If you see a talent or have a chance to bring a guy in...You do it and it will work itself internally...Unlesss you bring a doucher in like Marshall
And another point back to Streveler...and this belief/narrative that he couldn't be a legit number 2...let alone number 1....and can't pass.
He came here in 2019...with 2 whole yrs of QB experience...total...in his life....did some things...made some rookie mistakes, but was thrown right into the fire at the pro level with basically one TC worth of exposure to the CFL....and now has 2 yrs CFL experience...and won games, as well as 4 yrs of NFL training and exposure....soaking up all he can....I can ell you all you will be rather impressed what he brings now and how he looks...We have a legit 1b guy...who also possess a unique skill set to be used outside of just QB...we have secured the best #2 in the league...and a guy who could start for a piddly 120k base....just food for thought

I'm something of a bright-sider myself.
Getting to 4 Grey Cups is an accomplishment in itself. Winning 2 out of 4 ain't bad either. But winning sure does feel better than losing...
When people get critical of the Blue it helps to remember they likely suffered through the drought same as the rest of us, and they simply want what is best for the team, the best for winning football games. I'm sure some guys especially fear regression because they don't have another 30 years on this Earth to wait for another championship.
Expecting an all-star at every position is silly, but wanting/wishing for upgrades, especially from some of our older and less dominant pieces (Kola, Jake) isn't. I get the disappointment.
We all remember what it's like to be a bottom feeder, none of us want to experience anything close to that again any time soon... hence the creeping concern...
Thank goodness we have the staff we do... they led us out of the wastes to the promised land, now we are navigating being victims of our own success, but if anyone can do it in today's CFL it's KW and co.
 
TL:DR: Koombaya, praise the trinity

Maybe I'm drunk ( I am) but anyone else think the jake Thomas signing is 1000% for character and character alone. Dude knows what it's like to be a blue bomber.
To me it's interesting that we applaud this organization for having character guys, yet now when we sign character it's upsetting.
4 grey cups in a row guys. We can have our oshea roster doubts. Let's trust Walter's to do his job.
If Walter's says Thomas adds value.. I'm behind him
4 GREY CUPS in a row. 2 plays away from winning 4 straight. Man I get the resentment, I do. But Thomas was signed for a reason. Maybe a reason we don't understand yet. We've been given no reason to over analyze yet.. this ain't previous regimens..
My first 28 years of life on this earth we didn't win a grey cup. Now we've been there 4x straight and it seems like a good portion of this board is ready to jump ship like it never happened. I get that we need to be critical but let's reserve that until we haven't made a grey cup lol. Seriously. We were in the conversation to be the worst pro franchise in sports. Everyone hold their horses. These guys know what they are doing
We have people on this website ( and I mean this respectfully) who think they know better than the management who has brought us to where we are now.
- and to those people who know better. Where are your grey cup rings and why aren't you coaching pro football? It's easy to be critical like friesen when you ain't making the calls..
To winning a grey cup that dodged us for 29 years... shessh man. Do we not remember where we were just a few years ago?

He is not more over rated than say Demarco Houston...

Bombers legend Naaman Roosevelt

there are several guys on the roster who can long snap....That "excuse" holds no weight
And on special teams...he did absolutely nothing....was noit key to any part of it, and he was also on a ST cover unti that sucked all yr long
And any one can play that role on offence for 6 to 7 snaps...anyone who has physicality....Again...Jackson did nothing that any Canadian...especially the fullback we had who played it all his life...and was good on teams that we dumped for no reason....Jackson was on roster soley due to Osh's boner he had for him....and we had most canadian snaps for offence and defensive plays...ST does not factor into that so again...that aspect means diddly...No team in league rosters a DA there...no one ever has...and likely no one ever will...as it's an utter waste.....except Osh...plain and simple....cut and dried.
And his reps on defence in garbage time were comical bordering on embarrasing....but I sure we gonna get that waste all yr again
, at the expense of some talent that could help us
 

if he was Canadian, no problem.... also, if we used the ratio rules properly, less of a problem.....

Hate it. Status quo is exactly the opposite of what this regime needs to be doing. 
 

Betts might be the most overrated player the CFL has seen in some time.

Interesting that he played two g and T spots. Looks like he’s a guard by nature though. But a big ass guard. I actually prefer shorter stocky interior ol. I think being tall makes it tougher in the cfl. looks like the pats brought him to convert him to T long term. 
 Guy played a crazy amount of snap with out giving up a sack, even for a guard. 500 in one year with no sacks allowed and went 900 snaps with no penalties against. Played with a mild pain near his stomach. Then a couple days later he had ruptured his appendix and played through it, and lived with it. Then didn’t want to have the surgery till after the season and wanted to miss no games lol. Tough business. 
  And he played against some monster nfl prospects. Not hard to see what they like about him. 
 
 

I can't see us letting a talent like Schoen go without throwing a very big number at him to stay. Guys like Schoen don't come around often. He is a legit top of the league receiver that has barely scratched the surface of his career. He is a unicorn when it comes to replacing him and what he brings to an offence.

Poached from the Canadian Press:
"It was kind of one of those things where I wasn't getting a ton of real looks anymore," Streveler told reporters Thursday during a video conference. "I've been home since August . . . I've been training waiting for a call for 18 weeks and it just got to the point where I was kind of tired of playing that game.
"Everyone knows how much respect I have for this (CFL) game and the players up north and, of course, my love for Winnipeg. It was dry on the NFL side and I was like, 'Let's do it.' I just want to play ball and fortunately was able to get the opportunity here. I'm beyond excited about it."
I enjoy that last sentence.

I'm curious how much, if at all, the Bombers worry about the optics of letting a local kid who's involved in charities, etc, go elsewhere.... there's a lot of dumb people who don't necessarily understand the dollars and cents of it all, and just see the Bombers not willing to bring him back. I know we all don't really care about that, but I'm curious how much the Bombers think about it from a PR standpoint...

It would be cool to line up the depth chart for a week in May, set up a ring at midfield and everyone fight to see who survives in helmets and shorts.
But everyone knows that isn't how it works.  There's a handful of rookies/discards fighting for how ever many spots are left, coaches monitoring their habits, fit into team and pretty much everything else is locked in.
This isn't only in this sport or this level.  Everyone is preparing to play games.  Not replacing half their roster the week before the season.  
Opportunity knocks when it does.  Guys get chances to play due to injury or poor performance, work onto roster, work into roles.  The major roster movement happens this time of year.  If it's happening in May to November the team is probably ****** from the jump.

John Hodge drinks 3 beers on a podcast and starts making **** up.

Honestly, good for him. He gave us everything he had - he deserves to be paid. 
 
I think $165k is fair from our standpoint though. 

I'm definitely good with RedHawk at SAM and not averse to a Hallett at S... I think most of us felt like Kramdi got better and better with each snap. 

Lawson was taking more snaps than Jake by the end of the season, they only had 3 DT's in rotation so they all got plenty of reps.

I see we’ve proceeded to the part of the off-season where we forget that replacements for old players don’t cost $0
SPECULATIONSZN
The cap is $5.585 million this year, that’s roughly 125k per spot on the active roster.
people would be horrified if they saw how much Jake Thomas, Jesse Briggs, Shayne Gauthier, etc were making. Hell, did anyone discuss how we’re also paying Cam Lawson about 140k this year? 

Let's not forget that Collaros and Sir Strevolution can be on the field at the same time. 

The big kick in the nuts with the Kolankowski contract is simple.  It's no secret they're trying desperately to find the money to keep Olivera around (else he'd be signed right now) and Kolankowski was probably the most obvious "vet" to let walk with an internal replacement.  From an on-paper fan POV, it's as easy as subtracting Kolankowski and one of Neufel/Gray and replacing them with Eli and Dobson, then rostering a new young guy as the 6/7 and saving a bit of cash.  Pretty much any other veteran FA we have, there aren't nearly as many internal options to replace them, if any at all.  That's the main driver of the Kola contract hate. It has little to do with whether he's an average starter or whether he's being paid like a middle of the pack OL or a bottom end starter.  
 
Plus there's also the last 2 seasons of doing the same thing and seeing the same results (losing in the grey cup) and an obvious place to try something new was the interior of the OL, which showed more cracks last season than it has in any of the previous 5.