gbill2004

Darren Cameron says 2017. Bombers website says 2016. I've requested clarification.

Bombers extend contract of Feoli-Gudino The Winnipeg Blue Bombers today are pleased to announce the club has extended the contract of National receiver Julian Feoli-Gudino. The extension keeps Feoli-Gudino in Blue and Gold through the 2016 season. Feoli-Gudino appeared in 16 games in 2014, starting seven, after being signed as a free agent in January of 2014. He finished the season with 24 receptions for 210 yards and two touchdowns, including a game winner with under a minute to play in a July victory over Montreal. “Julian became a reliable receiver for us in somewhat limited playing time this past season,” said Blue Bombers General Manager Kyle Walters. “If you think about some of the big catches he made for us, not just the winning touchdown in Montreal, but also a huge third down catch to keep the winning drive alive in Hamilton, he has shown the ability to come through in the clutch. He can return kicks, play special teams, he works hard and is a solid locker room guy for us, so we are pleased to get this done with him.”

@Wpg_BlueBombers: Pleased to announce, the #Bombers have extended the contract of WR Julian Feoli-Gudino!

@CFL: JUST IN: @REDBLACKS hire Bryan Chiu as OL coach. #CFL

It's funny that you mention this because I was thinking about this the other day. In my opinion, it's not the corner fade routes that need to go. It's that they really should not have had Romby Bryant being the one to run the majority of them. That could be a solution, but either way the corner fades stopped working as the season went on. In my opinion, a corner fade route is a high risk pass, so I'd call it much less than we did last year, especially when you only have two downs (NFL you can take more risks). Still keep it in the offense, but minimize it. I'd like to see us sign a big, physical WR, who is like 6'5" who we can use in the red zone on jump balls. Aaron Kelly is tall, but not physical enough to use as a primary jump ball red zone guy. I had hopes Urrutia could have been that guy, but he obviously didn't work out.

I firmly believe the Bombers OL is no worse than league average. It's the system that made them look bad last season. The offense and the OL can be improved with a few simple adjustments: Move the pocket around a little more. Prevents opposing defenses from zeroing in on Willy. Not saying turn Willy into Reilly or Collaros, but move him around more (10-12 times a game instead of 3-4), it'll keep the defenses honest. Install/call more quick slant passes. Allow Willy to get the ball out of his hands quicker. Consistently have an outlet for Willy, this can be a tight end, running back, whatever. Willy needs a safety valve when he's under pressure and can't find his primary reads. Minimize the corner fade routes as part of the red zone offense. Paris Cotton will help with the run game this year. He's much more elusive, has better vision and hits the holes with more authority than Grigsby.

@CFL_News: Giguere rejects #Ticats' contract offer, expected to hit free agency http://t.co/eJDRnBZJQd#CFL via @TheSpec

From today's Ottawa Sun: The Ottawa RedBlacks and their starting quarterback Henry Burris have given each other a nice Christmas present. The Sun has learned that the 39-year-old Burris agreed to reconfigure his contract, which has two years remaining, to allow the RedBlacks to gain cap space for the 2015 season. Burris got the money early, with the cash pushed forward to the 2014 season, with the RedBlacks having the cap space to spare. RedBlacks GM Marcel Desjardins confirmed the agreement, also emphasizing that Burris will return for the 2015 season. "Henry (Burris) does a lot of good things, but there are things he has to do better," said Desjardins last month. "Are there plays that could have been made? Absolutely. But the same could be said about everybody." The CFL salary cap was $5 million in 2014, with Burris earning more than $450,000. There will be a slight bump in the cap for the 2015 season. Increased salary-cap room will allow the RedBlacks more flexibility to look to add players either through free agency or trades. "One of the things we lack is big playmaking ability," said Desjardins. "We would hope to be able to get a couple of players who are difference makers. We can't go sign 10 of them. But we know who we want. Last year, we were willing to spend if it was the right guy. We're looking at the list and there are going to be a handful of guys who are very attractive, guys we would like to have. "One thing that's encouraging: There are players on pretty much every team who are passing the word along that they'd love to be here. They see the environment we have here and they see we're not that far off." The 2015 list of free agents includes receiver and return specialist Brandon Banks and receivers Duron Carter (who will get NFL looks) and S.J. Green. Other free-agent options include receivers Greg Ellingson, Ernest Jackson, Samuel Giguere, Luke Tasker, Weston Dressler and Brad Sinopoli, linebackers Bear Woods, Marcellus Bowman and Odell Willis, offensive linemen Ben Heenan, Brett Jones, Greg Wojt, Matt O'Donnell and Tyler Holmes and defensive backs Delvin Breaux and Geoff Tisdale.

I could see O'Shea not wanting Khari Jones on the coaching staff for political reasons. It was widely speculated that Miller wanted Khari as Bombers head coach.

@ProStarSports: Hey @CFL fans & @RiderNationCFL ...happy to announce @jamelrichardson has signed with the @sskroughriders! Congrats JR!

Interesting tidbits regarding the offensive coaches near the end of this article from Bob Irving. Also noteworthy is that Bob Wylie is expected to return...I wonder if it's full-time or part-time? Here's the full link: http://m.cfl.ca/article/irving-oshea-etch-couldnt-reach-compromise. Irving: O'Shea, 'Etch' couldn't reach compromise The Winnipeg Blue Bombers' season ended on Nov. 1, 2014. 47 days later, after much agonizing and discussion, Mike O'Shea made the most difficult call of his one-year tenure as head coach of the Bombers when he fired defensive co-ordinator Gary Etcheverry. Given the time it took, fair to say it wasn't an easy decision. Firing friends, people you respect, never is. O'Shea says he had many discussions with Etcheverry about altering his defensive philosophy but none met with his satisfaction. "It was a long process of evaluation and lots of time spent with Etch trying to come up with a good solution going forward," said O'Shea. "In the end, the number of changes I was going to ask Etch to make, I just felt he wasn't going to be able to truly believe in the solutions I wanted." Etcheverry runs what could best be called an unusual and unorthodox defensive scheme which features multiples of odd-looking and off-balance defensive fronts, and which doesn't include a playbook of any kind. It's the same kind of defence he has run during his decade with various CFL clubs, and for the first half of the 2014 CFL season, it was effective enough to allow the Bombers to post a 6-3 mid-season record. But as the losses mounted in the second half, so did the yards rushing against the Winnipeg defence, and when the season ended, the Bombers were dead last in the league in points allowed and rushing yards allowed. Etcheverry's defensive philosophy had gone from being 'quirky' to 'disastrous'. O'Shea said he hopes to hire a new defensive co-ordinator "sooner rather than later. At the same time I don't feel like we are in any rush. We do have time." The two leading candidates are no secret to anyone. Recently fired BC head coach Mike Benevides, who has years of experience working with defences, and long-time CFL coach Richie Hall will be the first candidates O'Shea talks to (if he hasn't already!). And Hall, who was shunted aside as Saskatchewan's defensive co-ordinator, would have to be considered the leading contender. Hall has a wealth of experience as both a player and coach, he is respected by all, and he runs the traditional type of defence that O'Shea is looking for. O'Shea said the future of the rest of the Bombers defensive coaches would be in the hands of the new co-ordinator. Meanwhile, O'Shea removed any type of cloud that might have been hanging over Marcel Bellefeuille's head by stating that Bellefeuille would be back as the Bombers offensive co-ordinator. Receivers coach Markus Howell and offensive line coach Bob Wylie are also expected to return, but what happens with quarterbacks coach Gene Dahlquist is uncertain. Dahlquist joined the Bombers from the U.S. college ranks in 21014 with no CFL experience. Logic might suggest that running backs coach Buck Pierce, who retired at the end of the 2013 season after playing the quarterback position for eight CFL seasons, might be a better choice to tutor Winnipeg's young quarterbacks Drew Willy and Robert Marve.

Indeed O'Shea's comments during the Etcheverry departure news conf suggest Drew Willy will be on a short leash.Huh? I assume you're joking.Me too.. I have a very hard time believing that we are even remotely considering moving on from Willy or short leashing the guy..And the fact that I watched the entire press conference and O'Shea didn't allude to Willy being on a short leash at all. What O'Shea said between 5 mins 30 and 6 mins 20 in that news conf is hardly a ringing endorsement of Bellefueille or Drew Willy. I just re-watched that part and I don't see how that could be interpteted as Willy being on a short leash.

I wonder who is present at the interviews?Mike O'Shea is present.

Yeah, we'll have to see what happens. Isn't it amazing that it seems the only team who never has this problem are the Riders? Yet they have more veterans & are an older team across the board so they're payroll should be bigger than the Ti Cats. Actually the Riders had this very problem last season when they lost several players because of cap issues. Craig Butler being a big name that comes to mind.

LOL! Do we have THAT MUCH pull? Obviously the Bombers read this site as witnessed Kim Babij-Gesel posting here but somehow I don't think Walters or MOS will take our advice. Kim will make it happen. She's got a lot more pull in the Bombers organization than you realize...

Indeed O'Shea's comments during the Etcheverry departure news conf suggest Drew Willy will be on a short leash. Huh? I assume you're joking.Me too.. I have a very hard time believing that we are even remotely considering moving on from Willy or short leashing the guy.. And the fact that I watched the entire press conference and O'Shea didn't allude to Willy being on a short leash at all.

Indeed O'Shea's comments during the Etcheverry departure news conf suggest Drew Willy will be on a short leash. Huh? I assume you're joking.

@PentonKirk: @garrettbillan1 They reacquired the rights the Shea Pierre and Ezra Millington.

@mattsekeres: Anticipate that George Cortez will join as @BCLions new offensive coordinator. Could be part of Jeff Tedford announcement later today #CFL

Hall was injured last year so he was unavailable to play. I believe it was his shoulder.

Yep. We were there a little over 2 weeks. We did 2 excursions off the resort. The rest of our days were primarily spent on the beach and playing in the ocean.

Apparently they just experimented in college but nothing serious developed. Does. Not. Compute... I didn't mean a sexual relationship.

I think the real question here is... who in their right mind is up at 4:16 am?!?!I'm in Punta Cana right now so it was actually at 6:16am Up at 6:16am on vacation in a warm and sunny destination with your electronic internet device, posting on a message board. Your priorities are clearly different than mine. Get out there and enjoy, dude. You only live once. My job on vacation is to get up early and put our towels on the loungers so we get a good spot on the beach (yes we play the towel game). So I get up a few hours before my GF and have a few hours to kill early morning.

I think the real question here is... who in their right mind is up at 4:16 am?!?!I'm in Punta Cana right now so it was actually at 6:16am What the hell are you doing on this site while you're in Punta Cana!?!?! GO DO SOMETHING FUN!!!Man, when I'm in Playa next month, I will NOT be posting here.... ...STOP APPLAUDING!! Nothing better than sitting on the beach reading about the Bombers. My GF is reading her Kindle. We did a dance on the beach yesterday when I read Etch was fired! lol

I think the real question here is... who in their right mind is up at 4:16 am?!?!I'm in Punta Cana right now so it was actually at 6:16am