bearpants

Don't forget Jones did manage to have a championship defense with Cauchy Muamba at safety last year... he has the ability to effectively hide someone at safety...

I watched the game on PVR, so kind of in fast motion... but that being said, I was concerned with a lot of things I saw last night... specifically on offense... receivers not getting open... O-line opening up some major holes... for the wrong team... Drew Willy holding onto the ball for too long... the offense being based around 3 yard dump passes (hopefully that can be attributed to the pre-season playbook)... I really don't feel comfortable with a bend-don't-break defence... I'd like to see more 2-and-outs and more pressure up front... we basically brought an entirely back-up D-line so I'm hoping that's a major factor.... never the less, this team has some work to do... and I really hope they fix up these things before the real tests being...

Our LS is actually a WR by trade... though no one ever expects to see him on the offense... unless you're referring to Tim Cronk, the back up (possibly 3rd string after Wild)... he's a FB...

I believe Mtl, cgy and EDM have around 10 Canadian O-linemen... there's got to be a few decent depth guys that shake out from one of those cities...

Draft starts at 6 central, kick off is at 7:30.... I imagine the Jets pick will happen some time before 6:30...

Burnett at SAM and Leggett moving back to safety is certainly a possibility...

I will state definitively that Drew Willy WILL make the team... you heard it here first!

When did Burke coach the Esks?

Oh yeah, you definitely round that up!... congratulations

I thought Flanders was one of the better players last night (yeah I know it was 3rd stringers vs 3rd stringers)... he's still a long shot and he'll need to return kicks to make it... but I suspect the coaches will want a long look at him on Monday...

haha said the exact same thing to my friend at the game last night... Now that we have Odds and Sods... Bombers season is officially back...

I believe O'Shea is on record (possibly on the coaches show) as saying he would give Willy enough reps to get into a rhythm, then pull him... so we may only see a few possessions, or possibly the whole half depending on how things go...

The rest of your post kind of contradicts your initial statement... you basically said "I don't care about pre-season games and here's all the reasons I'm excited about tonight's game"... Don't pretend you don't love it as much as the rest of us

I read somewhere (sorry I can't recall where) that O'Shea said Willy would play long enough to get into a rhythm... so theoretically if the offense comes out and dominates on the first drive, he could be one and done...

generally if you have to make that statement... well that speaks for itself.... He also has an impressive ability to take a tough question and dance around it for several minutes without actually answering the question... who says this guy isn't a politician!

Yeah that's exactly the problem... where do you draw the line... I'm sure this debate has been going on in Bomber offices for a while now... and the main reason why I don't see it ever happening...

He was RG for all 18 games last year...

Out of everything he said... this is the one point that really hope turns out to me true... Re: Macho Harris... I was never enthusiastic about this signing.... I generally tend to cede to the "experts" in player analysis... I just hope they're right and all us arm chair coaches gladly look stupid...

that's essentially what I was saying... while I'm normally not in favour of it I would be ok with a few exceptions... as listed above...

I've never been in favour of retiring numbers for the same reasons listed above... I think there could be a few exceptions but they would have to be the best of the best historically... I think you could make a case for permanent retirement of #11, #63 & #85 (not that they use these numbers anyways!)...

If this is true, then St John is being unreasonable and the Riders are in the right... also, if this is true, John Murphy lied in his "tell all" interview with Jamie Nye about offering less as a "market correction"... I have no issue with the Riders offering him whatever they feel is appropriate... I'm just sick of hearing about this market correction BS and how they are arrogant enough to think one deal will completely revamp the rookie pay market... I suspect in the next CBA there will be a rookie pay scale for the first round, there by eliminating a situation like this in the future...

no, no... that can't possibly be right...

Great report, thanks MoD... By the sounds of our competition at DB... I would guess Bruce Johnson is no lock to make the team... I'm starting to get concerned we may only have Corney for 3 years... but what a 3 year stretch it should be... hopefully he'll remember the team that gave him his start when he returns to the CFL...

I've been browsing through these threads the last couple of days out of curiosity... There's becoming a distinct difference between the level-headed ones saying "darn, we seem to have screwed the pooch here. Let's at least try to get a decent return for him"... and the ones saying "yeah, go get em Jones! you guys are the best, no one pushes the Riders around, he can sit an rot for all I care!"... Imagine the panic around here is we had a first overall (or even first rounder) refuse to sign... The one thing the rah-rah rider fans fail to recognize is... if they offered 80k + bonus and incentives (give or take)... he'd be in camp right now, there would literally be no issue... and those same fans would be praising Jones and Co for their work in signing him...

There's no way signing one player at a lower rate will suddenly set a new market for top picks... that's why this whole argument is BS... the market is already set... last year's first few picks and this year's first few signed picks are what the Riders will have to pay St John... otherwise he'll never suit up for them