coach17

I am a huge fan of Loffler but that hit on Manny A. in the semi-final last year was just brutal.  When you see a player doing the funky chicken after a hit it used to be funny, but knowing what we know now it's extremely scary.

IN CASE YOU MISSED IT....
- DE Alex Bazzie signed with the Carolina Panthers yesterday. Former #BCLions had recently been cut by the #Colts  @CFLonTSN
By the way, remember who had the #Bombers taking Ekakitie two months ago? Oh yeah -- @JDunk12. #CFL
Joe Mack’s final draft class as the general manager of the Winnipeg Blue Bombers may be the CFL’s worst of the past decade.
SNIPPETS...
Most mentioned first round picks on Twitter for #CFLDraft Day 2017
1-Faith Ekakitie
2-Evan Johnson
3-Geoff Gray
4-Junior Luke
 
Legendary @HawkeyeFootball Head Coach Kirk Ferentz weights in with @EdTaitWFC on yesterday's first overall selection.
“You guys up there are going to love him.”      .........Faith Ekakitie’s journey to the @CFL has been all but easy. 
"The thought process was Geoff’s going to develop in the NFL. We’ll take the chance, it’s worth the risk for us,” said Blue Bombers general manager Kyle Walters. 
"We had multiple offers on the table, but we took the one from Calgary and thought that was the best."
By the time the eight rounds had come to a close, the Blue Bombers had added eight players to their Canadian prospect pool, two offensive linemen, two defensive linemen, two receivers, a free safety and a punter.
http://www.winnipegsun.com/2017/05/08/blue-bombers-draft-capsules?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=twitter&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+BlueBombersStories+(Winnipeg+Sun+B)
On Montreal kicker Felix Menard-Briere, fourth round, 34th overall:
Drafting the best kicker in the draft doesn’t count as a training camp roster spot. He’s a stronger punter right now in his development than a field goal kicker and if Justin ever needs a break it would be from the punting, not the field goal kicking, so it’s a nice fit for us from a training camp perspective. He has another year of eligibility left so it’s a nice way to bring him in and evaluate him.”
On Guelph DL Ian Marouf, sixth round, 50th overall:
I’m quite confident if he had stayed and played four years of CIS football he would have been a very high draft pick.”
On McGill OL Qadr Spooner, second round, 15th overall:
“We liked him a lot. What we value on the offensive line is a physical toughness and Qadr has that. He was the most aggressive, meanest offensive lineman in the draft
On Calgary receiver Brendan Thera-Plamondo, seventh round, 59th overall:
“He is a receiver at Calgary and a very good long snapper as well, which is one of the reasons that we brought him in.
On Alberta receiver Tylor Henry, eighth round, 68th overall:
Tylor Henry is just a speed guy, big play guy and we’ll see how he does, 
On Grambling State DB Abubakarr Conteh, third round, 23rd overall:
He was quite an unknown but when you watched his film there’s something a little bit different about the way he looks and the way he moves
http://www.winnipegsun.com/2017/05/08/bomber-able-to-draft-three-of-their-top-five-picks?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=twitter&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+BlueBombersStories+(Winnipeg+Sun+B)
AND
http://www.cfl.ca/2017/05/07/team-team-look-2017-cfl-draft/
?‍?Everybody's heard about the end zone repairs at the IGF field over the off season. The official word was to make the concourse bigger..Yada yada. What they didn't mention was the lowering of the end zone wall..at the request of Jermarcus Hardrick. #needtobeabletojumpupthere..
TORONTO – The Canadian Football League (CFL) is once again hosting a series of season preview conference calls this year to give media access to each team ahead of the kickoff for the 2017 CFL season.
Tomorrow Wade Miller, Kyle Walters, Mike O’Shea and Matt Nichols from the Winnipeg Blue Bombers will be available at 1:00pm ET.
Later tomorrow at 4:00pm ET Brock Sunderland, Jason Maas and Mike Reilly from the Edmonton Eskimos will host a call for the media.
Abubakarr Conteh - They took the hometown boy...I'M A BLUE BOMBER!!! God had a plan all along...the work starts now! Thank everybody for the love and support.
Justin Dunk - Trio of #CFLDraft picks attending #NYGiants rookie mini-camp 3downnation.com/2017/05/09/tri… #CFL #NFL
Edmonton Eskimos - The following players have been released: DB Donnie Baggs, DB Mike Dubuisson, LB Alex Hoffman-Ellis, and DE Jabari Hunt.
?‍?Now this is funny..
"I think Kavis Reed did a real good job with this draft." - @TSN_Marsh says #AlsMTL were winner of 2017 #CFLDraft. #CFL via @TattiAndMarsh
 

Kohlert was a disaster last year.  I was a huge Kohlert fan but he was a total liability on offence in the last half of the season.  When you're the 5th receiver, all you really gotta do is catch the ball on the rare occasion it comes your way, and he couldn't do that.  Not only that he dropped it in the worst possible way.  It was the right time to move on.

That makes more sense than the 3down one. There are going to be some surprises.

That makes more sense than the 3down one. There are going to be some surprises.

A brief statement from the first practice:
Very cold and windy, and obviously making things look difficult out there for the first day.  It's been very basic so far.  Timing and communication issues are evident between the QBs and receivers.  Roberson and Duncan appear to be as advertised when it comes to foot speed.  Duncan getting some good looks at the boundary spot and was probably the most consistent of the group.  Greenwood tracked down an errant pass and had a deep over the shoulder pick on the wide side of the field. 
On a side note, great seeing the guys on the field after what has been a long off-season.

Reason why RF went down......
 

Well coached the argos, which is basically running a business at the ground level. Then he was president and CEO as well, which is running a business, and a football business from the top.   He also has a degree in economics from william & marry.
If you want a face of the league, and a guy who isnt learning football/cfl on the fly but lives and breathes it idk how you could do any better. 

https://theratiobreaker.com/2017/04/06/2017-cfl-draft-prospects-ols/

Based on today's 1 on 1's here's how I'd rate the top 10 at the combine this year -
1) Danny Vandervoort, Rec,Crisp route running, got open and fought well for the ball, caught almost everything thrown close to him.
2) Junior Luke, DL, Strong bottom end, gets underneath well and has great leverage.
3) Johnny Augustine, RB, Great blocking, straight ahead speed,and good hands - beat at LB's in pass drillls, dropped a few against DB's, he did receiver drills as well.
4) Dariusz Bladek, OL, Good positioning, nice footwork.
5) Dondre Wright, DB, Athletic, speedy, great positioning, fought well for the ball.
6) Nate Behar, Rec, Athletic, strong, fast, made a highlight reel catch.
7) Adam Laurensee, DB, great range, fast closer.
8) Kwaku Boateng, DL, fast, hard to contain, great moves, a little undersized.
9) Jeremy Zver, OL, great positioning, won most of the battles against DL
10) Evan Foster, DL, motor that won't stop, undersized, did LB drills as well and did not look out of place.
You can watch all the drills on cfl.ca, it's about 2.5 hours, there is a lot of talking but the nice thing is you can skip what you don't want to see.
 

He looked pretty good, but Vandervoort was head and shoulders above everyone else. There was one Dback that was outstanding as well, Dondre Wright, who was knocking balls down and making interceptions, Vandervoort beat him on a deep one.

It could potentially take into account all of those things and that is part of the problem with the way Dunk reports these numbers.  All I've ever seen from him is pictures of portions of his spreadsheets that he sends out on Twitter without explanations as to what numbers go into them, or what his methodology is.
The NFL sites that track and post these analytics at least define and tell you what and how they are calculating things.
Here is a sample from an NFL analytics site:
http://archive.advancedfootballanalytics.com/2012/01/temperature-and-field-goals.html


 
What you would basically do is compare the league average of each kick for a kicker based on down, distance, (maybe temperature / wind speed) and see if overall they are making more or less then league average on each kick then add all of those up for their overall number.

Boy that's sure not going to make the players happy. No cap on coaches/management, but a tight cap on the guys putting their physical health on the line week in and week out. 

Every team had at least one opportunity to select him and didn't select him.  Some chose twice not to select him.  Montreal chose three times not to select him.  Calgary, who took him with the last pick in the 2nd round, passed on the option to select him once.  The Riders took Nic Demski.  Ottawa took Jake Harty.  Bombers took Richards.  Calgary took Durant.  That are the facts when it comes to the 2015 draft and receivers.
So at least three teams had a receiver preference that did not have Durant at the top, two that didn't have him second either and one that didn't have him in their top three.  This can be called a fact.
Who would Calgary have picked if any or all of Demski, Harty and Richards had still been on the board at the end of the second round?  There's no way to know without having access to their pre-draft rankings of receivers.  Every team could have a different one, or a completely identical one.  There's no way to know.  Calgary might have been very disappointed to not get the hometown Harty.  All of this is conjecture.
The only thing we can call a fact when it comes to Calgary's selection of Durant is that they had him ranked higher than the 6 or so other receivers that were taken in the draft after him.
When Ottawa took Harty, did the Bombers say "CRAP!" and move on to taking their next highest guy (Richards), or did they high-five each other because Richards was still on the board?  There's no way to know without being in the room.  That would be conjecture.
Is Durant a "headcase"?  Probably not.  What does that mean?  Does he store rings of garlic sausage in his shoes?  Maybe.  I haven't met him.
Were non-football factors the reason he was taken at the end of the second?  That is the reason that was widely reported.  When something is widely reported it usually means one of three things: 1) it is true, or 2) there is so little information available that every is repeating that thing they heard because they have nothing else to offer on the subject, or 3) break out the tin-foil hats because there's a conspiracy going on.

Yep, give him a chance. He's got the tools and unfortunately injuries have plagued him his first couple of years. He's still young and you never know. 

I want more Canadians if anything. That's why I watch this game. 

@MiltStegallTSN
I've been a free agent since 2009 and @sskroughriders just offered me a contract! Told me they're trying to sign all remaining #FreeAgents
 
That made me chuckle....wouldn't surprise me....

The LaFrance situation reminds me a lot of the the Hurl situation when he signed with us. Paid like a starter and using him as a ratio breaker before he's proved he can be a starter. Could go either way for the Riders.

There wasn't a lot for the Bombers to accomplish in FA.  For the same reason that the Stamps aren't making a bunch of signings (wish it was we're already the best team in the league, but no) - most of the spots on our 2017 roster are full.  We decided we didn't want Bass, so what one person considers a disaster the Bombers consider it as going exactly according to what they intended.
Okpolaugo filled a spot.  Nevis fills a spot.  Darvin Adams was re-signed a month ago.  Nichols was extended a month ago.  Our entire starting Oline under contract, with our two starting NI's Chungh and Goossen both extended.  Bryant and Medlock shuffled around and still under contract.  Harris here for two more years.  Hurl and Briggs re-signed.
Other than Nevis, free agency was about some depth.  We still take runs at a few guys like LaFrance and Westerman but both have a $$ limit on how aggressive we can be,
So what's left?  I assume we will continue to try and figure something out with Denmark, but if the Argos plop a big bag of money in front of him he's gone.  Middle linebacker?  Is there one on the market who suits our needs?  Oline depth?  With Couture, Indzandt and Neufeld as depth and two first round picks in the upcoming draft, I don't see a need that justifies the money.
So a NI DT and #2 RB would still be nice, and we still have room for a QB on the roster.
With Fantuz injured there aren't any NI receivers that are a big deal other than Durie and Getzlaf,  After that the biggest name out there is Kohlert.  Maybe Bailey can be picked up economically, but nothing happens economically on day one of free agency, so if Bailey is the guy people want to see here there will have to be some amount of patience.
Not really a freak-out day from my perspective.  We have a draft and about 20 NCAA signings to come before this roster is ready for camp.

Things didn't go his way, so he's losing his mind.
They've made a decision to go to a more traditional middle linebacker instead of two WIL specialists, so Bass is gone. He's a great player, not a good fit for what they're trying to do. I respect their decision to go in a different direction and the reality is, it's going to give us some savings as well.
Burnett is solid, he should be a great player but he also reminds me of a guy like Alex Hoffman-Ellis in the sense that he's a great teams guy with potential to fit into a starting job - still has to get there and he wasn't going to get it here.
Those are the two big losses.
Now you look at what we added and the big one for me is Drake Nevis. I've been a huge fan of this guy ever since he started terrorizing offensive lines last year. Just so that there's no accusations of that "he's a Bomber now so you think he's great" bias coming from any Rider fans, here's what I said about Nevis last July:
And I believe it. He's got the ability to be an elite defensive tackle in the CFL. If you had asked me prior to free agency who I'd want between Micah Johnson and Drake Nevis, it's Nevis all day every day and we got him for 35k less than Micah Johnson. Hodge thinks we overpaid? On what basis?
Nevis' impact on our D can't be overstated. Cummings, while a very good player, was not an every down defensive tackle for us. Nevis will play a heavy majority of the snaps. He's a dominant run stopper and for a defensive tackle, he's got some serious pass rushing abilities. There was a club move he laid on Chungh last year that was one of the most dominant snaps from a DT I saw all year. And he'll do that all game. We're going to be a much tougher team in the trenches. High energy, high motor, wear-you-down kind of guy. Exactly what we needed.
Then there's Okpalaugo. Solid, solid rush end. If he can come back without skipping a beat, he's going to be exactly what we need on the other side opposite Westerman, because now all of a sudden, you can't just scheme away from our strength. 25 sacks in two seasons tells you all you need to know, this guy is going to get after the quarterback.
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I'm happy with what we've done so far.

Seen a lot of stuff on Twitter saying the Bombers having a really bad day, especially if they "miss out on" Westerman and LaFrance.....I dunno about that. I feel pretty good about things today...

BC probably also has a better opportunity to start.

Loffler's got injury history, and the way he hits. Matt Black would be a nice pickup.

It's a game and it's still early, Joey Elliott and Alex Brink are still out there too. It all comes down to money and where you want to spend it. Walters is being patient and that's good. At least he's not panicking and looking at the Youngs and Manziels out there.

People complain that the Bombers don't develop their own quarterbacks.
People complain when the Bombers think they may have developed a backup quarterback.
Conclusion: Wiecek just likes to complain.
Promoting Davis is no doubt a risk, but the whole point of letting the third QB develop is so he can work his way up the depth chart. At some point every team at QB or any other position makes the decision to promote players up the depth chart. This isn't unusual. 
Clearly the Bombers feel he's ready for the job. Or maybe they just feel that he's better than the soon-to-be 38 year old Kevin Glenn (and that doesn't seem unreasonable, either). I don't know. I'm not particularly a Dom Davis fan, but I don't think this is far and away a terrible decision.  Maybe it blows up in their face but then we can argue that for any other position too. This just happens to be the QB spot, which of course is going to draw the most attention.