Sorry but I don't like the total silence coming out of Bomberville, but that's just me; I like action and news  like all of you.  Yes we've extended a contract or two and we are distributing the year-end money before the 2018 salary cap  comes in.

But what are the deep thinkers in our organization planning to do?

 I hope they are not thinking status quo; that never seems to work out well. Unless we are dedicated to making sharp improvements here and there, I believe we atrophy from last year.  

After the 2017 NFL cuts were made did we bring in any linebackers for a sniff? I saw other prospects up here but maybe I missed something.

We have got to fix what's broken and I think somehow management must know more than we do ... we are good prognosticators with our comments on this site but I would like management to show us up. 

We are not hearing a lot of news out of the Calgary and Edmonton football clubs so maybe our Blue Bombers are an elite club now (as we join those two in their silence). 

But man I hate twiddling my thumbs as I wait to see what our local gurus are going to do. No news is bad news, say the bored ...  Well at least were not coming off seasons like Ottawa Hamilton and Montréal had.

So maybe I should be grateful for our club and its management.

 

1 hour ago, B-F-F-C said:

Andrew Harris is animpact player. Mumba hasn’t  been since he returned from the nfl. If he was that good, he wouldn’t be released every year. 

Andrew Harris is a special situation.  He's playing with a hometown discount plus he's got an offensive co-ordinator who really knows how to use his skills and a qb who's on the same page. Muamba is a solid middle linebacker and would make a two-fold impact on the team. He would solidify our weakest area on D with quality play and also give us much needed non-import breathing room on the roster. Overall..  Muamba would definitely provide an impact.

1 hour ago, B-F-F-C said:

Andrew Harris is animpact player. Mumba hasn’t  been since he returned from the nfl. If he was that good, he wouldn’t be released every year. 

He was released to pursue NFL options twice. He was only straight-up released by the Riders recently when they spent like drunken sailors and he wouldn't agree to renegotiate his deal.

I would say that Muamba was quite impactful the second half of last season.

Blah blah everyone will change their tune as soon as muamba signs

i can’t believe we got him for only 200k...!!!

25 minutes ago, JCon said:

He was released to pursue NFL options twice. He was only straight-up released by the Riders recently when they spent like drunken sailors and he wouldn't agree to renegotiate his deal.

I would say that Muamba was quite impactful the second half of last season.

And Montreal.

There seems to be an idea out there that it is the agent's and player's responsibility to supervise GM's to make sure they are spending prudently.  The NHL GM's now lock the players out once every decade as a variation of this logic, that GM's need to be protected from their own idiocy.  Except in football, no guaranteed contracts, so they can just release their poor spending decisions.

Muamba has the same value as any other elite veteran NI starter in the CFL.  The price on those guys falls between $150,000 and $200,000.  If a GM loses his marbles and signs a bunch of guys all at the high end of this range, like Montreal did with Muamba and Martin and a few others, then they have to repair their mistake(s) at some point.

I don't know what the Bombers can afford based on their current commitments.  Henoc is worth around $175,000-$185,000 based on what the market seems to be these days.  If the Bombers can't afford that, maybe Muamba signs a 2 year deal where he sees a raise in year two, giving the Bombers time to make cap adjustments to their roster in the offseason.  Maybe Montreal can offer him more.  Maybe Montreal can't and they still do anyway.  I know even less about their cap situation, other than rumours are that they overpaid to get their FA's.

I trust that Walters won't offer Muamba more money than we can afford.  That's about the only part of this situation that is certain.

And also that it is not Henoc's job to prevent GM's from overspending on him.

Really pretty amazing to think that Hardaway got Muamba... $50k for four games with Montreal - possibly an off-season bonus like he had with the Riders... so maybe $73k...  then he would have had $100k+ guaranteed before training camp even begins...  released before his bonus meant that he had another spring to try out for NFL

Basically the Bombers can sign him for $190k this year because he'll still make $225k thanks to the Riders

Hopefully Muamba's NFL dreams are officially dead - I think two years at $190k this year and maybe 220k next is a pretty fair deal

 

 

Henoc would not only improve our MLB spot and thus our defense but also improve our roster flexibility (ie 4 I Receivers for example).

3 hours ago, B-F-F-C said:

Andrew Harris is animpact player. Mumba hasn’t  been since he returned from the nfl. If he was that good, he wouldn’t be released every year. 

Dont agree on muamba. The guy is a tackling, scraping to the ball machine who is great at ripping lose the ball.  I would also expect his best football is infront of him. 

11 minutes ago, rebusrankin said:

Henoc would not only improve our MLB spot and thus our defense but also improve our roster flexibility (ie 4 I Receivers for example).

Also our special teams, and leadership. I mean a different type of leader. A guy to get the D jacked up. Randle and mo are guys who lead, but in a different way. 

Henoc is exactly the type of signing we need to take the extra step this year. 

53 minutes ago, rebusrankin said:

Henoc would not only improve our MLB spot and thus our defense but also improve our roster flexibility (ie 4 I Receivers for example).

In an 18 game season losing NI starters to injury will happen.  I'd have 10 starter-calibre NI's on the roster if we could afford to.

Last year we lost Westerman and thought we could probably get by.  Then two games later LeFevour throws a death-pass to Harris and we're thinking we're screwed.

Signing Muamba might be the reason we don't have to start Brendan Morgan* in week 15.  Yeah, that's an unlikely example.  Point is when talented NI's get injured you still have to put NI's out on the field, so you have no choice but to use less talented ones.  Let's do everything we can to not resort to bottom-feeding off our own roster.

 

*No disrespect intended Mr. and Mrs. Morgan, just picking a player that most here won't assume is potential starter this year.  I'm sure your son will prove us wrong come training camp.

 

I suspect that the whole roadshow  will be over this weekend, one way or another and it will probably come down to whether Reed is desperate or not.

3 minutes ago, tracker said:

I suspect that the whole roadshow  will be over this weekend, one way or another and it will probably come down to whether Reed is desperate or not.

I don't understand how visiting two teams is being called a 'roadshow'...

3 hours ago, mbrg said:

And Montreal.

He was released to go back the NFL. He ended up with Dallas. 

33 minutes ago, JCon said:

He was released to go back the NFL. He ended up with Dallas. 

Hmmm, that might have been a side-effect but I'm pretty sure Popp cut him to serve his S.M.S. not to give him another shot at the NFL.

4 hours ago, Floyd said:

I don't understand how visiting two teams is being called a 'roadshow'...

Because this is just a tease- Muamba knows what the facilities are like in both Winnipeg and Montreal.  He and his agent are batting their eyelashes at the suitors (no relation to Glen) and trying to wring the best possible offer out of both. Needless drama, in my opinion.

6 hours ago, Floyd said:

Blah blah everyone will change their tune as soon as muamba signs

i can’t believe we got him for only 200k...!!!

Whatever, I'd take him for 225k. He's a stud mlb and qould be awesome for our locker room.

2 minutes ago, wanna-b-fanboy said:

Whatever, I'd take him for 225k. He's a stud mlb and qould be awesome for our locker room.

Iirc hurls deal was 80k wasnt it?  2.5x (ish) more money for 10x more player.

The last two years we have given up soo many back breaking runs. 2nd and long, teams backed into corners where they cant pass (bc) and we've just gotten rolled over by the run. Henoc changes and compensates for a whole lot of that. Instead of trying to hide our MLBer, we can have one that covers up issues, fills gaps, and makes the hard 1 on 1 tackles. 

Should we all pass around a hat and see if we can come up with the money from bomber fans in the city? LOL 

52 minutes ago, wanna-b-fanboy said:

Whatever, I'd take him for 225k. He's a stud mlb and qould be awesome for our locker room.

The problem with offering him that kind of  $ is that we would then have to cut elsewhere.

And if Harris makes significantly less, what does that say to him? 

Just asking the kinds of questions I'm sure Walters grapples with.

3 hours ago, JCon said:

He was released to go back the NFL. He ended up with Dallas. 

He was cut because he was due $60k right after free agency iirc

maybe hardaway isn’t so dumb after all... his client has all the time in the world 

1 hour ago, tracker said:

Because this is just a tease- Muamba knows what the facilities are like in both Winnipeg and Montreal.  He and his agent are batting their eyelashes at the suitors (no relation to Glen) and trying to wring the best possible offer out of both. Needless drama, in my opinion.

Maybe meeting with the respective PTB of each team so he could determine where he thinks the best fit is for him was a bigger part of his visits than seeing the facilities. 

16 hours ago, JCon said:

He was released to pursue NFL options twice. He was only straight-up released by the Riders recently when they spent like drunken sailors and he wouldn't agree to renegotiate his deal.

I would say that Muamba was quite impactful the second half of last season.

He was due a bonus prior to being released by the Alouettes in Feb. 2016: http://montrealgazette.com/sports/football/cfl/montreal-alouettes/alouettes-cut-ties-with-middle-linebacker-henoc-muamba

Quote

The Alouettes have released non-import middle-linebacker Henoc Muamba rather than pay him a $60,000 bonus that was due Tuesday at 12:01 a.m.

“His salary structure doesn’t fit into our pay scale at this time — especially after retaining some of our potential free agents,” Popp said. “We tried to restructure the deal, but could not come to terms before the deadline.”

The Als had been attempting to trade Muamba, but Canadian Football League teams were reluctant to pay the bonus on top of his $230,000 salary in 2016. Muamba was due another $23,000 bonus in April and $23,000 more when he reported for training camp and passed his physical.

Back then, however, the NFL window was still open:

Quote

Hardaway is expected to troll the NFL waters again to gauge interest in his client. San Francisco and the New York Jets already have expressed a desire to work him out.

He eventually signed with the Dallas Cowboys but that wasn't until the end of July 2016: https://www.sportsnet.ca/football/nfl/canadian-linebacker-henoc-muamba-signs-nfl-deal-cowboys/

The NFL is no longer an option for Muamba this time around.

16 hours ago, Colin Unger said:

Andrew Harris is a special situation.  He's playing with a hometown discount

Is he really playing at a discount price? Who offered him more? BC certainly wasn't willing to pay what we did.

17 hours ago, sweep the leg said:

It would have to be a pretty crazy salary for it to blow up the nucleus of the team.

Exactly. So as far as I'm concerned pay him whatever the **** you have to to solidify that MLB spot (with a national no less) and have JSK and Wild/rookie rotate in.

Interesting tweet.

Hard to imagine he was going to make 290k in 2016...what a stupid contract that was.

If we can slot him in for 200k this year..slight bump next year, with a signing bonus in the before free agency to show we are committed to get that 2-3 year deal then it's a must do, and wont' severely impact our SMS  for a player who is vital

I bet he could sign this year in the 180k range (seeing as he got a bonus) and we offer the double the bonus next winter/spring and pretty much the same base of 180k ..throw in a MOC/MODP carrot in thee to sweeten the pot.

The ratio flex it gives us is key and offers us too much in options to ignore and if we truly plan to go 2 Canadian receivers as starters it limits us, and any injury issues on offence..especially to the skill guys will really hoop us as we don't have the depth...(well A1 quality depth) to cover it