Every team had salary cap decisions ... we had to let Bond and Westerman go .... Jake Thomas won't be around but Demski will ... we are all cheering Hurl on in Regina now and we have this ex Rider QB

US recruits have their usual expectations with hopefully a couple nice surprises forthcoming ... and we will get a couple of developmental players in the draft

So my question is what has changed for us really especially relative to Calgary & Edmonton

We lost two very good linemen and we have made some coaching adjustments ... did Calgary & Edmonton lose more?

Do we have better depth?

Why would we be better, really?

Do we have more reason to be optimistic about our defense?

How big a role is coaching going to play?

Are we anywhere close to matching Calgary's organizational skills?

Has Edmonton suddenly become Swiss Cheese in the off season?

Has the whole team gained a critical maturity and potential "swagger"?

52 minutes ago, USABomberfan said:

I fear he may not be.  I won't say I'm bummed about letting Davis go, but the fact that Ottawa brought him over and thinks he still might get it is pretty telling.  He did look a little slow making some of his passes and took a few unnecessary sacks, but our receiving corps was also decimated so that may have had something to do with it as well.

 

I think he should have gotten all of that game against BC and the last one against Calgary to get one more shot to redeem himself.  It was a waste of time to play LeFevour since he was gonna get axed once the season was over anyway.

I didn't like what I saw out of Ross when he was spelling off Jennings.  Course he was kinda just thrown in there and told to make that team go with little time to learn the ropes, but Buono obviously saw enough of that.  I'm kinda leaning towards Streveler.  Guy is young but seemed to have some decent numbers in college and has a clean slate coming here.

Different systems. A QB might work bad on a system and might work very well on the other... and vice versa. Sets of receivers also factors in.

True.  I'd say right now our backup spot behind Nichols is wide open and nobody should be the prohibitive favorite.  I'd like to see us build a homegrown QB though.  Feel like we had a few prospects in the past that we just never quite fully saw through.

21 minutes ago, Brandon said:

What is telling of that?   Other teams have picked up garbage cast offs many times before?  Means nothing at all.  

Well, maybe they figure he's another Brandon Bridge who was given up on a little too soon by MTL.

2 hours ago, USABomberfan said:

Well, maybe they figure he's another Brandon Bridge who was given up on a little too soon by MTL.

Other teams picked up our crap like Brink,  Goltz,  Elliott, Dinwiddie etc....

2 hours ago, Brandon said:

Other teams picked up our crap like Brink,  Goltz,  Elliott, Dinwiddie etc....

True, but doesn't mean it's the end of the line yet for Davis.

20 hours ago, USABomberfan said:

Well, maybe they figure he's another Brandon Bridge who was given up on a little too soon by MTL.

Given up too soon...? Davis was here for three full seasons and accomplished next to nothing when given the opportunity. That's why he was released. Bridge, OTOH, was asked to take a paycut early in his second season in Montreal. He refused and requested his release.

Not exactly an apples to apples comparison.

Well one thing that seems for sure better is the way Ed Tait is getting out daily reports on training camp ... I like the layout, style and content ... snippets of MOS and other players are great

16 hours ago, blue_gold_84 said:

Given up too soon...? Davis was here for three full seasons and accomplished next to nothing when given the opportunity. That's why he was released. Bridge, OTOH, was asked to take a paycut early in his second season in Montreal. He refused and requested his release.

Not exactly an apples to apples comparison.

With the exception of acquiring Matt Nichols from Esks, Walters/O'Shea & Co have had, up to now, a very poor track record at talent spotting/development at the QB position. This has been a glaring management weakness. Look at a partial list of who has been here since 2013 when Walters took over GM job: Jason Boltus, Brian Brohm, Justin Goltz, Max Hall, Robert Marve, Josh Portis, Drew Willy. That is a scary list. Some, like Willy, they stubbornly stuck with for far too long. On the other hand guys such as Davis they gave up on too soon. Davis wasn't given enough real game-time reps to make a proper assessment.

1 hour ago, Doublezero said:

With the exception of acquiring Matt Nichols from Esks, Walters/O'Shea & Co have had, up to now, a very poor track record at talent spotting/development at the QB position. This has been a glaring management weakness. Look at a partial list of who has been here since 2013 when Walters took over GM job: Jason Boltus, Brian Brohm, Justin Goltz, Max Hall, Robert Marve, Josh Portis, Drew Willy. That is a scary list. Some, like Willy, they stubbornly stuck with for far too long. On the other hand guys such as Davis they gave up on too soon. Davis wasn't given enough real game-time reps to make a proper assessment.

Tough to argue with this.  They haven't seen much success.  Hall was actually pre-Walters so I don't include him in the list but everything else is spot on.  If they had not hit such a home run with Nichols (and that was a desperation trade when Willy went down), who knows where they would be?  But Nichols has bought them some time to find someone new and I'm excited for our current prospects.

4 hours ago, Doublezero said:

With the exception of acquiring Matt Nichols from Esks, Walters/O'Shea & Co have had, up to now, a very poor track record at talent spotting/development at the QB position. This has been a glaring management weakness. Look at a partial list of who has been here since 2013 when Walters took over GM job: Jason Boltus, Brian Brohm, Justin Goltz, Max Hall, Robert Marve, Josh Portis, Drew Willy. That is a scary list. Some, like Willy, they stubbornly stuck with for far too long. On the other hand guys such as Davis they gave up on too soon. Davis wasn't given enough real game-time reps to make a proper assessment.

Which QB's have Montreal,  Toronto ,  Saskatchewan,  Ottawa, and Edmonton groomed on their own over the last few years?  

4 hours ago, Doublezero said:

With the exception of acquiring Matt Nichols from Esks, Walters/O'Shea & Co have had, up to now, a very poor track record at talent spotting/development at the QB position. This has been a glaring management weakness. Look at a partial list of who has been here since 2013 when Walters took over GM job: Jason Boltus, Brian Brohm, Justin Goltz, Max Hall, Robert Marve, Josh Portis, Drew Willy. That is a scary list. Some, like Willy, they stubbornly stuck with for far too long. On the other hand guys such as Davis they gave up on too soon. Davis wasn't given enough real game-time reps to make a proper assessment.

1 name... Ryan Rigmadien, he will be the big difference in the scouting dept. 

Sigh... we're still on about this "We haven't developed our own QB" crap?  Again I'll ask the question, in the standings, is it 2 points for a win but 3 points if you win with a QB you developed?  No?  Then who bloody well cares how they get here as long as they do.  

It's not about developing our own QB it's about having adequate depth at the position.  And under Walters, when our starting QB has gone down, the depth behind him has killed us.  Whether that is Brohm, Marve, LeFevour, or Davis.  It would be nice to have a capable backup.

18 minutes ago, Atomic said:

It's not about developing our own QB it's about having adequate depth at the position.  And under Walters, when our starting QB has gone down, the depth behind him has killed us.  Whether that is Brohm, Marve, LeFevour, or Davis.  It would be nice to have a capable backup.

He brought in Glenn last season which is a more then capable backup.    Should we **** on Hufnagel since he has not brought in a capable back up QB to Mitchell over the last few years?

5 hours ago, Doublezero said:

With the exception of acquiring Matt Nichols from Esks, Walters/O'Shea & Co have had, up to now, a very poor track record at talent spotting/development at the QB position. This has been a glaring management weakness. Look at a partial list of who has been here since 2013 when Walters took over GM job: Jason Boltus, Brian Brohm, Justin Goltz, Max Hall, Robert Marve, Josh Portis, Drew Willy. That is a scary list. Some, like Willy, they stubbornly stuck with for far too long. On the other hand guys such as Davis they gave up on too soon. Davis wasn't given enough real game-time reps to make a proper assessment.

All valid points but I wasn't talking about this regime's track record in finding QB talent. I was disputing the claim Davis is similar to Bridge; I just don't see the comparison. Bridge seems much better at a younger age.

6 minutes ago, Brandon said:

He brought in Glenn last season which is a more then capable backup.    Should we **** on Hufnagel since he has not brought in a capable back up QB to Mitchell over the last few years?

I'm not sure what the issue is here.  We've recruited garbage QBs under Walters, there's really no way around it.

2 hours ago, Atomic said:

I'm not sure what the issue is here.  We've recruited garbage QBs under Walters, there's really no way around it.

There’s no doubt we’ve failed miserably in recruiting QBs..for whatever reason. I wouldn’t single out Walters exclusively though, he’s simply following what seems to be a tradition. 

Develop? I don’t really care if we trade for one or find one when we spend  $.75 and pay for it with a loonie. 

The veteran back up plan seemed to be a good idea however, in theory anyways. Kevin Glenn is a good example. LeFevour, not so much. Durant? ‘Nough said.

Its perplexing, but maybe, just maybe that tradition is coming to an end.

Aside from Franklin and jennings which QBs have been recruited lately with great success?

Any chance Flanders gets traded to the Riders?

https://www.cfl.ca/2018/05/24/cfl-unveils-results-inaugural-media-poll/

LMFAO. Well according to this verbal diarrhea were gonna be junk this year. Weve gained maybe the premier MLB in the league, picked up a perennial all star receiver, signed a young steady DE, and added a couple of solid veteran DB's. What have we lost?? A single overrated DB?? How in sweet **** do these "pundits" think were going to be wallowing in the west basement?? Did 75% of these pundits poled live in Sask?? Did Rod Petersen put on various moustaches and hats and vote 23 times??

So the Riders gained a 34 year old DE and a shell shocked QB that has been utter junk for 2 years and all of a sudden they are challenging for the west? LMFAO. What a joke.

Edited May 25, 20187 yr by Bubba Zanetti

2 minutes ago, Bubba Zanetti said:

Did 75% of these pundits poled live in Sask??

According to Darrin Bauming:

 

Well, we do know it will be a tight battle in the West this year, but to rank the Bombers so haphazardly shows that those media types have not been paying attention.

It just goes to show how little research many media members do and frankly how lazy many of them are. Riders are auditioning left tackles and have a weak RT and C, will be starting a NI like Hurl at LB and Edem at safety and have terrible NI depth but are apparently world beaters.

Garbage poll is garbage. Oh, and best of all: totally irrelevant.

1 hour ago, Mr Dee said:

According to Darrin Bauming:

 

Well, we do know it will be a tight battle in the West this year, but to rank the Bombers so haphazardly shows that those media types have not been paying attention.

Zach Collaros got 4 votes that he will be the league MOP. What. A. Joke. 

Someone voted the Als as GC favourites. 

The collective media is stupid. 

1 hour ago, JCon said:

The collective media is stupid. 

The Athletic is good. Probably did not get to vote.