Okay, so the off season officially begins now that the Grey Cup is over. Lots of topics for discussion in the months to come with the Bombers & the League. A new CBA needs to be negotiated sooner rather than later.  Will there be an eventual agreement or a lockout? How much will the salary cap go up? Randy Ambrosie is on record that wants the cap to significantly go up so that is a positive.  Will Bo Levi Mitchell sign with an NFL or perhaps another CFL team? What about Mike Reilly & Trevor Harris who are also free agents? There's a new start up league called the  AAFL & there are legit concerns that it'll draw star CFL players away or hamper free agent signings with CFL teams. Coaching changes in BC & Toronto. The continuing evolving story of the expansion Halifax Schooners & possible exhibition games in Mexico. 

Edited November 27, 20187 yr by SpeedFlex27

I'll admit I would have liked to see an Option Year or some kind of RFA deal for draft picks... like a five year window

4 minutes ago, Floyd said:

Thanks Debbie Downer...

Or maybe this is a way to pay players a competitive salary and keep them from jumping ship after 1-2 years

I’m all for the salary cap changes. It’s a good change. Making a rule that hurts young players by forcing roster spots on veterans is imbalanced and a net negative. 

1 minute ago, AKAChip said:

I’m all for the salary cap changes. It’s a good change. Making a rule that hurts young players by forcing roster spots on veterans is imbalanced and a net negative. 

Its three starters out of what 17 Americans...?  Yes time to panic.

3 minutes ago, AKAChip said:

I’m all for the salary cap changes. It’s a good change. Making a rule that hurts young players by forcing roster spots on veterans is imbalanced and a net negative. 

By that same logic they should have reduced the minimum salary and not increased it. If you could pay a rookie 30k then there would be more roster spots for rookies right?  What the league now offers a rookie is more money and if you make the grade a longer career as well.

1 minute ago, Floyd said:

Its three starters out of what 17 Americans...?  Yes time to panic.

It might be a case of all veterans starters salaries get a decrease and not limited to 3. If its just three then i don't see it having a big impact other than that your elite americans get paid more. 

5 minutes ago, Floyd said:

I'll admit I would have liked to see an Option Year or some kind of RFA deal for draft picks... like a five year window

Id like to see some thing to this extent too. It cant imo cover or limit IMP rookies who bounce around though. Maybe if a QB or NI leaves after 3 years you get a pick. Wouldnt be easy to manage, and the PA would hate it. 

7 minutes ago, AKAChip said:

This league is already extremely veteran heavy. Most teams will start more than enough veterans even without this rule. It’s jusr stupid that a guy may get a spot solely because he’s a veteran. If that comes into play even once, it’s a stupid rule. 

I would think that, generally, a guy would get a spot because he's demonstrated that he's the best player, no?  If the rookie is better, you hire the rookie, if the veteran is better, you keep the veteran.  If it's close, then cost vs experience comes in to play.  Seems pretty straight forward to me. 

3 minutes ago, WBBFanWest said:

I would think that, generally, a guy would get a spot because he's demonstrated that he's the best player, no?  If the rookie is better, you hire the rookie, if the veteran is better, you keep the veteran.  If it's close, then cost vs experience comes in to play.  Seems pretty straight forward to me. 

Except that doesn’t happen currently and will only happen less now. What is logical isn’t always what happens. 

5 minutes ago, Colin Unger said:

It might be a case of all veterans starters salaries get a decrease and not limited to 3. If its just three then i don't see it having a big impact other than that your elite americans get paid more. 

To me, this seems like a 'designated veteran' position... where you can pay a guy like Randle or Elimimian - keep him at a higher salary 

https://3downnation.com/2019/05/15/canadian-ratio-to-remain-the-same-throughout-new-cba/?utm_source=dlvr.it&utm_medium=twitter

Owners proposed getting rid of the ratio completely ha...  bogus bargaining tactic...

Ticats release Jalen Saunders....  https://3downnation.com/2019/05/15/ticats-release-receiver-jalen-saunders/

3 minutes ago, Colin Unger said:

Ticats release Jalen Saunders....  https://3downnation.com/2019/05/15/ticats-release-receiver-jalen-saunders/

Has to be damaged goods...  no way they release a healthy Saunders before TC

12 minutes ago, Floyd said:

Has to be damaged goods...  no way they release a healthy Saunders before TC

Yeah my thinking too. He showed too much promise to be cut at this time of the year.

12 minutes ago, Floyd said:

Has to be damaged goods...  no way they release a healthy Saunders before TC

Yeah, wouldn't make much sense otherwise when they just re-signed him this offseason.

I wouldn't object to bringing him in and letting him sit on the 6 gm until healthy. He would look pretty good in Dressler's old spot.

As for the VET american thing. I think rather then being an incentive for teams to keep them at all costs, it's more about getting the players to choose their team. Rather then explore FA/ 1 year contracts etc.  This past year the FA movement wasn't great. Sure it drew some excitement and was unique. But it was slated to become the norm. That's not good from a league perspective. 

37 minutes ago, AKAChip said:

Except that doesn’t happen currently and will only happen less now. What is logical isn’t always what happens. 

So you have several examples of this?  Love to hear them.

13 minutes ago, WBBFanWest said:

So you have several examples of this?  Love to hear them.

It’s very easy to sit there and claim this never happens when in situations where a veteran plays over a rookie or younger player, we never get to see how the rookie would have ended up doing, even if the veteran is terrible for long stretches. This is getting a bit off topic but you can’t argue that veterans gets longer leashes than young players, deserved or not. You don’t think in years past that Greg Peach or EJ Kuale or Romby Bryant stayed in the lineup longer than they should have mainly because they were veterans? The rule likely never comes into play for any team because starting 3 or 4 guys with 3 years experience is likely going to be a non issue 99% of the time but I’m certain there will be times that a team has multiple injuries to veterans and may need to sign a veteran off the street rather than insert a rookie who had been with the team all year. 

@FarhanLaljiTSN

Another CBA detail: All work permits for American players will now be open. Meaning the players will be able to get other jobs in Canada if they chose to stay in the off-season. #CFL

Just now, Noeller said:

@FarhanLaljiTSN

Another CBA detail: All work permits for American players will now be open. Meaning the players will be able to get other jobs in Canada if they chose to stay in the off-season. #CFL

This deal seems to just keep getting better from the players' perspective

- higher base wages and option to get full-time work

- option for vets to have salary cap exemption

- opportunities for CDN QBs

- health care three years

Probably more to come...

 

1 hour ago, Floyd said:

Has to be damaged goods...  no way they release a healthy Saunders before TC

Maybe.  They also have a ton of receivers who fit the run and shoot who might not fit a scheme with fewer vertical routes and more reliance on quick passing/YAC.

The American veteran thing is bizarre.  Such a creation of an issue.  What if those guys get injured?  Now you have to sign guys off the scrap heap that have that experience?

Just now, JuranBoldenRules said:

The American veteran thing is bizarre.  Such a creation of an issue.  What if those guys get injured?  Now you have to sign guys off the scrap heap that have that experience?

It just seems like a quiet way around the salary cap to sign your best three vets to be honest...  You'd need a lot of injuries to start having to sign scrap heap players

If your tenured vets get hurt..teams wont have to scramble to find another with tenure..there will be verbage in the CBA detailing this issue

No CBA I have ever known od punishes a team or puts them in a bind due to injury..I guarantee this was discussed already

14 minutes ago, Booch said:

If your tenured vets get hurt..teams wont have to scramble to find another with tenure..there will be verbage in the CBA detailing this issue

No CBA I have ever known od punishes a team or puts them in a bind due to injury..I guarantee this was discussed already

Hopefully, although that also opens up an easy loophole to get around the rule.  Sign guys and put them on IR.  The reporting so far is that this rule applies to the gameday roster and specifically the starting Americans, not including DI's.

The NHL CBA certainly can put teams in a bind due to injury if the injured players don't fall under LTIR for cap relief and the team is too close to the cap to add another player.  A few years ago Calgary had to play two players short.

Most other leagues with CBA's have no roster restrictions, I wouldn't really count MLS as the players there are even weaker than the CFLPA.

Today’s snips - mostly good news.

👁‍🗨Surprised to see Jalen Saunders released.

👁‍🗨Meaningful - 3 years of medical coverage for the CFLPA

👁‍🗨Canadian QBs - this could be helpful, especially in the future.

👁‍🗨Open work permits for internationals. That’s gotta help.

👁‍🗨👎Don’t like Streveler and Nichols not showing up today at rookie camp.

👁‍🗨Revenue sharing...good gain for the players

👁‍🗨I’d like to know who proposed getting rid of the Canadian Ratio..

👁‍🗨Nice - the Desjarlais signing sooner than I expected.

👁‍🗨No more unpaid bonuses. Good news.

👁‍🗨3 year deal means the next negotiations will be heavily influenced by any negotiations with TSN, seeing as that’s when the current deal expires.

Doesn’t matter now...we got football

 

Edited May 15, 20196 yr by Mr Dee