https://www.tsn.ca/naylor-many-questions-but-few-answers-on-a-2021-cfl-season-1.1543725

The Canadian Football League has been outrageously quiet since it pulled the plug on its season more than two months ago, leaving behind a wake of speculation about where things are headed next.

With the reality setting in that COVID-19 is likely to still be around in some form next summer, there is real concern about what the 2021 season might look like or if it will occur at all.

There are teams that believe it is vitally important to play in 2021 and that without a season the CFL is in danger of being mothballed. Whether every team believes that is another question. And there is a lot to sort out before anyone can accurately predict what a season might look like and how much pain the teams are collectively willing to stomach to make it happen.

The league and its franchises are currently running through various scenarios for next season, trying to get a handle on true costs of each and working at ways to trim budgets and save money. That’s likely to continue until the league can truly choose a course of action, which feels like next April at the earliest.

Why? Well, there’s not much point in fully committing to a scenario that’s seven months away if that scenario might be totally unrealistic by the time you get there.

There has been no 2021 business plan presented yet, only regular updates to the presidents and governors about what the league is doing to prepare for the unknown.

It should be noted that teams will need to make decisions about retaining assistant coaches with expiring contracts by December, which will be the first real economic commitments to a 2021 season. Restrictions on signing players will need to be lifted well before the opening of February free agency, where players are likely to meet a cautious market – one in which signing bonuses will probably be absent.

There’s a collective bargaining agreement to amend, if not renegotiate, with the players, which will require some kind of pressure point because it always does. But the league can’t sit down with the players until it gets a true handle on revenues and it can’t do that until it chooses a course of action.

Will CFL teams be allowed to have full stadiums next summer? It doesn't seem likely. But just what percentage of capacity will be allowed – if any at all – is impossible to guess. It seems as if the league is counting on the restrictions that currently prevent fans from being in stadiums being lifted. But to what degree?

When will we see a schedule? Good question. Or could we see multiple schedules for different scenarios? Never say never.

Could it be a 21-week, 18-game season played in home stadiums? Unlikely, given the losses teams are expected to take with reduced numbers of fans in the stands. Could we see a return to the 10-week bubble? Maybe. A nine-game schedule played in home stadiums before fans? Perhaps.

The point is no one knows, so demanding answers to questions that can’t possibly be answered right now is a waste of time.

All we know is that there’s going to be a lot less revenue for teams to operate with under any scenario, not just because of crowd restrictions but also due to older fans choosing to stay home for their safety. The CFL’s fan demographics do it no favours in this regard.

Getting consensus on a best course of action won’t be easy for the CFL’s nine teams. Back in the summer, there were teams that were willing to play without government support and teams that weren’t. And just like then, the biggest challenge commissioner Randy Ambrosie faces now is finding a scenario they can all live with.

Adopting a revenue-sharing model so that each team absorbs the same amount of red ink would certainly make consensus-building easier, which many believe should be the direction for the future, COVID-19 or not.

The other elephant in the room is federal government, which many in the CFL believe left it high and dry last summer after months of back-and-forth talks where the league believed it was making progress.

Is the CFL prepared to go down that road again, knowing it doesn’t control the timeline and larger forces can change things in an instant? Perhaps, although it’s not as though the feds don’t have a long list of people coming at them with their hands out.

There will be voices demanding the owners suck up the losses of playing a season under any circumstance, as owners have done in other sports. But the business calculation in sports such as MLB, NFL, NHL and NBA is different because of the percentage of revenues those leagues derive from television.

Losses sustained by playing in those leagues can also be viewed as investments towards protecting massive franchise values. That’s not the case in the CFL, where teams can’t just float money on the backs of their franchise values, and where one third of the teams are publicly owned.

It would be beneficial for the league to soon announce its formal commitment to play some kind of season in 2021.

But beyond that, get ready for months more of waiting with lots of questions and speculation but very few answers.

And on the 10th Day, Mr. Walters is still sleepin' 

Christmas isn't til next Friday, so plenty of time for KW to get his OTs and RB under wraps for another season........

2 hours ago, Noeller said:

As with Fajardo, I'm extremely skeptical that Vernon Adams just suddenly figured out how to be a QB in this league.... I need more proof.

Adams was an overnight sensation that took 4 years to make it. Once qbs can read defenses & get comfortbale with coverages the sky's the limit.

I would not say Adams is a sensation just yet.  

 

1 hour ago, Brandon said:

I would not say Adams is a sensation just yet.  

 

yeah weve seen a lot of flash in the pan qb's falter after defenses adjust to them. Fajardo and adams will both have to deal with that. 

I think a much better question would be how well (or poor) will Nichols do in Toronto...

Edited December 17, 20205 yr by Eternal optimist
Wrong team lol

1 hour ago, Eternal optimist said:

I think a much better question would be how well (or poor) will Nichols do in Toronto...

If MBT goes back id bet by performance and health, that Nichols sees less then 4 starts. 

I am not really sold on Fajardo, he had a ton of receivers making him look pretty good last year on poorly thrown 50/50 balls and his spin o rama got figured out towards the end of last year. He is a competent QB but he rode his early season success for the most part last year. If the Riders lose Shaq to FA or NFL it will be tough for Faj this year. That guy saved him from about a dozen interceptions.

19 minutes ago, GCn20 said:

I am not really sold on Fajardo, he had a ton of receivers making him look pretty good last year on poorly thrown 50/50 balls and his spin o rama got figured out towards the end of last year. He is a competent QB but he rode his early season success for the most part last year. If the Riders lose Shaq to FA or NFL it will be tough for Faj this year. That guy saved him from about a dozen interceptions.

Starting 17 games and playing in all 18 that season, he played pretty well and put up good numbers; competent is a perfect descriptor. One competent/good season does not a career make, though. And his MOP nomination seemed to inflate not only his own head but his fervent green supporters in the rectangle province.

IIRC, he was the only starting QB to not sustain an injury in 2019. All that said, I'm not sold on the guy. And nobody looking at him objectively should be, either.

I don't think you guys are looking at Farjardo objectively at all. He was supposed to be their backup QB. He managed to get them into 1st place in the West. He threw for more than 4300 yards, 18 TD's to 8 picks.  That's an objectively great job for a first year starter. Does that make him a top QB? Not in my mind, but if he does it again next year, he's got to be in that conversation.

OMG, CFL talk... Bombers Discussion!!!!

 

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I'll post this here.. not sure if anyone remembers him.. Tobias Dorzon or Blowdy (how it's pronounced not spelled) Dorzon.. former RB with WBB.. 

Well he's a famous chef now and I just saw him on Food Network's Guys Grocery Games and the dude won 20000. 

 

Quite the story there. Look up Tobias Dorzon on Google. 

Just now, Goalie said:

 

 

Edited December 17, 20205 yr by Goalie

Bloi-dei Dorzon was how I thought it was spelled but it's been a minute since his time in the league....

3 hours ago, blue_gold_84 said:

Starting 17 games and playing in all 18 that season, he played pretty well and put up good numbers; competent is a perfect descriptor. One competent/good season does not a career make, though. And his MOP nomination seemed to inflate not only his own head but his fervent green supporters in the rectangle province.

IIRC, he was the only starting QB to not sustain an injury in 2019. All that said, I'm not sold on the guy. And nobody looking at him objectively should be, either.

Summed it up well. I think its all about how and if he adapts as a player. In order to maintain a level of performance you have to get better each year. If he comes back un improved he will be a career backup / fringe starter. If he turns the corner and develops he has a chance to be a starter for a good while in the league. 

 The offense was heavily tailored to create success. Teams are going to play him and the riders offense differently. He does have tremendous athleticism, youth, and 4 years of being in the cfl. And hes a scrappy competitor. 

 

2 hours ago, Noeller said:

Bloi-dei Dorzon was how I thought it was spelled but it's been a minute since his time in the league....

A minute is how long he lasted, too.

1 hour ago, wbbfan said:

IIRC, he was the only starting QB to not sustain an injury in 2019. All that said, I'm not sold on the guy.

You do have to take into account last year’s post traumatic episode and see if he can get past that.

2 minutes ago, wbbfan said:

Summed it up well. I think its all about how and if he adapts as a player. In order to maintain a level of performance you have to get better each year. If he comes back un improved he will be a career backup / fringe starter. If he turns the corner and develops he has a chance to be a starter for a good while in the league. 

 The offense was heavily tailored to create success. Teams are going to play him and the riders offense differently. He does have tremendous athleticism, youth, and 4 years of being in the cfl. And hes a scrappy competitor. 

Well said. I don't think anyone should take away from his accomplishments in his first season as a starter. To suggest he performed well isn't some insult, either. He played well and did his job competently, which is to say in an efficient and capable way. What isn't objective about that opinion is beyond me. He's got the tools to be a starter in the CFL and his 2019 performance indicates that. But to label that great or outstanding is something with which I don't agree.

Furthermore, I question if he's in the MOP discussion if even one other starting QB in the West Division stays healthy for the balance of the 2019 season (Trevor Harris, for example). Or if the tainted test with Harris doesn't happen (there's a high likelihood he's MOP if that doesn't take place). This is merely me speaking hypothetically, to be clear. Circumstances outside of his performance helped his case and he was nominated seemingly by default (not dissimilar from Homer's brief career as an astronaut).

And FWIW, I felt Fajardo's teammate William Powell got snubbed. He was outstanding as the team's starting tailback (1,200+ combined yards, 14 total TDs, and very solid blocking) and arguably the second best in the league presently. I can't help but wonder how Fajardo would've fared without him, which is really no different than what Harris had done for Nichols during his tenure here (it's worth pointing out when considering the criticism Nichols received as the starting QB for the Bombers). 

If Harris isn't ****** over by the Winnipeg chapter of the FRC, he's the League MOP running away....it's not even close. 

Good. We need Reilly in this league..

 

10 hours ago, Eternal optimist said:

I think a much better question would be how well (or poor) will Nichols do in Toronto...

I expect Nichols will be sidelined due to injury by game 5.

6 hours ago, blue_gold_84 said:

Starting 17 games and playing in all 18 that season, he played pretty well and put up good numbers; competent is a perfect descriptor. One competent/good season does not a career make, though. And his MOP nomination seemed to inflate not only his own head but his fervent green supporters in the rectangle province.

IIRC, he was the only starting QB to not sustain an injury in 2019. All that said, I'm not sold on the guy. And nobody looking at him objectively should be, either.

Fajardo's O-line was barely good enough in 2019 and hasn't gotten any younger. Fajardo had better practice his sprinting and falling,

The Riders OL has largely been a pile of dogshit for years now... and they drafted so poorly, it's not getting better any time soon. 

28 minutes ago, Noeller said:

The Riders OL has largely been a pile of dogshit for years now... and they drafted so poorly, it's not getting better any time soon. 

Shepley dressed for the Niners on Sunday. Not saying he'll stick but that could hurt them as well. 

5 hours ago, Noeller said:

Bloi-dei Dorzon was how I thought it was spelled but it's been a minute since his time in the league....

Wasn't that the guy that looked like a body builder?

3 minutes ago, WinnipegGordo said:

Wasn't that the guy that looked like a body builder?

IIRC, BFFC had a bit of a man crush on him.......

Rider, Stamps, Als, RedBlacks and Argos are keep hammering away with their FA list. 

Oh and Walters have some calls with the Wpg media guys. Finally awake. 😁

 

Edited December 17, 20205 yr by M.O.A.B.