Too soon?  Too many truly painful Grey Cup losses have taken the sting out of yesterday's loss already.

Time to look forward while we cope with the recent disappointment.  

Who do we keep?  Who do we let go?  Who do we go after?

Someone was going to start this thread at some point.

21 hours ago, rebusrankin said:

Does he still have USport or NCAA aspirations? If so, he can't sign an official contract correct? So if he goes on our practice roster, he loses that eligibility correct? I like the idea on him being on our pr, working with the club, being mentored etc but wondering if it’s possible.

Basically how this works is he’s signed with the Rifles and the Bombers are inviting him as a territorial exemption.  He can be on the practice roster and keep U Sports eligibility.  NCAA is completely different, and he’d likely never qualify to get into a D1 school since he hasn’t attended US high school and is unlikely to perform well on their standardized tests.

@JuranBoldenRules any scouting report on this kid?

I have been laughing this week as 3dn has been going through the top paid at each position. The value the Bombers get is comical guys have taken incredible discounts to stay here.

It's also interesting that most if not all of our top paid players are being paid 100% hard money. 

46 minutes ago, Jpan85 said:

I have been laughing this week as 3dn has been going through the top paid at each position. The value the Bombers get is comical guys have taken incredible discounts to stay here.

Tuende Adeleke the top paid DB..... Anyone here woulda guessed that if you were asked? 

Don’t worry - 3DN has already decided it is full value 

1 hour ago, Jpan85 said:

I have been laughing this week as 3dn has been going through the top paid at each position. The value the Bombers get is comical guys have taken incredible discounts to stay here.

Right? When you consider how much bonus money they deferred from this year to last year they should still have very good flexibility through out the year. 
 Lawler and Willy j are our only really big contracts by position this year. 

1 hour ago, TBURGESS said:

It's also interesting that most if not all of our top paid players are being paid 100% hard money. 

Not surprising.  Walters has been very open about preferring not to use bonuses due to the uncertainty it can cause when trying to manage the cap.

6 hours ago, TBURGESS said:

It's also interesting that most if not all of our top paid players are being paid 100% hard money. 

I prefer soft money, easier to carry.

The value in many of our contracts is amazing and huge for us.

The Riders however look at what Lanier, Evan Johnson, Blake and Godbar are making.

I imagine the rest of the tc spots are mostly waiting on the cis draft results. Couple more bodies at wr, lber, dl, ol to round things out will be nice. Other than that I think we will bring in 1 more qb. That or it will be a short leash on hall. Or maybe waiting on a neg list qb to shake loose. But 4 arms plus the ni would be ideal in camp. It’s hard to replace that experience. 

On 2023-04-22 at 12:17 PM, rebusrankin said:

@JuranBoldenRules any scouting report on this kid?

You can see a lot of video on Hudl if you Google his name.

Last time I saw him in person it was just a lot of running by people, not a lot of route work.  Murdoch was a top division team though so he did get some decent competition before the pandemic.

Looking at his US highlights it's a lot of jet sweeps and plays to get him the ball quick, screens.  It'll be good for him to get into training camp and see where he is.  I'm not sure the Rifles will be an amazing opportunity for his development, he might jump out to BC next year.

https://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/manitoba/michael-richardson-united-way-winnipeg-president-ceo-1.6821731

 

Well, this sounds very interesting. I love the idea. 

TASTE OF THE BLUE BOMBERS

DATE: MAY 25, 2023
LOCATION: IG FIELD
MAIN EVENT: 6:30- 9:30 PM

 

Sip, stroll, sample and socialize with Blue Bombers players, coaches and legends at the inaugural Taste of the Blue Bombers event.

Be part of this exciting inaugural event where local restaurants will compete to prepare the best game day fare. Fans in attendance will have the opportunity to vote on their favourite dish (presentation, taste & theme) and enjoy a festive night at IG Field featuring delicious food from local restaurants, beverages, and music.

Guests will be able to enjoy small plates at each stop along their journey around the concourse.

Blue Bombers season ticket member, click here to purchase tickets to this great night out for only $85 per ticket (regular price $105).

 

https://www.bluebombers.com/tasteofthebluebombers/

On 2023-04-23 at 11:58 AM, TBURGESS said:

It's also interesting that most if not all of our top paid players are being paid 100% hard money. 

We trade risk for reward on that. The reward is that we get players a little cheaper for giving them a straight up contract. The risk is that we only retain salary savings through the 6 game and do not have unrealized bonuses to add to our end of season SMS savings.

55 minutes ago, JCon said:

 

Well, this sounds very interesting. I love the idea. 

TASTE OF THE BLUE BOMBERS

DATE: MAY 25, 2023
LOCATION: IG FIELD
MAIN EVENT: 6:30- 9:30 PM

 

Sip, stroll, sample and socialize with Blue Bombers players, coaches and legends at the inaugural Taste of the Blue Bombers event.

Be part of this exciting inaugural event where local restaurants will compete to prepare the best game day fare. Fans in attendance will have the opportunity to vote on their favourite dish (presentation, taste & theme) and enjoy a festive night at IG Field featuring delicious food from local restaurants, beverages, and music.

Guests will be able to enjoy small plates at each stop along their journey around the concourse.

Blue Bombers season ticket member, click here to purchase tickets to this great night out for only $85 per ticket (regular price $105).

 

https://www.bluebombers.com/tasteofthebluebombers/

Well crap, that looks awesome.

ps - one week from the draft, 2 weeks from Rookie Camp!! Let's ******* GOOOOOOOOOOOO!!

23 minutes ago, Noeller said:

ps - one week from the draft, 2 weeks from Rookie Camp!! Let's ******* GOOOOOOOOOOOO!!

On 2023-04-23 at 1:26 PM, bigg jay said:

Not surprising.  Walters has been very open about preferring not to use bonuses due to the uncertainty it can cause when trying to manage the cap.

He uses the bonus cap a lot for late season additions, and in the case of last year moving future cap hits to a previous years bonus cap. 
The cfl cap isn’t by any means the nba in terms of complexity but Walters plays chess while most of the league plays checkers with the cap. 

1 hour ago, wbbfan said:

He uses the bonus cap a lot for late season additions, and in the case of last year moving future cap hits to a previous years bonus cap. 
The cfl cap isn’t by any means the nba in terms of complexity but Walters plays chess while most of the league plays checkers with the cap. 

Yeah, looking through that series of articles and comparing what each team is doing (at least as it relates to the highest paid players), Walters has us paying out the least in bonuses (about $125k) but still being middle of the pack when it comes to how much hard money has been paid out ($2.53 million).

Obviously it's not a complete picture of a teams total payroll but  here are some numbers for those interested:

Least hard money paid out:  BC - $2.32 million

Most hard money: Hamilton - $3.11 million

Average Hard Money: $2.61 million

Most bonus money: Montreal - $539k

Least bonus money:  Winnipeg: $125k

Average bonus money: $295k

Weirdest salary spending: Montreal has the most number of players listed (20) in that series of articles so they are spending a lot but I'm not sure they're seeing a lot of value.  They have 5 of the top 20 highest paid RB/FB's which seems pretty excessive to me but I guess when you have Faj as your QB, the passing game probably won't be your strong suit!

 

3 hours ago, wbbfan said:

He uses the bonus cap a lot for late season additions, and in the case of last year moving future cap hits to a previous years bonus cap. 
The cfl cap isn’t by any means the nba in terms of complexity but Walters plays chess while most of the league plays checkers with the cap. 

Most teams do the same when they actualize savings from the cap. Walters did not invent this, nor is he alone utilizing it. He has been very disciplined at maintaining it though. In order to do so, a team must spend quite a bit under the cap one year to be able to keep deferring it forward. That means losing some really good players to injury for extended periods and not replacing them in-season. It's a trade off. It is more a testament to his ability to provide depth behind good players so that we don't have to spend in season on injury replacements then it is a testament to his financial acumen. When you lose a Matt Nichols, for instance, mid season and don't have to replace him until the last couple games of the season it opens up an opportunity to save some cap space the next year. Kyle is very disciplined at not losing a high price player and immediately signing another one mainly because he has been very good at providing quality depth that doesn't compromise our ability to win when injuries to high priced players occur.

Edited April 26, 20232 yr by GCn20

24 minutes ago, GCn20 said:

Most teams do the same when they actualize savings from the cap. Walters did not invent this, nor is he alone utilizing it. He has been very disciplined at maintaining it though. In order to do so, a team must spend quite a bit under the cap one year to be able to keep deferring it forward. That means losing some really good players to injury for extended periods and not replacing them in-season. It's a trade off. It is more a testament to his ability to provide depth behind good players so that we don't have to spend in season on injury replacements then it is a testament to his financial acumen. When you lose a Matt Nichols, for instance, mid season and don't have to replace him until the last couple games of the season it opens up an opportunity to save some cap space the next year. Kyle is very disciplined at not losing a high price player and immediately signing another one mainly because he has been very good at providing quality depth that doesn't compromise our ability to win when injuries to high priced players occur.

He certainly did not invent it. Most teams don’t do this. Most teams are handing out pretty bonus heavy contracts to vets especially in free agency. That’s why soo many of the top 10 deals aren’t hard money but the bombers contracts are virtually all hard money. 
With being able to use the 6 game ir retroactively, injuries to vets especially high paid vets create a lot of the cap room for replacements. Most injury replacements aren’t high cost eithe. Handful of guys come back from the nfl in a good year and get a big chunk of pro rated money.

I definitely agree that the next man up filling positions internally vs trading for over the hill vets has been a key to success here. Though Walters retaining money for nfl guys returning has as well. 
 

It seems to me like Walters and co doesn’t really aim for holes in free agency. They seem to look at just the players and go hard after the guys they want. Even with nfl cuts. 

11 minutes ago, wbbfan said:

He certainly did not invent it. Most teams don’t do this. Most teams are handing out pretty bonus heavy contracts to vets especially in free agency. That’s why soo many of the top 10 deals aren’t hard money but the bombers contracts are virtually all hard money. 
With being able to use the 6 game ir retroactively, injuries to vets especially high paid vets create a lot of the cap room for replacements. Most injury replacements aren’t high cost eithe. Handful of guys come back from the nfl in a good year and get a big chunk of pro rated money.

I definitely agree that the next man up filling positions internally vs trading for over the hill vets has been a key to success here. Though Walters retaining money for nfl guys returning has as well. 
 

It seems to me like Walters and co doesn’t really aim for holes in free agency. They seem to look at just the players and go hard after the guys they want. Even with nfl cuts. 

Hard money can also include signing bonuses. Non-hard money is defined as performance and games played bonuses. You get players cheaper with big up front bonuses and stable salary that is non-performance based. Better players for cheaper. However, it does not open up as much cap savings when injuries hit or players have a down year is the trade off Walters makes to get guys signed below market rate.  The fact he is able to retain year end money, despite being at a disadvantage due to the type of contracts he offers is a testament to recruitment.

You keep thinking that hard money is definitive advantage to saving SMS room at the end of the year. That is only true if it comes without signing bonus and players don't play up to their contract. As I clarified earlier, signing bonus is included in hard money and once paid it does not give any cap savings at all.

Edited April 26, 20232 yr by GCn20

this feels like a really big loss to the off-field product. This kid is/was SO GOOD at everything he did. We had the best social media content in the league because of him. Hope they can find someone even half as good to fill the role........

we'll definitely miss you, @rileymarra!!
 

 

2 minutes ago, Noeller said:

this feels like a really big loss to the off-field product. This kid is/was SO GOOD at everything he did. We had the best social media content in the league because of him. Hope they can find someone even half as good to fill the role........

we'll definitely miss you, @rileymarra!!
 

 

Huge loss for the team and fans.  Riley always put out great stuff.

Maybe the team looks at stealing Nik Kowalski back from the Lions?  IIRC he kinda studied under Riley while he worked for the Bisons and he has been putting out some nice stuff on the left coast.