2024/2025 Blue Bombers Off-Season Thread

[HardCoreBlue]

25 minutes ago, wbbfan said:

Averages aren't everything. Evans was hitting angles, he wasn't suddenly shanking punts. Also, in the first game Evans averaged 53.5 to Sheahans 43. 

I would've gone with Evans, but I get PRing him. I understand that we can't force him and that he left for a chance to actually play. That alone, should tell you all you need to know though. The riders wouldn't have been scooping sheahan. 

From someone frustrated with seeing too many line drive punts that frequently made our coverage team responsibilities more difficult, all I need to know is:

Who has better hang time?

[Booch]

20 minutes ago, HardCoreBlue said:

From someone frustrated with seeing too many line drive punts that frequently made our coverage team responsibilities more difficult, all I need to know is:

Who has better hang time?

Punter guy makes it difficult for our coverage teams...and our coverage has been abysmal since...hmmm...Punter guy started punting...go figure

Evans had 1 punt in the second game didnt he...fact of matter...had minimal to zero return on all his attempts tho..and placed it where it looked like it was supposed to go...plus got it off in half time as punter guy

And yes...until it's warranted I still want use his name..the fact I still will utter Jake's name...tells u how crappy Punter guy is..at least I still capitalizing Punter lol

[wbbfan]

1 hour ago, HardCoreBlue said:

From someone frustrated with seeing too many line drive punts that frequently made our coverage team responsibilities more difficult, all I need to know is:

Who has better hang time?

Evan’s. Not even close. 
 He has a good chance to be in the nfl in a year or two. 

[sweep the leg]

2 hours ago, wbbfan said:

Averages aren't everything. Evans was hitting angles, he wasn't suddenly shanking punts.  

Evans had a 31 yard punt in the 2nd game that was out of bounds at midfield.

Edited Tuesday at 10:30 PM by sweep the leg

[HardCoreBlue]

6 minutes ago, wbbfan said:

Evan’s. Not even close. 
 He has a good chance to be in the nfl in a year or two. 

For me I’m not thinking oh vet favouritism, I’m thinking we have a coaching staff that appears to support punts with limited hang time with hopes of great placement and hopes ball takes funky bounce over punts with consistent good hang time with decent distance that usually puts team as far away from our goal line as realistically possible. 

[JuranBoldenRules]

3 hours ago, wbbfan said:

Averages aren't everything. Evans was hitting angles, he wasn't suddenly shanking punts. Also, in the first game Evans averaged 53.5 to Sheahans 43. 

I would've gone with Evans, but I get PRing him. I understand that we can't force him and that he left for a chance to actually play. That alone, should tell you all you need to know though. The riders wouldn't have been scooping sheahan. 

This is a disingenuous level of bullshit that's inspiring my ignore button.  Last week the complaint was Sheahan couldn't "kick them out of trouble."  Evans gets exactly that chance and hits a 31 yard punt out of bounds from his own 19.  16 yard net.  Guy did sweet **** all to win the job whatever complaint you have with Sheahan is.  Showed nothing that he's a capable CFL punter.

And Joe Couch was awful for Sask too so not surprising they are scrambling for help.

 

[wbbfan]

32 minutes ago, JuranBoldenRules said:

This is a disingenuous level of bullshit that's inspiring my ignore button.  Last week the complaint was Sheahan couldn't "kick them out of trouble."  Evans gets exactly that chance and hits a 31 yard punt out of bounds from his own 19.  16 yard net.  Guy did sweet **** all to win the job whatever complaint you have with Sheahan is.  Showed nothing that he's a capable CFL punter.

And Joe Couch was awful for Sask too so not surprising they are scrambling for help.

 

Didn’t do enough to win a cfl job. But did enough to instantly get signed and get a cfl job from another team. Lmao yep sure thing bud 👍

[ShyGuy]

The Riders are just as desperate for a capable punter as the Bombers. I'd imagine if Sheahan got released outright the Riders would have had him on the horn as well. They should be even more desperate, they had by far the most punts last year.

Its not like the Bombers were desperate for a punter to kick them out of trouble last year either. As everyone is aware they let up the least amount of points and they were third in opponents average field position. Even though they didn't have a guy crushing the ball, it worked out more often than not.

[Fatty Liver]

3 hours ago, HardCoreBlue said:

For me I’m not thinking oh vet favouritism, I’m thinking we have a coaching staff that appears to support punts with limited hang time with hopes of great placement and hopes ball takes funky bounce over punts with consistent good hang time with decent distance that usually puts team as far away from our goal line as realistically possible. 

It's clear, O'Shea did not want to break up Sergio's gang of 3, he could have easily moved on from Benson and Sheahan but it wasn't a big enough deal and he likes to keep the harmony established intact.  Probably the same reason Kola has never been seriously challenged.

[HardCoreBlue]

11 minutes ago, Fatty Liver said:

It's clear, O'Shea did not want to break up Sergio's gang of 3, he could have easily moved on from Benson and Sheahan but it wasn't a big enough deal and he likes to keep the harmony established intact.  Probably the same reason Kola has never been seriously challenged.

Nope not clear, at least to me.

[rebusrankin]

57 minutes ago, Fatty Liver said:

It's clear, O'Shea did not want to break up Sergio's gang of 3, he could have easily moved on from Benson and Sheahan but it wasn't a big enough deal and he likes to keep the harmony established intact.  Probably the same reason Kola has never been seriously challenged.

That is a reasonable theory

[kelownabomberfan]

12 minutes ago, rebusrankin said:

That is a reasonable theory

[do or die]

On 2025-06-02 at 6:58 PM, BomberBall. said:

That may be too far.  😁

Not at my age...

[wbbfan]

11 hours ago, rebusrankin said:

That is a reasonable theory

Yeah seems very possible. Kola's best ability is a reliable snap. His only skill other than being a human pylon. 

[HardCoreBlue]

1 hour ago, wbbfan said:

Yeah seems very possible. Kola's best ability is a reliable snap. His only skill other than being a human pylon. 

I know I'm a broken record here but why does it seem MOS and company place less emphasis on the importance of hangtime and more emphasis on unorthodox line drives with funky bounces?

I'm not seeing how @Fatty Liver theory answers that.

[wbbfan]

17 minutes ago, HardCoreBlue said:

I know I'm a broken record here but why does it seem MOS and company place less emphasis on the importance of hangtime and more emphasis on unorthodox line drives with funky bounces?

I'm not seeing how @Fatty Liver theory answers that.

I do think it's about how Sheahans ball knuckles a bit making it harder to catch, yeah. 

[HardCoreBlue]

2 minutes ago, wbbfan said:

I do think it's about how Sheahans ball knuckles a bit making it harder to catch, yeah. 

To the untrained eye like mine, it seems to work maybe 1 time out of 10 which then confuses me of not placing more emphasis on the importance of hangtime.

[Goalie]

Evans was solid game 1. He didn’t look so great game 2. Sheahan isn’t your prototypical cfl kicker but the days of those guys are long gone. Evans obviously had to outplay Sheahan and he obviously didn’t. Accept it. Move on. Oh well. Unless you got the wind nobody is kicking you out of the end zone. Sometimes it seems bigger returns happen when the kicker actually out kicks the coverage. In the end the net averages are all similar or with a yard or 2 of each other for all punters in the league. 

Edited yesterday at 04:26 PM by Goalie

[3rdand1.5]

I too am in the group of thinking that Sheehan must be great holder, clearly we have had very good success with FG's I think it a solid hypothesis that our staff and/or Castillo do not want a change.....it is reasonable to think that the intangibles of this may have had an effect on the decision to roll with Sheehan again, perhaps the "risk" of a different holder, even just the mental aspect was what pushed Sheehan over Evans. As mentioned above keeping the "older" long snapper only adds credence to this theory. 

 

I have also wondered about Kola as well. He is not the best blocker, but he keeps winning, and when you look at it, we don't have many bad snaps, so again it is a solid hypothesis that Kola keeps winning because his snaps are better, he may get outplayed as a pure blocker every TC, but not as a pure snapper. That intangible again may again be what pushes him over Eli etc. over and over. Perhaps Zach is vocal behind closed doors on his preference for a Kola snap. All aspects, not just athletic ability in play perhaps the mental uncertainty or concern from a "different snapper" is judged more than the blocking drop-off??

 

Good theories anyway......

[HardCoreBlue]

Just now, Goalie said:

Evans was solid game 1. He didn’t look so great game 2. Sheahan isn’t your prototypical cfl kicker but the days of those guys are long gone. Evans obviously had to outplay Sheahan and he obviously didn’t. Accept it. Move on. Oh well. 

Fair but where are the stats (not asking you specifically) to back that up to suggest it's working better than 'your prototypical CFL kicker'?

Without seeing the evidence, makes it hard to move on.

[Goalie]

Zach I’m sure has a say 100 percent. 
 

Consistency is prob key and koala is a consistent snapper. Just like a week or 2 ago when it was mentioned Zach liked stearns, you know that matters especially when nobody really grabs the bull by the horns and takes a spot. 

3 minutes ago, HardCoreBlue said:

Fair but where are the stats (not asking you specifically) to back that up to suggest it's working better than 'your prototypical CFL kicker'?

Without seeing the evidence, makes it hard to move on.

It seems most teams are using global punters. That’s all. The global rule has essentially eliminated the Canadian punter so it is what it is in 2025. 
 

Our punter before Sheahan was ?? Was it medlock? Lirim? The other cdn dude? They weren’t much better than Sheehan really. 

Edited yesterday at 04:33 PM by Goalie

[wbbfan]

2 minutes ago, HardCoreBlue said:

To the untrained eye like mine, it seems to work maybe 1 time out of 10 which then confuses me of not placing more emphasis on the importance of hangtime.

Yeah, I agree. 

[HardCoreBlue]

2 minutes ago, Goalie said:

Zach I’m sure has a say 100 percent. 
 

Consistency is prob key and koala is a consistent snapper. Just like a week or 2 ago when it was mentioned Zach liked stearns, you know that matters especially when nobody really grabs the bull by the horns and takes a spot. 

It seems most teams are using global punters. That’s all. The global rule has essentially eliminated the Canadian punter. 

So get a global punter who knows about hang time. 🙂

Edited yesterday at 04:32 PM by HardCoreBlue

[Booch]

11 minutes ago, HardCoreBlue said:

To the untrained eye like mine, it seems to work maybe 1 time out of 10 which then confuses me of not placing more emphasis on the importance of hangtime.

your untrained eye see's it just fine

[Goalie]

1 minute ago, HardCoreBlue said:

So get a global punter who knows about hang time. 🙂

There’s prob something to the not preferring hang time theory.