First practice of the regular season is today. Out with the old and in with the new. Time to get it started.

 

50 minutes ago, Pete said:

30 is old now? he's basically the same age as the majority of middle linebackers ie Thurman 30, Mcmanis 31, Awe 31, Sankey 31. Sanots Knox 31. Jones is no Bighill in his prime, but he does have almost double the tackles as the next highest bomber. (also an indicator of the weakness of our dline in making tackles)

Cfl starters do tend to be a bit older than nflers. they start later and end later. 

I like Tony Jones but I agree he's not really an impact player like prime Bighill or Joe Lobendahn

12 minutes ago, Atomic said:

I like Tony Jones but I agree he's not really an impact player like prime Bighill or Joe Lobendahn

He's exactly Joe Lobendahn.... Also did you just use Joe Lobendahn and Adam Bighill as comparables.....?

Edited October 31, 2025Oct 31 by Noeller

For me Jones lacks that ability to be disruptive in the passing game to make him a truly good MLB for this team.

10 hours ago, Atomic said:

I like Tony Jones but I agree he's not really an impact player like prime Bighill or Joe Lobendahn

Or Barrin....Battle...West...heck even prime healthy Wilson....he's great rotational/depth/won't kill ya in spot starts guy...but a lot of his stats are misleading

Much like some the dine guys "lack" of stats are in the grand scheme.....as their lack allows others to eat.....and then there are guys who dont rack up stats....their lack of stats isn't freeing up others...and serve zero purpose

Honestly, IMO let Jones have his moment, he was really the least of concern this year, heck even as poor as most of the D-line has been even they are as whole not the biggest concern on this team. The defence as a sum of all parts was actually a really good defence.....the offence on the other hand......

27 minutes ago, 3rdand1.5 said:

Honestly, IMO let Jones have his moment, he was really the least of concern this year, heck even as poor as most of the D-line has been even they are as whole not the biggest concern on this team. The defence as a sum of all parts was actually a really good defence.....the offence on the other hand......

My thoughts as well. Jones wasn't spectacular, but he wasn't just a place holder either. He made some rough mistakes, but also made some timely plays as well (That INT against TO comes to mind immediately). 

14 hours ago, Noeller said:

He's exactly Joe Lobendahn.... Also did you just use Joe Lobendahn and Adam Bighill as comparables.....?

I would rank Jones below Lobendahn... but both of them WELL behind Bighill...

57 minutes ago, bearpants said:

I would rank Jones below Lobendahn... but both of them WELL behind Bighill...

Lobendahn was a legit difference maker...just a shame he played majority of his games knicked up

Yeah, JLo had a beast mode for sure -- was hoping he would stick around and be a long-time bomber but alas.

tho I might have blue-colored glasses for the guy because he made one of my top ten favorite Bomber plays.

Edited October 31, 2025Oct 31 by johnzo

Recent history MLBs for the Bombers...

1. Bighill
2. Simpson
3. Lobendahn
4. Henoc
5. Kyrie Wilson as a fill in
6. Jones

I debated whether to put Henoc above or below Lobendahn... I'm willing to accept arguments for either way... You can rank the others wherever... probably most after Jones... unless you want to count a guy like Zeke Moreno... but I'm thinking more about the guys who played a decent amount of time

5 hours ago, Booch said:

Or Barrin....Battle...West...heck even prime healthy Wilson....he's great rotational/depth/won't kill ya in spot starts guy...but a lot of his stats are misleading

Much like some the dine guys "lack" of stats are in the grand scheme.....as their lack allows others to eat.....and then there are guys who dont rack up stats....their lack of stats isn't freeing up others...and serve zero purpose

T.Jones performed better than expected this year and didn't hurt us one bit. That being said, I'd love to get the next Adam Bighill.

17 minutes ago, johnzo said:

Yeah, JLo had a beast mode for sure -- was hoping he would stick around and be a long-time bomber but alas.

tho I might have blue-colored glasses for the guy because he made one of my top ten favorite Bomber plays.

Lobendahn's demise was injury related. He was a beast when fully healthy.

15 hours ago, 17to85 said:

For me Jones lacks that ability to be disruptive in the passing game to make him a truly good MLB for this team.

That can be said for about 90% of all MIKEs that have ever played in the CFL. We were spoiled with Biggie's ability to drop into coverage. That is not the norm.

At one point Mike O’Shea was a top linebacker in the league. 

2 hours ago, GCn20 said:

T.Jones performed better than expected this year and didn't hurt us one bit. That being said, I'd love to get the next Adam Bighill.

Lobendahn's demise was injury related. He was a beast when fully healthy.

That can be said for about 90% of all MIKEs that have ever played in the CFL. We were spoiled with Biggie's ability to drop into coverage. That is not the norm.

Also Tony has 2 INTs on the year. 1 was an absolute beauty of a play too

3 hours ago, GCn20 said:

T.Jones performed better than expected this year and didn't hurt us one bit. That being said, I'd love to get the next Adam Bighill.

Lobendahn's demise was injury related. He was a beast when fully healthy.

That can be said for about 90% of all MIKEs that have ever played in the CFL. We were spoiled with Biggie's ability to drop into coverage. That is not the norm.

See we can agree...lobo...Jones didnt hurt us per say...but wasn't a difference maker 

Prime Biggies are rare...but prime Battles even rarer...he did it all...and better

2 minutes ago, Booch said:

See we can agree...lobo...Jones didnt hurt us per say...but wasn't a difference maker 

Prime Biggies are rare...but prime Battles even rarer...he did it all...and better

I can get behind all of that. Biggie and Battle in their primes were both MODP players. Really splitting hairs as to who was better but I too like Battle.

6 minutes ago, GCn20 said:

I can get behind all of that. Biggie and Battle in their primes were both MODP players. Really splitting hairs as to who was better but I too like Battle.

Battle was better...could do more...but can't lose having either or in lineup

To think..we had West..Battle...Randolph...Jones all in lineup at one time.

Another underrated guy who was solid as hell was Aaron Brown

7 hours ago, Booch said:

Battle was better...could do more...but can't lose having either or in lineup

To think..we had West..Battle...Randolph...Jones all in lineup at one time.

Another underrated guy who was solid as hell was Aaron Brown

Yea..those defences were fierce

This likely worthy of a new thread but what changes should we make for next year?

To me:

Easy Choice-They Need to go

Hogan, Kolo, Thomas, Mitchell, Logan

Can Stay but needs a pay cut

Zach ($600,000 is too much, $400-$450,000 would be ok)

I feel like we need to move on

Jefferson, Kyrie Wilson

 May Retire 

Bryant, Neufeld

Don't bring back due to health

Streveler, Schoen

Do we have a list somewhere of who is a FA this offseason?

2 hours ago, rebusrankin said:

This likely worthy of a new thread but what changes should we make for next year?

To me:

Easy Choice-They Need to go

Hogan, Kolo, Thomas, Mitchell, Logan

Can Stay but needs a pay cut

Zach ($600,000 is too much, $400-$450,000 would be ok)

I feel like we need to move on

Jefferson, Kyrie Wilson

 May Retire 

Bryant, Neufeld

Don't bring back due to health

Streveler, Schoen

Put in your two week notice, you're hired! 🙂

2 hours ago, rebusrankin said:

This likely worthy of a new thread but what changes should we make for next year?

To me:

Easy Choice-They Need to go

Hogan, Kolo, Thomas, Mitchell, Logan

Can Stay but needs a pay cut

Zach ($600,000 is too much, $400-$450,000 would be ok)

I feel like we need to move on

Jefferson, Kyrie Wilson

 May Retire 

Bryant, Neufeld

Don't bring back due to health

Streveler, Schoen

Agree with a lot of that. I’d tend to be ready to tear down more of the old guys.

Id only bring wj back on a dirt cheap deal to be the Nat-am back up end and play very limited reps. 

Parker has had moments and about as many good as bad, and missed a ton of time. I’d move on from him. 

 

We also have to look at guys who might wanna leave us. Haven’t seen our pending free agents, but if they can I could see wrs not named demski, all the dl we don’t cut, ayers, nichols and maybe even brady taking a long hard look at leaving. Guys like that don’t usually wanna sit around a rebuild, they want to sit on a bad team that won’t decide to rebuild even less. 

I think atleast one of mos/walters should go. Most of our offensive coaches outside of marty and a few of the defensive positional coaches. Time to let jy build a D staff, and build the roster on D around him. Rather than having him build the D around our sorry ass dl. 

2 hours ago, rebusrankin said:

This likely worthy of a new thread but what changes should we make for next year?

To me:

Easy Choice-They Need to go

Hogan, Kolo, Thomas, Mitchell, Logan

Can Stay but needs a pay cut

Zach ($600,000 is too much, $400-$450,000 would be ok)

I feel like we need to move on

Jefferson, Kyrie Wilson

 May Retire 

Bryant, Neufeld

Don't bring back due to health

Streveler, Schoen

Agree on almost all points, but Kyrie Wilson had a good year and ought to be allowed to compete for a starting job next year. T. Jones was often out of position and Kyrie may have had to try to compensate.

30 minutes ago, Tracker said:

Agree on almost all points, but Kyrie Wilson had a good year and ought to be allowed to compete for a starting job next year. T. Jones was often out of position and Kyrie may have had to try to compensate.

Kyrie was alright. But we need to go younger at lber and should flip the ratio to ni with the young guys there. 

 

Apparently zach said he wants to play next year with the current core. Doesn’t sound from the quote like the wants to be in a rebuild or tear down next year. 

He also said he has “options” for next year. 

12 minutes ago, wbbfan said:

Haven’t seen our pending free agents, but if they can I could see wrs not named demski, all the dl we don’t cut, ayers, nichols and maybe even brady taking a long hard look at leaving. Guys like that don’t usually wanna sit around a rebuild, they want to sit on a bad team that won’t decide to rebuild even less. 

Did a quick list based on what I can quickly find from news releases and/or when players signed (I assumed the standard 3 year rookie deals for nationals & 1 year with a team option for a 2nd year with imports unless a specific length was announced).  Might be off on a few and I'm sure the list will dwindle by the time FA officially opens.

• AYERS, Michael
• BONDS, Terrell
• BRYANT, Stanley
• CADWALLADER, Tanner
• CASE, Kody
• CASTILLO, Sergio
• COBB, Gavin
• DEMSKI, Nic
• ELI, Asotui
• GAUTHIER, Shayne
• GRIFFIN II, Michael
• HALLETT, Nick
• HOLM, Evan
• JEFFERSON, Willie
• KELLY, Jake
• KOLANKOWSKI, Chris
• KRAMDI, Redha
• LAWSON, Cameron
• LOFTON, Eric
• MAKONZO, Enock
• MITCHELL, Dillon
• NEUFELD, Patrick
• NICHOLS, Deatrick
• OLIVEIRA, Brady
• PARKER, Jamal
• RANDOLPH, Kendall
• SCHMEKEL, Tanner
• SCHOEN, Dalton
• SHEAHAN, Jamieson
• STERNS, Jerreth
• STREVELER, Chris
• THOMAS, Jake
• VANTERPOOL, Micah
• VAUGHTERS, James
• WHEATFALL, Keric
• WILSON, Kyrie
• WILSON, Terry
• WOODS, Jamal

The following players ended the season on the PR, making them FA's immediately:

Devin Adams, De'Shaan Dixon, Ben Dooley, Matthew Jackson, Jay Person, Hunter Poncius,, Fabian Weitz, AK Gassama, Justin Mayers.