Permission to talk: Is O'Shea leaving?

[Pete]

1 hour ago, wbbfan said:

They aren’t, normally at most positions, Especially that amount over. Looking back at canadians setting the high price mark at positions, they normally only get 10-20k mark up. Out side of Ol, Rourke, ford, and Brady. All 3 of those guys are over pays, but rourke being a qb is a bit different. Ford won’t see remotely the same money again in his career. Even ol, where we see more canadians get more money, It’s normally a 20-30k max range. 

A positional break down: 

Db, it’s true right now. because ford is one of the worst over pays. But a canadian db hasn’t been the highest paid in the past 6-7 years atleast. Last one I can find was Sanchez when he came back from the nfl, ages ago. 

Lber, Judge is 35k ish under wynton and just under 10 below Beverette. Again the previous highest paid lbers going back years aren’t canadian. 

Dl, they are but they are only 15-25k above flo and ceresna. For several years this has been imp dominated for highest paid. 

Wr, nope lawler and it’s been imps as far back as I can find. 

Rb, it is again with brady’s heavy pay day. Brady again earns 2x all but one or two backs in the league. 

If you look at the league wide candidates for MOC, did any one other than brady/rourke even make 100k? Giving huge pay days to canadian ratio breakers doesn’t work out a lot. How did Robbie smith do? Or ford? 

 

If we lived in a perfect world and crafted the roster around over paying two great canadian's, that we know will perform, that’d be fine. Problem is, how do you retool with those contracts when those are two of the easier positions to replace for a fraction of the pay? 

 

Starting Cdns are amongst the highest paid

Dline  Robbie SMith at 305k (tell me that isnt a bigger overpay than Olivera), then next is Betts

Dback - 3 of the top 4 highest paid are cdns - Ford (and he was just reupped at 230k), Dequoy, and Campbell  (How is Kramdl the highest paid db on our team btw = other than because hes cdn)

Oline top 3 salaries are cdn Hunter, Ferland Korte

Recievers McInnis is the 2nd highest Demski 4th, and tell me how Gittens jr isnt a massive overpay at 210k. Just wait til mtrl's Philpot hits free agency this upcoming year.

the highest paid rb as you mentioned Brady is in a class by himself and at qb another cdn Roarke.

 

 

[Goalie]

How much is BlM making in Hamilton. 
 

he’s a free agent isn’t he? 
 

would you give him a 1 year deal if Zach decides to hang them up. 

[voodoochylde]

24 minutes ago, Pete said:

Starting Cdns are amongst the highest paid

Dline  Robbie SMith at 305k (tell me that isnt a bigger overpay than Olivera), then next is Betts

Dback - 3 of the top 4 highest paid are cdns - Ford (and he was just reupped at 230k), Dequoy, and Campbell  (How is Kramdl the highest paid db on our team btw = other than because hes cdn)

Oline top 3 salaries are cdn Hunter, Ferland Korte

Recievers McInnis is the 2nd highest Demski 4th, and tell me how Gittens jr isnt a massive overpay at 210k. Just wait til mtrl's Philpot hits free agency this upcoming year.

the highest paid rb as you mentioned Brady is in a class by himself and at qb another cdn Roarke.

 

 

I love Brady and the fact that he’s a Winnipegger but his salary is a luxury at the leagues most replaceable position.

I said it in 24 when he earned the contract, I’ll say it again now:  if I was building a roster RB is not the position I’d blow my wad on.

There are guys out there who can do what he does .. who don’t HAVE to do what he does .. and could (more than adequately) fill the role while allowing us to address other areas of the roster.

[Goalie]

Yeah. 250 For RB Is ridiculous. To be honest he should be taking the pay cut. I think 200 with the promo bonus money then thrown in is more than fair. Dude lives here. He can pay a house off in 2 years if he wanted. He’s good. Take the hometown discount you prick. lol 

Edited 4 hours ago by Goalie

[Booch]

1 hour ago, sweep the leg said:

We retool by not paying Logan, WJ, Bryant, Vaughters, etc. Pay our stars and replace the old guys through scouting.

What stars other than BO?

We pay inadequate...never were great..and long in tooth guys more than most teams...that's our issue

We really don't have any more real stars here...or difference makers...especially on defence

1 hour ago, SpeedFlex27 said:

Yeah, a raise & a long term contract (3 years is a lifetime in pro sports). I'll take a kick in the ass like that, too. 

I wonder what Joe Poplawski in his prime would command today? Milt Stegall? Charles Roberts? 

In all honesty...Joe pop would be decent...but not the player he was then tho

Milt and Blink...they'd get the cheddar

45 minutes ago, Goalie said:

Yeah. Not sure I saw anything term related. All I know is 9 straight double digit winning seasons in a row is not as bad as some people think. Think people truly forget the struggle before Kyle and Osh got here. We were legit the laughing stock of the league and now we basically the premier destination and basically top organization all around. I think it’s kinda crazy you got people so willing to just move on based on just heresay and rumours. 9 straight winning seasons. Who the **** fires the gm and coach for winning? 

I can see psrt of your argument...but like osh...u look backwards 

Winning seasons that result in continued stupid failures when it matters...over and over...who reups that? And we been in regression too...each yr

And winning...what we won of late?

[Goalie]

3 more years of this according to speed @Booch

 

time to I dunno but 3 years. 

[Booch]

Just now, Goalie said:

3 more years of this according to speed @Booch

 

time to I dunno but 3 years. 

I never said any term...but that seems par for the course tho and likely

[bigg jay]

25 minutes ago, Goalie said:

How much is BlM making in Hamilton. 
 

he’s a free agent isn’t he? 
 

would you give him a 1 year deal if Zach decides to hang them up. 

BLM is talking about retiring - he's not sure if he'll be back next year so not sure if that's a real option.

https://3downnation.com/2025/11/08/bo-levi-mitchells-future-unclear-after-hamilton-tiger-cats-lose-east-final/

[wbbfan]

1 hour ago, Pete said:

Starting Cdns are amongst the highest paid

Dline  Robbie SMith at 305k (tell me that isnt a bigger overpay than Olivera), then next is Betts

Dback - 3 of the top 4 highest paid are cdns - Ford (and he was just reupped at 230k), Dequoy, and Campbell  (How is Kramdl the highest paid db on our team btw = other than because hes cdn)

Oline top 3 salaries are cdn Hunter, Ferland Korte

Recievers McInnis is the 2nd highest Demski 4th, and tell me how Gittens jr isnt a massive overpay at 210k. Just wait til mtrl's Philpot hits free agency this upcoming year.

the highest paid rb as you mentioned Brady is in a class by himself and at qb another cdn Roarke.

 

 

Like I said, a couple ratio breakers across the league, almost none by that kind of margin. 

 

Smith made 270k, not 305. But i also said “How did Robbie smith do?”

Ford didn’t just sign an extension. He signed a 3 year deal last off season. 

Our secondary pay scale has gone to pure crap. Crazy for a team that refused to pay dbs for so long. 

Ol is the hall mark cfl starting position. Db/s and 1 wr are others. 

Demski wasn’t actually in the top 5, due to whites bonuses. 4 out of the top 5 wrs are ni. But demski is making a big chunk to much. 

 

Gittens, ford and smith are classic examples of why it’s a bad idea to give gigantic over pays because of the passport. 

Rourkes deal is only workable because the lions put so much cheat money into his deal, and he plays qb. Even at that the list of teams who’ve screwed them self with qb deals like that is way longer than the ones it’s worked out for. 

36 minutes ago, bigg jay said:

BLM is talking about retiring - he's not sure if he'll be back next year so not sure if that's a real option.

https://3downnation.com/2025/11/08/bo-levi-mitchells-future-unclear-after-hamilton-tiger-cats-lose-east-final/

wooooow. That’s a possible huge power shift if he does. Bet they give powell a good deal and then go premium at back up. Maybe get in on the peat with my favorite to land him, edmonton.

[GCn20]

It has become apparent that by retaining Walters that Miller may be our biggest problem football operations wise.

[wbbfan]

1 hour ago, Mark H. said:

That's true of a whole lot of starting Canadian positions. I mean, if you found a Canadian who could play OT to the level of, say, Hardrick, you'd have to pay him. 

For my money, that would be the most valuable canadian. That’s why I think we should be developing guys like wallace with the mobility at rt first, and kick them inside if it doesn’t work out.
 

Yeah a lot of heavy pay days to canadians end up being bad deals. 

2 hours ago, SpeedFlex27 said:

Yeah, a raise & a long term contract (3 years is a lifetime in pro sports). I'll take a kick in the ass like that, too. 

I wonder what Joe Poplawski in his prime would command today? Milt Stegall? Charles Roberts? 

Milt was pushing fringe starting qb money. So in today’s game, i’d bet he’d want 330-400k. Blink would be hard to price. Imo, the top pay for a rb should be incentive based, pay some thing like 165k base, and chance to go up to 195-205k. Sure, pay premium for the mop campaigns. If you go over on the back end deal with it. 

Free agency is one of the few chances to add significant talent now. We don’t see major nfl free agent upgrades more than once every few years any more. 

That’s what wasting cap space really does. Make you miss out on the only chance to retool. 

4 hours ago, Mark H. said:

That would be because there isn't a Canadian back anywhere near as good as Brady is.  I am not advocating a raise, I just think Brady O's contract for this year was fine, especially for a non-import

2023: led the league in yards from scrimmage

2024: led the league in yards from scrimmage

2025: finished second in yards from scrimmage (missed 3 games)

When you have a Canadian doing that, you will have to pay him - or some other team will

The one thing that bothers me about Brady, is that they are not taking full advantage of the fact that he's a Canadian running back.  A Canadian in a non-traditional position, with a decent backup, should be pure gold.

But the Bombers choose not to cash in.  There should be 3 Americans on the OL, or an American starting for Jake Thomas at DT.  Heck, they could do both of those if they really wanted to

Except every game brady and harris before him, missed, our run game didn’t miss a beat. 

Half the league has a high end rb as we saw this year. 

3 hours ago, sweep the leg said:

We retool by not paying Logan, WJ, Bryant, Vaughters, etc. Pay our stars and replace the old guys through scouting.

The issue with that is, we likely have to pay wjs money for a high end dl, logan plus vaughters might get us a second end, and bryant’s replacement would need an increase via free agency. 

We need to spend more on wr, ol, and Dl. we aren’t going to stay with in what we pay those positions and retool. We need to cut else where. 

[wbbfan]

14 minutes ago, GCn20 said:

It has become apparent that by retaining Walters that Miller may be our biggest problem football operations wise.

If hogans back / we don’t do a major re tooling that shows serious change, the whole team is cooked 

[bigg jay]

33 minutes ago, wbbfan said:

wooooow. That’s a possible huge power shift if he does. Bet they give powell a good deal and then go premium at back up. Maybe get in on the peat with my favorite to land him, edmonton.

If I'm Powell's agent, I'm waiting to see what FA offers he can get. I'm sure they are a few teams who would like to bring him in.

[Pete]

35 minutes ago, wbbfan said:

Like I said, a couple ratio breakers across the league, almost none by that kind of margin. 

 

Smith made 270k, not 305. But i also said “How did Robbie smith do?”

Ford didn’t just sign an extension. He signed a 3 year deal last off season. 

Our secondary pay scale has gone to pure crap. Crazy for a team that refused to pay dbs for so long. 

Ol is the hall mark cfl starting position. Db/s and 1 wr are others. 

Demski wasn’t actually in the top 5, due to whites bonuses. 4 out of the top 5 wrs are ni. But demski is making a big chunk to much. 

 

Gittens, ford and smith are classic examples of why it’s a bad idea to give gigantic over pays because of the passport. Rourkes deal is only workable because the to land him, edmonton.

https://www.cfl.ca/2025/10/29/elks-extend-tyrell-ford-through-2027/

If your going to try to get a cdn starter thru free agency chances are you"ll overpay

[HardCoreBlue]

1 minute ago, bigg jay said:

If I'm Powell's agent, I'm waiting to see what FA offers he can get. I'm sure they are a few teams who would like to bring him in.

When I see Powell and the attention he may get from teams it reminds me of how bad this whole league needs an huge influx of quality, not serviceable, not adequate, but elite qb’s.

[bigg jay]

6 minutes ago, HardCoreBlue said:

When I see Powell and the attention he may get from teams it reminds me of how bad this whole league needs an huge influx of quality, not serviceable, not adequate, but elite qb’s.

Guys like BLM, ZC & Harris are winding their careers down so there will be openings in the next year or two.  Might be an opportunity for the next generation of QB's to step up - not sure who that would be though.

[HardCoreBlue]

1 minute ago, bigg jay said:

Guys like BLM, ZC & Harris are winding their careers down so there will be openings in the next year or two.  Might be an opportunity for the next generation of QB's to step up - not sure who that would be though.

Yea that’s my point and my hope that the CFL sees another great generation of QB’s sooner than later. Maybe point to Rourke as the latest example that good to great qb’s can carve out a nice career in the CFL and spend less time lingering around not playing in the NFL taking years off their development and playing time. But yes the dream of playing in the NFL and being very well compensated has always been the achilles heel of the CFL.

[SpeedFlex27]

53 minutes ago, HardCoreBlue said:

Yea that’s my point and my hope that the CFL sees another great generation of QB’s sooner than later. Maybe point to Rourke as the latest example that good to great qb’s can carve out a nice career in the CFL and spend less time lingering around not playing in the NFL taking years off their development and playing time. But yes the dream of playing in the NFL and being very well compensated has always been the achilles heel of the CFL.

I think the rookie salary cap is a huge problem. If the Bombers wanted to sign Elgersma for $175,000 that should be their decision. The cap should be a floor & not a ceiling.

Edited 1 hour ago by SpeedFlex27

[rebusrankin]

I'd get rid of Willie, Vaughters, Logan, Mitchell, Tony Jones, Kolo etc before I moved on from Brady, Of course we'd have to do better scouting to do so.  I get what some here are saying though, Brady at 250-260 is tough when you could potentially sign a guy like Butler, Mills or Bell for 150-160 and get close to the same production.