Blue Bombers -- 2025/26 Offseason -- Discussion Thread

[wbbfan]

9 minutes ago, Bubba Zanetti said:

CFL Season Schedule - CFL.ca

As far as competitive balance on that schedule, just for us, I really like that schedule. 

No stupid short weeks, no home and away back-to-back series (other than LDC/BJB), good spread out balance of bye weeks, and we aren't ending a season series super early in the season again. 

Best competitive balance schedule (For us) in many years. Personally, only 3 weekday games all on Thursdays, which is great. 

[bigg jay]

7 minutes ago, wbbfan said:

As far as competitive balance on that schedule, just for us, I really like that schedule. 

No stupid short weeks, no home and away back-to-back series (other than LDC/BJB), good spread out balance of bye weeks, and we aren't ending a season series super early in the season again. 

Best competitive balance schedule (For us) in many years. Personally, only 3 weekday games all on Thursdays, which is great. 

Not for me.  I don't want to be stuck in the city on a Friday - I want to be at the lake.

[sweep the leg]

Thank god we don’t play the Riders five times again. 

[Arnold_Palmer]

57 minutes ago, Jpan85 said:

 

Nice to hear about Pokey! One of our young talented game breakers. This was a must. Really happy with the schedule as well. Not sure why it was so difficult to put out a balanced schedule, but I’ll give the credit when it’s due. 

[HardCoreBlue]

5 minutes ago, sweep the leg said:

Thank god we don’t play the Riders five times again. 

AND thank gawd we are not the Riders. What a constant relief that is.

[GCn20]

37 minutes ago, bigg jay said:

Not for me.  I don't want to be stuck in the city on a Friday - I want to be at the lake.

I used to love the Thursday games too.

[Wanna-B-Fanboy]

40 minutes ago, HardCoreBlue said:

AND thank gawd we are not the Riders. What a constant relief that is.

[bigg jay]

1 hour ago, wbbfan said:

As far as competitive balance on that schedule, just for us, I really like that schedule. 

No stupid short weeks, no home and away back-to-back series (other than LDC/BJB), good spread out balance of bye weeks, and we aren't ending a season series super early in the season again. 

Best competitive balance schedule (For us) in many years. Personally, only 3 weekday games all on Thursdays, which is great. 

Looks like there are no crazy short weeks (4 days) for any team this year but in July, we have consecutive 5 days weeks with travel in between.  Wouldn't be so bad if one of the short weeks was home & home but they aren't.  Losing extra days for travel isn't ideal and we end up playing 5 games in 27 days that month.  We have a bye right after though which is good because they'll need it!

[rebusrankin]

So we have our first player signing (well extension) in Pokey Wilson. This is exciting as its locking up a good, young player, not a old boys club member.

[HardCoreBlue]

Just now, rebusrankin said:

So we have our first player signing (well extension) in Pokey Wilson. This is exciting as it’s locking up a good, young player, not an old boys club member.

JT was out in the waiting area when OW came out with his new contract and asked OW, am I up with a smile on his face?

Awkward.

Sorry It’s going to be a long off season with me hanging around here especially with how the Jets are playing these days. 

[SpeedFlex27]

4 hours ago, Arnold_Palmer said:

Nice to hear about Pokey! One of our young talented game breakers. This was a must. Really happy with the schedule as well. Not sure why it was so difficult to put out a balanced schedule, but I’ll give the credit when it’s due. 

Happy Wilson is back.

[bustamente]

Having Wilson back is a great step forward but this team needs better at the receiver position, a couple of really good Canadians would help.

[bustamente]

Should of added that the team needs to really upgrade the O line, if ZC isn't upright it won't really matter who the receivers are. 

[Bubba Zanetti]

Take this for whats its worth, a friend of mine knows a person very close to Oliveira and he was told today that the Bombers are close to signing Brady to a 3 year 900K contract. Story is if the Bombers wont/dont, then the Argos will.

[bigg jay]

Unless it's a contract heavily loaded with marketing money so it doesn't affect the cap - hard pass for me at that price point.

[Noeller]

Woof to 300k per year on a RB.... Jesus. 

[SpeedFlex27]

57 minutes ago, Bubba Zanetti said:

Take this for whats its worth, a friend of mine knows a person very close to Oliveira and he was told today that the Bombers are close to signing Brady to a 3 year 900K contract. Story is if the Bombers wont/dont, then the Argos will.

If that's the market, so be it. I believe even our tone deaf, can't read the room, sits on his ass in free agency of a GM in Kyle Walters knows he has to sign Brady. To make up for it get rid of some deadwood on the roster. Especially one entitled vet who thinks he has a job for life, in particular.

3 minutes ago, Noeller said:

Woof to 300k per year on a RB.... Jesus. 

We're all going.... WTH??? Almost every position costs more, now. QB, receiver OL... About the only position you can still sign cheap vets is defensive back. . That'll probably be changing as well. 

[rebusrankin]

I'm a huge fan of Brady but 300,000 per year seems like too much at first glance.

[bigg jay]

7 minutes ago, SpeedFlex27 said:

If that's the market, so be it. I believe even our tone deaf, can't read the room, sits on his ass in free agency of a GM in Kyle Walters knows he has to sign Brady. To make up for it get rid of some deadwood on the roster. Especially one entitled vet who thinks he has a job for life, in particular.

We're all going.... WTH??? Almost every position costs more, now. QB, receiver OL... About the only position you can still sign cheap vets is defensive back. . That'll probably be changing as well. 

He was already the highest paid RB by a wide margin (240k vs 160kish for Ouellette) so it's not like we were being cheapskates with him.  Bumping him up another 60k is crazy.

[SpeedFlex27]

1 minute ago, rebusrankin said:

I'm a huge fan of Brady but 300,000 per year seems like too much at first glance.

It probably is. But it'll set the market for running backs like Diedrick Mills. & James Butler as well. We lose Brady what's the proability we replace him with a running back that's even close to what Oliveira does for us??? That's the problem. Replacing him. Not paying him. 

2 minutes ago, bigg jay said:

He was already the highest paid RB by a wide margin (240k vs 160kish for Ouellette) so it's not like we were being cheapskates with him.  Bumping him up another 60k is crazy.

Again, paying him isn't the problem. It's replacing him. 

[bigg jay]

2 minutes ago, SpeedFlex27 said:

It probably is. But it'll set the market for running backs like Diedrick Mills. & James Butler as well. We lose Brady what's the proability we replace him with a running back that's even close to what Oliveira does for us??? That's the problem. Replacing him. Not paying him. 

Again, paying him isn't the problem. It's replacing him. 

Brady tried to reset the market for RB's last year and it only worked out for him.  It did not affect the other salaries.

The top RB in the league last year (Mills) made a whopping $123,450 last year - half of what Brady did.  Butler (3rd overall for RB's) made slightly less at $120k.  You absolutely can replace his production for a much lower price.  The hit for the Bombers would be off the field - everyone loves Brady (myself included) and it would suck to see him leave.

[Noeller]

The only way this makes sense is if the cap is going way up and/or there's a bunch of promo money being used. Make a 150k donation to Northern Dog Rescue.......

[SpeedFlex27]

7 minutes ago, bigg jay said:

Brady tried to reset the market for RB's last year and it only worked out for him.  It did not affect the other salaries.

The top RB in the league last year (Mills) made a whopping $123,450 last year - half of what Brady did.  Butler (3rd overall for RB's) made slightly less at $120k.  You absolutely can replace his production for a much lower price.  The hit for the Bombers would be off the field - everyone loves Brady (myself included) and it would suck to see him leave.

The thing is, we can but will we?? I have zero faith in walterts actually doing so. He has a grid for players. RBs (other than Brady) are worth so much. Receivers, linebackers, etc. He won't budge bringing in other team's free agents or keeping ours. 

[wbbfan]

13 minutes ago, SpeedFlex27 said:

The thing is, we can but will we?? I have zero faith in walterts actually doing so. He has a grid for players. RBs (other than Brady) are worth so much. Receivers, linebackers, etc. He won't budge bringing in other team's free agents or keeping ours. 

Walter’s who brought us two extremely strong draft classes back to back, a couple great canadian talent trades, and a bumper crop of rookies like vaval, allen, woodbey, and the rookie ends who dominated in their one game. The same who already has us with the next group of high end imp ol in rando, who would’ve been an acclaimed all star on any other play off team maybe gotten nfl looks, and vanterpool who barely played but was our best ol when he did. 

The huge majority of the problem lays at the feet of mos. Walters hasn’t been perfect by any means, but we’ve seen him have the best free agent periods in the league while here when he has money to spend. He’s handed out some over pays for sure. And we’ve lost guys. But the team from top to bottom was in a maintain stage. If we are really in a re tool phase and it sure looks like we are, I wouldn’t pick any other gm in the league to do the job over him.