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

[Bigblue204]

27 minutes ago, blue85gold said:

Can't discount that he knows Zach too. 

Hell maybe he'll bring Hardy with him as a bonus

Or Lewis for that matter

[3rdand1.5]

Don't follow other teams rosters well enough, but did he work with any "solid up and coming prospect" that may join him?

 

I can't see this as anything but a HUGE upgrade from what we had last year..........

[Pete]

36 minutes ago, blue85gold said:

Can't discount that he knows Zach too. 

Hell maybe he'll bring Hardy with him as a bonus

Doesnt matter what we think. if the players have confidence in him,  such as Zac its a big head start over Hogan who had very little

[SpeedFlex27]

2 hours ago, Captain Blue said:

Condell is a pretty solid hire I think. He crafted some very good offenses in Hamilton previously. Clear upgrade at OC. 

It's an upgrade but not a solid one. Just his history & struggles with the run games as OC in Hamilton & Ottawa makes me wary. They better ttell him if he comes to Winnipeg, the offense goes thru Brady Oliveira not Nic Demski... But if they're choices one & two for Zach this may work. I'm hoping we sign an impact OL in free agency.

Edited 7 hours ago by SpeedFlex27

[Booch]

44 minutes ago, 3rdand1.5 said:

Don't follow other teams rosters well enough, but did he work with any "solid up and coming prospect" that may join him?

 

I can't see this as anything but a HUGE upgrade from what we had last year..........

Pimpleton....but believe he signed thru next yr

Crum could follow tho as a opp to be 2nd string/Short yardage guy...Adeboboye I'd make an offer to as well as Canadian depth that wont break the bank

Edited 6 hours ago by Booch

[JohnnyAbonny]

38 minutes ago, SpeedFlex27 said:

It's an upgrade but not a solid one. Just his history & struggles with the run games as OC in Hamilton & Ottawa makes me wary. They better ttell him if he comes to Winnipeg, the offense goes thru Brady Oliveira not Nic Demski... But if they're choices one & two for Zach this may work. I'm hoping we sign an impact OL in free agency.

An upgrade in the sense that a kick in the ass is better than a kick in the junk. 
Not super excited, but obviously anything is better than what we had this past year. 

[JuranBoldenRules]

15 hours ago, Noeller said:

I used to think TC was good but posters on here recently have made the case that he is, indeed, ****. That's unfortunate.... While this does feel like an obvious upgrade from Hogan, it also feels like the CFL Recycling Program in high gear...

He's just been around long enough to have had years at the top and years around the bottom.

Ultimately your play caller is affecting a small chunk of your production.  It's up to the talent you have and whether your OL can block anyone especially in pass pro.  He'll look like a ******* genius if they have the best OL in the league.

3 hours ago, blue85gold said:

Agree. Whether he is great or not he's a huge upgrade on Hogan.  He'll at least have implemented a full CFL playbook. 

Let's hope Zach can make his pee tests this year.

[johnzo]

39 minutes ago, JuranBoldenRules said:

Ultimately your play caller is affecting a small chunk of your production.  It's up to the talent you have and whether your OL can block anyone especially in pass pro.  He'll look like a ******* genius if they have the best OL in the league.

yeah, you look at how Buck lost his shine here right around the time that our OL hit the skids and Collaros started tossing tons of picks -- then he goes to BC where he's got the legit MOP, a good back, receivers five deep and a line that can pass protect ... and now he looks like a genius and we'd take him back in a second.

51 minutes ago, Booch said:

Crum could follow tho as a opp to be 2nd string/Short yardage guy

Crum surpassed my expectations last year. Showing steady upward progress.  Wonder what his ceiling is?  Would be happy to see him at QB2 in blue.

Edited 6 hours ago by johnzo

[wbbfan]

10 hours ago, SpeedFlex27 said:

It would be a great disappointment if they hired Condell because like you say, he's just a poor man's recycled version of Paul LaPolice. Condell will be under a lot of pressure to use Brady the team has committed the next three years to Brady & paid him $$$ to keep him here. Four or 5 touches just won't cut it. But historically, as far as the run game goes, he'd a terrible choice. So, we'll see. Also, not a fan of his dink & dunk offense. We might be better off just hiring LaPo again. However, if Hogan is gone then I'll applaud that. He was so bad.

I'd have liked to see Jarious Jackson given a chance at OC. he'd have been my choice. 

Condell has had success with good RBs in the past. He hasn't run an offense that leads he league in rushing, but he hasn't ever had the best back in the league or a top-tier guy either. I mean, the RBs kept starting a WR at RB rather than bringing in a real one.

As others have said, I have to believe that with brady locked up on a monster deal, that part of the due diligence was making sure Condell would fit in here with the balanced attack at the very least. 

 Also, him constantly being behind other offensive minds and running other systems, I tend to think he will either run the successful stuff we've had prior to the last 2 years or has some great ideas and hasn't been able to fully show them.

 

It's far from my favorite pick for OC. But at the very least, I expect a good improvement. 

2 hours ago, blue85gold said:

Can't discount that he knows Zach too. 

Hell maybe he'll bring Hardy with him as a bonus

Yeah, Hogan and Buck in his last year really seemed to be at odds and out of sync with Zach. He was furious so often because the calls from both came in ridiculously slowly. Which means you break the huddle late, have to rush lining up, and get significantly less time to survey the D in the pre-snap read. I can't emphasize enough how important an extra 4 seconds breaking the huddle are. Little on if you break the huddle and start lining up before the D. We used to reap huge advantages from being set way ahead of the D, and running any play out of any formation. That has been completely gone for 2 years. Not only does it make it harder to pass and run RPO, but it also makes it harder to protect the QB.  \

 

Condell, as an OC, gets a C grade from me right now. I worry that it will be a high-floor, low-ceiling pick, but time will tell, and I am fine giving him the benefit of the doubt. He also worked very well with Dru, which bodes well for fit with Zach imo. 

[Wanna-B-Fanboy]

4 hours ago, Captain Blue said:

Condell is a pretty solid hire I think. He crafted some very good offenses in Hamilton previously. Clear upgrade at OC. 

That bar is set @ or below ground level...

[wbbfan]

1 hour ago, Booch said:

Pimpleton....but believe he signed thru next yr

Crum could follow tho as a opp to be 2nd string/Short yardage guy...Adeboboye I'd make an offer to as well as Canadian depth that wont break the bank

Adeboboye signed an extension this month, too. I'm not holding my breath on us luring guys with Condell. 

 

1 minute ago, Wanna-B-Fanboy said:

That bar is set @ or below ground level...

The lowest level in ages. Hogan is an all-time bad OC. Worse than some of the OC by committee we ran. Worse than belifool too imo. Worse than the constant wildcat and spread offense legend that never materialized success up here. 

[rebusrankin]

Worse than Marcel Belifool, that's a damming indictment

[wbbfan]

15 minutes ago, rebusrankin said:

Worse than Marcel Belifool, that's a damming indictment

Yep. Crowtons time here was pretty bad but no one got control of any thing under kelly. 

[HardCoreBlue]

8 minutes ago, wbbfan said:

Yep. Crowtons time here was pretty bad but no one got control of any thing under kelly. 

[johnzo]

it's an interesting year for free agent QBs.  Ordinarily there's an obvious matchup of free agent QB and rebuilding team (like Brown in Ottawa, VAJ in Calgary, Fajardo in Montreal, etc).  This year the top free agents are MBT, Crum and Powell, but there's no obvious landing spots for them.  Really curious to see where Powell's head is at given that BLM just resigned for two years and Powell got no snaps last year.

Edited 2 hours ago by johnzo

[johnzo]

What's JY's status?  I know people get frustrated by the lack of pressure, but by the numbers we were the top D in the league last year.  Are we in danger of a downgrade there?

(we were the best in defensive points allowed, but were not the best in total points against.  Lots of points scored on turnovers against us.)

[Booch]

so Demski is getting 240k next...245k in 27" with some in that yr gauranteed....all things considered a good deal for us with 

[wbbfan]

11 minutes ago, Booch said:

so Demski is getting 240k next...245k in 27" with some in that yr gauranteed....all things considered a good deal for us with 

not bad. Hopefully some money buried this year/ in appearances as well. 

 

19 minutes ago, johnzo said:

What's JY's status?  I know people get frustrated by the lack of pressure, but by the numbers we were the top D in the league last year.  Are we in danger of a downgrade there?

(we were the best in defensive points allowed, but were not the best in total points against.  Lots of points scored on turnovers against us.)

I’m very sure he will be back. Love jy, if we ever take the training wheels off his D it’ll be unbeatable. 

38 minutes ago, johnzo said:

it's an interesting year for free agent QBs.  Ordinarily there's an obvious matchup of free agent QB and rebuilding team (like Brown in Ottawa, VAJ in Calgary, Fajardo in Montreal, etc).  This year the top free agents are MBT, Crum and Powell, but there's no obvious landing spots for them.  Really curious to see where Powell's head is at given that BLM just resigned for two years and Powell got no snaps last year.

Agree. Edmonton and kelly are the only major pair I see happening. 

I would love powell or even crum. I think mbt will join his ancestors in the after (football) life. 

[bustamente]

The dollars being given up are quickly adding up, hope there still some left to bring in some quality free agents later on. Having said that so far so good now maybe work on the O line.

 

[SpeedFlex27]

6 hours ago, Bigblue204 said:

Or Lewis for that matter

If we wouldn't pay lawler then why would we pay what Gino wants? 

[3rdand1.5]

54 minutes ago, Booch said:

so Demski is getting 240k next...245k in 27" with some in that yr gauranteed....all things considered a good deal for us with 

That seems like a really fair value.........

[Booch]

58 minutes ago, bustamente said:

The dollars being given up are quickly adding up, hope there still some left to bring in some quality free agents later on. Having said that so far so good now maybe work on the O line.

 

I think the fact we seeing so many bigger ticket deals before Jan is we putting some of it on 2025 books..so we should be looking good to.go shopping in FA 

[HardCoreBlue]

25 minutes ago, SpeedFlex27 said:

If we wouldn't pay lawler then why would we pay what Gino wants? 

Lessons learned?

[HardCoreBlue]

15 hours ago, SpeedFlex27 said:

So sayest thou.

[Brandon]

1 hour ago, bustamente said:

The dollars being given up are quickly adding up, hope there still some left to bring in some quality free agents later on. Having said that so far so good now maybe work on the O line.

 

Every team on every year has money to re-sign veterans and also add new pieces in free agency.   

I don't believe any team has never signed any veterans and only replenished via free agency.