Is this ever a guy we should take a run at? I really like Pokey as a receiver but not sure he's a 1A Superstar guy... Would you ever take a run at Hatcher as your #1 and then have Pokey and Demski as 2/3?

 

 

1 minute ago, Bigblue204 said:

It was because of a #1 pick (an OL I think). He ended up getting signed for a ridiculous amount before he did anything. The CFLPA basically said teams are signing these huge contracts for a guy who hasn't done anything only because he's a high canadian pick. While other stars aren't being compensated to the same degree even though they are legit stars for the league/team. And I can see their point. But...it's back fired now. Because whatever the cap is now is so low that for a guy that's on the edge of being on an NFL roster/pr, it just doesn't make financial sense to sign with the CFL until he's sure he's got no chance. And as we are seeing, that can take years.

It was a very curious decision to put that in place given we were just starting to see a vast talent drain after the NFL's PR expansion.

45 minutes ago, Bigblue204 said:

It was because of a #1 pick (an OL I think). He ended up getting signed for a ridiculous amount before he did anything. The CFLPA basically said teams are signing these huge contracts for a guy who hasn't done anything only because he's a high canadian pick. While other stars aren't being compensated to the same degree even though they are legit stars for the league/team. And I can see their point. But...it's back fired now. Because whatever the cap is now is so low that for a guy that's on the edge of being on an NFL roster/pr, it just doesn't make financial sense to sign with the CFL until he's sure he's got no chance. And as we are seeing, that can take years.

They should meet in the middle somewhere, not every CFL rookie falls into that category so it you might not need to scrap or adjust the cap entirely - just allow a bit of wiggle room for these higher level guys. Maybe allow each team 1 rookie cap exception or something so we don't have those guys sitting out rather than playing.

3 hours ago, rebusrankin said:

CFL needs to drop the salary provisions on deals for Nationals and increase the operations cap.

The only real issue with the rookie deals is the inflexibility with incentives.

This league has no money so they need to have some controls. Sask and Edmonton really broke everything when they were trying to be at the top of the heap. There’s 4 franchises who have never been able to break even on football operations in your lifetime. And another 2 who have only been able to tread water at best. So I’m not sure where people think money will be coming from to fund teams spending more on operations. It’s not going to come from player salaries.

tookie deals should have a range ...a minimum salary and a max for yr one at say 150K can increase by 10k per yr for first deal

It be up to the teams as to how and who gets the higher amount

18 minutes ago, Booch said:

tookie deals should have a range ...a minimum salary and a max for yr one at say 150K can increase by 10k per yr for first deal

It be up to the teams as to how and who gets the higher amount

I always overcomplicate solutions like this, but here is what I would do.

If a draft pick get an NFL camp invite or NFL combine invite, they are automatically qualified for "Super rookie" status. The salary range for them then goes up to say 90-120k. 2 years of CFL rights, with the NFL window still after year 1. Any player who makes an NFL PR or AR is treated like any veteran FA, but with exclusive rights held by the drafting team.

2 hours ago, wbbfan said:

I always overcomplicate solutions like this, but here is what I would do.

If a draft pick get an NFL camp invite or NFL combine invite, they are automatically qualified for "Super rookie" status. The salary range for them then goes up to say 90-120k. 2 years of CFL rights, with the NFL window still after year 1. Any player who makes an NFL PR or AR is treated like any veteran FA, but with exclusive rights held by the drafting team.

Now this is creative. This and similar things approaches are needed for this league. The commish and his team should be leading the charge on CREATIVITY. (Sorry I had to shout that last word for the people way in the back).

7 hours ago, rebusrankin said:

CFL needs to drop the salary provisions on deals for Nationals and increase the operations cap.

An Ambrosie clone at HO told him no. So he listened.

7 minutes ago, HardCoreBlue said:

Now this is creative. This and similar things approaches are needed for this league. The commish and his team should be leading the charge on CREATIVITY. (Sorry I had to shout that last word for the people way in the back).

Something. Anything. For crissakes. These pandemic financial decisions should have ebbn gone 3 years ago. Sure, let's pay some random Canadian Guard $300000 a year who no one ever heard of. Yet, we can't offer Elgersma the money to make him want to sign here. The stupidity at the league level continues. Well done, Johnson & the Board of Dinosaurs.

4 hours ago, JuranBoldenRules said:

The only real issue with the rookie deals is the inflexibility with incentives.

This league has no money so they need to have some controls. Sask and Edmonton really broke everything when they were trying to be at the top of the heap. There’s 4 franchises who have never been able to break even on football operations in your lifetime. And another 2 who have only been able to tread water at best. So I’m not sure where people think money will be coming from to fund teams spending more on operations. It’s not going to come from player salaries.

Teams should be free to spend the cap whatever way they want. It's their cap. Just like Rourke will be making $800000 in 2028. How long till he hits a million? Bc can do what they want. We should be able to pay as we want. Rookie or veterans.

31 minutes ago, SpeedFlex27 said:

Teams should be free to spend the cap whatever way they want. It's their cap. Just like Rourke will be making $800000 in 2028. How long till he hits a million? Bc can do what they want. We should be able to pay as we want. Rookie or veterans.

Hard disagree on rookies. Every pro league on this continent in every sport has a rookie salary scale. You don't really know how a player will perform transitioning to pro and it just becomes a race to the bottom if you're negotiating individual contracts with each rookie.

46 minutes ago, JuranBoldenRules said:

Hard disagree on rookies. Every pro league on this continent in every sport has a rookie salary scale. You don't really know how a player will perform transitioning to pro and it just becomes a race to the bottom if you're negotiating individual contracts with each rookie.

There's a rookie scale & then there's the CFL. It's ridiculously small. No incentive to sign. You also don't knpow how players will play when they're 5 year vets, either.

Got two tickets to Touchdown Kelowna on June 27th which is my birthday. A friend of mine is a Stamps STH & since he was going with his 2 young sons, he got two tickets for my wife & I. That should be a fun weekend. We haven't been to Kelowna since 2017 when my son was an Asst Coach with the Okanagan Sun. Be interesting to attend one of these CFL niche games. More power to Lions owner Amar Doman for trying to grow the game in BC. Unlike that trash ownership in Toronto who do virtually nothing for the Argos in Southern Ontario.

Edited 4 hours ago4 hr by SpeedFlex27

We should definitely meet up for a beer Al!

Will see about also getting tickets. The Apple Bowl is kind of a joke but I guess it will have to do. Not sure about TSN being able to put cameras in that dump either. Oh well.

On 2026-02-13 at 5:06 PM, SpeedFlex27 said:

Something. Anything. For crissakes. These pandemic financial decisions should have ebbn gone 3 years ago. Sure, let's pay some random Canadian Guard $300000 a year who no one ever heard of. Yet, we can't offer Elgersma the money to make him want to sign here. The stupidity at the league level continues. Well done, Johnson & the Board of Dinosaurs.

Elgersma is unproven and hasn’t played any pro football at all. None. Zero. Zilch. The pay is enough for a guy like Thorne or Perkins but not for the great Elgersma who has zero experience. Dude last threw a ball in a game that mattered almost 2 years ago now. I mean. Let’s not be ridiculous. Ppl pretend Canadian QBs draw or are gonna save the league but nope cuz we outdraw bc and rourke. Nobody cares about Elgersma except the ppl on this site right now and I think only 1 thinks he’s some stud already. He’s not tho. He’s got less pro experience than chase Artopoeous.

Edited 2 hours ago2 hr by Goalie

48 minutes ago, Goalie said:

Elgersma is unproven and hasn’t played any pro football at all. None. Zero. Zilch. The pay is enough for a guy like Thorne or Perkins but not for the great Elgersma who has zero experience. Dude last threw a ball in a game that mattered almost 2 years ago now. I mean. Let’s not be ridiculous. Ppl pretend Canadian QBs draw or are gonna save the league but nope cuz we outdraw bc and rourke. Nobody cares about Elgersma except the ppl on this site right now and I think only 1 thinks he’s some stud already. He’s not tho. He’s got less pro experience than chase Artopoeous.

He played nfl pre season and performed very well. That’s a lot more than chase did.

For a young qb, every snap matters. production in any area matters.

Also, an nfl tc and rookie camp is worth two cfl camps and a year on the pr. Much higher level coaching, higher level of competition.

Neither of those guys are gonna produce or should have any expectation this year. if elgersma is here and if chase is even here after rookie camp.

The arm talent is pretty close, id say elgersmas tool kit translates better to the cfl. Also his experience with the canadian game is incredibly value able.

Arm talent to compete in nfl camp plus experience in the canadian game is extremely valuable.

We don’t know what he’s really worth, because this isn’t some thing we’ve seen before.

Winning helps the most to draw. Outside of that, not much is worth sacrificing any thing on the field for.

Canadian qbs aren’t going to save the league, the next wave of qbs will save or sink the league. If things continue as is with qb talent in the cfl, you might start seeing more cis kids play. Not much further down for us to go once the old guys are gone.