With Rookie Camp getting underway Wednesday morning, it's officially time to talk about the 2026 Winnipeg Blue Bombers!

6 minutes ago, rebusrankin said:

It looked like he covered McAllister twice in the first half and it didn't go well.

Yeah, one time for sure…. McAllister went in motion and Ayers was late getting over. Easy read and throw for Vaj. Seemed like there was some confusion on whose man he was.

23 minutes ago, Atomic said:

Did anyone notice Ayers' play time in game 1? It seemed to me he was in on every play on D in the first quarter and then I never noticed him again after that. But I could absolutely be blind or mistaken. Anyone else notice?

We used a ton of different sub-packages and alignments in the first half of the game on D. JY talked about it in the presser, and how that's what he wants to do. The D did get substantially better, though with simplification in the 2nd half.

I love well-designed sub packs, but in the CFL, you need to have strong base usage. You can't be too crazy/complex too often. We have the ability to send 4 guys and get consistent disruption now. That needs to be our base. And the tricky stuff, needs to be used in moderation more.

I'll need more than one game before I start imagining our DL is as elite as Calgary's. They were disruptive (not productive) against us even without Hutchings or Orimolade. That's a scary DL they have in Calgary for sure.

If nothing else after 1 game, the entire DL was more noticeable and got more pressures and whatever else than they did last year. Game 1 I noticed ceresna, Lawson, Willie, Dixon and Jenkins at times. Last year you noticed Willie occasionally. I don’t think we are on Calgary level but we have certainly upgraded the talent level significantly. Jake to Jake is just it’s going from the outhouse to the penthouse. I think 1 dude can make a difference and I think that 1 dude did game 1. That allowed the others to step up.

Jake won’t dominate every game but his presence will help the others step up. Lawson ain’t no slouch either and Jenkins and now fletcher are likely upgrades on Vaughters and Korn and whoever else we trotted out last year. Talent level vastly improved there but really it’s just 1 FA signing.

Edited 22 minutes ago22 min by Goalie

42 minutes ago, Mike said:

I'll need more than one game before I start imagining our DL is as elite as Calgary's. They were disruptive (not productive) against us even without Hutchings or Orimolade. That's a scary DL they have in Calgary for sure.

They are very good and if we can even be spoken in the same sentence as them we are in good shape.

That's the key thing and mentioned here continuously for last few yrs...On dline and oline if you have a slug in the middle...it radiates out as a ripple effect and degrades the whole unit...and we at times last few yrs would trot out 2 slugs at same time in middle of the dline...and well....good luck having the ends do much of anything. We have seen and suffered thru that and saw the difference in just 1 game

The fact it took so long to go away from the slugs is just sad....And thankfully it looks like lesson learned....as we would have bumped Korn onto roster last yr, and well....been back to the same uselessness. Fletcher got promoted...color me shocked but was the right move I was worried tho