Finally! After a great off-season of signings, coaching changes and waiting, its game day!!!!

Road to the cup starts today, LETS ******* GO!!!!!!!!!!

Here's hoping for a better showing this year. Go Blue

The possibility of a fully functional DLine rotation alone, is cause for celebration. Make it happen Coach Thomas!

Edited 3 hours ago3 hr by Pete Catan's Ghost

Let's go Bombers!

Feel really good about this year. Not sure if we'll win tonight but that won't change how I feel about the overall picture. I really like the improvements on D and having a legit OC and the two best offensive tackles in the should be enough for a pretty significantly improved offence.

Adding Jake Ceresna to the DL changes the complexion of that unit and the D so much. Hard not to be stoked to see what they can do.

1 hour ago, Mr. Perfect said:

Feel really good about this year. Not sure if we'll win tonight but that won't change how I feel about the overall picture. I really like the improvements on D and having a legit OC and the two best offensive tackles in the should be enough for a pretty significantly improved offence.

I'm really hoping the extra American on the OL makes up for one less American with the receivers... we all know this offense thrives on Brady rolling and Zach having time to operate... a top notch OL dramatically helps both of those things...

‘Everybody else is playing for second’ year.

Lessss go.

Just ******* win, baby.... #FortHew

Potentially last hours of feeling ridiculously optimistic about the season. I’m so ready to keep believing, though.

GO BLUE!

35 minutes ago, bearpants said:

I'm really hoping the extra American on the OL makes up for one less American with the receivers... we all know this offense thrives on Brady rolling and Zach having time to operate... a top notch OL dramatically helps both of those things...

With significant changes on the line this year, it may take time for the starting five to gel - However, pound Brady until that happens, and even when it does, time for more Brady ball. His usage last year by Hollywood Hogan was criminal.

It's very possibly hopium but I have one whole complaint about the defense so I'm pretty excited about what that could look like this year. I like the pieces we brought in - Jenkins is a monster physical presence on the edge and I think it's crazy to think about the idea that on any given snap, you might be a tackle lining up against either Willie, Jake or Kydran. That's a lot of different tools in the toolbox to contend with. Another year of Woodbey is something I'm excited about, he gives me a lot of Adarius Pickett (with an extra 25 pounds) vibes and I genuinely think he could be an all-star on the back of a ton of splash playmaking. Our secondary seems like it's got the potential to be pretty exciting and I do like that we have a ton of versatility in all three levels.

Our offense both scares and bores the hell out of me. I know that we've got big pieces (Brady, White, Demski and Pokey) but we have so many questions - the Broxton to RT is a move that I don't think we discuss enough as being risky, rookie American center could be less than ideal, our depth is about as thin as thin gets, our utility players seem like there's a good shot they're incredibly useless - so I'm just not sure how that all shakes out. I trust in Condell but I'm whelmed currently. Maybe we see Brady get 1800 yards all purpose and White/Pokey both go for 1000 while Demski/Nield provide 700-800 each but I just don't know if I see it.

Condell has as many 4-14 seasons on his record as +.500 ones.

So the experience is there....but the results throughout his career have been mostly unimpressive. He's no guru.

IMO our offense being in the top half of the league is going to rely on Oliviera having a 2000 yard all purpose season and that's a tough place to start from. OL should be much improved. But the lack of Canadian depth there to start with is fear inducing too. Are they eventually going to tell Younger he can't have ALL the Americans on the roster?

Does Ontaria Wilson have #1 receiver in him? Looks like we have 3 #2's but no one that really strikes that big fear in anyone, all manageable if you're game planning against us. No one who is going to make the big plays no matter what.

Just now, JuranBoldenRules said:

Condell has as many 4-14 seasons on his record as +.500 ones.

So the experience is there....but the results throughout his career have been mostly unimpressive. He's no guru.

4-14 years with ZC as his QB? Not being a wise ass - Genuinely asking.

If the QB loves the system, and by all accounts, Zach does, that's good enough for me.

Bryant at LT concerns me. He’s arguably the best ol in CFL history, but he started to show signs of his age last year and he’s only going to get slower. Overall I think the line will be good, but that’s something I’m watching.

I agree with others who have said we’re an American receiver injury away from big problems. Will we run Perkins at wr now that Streveler is gone?

Edit: overall I think we’re a better team than we were last year.

Edited 47 minutes ago47 min by sweep the leg

2 minutes ago, Mr. Perfect said:

4-14 years with ZC as his QB? Not being a wise ass - Genuinely asking.

If the QB loves the system, and by all accounts, Zach does, that's good enough for me.

Condell was 4-14 with the Argos the year after Ricky Ray retired where they trotted out McLeod Bethel-Thompson, Dakota Prukop and James Franklin as their quarterbacks. He went 8-10 with Hamilton the year after Masoli left with two prior Grey Cup visits and they had Dane Evans (who we broke) and Matt Shiltz as their quarterbacks, then went 8-10 again the next year after they brought Bo to town and he only played a third of the season. Then he went 4-14 last year with Dru Brown and the QB carousel in Ottawa.

Nowhere near as bad as JBR made it sound.

Only three games for each of the first two weeks of the season seems like an odd scheduling choice, no?

15 minutes ago, JuranBoldenRules said:

Condell has as many 4-14 seasons on his record as +.500 ones.

So the experience is there....but the results throughout his career have been mostly unimpressive. He's no guru.

We don't even need a guru. Barely competent might have got us back to the Grey Cup last year.

2 minutes ago, Super Duper Negatron said:

Only three games for each of the first two weeks of the season seems like an odd scheduling choice, no?

World cup effect apparently

16 minutes ago, JuranBoldenRules said:

Does Ontaria Wilson have #1 receiver in him? Looks like we have 3 #2's but no one that really strikes that big fear in anyone, all manageable if you're game planning against us. No one who is going to make the big plays no matter what.

Im honestly confused by such definitive statements like that. Specifically when you have little to no idea what the offense is. Im not even saying that you're definitely wrong, but "no matter what" lol. Why are you even going to watch?

Edited 44 minutes ago44 min by Bigblue204

9 minutes ago, Mike said:

Condell was 4-14 with the Argos the year after Ricky Ray retired where they trotted out McLeod Bethel-Thompson, Dakota Prukop and James Franklin as their quarterbacks. He went 8-10 with Hamilton the year after Masoli left with two prior Grey Cup visits and they had Dane Evans (who we broke) and Matt Shiltz as their quarterbacks, then went 8-10 again the next year after they brought Bo to town and he only played a third of the season. Then he went 4-14 last year with Dru Brown and the QB carousel in Ottawa.

Nowhere near as bad as JBR made it sound.

James Franklin lol. I remember when he was supposed to be the "next big thing". That was cute.

Appreciate the breakdown. That's much better, clearer context.

15 minutes ago, Mike said:

Condell was 4-14 with the Argos the year after Ricky Ray retired where they trotted out McLeod Bethel-Thompson, Dakota Prukop and James Franklin as their quarterbacks. He went 8-10 with Hamilton the year after Masoli left with two prior Grey Cup visits and they had Dane Evans (who we broke) and Matt Shiltz as their quarterbacks, then went 8-10 again the next year after they brought Bo to town and he only played a third of the season. Then he went 4-14 last year with Dru Brown and the QB carousel in Ottawa.

Nowhere near as bad as JBR made it sound.

If you can't win with Dakota Prukop then what good are you?

I'm excited.... I think the offence will be massively improved, can't overstate the impact of adding Tim White and Broxton, and the departure of Kolankowski + the demotion of Hogan... I think Zach is going to go to Tim White 10+ times tonight

D was pretty solid last year. Adding Ceresna Jenkins Moxey and Williams should all improve on what was in those spots last year. The O was bad but I’m not sure how much I can judge the O based on last year, as our OC was a pretty incompetent OC. Our players were obviously not happy with the play calling and made it clear. O was bad. No pokey to even start the year. Brady hurt on series 2 maybe 1.

Just based on having a dude with some aka lots of cfl coaching experience kinda coming full circle back to Winnipeg after learning the ropes and our QB kinda praising him and making it obvious he’s a big Tommy fan, surely just based on the fact we running a cfl O again means we should see improvement there. Is Zach less cooked? Prob not but I think he can Matt Nichols at this point and game manage. If Zach can limit the stupidity aka triple or double coverage throws, then the O should improve. Would like to see less fgs tho and more TDs. I’m not sure I worry about who the essentially 6th option on O is, I think pokey Demski white nield line up most plays as does Brady, 6th will be mci Cobb Clercius (when healthy) or Daniels or even Eli. Think you can keep teams guessing there a bit. I’m ok With option 6 being pretty much Canadian if it means an American is playing at a position where he’s better than the Canadian. Is Elsbury better than Eli? Time will tell but after 6 seasons of basically being the ideal backup OL, logic says probably so I’m ok with 3 us oline cuz QB staying healthy is the difference in the cfl.

Edited 2 minutes ago2 min by Goalie