Elks are not so LOLks as they once were... But I still believe they're overrated. They go as Justin Rankin goes. I do believe they're beatable.

Having said that, I don't think the Bombers are necessarily a very good team. We've sadly shown that too many times so far this season.

But, as always, I live on a hope and a prayer... For two points our way, no matter how it looks. Just find a way to win.

I'd be curious to know the dynamics if anyone is approaching Walters or he himself is approaching his coaches and making suggestions for roster changes.

Seeing guys like Mauldin who had 2 sacks who can come in and play for a season are quick fixes the club could (should) make. Geno Lewis can't possible be any worse then Gavin Cobb. Maybe bring back Houston for a 3rd (4th) time... I have no idea who is out there, but looking at other teams I'm continously seeing new names on gameday rosters. Some of them end up sticking.

After ten games how many fresh faces have they tried out?

Woodbey was rough to start the year too before he got hurt. Don't think at this point he is worth playing.

The fact that it was such a slog to get smith starting when he looks good at whatever position he is out at is a huge red flag that it's a bigger coaching using players than the exact players issue.

11 minutes ago, Brandon said:

I'd be curious to know the dynamics if anyone is approaching Walters or he himself is approaching his coaches and making suggestions for roster changes.

Seeing guys like Mauldin who had 2 sacks who can come in and play for a season are quick fixes the club could (should) make. Geno Lewis can't possible be any worse then Gavin Cobb. Maybe bring back Houston for a 3rd (4th) time... I have no idea who is out there, but looking at other teams I'm continously seeing new names on gameday rosters. Some of them end up sticking.

After ten games how many fresh faces have they tried out?

you aint trying...U destined to flounder

Christ that turd Lemon got straight off his couch and and in 4 games has 6 sacks...9 tackles and a forced fumble....It aint hard to bring guys in...I sure if we grabbed Rhymes off his couch..Lewis off the heap we'd be leapd and bounds better than with Neild...Cobb and Daniels sucking up all the reps

But....another fly in the ointment...maybe some guys have just said..Thanks but no thanks...Players also can see...they also talk...Agents talk too and quite frankly for that matter...Maybe we are not the desired destination we used to be, or that the Osh psycophants wanna believe

Sure players here are gonna say all the right complimentary things in the "media" ...why would they slit their own throats?...

13 hours ago, GCn20 said:

Not that I completely disagree....actually I do. There is no hidden all stars on our bench, all our all stars were allowed to leave town already.

we all know your stance on this even though it’s been proven wrong many a time, Jaylen Smith being the most recent example.

Your belief is that this falls all on Walters, based on a bunch of experience you claim to have from way back before you were a rural town hotelier or whatever it is that you do these days, is one definite stance to take and if that’s what you believe then good for you but it’s not really what connecting the dots would tell anyone who isn’t biased one way or the other.

IF Walters were directly and solely responsible for these choices, we’d be saddled with a lot of expensive backups because the talent would win out regardless of cost in camp. We’d be paying Kyrie 110k to back up Ja’Kobe Clinton and the Stanley Bryant retirement tour would be spent backing up Micah Vanterpool. Gavin Cobb would be a great locker room glue guy.

But the talent doesn’t win out and you can speak into existence that our GM doesn’t bring in talent all you want but maybe you want to call back to the whole reason we found ourselves staring down the barrel of dynasty-esque levels of success in the first place. We were here in this position before and SOMEONE told our coach (not our GM) to pull his head out of his ass and use the talent instead of deferring to the incumbent. That was on O’Shea then and I truly feel like it’s on him again now.

20 hours ago, 17to85 said:

Woodbey was rough to start the year too before he got hurt. Don't think at this point he is worth playing.

The fact that it was such a slog to get smith starting when he looks good at whatever position he is out at is a huge red flag that it's a bigger coaching using players than the exact players issue.

I mean, was it really? He's in his second year. He's been heavily involved in every game and was first man up when Griffin went down.

This is kind of the ideal progression.

3 minutes ago, Jesse said:

I mean, was it really? He's in his second year. He's been heavily involved in every game and was first man up when Griffin went down.

This is kind of the ideal progression.

not every game actually. There were several where he barely saw field...but lotsa Kelly. The reps tho that Smith did get were excellent and better than what Wilson and Jones provided yet it took an injury to our SAM to get him actually on the field as a starter

Also took 2+ yrs to finally realize Griffin was best SAM we had but we felt need to play an inferior Canadian there cause why? An Osh preference/Bias...and to be honest Kramdi is prob not our best option at safety either but got the default spot...and we dont need to be Canadian there either..But Osh chooses too...why?

There is indeed a place and room for progression, especially when you aren't sorely lacking in a position with your vet...Thats fine...But there is also a place where a player is undisputably better with play and upside now...over a vet or a fav...Or the stupid bias to overload with Canadians and the "progression" is not required and thats where we fail...we good at stunting and retarding a players progression tho...

2 minutes ago, Booch said:

not every game actually. There were several where he barely saw field...but lotsa Kelly. The reps tho that Smith did get were excellent and better than what Wilson and Jones provided yet it took an injury to our SAM to get him actually on the field as a starter

Also took 2+ yrs to finally realize Griffin was best SAM we had but we felt need to play an inferior Canadian there cause why? An Osh preference/Bias...and to be honest Kramdi is prob not our best option at safety either but got the default spot...and we dont need to be Canadian there either..But Osh chooses too...why?

There is indeed a place and room for progression, especially when you aren't sorely lacking in a position with your vet...Thats fine...But there is also a place where a player is undisputably better with play and upside now...over a vet or a fav...Or the stupid bias to overload with Canadians and the "progression" is not required and thats where we fail...we good at stunting and retarding a players progression tho...

Maybe in the first couple of weeks. He was also injured and missed a game or two early. But he was involved very early on. There's just plenty of examples, so no need to shoehorn in an actual example of talent winning out and earning a spot on the roster and pretend he was being held behind for too long.

On 2026-08-21 at 10:56 PM, Mike said:

The usual. “We’ll watch the film and guys will see the mistakes … the guys will not be happy … it’s stuff that needs to be corrected”

Unfortunately for some guys their minds will know what to correct but their body abilities will say nope.

On 2026-08-24 at 2:03 AM, SpeedFlex27 said:

He wants a career in broadcasting. Looks like he'll get the chance with DAZN.

Watched a DAZN PPV boxing production this past weekend. If they put the same production efforts into football they do into boxing I'm not terribly hopeful for Saturday nights next year.

They collapsed because they were wearing those stupid blue pants again

Really if they're going to collapse they should wear brown pants

2 hours ago, 17to85 said:

Really if they're going to collapse they should wear brown pants

Well, Depends...

4 minutes ago, SpeedFlex27 said:

Well, Depends...

Osh needs to get some those from SNL...Ooops I crapped my pants

On 2026-08-24 at 11:25 AM, Bigblue204 said:

Watching Oleary Orange go up and make that catch in double coverage after watching Cobb flail away against Ottawa, was sad.

You think a guy who sits on the bench/PR all year and watch Cobb or any number of other less talented players or even just guys who don't get the job done will want to re-sign with team? You can blame Walters, but again...signing players is a two way street. The players have to want to be here too. And if they feel like they won't get the chance to prove themselves because of a head coach....why would they stay?

Name one player who has ever left here that deserved more playing time than the guy ahead of him. ONE. Ok...maybe BOOL but it only took him what...3 years after leaving here to become a solid, not great, receiver. C'mon, it is a stretch to say that we are holding talent back, if we are i'd like to know who because absolutely none of it has turned up elsewhere. Our recruitment is awful and we are actually keeping a lot of guys too long as JBR has pointed out.

On 2026-08-24 at 8:18 PM, Mike said:

we all know your stance on this even though it’s been proven wrong many a time, Jaylen Smith being the most recent example.

Your belief is that this falls all on Walters, based on a bunch of experience you claim to have from way back before you were a rural town hotelier or whatever it is that you do these days, is one definite stance to take and if that’s what you believe then good for you but it’s not really what connecting the dots would tell anyone who isn’t biased one way or the other.

IF Walters were directly and solely responsible for these choices, we’d be saddled with a lot of expensive backups because the talent would win out regardless of cost in camp. We’d be paying Kyrie 110k to back up Ja’Kobe Clinton and the Stanley Bryant retirement tour would be spent backing up Micah Vanterpool. Gavin Cobb would be a great locker room glue guy.

But the talent doesn’t win out and you can speak into existence that our GM doesn’t bring in talent all you want but maybe you want to call back to the whole reason we found ourselves staring down the barrel of dynasty-esque levels of success in the first place. We were here in this position before and SOMEONE told our coach (not our GM) to pull his head out of his ass and use the talent instead of deferring to the incumbent. That was on O’Shea then and I truly feel like it’s on him again now.

I have similar concerns about how talent is utilized overall on our roster, but that doesn't make the bottom of our roster some treasure trove being held back. The examples you gave are an example. What have Ja'Kobe Clinton or Micah Vanterpool shown...not much. I get that we would like to see aging vets sat when there best before date hits, the notion that this will automatically make our team better is what I dispute. Micah is no greenhorn and he was absolutely horrid when he replaced Stan. This is a guy that not only should he not be starting before Stan, he probably shouldn't be here at all.....and that's my point. You guys are arguing in many cases for change for the sake of change, and that rarely works. We have to get guys in here that can actually do the job when the opportunity arises. Jaylen Smith is doing well in limited time and is a head scratcher that I will concede that he deserves more time.....however, his usage is continually going up as well.

You guys keep saying how do we know what we have until we play them and then we play them and they are completely underwhelming.

maybe our coaching is horrible, and we aren't able to get most outta a guy...Christ we cant get most outta some vets...it's pretty obvious just with in game stuff where we get our lunch stole pretty much every game...That has nothing to do with the G.M...Is Walter's wearing the headset and making the decisions?...Is he seeing the tape in game and making some coaching decisions to stem the bleeding...or questioning the assistants? Did Walter's construct the poor allocation of his assets for game day roster's and give us not the best game lineup?....Does Walters decide to dress at times sometimes 2 DA's which serve pretty much no purpose for rotational depth...let alone adequate backup....Nope....if you cant see the coaching issues, I guess nothing is gonna happen to get you to see it...Osh himself isnt looking at in the moment game fim to see the problems and doing things to counter it. My opinion on that is cause he doesnt know diddly as to how...He even has said he doesnt really know the X and O aspect of a lot of stuff. After 14 yrs what the eff he been doing to make himself, and by extension his team better....Nothing.

I also know for a fact after Woli's first contract was coming due he was outta here due to the way Osh coaches....but was talked out of it by some vet players...There are several poster's here as well I know can corroborate that as well if some certain poster's are gonna again attack peoples credibility.....And that specific case isnt isolated...Say what you want about Walter's and the coddling you give Osh, but just cause media says one thing....or guys will tow line in public...dont take it for gospel

23 hours ago, Jesse said:

I mean, was it really? He's in his second year. He's been heavily involved in every game and was first man up when Griffin went down.

This is kind of the ideal progression.

This notion that Smith is being held back is a completely false narrative. He is a second year guy who is gradually and consistently seeing more and more playing time. I agree, he is progressing exactly as one would expect.

4 minutes ago, GCn20 said:

I have similar concerns about how talent is utilized overall on our roster, but that doesn't make the bottom of our roster some treasure trove being held back. The examples you gave are an example. What have Ja'Kobe Clinton or Micah Vanterpool shown...not much. I get that we would like to see aging vets sat when there best before date hits, the notion that this will automatically make our team better is what I dispute. Micah is no greenhorn and he was absolutely horrid when he replaced Stan. This is a guy that not only should he not be starting before Stan, he probably shouldn't be here at all.....and that's my point. You guys are arguing in many cases for change for the sake of change, and that rarely works. We have to get guys in here that can actually do the job when the opportunity arises. Jaylen Smith is doing well in limited time and is a head scratcher that I will concede that he deserves more time.....however, his usage is continually going up as well.

You guys keep saying how do we know what we have until we play them and then we play them and they are completely underwhelming.

Texada....Singer....Womack....Poncius...Stuart(for Kelly)...Ayers (for Jones) and not just a rep here or there...Buta game or 2...just for a few examples. When have you witnessed them get the chance as a starter...with starter reps all game and be underwhelming? I'd also say Clercius for Nield for a few games too

It took Osh 3 yrs to realize Griffen was our best SAM....And if we all being honest here Smith's ass would be stapled to the bench if Griffin didn't get hurt. If..and thats a big if of Griffin getting back any time soon...Is Osh gonna park one of Wilson or Jones and keep Smith starting...He should but who thinks he will?

3 minutes ago, GCn20 said:

This notion that Smith is being held back is a completely false narrative. He is a second year guy who is gradually and consistently seeing more and more playing time. I agree, he is progressing exactly as one would expect.

excluding Griffin he has been our best LB all yr...at several spots...He is a ...well should be a starer...from day 1 this yr so yeah he was/is being held back...man what u watching..Are you Osh????

29 minutes ago, GCn20 said:

Name one player who has ever left here that deserved more playing time than the guy ahead of him. ONE. Ok...maybe BOOL but it only took him what...3 years after leaving here to become a solid, not great, receiver. C'mon, it is a stretch to say that we are holding talent back, if we are i'd like to know who because absolutely none of it has turned up elsewhere. Our recruitment is awful and we are actually keeping a lot of guys too long as JBR has pointed out.

That is a fair point. However, just because they don't go to another team and become a star doesn't mean they were given a fair shake here. There are any number of reasons why guys who leave a team might not play for someone else. Again...I feel like I'm just constantly repeating this. Playing football is a two way street. The player has to want to play as well.

Smith is great example of this, in his interview with Tait, he said last year was a tough year due to stuff off the field and he wasn't sure he'd want to continue playing. Had he retired, the narrative of a waste of talent/being held back/not being good enough to be a star, would have been about him. Guys decide to stop playing football and it's impossible to tell whether it's lack of interest from teams or lack of wanting to play.

2 minutes ago, Booch said:

maybe our coaching is horrible, and we aren't able to get most outta a guy...Christ we cant get most outta some vets...it's pretty obvious just with in game stuff where we get our lunch stole pretty much every game...That has nothing to do with the G.M...Is Walter's wearing the headset and making the decisions?...Is he seeing the tape in game and making some coaching decisions to stem the bleeding...or questioning the assistants? Did Walter's construct the poor allocation of his assets for game day roster's and give us not the best game lineup?....Does Walters decide to dress at times sometimes 2 DA's which serve pretty much no purpose for rotational depth...let alone adequate backup....Nope....if you cant see the coaching issues, I guess nothing is gonna happen to get you to see it...Osh himself isnt looking at in the moment game fim to see the problems and doing things to counter it. My opinion on that is cause he doesnt know diddly as to how...He even has said he doesnt really know the X and O aspect of a lot of stuff. After 14 yrs what the eff he been doing to make himself, and by extension his team better....Nothing.

I also know for a fact after Woli's first contract was coming due he was outta here due to the way Osh coaches....but was talked out of it by some vet players...There are several poster's here as well I know can corroborate that as well if some certain poster's are gonna again attack peoples credibility.....And that specific case isnt isolated...Say what you want about Walter's and the coddling you give Osh, but just cause media says one thing....or guys will tow line in public...dont take it for gospel

It might be easier to take your 'inside knowledge" if it wasn't proven wrong again and again. Sorry you have to own that. You told us that you had first hand knowledge that Willie was never going to re-sign because of Osh a couple years ago. He was literally our first signing and he took less than market value to boot. So keep on with it, but once credibility is hit it's not forgotten. There is no one on this forum that can corroborate your rumors. No one...not even yourself.

2 minutes ago, Bigblue204 said:

That is a fair point. However, just because they don't go to another team and become a star doesn't mean they were given a fair shake here. There are any number of reasons why guys who leave a team might not play for someone else. Again...I feel like I'm just constantly repeating this. Playing football is a two way street. The player has to want to play as well.

Smith is great example of this, in his interview with Tait, he said last year was a tough year due to stuff off the field and he wasn't sure he'd want to continue playing. Had he retired, the narrative of a waste of talent/being held back/not being good enough to be a star, would have been about him. Guys decide to stop playing football and it's impossible to tell whether it's lack of interest from teams or lack of wanting to play.

Talent rises to the top. Smith is also a great example of a guy not being held back by a coach. He suffered and may still be suffering through some mental issues that we are not privy to. It is quite possible that him being eased in is exactly the right move.

12 minutes ago, Booch said:

Texada....Singer....Womack....Poncius...Stuart(for Kelly)...Ayers (for Jones) and not just a rep here or there...Buta game or 2...just for a few examples. When have you witnessed them get the chance as a starter...with starter reps all game and be underwhelming? I'd also say Clercius for Nield for a few games too

It took Osh 3 yrs to realize Griffen was our best SAM....And if we all being honest here Smith's ass would be stapled to the bench if Griffin didn't get hurt. If..and thats a big if of Griffin getting back any time soon...Is Osh gonna park one of Wilson or Jones and keep Smith starting...He should but who thinks he will?

excluding Griffin he has been our best LB all yr...at several spots...He is a ...well should be a starer...from day 1 this yr so yeah he was/is being held back...man what u watching..Are you Osh????

He has fully admitted he is recovering from mental issues he is suffering from. To say he is being held back is possible, but it's also possible that being held back a little is exactly the right move. Maybe, just maybe, our coaching staff has more inside information than even you. You keep yapping like you know it all and have all the information that the coaches have....you don't and you never will. There are a thousand things about every player that none of us will ever know.

1 minute ago, GCn20 said:

It might be easier to take your 'inside knowledge" if it wasn't proven wrong again and again. Sorry you have to own that. You told us that you had first hand knowledge that Willie was never going to re-sign because of Osh a couple years ago. He was literally our first signing and he took less than market value to boot. So keep on with it, but once credibility is hit it's not forgotten. There is no one on this forum that can corroborate your rumors. No one...not even yourself.

Talent rises to the top. Smith is also a great example of a guy not being held back by a coach. He suffered and may still be suffering through some mental issues that we are not privy to. It is quite possible that him being eased in is exactly the right move.

You're missing the point. Yes Smith worked his way to the top. But had he stopped playing after last year (For reasons that do not include the team moving on from him)...you would have been talking about how he wasn't good enough to become anything...and as we see now, that is not the case. Players stop playing for multiple reasons...not just because they aren't good enough. So when a guy on our bench doesn't appear anywhere else in the league and we wonder why...the answer isn't automatically "he's not good enough to play".

2 minutes ago, Bigblue204 said:

You're missing the point. Yes Smith worked his way to the top. But had he stopped playing after last year (For reasons that do not include the team moving on from him)...you would have been talking about how he wasn't good enough to become anything...and as we see now, that is not the case. Players stop playing for multiple reasons...not just because they aren't good enough. So when a guy on our bench doesn't appear anywhere else in the league and we wonder why...the answer isn't automatically "he's not good enough to play".

We have seen MANY of our cast offs picked up across the league. Not a single one has made an impact anywhere. Sure there are guys cut in EVERY teams TC that probably could be impact players if they had gotten a chance. That is not exclusive to us. You have 3 weeks to assess a 100 guys. Some will slip through the cracks, that's inevitable. That happens to every team ever. Some get picked up by other teams and go on to become stars. Chad Owens, Kenny Lawler etc.

The vast majority though, and certainly in our case, of players that cut are cut because they aren't good enough. The overwhelming majority of backups in this league never amount to more than that. That's football.

Delete

Edited August 26Aug 26 by sweep the leg

55 minutes ago, GCn20 said:

We have seen MANY of our cast offs picked up across the league. Not a single one has made an impact anywhere.

In fairness 90% of the cast offs have been signed by Hamilton once Goveia left. Prior to that many of our players played elsewhere in serviceable roles.

It's the last 3 - 4 years that we have seen a steep drop off of new incoming talent.

Edited August 26Aug 26 by Brandon