the CFL design of the practice roster is supposed to allow players to migrate to other teams and through it to a starting or at least a fully paying roster spot for them.

I can't think of a recent example of someone being plucked off someone else's PR at all. So if we grabbed someone off of a competitor's roster, PR roster that is. would it be sacrilege meaning being excluded from the prevailing old boys club out there in CFL land ?

We didn't see many roster moves at the deadline for guaranteeing veteran salaries did we? Canadians don't tend to loosen up at this time of year and in fact are quite a precious commodity as injuries take their toll on the various teams. We don't see veterans or rookies migrating up here from the recent NFL cuts "down there" but there must've been some changes in the negotiation lists recently.

We are seeing a few signings but nothing dramatic or significant in my opinion. We all want to see significant change in upgrading personnel right now.

If we were going to grab someone off of a rivals roster what kind of trading would that mean?

As it stands I don't see anything about the change right now. Wally 10Buono is the master of the shrewd deal but I don't see anything coming even from him in the near present.

We are a stand pat team right now just filling a few holes, desperately it seems.

the CFL design of the practice roster is supposed to allow players to migrate to other teams and through it to a starting or at least a fully paying roster spot for them.

The premise of your email is incorrect. This isn't the intent of CFL practice rosters.

The "unwritten rule" really only pertains to rookie Canadians.

 

As for the rest of the practice roster, you make it sound far more simple than it actually is. You can't simply pluck somebody off a practice roster as you see fit. You essentially have to sign them to a new contract, which means negotiating with them. If they don't want to leave their current situation (and a lot of players don't) then they don't have to.

 

On top of that, it's not just Winnipeg that needs Canadians. Every team needs Canadians. If these guys are stuck on a practice roster and not worth playing in a game, why would anybody else want them? Most teams are in the same desperate state at this point.

Surprised by the lack of player movement this year but I think the trend of air-lifting in a swath of replacement players for faltering teams has proven to be an ineffective and costly strategy over time.  Seldom can an incoming player unseat a player who has been with a team since TC, mainly because they're neither fluent in the CFL nor the play-book.  At best any "new to the CFL" players brought in mid-season are likely candidates for TC  the following year.  Exceptions are possible as in Jarvis Jones and Dan Knapp's case but still rare.

If you want trades and player movement, watch hockey or baseball.  Football is a stand pat sport during the season.

 

Mike is absolutely right, and to add on to that, the team with the player currently on their PR can just make a simple paper transaction to move the player onto their 46 man roster and block the claiming team.  You need the player and their current team to agree for the player to change teams, and you have to activate that player yourself.

Sadly the end result is you bring in discards from the scrap yard like Pall to fill spots.

Sadly the end result is you bring in discards from the scrap yard like Pall to fill spots.

 

Or maybe Pall can be our less heroic version of Hans Brinker and just fill a hole long enough for us to escape this week of back to back to knee injuries until we get into our bye week.

Who knows? Maybe he can even be a rotational NI for us in some way.

And that would be worth it…right?

God knows we need some depth.

The "unwritten rule" really only pertains to rookie Canadians.

 

As for the rest of the practice roster, you make it sound far more simple than it actually is. You can't simply pluck somebody off a practice roster as you see fit. You essentially have to sign them to a new contract, which means negotiating with them. If they don't want to leave their current situation (and a lot of players don't) then they don't have to.

 

On top of that, it's not just Winnipeg that needs Canadians. Every team needs Canadians. If these guys are stuck on a practice roster and not worth playing in a game, why would anybody else want them? Most teams are in the same desperate state at this point.

Another danger in plucking players off of other teams' PRs is that it may become open season on your team's PR. I think a lot of the PR plucking may happen with communication between the GMs. It is a very small league so you don't want to make an enemy out of other GMs.

I believe the point I was making is that if you want a player off another team's PR you have to trade for them and that's amiable .... my guess is there is worthwhile talent sitting in back up roles on other teams ... the consensus is that they can't really help you mid season,... but I don't know if that's true ... what is true is that GMs don't make a lot of trades heading into the playoffs

What you do see sometimes is that if a team is "eliminated" from the play-offs, that GM might look to make a trade. This year though is different, for as pathetic as the East has been, reality (maybe not actual reality) is they all still have a chance to host a play-off game. Nobody is out of the play-off picture right now. The West? well, we all know how that works, It's likely a team with a winning record or at least .500 record misses the play-offs completely. 

The nature of football unlike many other sports is that major changes in the middle of the season are just as likely to have negative outcomes as positive ones.  There may be minor trades that can be made for complimentary pieces, but that player is just as likely to end the season on our practise roster.  And giving up a pick for moves like this?  We always gripe about our lack of picks in May.  Calgary had more picks than anyone in this past draft, and they already had the best collection of NI talent in the league.

Early last year, the Lions tried to get RB Isi Sofele from the Lions but they put him on the active roster. Wound up trading him to Hamilton in the off-season.

Early last year, the Lions tried to get RB Isi Sofele from the Lions but they put him on the active roster. Wound up trading him to Hamilton in the off-season.

The Lions from the Lions?

 

Early last year, the Lions tried to get RB Isi Sofele from the Lions but they put him on the active roster. Wound up trading him to Hamilton in the off-season.

The Lions from the Lions?

 

 

These are the kind of things that will happen when one guy owns 2 teams.