I'm not saying Ricky Collins specifically. Because he's just one example. But look at him. Tattooed. Gold grill. Personality. Attitude. And what else? He's a damn good football player. And we had him - but we got rid of him. Why?

I honestly don't think our talent evaluation is that bad. I think our evaluation of the kind of men we want on our football team is. I'm going to be blunt about it even though I think it's probably going to ruffle some feathers. I think Ricky Collins got cut from this team because he's not Carlton Banks. You can't blame Walters or our scouts - they signed this kid. And look at him in Saskatchewan. Circus catches for TDs and first downs. Top 5 players in the CFL in yards per catch? Walker. Bowman. Williams. Ellingson. Ricky Collins.

This kid is an example of the football player we needed on this football team and I kind of have to believe at this point that he got overlooked because he's not the "take home to meet the family, hold the door open for grandma" type. What else is it?

Where is the attitude on our team? The only player we really whole heartedly market is Andrew Harris and while he's definitely got some personality, it's the hometown factor that we market. Not his attitude or his personality. Other than that? We don't seem to have a whole lot of it because O'Shea seems to be more interested in recruiting players he would trust babysitting or taking grandpa to the doctor.

Gimme some KD Williams, Jonathan Hefney, Brandon Dyson guys. This team needs it.

1 minute ago, do or die said:

You can sort of run that kind of D with a 4 man rush that crunches the pocket, regularly.   We just don't have that.

I'm not sure you can anymore...  look at Stubler, he also has a very good DL but they are not getting to the QB.  

Bend-don't-break Ds were already getting exposed ten years...  montreal and winnipeg started having multiple 1000 yard receivers because they dinked-dunked the **** out of teams and then broke them with the long ball...  now almost every team does that.

The Don Matthews breed of D is a result of a changing game... guys like Marshall, Hall, Stubler haven't changed with it

Of course you have to blitz, stunt, have switches, and rotate coverage.  But that good base rush from front 4 allows you to do even more things both in the front and the back.....

 

 

1 hour ago, iso_55 said:

I'll stick with coaching, thanks. Collins would have travelled to the FA camp with his own money & then forked over another  $100 US for the opportunity. Do you really think he would go half ass then?? I highly doubt it.

I did say maybe, right?  Just presenting another angle to it; no need to get your back up.  Neither one of us has any clue how it went down.

And yes, I absolutely think a guy could travel to a camp to try out and not give it 100%.  You maybe underestimating the egos on some of these players.  He wouldn't have been the first guy to think they were going to come in and own the CFL.

41 minutes ago, BomberBall said:

I did say maybe, right?  Just presenting another angle to it; no need to get your back up.  Neither one of us has any clue how it went down.

And yes, I absolutely think a guy could travel to a camp to try out and not give it 100%.  You maybe underestimating the egos on some of these players.  He wouldn't have been the first guy to think they were going to come in and own the CFL.

No worries, my back is not up. Just my answer to what you said.

1 hour ago, Taynted_Fayth said:

NFL cuts can't come soon enough but I'm glad they used dressier more appropriately. Adams doesn't quite seem to have the hands or break away speed to be a good wr. Would it be wrong to try him at dB? 

It may be my failing memory, but I cannot recall any NFL cut coming mid-season and making a big splash here in recent years.

just more options at this point, couldnt hurt to bring in some speed demons for the boundaries

3 hours ago, do or die said:

You can sort of run that kind of D with a 4 man rush that crunches the pocket, regularly.   We just don't have that.

Thats the big one. Toronto who most recently did it best mixed in match zone and zone blitzs a lot too. You gotta have wrinkles. All of which our D lacks. If we didnt gap cancel to try and stop the run our front would get better pressure though.

Now THIS guy would solve our problems.

3 hours ago, tracker said:

It may be my failing memory, but I cannot recall any NFL cut coming mid-season and making a big splash here in recent years.

Now that you mention it...

i remember in previous unsuccessful seasons (2005ish), the media would make a huge deal about nfl cut down days and talk about air mailing bodies in. Haven't really heard that brought up at all lately. Maybe because no one good ever comes mid season and they finally clued in..

Ricky Collins lighting it up on Riders first series... 

26 minutes ago, Floyd said:

Now THIS guy would solve our problems.

every game we lose whole team has to sit in front of that picture of him laid out naked on a fur in front of the fire. never lose again.

22 hours ago, BomberBall said:

Yeah, my recollection of Donaldson was, celebrating a receiver dropping a ball, when he was nowhere near the play and getting penalties.  He was pretty much awful.

Yup, perfect recollection.

15 hours ago, Jesse said:

Now that you mention it...

i remember in previous unsuccessful seasons (2005ish), the media would make a huge deal about nfl cut down days and talk about air mailing bodies in. Haven't really heard that brought up at all lately. Maybe because no one good ever comes mid season and they finally clued in..

Meanwhile in Ottawa...

http://ottawacitizen.com/sports/football/cfl/redblacks-execs-prepare-for-nfl-tour

Redblacks execs prepare for NFL tour

REGINA — Like monarch butterflies to Mexico, Canadian Football League scouts will soon start their annual migration to National Football League training camps.

They may be searching for immediate help to replace an injured starter or they may focus their attention on longer-term prospects for next season in the three-down league. Either way, they’re looking.

That includes the Ottawa Redblacks, with general manager Marcel Desjardins, assistant GM Brock Sunderland and a handful of others scheduled to visit varying numbers of the 32 NFL camps scattered around the United States beginning in late July.

“I think you are always looking because you never know what’s going to happen with your roster, whether it be guys that are free agents that may not come back. Maybe it’s injuries. Guys may not play to what they are (capable of),” Sunderland said in the lobby of a hotel where the Redblacks stayed before Friday night’s game against the host Saskatchewan Roughriders. “So you always want to have as much talent as you can at every position.”

Assistant GM Brock Sunderland's resume should be on Wade Miller's desk right now...

6 minutes ago, Mr Dee said:

Assistant GM Brock Sunderland's resume should be on Wade Miller's desk right now...

This is what seems to happen to us:

lets say we fire MOS. but we give Walters one more coaching hire, even though Sunderland seems to be a promising guy, available for promotion, our guy needs one more opportunity.

New coach also craps the bed, Walters fired, Miller on the look out for a new GM to turn the organization around. Unfortunately, while we were giving Walters one more year, Sunderland had been hired somewhere else and we're forced to conduct an exhaustive search which results in us promoting Danny Mac to GM.

1 minute ago, Jesse said:

This is what seems to happen to us:

lets say we fire MOS. but we give Walters one more coaching hire, even though Sunderland seems to be a promising guy, available for promotion, our guy needs one more opportunity.

New coach also craps the bed, Walters fired, Miller on the look out for a new GM to turn the organization around. Unfortunately, while we were giving Walters one more year, Sunderland had been hired somewhere else and we're forced to conduct an exhaustive search which results in us promoting Danny Mac to GM.

Then... we almost sign Brock Jensen who despite being offered more $$ signs with T.O. because of stability.  We then head into the 2018 season with Darian Durant as our newly acquired, aged and broken QB but don't worry Bryan Bennett is looking really good as our short yardage QB.

It will all be okay though because we've finally hired Doug Berry to run the show.  And his first call was Greg Marshall.  Well, actually his sixth call... but whatever.

Danny Mac scores a major coup and signs 31 year old Bakari Grant to lead the team.

7 minutes ago, Jesse said:

This is what seems to happen to us:

lets say we fire MOS. but we give Walters one more coaching hire, even though Sunderland seems to be a promising guy, available for promotion, our guy needs one more opportunity.

New coach also craps the bed, Walters fired, Miller on the look out for a new GM to turn the organization around. Unfortunately, while we were giving Walters one more year, Sunderland had been hired somewhere else and we're forced to conduct an exhaustive search which results in us promoting Danny Mac to GM.

Yup. Damned if you do and damned if you don't.

1 hour ago, HardCoreBlue said:

Yup, perfect recollection.

the perfect recollection of DD would be unnecessary roughness roughness penalties.