3rdand1.5

After sleeping on it and taking a step back, Strev. got comfortable, took a couple hits and seemed to find his groove-this is a very good sign The O-line struggled-but with it being televised...sort of...and all the rotation I could not pin point anything good or bad honestly Receivers, again hard to really judge, Strev didn't push the ball, and until Wilson got into a late game groove, our passing game was abysmal-Adams led the team I believe, our top draft pick scored, and red shoes had a couple nice grabs RB, looks like we have a great depth behind BO, perhaps a missed assignment on blocking-couldn't tell but the Strev. sack may have been a missed block by the RB? Other QB's-oh boy, the back to back picks, short one hops, balls behind, happy feet......let's hope if they get time in preseason game 2 they look better D-line-started off great, I think this was a strong point-Schmekel got a ton of play time LB's Mosses seemed to have "instinct" and was always around the ball when in, would like to see more of him in game 2- Karamoka looked good against back-ups, seemed to play very aggressive DB's hard to tell, but we gave up some passes against and let some receivers behind us Kicking, Castillo huge FG, Sheehan seemed to punt more traditional, Maestro didn't do himself any favours KR- Blackman went the wrong way, Cruickshank to me didn't seem to have "it", one of the returners really attacked the ball and seemed to have speed, but not sure who it was?? Kick coverage-was putrid! Penalties-far more than I expected It's preseason, it is what it is, a few good signs IMO but also a few concerning signs I will be watching hard in game 2 namely kick coverage, penalties...on to a long stretch of TC and game 2

We had an issue with Jeffcoat, he was a good guy all indications were he was a great teammate and when healthy a force, but.......he was in and out enough that we didn't really develop a replacement "rip the bandaid off" as someone above mentioned and overall, it hurst us. We are seeing the same with Biggie. I get he was hurst most of last year, but he was not good enough. Biggie is a perennial all-star, one of the best MLB to play and we got many great years out of him, unfortunately if we keep him in and out we will do the same thing we did with Jeffcoat. IMO at this point Biggie should be insurance only, park him on the 6 game and have a true open competition for MLB. If the guy we roll with falters Gauthier is a very serviceable stop gap, but I don't want him to be the main day one starter, and I really like the guy......

So Lemon is allowed to practice and rejoin the team with an appeal, Kelly was allowed to practice while suspended (until backlash changed that) Interesting....

I was trying to keep an open mind and consider the possibility that he was innocent, or it was a case of he said/she said maybe with some misunderstanding. I still say there is always two sides to every story and the truth always lays somewhere in the middle.....but.....as more comes out it sure looks like "trouble Chad" was at least partially at fault of what he was accused of and DID act inappropriately. As others previous mentioned, he has a history, the Argos knew this before they signed him and it appears they knew something was happening, at least to some degree they knew. The real troubling thing for me, is not that another athlete screwed up, it's that even still with all the information that has been released/leaked out, the optics of it from the Argo organization are blurry at best. I while not quick to judge, believe that, young or old, black or white, male or female, straight or other, able bodied, or disabled every individual should be able to go to a place of employment and not have to deal with discrimination or harassment. Unfortunately even with all the talk and promotion of this n today's society, it appears the Argo organization and by extension MLSE failed in this regard.

While this does seem harsh at first, I believe this is the best way moving forward. This should be the new precedent, in saying that one could very much have a solid argument that a DUI with an accident, off field assaults, weapon and/or drug charges, abuse of CFL drug testing staff or refs, clear repeated offences with severity as in Marino should have been higher.

T.O without a QB for half the season at best.....Curious about salary etc. as did he not get roughly 50% of his salary already in effect not giving the Argos a massive savings on his games missed?

So we filled the loss of BOLO, Filled the "loss" of Damian Jackson with a CDN, added some depth along both lines...no stand-out starts but depth that we hope one or two turn into staters one day....overall IMO a good draft when stepping back and looking at it. We didn't get any of the "sexy" name picks but IF the big name OL we took a flyer on ever comes up North..... IMO no big swings, no immediate impact but just a good overall draft.

We have been spoiled with a great pipeline of O-lineman, it's a bit thinner than usual as of today, I expect and hope we get it restocked to our usual spoiled levels over the next two draft classes. We haven't has as much luck in drafting along the D-line, but IMO I think we can do better than Bennet and Schmekel...maybe one or both surprise but I am skeptical

Winnipeg/Manitoba has many, many good and great features and things about it, but to say our downtown is anything but bad would simply be a lie. Our downtown has nice pockets during the day and maybe one could argue very small circumferences around a few select businesses into the evening, but for the most part as soon as work ends, the concert ends, the Jets game finishes etc. it's hold your wallet in your pocket and get back to the suburbs as quickly as you can.

Yes, and one could argue we maybe should have done a bit of it last year as well. One could also argue.....and we have many times here that we could even cull a bit more this year. It really is a balancing act and no one way is perfect, and no GM or idea is going to work perfect every time, but at the end of the day and would venture to guess most educated fans would agree that some culling of the heard was required and probably overdue. Our current scouts un-earthed a few pretty darn good players, let's hope we find out that we have a couple more in the pipeline. Losing Dru and Bolo sucks but they were buried behind stars, and deserve a chance at more playing time, Yoshi and his energy is tough to lose but his value got too high for our situation to absorb. Let's develop the next Schoen, Nichols, Sayles, Stove and hope we have even one guy as good as them currently in the pipeline! One thing we can all say is this year at TC we should see some actual "real meaningful" battles

This actually might have been what we were missing the last couple years. We were a really good team but just missing "something" maybe it was a little youth and younger hunger??

Well....that is good news!

Feel the love.... boy this site allows a lot of personal attacks and insults. At the end of the day are we not all CFL fans and mostly on here all Bomber fans...opinions are just that and thankfully we are still allowed to express varying ones......thank a soldier At any rate Carey to T.O is a good pick-up by them, if he came at a decent dollar. If he is healthy behind one of the best O-lines in the league he could do really well.

Out of our guys I would like to see Castillo Out of other guys I think could be an interesting fit are; Christmas Tyrone Riley Guys if price is right worth at least a sniff; Kongbo Bailey Hanson Colin Kelly Landon Rice Clements Gray I think we will bring in at least one CFL experienced O-lineman

I thought Habba looked good last year. If he took the offseason seriously and comes in healthy, he should have a solid advantage going into training camp to grab the spot. I really like the fact that we have a couple spots with open competition this year.....pending what we bring in if any during F/A.

Honestly for the most part our sports journalists are not very good. Just my opinion, but I find they have gone very "click baity"

True to that...

Someone above mentioned his name and I agree that if the numbers don't look too bad, I could see Christmas developing into a good D-lineman. I know we seem to hate Rider cast-offs here, but he showed flashes, has some experience and shouldn't command to high of a dollar amount. Regards to BA, my 2 cents if his knee is better than last year, he should be good. He wasn't bad last year, just maybe not as good as he has been, perhaps it was related to his previous injury? Indications were he was a very, very smart and solid leader, sometimes those attributes need to also be taken into consideration in regard to overall value. I think there will be some decent dollar value guys available in the next week or so after the tampering and first couple days of FA, it seems most teams have been in on the "high ticket" guys already. Overall, yes losing Hardrick not just the player but the energy and Aura he brought is a tough loss, but good for him to cash in like he did. Again my 2 cents we have done a great job retaining guys. We could use some depth along both lines...but it's only Feb. and based off history we will be just fine...besides just like Booch has been hoping for all along this opens up a spot for Jackson to get more reps along the D-line.....

Advice not at all relevant to my post....... But, back to actual Bomber off-season topics, while Houston is not a terrible player, as Booch said I believe we have enough in house to not have a significant drop with him signing elsewhere. I am sure he does not sign for cheap and it is simply money we don't "need" to spend IMO.

Is it possible to have the marquee player talk etc. put into it's own topic. I get we go off topic at times but it's kinda overtaken the actual Blue Bomber talk...

I agree, IMO this is bigger than Shoen or BO. I am very excited about this!!!

IF your hunch came to fruition, IMO we would arguably be a better team. It's just my 2 cents but I hope your hunch is correct!

I was disappointed in our Bennet last year, in saying that he is still relatively cheap and deserves to show if a season and a solid offseason improved his play. However, I was very disappointed in his lack of competition last year, Kongo, the "other Bennet" etc. if available hold the correct passports and could provide great competition...remember you don't need to be at the cap at the start of TC, it is possible say we bring in Kongbo and Anthony Bennet beats him out, a guy like Kongbo could get a bad case of turf toe and end up on the 6 game or even be cut outright...Not saying that would happen but it could Long and the short I would really like to see some better CDN competition along the D-line this TC I am curious in regard to the RB position, essentially, we could see Carey, Oulette, BO, Williams and Marrow all hit FA, that's 5 really strong RB's with experience, someone may go gaga for Brady, but with that amount of available talent, (minus the passport for most) I am sorry I just don't see the big dollar values being there for them. I guess we shall see soon enough.....

JJ was and still when healthy a great player. We are fortunate we had him at some of his best. IMO the harsh truth though as others have mentioned is he is not able to maintain his health. I wish him the best whether here or on another team, but in a salary cap situation sometimes things have to give and again IMO he probably costs too much for us. We will never get younger or find the next guy if we keep with all the veterans, especially when the price get's into the upper echelon, you can only afford so many of them.

IMO our biggest weakness and possible a solid contributor that led to us losing the GC was lack of rotation and talent in the front 7....Jeffcoat is great but another year older and never fully healthy...Thomas although he actually may have been the best D-lineman we had in the GC is long in the tooth, Lawson looks good, Walker developed nicely, Bennet did nothing good enough to be kept around IMO, Hanson didn't do much, but came off a big injury. Maybe Habba can replace Jeffcoat and open up some money? Maybe Fox can be fit into the roster next year and Lawson can be used on certain packages. Maybe we can get Mason Bennet, Biggie love the guy but I would imagine his role should start to be diminished. Wilson had an on and off year, what will his cost be, can we replace that? Kramdi emerged and gives us flexibility with the ratio. So I see some changes here and of course as always money plays into it. Receiver is another interesting position, Lawler and Demski is a great start. IMO we need to do everything we can to keep Schoen, BOO maybe he is ready to replace Woli, does Bailey agree to another discount? Whether Grant is back or not we need a few "real" returners in camp and on the PR at worst as we can't go through the lack of production, we went through losing him again we did this past season. I think we will sign enough to be solid along the O-line again. Holm if he is here next year at safety sounds intriguing. Nothing against Alexander but again age is catching up, and the league seems to be moving away from the hard hitters at safety. Another big question and it is a left field one for me....do we consider Brown as a legit starter...what could we get in return for Zach, and how much could we save for a season or two to "beef" up our roster elsewhere?