Blue In BC

I haven't seen Jackson make any impact on ST's. I'd have taken off that role long ago.

I wouldn't read too much into which players are seeing less or more reps today. IMO the real prep for the WDF starts next week. Today is just giving vets more time to heal from the long season. It also helps prepare the back ups if and when needed during the game.

I see BC Lion Teuhema won't appeal his 1 game suspension so he won't play this weekend against the Stamps. From a process point of view that's what I would have wanted to happen. From a biased point of view, I'd rather he wasn't available to play against the Bombers in the WDF. However the Lions might not make it past the Stamps.

It's all speculation but they've kept Richmond around for a few years and at the moment he's the heir apparent at LT. That said there is nothing really suggesting Bryant retires. OTOH the Bombers might start to negotiate his contract downwards and he may balk at that idea. Richmond is also a pending free agent and he may choose to leave in free agency for a chance to start and / or earn more money. For that matter IIRC Gray, Dobson and Kolo are also potential free agents so who knows what 2024 brings.

Got to be either McGhee or Alston. Doesn't really matter because both should get on the field at some point. I don't think Lawler or Bailey play the entire game. Parker / Houston will rotate with McGhee I suspect?

I'd take this to suggest a good chance Demski, Hardrick and Alexander don't play. Demski might dress as an emergency player if we have injuries. There aren't many Canadians to add if we put him on the 1 game IR. Although that could be another way to add Gauthier for this game. Likely will see Richmond suit up for Hardrick. I have no doubt they'd all be playing if this was the WDF this week. Just a little more time to heal and gear up for that game.

I'm not disagreeing with that. I just think O'Shea won't take Jackson off the AR. That means we need to remove a Canadian so choices are limited although Briggs is pretty much dead weight. I could live with him being taken off instead. Briggs will be 34 by next TC and I'm expecting he'll be in tough making the roster. Age, SMS and needing AR room for players like Kelly and / or 2024 draft choices. That said, Briggs has 11 ST's and I can't find stats for Kelly ( useless CFL.CA info ). In any case giving Kelly more reps can't be a bad thing whether Gauthier is added this week or not.

Ok let's see who we shuffle onto the AR for this week to give some vets some rest. In many cases I think we'll see lots of the non starting Canadians on the AR get more reps: Dobson, Eli, Boo, Augustine and Hallett for example. Whether they start of just take more reps than the usual starters is a TBD. I'd like to see Houston get on the AR this week. Alexander is nicked so we might be a little thin. Besides he'll be next man up if we experience any new injuries this week. In fact he may regain his starting role this week. IDK. How they'd get him on the AR is a ratio / DI question. I suppose if Alexander is nicked they could just 1 game him this week and just add in Houston to the AR. Hallett to start at safety but Houston could rotate into the secondary. Now the bigger questions. Do we decide to get any of Haba, Garbutt, Fox or Richmond onto the roster. Letting Jeffcoat have more time to get healthier is not a bad idea. Richmond could spell one of our T's but both seem healthy at the moment. This is a perfect chance to get Gauthier back onto the AR replacing Kelly on ST's. Gauthier seems to be healthy again and some live game reps will help in the play offs. That's my take.

As a Nationalized American in a role as a DI at an appropriate salary. Assuming that nutso category still exists next year. Either way moving him to back up role wouldn't be the worst idea.

I want the Stamps to be out of the race when we play them. That allows us to rest a bunch of starters. It also means we aren't in a must win type of situation to finish in 1st place.

I wasn't on the site much yesterday. Info from the team is always misleading. Houston is nicked but that doesn't mean he can't play, although it does seem on a short week he'll go to 1 game IR. O'Shea mentioned Lawrence is available but there are other choices. It doesn't mean one comes on to replace Houston, especially if Grant is activated. At this point I do expect Grant back and Parker to start at CB with Houston off the roster. It's the other possible changes that could or should happen that are in question. Having Ford or Gauthier available would have helped manage the ratio and positional needs. But not this week and perhaps not this year?

Looks like we might see Grant back this week? Houston didn't practice yesterday so he might not play. I wouldn't be comfortable not having an import DB as depth if he's moved to AR. Does that get Lawrence or ADS back on as the back up? There's a transaction shown on CFL.CA with Givhan added to the AR???? What the heck? Is there an injury on the DL and why would he be added after being released from the PR. Another week wondering what the final roster looks like. Might call it the " Jackson watch "!!!

Not sure if that is a valid point of not. Without knowing who might retire, be an SMS casualty or additions in 2024, our roster is not known. Ditto for every other team. Bombers are still a top 3 team. The Argos will have to adjust their roster to accommodate the new salary for Kelly. Any team reaching the final and / or Grey Cup is going to have some players looking for raises.

I think our OL is not playing as well as in 2022 when we had Couture at C. Collaros is being pressured and / or hit too often. I'm not as directly concerned that at times he throws into coverage because our receivers often beat that coverage. We're the highest scoring offence, with the most passing TD's, the league leading rusher etc etc. Have to expect some turnovers due to taking riskier shots at times.

Ok, that makes more sense. Kelly will be useful on ST's possibly. Hansen as well. I wonder if Kelly was nicked last week and caused the addition of Schmekel to replace him in the ratio?

That doesn't make sense if it works out that way. Based on this, it would mean Jeffcoat is not dressing and Hansen is the primary starter instead of the rotation player coming off a year long injury? 3 global player would mean one of them would have to be listed / qualified as a replacement for an import? I'm not sure if I've noticed any team actually doing that!!?? Our DI's last week were Cole, Clement, Parker and Jackson. Is he dressing? That would suggest the earlier post not showing that was in error or early?

Clearly you don't understand the SMS or the cap. The Argos spent whatever they spent or will spend in 2023. Unless Muamba got an advance of any significance, then ZERO $$$'s of his money was spent towards the 2023 SMS. You can't spend money elsewhere you didn't spend in the 1st place on a player that never made the roster ( against the SMS ). The Argos paid Williams to be their MLB and he was a 1st pick in the draft and not working for chump change. Nobody said they'd fall to pieces but every team that gave their QB a very large increase has had to make roster adjustments. Lions did with Reilly, Winnipeg did it with Collaros as 2 examples. Some teams manage it better than others so we'll see how a probable increase for Kelly @ $500K compared to 2023 impacts their roster. It's a very large jump in his SMS hit.

Muamba's salary won't count against the SMS. It's a savings to cost of business perhaps but it can't be applied as a shift to Kelly in that sense. Bladek if he retires or is released but someone has to replace him. The Argos will have to make some choices to off set the increase to Kelly. We'll see how they do it.

Harris has been moved to 6 game IR.

NFL week 3 is approaching and Ford still has no deal even for a PR. OTOH, Bombers will be going into game week 15 of the CFL season. If he doesn't sign back in Winnipeg before the practising resumes, he's going to be out in the cold somewhat. No deals and no game checks. The longer it takes the less value he has in 2023. He might become trade bait for a team that wants him for 2024. I wonder what he's thinking?

The coaching / support staff is under a separate SMS. There is a problem with the concept but it has no impact on money spent on players. They should revise it so that it excludes severance salary if changes are made to staff. That becomes a limitation if a firing occurs.

Raising the cap just means the same group of players is getting more money. Players going into free agency might move to other teams and vice versa for more money. Not every team is making a profit so some giant increase to the SMS is neither feasible or some miracle solution. It's always been a bidding war trying to get the best bang for the buck. Would Collaros play better if he was getting $880K instead of $600K more or less. Kelly gets over $600K after 10 games? It just means that players reaching free agency get more as the pie is larger. Desjarlais as another example.

I mentioned it a few times and questions why it was taking so long to adjust and / or fix the problem. It's football. 12 guys run down field and the CFL is over 100 years old. Not much new to see here. Placement, hang time are not new terms.

I'd rather have Jeffcoat available to play against the Argos and Lions than against the Ti Cats. For the moment I'll take this as just a maintenance game for him. The argument that our defence was hardly on the field doesn't mean he didn't actually get injured. It only takes one play. We'll see if he is back for the game against the Argos. He's a difference maker. OTOH looking forward to seeing Haba play again, he may be part of our future. I see Murphy got added to the 6 game IR and he was hardly on the field in his 1st game.

I can't remember if his new contract gives him a raise in 2023 ( above ELC ) or whether it starts in 2024. Either way we have to replace him with another player so savings if any won't be much. Still don't understand whether he is unable to play or they are just not willing to make a roster change at the moment? He'd be an upgrade over Maruo. It will be interesting to see if Streveler gets a call from the Jets after the injury to Rogers?