TBURGESS

The Bombers and the Eskimos were very closely matched last year, so I'm not sure that Hervey would want to help us out either. In fact, it may make more sense for the Esks to help the Riders than to help us. OTOH, I'd love to see Franklin in B&G. Better than us. They won a playoff game, we were one and done.

We went 3 and 3 in our last 6 games. Lost to Cgy, Edm, and Ott. Got some breaks to win 2 very close games with BC. Won the last game of the year against Ott when they didn't play their top 2 QB's or a bunch of other starters to 'win when we needed to'.

I don't see them trading Franklin either, unless they can't extend him and they get some very good value in return.

FTR: Edmonton went 10-8, which was a better record than any of the eastern teams in 2016. They weren't lucky to cross over, the were unlucky that the Redblack's chose to play their 3rd and 4th string QB's to allow us to win the last game.

Sholo was one of our big acquisitions last year. A starting Canuck coming off of a great season. Our D line was supposed to be fixed with him and Cummings who was also coming off a great year. 20-20 hindsight says that it didn't work out very well. IMO it's our defensive scheme. In others opinions it's the players that we got rid of's fault. Thomas is now our 7th starting NI. IMO he's a downgrade on Sholo/Thomas. Some NI has to take Sholo's % of snaps. Simply taking those snaps doesn't equal an improved DL, unless they can do as well as Sholo did last year, even factoring in Okp.

Oka replacing Sholo is an import replacing a starting non-import, which in turn weakens our starting NI's.

I'm not ignoring the upgrade at DE. I'm simply saying it comes as the cost of losing a starting Canadian DT. We've basically moved the low salary spot on the D line from the DE spot to the DT spot. IF we draft a DT #1 overall and they don't get an NFL shot so they aren't lost for the year and they end up being the rare rookie who can start right away and they are somehow better than Sholo, they will still be more expensive than Cole was last year adding to our SMS issues.

Sholo's replacement is Thomas, not Okp..., which isn't an upgrade, in fact it's a downgrade in the level of our NI starters. Glenn having a solid shot at #1 elsewhere doesn't change the fact that LeFevour is a downgrade.

Look at the top guys in the missed tackle category and you'll find some very good players that get to ball carriers that lesser players can't. Look at Shologan/Cummings stats when they came to the Bombers. You'll find that they were way better than the stats they put up last year. I guess you can blame the players, but it's more likely the system IMO. LeFevour is certainly more mobile and athletic, but Glenn's been the best insurance policy in the league for years. The only place that I give LeFevour the edge is on short yardage. Glenn is a starting QB again and LeFevour is fighting for the #2 or #3 spot. The best players in FA have already been taken. You can't give points for things that haven't happened yet.

Any way to change your vote after you think about it for a while? I'd like to move down one to somewhat satisfied. We signed highly ranked, highly paid DT and DE and lost 2 highly ranked, highly paid DT's. So that's even. LeFevour < Glenn Coates < Kohlert Now that we've signed all of last years receivers, does Stafford even make the game day roster? If so, who does he replace? Extending Chungh was a great move, but that doesn't make us better than last year. Medlock and Bryant were extended to move some of their salaries from the 2016 to the 2017 SMS. I can't call that great GM'ing. Extending the rest of the players we did doesn't make us any better. Losing Bass, Burnett and McDuffie makes us worse. Overall, slightly worse personal wise. A stay the course off season on a team that was just happy to make the playoffs last year then went one and done. It looks like we are counting on doing the same things and getting better results or other teams taking a step backwards this year.

I don't hate the LeFevour signing. Not my favourite backup QB but better than no competition at TC.

That's truly laugh worthy.

Retiring.

Anyone got any links to what Hurl got this time around? I doubt he's making as much as last year, but $100K after $133K seems like an unrealistic drop to me.

The LaFrance situation reminds me a lot of the the Hurl situation when he signed with us. Paid like a starter and using him as a ratio breaker before he's proved he can be a starter. Could go either way for the Riders.

@scratchingpost Hearing former #Ticats REC Matt Coates has agreed to terms with #Bombers.

Walking from point A to point B to settle is the same act no matter if someone has drawn lines on a map or if maps have even been invented yet. You migrate from and immigrate to.

That's using a modern definition to split hairs. Everyone is an immigrant if you go back far enough.

Fun fact... the first nations people immigrated too, it was just a lot earlier in history.

Iannuzzi likely makes significantly more at RBC Securities than he does on the football field and he's well established in the BC Charity community. I'd guess it's BC or retirement for him.

I think Walters gave Davis the #2 QB money, so he only has #3 QB money left to spend. You won't get any experienced #2 CFL QB's for #3 money. Certainly not the top 2 or 3 prospects.

IMO Walters has way less cap space than every other year he's been here. He had to renegotiate both Medlock and Bryant's salaries last year, effectively putting some of their salaries into this years SMS instead of last years. You don't do that if you have any SMS space left. He has always signed players to extensions to use up the last of the SMS space until last year. Another indication that he hasn't got a lot of SMS space available. Because he didn't sign players to extensions using last year's SMS, all the extensions come out of this years SMS.

Not much left since he's already spent on Stafford and Okpalaugo and re-signed Nichols, Adams, Bryant, Medlock, Davis, Remple and Sheppard. I expect our DT's to be made up of Jake Thomas and a draft pick and a cheaper scouted guy. Knox seems to already be penciled in at MLB and JJ is just not needed.

I think that Lafrance is the only one on that list that we'll actually sign.