JuranBoldenRules

I'm not saying success or failure as a whole. I'm just saying as far as the class of rookie imports goes, it's pretty underwhelming. One thing I will say, this is the CFL - a lot of you tend to forget that. Sorry guys, I love the sport, and I love our game, and I love our league. But for the upteenth time, we are not a MAJOR league. We are not viewed that way. I won't call us a 'bush' league, not by a long shot, but we are not the answer to anyones prayers. My point? Mike, the best imports aren't here yet my friend. They're with Henoc, chasing their 'dreams' in the NFL. I think our import talent was fine. I also think come late August/September when the NFL cuts start you'll find more players coming that we can 'upgrade' with. That's just a CFL fact, not bias, not an 'opinion', but fact. Except all those guys who were cut in August the last 3 years are looking for work. It's not as concrete as you present it in terms of how and when guys come north. Besides, how often do we see guys actually step in in September and make an impact? Someone help me out here because I don't remember many. Last guy here would have been Philip Hunt I think.

Jackson has coached special teams in the past too, also with Ottawa in CIS.

I'm not saying success or failure as a whole. I'm just saying as far as the class of rookie imports goes, it's pretty underwhelming. One thing I will say, this is the CFL - a lot of you tend to forget that. Sorry guys, I love the sport, and I love our game, and I love our league. But for the upteenth time, we are not a MAJOR league. We are not viewed that way. I won't call us a 'bush' league, not by a long shot, but we are not the answer to anyones prayers. My point? Mike, the best imports aren't here yet my friend. They're with Henoc, chasing their 'dreams' in the NFL. I think our import talent was fine. I also think come late August/September when the NFL cuts start you'll find more players coming that we can 'upgrade' with. That's just a CFL fact, not bias, not an 'opinion', but fact. Except all those guys who were cut in August the last 3 years are looking for work. It's not as concrete as you present it in terms of how and when guys come north.

No, just expecting to see more quality players. Too many easy cuts IMO.

An edge rusher would have been nice too, to complement Vega. We settled on CFL average players in a couple spots, hopefully they continue auditioning guys throughout the season and aren't too loyal to guys like Peach and Kelly.

Oh good. A 35 year old Korey Banks and an MLB who no one else wanted. what about randle? willy? moore? newman? eventhough he is hurt. Unless a starting qb, starting cb and starting receiver isn't good enough. Can i ask you an honest question? What exactly did you expect from this regime in one off season? for them to completely over haul the team? Cuz i don't think that was likely, our main issue is our lack of non import depth, that can't and won't be fixed any time soon, that will take time through drafting. Do you think Winnipeg was high on the list of free agent destinations? We were the joke of the league last season, it's going to take some time to get rid of that reputation. You don't lose that reputation over a few months, it's going to take a few years. We were 3-15 last season, most free agents in every sport wont sign with a team that Sucked. We sucked. It sucks that we sucked but, before going and writing this new group off, should probably give them a chance first. None of those excuses matter when it comes to import competition, talking rookies, not veteran CFL free agents. 99% of the time they have no say in where they end up in the CFL if they decide to pursue the CFL, they could care less about the history of the Blue Bombers. This is the worst competition among import spots I can remember since Taman ended up running the show solo after Ritchie was fired, basically the only solid competition was at DB, and Maher was a good option too. Import scouting and procurement is something a front office can really control, whereas the non-import issue is a longer term solution of drafting and developing. Hopefully some of the rookie imports who made the team show us a little more when the games count.

It's hard to remember a training camp where not a single rookie DL really stood out, yet we cut a guy like McAdoo who looked decent in real games last year.

Is he the rush end from Ohio State? That guy made Jarvis Jones look like a Winnipeg Rifle tossed into a pro game in the first pre-season game.

Dumas played most of the second half in Calgary at safety.

I can't wait to see how our secondary (including OLB's) shakes out. Outside of Washington and Randle, I could see almost any combination of the guys left filling the other spots. They might have to one game IR some guys like Bruce Johnson and Mo Leggett to keep them around. Dumas and Unamba seem like PR candidates.

I'm surprised 4 imp OL are on the roster, and 10 imp DB's, while Johnson, Reed, Urrutia (although he's still listed on the roster) were outright cut. There's going to need to be a lot of manoeuvring still.

What about one where you are not trying to push the pocket? That's the defensive equivalent of saying "why would we want a centre who snaps the ball?" Unless the tackles are going to run back and cover receivers every down, you need guys to move the line and fill gaps. If Ted Laurent was interested in being a Blue Bomber, we wouldn't be having this discussion.

Lefty Can anyone recall the last good CFL QB who was a lefty, other than Stefan LeFors of course? I can't.

Some people are saying that is a failure on recruiting…what if it's success by Kelly? The Bombers last successful days, Jamie Stoddard was a mainstay at 5th WR. A sticky hands guy without much flash that just caught whatever was thrown to him as a 5th receiver. Why not Kelly? Kelly is not that type of receiver at all, and he's an import. A WR who doesn't do anything on routes coming into the field just isn't of much value and will limit the offence, unless he was an all-world deep threat, which he isn't despite that being his strength. Kelly is more like a Chad Plummer, if you want a comparable from that era.

LOL. he ain't coming here, if anywhere he's going back to hamilton. I don't disagree that he probably wont come here but why would you say he would go back to Hamilton? Read the tweet.

Lawless makes me laugh. We should record this date and then wait for his first article tearing the regime he loves so much apart. He changes his strong opinions weekly, just look at the Kane column this week.

Barley Bros is cool for the beer. Only problem is they don't have a sampler package. I'm hesitant to pay $8 for a beer that I might not like, and in a place like that I'd like to spread my cash around and taste a few different beers which I haven't tried before. Every other similar craft beer pub I've been to in my travels has at least one, and most have a variety of sampler packages. Food was meh and relatively expensive...the option of frozen mashed potatoes (my choice) or a heap of cabbage with a burger was odd, I remember that more than the beer I drank.

If you want to get the best view of the game, I'd sit anywhere in the upper deck, but be careful cause there are some obstructed seats there, mostly in the first couple rows at the front and around the walkways. If you sit in the lower part of the lower bowl the view is not very good but you will be way closer to the field than you were at the old stadium.

Seems to me that Fords best asset as a runner was his speed.... He wasn't terribly elusive but if he got a hole he had the speed to hit it and run a long way. Yep, close to being his only asset compared other CFL backs, he doesn't break many tackles or make people miss, but if he hits a crease he can go a long way fast.

It's pretty simple, to make it as a DI he had to bring value as a guy who could do all jobs, although if Hajrullahu would have crapped the bed as a placekicker I'm sure you would have seen Maher placekicking and Renaud punting. Hajrullahu has been competing at all three jobs, and Renaud has no idea how to placekick if you have a memory back to 2010 when he had to attempt a convert with the placekicker down, they literally could have picked a random fan from the stands and they probably could have kicked the ball further off a tee.

He's almost never played, so I'm not sure what you're basing that assessment on. I'm not sure if you're confusing him with someone else. He's played 8 games in 2 years, hardly at all on D. He's missed more tackles than he's made this pre-season, that's what I'm basing my assessment on. I'd like to see a little more assertiveness out of a guy with LB after his name in terms of tackling a guy with the ball right in his area.

ehhhhhhhh I dunno. Any extra job security Stephan got from Newman's injury has now been removed. The team needs lots of these types of players during the year. Stephan is still competing with Eisho for a job. If Cornell is still a gamer and Briggs' injury is soon resolved, then the numbers will start to work against him. Or Eisho. Unlikely they cut both. Stephan will be hurt in the first half of the first game and be gone for the year. So it really doesn't matter. More reason to cut him now before he can get on the injured list and claim a paycheque. O'shea spoke highly of stephan on the coaches show,, wouldn't be so quick to write him off even though i would sort of agree with you in thinking he should be on the bubble. This week? I can't recall hearing that.

Didn't see any practices, but in the games Hajrullahu and Maher were dead even, Maher obviously has a bigger leg in terms of punting, but didn't place them well leading to big returns, and Renaud is a fairly reliable veteran punter who will have Hajrullahu around to push him too. Over 18 games I expect that Maher's placekicking would be a little more consistent, but Hajrullahu hasn't blinked to this point when the lights have been on. Tie goes to the Canadian.

So the Riders are going to improve from last year, or the Stamps are going to fall back, despite Saskatchewan losing a bunch of key players, and BC is going to be worse with the quarterbacking of the guy who was the primary QB for the 14 win Stampeders last season versus rolling with bum shouldered Lulay and Demarco as they did in 2013? Got it.

Because they sold off all the digital rights to TSN in the last TV deal. Which is great for the league because TSN limits access to the content (it's basically impossible for most of western Canada to access TSNGO at this point) and uses the CFL as collateral to attempt to squeeze cable providers into giving them more money. Oh I know, I just think the CFL should really consider doing the smart thing for a change and try to put a package together that wouldn't run primarily through cable. Any CFL streaming package would divert some money to TSN anyways since they're the rights holder, plus it means more eyeballs for their ads. The CFL doesn't have any control over it though. Cohon has stated that to people complaining about this TSNGO stuff. They'd have to prod TSN to do anything like that, but TSN is owned by a cable conglomerate which will only share content with others if they get paid handsomely for it. They are primarily interested at this moment in diverting people to pay for cable or to keep their cable it seems, and sticking it to other cable companies because apparently the carriage fees aren't enough.