JuranBoldenRules

I thought MPI was sponsoring the charters.

Pull a Mike Ditka and trade all our picks to Ottawa for #1, make sure we get Lavertu. Honestly getting one really good player out of this draft would be a win.

Especially when most teams are using 4-5 imports on the DL and rotating edge rushers in and out. The quality of pass rushers on the whole hasn't been better in my lifetime.

I'd take one import in the Medlock mold ideally, and I think Mike O'Shea would too this season, even with the ratio issues. There isn't a NI available who can reliably do both, and special teams is extremely important. Not worth having a guy who's going to net 30 yards on punts, even if he can hit 80% of his field goals to save a roster spot. Better off playing a NI backup at dime or LB and having a good kicking game. I think if we really want Johnny Mark, we'll have to pick him 20th overall, cause I think one of the teams between 21 and 26 probably will take him. Ottawa and Montreal both need kickers or want competition at the very least, that's also where the quality of players drops sharply. Mark won't be a candidate to do both jobs unless his punting improves drastically, and he's weak on kickoffs, he's very much like Palardy, probably more accurate inside 35-40. Don't think this is the import to be that guy though, just based purely on his numbers.

Hope we can find that Corey Holmes, Marcus Thigpen type that Bellefeuille has been able to use successfully in the past.

And CFL cheerleaders don't get paid at all! 900 NCAA carries probably has something to do with injury-proneness. I'd hope we could find about 100 RB's who would be a better fit for us.

The rankings are meaningless. The CFL personnel guys don't get any solid film on the CIS prospects until the season is over, they start really scouting hard and prepping in the new year. If you are going to rely on any of the CFL Scouting Bureau rankings, the final one is best. Otherwise, 90% of what they are basing it on is eye test from the spotters booth if they have anyone scout games (even if they do they might see a guy once or twice, and they are usually looking specifically at 1-2 guys), and the East-West game/testing from the year previous. The information on the NCAA guys is even more spotty before they really bear down and watch the film. Chances are a lot of teams didn't really take a serious look (as they would a 1st round pick) at Smith's film until he dominated the combine. You need to draft the best CFL players available, and you need to do that over years to build a solid NI base. If the best CFL player at 2nd overall isn't a OL, I'd rather the Bombers take that guy than an OL who is a question mark and several years from being a good CFL player. We have holes in the roster at pretty much every spot but receiver, and even there we seriously need depth.

The amount of money guaranteed high MLB picks is about half of what 1st round NFL picks get, plus you're looking at 2-3 years riding buses down I-15, through California, or the midwest and some time riding the bus through one entire half of the continent once you get to AAA. The signing bonus would be good, but the pay and lifestyle is probably worse than what's he's already used to as a top NCAA athlete. I'd do NFL first and fall back on baseball if necessary in his position. If I was a RB or LB going to get picked in the middle of the NFL Draft vs being a 1st round MLB pick, I'd take MLB.

Unless Goossen really drops it would be hard to make a trade and end up drafting both of them. I'd consider something like 4 and 13 from Montreal (or 5 and 12 from BC )for 2nd overall...but they'd really have to like someone at 2 who they don't think they'd have a shot at with the 4th pick. Then we'd probably end up with a Gill, Smith, Landry, Lue, Chin or Briggs depending on how Walters et al have them ranked at 4th overall and if one of them is picked. Then we could take a run at one of the interior OL at 13. That said, if they are convinced that Foucault can and will play for us in 2014, take him. But if it's a pick for a starting tackle/guard in 2 years, and then the guy is going to look to sign down east after we've developed him, don't bother. I just don't think we have that luxury, when the only one of our last 5 1st rounders (since 2011) playing for us is Pencer, and we traded two of them away for imports.

You can never have enough non import tackle prospects. If Lavertu is off the board, Foucault should be the guy. If Foucault is for sure going to be that starting tackle, make the pick. If he's going to be an interior convert, we're just burning a hole in the rest of our roster by continuing to pick these types of players, of which we already have 3 (Swiston, Pencer, Neufeld who is essentially our 2nd round pick in this draft) plus Morley, a good football player who took two full seasons to become an average guard. IMO there's a strong bias for the NI tackle body types, and very few of them end up actually playing tackle, and most of them stink at playing inside when they ultimately have to because they can't handle edge rushers who are twice as quick as anything they see in CIS. Everyone, including seasoned football people, are in awe of a 6'8 guy who can move and looks great relative to CIS competition, and dream of the NI tackle, but in reality it isn't happening all that much. Now that's tying a general bias to Foucault, probably unfair to him until he proves otherwise. The best OL in this draft class could very well end up being a guy like Kyle Paterson, who doesn't draw ooohs and ahhhhs because he's 6'2 280, not 6'8 320. From a Bomber perspective, we have too many holes in the roster to just keep cramming guys in the pipeline for a position we end up using an import at anyways. Interesting perspective. So you don't see Pencer or Neufeld having the ability to start at either RG or RT? Morley isn't a long term answer and I could see him gone in the next 1-2 years. If we're lucky, one of Pencer or Swiston become a good CFL guard. I think Pencer has loads of potential but he needs to play and they need to decide right now what position he's going to play and focus his development. 2014 is a huge year for him, we'll know if he's going to be a player or a bust by the end of it IMO. I don't have a lot of hope for Neufeld to be more than stop-gap/ratio desperation at any positon. He's the guy I'd have working on snapping and see if he can be a centre, much like what the Bombers did with Obby Khan in 06, might be a longer process for Neufeld. Morley will be gone in 1-2 years, he's at the end of his career.

You can never have enough non import tackle prospects. If Lavertu is off the board, Foucault should be the guy. If Foucault is for sure going to be that starting tackle, make the pick. If he's going to be an interior convert, we're just burning a hole in the rest of our roster by continuing to pick these types of players, of which we already have 3 (Swiston, Pencer, Neufeld who is essentially our 2nd round pick in this draft) plus Morley, a good football player who took two full seasons to become an average guard. IMO there's a strong bias for the NI tackle body types, and very few of them end up actually playing tackle, and most of them stink at playing inside when they ultimately have to because they can't handle edge rushers who are twice as quick as anything they see in CIS. Everyone, including seasoned football people, is in awe of a 6'8 guy who can move and looks great relative to CIS competition, and dream of the NI tackle, but in reality it isn't happening all that much. Now that's tying a general bias to Foucault, probably unfair to him until he proves otherwise. The best OL in this draft class could very well end up being a guy like Kyle Paterson, who doesn't draw ooohs and ahhhhs because he's 6'2 280, not 6'8 320. From a Bomber perspective, we have too many holes in the roster to just keep cramming guys in the pipeline for a position we end up using an import at anyways.

If I were Saskatchewan, Edmonton or Winnipeg I wouldn't guarantee any of the private teams a dime unless they agreed to open up their books to the scrutiny of the other teams. If Wetenhall, as an example, decides to spend twice as much on football operations than what his revenues dictate, that shouldn't be offset on the back of the franchises that actually have to manage their money.

If he learns how to pass, he could be a good pro QB. If he doesn't, he'll stink at any level. He's a much better prospect than Pat White though IMO.

5 wins. More than that, I'll be pleasantly surprised. We'll be better than Ottawa and close to Edmonton, we should be able to take 3 out of 4 against those teams, and hopefully swipe a couple wins from the rest. I'm looking more for progression from our coaching, QB's and younger players than wins.

It would take a lot to convince me that the camps the Bombers held this off-season weren't the same for the most part, just that they tried to recoup some of the cost with registration fees. They had guys they wanted to see, they were in touch with agents who represent players that they could send to free agent camps for a look. It's all semantics. Based on the NFL resumes of all the guys we're signing, they aren't exactly digging up any Vince Papale's. I'm surprised you're giving Walters and co. a free pass just based on effort. I'm still interested to see the results of all these camps before I go on praising the wonderful job these guys are doing. Sure it looks great in the media but how about on the field? The jury is still out. Agreed. And the ratio of guys with relatively lengthy NFL careers in their late 20s to younger imports, the overlooked coming out of college or guys who were in a mini-camp with the NFL type, is a concern for me. A guy like McRath could be a great MLB for us, but he's at the very end of his football career and coming off serious injury. If they hit on a couple of those guys, they might adapt quicker given their experience in pro football, and that could be what they are going for in terms of putting the best team on the field in 2014. I'd like to see some guys that might have some potential longevity in the CFL in the mix too.

They got a free trip to Florida anyways.

This will be the refreshing part for many people after Burke. Burke's D is just vanilla, which is great when you have a defense full of all-stars in their prime, when we had guys who weren't winning battles snap after snap we'd get picked apart, when everyone was locked in it was a thing of beauty, like last season in Montreal or the Banjo Bowl, but over 18 games there was no mystery, so it was all left to executing perfectly. Etcheverry's scheme will at least make a quarterback second guess their pre-snap reads mess up their timing, give us a chance if we can't field a dominant crew of players every week, some room for error so to speak.

I think Etcheverry's defensive positions are 11 rovers and 1 nose tackle.

I think what Etcheverry is describing in a not so clear way is that his defence relies on developing the instinct of the players within a few core concepts rather than being very rigid, which is what the "playbook" is in his philosophy. Some players will love that, some players will be completely stressed out by that.

There's no advantage in trading out of the first round for more picks later in this draft. A reasonable deal for the 5th pick would be like the 9th and 11th from Hamilton. Definitely heard Walters say that an OL will be our pick at 2nd overall. Will be interesting to see if they change their mind if/when Ottawa takes Lavertu. We're getting kind of heavy on the tackle projects who probably end up playing guard because tackle ends up being an import spot (Pencer, Swiston, Neufeld, even Morley is one of those), our interior line stinks and all of those guys are having trouble playing inside. Unless they think Foucault won't join that crew, I'd be reticent to make that pick. I think I'd rather trade down and snag 2-3 guys (including one of the 2nd tier OL, a guy like Kyle Patterson or Jas Dhillon who might end up being a better CFL guard than a guy like Foucault), we could probably add a DL or LB/DB that could make our team this year. Say we got offered 5 and 12 from BC, or 4 and 13 from Montreal, think it would have to be considered.

Hopefully a kicker, running back, linebacker and one of our draft picks finish tied in votes (not at 0) for our rookie award at the end of the season. I'm more interested in some of the younger imports they've signed, most of the NFL castoffs in their late 20's early 30's are coming off serious injury, and motivation/entitlement is always a concern.

I'm noting of an expert on this upcoming draft but I wonder why some people rank Smith ahead of Gill based purely on his combine?... Gill's tape should put him ahead of Smith on every level I don't think it is JUST the combine. Quinn Smith has long been on the radar of CFL teams, but was never in the spotlight thanks to being on a Concordia team that got blown out in almost every game. Evan Gill had a solid season at 280 lbs and then added over 20 and didn't show as well as he did. Gill has a slight edge in upper body strength, but Quinn Smith's quickness and agility is unmatched for a man his size at over 300 lbs. Factor in his 4.82 40 time too. What were the splits on the 40s? Smith was pretty low on the jumps. The jumps give a bit of a look at what kind of initial surge a guy gets out of his stance and where their core/lower body strength is, more important than the cones for the interior guys IMO, if you get beat off the line and lose leverage quickness ain't gonna help you.

It's absolutely newsworthy. A major public project that was built despite a flawed or incomplete design, one of the results of which is now flooded "weather-protected" areas. Flaws or important pieces not considered in the design were well known by the architect, builder and everyone overseeing the project. You can bet this will end up litigated like crazy from all sides. The builder lost money on this project all ready, they won't be eager to pay for fixes and damage caused by a flawed design that was rubber stamped by BBB stadium and the provincial government, they will be battling in court to recoup losses. Where are the people responsible for the design now? This stadium will keep lawyers busy on the civil docket for many years. In other places less willing to allow fraud, criminal lawyers would be busy too. A project that was touted as having a guaranteed final cost that just keeps escalating, literally every time there is a news story on the stadium the quoted cost is higher, now $212 million. It's news and rightfully so.

Shaw Park had terrible drainage issues at the field level the first season after it opened, which IGF had as well, some were addressed when the field was installed. IGF has water seeping through concrete from the upper deck and concourse into weather protected areas. I'm not an engineer, but I think the amount and severity of these issues are quite unusual and significant. The seepage into the visitors dressing room was known last winter too and left unaddressed. Just the sheer amount of concrete work they had to do last minute for egress from the field for Taylor Swift (apparently they didn't think of that when designing) and work they had to do in the seating area to bring it up to code is amazing. Hard to believe someone paid millions of dollars for a design that didn't even hit the basics. Wonder if they have a plan for expanding for the Grey Cup, or if they'll just figure it out.

There were a half dozen photos tweeted by an operations manager of the Saddledome. They didn't let reporters in, how would they get in, swim?