JuranBoldenRules

I also wonder how much our OL factored into this decision. Our offense doesn't have a pocket, it has a killing floor. On the bright side, as we get our OL issues sorted out, it will be Burris taking that punishment, instead of some prized youngster like Mike Reilly who is the Future of the Franchise. Hamilton's OL is worse.

Right. Because the franchise gained instant respectability the moment the old guard was ushered out, and the new guard ushered in. It doesn't work that way. We have to live with the fallout of the sins of Kelly, Mack, and Burke for as long as it takes us to show ourselves to the rest of the league as a destination; not a burial ground. A bigger problem than the credibility of the current regime is the fact that we've been changing regimes every couple seasons.

That will be an adventure on gameday, and they only have 2 other defensive coaches. Defense is coached when offence is on the field, when the head coach needs to be locked in to make decisions on short-yardage and special teams. Hard to see how that's going to work without some part of the game being neglected.

Guess we'll find out if the CFL fines the Als and take away their 1st round pick. They have way too many veterans making big dough to fit that in while staying under the SMS limit.

Properly maintained grass is best for any field sport. The properly maintained part is the key, it's expensive and difficult. Personally, I hated playing on field turf for football. I find that when it is dry, it tends to grab your feet in, making you worry about torquing your upper body without your lower body following, snap goes the ACL. When it was raining or snowing, the moisture would sit in the field and it was like standing on a mattress. I hated playing on terribly maintained grass fields worse than anything though, the U of M field was the absolute worst. Basically just a mud patch. Nomads was pretty bad too, but usually at least had some grass between the hashes. There are no shoes for that.

I don't think he does feel as strongly as some people do either, but that's only cause some people seem to think Collaros is a sure fire starter. It's still a risk because he's still unproven, but if you think he's the best unproven guy on the market then you go for him cause there's no good experienced options out there. They also have a pretty good backup in Trevor Harris, and a prospect they've been developing for a couple years in Gale. They are well insulated.

Not at all. Some fans here feel that way, but I guarantee the average fan would be thrilled to hear we've acquired a veteran QB like Burris, 38 years old or not. And they'll be thrilled with 6-12 (Durant, Lulay, Mitchell/Tate, Reilly...we'd be starting the season with undoubtedly the worst QB in our division, at 39 years old) and back at square one in the year we host the Grey Cup. Better build a 2011 defence.

I don't agree with that. They put in a grass field (basically no soccer players want to play on synthetic turf as it causes more overuse injuries) and told fans that it would stay that way. To totally flip that on it's ear and convert the national soccer stadium into a football stadium is pretty stupid. Also stupid from a football perspective, given that the tendency of crap weather coming in off the lake led to SkyDome being built in the first place, still deep in Toronto when the fans don't live downtown. Not a good location, just the easy way out.

Odd rationale. If you pretty much know he's not coming back, why not shop the negotiating rights to every other team? Collaros is still an asset, even if you only get a 4th or 5th round pick, it's something.

Hamilton was a good team despite having Burris at QB. This crap going around that Burris is still even a good starting QB because he throws for a bunch of yards (although he stats look a lot better relatively because the 3 best QB's in the league were all injured for long stretches) and took Hamilton to the Grey Cup is garbage. Look at how much he turned the ball over, look at how the confidence in him from the coaching staff in Hamilton waned as the season went on to the point that they aren't even interested in having him back. Yes he had a very good East Final, but a season is 18 games long. It's as crazy as saying Buck Pierce is a great QB because he led the Bombers to the Grey Cup. All signing Burris as a starter would do is stall QB development in Winnipeg and kill our chances of contending when we host a Grey Cup in 2015 or 2016, similar to what our dance with Buck the 4 seasons has done for us. Signing Burris would be a massive disappointment for anyone who wants to put a team that has a chance to win a Grey Cup on the field anytime soon.

If Burris is the QB solution after all this, the Bombers can enjoy my deposit.

Good news. Hopefully they'll be able to get some attention in Toronto. Spent a couple weeks there at the end of July-early August last summer, and if I wasn't a CFL fan I wouldn't have known the Argos even existed.

? Sears, Washington, Wild, every DL we dressed this season. All better players than Suber. You missed the "pending free agent" part of his statement. Speaking of Washington, I thought he was a pending fa this offseason. Did I miss a re-signing during the season, or did he sign for 3 years when he got here? I guess. It reads to me that Suber is our 2nd best defensive player other than the guy who is a free agent.

? Sears, Washington, Wild, every DL we dressed this season. All better players than Suber.

I'll take a 5'2 guy who can cover over a 6'5 guy who can't. Doesn't really matter how tall a guy is if he can play the position and get leverage on people. Suber is a great example of this as he took a guy like Richardson in his prime completely out of the game by destroying him at the line by getting leverage on him and not letting him run any of the timing routes that Trestman relied on. Suber just really sucks at tracking the ball when he's not defending close to the line of scrimmage and making a play on it, it's not like he's getting physically manhandled. Interesting study I just read on the impact of height in basketball. Something like 75% of 7+ footers in the NBA are rated as below average defenders and rebounders, which is essentially why the 7 foot tall basketball player exists, especially defense because they are supposed to take away shots near the basket. You can't attribute ability to size. Ideally you'd have physical monsters at every spot on the field, but there just isn't an endless supply of guys who are 6 feet and up with the necessary skills to play corner and halfback in pro football, and often the ones that do make it are guys like Lenny Walls who was 6'4 200 lbs and would lose leverage to 5'10 receivers at the same weight.

It would be hard to find a DB not named Osaisai who is worse in coverage when the ball is in the air (and that's nothing to do with being 5'6, it's a lack of awareness). I appreciate his ability to get position on guys off the snap in man coverage, disrupt routes near the line of scrimmage and he's had some amazing games, but to put it simply, we could do a lot better.

Feoli-Gudino isn't a stud special teamer. He can catch punts, but I highly doubt he was brought here because of his special teams ability. He's a top receiver prospect who slipped due to a bad injury and has a couple years of practicing with pros (plus his years at Laval ).

Good add. Etienne a goner come free agency, given all the NI receivers we're adding? According to Google, Josh Francis is 5'11 230, so I'm thinking he's a LB.

Seems like he wants to go home to Southwestern Ontario.

Moving from field level P3's to hopefully P7's. Not worth $600 per seat when you can't see anything and end up watching the game on the jumbotron.

I know that but that doesn't change the fact that teams won't know what the cap will be in February and some teams may not have as much cap space as we assume. I'm not saying there won't be a lot if interest in Muamba if he goes to FA. I'm just saying it might not be every team. Teams have 100% of their cap space available before week 1 minus any roster bonuses or salary deferrals they have paid. I don't understand what you're talking about with teams not knowing what the cap will be. The new CBA is unlikely to have any effect before 2015 and there is zero chance that the SMS limit is lower than 2013.

It's not a static situation, contracts aren't guaranteed and the cap is not tallied until the end of the calendar year (unlike other leagues where even in the off-season you can only be a certain % over the cap). If a team can land a top NI like Muamba, they will make the changes necessary to make it work.

I was a huge Mack fan his first season. Great year one, I thought. Then he had that first off season where he slept like a baby through free agency and I thought, this guy doesn't fully grasp the GM role. Only took, what? Two excruciating years after that? That said, I was kind of surprised Fat Greg Marshall was as horrible as he was in SK. Thought he would be okay. That being said, if Fat Greg had started in a less toxic environment I think he would've fared much better. It's never shocking when someone who can't manage their own emotions can't manage a football team, or a McDonald's.

Running backs don't do a lot at combines that can impress. 1 on 1 pass routes vs LB's. The guys who really move in combines are OL/DL and receivers or DB's. It's gonna be based on his film. Coombs isn't going to post an insane 40 time or throw up 25 on the bench, he'll probably do pretty good on the cones. Gill will show very well at the combine, both the physical testing and 1 on 1's.

Where do you personally see Coombs being taken? Probably late 1st round, early 2nd round. Being in this draft gives him a much better opportunity with it's lack of depth and NCAA players. He's a tremendous back at the CIS level, but he'll need to work on his style to play tailback in the CFL, be more efficient and get upfield with a bit of power. A lot of Coombs big runs come on plays where he does a lot of east-west running and even backtracking, he has improved on this issue over his CIS career. His agility is just that much better than the guys trying to tackle him, but it won't be in the CFL. He won't be able to bail himself out when he runs back 5 yards but breaks 3 tackles to end up with a 5 year gain in the CFL. He's got decent hands out of the backfield, but he's not anything close to Harris (not even going to compare anyone to Cornish, I played against Harris in high school and with him on provincial team, and have seen Coombs since he was at Sturgeon). Anyone drafting him is taking the gamble that he can continue to improve as much as he has over his time with the Bisons, they had no plan on using him as a tailback, planned to move him to corner, but he won the job and has improved exponentially year after year. His last season was the best one by a CanWest RB since Anthony Woodson in 07 IMO, I think Woodson is a pretty good comparable for Coombs, although Woodson is a better overall athlete, obviously Woodson's CIS and CFL career has been completely derailed by injuries. Honestly I think Nic Demski (2015 draft) is a better CFL prospect, he flipped from being a great tailback to being a very good receiver, and not just the Anthony Parker run by guys type of receiver, he's a good route runner, and he's only a couple years into playing that spot. Both Coombs and Demski will be able to return kicks in the CFL, Demski can play cover units too. Hopefully Dobie keeps Demski at receiver if Coombs ends up in the CFL in 2014, although Demski would still be a top prospect as a tailback, just an incredibly dangerous guy whenever he has the ball, perfect to fill a hybrid playmaker role in an offence.