?‍?As usual, a great read and substance from Ed Tait:

What do Chris Walby, Joe Poplawski, Doug Brown, Andrew Harris, Jamaal Westerman, Bob Cameron, Gerald Wilcox, Ken Nielsen, Bob Swift and Jim Heighton all have in common?

A few things, actually.

• They are all Winnipeg Blue Bombers legends.
• Each of them is Canadian.
• They have all been named as winners of the club’s Most Outstanding Canadian Player award at least once.

Oh… and one more thing: not a single one of them was drafted by the Bombers.

?‍?He goes on to take a look at what the Bombers have done over the years and what to expect in the upcoming draft.

Excerpts:

-Dating back to 1956 and the first CFL Draft, the Bombers have had nine draft classes in which not a single player ever pulled on their uniform for a regular season game.

-The Bombers’ woes of 2012-15 can also be linked – among other things – to the draft classes in 2012-13 that saw only three of 11 players selected actually play in games

-Counter that with the work in the last three drafts where 13 of the 20 selections are on the roster;

-Just to put that into perspective, the members of the 2016 class that made the club – Loffler, Trent Corney, Michael Couture and Shayne Gauthier – combined to play a total of 60 games last year.

That’s more than the combined total games played of 21 draft classes in this team’s history. And those guys are all just entering their sophomore seasons.

http://www.bluebombers.com/2017/04/20/canadian-content/

 

Edited April 22, 20178 yr by Mr Dee

Best Canadian player of all time? Gerry James, Joe Poplawski or Doug Brown? Any others??

6 hours ago, Mr Dee said:

?‍?As usual, a great read and substance from Ed Tait:

Yes, he's  very good.... style / content / subject material. It's probably not easy to come up with new things ways to look at things, but he does it.

Edited April 21, 20178 yr by Mark F

Three starters in three years and several contributors, Walters is doing well.

7 hours ago, SpeedFlex27 said:

Best Canadian player of all time? Gerry James, Joe Poplawski or Doug Brown? Any others??

You can add Dr. Ken Nielsen to that group...One helluva receiver for us back in the day

8 hours ago, SpeedFlex27 said:

Best Canadian player of all time? Gerry James, Joe Poplawski or Doug Brown? Any others??

Best season of all time, by a Canadian Bomber - - - Gerald Wilcox in '94?

I think this is the year I started going to games, he was my first favourite Bomber.

111 rec for 1600 yds & 13 TDs in '94 - hooo weee! 

It's not even close guys - Jeff Nickin.

2 hours ago, Jimmy Pop said:

Best season of all time, by a Canadian Bomber - - - Gerald Wilcox in '94?

I think this is the year I started going to games, he was my first favourite Bomber.

111 rec for 1600 yds & 13 TDs in '94 - hooo weee! 

Me too.. he was the most familiar face for the bombers offense when I started paying more attention to them as a younger lad.  when I get a throw back jersey, It will be a Wilcox.

 

51 minutes ago, SPuDS said:

Me too.. he was the most familiar face for the bombers offense when I started paying more attention to them as a younger lad.  when I get a throw back jersey, It will be a Wilcox.

 

We can be matching.  I'm due for another soon.  I've got a new Harris home jersey, but dang our road whites are attractive too.  Throwback GW would be pretty solid.

...that or Riders Suck.  Still think I"ll have that on a jersey at some point.  

Players come, players go. Some things will never (ever) change. 

4 minutes ago, Jimmy Pop said:

We can be matching.  I'm due for another soon.  I've got a new Harris home jersey, but dang our road whites are attractive too.  Throwback GW would be pretty solid.

...that or Riders Suck.  Still think I"ll have that on a jersey at some point.  

Players come, players go. Some things will never (ever) change. 

lol yea thats a tough one. Riders suck will never go out of style or stop being a great conversation piece.

 

decisions decisions.   I think I want a Loffler home jersey before I get anything else tho.

Quote

Gerald Wilcox (Bombers Most Outstanding Canadian in 1993, 1994, 1995)… The first overall pick in 1991 by the Ottawa Rough Riders, he was acquired by the Bombers in 1992 for Less Browne

Wow, that in a nutshell is your typical late-term Ottawa Rough Riders trade.  Exchange your promising first round draft pick, a guy you can build around, for a great, but extremely high-mileage import DB.

(To put it in more modern terms, it'd be like us trading Goosen or Chungh for Henry Burris in 2015.)

Here's the latest:

http://www.bluebombers.com/2017/04/21/ed-taits-top-5-draft-classes-bomber-history/

3 hours ago, Noeller said:

Here's the latest:

http://www.bluebombers.com/2017/04/21/ed-taits-top-5-draft-classes-bomber-history/

That is a sad top 5 list.

edited

Edited April 22, 20178 yr by LeBird

46 minutes ago, LeBird said:

edited

Somebody had to say it.  Good for you.

20 hours ago, Jesse said:

That is a sad top 5 list.

Historically the Bombers drafting has been so poor that it would have been both fair and accurate to put all 3 of Walters' draft classes in the top 5 (with 2014 and 1991 tied at 5th).  But I get that he doesn't want to be seen as butt-kissing the bosses.

Mack's 2011 draft should not be in there for the simple fact that he picked Smith and Woodson while Bomben was still on the board.

On 21/04/2017 at 6:00 PM, Jesse said:

That is a sad top 5 list.

I giggled like a school girl waiting to see the reactions on this site when both Joe Mack and Brendan Taman made the top 5 drafts. 

52 minutes ago, 17to85 said:

I giggled like a school girl waiting to see the reactions on this site when both Joe Mack and Brendan Taman made the top 5 drafts. 

As much as realizing Cal Murphy's draft legacy is...

Hard to know how terrible the bombers are at drafting without comparing their record to the rest of the league. The CFL draft is such a crapshoot.

On 4/24/2017 at 2:38 PM, johnzo said:

Hard to know how terrible the bombers are at drafting without comparing their record to the rest of the league. The CFL draft is such a crapshoot.

So much this.